Garry McLain, a gay man who reigned as the San Francisco Imperial Court’s Empress XXV Marlena more than three decades ago, died October 5. He was 85.
Mr. McLain had been in hospice care for about the last week, his daughter, Pamala Harrington said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. While Mr. McLain had suffered various health issues over the years, Harrington said he had no diagnoses at the time of his passing.
“It was just a tired body,” she said.
In addition to being a champion of the Imperial Court System, Mr. McLain owned and operated the World Famous Marlena’s bar at 488a Hayes Street in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood. It was a gathering place for LGBTQs and straight allies, and known for Mr. McLain’s fantastical display of hundreds of Santas at Christmastime. Mr. McLain sold the bar in 2012 and it is now known as the Brass Tacks. Until the end, Mr. McLain lived above the bar, his daughter said.
Marlena’s was a showplace for drag performances, the Mr. Hayes Valley leather contest, and much more, friends said.
“On behalf of the Mr. San Francisco Leather family, we thank you Marlena for all the years of love and support,” Ray Tilton, a gay man, wrote on Facebook. “From Mr. Hayes Valley Leather, the old Levi/leather bike clubs of years past and of course to the leather community in totality.”
“Marlena was honored with the judge emeritus title for Mr. San Francisco Leather in 2014 on the stage of the Power House and remained as such for the last 11 years,” Tilton added.
John Carrillo, a gay man who was Emperor XVIII, lives below where Mr. McLain resided in Hayes Valley. He told the B.A.R. that Marlena was a big part of the neighborhood.
“The bar was very unique,” Carrillo told the B.A.R. “Marlena was unique in the way she accepted everybody and would be there for you. She welcomed everybody, straight, bi, gay, trans. She became your friend and an extended version of their family.”
See page 12 >>
TCity finds new location for SF STI clinic
by Matthew S. Bajko
Come 2028, the city’s public health clinic that treats sexually transmitted infections is scheduled to move out of its current dilapidated site. Its new home will be at 1660 Mission Street.
The Board of Supervisors signed off September 30 on a resolution approving the city’s purchase of the property for $18,530,000. The sixstory building of approximately 75,321 square feet comes with 52 underground parking spaces and an adjacent parking lot of approximately 5,340 square feet at 1670 Mission Street.
A high-flying Castro fair
Bill Wilson
he Cheer SF charitable pep squad performed at the 51st Castro Street Fair Sunday, October 5. The street fair brought crowds out to San Francisco’s LGBTQ neighborhood, where people perused vendors and enjoyed entertainment.
Built in 1990, the city acquired the commercial building three years later to house offices for planning department staff and the Department of Building Inspection. The city then sold it off in 2017 for $36 million to help pay for constructing a new consolidated home for the permitting and public works departments at 49 South Van Ness Avenue.
by Cynthia Laird
SEight years later and the Mission Street property is once again under city ownership, set to be renovated to accommodate the needs of City Clinic as well as a host of behavioral health services. The estimated cost to do so is $56.67 million,
See page 12 >>
2017 Media Kit 0 a
NCTC announces leadership change as Decker steps down
an Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre Center has announced that founder and artistic director Ed Decker, a gay man, will step down in January. NCTC’s board also stated that Ben Villegas Randle, a queer Latine man, will then take the helm as artistic director as the organization enters its 45th year.
NCTC’s board made the announcement October 8.
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The company champions queer theater productions. Decker started NCTC in 1981 as a progressive arts education program for young people. It has since grown into a nationally-recognized organization, a news release noted. During Decker’s leadership, NCTC has produced hundreds of productions, including over 40 world premieres, served thousands of students through its on-site and touring programs, and provided career opportunities to many artists and educators in the Bay Area.
Randle is well-known to Decker and NCTC’s board. In 2013, as the board launched its succession plan, Randle was named the company’s first artistic associate with hopes he one day might take over, according to the release. That plan paused while Randle earned a Drama League Fellowship and moved to New York City a couple of years later. But in 2024, just as NCTC’s board launched its search, Randle
was already preparing to return to San Francisco and to his artistic home, the release noted.
In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter ahead of the formal announcement, Decker said that Randle had again become artistic associate in January. Randle previously also served as NCTC’s stage director and press
manager, the release stated.
“He’s somebody I’ve been mentoring for more than 20 years,” Decker said of Randle. “He’s already committed to the mission of the theater and has a real vibrant connection, not only in how NCTC works, but our community.”
See page 12 >>
Conrad Tao
Garry McLain was Marlena, who served as San Francisco’s Empress XXV.
Gooch
NCTC Artistic Director Ed Decker, left, will step down in January and be succeeded by Ben Villegas Randle.
Courtesy NCTC
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D8 supe candidate McCoy came to politics accidently << Election 2026
by Matthew S. Bajko
For more than a decade Gary McCoy has been a fixture in San Francisco’s political scene. First hired in 2012 as a legislative aide by then-supervisor Scott Wiener, McCoy worked for a number of city supervisors before being hired in 2018 by Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), for whom he has worked in various capacities ever since.
He is now seeking the District 8 seat on the Board of Supervisors that Wiener, currently a state senator, had held. McCoy and Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel both last month launched their longexpected campaigns to represent the LGBTQ Castro district along with Diamond Heights, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Duboce Triangle, Corona Heights, and parts of Cole Valley.
The two well-known gay leaders are running on the fall 2026 ballot to succeed gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who is term-limited from running again. While Mandelman, currently the board president, has solely endorsed Yekutiel, and Pelosi is only backing McCoy, Wiener at this time isn’t making an endorsement in the race. (He wouldn’t disclose if he intends to when asked by the Bay Area Reporter.)
McCoy’s working for Wiener came about by accident, he told the B.A.R. during a recent interview about his candidacy. He had moved to San Francisco
in 2002 for a job with Clear Channel Radio and to escape his life of drug addiction and petty crime in his home state of Virginia.
“I chose San Francisco because I don’t like cold weather,” quipped McCoy, 47, who could have worked for the company in New York but had visited friends in San Francisco and liked the city. “My thinking was I thought I would start fresh in a new place, change my lifestyle, and work on getting sober and work on getting my act together.”
Yet, within three weeks of arriving in California, McCoy began using again, was arrested at 16th and Mission streets, then learned he was living with HIV. He quit his job rather than face being fired from it.
Eventually, he moved into Ferguson Place, a small residential treatment program for people who are HIV-positive and dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues. Operated by the nonprofit PRC, it is housed in an old Victorian in the city’s Fillmore neighborhood.
“It is a very small program and was perfect for me,” recalled McCoy, currently campaign manager of Pelosi’s Save Our Health Care Campaign focused on national health care policy. “As I got sober, I began volunteering anywhere I could fit in and try to figure out who is Gary McCoy.”
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He also got accepted into a program run by the California Department of Rehabilitation that paid for McCoy to attend a private medical school to get his phlebotomy license (which he received but let lapse several years ago.) As part of that, he interned at Ward 86, the city-run AIDS clinic where he received his HIV care.
“I was thinking I would go into HIV testing or STI outreach,” said McCoy of his career plans at that time.
But then he began volunteering several afternoons a week in Wiener’s supervisor office at City Hall. He helped handle constituent issues that arose and other duties beside Wiener’s paid legislative aides.
“I did that almost 10 months until Scott offered me the role one day of being one of his legislative aides, so that is how I came off my federal disability income,” said McCoy. “The work was incredibly rewarding. I enjoyed it, and it gave me accountability with my recovery. I was going to meetings at least once a day, but also having that role with Scott’s office added another layer of accountability. I didn’t want to mess that up by having a relapse and using again.”
A year prior to being hired by Wiener, McCoy had his last relapse. He had been given a pass at Ferguson Place to go out on the night of February 22, 2011 and ended up using meth with his old friends in Oakland. He found himself outside the North Berkeley BART station early the next morning waiting for it to open so he could take the first train back to San Francisco.
“I thought I had thrown everything away and would be out on the streets,” said McCoy.
But he recommitted himself to getting clean, McCoy told the B.A.R. Today, he doesn’t use drugs or drink alcohol and recently cut back on his coffee consumption, after having too many meetings at coffeehouses. He credits the 12step recovery process and community for helping him maintain his sobriety; he attends a weekly Crystal Meth Anonymous meeting.
“I have sponsors and sponsees I work with. That keeps me sober,” said McCoy, who has discussed with his sponsor about taking on a pressure-filled position as that of a county supervisor. “I have had my fair share of stressful situations over the last 15 years. I know what we need to do, we call it smart feet, where you get to a meeting or make a phone call to your sponsor. I can say I have not thought about using anything, be it drugs or drinking, in probably 13 to 14 years.”
Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who is also HIV-positive and in recovery himself for alcohol and drug addiction, has endorsed McCoy as his number one choice and Yekutiel as his number two in the race. San Francisco voters can opt to rank up to 10 candidates in their order of preference in a supervisor race, though at the moment it appears McCoy and Yekutiel may be the only ones to seek the District 8 seat next fall.
icy issues from a lens of lived experience and recovery. I actually think recovery has taught me a lot about politics that I don’t think I would have learned otherwise but for the fact I have an addiction to alcohol and other drugs.” said Dorsey, who also thinks highly of Yekutiel but has known McCoy longer. “I think Gary is a great ally as well. Would we agree on everything? Maybe not, but I think he would be a great supervisor.”
An only child, McCoy’s mom worked as a nurse and managed a family medical practice, while his dad worked in nuclear refueling at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia. His maternal grandfather was Jewish but his mom was raised Catholic.
“I am spiritual in a sense and that has a lot to do with my recovery and 12-step program, but I don’t practice a certain faith,” said McCoy, whose parents divorced when he was 17 but remarried a year later and continue to reside in Virginia.
McCoy lives with his husband, Kory Powell-McCoy, and their dog Xander, in Twin Peaks, where they moved in 2017. Powell-McCoy works for Pelosi as her district director in San Francisco, while McCoy serves as her political director, a position he has held since 2018.
In January, he stepped down as vice president of policy and public affairs at HealthRIGHT 360. The nonprofit has come under criticism for the conditions at its San Francisco facilities, with the San Francisco Chronicle reporting last year four clients and a staff member fatally overdosed between March 2023 and April 2024. The parents of one client profiled by the newspaper filed a lawsuit in March against the agency.
“I am no longer with HealthRIGHT 360, but I will say they had a number of investigations that wrapped up over the last year, from what I understand, and of course that didn’t get reported on,” said McCoy when asked about his former employer. “I have always been very much publicly and on the record supporting a full continuum of care when it comes to substance abuse disorder, and that ranges from harm reduction to abstinence. I think it is important that we have every tool in the toolbox because not everything works for everyone. That has been my position since I got sober and continues to be my position.”
Policy positions coming
Both McCoy and Yekutiel have received some criticism for their not having detailed policy positions at the start of their candidacies. Both told the B.A.R. they plan to roll out such stances in the coming months but want to first listen to what policy experts and residents of the district have to say.
kets in the Castro and Noe Valley, he is already fielding questions about how independent of a supervisor he would be should he win the race.
While he was solely endorsed by state Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) this week, Yekutiel told the B.A.R. on Tuesday that he has not yet asked the mayor for an endorsement of his candidacy. And he argued his ties to the mayor could prove advantageous to District 8 residents should he be their supervisor.
“First of all, it is no secret the mayor and I have a close relationship. I am proud of that; I think he is, has been a great mayor so far,” said Yekutiel, 36, the owner of the eponymously named cafe and event space on Valencia Street a few blocks outside the boundaries of the supervisorial district. “I have known him a long time.”
At the same time, Yekutiel noted he has built up relationships with various leaders at city agencies as a business owner and former member of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board. With the city facing declining federal resources under the Trump administration, he argued those connections would be useful in advocating for services and programs on behalf of District 8 residents as their supervisor.
“The most relevant experience I will bring to the role is from being on the ground, owning a brick-and-mortar small business. That is the experience and know-how I am going to bring to this role,” said Yekutiel, who has mostly lived on Castro Street since moving to San Francisco in 2012.
He also argued he knows how to disagree civilly, whether it be with the mayor or others.
“I know how to disagree with people and still build and maintain strong relationships with them. That is what you want in a supervisor, someone who will advocate fiercely for the community,” said Yekutiel.
On the eve of his entering the supervisorial race, McCoy criticized Lurie’s decision not to reappoint Jane Natoli, a transgender housing and transit advocate, to her seat on the city’s airport commission. He told the B.A.R. he did so because “it felt like a huge step backward” at a time when the Trump administration is attacking the trans community.
“I was incredibly disappointed when I heard she was not reappointed to the airport commission. I’ve worked with her since she moved here,” said McCoy, who recruited her to serve on the board of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, of which he is a former co-chair.
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“Gary and I both approach drug pol-
In past District 8 races, the candidates’ relationship to the sitting mayor and who would have a better working relationship with them and their administration, or would stand up to Room 200 at City Hall, has been an issue. Due to Yekutiel having worked with Mayor Daniel Lurie prior to his election last November on creating the Civic Joy Fund, which funds activations such as the night mar-
Asked about Natoli not being reappointed, Yekutiel said the news was “very sad.” After Natoli was rejected for a seat on the SFMTA board in 2020 by a majority of progressive supervisors serving at the time, then-mayor London Breed had tapped Yekutiel for the vacancy.
“Jane has done a great job. She served with distinction,” he said, adding, “I have a lot of respect for Jane and think she is an amazing public servant.”
District 8 supervisor candidate Gary McCoy, left, has the endorsement of Congressmember Nancy Pelosi, who attended his October 4 kickoff event at the Castro Country Club, a sober space in the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Rick Gerharter
Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel, right, spoke to an attendee at the October 5 Castro Street Fair.
Bill Wilson
Volume 55, Number 41
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To curb Trump, vote yes on Prop 50
Fed up after nearly nine months of Trump 2.0, we endorse Proposition 50 in the California statewide special election November 4. Ballots began arriving in voters’ mailboxes last week for this important check on President Donald Trump’s power.
We are disgusted with Trump, and we expect many of our readers are too. The constant bullying of transgender people, drag artists, immigrants, and anyone with whom Trump disagrees, is mindbending and exhausting. The economy is suffering; grocery and other consumer prices have not decreased, far from it – Trump’s tariffs have led to cost increases. U.S. soybean farmers risk going under, yet Trump is proposing to lend $20 billion to bail out Argentina. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again mantra is based on faulty research, his own biases against vaccines, and long-standing scientific research that have led to drastic funding cuts, putting people’s lives at risk.
The Department of Justice has been weaponized against Trump’s perceived enemies, at the expense of democracy. Many federal workers have been treated with disrespect, fired under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or, if they are still working, fear for their jobs. Now, with the federal government shutdown in its eighth day, Trump has talked about not paying furloughed workers their back pay after the government reopens. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are rounding up adults and children at stores, on the streets, even in their own homes, often without any due process or checking to see that they are, in fact, U.S. citizens, which many are. Even the arts have not been immune, with Trump taking over the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and firing the board.
In short, this is no way to run a country. Everyone knows it, especially Republicans, who have always asked “How high” when Trump tells them to “Jump.” The lies spewed by Trump to the press– and Trump repeatedly belittling reporters he “doesn’t like” – only add to the caustic atmosphere that pervades U.S. politics today and often prevents Americans from getting accurate information. We continue to be dismayed at the level of deceit that permeates all levels of this administration and among Republicans in Congress.
congressional districts so that five more Republicanleaning seats could be found. Republican Governor Greg Abbott had no problem with the resulting gerrymander the Legislature passed.
That led Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom to propose a similar move – to have the Legislature redraw congressional districts mid-cycle to make five of them more Democratic-leaning. The problem is that California has an independent redistricting commission that voters approved years ago. Any change in how districts are drawn would need to first be approved by voters.
And that’s why there is a special statewide election November 4 on Prop 50, dubbed the “Election Rigging Response Act,” which the Legislature approved in August. Prop 50’s passage is the next step before new congressional districts in California can be drawn. We urge a yes vote because it is one way – possibly the only way – to curb Trump by seeing Democrats take back control of the House. If that happens, House Democrats will chair the committees and can initiate congressional investigations, as well as convene hearings where they are in charge. Through a Democratic-controlled House, the American people can finally begin to hold this administration to account. It is maddening that Democrats have no power in Washington at the moment. That must change.
When Newsom first floated the idea this summer, we were skeptical. We like the independent commission and feel it has done a good job redrawing districts every decade that reflect shifts in population and keep communities together as much as possible. However, as it became clear that Texas would go ahead with its gerrymandering – and other red states seem poised to redraw their congressional districts to try and pick up GOP-leaning seats – we realized that Prop 50 is California’s chance to try and insert a guardrail against Trump. Prop 50 is temporary, and congressional districts would go back to being determined by the independent commission in 2030. It’s also important to note that Prop 50 only applies to congressional districts; state legislative districts would not be affected.
“Donald Trump asked for five seats in Texas,” Newsom said at the signing ceremony. “Texas fired the first shot. Donald Trump said he’s ‘entitled’ to those seats. That should put chills up your spine.”
Of course, nothing is guaranteed if Prop 50 passes and California’s congressional districts are redrawn. It will be up to voters next November to determine whether these newly drawn seats result in Democratic candidates winning. The Bay Area’s districts aren’t expected to change, most of the action will be in Southern California, where already, several out candidates are interested in taking on Congressmember Darrell Issa (R-Vista) as his new district would include the LGBTQ mecca of Palm Springs. The same is true in Texas and other states. But historically, the party in power in the White House loses seats in the midterm. That’s what we’re certainly hoping for and what Trump is dreading.
The yes on Prop 50 ads have included Newsom, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-California), who was famously detained and pushed to the ground by federal agents as he attended a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles in June. That, of course, was unjustified but par for the course with this administration.
Trump is also keenly aware – even as he lies about it – that his dismal approval rating, at 43% as of October 7, according to the New York Times tracker, https:// www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/donaldtrump-approval-rating-polls.html does not bode well for keeping Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, under Republican control in the 2026 midterm elections. So earlier this year he did what he always does – worked to game the system.
Starting with Texas, he shamelessly urged the Lone Star State to do a rare mid-decade partisan redraw of
Legislative and congressional districts are typically redrawn once every decade, after the U.S. census is completed. But Trump’s pressure campaign on state lawmakers in Texas and other GOP-controlled statehouses has thrown that decennial pattern in the waste bin due to concerns Republicans could lose their House majority come next November, as we previously noted. https://www.ebar.com/ story/157175
“We’re putting the maps in front of the voters,” Newsom said at an August 21 news conference where he signed the legislation putting Prop 50 on the ballot as he was surrounded by Democratic lawmakers.
It’s critically important that Golden State voters vote yes on Prop 50 and return their ballots by November 4. As Newsom said, “Open your eyes to what’s going on in the U.S. in 2025.”
Ending the Trump nightmare won’t be easy. His bullying has resulted in major capitulations by universities, businesses, and even the federal government itself. But Californians can send a strong message by passing Prop 50 so that in next year’s midterms, Democrats can have a fighting chance at retaking the House of Representatives. Fair representation is a fundamental concept of democracy. And if red states are gerrymandering, the only choice for Californians is to fight back with our own plan to level the playing field. t
Universities are treading a dangerous path
by Brendan Sullivan-Sariñana
Several months ago, I felt compelled to write the author of the Bay Area Reporter’s article on the rescission of naming the LGBTQ+ center at Victory Valley College after José Julio Sarria because it so closely matched a recent event in my own life. In 2019, I established the Brendan and Kevin Sullivan-Cheah Scholarship for Equity and Inclusion at Binghamton University in upstate New York, my alma mater. The name, suggested by the university itself, reflected both my commitment to LGBTQ+ students and the institution’s public embrace of inclusion. It felt meaningful. As a gay, Chicano alumnus, I was proud to give back, not just with financial support, but by sending a visible message that queer students belonged.
For several years, the scholarship did exactly that. My husband and I received letters from recipients. The university featured the award online. It felt like a shared commitment to equity and dignity. Then, quietly and without warning, the university erased it.
Earlier this year, as I prepared for a meeting with Binghamton’s foundation to endow the scholarship in perpetuity, I went to look it up online. It was gone. Not renamed. Not updated. Just gone. Scrubbed from the website. During and after the meeting, no one brought this up. When I pushed, I got vague, calculated responses that the scholarship may continue in some form. Or that staff would work with me to make sure students received the money. No one seemed to want to acknowledge the humiliating push back into the closet this meant.
used. It was as though my story, my contribution, and my identity had been deemed politically inconvenient. Binghamton still wanted my money but not my identity.
The experience left me feeling humiliated and
I’ve struggled with how to respond. I tend to lean toward the overly polite and diplomatic. But as time has gone by, my feelings of humiliation and resolve have only sharpened. I encourage all of us to be honest and confident in explaining our experiences, even when it’s uncomfortable. Especially when it’s uncomfortable. Over the last eight months, we’ve seen a dramatic backlash against LGBTQ+ rights, from book bans and withdrawal of trans health care to political and financial threats against public institutions. Universities like Binghamton are feeling that backlash. And instead of resisting it, they are capitulating. This is how power corrupts institutions: through forcing a choice between their stated mis-
sion and power. It’s clear that power is winning.
Institutions we thought worthy of support will bend when confronted with power. The people who work inside them, no matter how well-meaning, will bend, too. They will not put themselves at risk to defend you. They will not hold the line when it threatens their funding, their leadership, or their careers.
I became complacent by achieving the financial and personal security that has eluded so many of us in the community. I thought that stability was fixed and gave me currency to influence and contribute in ways others have. I thought the institutions that I was a part of would defend me. I was wrong.
That’s why we must defend ourselves. We must be intentional about where we direct our time, talent, and money. Instead of giving to institutions that crumble at the first sign of controversy, we should support the people and organizations doing the hard work of protecting our rights-those on the ground, in courtrooms, in legislatures, in classrooms, in community centers. The ones who don’t disappear when the pressure mounts. The ones who show up.
The scholarship no longer exists, and I won’t be donating to BU again because I can’t trust an institution that won’t stand by its own values. If this current fever dream breaks, watch closely at how the same businesses, people, and organizations that won’t stand up to power now will expect us to hold them in the same regard.
I won’t, and neither should you. t
Brendan Sullivan-Sariñana, is a gay man and Chicano. He was proudly born and raised in New York but has lived in the Bay Area for about 12 years, the last seven of which have been with his husband, Kevin Cheah.
Brendan Sullivan-Sariñana once established a college scholarship at his alma mater.
Courtesy Brendan Sullivan-Sariñana
California Governor Gavin Newsom in August signed the bill that put Proposition 50 on the ballot for a November 4 special election.
Screengrab via Governor’s Office
t Politics >>
Book examines intersection of the Holocaust and US LGBTQ movement
by Matthew S. Bajko
From the start of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals in 1933, the atrocities Adolph Hitler and his regime waged against LGBTQ Germans and others has impacted the LGBTQ community in America. Long before the Stonewall riots in New York City of 1969, the horrors unleashed by the Nazis were central to the fight for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. So argues Thomas R. Dunn, founder and director of the Queer Memory Project of Northern Colorado, in his new book “The Pink Scar: How Nazi Persecution Shaped the Struggle for LGBTQ+ Rights.” It will be released October 21 by Penn State University Press as the first book in its Troubling Democracy series.
“I am not writing about democracy, per se, but am happy to be part of that conversation,” said Dunn, 45, a gay man who is an associate professor of communication studies at Colorado State University. “A lot of the book has implications for how we think about democracy, historically and contemporarily.”
Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter by phone from Fort Collins, Colorado, where he lives, Dunn said the book grew out of the contention made by different historians and activists that most American LGBTQ people only learned about how homosexuals were persecuted during the Holocaust well after the conclusion of World War II. Yet, as he researched the topic, he discovered various archival records proving that not to be the case.
Practically from the start of the war, LGBTQ Americans had access to news reports about how German homosexuals were being rounded up. The coverage spoke about the pink triangles they were made to wear in the concentration camps to denote their being gay.
Harvey Milk
He also began to notice how LGBTQ leaders in the U.S. talked about the Holocaust evolved over the decades. One chapter of the book is devoted to how the late gay San Francisco civic leader and politician Harvey Milk referred to that era of history and was often critical of the gay community in 1930s Germany for not being more forceful in fighting back against the Nazis. It is titled, “Lambs to the Slaughter: Harvey Milk, Memories of Shame, and the Myth of Homosexual Passivity, 1977-1979.”
“I can pull up newspapers in middle America and see what they are talking about in 1935 and see the word homosexual in an article written on page three of a local newspaper. That was something hard to do as a scholar in the 1970s and 1980s in particular,” noted Dunn. “That is why we always have to go back to the literature. A lot more people knew about it than we might suspect.”
Looking at photographs from the very first White House picket by LGBTQ activists on April 17, 1965, Dunn noticed that some of the signs they carried referred to concerns that Cuba would institute labor camps for homosexuals similar to the Nazi regime. Yet, most remember the protest as being solely rooted in the U.S. Lavender Scare era when gays were drummed out of the federal government, he writes.
“Despite the great suffering and many laments of American homosexuals in the decades before 1965, it is remarkable that it was the sudden and provocative internment of Cuban homosexuals that broke through the organization’s trepidation about public protest and brought it, as later generations would demand, out of the closet and into the streets,” wrote Dunn.
He also documents how the Holocaust was used by pulp fiction authors for gay-based erotic stories in the 1960s and how the founders of the early gay rights group the Mattachine Foundation “explicitly framed their cause as necessary because of the suffering and persecution of homosexuals under Hitler” during the 1950s and early 1960s.
“More specifically, this book shows that the early lesbian and gay rights movement in the United States made remembering the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis a central, animating, and indispensable part of their rhetoric and politics in the postwar era time and time again,” writes Dunn. “This claim counters much of our received wisdom about how early lesbian and gay communities in the United States understood – or did not understand – these events.”
But he told the B.A.R. he doesn’t have a “specific recollection” of Milk questioning why gay Germans or others didn’t fight back about the Nazi repression.
“That was not an uncommon topic of discussion,” said Jones. “When you look at the newsreels and see adoring throngs of Germans and Austrians saluting the parades of Nazis and the Führer, their hateful messages were embraced. While there were scattered efforts of resistance, a great many peo ple just acquiesced and did not fight back.”
With the rise today of authoritarian leaders in countries around the globe, and the anti-LGBTQ crusade the Trump administration has been waging since January, comparisons have been made to Hitler’s reign of terror during World War II. Fears have been particularly voiced about seeing transgender and gender-nonconforming Americans rounded up and jailed.
Milk’s framing of the era fit into his larger themes of wanting to see more LGBTQ people come out publicly during a time when their rights were under attack across the U.S., noted Dunn. People like the late anti-gay crusaders Anita Bryant and John Briggs, a California legislator, led efforts to demonize queer people and rescind local anti-discrimination laws, or in the case of Briggs, enact a state law to ban them from teaching in public schools. Milk had defeated that effort in November 1978 just weeks prior to his assassination.
“I think Harvey Milk, above all things, was a strategic communicator. Everything that came out of his mouth was very intentional,” said Dunn. “He was very much focused on trying to make the lives of the people he represented safer and better, and that included not just the LGBTQ community but the people of San Francisco when he was elected.”
To Dunn, how Milk spoke of those impacted by the Holocaust did a disservice to their memory. At the same time, he understands why Milk used such rhetorical license in his speeches.
“I don’t think Harvey was particularly concerned about that. He was more concerned in the moment about how can we turn people out,” said Dunn, meaning to the ballot booth to vote down Briggs’ initiative. “The consequence from my perspective is it changes the way we think about these homosexuals who were persecuted by the Nazis for years and years thereafter. If I am someone who lived that life experience, I think it would have been deeply problematic for me. Harvey Milk’s concern was bigger than that and on what he could say at the moment to keep the ball moving forward.”
Gay rights leader Cleve Jones, a close confidante of Milk’s as he became a civic and elected leader in San Francisco, noted that Milk had come of age during World War II. Born in 1930 on Long Island in New York, Milk was 9 years old when the conflict began and 15 when it ended.
“As he was coming of age and coming to understand his sexuality, that nightmare was unfolding across the Atlantic Ocean from where he was living. There were Nazi sympathizer rallies very close to his home in New York,” noted Jones. “I think it is an interesting topic to raise during this current moment.”
Jones remembers Milk frequently speaking about the rise of fascism in Europe and often referring to the Holocaust.
“As a Jew, as a homosexual, he felt a deep connection to it,” noted Jones.
Last month, gay Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside), who chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, decried such comments being made by several of his Republican colleagues in the U.S. House.
“Now, Representatives Nancy Mace and Ronny Jackson are calling for transgender people to be locked up against their will and institutionalized. These comments are abhorrent and have no place in our society, especially coming from elected leaders,” stated Takano, referring to the South Carolina and Texas representatives, respectively. “This demonization of the transgender community must end. Speaker [Mike] Johnson and Republican leadership have a duty to reign in these extremist Members and put a stop to this vile, hateful rhetoric.”
What steps LGBTQ people and others should take in the face of such hostility echoes the debates waged on if they and others were too complacent during the German Reich.
“Yes, people have had conversations through the decades that have followed, wondering what would have happened if Jews and Romany people and communists and others had been better armed and what would have happened if they fought back with greater force. That is a question still relevant today,” said Jones.
Dunn, who grew up in the village of Warwick in New York State’s Hudson Valley, was named a 2020-23 Monfort Professor at his university. It came with research funding he used to work on his “Pink Scar” book.
The project presented a number of hurdles to him, one being his suffering through a severe case of shingles as he wrote the book. He was also raising his daughter, Ada, who was a 1-year-old at the time with his husband, Craig Russia’s invasion into Ukraine upended his research trip to Poland and the Museum and Memorial at Bełżec.
The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted his ability to travel to various archives, though he was able to access a lot of records and archival materials via online depositories or with the assistance of helpful staff members overseeing them, such as the LGBTQfocused ONE Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries.
He received a one-year extension in order to undertake the “extensive research travel” he needed to complete the project, as Dunn notes in his introductory section to the book.
He hopes his book assists with efforts to keep the memory of the Holocaust and the Nazi persecution of homosexuals in the minds of future generations of LGBTQ people and others. It is a history that should not be lost to time, said Dunn.
“We need to remind the younger generations. That knowledge continues to get lost as we lose the availability for people to speak about it firsthand,” said Dunn. t
“The Pink Scar” was written by Thomas R. Dunn.
Courtesy Penn State University Press
Process to landmark SF historic sites set to begin << LGBTQ History Month
by Matthew S. Bajko
The process to landmark a number of historic sites in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district and nearby neighborhoods is set to begin this month, kicking off a deadline for city planning staff to bring the designations to the Board of Supervisors for final approval. Once recognized, the properties will nearly double the number of local landmarks related to LGBTQ history.
The supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee unanimously voted Monday, October 6, to approve moving the landmark designations forward with a positive recommendation to the full board, which should vote on the matter at its October 21 meeting. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, the current board president, is sponsoring a total of 16 properties to recognize as city landmarks, with some located in Noe Valley, the Mission, or Cole Valley.
Seven directly correspond to the LGBTQ community, such as the former home of the late Bay Area Reporter founder Bob Ross at 4200 20th Street and the inaugural site of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation at 514-20 Castro Street. The historic former site of LGBTQ synagogue Sha’ar Zahav (19831998) at 220 Danvers Street and the LGBTQ-friendly Most Holy Redeemer Roman Catholic Church at 100-117 Diamond Street are also on the list.
The locations of several pioneering but now defunct LGBTQ businesses would also be recognized. They are the former site (1966-1989) of Maud’s lesbian bar at 929-41 Cole Street; the former site (1971-1977) of the Castro Rock Steam Baths at 582 Castro Street; and the former site (1974-1977) of the Full Moon Coffeehouse at 4416 18th Street.
If the resolutions are passed by the full board later this month, which is LGBTQ History Month, then the landmark requests will be sent to the city’s Historic Preservation Commission for a vote be-
fore being sent back for a final vote by the supervisors. Due to a supervisor introducing the landmark legislation, the preservation oversight panel is required to make a decision within 90 days of being sent the proposals.
“It might take into 2026 conceivably,” Mandelman said of the approval timeline. “I am hoping it will not be too far into 2026.”
While Mandelman’s office has been working with the city’s planning department on landmarking the properties for some time now, he told the B.A.R. the need to offer them some protection from being torn down has been given more urgency due to the pending approval for an upzoning plan pushed by Mayor Daniel Lurie to see more familyfriendly housing be built across the city. Unlike rent-controlled buildings offered some protections from being torn down, the sites eyed to be landmarked are at risk of demolition or development if not protected, noted Mandelman.
“These are buildings, I think they are either commercial or institutional buildings, not otherwise protected from demolition,” he said.
The facades of buildings deemed to be city landmarks are not to be altered. As for any development of the properties, such plans require greater scrutiny from planners and city oversight bodies.
“As planning worked on the family zoning, I have been concerned that the changes in state law and the increased capacity for development the city is trying to create through the family zoning were going to create conditions where we could see demolition of historic resources to make way for new housing development,” Mandelman said. “There is very little or no protection for historic resources unless they have been landmarked or designated as part of historic districts.”
While the Castro has an LGBTQ cultural district, there is no historical district covering the heart of the neighborhood centered around the intersection of 18th and Castro streets. Thus, the best way to ensure the preservation of individual properties in the area is via the city’s landmarking process.
“This was the first batch planning identified in District 8 being worthy of recognition as landmarks,” noted Mandelman, who co-hosted a meeting in the spring for the owners of the properties and community members to inform them of the plan to recognize the sites.
As the B.A.R. had noted at the time, 2348 Market Street that now houses the LGBTQ nightclub Beaux had also been considered for landmark status. It was where, in 1963, the first LGBTQ-identi-
with
Known as Missouri Mule, it shuttered in 1973. The initial structure at the site has been altered over time, however, so Mandelman said he opted not to move
“I love Beaux but not sure we need to protect that building,” he told the B.A.R. during an October 3 phone interview.
“To me, it seemed to be in the category of historic preservation efforts that get mocked and ridiculed and undermine
The resolution calling to landmark Ross’ former home on 20th Street doesn’t state the exact dates during which he lived in the building. He founded the B.A.R. in 1971 and died in 2003.
The Bay Area Reporter can help members of the community reach more than 120,000 LGBT area residents each week with their display of Obituary* & In Memoriam messages.
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The period of significance for his house is given as 1971-1979, though he lived there until the 1990s, when he moved to Clinton Park, gay B.A.R. publisher Michael Yamashita had noted in the spring. He said this week he is pleased to see the landmarking of the site is moving forward.
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“I am glad he is being recognized and the house is being recognized for him,” said Yamashita. “There is not enough memory of him and all the things he did for the LGBTQ community during his time.”
DEADLINES: Friday 12noon for space reservations Monday 12noon for copy & images TO PLACE: Call 415-829-8937 or email
As for 514-520 Castro Street, it was where in an upstairs two-bedroom flat local gay leaders launched the offices of the Kaposi’s Sarcoma Research and Education Foundation during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, recalled cofounder Cleve Jones.
“What I do recall is that the phone company sent a technician to wire us up with a telephone line and, as they were
leaving and going down the stairs, the phone began to ring,” said Jones, who had worked closely with Dr. Marcus Conant and others to launch the foundation. “It was such an eerie sort of moment, and of course, it never stopped ringing.”
When AIDS was discovered, the foundation rebranded its name and eventually moved out of the space. It currently has its Strut health clinic at 470 Castro Street and its headquarters are now located in the South of Market neighborhood at 940 Howard Street.
“We are glad to hear that the city of San Francisco may commemorate and honor the early history of San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the city’s response to HIV and AIDS by landmarking the site of our first office,” stated Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay man living with HIV who is CEO of SFAF. “More than 40 years ago, our community came together in crisis to respond with compassion and care to an emerging crisis. We look back in reverence with the dedication these early activists, leaders and heroes showed, and are proud to build on this legacy decades later as our organization and city make strides in reaching an end to the epidemic.”
Just up the street at 582 Castro Street was the Castro Rock Steam Baths, which “became an exclusively gay bathhouse in the 1970s,” notes its landmark resolution. It was “open 24 hours, serving a diversity of queer male patrons of different ages and economic circumstances.”
The lesbian-owned Full Moon Coffeehouse opened at 4416 18th Street in 1974 just as the Castro was becoming an LGBTQ neighborhood. It is credited as being the city’s first women-only establishment and an important social center for San Francisco’s lesbian community, according to the landmark designation request.
It also highlights how the business “was unique as an early lesbian establishment, during a time when the Castro was largely dominated by gay men.”
Initially attracting European immigrants, Most Holy Redeemer beginning in the 1970s became a home for LGBTQ Roman Catholics who found a safe haven there from homophobia in other parts of the church. It also opened an AIDS hospice to care for its parishioners and others stricken by the disease.
One of the first LGBTQ Jewish groups on the West Coast, begun in 1977, Sha’ar Zahav was able to buy the former Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints located at 220 Danvers Street in the early 1980s. Due to the growth of its congregation, by 1998 it relocated to its current and more spacious location in a former funeral home at the corner of Dolores and 16th streets.
Also set to become city landmarks are St. Paul’s Church at 1660 Church Street (Roman Catholic), which was the exterior used for the film “Sister Act;” St. Matthew’s Church (Lutheran) at 3281 16th Street; and St. Nicholas Cathedral (Russian Orthodox) at 2005 15th Street. Two locations related to the city’s fire department – Hose Company No. 30, located at 1757 Waller Street and Engine Company No.13, at 1458 Valencia Street – are also on the list.
Three residential properties would also become landmarks due to their architectural significance, including 102 Guerrero Street, 361 San Jose Avenue, and the Chautauqua House located at 1451 Masonic Avenue. The latter, built in 1909, was where the American Indian Historical Society had its headquarters from 1967-1986.
As the landmark resolution notes, “1451 Masonic Avenue is significant for its association with the Red Power movement of the 1960s, as well as with the Costo family who played prominent roles in American Indian Civil Rights advocacy.”
The last structure on the list is the Bank of Italy Branch Building, located at 400-410 Castro Street at the intersection of Market Street. It sits at the entrance to Harvey Milk Plaza and the Castro Muni Station, considered to be the front door into the neighborhood.
As the landmark resolution highlights, “Amadeo Peter Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904 to serve immigrants other banks would not.” The Castro branch was built in 1922, with the business renamed as Bank of America circa 1930.
The bank departed the space in the 1990s, and a slew of commercial tenants have occupied it ever since. Currently, it houses a SoulCycle location.
There are currently 10 city landmarks related to LGBTQ history, including the rainbow flag installation at Harvey Milk Plaza, which was landmarked last fall.
In 2022, San Francisco officials landmarked the site of a trans and queer riot against police in 1966 at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria, an allnight diner located in the Tenderloin. The landmark was specifically for the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets in front of the building at 101 Taylor Street in addition to the lower 11 feet of the facade extending north 52 feet from the corner of Turk Street and 40 feet west from the corner of Taylor Street to incorporate the exterior walls for the commercial space.
The Lyon-Martin House at 651 Duncan Street in Noe Valley was where deceased lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin had lived and hosted meetings of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first political and social organization for lesbians in the United States.
The Japanese YWCA/Issei Women’s Building at 1830 Sutter Street is where the pioneering gay rights group the Mattachine Society hosted its first convention in May 1954. Gay bar locations the Eagle on 12th Street in South of Market, the Twin Peaks Tavern on Castro Street and the now-defunct Paper Doll in North Beach are also city landmarks. The other LGBTQ landmarks are the Women’s Building on 18th Street, the former home to the AIDS Memorial Quilt on upper Market Street, and the late gay supervisor Harvey Milk’s residence and former Castro Camera shop at 573 Castro Street. t
The Bay Area Reporter can help members of the LGBTQ community in the San Francisco Bay Area reach more than 120,000 local residents each week
their display of Obituary* and In Memoriam messages.
The home of Bay Area Reporter founding publisher Bob Ross at 4200 20th Street is set to become a city landmark.
From SF Planning
Maud’s was one of the longest-running lesbian bars in San Francisco when it closed in 1989.
From GLBT Historical Society via SF Heritage
Tugbenyoh wants troubled San Francisco human rights agency to be city’s ‘conscience’ Community News>>
by John Ferrannini
Mawuli Tugbenyoh, a gay man who’s the newly-permanent executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, wants to move forward after the agency was rocked by scandal. He had stepped into the role as acting head last October and was sworn in by Mayor Daniel Lurie September 22.
Lurie had permanently appointed Tugbenyoh, 43, to the position September 19. The immediate past co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, Tugbenyoh had been deputy director in the San Francisco Department of Human Resources.
Cheryl Davis, the former head of the HRC, resigned in disgrace last year after it was revealed she signed off on $1.5 million in contracts with nonprofit Collective Impact, run by a man with whom she shared a home address and a car. Davis was required to disclose this and allegedly didn’t. Further, a San Francisco Chronicle investigation also revealed alleged financial mismanagement at the city agency, reporting that people were overpaid tens of thousands of dollars, that expenses were approved without documentation, and that one nonprofit director received a reimbursement for a $10,000 Martha’s Vineyard rental.
According to the Chronicle, Davis, through her attorney, has maintained that she tried to avoid conflicts of interest in her role and “never made any decisions to personally enrich herself and others at the expense of public resources.”
Tugbenyoh said in an October 6 phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter that he has been charged with returning the agency to its basics – investigating claims of discrimination in the city. The commission has a budget of $28 million for Fiscal Year 20252026, down 38% from the prior year.
“Our department exists to support communities and give voice to many people,” he said. “That function of our department has unfortunately taken a back seat in the last couple years and I want to make sure that work is at the forefront of everything that we do.”
The department receives about 2,000 discrimination complaints per year, and investigates a little under 100, Tugbenyoh said, adding he thinks there are many more that go unreported. Investigators from the civil rights division look into these complaints.
“Part of the goal I have in the next year is reintroducing the department to the residents of San Francisco so they can come to the human rights commission if they are experiencing discrimination,” Tugbenyoh said. “I spoke with the mayor and his staff, and I think they really are as interested as I am in getting back to the basics of the department. I’m looking forward to working with them on that and other executive initiatives, such as ensuring our grant management is one of the best in the city. That is my goal.”
Lurie is hopeful Tugbenyoh is just what the troubled agency needs.
“Throughout his nearly two decades of public service, Mawuli Tugbenyoh has made it his mission to advocate for all of San Francisco’s communities, especially those who have felt left behind by government,” Lurie stated. “As he takes on this role permanently, he will bring that experience working within city government and across communities to ensure that every dollar the city spends improves the lives of San Franciscans.”
So, too, is gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who as District 8 supervisor represents the Castro district on the board.
“Mawuli is a dedicated public servant with decades of experience in government and community advocacy,” Mandelman stated. “He has stepped up to lead the Human Rights Commission at a uniquely challenging time for the agency, and we are fortunate to have someone of his great talent and character in the role. I and my team look forward to continuing our work with Director Tugbenyoh.”
The Chronicle reported that this summer Tugbenyoh thanked Davis – now under criminal investigation – while giving shout outs to people in the room who helped bring together an intern project for Black college students to come to San Francisco from around the country. The B.A.R. asked Tugbenyoh if he’d like to explain his choice to do that, and how he will rebuild trust in the department.
Tugbenyoh did not answer that first question but said that “rebuilding trust is a non-negotiable for me.”
“That’s a goal we are going to work to implement for as long as it takes,” he said. “What I’ll say is it’s going to be an ongoing process and one we’re committed to and we’re going to do that through action and not through talking.”
Asked for more specificity, Tugbenyoh said, “When it comes to our grantmaking, for instance, there were almost no structures in place to track our spending well, to track the impact that our dollars were having, and so we’ve put some systems in place there, in partnership with the controller’s office and the city administrator’s office and other city partners who have been doing this a lot longer than the human rights commission has; we put a lot of controls and tracking systems in place.”
Tugbenyoh is also overseeing a restructuring of the department – it is to be merged with the Department on the Status of Women into the Agency on Human Rights. Both departments are to keep their commissions. Tugbenyoh will be the head of the new agency.
Leah Pimentel, the chair of the Human Rights Commission, stated, “The commission is pleased to have Mawuli’s steady hand at the helm of the HRC. Over the last year, during his appointment as acting director, we have relied on him as a leader committed to the critical work of the department. We all look forward to continuing to benefit from his vision and thoughtful approach.”
The Department on the Status of Women has also had troubles recently with its former director, Kimberly Ellis, ousted after allegations she misspent city funds. Ellis didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Commissioner Sophia Andary, a queer woman who serves on the Commission on the Status of Women, is worried that with the city looking to cut the number of commissions after voters passed Proposition E last November, her commission may be on the chopping block. Prop E calls for studying ways to modify or consolidate the city’s commissions. A proposed list of commissions is expected to go before voters in November 2026.
The commissions are being reviewed by the Commission Streamlining Task Force; the Commission on the Status of Women will be reviewed at an October 15 meeting in City Hall Room 263. Andary is recommending people who want to see it preserved in its current form make their voices heard by attending the hearing.
Andary warned that her understanding is that if the commission were made advisory, it could sunset in three years.
“At a time when women, girls, and gender-expansive people are still fighting for basic rights, bodily autonomy, equal pay, safety, and access to services, we need institutions specifically dedicated to advancing equity,” Andary suggests people say. “The Commission on the Status of Women plays a critical role in ensuring San Francisco lives up to its values of inclusion, transparency, and justice.”
Prior to the meeting, the streamlining task force released recommendations.
As for the Commission on the Status of Women, it’s recommended the panel be kept – but the recommendations suggest it “could shift to an advisory role.”
“Anything that’s chartered they’re really not saying don’t keep it, their recommendation is to move them to advisory committees,” Andary said in a phone interview, speaking in a personal capacity and not as a member of the commission.
“It removes any authority they have and,
in my opinion, there’s no point. It’s just folks meeting and doesn’t give them any budget, appointment, hiring or firing authority, nothing of that sort.”
Andary suggested people “show up on the 15th.”
“We’d love for people to show up in person,” Andary said. “The other way to show up is go online and there’s a link to join the meeting.”
Tugbenyoh said, “During the budget process we had to make tough decisions and especially considering that we have merged with the [Department] on the Status of Women, we are trying to merge our work sites into as few as possible.”
The worksite merger will involve the Office of Transgender Initiatives, which currently works in the San Francisco LGBT Community Center but is expected to vacate those offices at the end of the year.
“It’s been incredible and I’ve really enjoyed working more closely with Director Honey Mahogany,” Tugbenyoh said, referring to the Office of Transgender Initiatives. “They do incredibly hard work, which is, given the times we’re living in, very important work and critical work, so it has been a pleasure working with them.”
Mahogany didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Tugbenyoh hopes during his tenure, the Human Rights Commission will return to being the “conscience of the city.”
Trans commissioner appointed
Monroe Lace, a trans woman who teaches social studies in the San Francisco Unified School District and who in 2023 became the first trans woman to be crowned Miss San Francisco in the state’s 99-year history of the competition, was appointed by Lurie to the Human Rights Commission, according to an August 29 news release touting several appointments across city oversight panels.
“These appointees are experts in their fields and will bring a critical perspective to the commissions they serve – helping us build a safer, stronger, and more vibrant San Francisco,” Lurie stated. “I look forward to working with each of them to support San Francisco’s communities and deliver safe and clean streets to drive our city’s comeback.” The commission could not make Lace available for an interview by press time. t
Mawuli Tugbenyoh, left, was sworn in as executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission by Mayor Daniel Lurie in September.
From Facebook
Justices question conversion therapy ban
by Lisa Keen
The argument before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday revisited the days between the 1950s and 1970s when the psychiatric profession considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder.
CNN’s headline declared afterward that the “Supreme Court [was] prepared to rule against conversion therapy ban.” Several of the justices did seem skeptical of the Colorado law that prevents therapists from using conversion therapy.
But the far-ranging discussion – from suicide and banning pit bulls in parks to speech in support of terrorism and electroshock therapy – left no clear sense of how the justices might rule, other than their well-established political leanings. There is a solid conservative supermajority on the court.
The case before the court October 7 was Chiles v. Salazar (Colorado), asking whether a state law that bans therapists from using conversion therapy on minors violates the First Amendment rights of therapists. The state law in ques-
tion was Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law, passed in 2019. The law prohibits a physician or therapist from using conversion therapy on any young person under 18. Nearly 30 other states, including California, have similar bans.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a well-known anti-LGBTQ legal group, challenged the Colorado law’s prohibition on talk therapy, saying a Colorado Springs therapist named Kaley Chiles, who identifies as Christian, wants to administer such therapy to minors who are struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity. The law, said the Alliance, violates Chiles’ First Amendment right to free speech.
Conversion therapy is an umbrella term to describe efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation, same-sex sexual activity, or gender identity from LGBTQ to heterosexual. Practitioners of such therapy use not only talk but also electroshock therapy and forced vomiting, among other things. Some studies have indicated the treatment often leads the minors to attempt suicide. It has been
widely discredited by major medical associations.
On three previous occasions, the Supreme Court has declined to review similar legal challenges to conversion therapy bans – in California, New Jersey, and Washington state. Some federal appeals courts have ruled, like the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did in Chiles, that talk therapy is “incidental” to conversion therapy. Other circuits have ruled it is protected speech.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled against a California law requiring family services clinics to make women aware of how to access abortion services. The NIFLA v. California decision, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, said the requirement plainly violated the First Amendment rights of the clinics that opposed abortions. But the decision also noted that the Supreme Court has “upheld regulations of professional conduct that incidentally burden speech.”
This year, the court took up the Alliance’s challenge to the Colorado ban and the 10th Circuit’s ruling last year that
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said Chiles and her attorneys failed to show the Colorado law “lacks neutrality” or that it was targeted at therapists whose religious beliefs oppose homosexuality.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of three liberals on the court, noted near the top of the hour-plus argument that Chiles was an “unusual case.” It was clear, she said, that the law did not have a chilling effect on therapists because – prior to the Alliance pressing its challenge – the Colorado law had not been enforced against any therapists.
“Why do you call that an imminent threat?” asked Sotomayor. Typically, the Supreme Court takes only cases where the threat of enforcement or irreparable harm is imminent.
Alliance Chief Legal Counsel James Patterson said therapist Chiles has “had credible threats of enforcement,” though he did not provide details.
Sotomayor told Patterson that studies have shown conversion therapy “does harm to people emotionally and physically.”
Many justices seemed to be interested in a question raised by the Trump administration’s Deputy Solicitor General Hashim Mooppan, who noted that before 1973, the medical establishment considered same-sex orientation and behavior to be a mental disorder. Mooppan asked the court to imagine if a state had passed a law prior to 1973 that said therapists could not provide talk therapy to minors who sought to become comfortable with their same-sex feelings or identity.
Mooppan and the Department of Justice submitted a brief in support of the therapist and against the Colorado law. It said the Colorado law was “muzzling one side of an ongoing debate in the mental-health community about how to discuss questions of gender and sexuality with children.”
The state of Colorado’s brief said the law allows therapists to engage in a wide range of therapies for minors regarding their sexual orientation or gender identity, “including minor patients who do not wish to act on their sexual attractions for religious or any other reasons.”
The only thing that the law prohibits therapists from doing, said Colorado’s brief, “is performing a treatment that seeks the predetermined outcome of
Plan positive campaigns
Both McCoy and Yekutiel, who have known each other for years, told the B.A.R. they are planning to mount positive campaigns for the supervisor seat. Yekutiel said he has “a ton of respect” for McCoy and his decision to enter the race.
“I think joy is serious business. I also think San Francisco voters and District 8 voters are tired of toxic, negative, mean-spirited politics,” said Yekutiel. “That is not who I am as a person or what our city wants or needs right now. I don’t need to run a negative campaign.”
changing a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, because that treatment is unsafe and ineffective.”
One particularly interesting brief, in support of the Colorado law, was filed by five parents of children who were given conversion therapy. Two of the five parents said they lost their children to drugs and suicide because of the therapy. Another brief, filed by nine former promoters of conversion therapy, said they “cannot take back the harm they caused, but they recognize their unique obligation and opportunity to prevent future damage by sharing what they learned through decades of failed attempts to change sexual orientation and gender identity.” Their brief says conversion therapy is “fundamentally ineffective” and has caused “documented psychological harm, including increased suicide risk….”
Sotomayor suggested the Alliance was really relying on an argument about what level of review should be applied to the Colorado law; the Alliance wanted courts to evaluate the ban on “strict scrutiny,” the most challenging one for laws to meet. But that argument, she said, should be decided at a lower court, then appealed to the Supreme Court.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, another liberal on the court, seemed to agree, noting that the Supreme Court should “give lower courts a chance to evaluate” what level of review was appropriate.
Even though every reputable medical professional association has discredited the practice of conversion therapy, the court Tuesday seemed to struggle with the lack of solid clarity about various studies and even how its own precedents might play into this case.
Kelley Robinson, a Black queer woman who is president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, released a statement after the oral argument, saying the court “must allow states to hold licensed providers accountable to the recommendations of every mainstream medical and mental health association in this country.”
The justices are expected to rule on the case by the end of the term in June.t
McCoy stressed he is not running “against” Yekutiel, rather they are “running for the same seat.” His focus will be on talking to voters about his own accomplishments and plans for the district and city, added McCoy.
“My style is not to go personal or take shots on a person’s character,” said McCoy, who has been involved in a number of political campaigns, whether on behalf of a candidate or a ballot measure. “I have also said people should be running on their own merits and not against somebody else’s personality defects. Now, if I need to make a correction on something my opponent says or does, I will certainly make that known. But I am not a negative person.” t
Colorado therapist Kaley Chiles’s attorneys argued that a Colorado law banning conversion therapy for minors hinders her First Amendment rights.
Courtesy Alliance Defending Freedom
Bearrison Street Fair returns to SF Community News>>
compiled by Cynthia Laird
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Bears of San Francisco are thrilled to announce that the Bearrison Street Fair returns for its fifth year Saturday, October 18, in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. The event is open to the public.
Known as “A Fair for Every Bear,” the event takes place from noon to 6 p.m. at 11th and Harrison streets, within the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District.
Organizers stated in a news release, “Our mission is to create an inclusive celebration for adult members of the LGBTQ+ community – uplifting body positivity, embracing cultural diversity, and strengthening a vibrant welcoming bear scene.”
Entertainment includes the main stage headliner, Chris Conde, a queer rapper from Brooklyn, New York who’s redefining hip-hop with an unapologetically authentic voice, the release noted. The DJ headliner will be DJ FunkyBearMartin, who is a regular in San Francisco’s bear nightlife scene with a blend of styles – infusing Latin, Afro, break, and acid flourishes over a base of vocal, commercial, and tribal-tech house.
Sister Roma of the drag nun philanthropic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will emcee the main stage starting around 3 p.m. There, attendees can compete in several interactive competi tions, including Furry Face-Off: Beard, Mustache, and Whiskerina contest; Flex bicep contest; Furrocious Majesty Drag contest, and a twerking contest.
There will be midway games, includ ing a dildo toss, and much more.
Attendees are encouraged to make donations of any amount at the entrance gate, organizers said.
For more information, go to bearri son.org
“I am honored to join the County of Santa Clara and lead the Office of Immigrant Relations at such a critical time,” Alvarenga stated. “My own family’s immigrant story has shaped my commitment to justice and dignity for all people.”
Campos stated that Alvarenga is the kind of person who brings people together.
“Santa Clara County is home to the largest share of immigrants of any county in the state of California,” Campos stated. “Under Kim’s leadership, the Office of Immigrant Relations will expand
its role as an active and responsive partner, working collaboratively with community to address needs and provide critical support.”
County Executive James R. Williams noted Alvarenga’s experience. She served as district director for gay former Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) from 2008-2014, and then worked as political director for the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, representing over 54,000 workers.
“Kim’s vision and advocacy will
strengthen Santa Clara County’s role
as a national leader in inclusion and equity, ensuring that our important work to support immigrant communities continues at this time of incredible need,” Williams stated.
In June, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors earmarked more than $8 million in immigration-related services as part of the county’s adopted FY 2025-26 budget, the release stated. That represents the largest investment for such services in county history, the release stated. It builds on previous investments, such as a $5 million allocation made by the supervi sors in 2024 to enhance immigration-related legal services, outreach, and rapid response in anticipation of the new federal ad ministration’s policies.
As head of the office, Alvarenga will oversee initiatives that protect and advance the rights of immigrants in the county, build partnerships with community organizations, and ensure that all residents have equitable access to services and opportunities, according to the release.
South Bay LGBTQ summit
In other South Bay news, the Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs will hold its seventh annual LGBTQ+ Summit Friday, October 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center, 17000 Monterey Road. All are welcome and free tickets are available.
An email announcement noted that this year’s theme is “Together, We Rise,” and the keynote speaker will be Bamby Salcedo, a transgender woman who is CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition based in Los Angeles. Salcedo is a nationally recognized leader, and her decades of activism span critical issues including immigration, HIV prevention, incarceration, LGBTQIA+ rights, youth empowerment, and social justice.
The summit will explore how building inclusive coalitions can break down barriers, amplify marginalized voices, and promote our collective resilience, the announcement stated.
To reserve a spot, go to https://tinyurl.com/c5buy83k. t
Kimberly Alvarenga, a lesbian who was raised in San Francisco’s Mission district, was appointed to lead Santa Clara County’s Office of Immigrant Re lations. She brings with her more than two decades of leadership in immigrant rights, and will work under David Campos, a gay former San Francisco supervisor who currently is a deputy county executive for Santa Clara County and oversees the office, a news release noted.
Alvarenga herself ran for San Francisco supervisor in 2016, coming up short against Ahsha Safaí, who served for eight years. He left office in January after unsuccessfully running for mayor last year.
Most recently, Alvarenga, who will begin her new job October 27, served as director of the California Domestic Workers Coalition, where she helped secure passage of Senate Bill 1350, extending occupational health and safety rights to more than 200,000 domestic workers and day laborers across the state. She also advanced protections for workers during wildfire cleanup, the release stated.
SF lesbian named to lead South Bay immigrant office
Bears and their admirers enjoyed last year’s Bearrison Street Fair. Gooch
Kimberly Alvarenga is the incoming leader of the Santa Clara County Office of Immigrant Relations.
Courtesy CA Domestic Workers Coalition
Decker said that he felt it was the right time to make the changes. He said that come the new year, he will move into an artistic director emeritus role through August, working in the background and “speaking with donors.”
“A succession plan has been in place for the last decade,” Decker said. “Two years ago, I asked the board to trigger it because I knew it would take some time.”
Three of the current season’s six shows are now in process, he said, with the remainder coming next year.
“Ruthless!” starts in December. “The Hot Wing King” by Katori Hall plays through October 19, while “Spanish Stew” by lesbian comedian Marga Gomez begins performances October 17.
NCTC’s fiscal year runs from September to August, when Decker will make his final departure, he said.
Randle said that he hopes to build upon the loyalty NCTC has engendered over the years.
“For me, I think it’s really important – I feel one of the most admired things about Ed is the incredible loyalty people have, both subscribers and donors,” Randle said in an October 6 phone interview ahead of the formal announcement. “I want to keep those
relationships and also find ways NCTC can be that same kind of home for future generations.”
Randle, 42, stated in the release that he’s learned a lot from NCTC.
“NCTC is where I first felt empowered to take risks, to tell stories from my perspective as a queer Latine artist, and where I learned how theater can be both deeply personal and radically communal,” he stated. “Ed didn’t just create a theater – he created a home. I’m not stepping into this role to only continue his legacy – I’m stepping in to serve it, to help it evolve and reach its next promise.
“I’ve seen first hand the impact this theater can have and I believe in its power – not just to reflect the world, but to shape it,” Randle added.
Randle will direct Christopher Oscar Peña’s “how to make an American Son” next April.
NCTC board Chair Cedric Wilson noted the organization followed its strategic plan. “We knew it would be nearly impossible to replace Ed. We needed someone who truly understands NCTC’s heart and purpose – and we found that in Ben,” Wilson stated.
A long tenure Decker, 69, said that his proudest achievement is that the core of the orga-
The bar sponsored a team in the San Francisco Gay Softball League, gay rodeo, and other activities over the years, said Carrillo.
The Imperial Court System was founded by the late José Julio Sarria, who in 1964 crowned himself “Her Royal Majesty, Empress of San Francisco, Jose I, The Widow Norton” in homage to Joshua Norton, an eccentric city resident who in 1859 declared himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. The court system was started a year later, in 1965. Sarria, who died in 2013, was well known for performing in drag at the now defunct Black Cat Cafe in the city’s North Beach neighborhood.
with the project entailing the conversion of the current open office layout to clinical spaces. (The current City Clinic location will remain open.)
According to the Department of Public Health, the renovation costs are funded by general obligation bonds, a state grant, and other capital revenues and are expected to be complete in 2028. At this time, the health department has yet to find the funding needed for the projected $7.5 million price tag for new furniture, fixtures, and other needed equipment.
The health agency intends to locate a Health, Recovery, and Connection Center in the building. Co-located inside it will be City Clinic taking up 17,755 square feet, administrative functions, and behavioral health services that are currently housed mainly in leased space at 1380 Howard Street.
As the Bay Area Reporter has previously reported, City Clinic’s current location at 356 Seventh Street isn’t compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and has been plagued
nization – its educational programming – has endured for young people. Now, it’s been expanded to offer adult theater classes.
“It’s really important for kids to come into their own, to develop critical thinking skills, work ethic, and solve problems together,” Decker said. “To learn about our differences and find ways to connect through those qualities.”
In terms of challenges, Decker echoed what leaders of other nonprofits have stated: fluctuation in funding, the COVID pandemic, and the current political landscape. NCTC was one of several local performing arts nonprofits that saw federal grant money rescinded, as the B.A.R. previously reported. A tentative funding recommendation for $20,000 was pulled by the National Endowment for the Arts by the Trump administration.
“Now, we’re in a real challenging period for the queer community,” said Decker. “Just like life, there will be things that need to be faced, conquered, if you will. And there will be wonderful times to celebrate and be part of the queer community and allied community.”
As for regrets, Decker was clear.
“Oh, no regrets,” he said. “Goodness, to have the opportunity to have my life’s work be something I enjoy and be so passionate about – I love what I do. Not
He made history in 1961 with his unsuccessful attempt for a Board of Supervisors seat; it marked the first time an out gay person had sought elected office in the U.S.
Today, the Imperial Court has chapters in a number of West Coast cities, as well as throughout the U.S. There are also chapters in Canada and Mexico.
Working in tandem with the Tavern Guild, an association for gay bar owners in San Francisco, the Imperial Court each year crowns a new empress during elaborate coronation ceremonies. Elections for emperor were added in 1972, with the late Marcus Hernandez, a leather columnist for the Bay Area Reporter, crowned Emperor I After Norton.
Marlena was crowned Empress XXV in 1990 and reigned with Emperor Simeon. San Diego resident Nicole Murray Ramirez, who as Sarria’s handpicked successor holds the title of Queen Mother I of the Americas, Canada, U.S.A., and Mexico, designated Marlena as Queen Mother I of California.
“Empress Marlena’s important legacy will be that she was a rare mentor of countless individuals who went on to become community leaders who went on to become community activists, titleholders, fundraisers,” Murray Ramirez wrote in a text message to the B.A.R.
“I had the honor to proclaim her ‘Marlena the Magnificent Queen Mother I of California’ because her mentorship touched LGBTQ people beyond San Francisco,” Murray Ramirez wrote. “Our community, indeed our continuing fight for equality,
with heating and flooding issues in recent years. The South of Market building opened in 1933 and had operated as a firehouse; the public health facility moved into it in 1982.
According to the city’s Real Estate Division, both the Howard and Stevenson Street buildings are in poor condition. Combining the various health programs housed in them into one location will result in fiscal savings for the city.
that there aren’t hard days.”
NCTC has a budget of just about $2 million and 15 full-time staff, Decker said. Artisans are hired for the various productions or teaching positions, he explained. Randle declined to share his salary; Decker earned $101,962 according to the nonprofit’s most recent 990 tax filing.
The future
NCTC Executive Director Barb Hodgen stated that the organization will be in good hands with Randle at the helm.
“This is a thrilling and poignant time for the NCTC family,” she stated. “Ed’s generous spirit infuses the entire organization, and I can’t think of a better person than Ben to carry that forward to a brave new future. Our artists, staff, and audience will be in good hands.”
Randle said that he and Decker have already put together NCTC’s 2026-27 season, which will be announced next spring. And he said that NCTC’s commissions program will pick up again. It had been paused during the leadership transition discussions, he said.
The program sees NCTC commission works from playwrights for world premieres.
“It will ramp back up,” said Randle. Randle, who lives in Berkeley, said
would be in a better place if there were more mentors like Empress Marlena the Magnificent.”
Marlena reigned as Empress 3 of the Imperial Owl Empire of Modesto, prior to coming to San Francisco.
Harrington, a straight ally, said that Mr. McLain helped other people with their own coming out journeys.
“I’m really going to miss him,” she said. “He was wonderful and a great example of generosity and kindness to the community. He instilled wonderful values in me as a kid and in my adult life and he still got to be a fun guy.”
“We estimate the city will save approximately $1.7 million per year by moving from leased to owned space,” DPH health staffers told the supervisors in a report about the property purchase.
The supervisors voted 11-0 at their September 30 meeting to approve the deal. Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents SOMA where the current DPH buildings are located, authored the resolution calling for the city to repurchase the Mission Street property.
“I think it is great,” Dorsey told the B.A.R. of the decision for moving the health services to the site near where Mission Street intersects with South Van Ness Avenue. “West SOMA can be challenging because of the disproportionate deploying of shelter-in-place hotels during COVID. I think that caused a lot of problems in the neighborhood, so I think there are a lot of sensitivities when city services go here. A lot of people in West SOMA lost confidence in city government, especially when they say it is going to solve a problem.”
Yet, Dorsey said, he has not heard any opposition to situating the various health services at 1660 and 1670 Mission Street.
that since 2008 he’s directed 14 productions for NCTC.
He noted that NCTC’s continuity “is something that meant a lot to Ed and is a huge asset to me.” Though he hinted, “I think there will be some surprises in store.”
As for Decker, he quipped that his husband, Robert Leone, whom he’s been with for 38 years, will no longer be a “theater widow.” The couple live in San Francisco, and Leone is retired after a career in global public health, Decker said.
“My husband is eight years ahead of me in the retirement stage, and doing things he likes. Those will reveal themselves once this is finished,” Decker said of his own impending retirement, though he noted he plans to spend some time with his elderly mother, whom he noted, “is in great shape.”
Decker, who will have turned 70 by next summer, said he chose to announce the leadership transition now for several reasons.
“I wanted to do this on my own terms,” he said. “The organization is in a strong fiscal position, and our year-toyear subscription base has grown a little and remains stable.”
For more information about NCTC, visit nctcsf.org. t
“But we all came back together,” she added.
Harrington said she embraced her dad’s drag life.
“I felt like a princess some of the time,” she said. “I respected the way he lived his life the way he wanted to. I was proud of him.” Harrington recalled that when Mr. McLain was involved with the Imperial Court chapter in Modesto, she got to help out during a drag production of “My Fair Lady.”
“I got to help make the roses for that,” she recalled. “It was fun.”
There was also a more serious side to the drag community’s activities, she noted.
“I loved being around them,” she recalled. “I got to find out – I learned – they’re the least prejudiced people on the planet.”
Early life
Mr. McLain was born November 14, 1939 in California’s Central Valley. Harrington said that he graduated from high school there.
He divorced his wife and came out as a gay man around 1973, Harrington said.
“I believe he came out to himself four years before that,” she said.
Harrington has long had a good relationship with her father, as did her brother, also named Garry McLain. There was a kind of falling out years ago after Mr. McLain’s other son died by suicide, Harrington said.
“I think it is a good use of a real estate asset,” he said.
Roughly $28.5 million had been allocated toward moving City Clinic in the bond measure known as Proposition B that city voters approved last November.
The inclusion of the funds came after public pressure from LGBTQ advocates alarmed that the bond proposal initially had included money for renovating Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro but omitted City Clinic’s relocation.
Then-mayor London Breed reversed course and included both in the bond, with $25 million allocated for the Milk plaza project. It is set to break ground next year, as the B.A.R. was first to report in June.
During Pride Month, the supervisors had unanimously voted to disburse funding for the two projects. At the time, the health department had said it had yet to determine a new location for City Clinic.
In 2019, the facility’s seven medical exam rooms at its current location were upgraded for the first time. That work had followed a refresh to the clinic’s reception area four years prior that saw its entryway and bathrooms remodeled
Garry McLain, Mr. McLain’s son, stated in a text message that he appreciated the outpouring of support the community has shown.
“I am very touched by the number of people and the wonderful things that have been said about my father on my sister’s Facebook post,” the younger McLain stated in a text message shared through Harrington.
In addition to his son and daughter, Mr. McLain is survived by eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and many Imperial Court friends and family.
Carrillo noted in a Facebook post that an Imperial state funeral would be held. Details have not yet been finalized. t
to be ADA compliant and a tropicalthemed mural painted on one of the waiting room’s walls.
According to DPH, when City Clinic eventually reopens at 1660 Mission, it will share the building with its Behavioral Health Access Center, Office-Based Buprenorphine Induction Clinic, Behavioral Health Services Pharmacy, and the Office of Coordinated Care. Behavioral Health administrative functions will also be housed there, along with a new law enforcement drop-off behavioral health program that is part of current Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Breaking the Cycle Initiative.
“The building will provide a longoverdue permanent home for San Francisco City Clinic as well as multiple behavioral health programs currently located at 1380 Howard Street, an outdated and leased space that limits service delivery,” noted Sally Oerth, the city’s director of property. “1660 Mission is also the possible site for a 24/7 center available for law enforcement to safely transfer individuals intoxicated in public, where they can be monitored, stabilized, and connected to appropriate care.” t
Marlena
Marlena, the drag persona of Garry McLain, posed in 2019 in her home, which was above her eponymous bar in Hayes Valley.
Gooch
Pamala Harrington, left, and her daughter Charlotte celebrated Marlena’s birthday on November 9, 2019.
Gooch
<< STI clinic
A sign stating “Notice of Proposed City Project” is attached to the building at 1660 Mission Street that will include City Clinic once renovations are completed, likely in 2028.
Cynthia Laird
by Philip Campbell
Pianist, composer and concert sensation
Conrad Tao is returning to SF Performances October 17 with a self-curated recital at the Herbst Theatre. The intriguing playlist springs from his fascination with Romantic composer and legendary pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff and his relationship to popular music.
In an interview with the Bay Are Reporter, Tao discussed his enticing upcoming concert program, and also revealed his eloquence on other topics, including his personal life. intense passion for performance and composition is clear.
Tao’s performing style has often been called electrifying. He said, “I am embodied by my instrument. It is a visceral physical relationship.”
That’s the artist today at 31. But how did a famous child prodigy move from there to here with such amazing speed? Asked what it was like to gain recognition at such a young age, Tao said he doesn’t remember it much.
“My parents noticed I started picking out tunes on the piano by ear after my older sister started taking lessons, Tao recalled. “They were both highly educated, originally from China, and they tried to arrange for my own training. My hands were too small though, and no piano teachers would take me. So, they enrolled me in Suzuki method sessions with a miniature violin.”
That evokes a charming picture. Hopefully they saved some photos for his memoir. Tao gave his first piano recital at age 4. By the time he was 8, he made his debut with the Utah Chamber Music Festival Orchestra playing a Mozart concerto.
“When I was nine, we moved to New York City and, I studied in the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division and at the Professional Children’s School.”
At age 10, his piano composition, “Silhouettes and Shadows” won the BMI Carlos Surinach Prize. When he was 13, Tao was featured on the PBS series “From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall” as
violinist, pianist and composer. Talk about starting your teen years in the public spotlight.
Adolescence is challenging for just about everyone, but Tao has since come out publicly as a “cis gay male” Being a gay teenager poses extra problems.
“I came out to my parents at 16 and they were dismayed and anxious,” said Tao. “Their reaction made me feel very anxious as well. It wasn’t easy.”
Worry could have spiraled out of control, but he resolved that, “I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. By college age, I was determined to come out to everyone.”
In the words of Irving Berlin (whose music is included in the SF Performances program), he decided then and there, “Let’s face the music and dance.”
Artistic focus
Years later, he still has some righteous anger. Tao can focus it artistically. Sample his third album “American Rage” (on all major streaming
platforms) for Warner Classics. Compositions by Frederic Rzewski, Julia Wolfe, and Aaron Copland cover American turmoil from the labor strikes of the 1930s to the political divides of today.
Sharing his sense of humor, we both laughed at how Copland, a “queer Commie pinko Jewish composer” came to define the “American Sound” of the mid-20th century. “Delicious irony!” Tao said.
Julia Wolfe’s piece on the album, “Compassion” shows the genuine range of Tao’s empathy.
Tao said that he doesn’t want to just dump on the ignorant beliefs of others or, closer to home, the ridiculously complicated classical music establishment, as it struggles fecklessly with NEA funding cuts and governmental scorn.
“I love the core repertoire and there is nothing like feeling the love coming from a traditional concert audience,” said Tao. “All of this exposes our fragility, but that doesn’t mean we should overreact or compromise our values. We just need to keep in touch with practical solutions.”
One thing Tao is unlikely to compromise on
‘The Hot Wing King’ flies high at NCTC
A
by Jim Gladstone
ll this Black love! I can’t take it!” declares one of the half-dozen meaty male characters who take charge of the stage and will take hold of your heart in playwright Katori Hall’s uproarious 2021 Pulitzer-winning play, “The Hot Wing King.”
Now at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, the show shines under the direction of ShawnJ, who keeps its intricate mix of spicy, sweet, and sneakily profound moments as smoothly coordinated as a Steph Curry Slide.
The top-level story finds a group of queer friends gathering to compete as a team in a weekend wing-cooking competition. But bubbling in the sauce are angst over commitment, the closet, family ties, and finances. It’s the stuff of everyday life, but it all comes to a boil at once in a well-modulated multiplicity of conflicts that, to the credit of all involved, somehow dodges melodrama. There are times that Matt Owens’ clever set, which compresses two floors and the backyard of a small Memphis home into a single stage unit, is full to bursting with all six cast members, four of whose roles have main character energy.
ShawnJ maintains precise control of both the traffic flow and the emotional overflow.
Chicken tender Vivid and gripping, this production –among NCTC’s best in recent seasons– presents gay Black men in a way they’re rarely portrayed on stage or screen: mutually supportive, empathetic, and self-reflective.
Unlike other recent Pulitzer winners in drama (“A Strange Loop” and “Fat Ham”), the playwright gives us Black gay men who are rich in family, both blood and found. There is no woeful isolation here. The men hold each other to
is bending and scraping to straight stereotyping.
“I won’t do a minstrel show to satisfy straight expectations,” he said. “I love performing for everyone, but I’m always talking to my fellow queers.”
Of his thought-provoking upcoming recital, Tao commented, “Rachmaninoff has influenced generations of modern composers. The first half is devoted to him. His connections to Billy Strayhorn and Stephen Sondheim are strong and we will explore them.”
And who could resist those glorious melodies? Think about tunesmiths like Harold Arlen and Irving Berlin (also on the bill). Conrad Tao’s ingenuity matches his technical prowess and stage presence. It promises to be an exciting and entertaining night.t
Conrad Tao at the Herbst Theatre, Oct. 17, 7:30pm, 401 Van Ness Ave. $65/$75/$85. (415) 392-2545. www.sfperformances.org www.conradtao.com
high standards and are able to find forgiveness when they fall short.
The show’s central couple is Dwayne (James Arthur M), a workaholic hotel manager, and Cordell (Bradley Kynard), seeking work in Memphis after divorcing his wife, coming out, and coupling up. It’s their home (though only Dwayne pays the bills) where the action takes place.
Families of birth and of choice clash, and later meld, when Everett (Taylor Ryan Rivers), the teenage son of Dwayne’s late sister, hopes to move in with his uncle and Cordell. The young man’s father, TJ (Kennzeil Love) is a small-time drug dealer whose machismo covers an aching awareness of his failings and aspirations.
While there’s one passing, intentionally hurtful flare-up, neither father or son are particularly phased by Dwayne and Cordell’s sexuality, a refreshing aspect of the play’s overall framework. Cordell’s internal homophobia is stronger than any outward prejudice addressed over the course of the show.
Two additional wing men, Big Charles (Twon Marcel Pope) and Isom (Omar Stewart) provide comic relief and pithy wisdom from the sidelines of the central family fracases. Pope makes Charles iconically laconic, a laid-back presence whose listening skills befit his work as a barber (Dwayne and Cordell first met at his shop, Charles’ Chops). Charles may not have much scripted dialogue, but Pope’s palpable, everpresent attention to his scene partners’ interactions lends monologues’ worth of meaning to his piquant, perfectly timed facial expressions.
Isom, a sex-positive social butterfly currently dallying with Charles, is the least richly written role, but Stewart gets big laughs out of the character’s sass without ever surrendering to stereotype. Despite its effectively tempting premise, “The Hot Wing King” ultimately has little to do with cooking or competition. Instead, its key ingredients are comradeship and constructive collaboration.t
‘The Hot Wing King,’ through Oct. 19. $36$65.50. New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness. www.nctcsf.org
Acclaimed pianist & composer to play at the Herbst Conrad Tao
Brantley Gutierrez
Left to Right: Omar Stewart, James Arthur M., Taylor Ryan Rivers, Bradley Kynard, and Twon Marcel Pope in NCTC’s ‘The Hot Wing King’
Lois Tema
t << Film & Fine Art
‘Fairyland’ A
by David-Elijah Nahmod
First-time director Andrew Dur-
ham does a remarkable job of bringing back the San Francisco of the 1970s and ’80s in “Fairyland,” a deeply moving memoir piece about a gay dad’s relationship with his spunky daughter. It’s a true story, based on Alysia Abbott’s 2013 memoir, “Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father.”
The film may struggle to find an audience. Shown at film festivals in 2023, it is only now being released, and, at least for its San Francisco run, will only be playing in a handful of smaller theaters (The Balboa, The Roxie.) It is definitely a film worthy of discovery.
“Fairyland” opens in 1974, as fledgling midwestern poet Steve Abbott (Scoot McNairy) takes a late-night phone call, only to be told that his wife has been killed in a car crash. He takes his young daughter Alysia (Nessa Dougherty) and moves to San Francisco, to a flat with three roommates. The Summer of Love may be seven years past, but in this Haight Ashbury abode Abbott works on his poetry and practices free love. He has a series of affairs with a variety of men, as Alysia learns about make-up from the flat’s crossdressing member.
“Who says you can’t be both a boy and a girl?” he tells the young girl.
Alysia is exposed to quite a bit more than just drag as her father con-
tinues to bring home a variety of boyfriends and attends Pride parades, then called Gay Freedom Day. (One of his paramours is played by singer/ actor Adam Lambert, who is given too little screen time.) Pieces of local history are heard on the radio, as a newscaster announces that Board of Supervisors candidate Harvey Milk has called for a boycott of Florida orange juice after Miami-based beauty queen Anita Bryant, who famously waged a war against gay rights in the ’70s, had endorsed Proposition 6, a ballot measure that would ban gays and lesbians, and anyone else who supported gay rights, from teaching in California schools.
‘Makibaka:
by Myron Caringal
At Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the tagalog word makibaka (meaning “to struggle, to resist, and to defy”) stretches across the second-floor galleries, where more than 20 Filipino American artists reclaim space for memory, resilience, and belonging.
“Makibaka: A Living Legacy,” cocurated by SOMA Pilipinas and Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, runs through Jan. 4, 2026. The show lands at a poignant moment: October is both Filipino American History Month and LGBTQ+ History Month, and for the first time, SOMA Pilipinas is launching its own Pride celebration as part of that double observance.
At the crossroads of heritage, memory, and community, Bay Area-born and -raised artists Erina Alejo and JoJo Ty use their work to honor the people and places that shaped them. Both are
History relived
A few years later, then Supervisor Dianne Feinstein announces the murders of Supervisor Milk and Mayor George Moscone.
McNairy and Dougherty give heartfelt performances as a father and daughter who love each other but don’t always understand each other. Meanwhile, Steve’s mother-in-law, inexplicably referred to as “Munca,” (Oscar winner Geena Davis in a small role) is back in the Midwest, worried about what Alysia is being exposed to in bawdy San Francisco. One of the things Alysia is exposed to is the homophobia of her classmates.
As the ’70s gives way to the ’80s,
Alysia, now beautifully played by Emilia Jones, is in high school, going through a rebellious stage as her father’s writing career takes off. But in the ’80s, the AIDS pandemic decimated the gay male community, and after a few years Steve finds himself stricken with the virus. Alysia, who had been attending college in Paris, flies home to take care of her dad.
Throughout the film, the San Francisco of the past comes back to life, first the exciting and fun times of the ’70s when people came to the city to live freely as themselves, as well as the tragic and horrifying plague years. The film will most likely resonate loudest with older gay audiences who remem-
A Living Legacy’
featured in “Makibaka,” where their art continues a living lineage of care and resistance.
Remembering through archives
Alejo’s multimedia installation, “The Older I Get, The More I Remember,” layers student photographs taken in SOMA in 2017 with chalk inscriptions and archival references, inviting viewers into a dialogue with both the past and the future.
“These photographs examine faded memories, nostalgia, and also political events unfolding in SOMA and beyond,” Alejo said. “What seems to be fraught in the streets of South of Market actually nurtures soft and playful connections among the youth.”
Queerness, Alejo explained, is often an undercurrent rather than an overt theme in their work.
“I think a lot about the softness and the textures that I look at in my
ber those days, though younger people should also see it for the important history they will be exposed to.
But mostly, “Fairyland” is a bittersweet story of a father and daughter who loved each other deeply in spite of their differences. It’s the story of an alternative family and how they come to terms with each other.t
‘Fairyland’ (Willa/American Zoetrope/Lionsgate) opens October 10 at the Balboa Theater, 3630 Balboa St., and on October 17 at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St. www.willa.org/film/fairyland www.balboamovies.com www.roxie.com
Queer Fil-Am artists resist erasure through art at YBCA
archives, and I think about the emotional vulnerability that I have,” they said. “Queerness is a framework in my artist practice.”
As a third-generation tenant in San Francisco, Alejo also frames renting itself as part of the city’s living history and a testament to tenacity.
Alejo doesn’t own a home in the city, “but it’s powerful that way,” they said. “We feel wealthy in our community.”
In “Makibaka,” Alejo’s piece becomes both archive and incantation, resisting what they call “cultural amnesia” and insisting on remembering tenderly, stubbornly, collectively.
Honoring queer and trans elders
For Ty, Makibaka offered a chance to honor their queer and trans ancestors whose contributions are too often overlooked. Their print in the show pays tribute to longtime community leader Nikki Calma, better known as Tita Aida (tagalog for “Aunty AIDS”), a San Francisco activist who’s been an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness since the 1990s.
“I don’t think there was any art made of her yet,” Ty said. “I created this print to bring awareness to her as well as highlight trans Filipino folks, too. Queer and trans Filipinos were always there, we’ve been a part of the community. But not until very recently are we finally getting our flowers.”
Ty came to art through activism, first organizing with LYRIC as a youth leader and later serving on the San Francisco Youth Commission and a part of the Mayor’s Office of Transgender Initiatives’ Advisory Committee. Previously, they co-ran a TGNC-owned café cooperative and event space in the Tenderloin. Currently, they do work for Queer Ancestors Project, a space that has facilitated their launch into community-based art.
“For me, art is never an isolated practice,” Ty said. “Being in community, learning stories, also doing my own research, going to the archives and talking with folks, I think those connections with people influence and push my art to practice.”
As a trans Filipino artist, Ty sees their existence as part of an ancestral continuum.
“Being trans and Filipino is about honoring and tapping into our ancestors, pre-Spanish colonizers: choosing our names, how we present ourselves, going beyond the binaries. Even resistance, taking up space, no longer wanting to hide in the closets, but also being honored.”
Their work insists that to fight is also to love: to hold memory with tenderness and to imagine otherwise.
“Makibaka” makes that living legacy visible: queer and trans Filipino artists holding space for the past while shaping the future.t
Read the full article on www.ebar.com.
‘Makibeki: SOMA Pilipinas Pride.’ Sunday, Oct. 12 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. Free.
‘Makibaka: A Living Legacy,’ open through Jan. 4, 2026 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. Wed-Sun. 11am–5pm. www.ybca.org www.erinacalejo.com
Left: Artist Erina Alejo Right: Artist JoJo Ty
‘We Live Here,’ part of ‘Makibaka: A Living Legacy’ at YBCA
Charlie Villyard
Left: Cody Fern, Scoot McNairy, Nessa Dougherty and Right: Emilia Jones and Scoot McNairy in ‘Fairyland’
Kalman Muller/Sundance Institute Willa Films
‘Baldwin: A Love Story’
by Brian Bromberger
Gay Black writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) seems to be everywhere: memes, conferences, documentaries and a narrative film, many in 2024, his centennial year. He is the author many university students want to read.
It is fitting that for the first time in 30 years, a definitive magisterial biography has been written, “Baldwin: A Love Story,” by gay independent scholar Nicholas Boggs. The book incorporates new archival material, including unpublished letters, love poems, original interviews, a recovered Baldwin children’s story, and never-before-seen-photographs.
Twenty years in the making, Baldwin’s queerness is explored in depth for the first time in a biography.
The book focuses on Baldwin’s four pivotal relationships. Beauford Delaney, a Harlem painter, mentor, and surrogate father, encouraged Baldwin’s creativity and pushed him to move to Paris in 1948. There he met Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger, the love of Baldwin’s life, the muse who inspired his novel, “Giovanni’s Room,” who provided a family house in which to write it.
Then Baldwin fell in love with Turkish actor Engin Cezzar in Istanbul in the late 1950s, while he was working on a stage adaptation of “Giovanni’s Room.” In the 1970s, there was iconoclastic French artist Yoran Cazac, with whom he collaborated on their children’s book “Little Man, Little Man.”
All four men provided an emotional grounding and inspiration for Baldwin’s literary work, even dedicating novels to each one.
Baldwin had obstacles from the very start. Born out of wedlock, he never knew who his father was. His stepfather, a Baptist preacher, was emotionally and physically abusive to him, calling him ugly and a sissy, and resented his bookishness. He also hated white people.
In his elementary school, he was encouraged by a young white schoolteacher Orilla “Bill” Miller, who recognized his writing gifts and took him to theater outings. They remained friends his entire life. He once said she was the reason he couldn’t hate white people.
Nicholas Boggs’ expansive biography
Leaving high school at 17 before graduation, he moved to Greenwich Village and fell in love with a close friend, Eugene Worth, who jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge when Baldwin was 22. Earlier, he became involved with a 38-yearold Spanish and Irish racketeer named Billy, with Baldwin later writing, “He fell in love with me and I will be grateful to that man until the day I die.”
There was a rape, gay bashings, and arrests for public gay sex.
These shattering experiences along with his disgust at racism (“the socalled Negro was trapped, disinherited and despised in a nation unable to recognize him as a human being”) and wanting to explore his sexuality, led him to move to Paris in 1948 to start his career as a writer. He didn’t return to the U.S. till 1957.
His autobiographical novel about growing up in Harlem, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” established his reputation, solidified by “Giovanni’s Room,” even though it was a gay love story between two white men mirroring his relationship with Happersberger. It would take him another two decades before he wrote a black queer love story, “Just Above My Head.”
In the late 1950s he began writing essays to bolster the emerging civil rights movement, culminating in his masterpiece, “The Fire Next Time” which rendered him a leader in the eyes of the public.
Civil rights
Following the attack by Birmingham, Alabama police on Black demonstrators with fire hoses and dogs in 1963, he organized along with other Black luminaries such as Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and Lorraine Hansberry, a meeting with Attorney
by Laura Moreno
General Robert Kennedy to complain about President Kennedy’s failure of moral leadership. Later, President Kennedy delivered a televised speech announcing he was sending a civil rights bill to Congress, which, following his assassination, became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Boggs believes Baldwin deserves some credit for that landmark achievement.
Baldwin wasn’t really close to Martin Luther King, being more sympathetic to Malcolm X and later The Black Panthers, believing they spoke more authentically to Black people in the streets. Similar to gay organizer Bayard Rustin, despite being an effective spokesman for the movement, because of his homosexuality, Baldwin wasn’t allowed to speak at the 1963 March on Washington. Instead, he wrote a speech that was read by actor Burt Lancaster with no acknowledgment they were Baldwin’s words.
Rootless, restless
A frustrated romantic, all of his relationships ended rather bitterly. He was mostly attracted to bisexual men, largely unavailable with wives or girlfriends. There were long periods of loneliness in a rootless, restless existence, constantly moving residences. He suffered several nervous breakdowns and tried to kill himself at least three times.
Boggs writes, “The push and pull of a distant, lost love he perpetually sought to retrieve and could sometimes manage to achieve, at least partially, only to lose it again, was becoming integral to Baldwin’s creative process.” However, alcohol, partying, all-nighters, and continual traveling took its toll.
By focusing primarily on his romantic pursuits, this biography tends to downplay the political aspects of Baldwin’s life.
Bogg’s biography makes a strong case for queer authors writing on queer lives. Only a gay man would have thought about organizing Baldwin’s life around his great loves. Boggs argues that Baldwin’s real love was writing, motivated by a moral vision of the equality of all people and his commitment to social justice. It was Baldwin’s writing that allowed him to free himself from his demons and eventually accept his sexuality. Love was politics for him, with Boggs commenting, “We can understand his whole life through his books. All his novels are love stories.”
For those discovering Baldwin, this book is a goldmine. Bogg’s work is now the authoritative source on Baldwin.t
‘Baldwin: A Love Story’ by Nicholas Boggs. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $36. www.us.macmillan.com
Praised for her “intelligence, vulnerability, and a rich, soaring soprano” (Opera News), Maya Kherani stars in a Baroque program of love, betrayal, and dazzling vocal fireworks. Handel, Marcello, and Vivaldi—performed on period instruments, in the style of their time.
| 7:30 PM
Soprano Maya Kherani
‘Every Step She Takes’
Biographer Nicholas Boggs
James Baldwin in 1969 Allan Warren/Wikipedia
Author Alison Cochrun Hayley-Downing-Fairless
Doing the Time Warp one last time at Oasis
by David-Elijah Nahmod
For the past ten years, Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” has been a staple at Oasis, the legendary drag club set to close at the end of the year. Every October, Oasis owner and former San Francisco Drag Laureate D’Arcy Drollinger has stepped into the stilettos made famous by Tim Curry and put his own spin on FrankN-Furter, the bisexual crossdressing mad scientist. But this year’s presentation carries with it a somber note. With Oasis closing, it means that the annual “Rocky” show may also end.
Oasis has been producing “Rocky Horror” in collaboration with Ray of Light Theater, the troupe known for bringing musicals to the stage with a fresh twist. The film version of “Rocky Horror” has become legendary for its audience participation lines, which have become part of the show. The Oasis/Ray of Light production takes the concept of audience participation one step further. The show is immersive, meaning that the show is performed all over the nightclub, with the cast at times interacting with the audience.
“Every audience member is a guest at Frank’s club,” Drollinger said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “They are the Transylvanians, and everyone is part of the show. I think that’s what makes these productions so thrilling. It’s part nightclub, part
theater, and part sing-along party. In hearing about the very first production of ‘The Rocky Horror Show,’ it sounds like it was also somewhat immersive, so it feels very much in the spirit of the show.”
Drollinger noted that he was very much inspired by Tim Curry’s portrayal of Frank-N-Furter.
“Seeing Tim Curry as Frank-N-
Furter literally changed my life,” he said. “I had never seen anyone like him. A whole new world opened up for me, and I know I’m not alone. The character and this show/movie broke so many people out of their shells over the years and is still doing it. To dare to live your dreams, your fantasies. He may go a bit too far, but what’s a mad scientist to do?”
Don’t dream it, be it
Drollinger added that he considers it an honor to have played the role for these past ten years. It’s a role he’s been rehearsing for since he was twelve.
“It’s interesting how many new things I find for the character each year,” he said. “While I very much celebrate Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter in my interpretation, which he said was him doing an interpretation of the Queen of England, I also bring a little Champagne White, Samantha Jones, and Paul Lynde.”
“The Rocky Horror Show” first took to the stage in 1973 and was adapted for the screen two years later. The film continues to be shown as a midnight movie, playing to packed houses in which audiences shout back at the screen and get up to do the “Time Warp” whenever that legendary tune is heard. People in the audience often dress up as their favorite characters, and the film has served as a coming out inspiration for many people. Drollinger addressed why he thinks the show and film still resonates after fifty years.
“Because everyone wants to live their dreams,” he said. “To act out their fantasies, be their authentic selves. And when you come to a ‘Rocky Horror Show,’ either the movie or a live production like ours, you can be wild and sexy and no one judges you. The lyric sums it up, ‘Don’t dream it, be it.’”
Tim Curry’s memoir tells (almost) all
by Jim Provenzano
Known to most movie fans as Frank-N-Furter, the iconic “sweet transvestite” of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and the previous stage version, actor Tim Curry shares
behind the scenes moments from his numerous acclaimed films (and a few flops), several stage productions, TV series, and even voiceover work, in “Vagabond: A Memoir,” (Grand Central Publishing).
Starting with his family life,
he says how singing in a church choir became his early performing inspiration. His father died when he was 11. Curry, born in Cheshire, England, talks about his mother and how she became overwhelmed and embittered as a single parent, raising himself and his sister Judy.
His inclination towards theater started early on when he moved to London. His first major stage play was in the 1968 London production of “Hair.” Little did he know one of the other cast members, Richard O’Brien, would soon give him worldwide fame.
A toast…to ‘Rocky’
Besides Drollinger, the cast includes Julio Chavez as Brad, Lisa Frankenstein as Janet, Joe Greene as Riff Raff, Trixxie Carr as Magenta, Cheetah Biscotti as Columbia, and Austin Tip doubling up as Eddie and Dr. Scott.
“The cast and the creative team are fantastic,” Drollinger said. “Great singers and dancers, great comic timing. And everyone is very sexy.”
Drollinger admits that there’s a bittersweet tinge to this year’s production given the imminent closing of Oasis.
“It has been very challenging to end something that means so much to so many,” he said. “And at the same time, I hope that everyone can also take stock in what we’ve done collectively, and celebrate this magical decade of truly elevated queer art, joy and experiences. And yes, there is room for a miracle, and yes, I do believe in miracles.”
And while there’s always the possibility that Ray of Light’s “Rocky Horror” could move to another venue in the future, Drollinger was keeping his eyes focused on the present.
“I can’t say what lies ahead for ‘Rocky’ in terms of next year,” he said. “Right now, we’re focused on making our last Oasis show as fabulous as possible.”t
‘The Rocky Horror Show,’ Oct. 9-Nov. 1, Wed.-Sat, 7pm, from $52.20, Oasis, 298 11th St. 21+ www.sfoasis.com www.rayoflighttheatre.com
It was the 1973 London stage production of O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Show” that brought Curry his first success. Premiered in a tiny upstairs theater, it soon moved to larger venues after rave reviews, with visiting celebrities bestowing it ‘cool’ status. A production in Los Angeles followed to great acclaim, but the New York Broadway production was pretty much dismissed by critics.
ing. Curry won a Tony for his role, along with four other awards.
The 1975 film adaptation, while initially a flop, became a cult favorite with midnight screenings, starting in New York City and spreading around the country and eventually other countries. While Curry states that he understands the allure of FrankN-Furter as a tempting polyamorous figure, he was far from that character in real life.
His later successes included creating the 1980 role of Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” with Ian McKellen playing his rival, Antonio Salieri.
In another film role, he played Darkness, the huge-horned devilish creature in Ridley Scott’s “Legend” (1985). Also in 1985, in the film “Clue,” very loosely based on the board game, he played an officious butler Wadsworth, who recreates multiple potential murder possibilities in the finale.
One of his other iconic roles is that of Pennywise, the sewer-dwelling clown monster in the 1990 television adaptation of Stephen King’s “It.” He mentions how years later at fan conventions people would come up and tell him that his performance terrorized them as children.
Just a stage Theater remained his true love, including working with and befriending playwright Tom Stoppard in a production of “Travesties.” Curry also performed in multiple roles for the Royal National Theatre, including “Three Penny Opera” (he played Mack the Knife).
Another role he created was that of King Arthur in Eric Idle’s 2004 Monty Python-inspired musical “Spamalot.”
He discusses the difficulties of performing multiple times a week and how it would sometimes be exhaust-
Curry also shares his short career as a recording artist, with five albums released. While devoted fans still admire some of his songs, like the indie hit “I Do The Rock,” he writes how without a character to build on, his concert performances left something lacking.
What’s particularly admirable is that Curry, now 79, penned his memoir with some assistance after his 2012 stroke, which almost left him completely paralyzed. Through years of physical therapy, he continued to do voice work, and has even appeared at a few “Rocky Horror” celebrations. He performed a different role of the Narrator/Criminologist in ABC’s odd 2016 “Rocky Horror” remake, “Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.”
But if you’re expecting gossip about his personal life, you’ll be disappointed. Curry states in the book’s introduction that “Specifics about my affairs of the heart or the bedroom are respectfully none of your fucking business.” Despite some omissions, “Vagabond” is fascinating reading for any Tim Curry fan.t
“Vagabond: A Memoir,” by Tim Curry, Grand Central Publishing $32 hardcover, $16.99 Kindle, $28 audiobook (narrated by the author)
www.hachettebookgroup.com
D’Arcy Drollinger as Frank-N-Furter in a recent production of ‘‘The Rocky Horror Show’ at Oasis
Rachel Z Photography
Author and actor Tim Curry
Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter in ’The Rocky Horror Picture Show’
Mick Rock
‘Loving II’
by Jim Provenzano
After the success of their first photobook of men being affectionate through history, partners and authors Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell have returned with a sequel, “Loving II: More Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s-1950s.”
The reason for the follow-up to the 2020 best-selling original photobook is that the couple have thousands more images to choose from. They selected more than 300 of the best from their 4,000+ print collection, found at flea markets, thrift shops and estate sales throughout the past two decades.
Nini and Treadwell will appear at four events next week, including a slideshow, panel talks and book signings.
Their two books serve as a historical document proving that not only were gay men alive and affectionate through history, but also brave enough to document their love for more than a century. While it’s not known how many of the subjects were actually gay, most of them clearly imply a degree of intimacy. The photos are grouped by subject (sailors, soldiers, laborers, aristocrats) and composition.
Nini, a former ballet dancer in Texas, founded the Denton Ballet Academy, which he owned for 35 years. After he and Treadwell became partners, in 2000 they visited Love Field Antique Mall in Dallas, where they discovered their first collection of male/male photos, and bought it for five dollars. They later moved to New York City, where Treadwell works in the cosmetic industry. Nini joined the faculty at the Joffrey Ballet. The couple were married in 2006.
After years of collecting vintage photos, they created the book project, which reproduced daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tintypes, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, and snapshots. And the photos are not only
Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell’s second photobook shows more affectionate men through
had so many more photographs that needed to be seen.”
Along with the English version, publisher Five Continents Editions offers French and Italian versions as well.t
Nini and Treadwell’s San Francisco events:
Oct. 14 at Book Passage, 5:30pm, 1 Ferry Bldg. bookpassage.com
Oct. 15 at the San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium (as part of LitQuake) 6pm, 100 Larkin St. sfpl.org
Oct. 16 at Manny’s, with moderator Jim Provenzano, 6pm, 3092 16th St. welcometomannys.com
from the U.S., but several countries, some collected from online auctions.
The initial publication in early 2000 was met with some trepidation as the couple were in Milan with their publisher just as the COVID pandemic struck. Yet they found an audience.
“Just days before our launch date we had to order a second printing,” write
the authors in the Introduction. “The first run was nearly depleted– ahead of publication. People seized onto it as though it were a life preserver floating in a dark, cold ocean. They embraced it as though it were a gasp for a longdelayed breath of air.”
Another co-authors’ quote from the introduction explains.
“When an event conjures positive emotion within us, we seek to recapture that experience. It might also be as simple as this: a second edition was practically imminent because we now
Fortunately, it continued to sell copies, and this time around, the couple are not competing with a pandemic. So, why publish a second book?
Oct. 18 at Fabulosa Books, 7pm, 489 Castro St. fabulosabooks.com
‘Loving II: More Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s –1950s,’ by Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell, Five Continents Editions, 335 pages, $70 hardback. fivecontinentseditions.com loving1000.org
Authors Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell
Couples in ‘Loving II: More Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s –1950s’
