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CA ballot measures
From page 4
for offenses as minor as public urination. Under this proposition, they would lose all personal privacy for life. It is bad policy.
Prop 36: Three Strikes Law Modification. YES This is a common sense modification of the “three strikes and you’re out” law. This measure provides that a life sentence on the third strike could be imposed only for a serious or violent felony. Currently, untold numbers of inmates whose third strike was for non-violent drug possession are serving life sentences. This is a waste of money.
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Our priorities as a society are backward when we spend increasing amounts of money on incarceration and less and less on education. This modification would save from $70 million to $90 million annually in prison- and parole-related costs, money which would be much better spent elsewhere.
knows the health risks of genetically engineered food. This is a transparency measure, which will allow the consumer to make an informed decision. It would be the first such measure of its kind in the United States.
Prop 37: Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods. YES
(See previous B.A.R. editorial, tinyurl.com/97s4ve8.)
Largely funded by out of state national food firms and organic advocates, this proposition requires labeling of food made from plants or animals with genetically engineered material. Prohibited in many countries (e.g. France), no one really
Prop 39: Income Tax Increase for Multistate Businesses. NO
Prop 38: Munger Initiative. NO
Current tax law permits multistate businesses doing business in California to calculate their tax liability under different formulae.
Eagle
From page 1
Among other issues, crowds at the old Eagle had appeared to be thin – except for the popular Sunday afternoon beer busts and Thursday’s live music nights – and attracting patrons to the new business could be a challenge. Leon, who’s bisexual and in his mid-40s, and Montiel, who’s gay and said he’s close to Leon’s age, joined several supporters Sunday, September 16 for a news conference on the bar’s patio, where fundraisers helped generate thousands of dollars for nonprofits over the years. (The Bay Area Reporter interviewed both men at the news conference and Leon in a subsequent phone interview.) Their plans aren’t finalized, but the format will be similar to what was available before – leather events, live music on Thursday nights, and beer busts. They also plan to have ladies’ nights. The two spoke about their backgrounds. Montiel said he was related to the bar Badlands “a long time ago.” Leon said his mother had a bar when he was growing up, and he helped her out whenever he could after school. He said he knows “the ins and outs” of what it takes to operate a bar. Leon also owned the North Beach gallery Mea Cinis, which shut down last May. He said he still owns
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September 20-26, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13
closed, but this proposition brings too much other baggage.
primary concern right now is the remodel. ... I don’t know what I’m going to discover in these walls.” He added, “I’m going to try my hardest to get it open as soon as possible.” One essential ingredient is transferring a liquor license to the space. The transfer is expected to come up at the Monday, September 24 Board of Supervisors City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee.
a confidence level that they knew what they were doing.” In a phone interview, Supervisor David Campos, who’s also gay, said he hadn’t been “really familiar with the specifics” of the pair’s business backgrounds. At Sunday’s gathering, he said it was “never about the sexual orientation” of the bar’s owners, but it was about getting “someone committed to making sure [the bar] remained the community space it had been.” In response to emailed questions, Folsom Street Events Executive Director Demetri Moshoyannis said other than the “old” Eagle’s Sunday beer busts and Thursday night live bands, “it seemed pretty dead most of the time.” However, he appeared hopeful for the venue’s future. He said he’s been helping the men and they “seem very determined and diligent.” Longtime entertainment commissioner and local nightlife figure Audrey Joseph, an out lesbian, said in an interview last week that she didn’t know the men. “If they have no experience doing this kind of work and what it takes, their success rate is minimized,” Joseph said. She also said if they stick to the old bar’s format, “I do not believe it has a shot in hell of being successful.” Among other problems, she said, there’s no foot traffic at the site. John Nikitopoulos, the bar’s landlord, has never responded to interview requests from the B.A.R.▼
Backgrounds
Seth Hemmelgarn
New Eagle owners Alex Montiel, left, and Mike Leon hope to reopen the bar in several weeks.
mixed-use property in that neighborhood. They paid “well over” $250,000 for the lease, Leon said. That figure includes the security deposit, first and last month’s rent, purchasing a the liquor license, and other costs. He wouldn’t say where they got that money, or how much they’re paying in rent. They have a 10-year lease, with an option of going for another 10 years, Leon said. Both men had been patrons of the former bar, Leon said, and both
said they had been working on obtaining the South of Market space since it closed last year. Remodeling work will include upgrades related to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Leon doesn’t know how much the work will cost, and he wouldn’t say how much money the two of them have. Montiel said Sunday they’re trying to open the bar by October 31, Halloween, but asked later about opening by that date, Leon laughed. “I don’t know,” he said. “My
Vintage porn
From page 1
history. They want to find out what went on before you could see hardcore porn everywhere,” said Batt, who has owned the shop for 16 years. “It has become increasingly more a part of my business. There was a time I didn’t buy it because I didn’t think there was a market for it. Now I seek it out.” One highly sought after title is After Dark, which reads more as a national arts magazine with photos of naked men sprinkled amongst its pages. These early magazines served more as general interest gay publications than pure porn rags. “Frankly, it was the literature of the day,” said Batt, whose reaches a national market of collectors by posting items for sale on eBay under the handle DaddySF. “People want it because there is an innocence there.” Trent Dunphy, who co-owns The Magazine on Larkin Street with his partner of 40 years, Bob Mainardi, also has noticed increased interest in porn magazines of the past. Six months ago the couple expanded their online site www.themagazinesf. com to better feature their collection. “Certainly, there is real interest in the 1970s,” said Dunphy. “It is far enough away to seem exotic and there are no condoms. That is the big thing.” Don Romesburg, a gay man who is an associate professor of women and gender studies at Sonoma State University, said for a long time there has been an interest in the physique magazines of the 1950s and 1960s.
Of course, they will choose the formula most advantageous to them. This proposition changes the law to require that multistate businesses calculate their taxes based on sales made in California regardless of where they are based. We agree that this is a loophole in the state tax code that should be eliminated. However, this proposition then mandates that the increased revenue, estimated at up to $1 billion annually, be earmarked for specific energy and education programs. This is ballot box budgeting, and we oppose it. It is the role of the legislature to determine the most effective use of revenues, particularly in these hard times of competing priorities. This is a loophole that needs to be
Rick Gerharter
Patrick Batt points to vintage gay porn available at his Auto Erotica shop in the Castro.
“At that time it harkened back to this time of squeaky clean, healthy muscular guys in posing straps,” he said of when the craze first began in the 1990s. “Obviously, back then was a time of extreme homophobia in our society and there is a kind of innocence to them. There is something titillating about the underground culture that one can imagine circulating around them.” Part of the allure of the titles from the 1970s, said Romesburg, has to do with their chronicling a world preAIDS when using a condom wasn’t a do-or-die sexual choice. “In terms of 1970s stuff there’s been a renaissance in so called precondom porn ever since the 1990s,” said Romesburg. “I think young people and young guys connect with vintage porn because it is not as primped or manicured and because it is all pro-
duced in a time before the specter and shadow of HIV and AIDS.” The now four-decades-old photos of more natural looking men, with their hairy chests, mustaches, and longer hair, are seen as antidotes to the gym-muscled, clean shaven porn stars of today. “It is not surprising pornos of those years would have a resurrection. It was
San Francisco Superior Court records indicate Montiel filed for bankruptcy in 2009. He said it was “private” and wouldn’t answer questions about it. Leon declined to discuss Montiel’s bankruptcy other than to say, “He’s clear of that.” Despite the support the men have received, community leaders the B.A.R. spoke with don’t seem to know much about them. Supervisor Jane Kim, whose District 6 includes the Eagle site, said after the news conference Sunday that she wasn’t aware of the pair’s business background, but she’s seen their “persistence, their passion, and their enthusiasm.” Gay Supervisor Scott Wiener also came to the Eagle patio Sunday. In an interview Tuesday, he said he initially met Leon and Montiel five or six months ago. “I’m sure we talked about that,” Wiener said of the men’s business histories, but he didn’t recall the specifics. “I know I had enough of
rather unique and freewheeling and reflects the kind of life we were living in that day,” said John Karr, who started reviewing porn titles for the Bay Area Reporter in 1978. “There was a spontaneity and naturalness to it.” There was a time during the height of the AIDS crisis that thrift stores and adult erotica shops throughout San Francisco were flooded with such titles. As loved ones and friends cleaned out the belongings of those men lost to AIDS, they would donate boxes of the old porn magazines to the stores. Many of the titles ended up in the archives of two San Francisco-based institutions: the GLBT Historical Society and the Institute of the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. “In the late 1980s, as the deaths were mounting up, those magazines were available in the thrift stores at a quarter apiece because many collections were being dispensed with after their owners died,” recalled Karr, adding that he bought “tons” of the material and donated them to the institute’s archives but still has “boxes” of them. “These days those magazines do not turn up in the thrift stores.”
Clarification The September 13 article, “Mirkarimi hoping for delay” inadvertently conveyed the impression that suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was predicting votes on the Board of Supervisors. The article should have stated, “During the editorial board meeting with the B.A.R. at the paper’s offices, Mirkarimi was asked who he thought on the Board of Supervisors would be likely to support him remaining sheriff. While declining to predict any specific votes, he mentioned ‘the liberal progressive flank of Campos, Avalos, Mar, Olague, maybe [District 6 Supervisor Jane] Kim, maybe Chiu.’ The supervisors have been advised not to discuss Mirkarimi’s case.” The online version has been corrected.
Prop 40: Referendum on Redistricting. YES This is a sour grapes attempt by unhappy Republicans to throw out the district lines for the state Senate that were drawn by the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission and upheld by the California Supreme Court. Since 2008 California voters have voted three times to have legislative and congressional boundaries determined by an independent commission. This will be the fourth election on the matter in four years. Enough is enough. A YES vote affirms the boundaries drawn by the Citizens Redistricting Commission. ▼
San Francisco resident Oliver “Ollie” Shreffler, 78, worked as go-go boy in gay bars back in the 1970s and acted in a few porn films. He had built up quite a collection of magazines and videos over the decades, but lost much of it due to a fire at his apartment building in 2005. “I had quite a collection way, way back when,” said Shreffler. “We had a fire here a few years ago and that pretty much took care of the whole collection. What the flames didn’t get the smoke and water got.” He said he isn’t surprised to see a new generation of gay men gravitate to the porn of the past. “The magazines and other artwork of that time were far superior. I still like the older videos better than today’s,” he said. “Everyone was so natural in those days. Nowadays they are too buffed up. They are beautiful, but I prefer a natural build.”▼
On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporter’s online columns, Political Notes and Wedding Bell Blues; the Transmissions, Jock Talk, and Out in the World columns; and articles on the NAACP president’s visit to San Francisco, a gala marking the one-year anniversary of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and an event in Oakland this weekend catering to masculine-of-center women. www.ebar.com.