San Francisco Bay Times November 12, 2015

November 12-25, 2015 | www.sfbaytimes.com

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Iconic Bay Area Lesbian Feminist

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In the News

By Dennis McMillan Mayor Lee Partners with MAC AIDS Fund In SF’s Aim to be First to Get to Zero Mayor Edwin Lee announced San Francisco’s intention to become the first city to “get to zero” in the battle against HIV/AIDS. With the new partner MAC AIDS Fund, $1.7 million in new funding is to be invested in getting to zero by propelling prep, rapid testing and retention in care for HIV/AIDS patients. Mayor Lee has dedicated $1.2 million to support Getting to Zero and announced a $500,000 donation from MAC AIDS Fund, the largest corporate funder of HIV/AIDS work globally. sfgov.org Equality Act Vote Blocked in House Committee Meeting House Republicans blocked a vote on the Equality Act—aiming to protect LGBT people from discrimination— that was brought forward during a meeting of the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee. The amendment was blocked by a voice vote of the panel upon the objection of Rep. David Roe (R-TN) who said the Equality Act is not germane to the main bill. edgemedianetwork.com Shanti Women’s Cancer Program Announced at City Hall San Francisco Supervisors Malia Cohen, Jane Kim and Katy Tang hosted a press conference with Shanti Project at City Hall to announce the start of Shanti’s Margot Murphy Women’s Cancer Program. With increased support from the City and County, the expanded program will now serve all women diagnosed with any type of cancer, and not just breast cancer as was the policy in the past. shanti.org Trans Activists and Their Friends Urge “Keep the T in LGBT” A group of gay/bi men and women of “Drop the T,” (change.org/ search?q=drop+the+t) have come to the conclusion that the transgender community needs to be disassociated from the larger LGB community. “Drop the T” is asking that organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Lambda Legal and queer media outlets stop representing the transgender community as they feel transgender ideology “is not only completely different from that promoted by the LGB community (LGB is about sexual orientation, trans is about gender identity), but is ultimately regressive and actually hostile to the goals of women and gay men.” Opponents have formed their own petition site at change.org/ search?q=keep+the+t Gay Veterans March in SF Veterans Day Parade The Alexander Hamilton Post 448 of the American Legion, the only post whose membership is predominantly LGBT, marched in the San Francisco Veterans Day Parade. They were among the first groups to carry the Rainbow Flag in such a parade anywhere in the United States. post448.org DAPA and DACA Expansion Obstructed by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to allow the Deferred Action for Parents of American and Permanent Residents (DAPA) and expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programs to take effect. The federal court’s ruling will negatively affect the lives of millions of undocumented immigrants and their families, many of whom are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals. NCLR and other queer legal advocates are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and correct “this distressing miscarriage of justice.” nclrights.org EVNA to Hold General Meeting on Wednesday Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association​(EVNA) has announced its next General Meeting. The monthly meeting of EVNA convenes at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, 4235 19th Street (at Collingwood Street), Wednesday, November 18 from 7–8:30 pm. Topics include SPUR and the Housing Plan; Supervisor Scott Wiener and the Master Subway Plan; and Open Member’s Forum. evna.org Largest Jewish Group in America Embraces Transgenders The biggest Jewish movement in North America has endorsed a policy to embrace transgender people and to campaign against discrimination in a

move hailed as a historic step. The biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism, meeting in Orlando, Florida, overwhelmingly backed a motion detailing specific steps to be taken by synagogues and congregations.

They include the adoption of genderneutral language and the provision of gender-neutral restrooms, as well as training and education. nr.news-republic.com GGBA Elects New President The Golden Gate Business Association (GGBA) Board of Directors unanimously selected Jon Paul (JP) Leddy to serve as their new president. Leddy is the first Chamorro and Pacific Islander from the United States Territory of Guam to serve in this position in the 41-year history of the organization. He is serving his second term on the GGBA’s board. ggba.com Facebook May Soon Allow All People to Use Names As Desired After prolonged backlash to its “real name” policy, Facebook is taking steps to change the policy that has affected certain members of the queer community, Native Americans, performers and others whose preferred name may not match their legal documentation.

Facebook will now allow users to provide more information about why they have chosen a certain name if it differs from their legal name. Additionally, a new requirement will be part of the confirmation process, directed at the people who flag a name as fake: those reporting an allegedly fake name will be required to provide detailed information, in an effort to prevent trolling, a frequent complaint among trans users. huffingtonpost.com AHF Submits 550K Signatures for 2016 Drug Pricing Ballot Measure AIDS Healthcare Foundation filed 550,000 signatures throughout California by the November 2nd deadline, far more than the 365,880 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the November 2016 California ballot.

California Drug Price Relief Act will require state officials to pay no more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans Affairs, which generally pays 20% to 24% less than any government program. aidshealth.org Largest Ever Survey of LGBTQ Prisoners Released Black and Pink, an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and “free world” allies who support each other, is releasing its report: “Coming Out of Concrete Closets,” a comprehensive analysis of the largest ever national survey of LGBTQ prisoners. Black and Pink’s report exposes a pipeline of prejudice that leads to high incarceration rates of LGBTQ people, and it gives voice to the crisis proportions of abuse and violence inflicted on LGBTQ people in American prisons. blackandpink.org Gays with Kids Website Launched With a website, active social media, and a YouTube account, gayswithkids.com gives dads around the country a place to learn about adoption, surrogacy, marriage, day-to-day child rearing, legal issues, and also videos of gay couples with their children sharing their stories. The couples featured are from all over, interracial, binational, previously in heterosexual relationships, or transgender, providing a look at how diverse gay parenthood can be. edgemedianetwork.com Out at Work Forum Offered “Out at Work: Trans Experiences in Our Workplaces” is a forum offered as an opportunity to hear from a panel of transgender individuals about their experiences as employees in our organizations and for interaction with advocates from both the Transgender Law Center and the Trans Employment Program (TEEI) at the SF LGBT Center. The program takes place on November 18, 5 to 7:30 pm at PG&E, 77 Beale Street (Auditorium). Register at transgenderlawcenter.secure.force. com/events

THROUGH JANUARY 10, 2016 A monumental world’s fair, a city reborn, and an art exhibition on the grandest scale. A century after the 1915 Exposition that inaugurated San Francisco as a cultural capital on the West Coast, experience 200 works from the fair, including examples by John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, and Edvard Munch.

HERBST EXHIBITION GALLERIES

This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. President’s Circle: Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund. Benefactor’s Circle: National Endowment for the Arts. Supporter’s Circle: Marianne H. Peterson.

Community Partner: Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE

BENEFACTOR’S CIRCLE

MEDIA SPONSOR

Arthur Frank Mathews, The Victory of Culture over Force (Victorious Spirit) (detail), 1914. Oil on canvas. San Francisco War Memorial

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What An Election Season!

Alex Randolph It was wonderful to see so many San Franciscans engaged and passionate about ballot issues and races that are close to home. There is no doubt in my mind that San Francisco’s future is bright when all of us find a way to work together.

I am incredibly honored that voters chose me to continue serving as your Trustee on the City College Board.

This campaign has been deeply personal for me. As a product of community college, being part of the decision making process that affects students looking for a path to a better life is a fundamental part of my values. It has been an incredible privilege to serve as your City College Trustee during this critical time.

I also want to recognize Wendy Aragon and Tom Temprano for running great campaigns. I am proud that all of us stayed positive and focused on policies and the critical issues. City College deserves nothing less.

City College is a special place and I want to thank the faculty, staff, and administrators that work hard every day to fight for our students and ac-

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cess to education. That is why statewide accreditation reform is fundamental to the ongoing success of City College. This is one of the key parts of serving our students the best we can, especially after the California community college system-convened task force recommended that all of us two-year colleges should be overseen by a new accrediting agency.

Recently, Assemblymembers Phil Ting and David Chiu have crafted some incredibly impactful and comprehensive legislation and reforms that aim to alleviate and ease the pain we and other Community Colleges around the State are feeling from the accreditation crisis.

I am eager to continue the work I have started at City College, and to fight alongside my amazing colleagues as we ensure that access to affordable education continues to be available in San Francisco. A great San Francisco needs a great City College! I hope you will join us in this fight by enrolling in a class this upcoming Semester. The 2016 Spring Schedule is out and can be found at https://www.ccsf.edu/ schedule I can’t wait to see what we will be able to accomplish over the next year.

Alex Randolph is a Trustee for City College of San Francisco. He has previously served in President Obama’s administration and as an LGBT advisor for Mayor Newsom. He lives in the Castro with his partner Trevor.

Call for Volunteers!

Celebration of Craftswomen Needs You The 37th annual Celebration of Craftswomen takes place November 27–29 at Fort Mason Center’s Herbst Pavilion. It is a greatly anticipated tradition for us every year, with “Betty’s List” and the San Francisco Bay Times both represented at this unique artisanal holiday shopping extravaganza.

It makes for a refreshing antidote to all of the box store madness, given the beautiful location right off San Francisco Bay, and the fact that you can buy handcrafted items directly from the talented individuals who made them. The price range is wide, as is the selection, so there is truly something for everyone on your holiday gift list.

Volunteers are now sought to work at the event. As the organizers share, “The many-hands model of sisterhood makes service work fun. Join us

this year as we celebrate each other and the many women that will benefit from your help at The Women’s Building.”

They are seeking help with office/ admin, admissions, “booth sitting,” and set-up and break-down. As you can see, even from the organizational side of things, this is a public group effort. The camaraderie adds to the enjoyment, not to mention the fact that there are some great restaurants and coffee shops within walking distance.

We have seen many new couples volunteer or otherwise attend the event, and then break for memorable meals overlooking the bay.

To sign up to volunteer, go to: http:// www.celebrationofcraftswomen. org/#!volunteer-form/cegs Be sure to stop by our booth as well.

We look forward to seeing you!

PHOTO COURTESY OF KORIN SANCHEZ 2013

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Do Qualifications Matter? able in both domestic and foreign affairs. She can cogently expound upon a myriad of public policy matters. Finally, she has a very real understanding of what she will face once she steps into office. The recent Democratic debates put into sharp focus her mastery of issues currently facing the country.

Leslie R. Katz A few columns back, I noted that it has been found that women who run for office often feel compelled to be better prepared and extremely well versed on issues than their male opponents. While this is a broad generalization, there are a number of studies that show that women frequently hold back from running for office until they feel that they are subject matter experts, even missing out on opportunities to run for office if they do not feel fully prepared. As we look at the leading candidates from the two parties running for the office of the President, this difference could not be more marked.

There has rarely, if ever, been a candidate as well prepared for the Presidency as Hillary Clinton. She has held positions in both the legislative and executive branches of government, and has excelled in the private sector (never mind time spent in the White House as First Lady/Advisor in Chief.) She has been in the public eye, taken well thought out positions (regardless of whether one agrees with them, they are unquestionably well researched, analyzed and can be implemented) and is beyond knowledge-

One must balance financial interests and goals with addressing service delivery to all. There are other requirements tied to public benefits that are hard to quantify, but are essential for service: creation of equal opportunities, addressing climate change and other environmental issues, provision of health care for all, and, simply put, ensuring that those least fortunate are provided with opportunities and care. Thus, there is a need to balance interests beyond those that are purely economic.

There are also more traditional skills required for the Office of the Presidency: managing multiple departments, divisions,9.75 staff,in. and more. I am concerned that Dr. Carson has not

Atlanta, Georgia, October 30, 2015

held a role where such skills are required. There is no doubt that he is an outstanding surgeon, and a motivating speaker, but I am frankly baffled by the level of support someone with so few traditional qualifications for office is receiving. This underscores the level of frustration held throughout the country with how things are moving.

The divisions in our country are stark. People are frightened and want to resist change on the one hand, and simultaneously, push for “change” because they are frustrated. The result of those positions should not be to support inexperience. Governing this country is not an easy task for anyone, never mind someone who would have to simply learn the nuances of government while on the job. Now, more than ever, we need experienced, respected leadership.

For those of us concerned about our rights and about who will continue to lead this country, we must insist that attention be re-focused on qualifications, skills and ability to handle all aspects of the job. People need to recognize that it is not a personality

Campaigning in South Carolina, October 31, 2015

PHOTOS ©BARBARA KINNEY/HILLARYCLINTON.COM

Ready for Her

Contrast her skills, experience and mastery with that of the current leading opponents in the Republican Party. While both Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson have excelled in their professions, neither has ever served in any governmental body, worked on public policy matters, developed foreign policy expertise or possess other various experience essential for holding the office of the Presidency.

Neither one seems particularly concerned that they have no experience in public service that is a vastly different world than the private sector.

While success in the private sector demonstrates certain skill levels and understanding, serving in public office requires other skills and focus.

Orangeburg, South Carolina, November 7, 2015

contest, nor is it appropriate to protest by supporting someone who has no experience, but that now, more than ever, we need a President who can continue to ensure that we are able to work with world leaders, to address the pressing issues facing us domestically, and to ensure that we don’t return to the morass we were in eight years ago. Experience matters! We should do what so many other countries have already done; put an expe-

rienced, effective, qualified woman into the top office. I am ready for Her. Leslie R. Katz is a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was the co-author of the City’s Equal Benefits Ordinance, has served on the SF Democratic County Central Committee (as Chair, and as a general member), and serves on the California Democratic Party’s Executive Board.

She is an attorney with a government law, policy and strateg y practice, with a focus on emerging technologies.

IT’S MORE THAN JUST HEALTH CARE. IT’S KEEPING WELL CARE. AND READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT CARE. IT’S LIFE CARE. Most Californians who enrolled through Covered California got help paying for health insurance. Find out if you can too.

Free, local, in-person help is available.

Enroll by December 15 to be covered by January 1.

CoveredCA.com

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Taking Action to Stop Gun Violence in Oakland dealing, I’ve been working with Oakland’s Police Department and the community for implementation plans.

These plans will include launching a pilot program to immediately provide police response to notifications of gunshots. They also will include updating the technology and adding staffing for gun tracing efforts, which will improve our ability to solve gun crimes and, in turn, shut down more illegal gun sources.

Out of the Closet and into City Hall Oakland Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan Earlier this year, I fought for and won funding in the new City of Oakland budget to specifically focus on stopping gun crime. I have been working to get these funds implemented to stop gun violence and illegal gun dealing. This item is expected to be heard at the Public Safety Committee on November 10 and at the Oakland City Council meeting on November 17 at City Hall in the Chambers, commencing at 5:30 pm.

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surrounded by 7 redwood trees.

Prior to the budget amendment, the City of Oakland had very little resources that were specifically devoted to stopping gun crime, and when notifications of shots being fired were triggered, there has not necessarily 9:17 AM been an immediate police dispatch.

Since the Council passed funding to stop gun violence and illegal gun

With the help of Oakland’s Police Department, the community and its leaders, I’m excited to get these plans implemented as soon as possible. I’m optimistic that by implementing these plans, it will build a reality and a reputation in Oakland that people cannot get away with gun violence and illegal gun dealing. People should not be allowed to profit by selling death into our communities.

Public safety, gun crime and illegal gun dealing is not only a local problem, but also is an issue at all levels of government. More than 32,000 deaths occur each year in the United States due to gun violence, and there have been 150 school shootings since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012.

That is why I have submitted a request for the City of Oakland to support improvements to gun control and bullet control in California, in the “Safety For All” initiative. The initiative, by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, will require that Californians report lost or stolen

guns, prohibit the possession of military-style assault weapons and magazines, require background checks for ammunition sales just like gun sales, and will mandate California to share data with the FBI and National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

In Oakland, we need to make sure we are devoting our vital public safety resources to stop the spread of gun dealing and gun violence and take action against the proliferation of guns and illegal gun dealing. Please come out on November 17 to the Oakland City Council meeting, commencing at 5:30 pm, to support the implementation plans for a safer Oakland and support the “Safety For All” initiative for a safer State.

Oakland City Hall map: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxmUQ57c5Z7NUY2eW5NbkdRTnc/view To sign up to speak at the event: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/ Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/SpeakerCard/OAK032373 Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan was elected in 2008 to serve as Oakland’s citywide councilmember. She was re-elected in 2012 and serves currently as Vice Mayor. She is working for safe neighborhoods, for local jobs and for a fresh start for Oakland. Vice Mayor Kaplan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog y, obtained a Master’s degree from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School.

Giving Thanks for Progress er way, it takes nearly an additional 40 days for women to earn the same as men in a single year. In 2016, the women of California can fight back with the nation’s most powerful law protecting equal pay, SB 358.

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Assemblymember Phil Ting The fight for civil rights inspired me to enter politics, and 2015 has been a particularly inspiring year. As we approach Thanksgiving, I wanted to take stock of this year’s progress towards greater equality because there is much to be thankful for.

The year’s most dramatic breakthrough came with the United States Supreme Court establishing marriage equality as a Constitutional right across the country. Finally, every family has been made whole! This giant leap forward was coupled by passage of new and important state laws taking effect next year.

Consider these examples that will help preserve the rights of all Californians: The Pew Research Center found that women earn 84 percent of what men earn for the same work. Put anoth-

Two years into implementation of health care reform under the federal Affordable Care Act, the Kaiser Family Foundation found over 40 percent of California’s remaining uninsured are undocumented immigrants. Public health, however, is not confined by constructs like citizenship. Next year, under SB 4, undocumented children can obtain health care through the Medi-Cal program.

Inspired by violence between law enforcement and people of color across the country, California will have a series of new laws to fight racial profiling. AB 953 requires peace officers to report annually to the Attorney General about why people are stopped, the perceived race of the person stopped, and the outcome. In order to ensure transparency and fairness in the investigation and prosecution of officer involved shootings or instances of excessive force, SB 227 prohibits the use of grand jury investigations of such allegations because they operate in secret.

There are also new laws to protect the rights of LGBT Californians. SB 703 prohibits the state from contracting with businesses that discriminate

against transgender employees in the provision of health benefits. This will expand the reach of state antidiscrimination laws onto companies who do business with California and who are based out of state or self-insured under federal law. AB 827 requires the California Department of Education to take a proactive stance in ensuring our school districts have trained educators who support LGBT student rights through knowledge of school site and community resources.

And, to better care for youth in state care, SB 731 requires foster youth placement based on gender identity.

This burst of new laws is both powerful and compelling. It would not have occurred without the work of many committed advocates who have fought for civil rights long before I had a chance to proudly support the enactment of such laws as a state legislator.

Although these laws span different communities with different struggles, our common humanity must shape our treatment under the law. Progress towards that objective is the measure for our state and our nation to become more perfect unions. I am very thankful for our strides this year, and hope our momentum is sustained.

Phil Ting represents the 19th Assembly District, which includes the Westside of San Francisco as well as the cities of Broadmoor, Colma and Daly City.

You’re Invited!

Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District’s Annual Meeting Thursday, December 10, 2015, 6:00-7:30 PM 501 Castro Street, 2nd Floor Annual Meeting Agenda Items: - Election of Board Members - Finance Committee Report - Report of Board Committees - Open Q&A with Board Members 6

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RSVP by December 4 to info@castrocbd.org or Call 415-500-1181

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Halloween 2015

Photos by Rink

Hollyween In San Francisco at Madame Tussauds

Halloween arrived early at Madame Tussauds on Thursday, October 29, with Hollyween, an annual charity costume ball held this year as a benefit for the Richmond Ermet Aids Foundation (REAF). An official event of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Holllyween participants enjoyed the open bar and hors d’oeuvres, silent auction and luxe travel giveaways.

Halloween in the Castro

A relatively “quiet night” was the report from most observers characterizing Halloween in the Castro this year. No official party or street closures combined with a heavy police presence, however, did not stop both locals and visitors from around the globe from donning costumes and enjoying themselves on Castro, Market and surrounding streets. The annual Children’s Parade in the Castro, sponsored by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, began at the Eureka Valley Rec Center and featured kids dressed in character as Batman, skeletons, princesses and others. San Francisco Bay Times’s photographer Rink also reported sightings of revelers on Polk Street.

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Who Officiates: Friend or Pro?

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Journey along India’s Spice Route by way of California at five-time Michelin star winner Campton Place. Chef Srijith’s cuisine masterfully blends the finest local produce with the richness of the region’s seasonal bounty.

Enjoy a six-course Spice Route menu or indulge in our ninecourse Degustation menu. For those with lighter appetites we offer a three-course Theatre Menu and Vegetarian Tasting menu.

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Thinking about that special day?

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Weddings Howard Steiermann It doesn’t surprise me to read that more and more couples have decided not to use clergy as their wedding officiant. Since the last few decades have seen a decrease in membership in houses of worship, it’s no surprise that fewer couples are connected to a clergy person.

And how many of us can count judges or ship captains amongst our circle of friends?!

Most circles of friends, however, do include one particularly outgoing person. Or perhaps it’s a vivacious relative with an engaging personality who knows you well, and therefore might seem appropriate to officiate at your marriage ceremony.

officiant knows the legal requirements, as well as how to fashion a ceremony. On the other hand, a friend or family member will be knowledgeable about you. My ceremonies are always personal—reflecting the couple who is standing in front of me. For example, this fall I married a couple in the Presidio who weren’t at all interested in participating in guiding me in their ceremony preparation. However, through our discussions, I learned how important their pets and their garden mean to them. In turn, I was able to include personalized readings and comments throughout the ceremony.

Another question to consider when thinking of asking a friend or family member is that, while you may be comfortable with the person, will they be able to instill confidence and substance to the occasion? If you are choosing someone primarily due to their outgoing personality, consider instead having them offer a toast (or roast!) the night before or at your reception. An experienced officiant will give your ceremony the proper gravitas without intentionally (or worse, unintentionally) becoming the center of attention.

If you decide to ask a friend or family member to marry you, here are some guidelines on making an informed decision. The goal is to have a memorable wedding for all the right reasons.

Please be aware that some states/ municipalities require registration.

Officiants are the ones (at least in California) who are legally required to return the license back to the issuing Recorder’s office for official filing.

Choosing a friend or family member could potentially involve extra work on your part. An experienced

You also might consider discussing with your perspective friend or relative whether they think they

might miss out on the celebration since they would be busy planning, or would be too concerned with their role in the ceremony. Additionally, is this the person you want to discuss your vows with or your relationship issues? Wedding ceremonies often heighten relationship issues.

Experienced officiants will know the legal requirements, as well as other mundane things, such as how to run the rehearsal, how to project and/or use a microphone, and the importance of having anything written in large font and in a binder so the wind won’t make off with the ceremony. With our experience, we can take in stride the inevitable surprises that occur no matter how much planning and preparation was spent prior to the ceremony.

We are familiar and comfortable with pauses, as well as emotion, during the ceremony, without getting swept away with them.

Most off iciants do not consider themselves as vendors, however, we are hired to perform a multifaceted service that will set the tone of your ceremony. Ask a friend or hire a professional. Hopefully either will do their upmost to make your ceremony truly yours, with the attention on the two of you, your love and commitment.

Howard M. Steiermann is an Ordained Ritual Facilitator based in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.SFHoward.com

Shanti Project Launches Margot Murphy Women’s Cancer Program Shanti Project, one of San Francisco’s oldest community-based caregiving organizations for people with life-threatening conditions, recently launched the Margot Murphy Women’s Cancer Program. Here at the San Francisco Bay Times, we know that our late great former columnist and long-time Shanti supporter Stu Smith would have loved this, given how often he spoke about, and advocated for, inclusion of women in Shanti’s efforts.

The expanded services were announced at a press conference at San Francisco’s City Hall. There, Shanti Executive Director Kaushik Roy was joined by San Francisco Supervisors Malia Cohen, Jane Kim and Katy Tang and State Assemblymember David Chiu.

“In partnership with the City of San Francisco and our many hospital and community partners, the Margot Murphy Women’s Cancer Program will be San Francisco’s most comprehensive community-based effort to offer support and compassion to any woman who is facing cancer here in San Francisco,” said Roy. Many of the elected off icials who spoke expressed their gratitude to Shanti for striving to serve the most vulnerable members of our City. “We are only as healthy as the unhealthy among us,” said Supervisor Cohen as she thanked Shanti for its 41-year legacy of compassion. Supervisor Tang noted that she was particularly

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• A unique private event venue • Amazing ocean views • Groups up to 120

grateful for Shanti’s expanded efforts to serve clients who speak a multitude of languages and come from other cultures, where there may be stigma around the topic of cancer.

who came together two years ago to secure extra funding for the Program, and to Mayor Lee who sustained and increased the funding in his most recent budget,” said Roy.

The program’s continuum of free services includes at-home and onsite care navigation, appointment accompaniment, transportation and grocery vouchers, translation services, emotional and practical support, community referrals and wellness and support groups. For the past 14 years, the program exclusively served breast cancer clients, before extra funding was added to the Program’s city contract.

Several elected officials shared personal stories about how they were impacted by cancer, including Supervisor Kim, who recalled how a friend dying of cancer requested to pass away at home in a familiar environment.

“I’m especially grateful to the female members of the Board of Supervisors

Anyone interested in receiving services or learning more about Shanti’s Margot Murphy Women’s Cancer Program, should call Ai-May Tan, Program Manager, at 415-674-4735 or e-mail her at atan@shanti.org

Sister Dana Sez: Words of Wisdumb from a Fun Nun Project Inform, Project Open Hand, and Positive Resource Center. Note: it is not mandatory to wear crowns to the Royal Gala - but it couldn’t hurt! academyoffriends.org

By Sister Dana Van Iquity Sister Dana sez, “On Veterans Day, I thought of Leonard Matlovich, a gay Vietnam Veteran whose anonymous tombstone today reads in bold letters: ‘When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.’”

Having nothing to do with that, the gala San Francisco premiere of BILLY CLIFT’S feature film, HUSH UP SWEET CHARLOTTE, was held at the Castro Theatre to much acclaim. The movie version of the stage play starred Matthew Martin in the Bette Davis role, Varla Jean Merman in the Olivia DeHaviland role, David Millbern, Mink Stole, Jason Stuart, Jeffrey Patrick Olson, Mark Sargent (Ethel Merman), Mike Finn, J. Conrad Frank, Joe Wicht, Fudgie Frottage, Heklina, Prince Herman, Honey Mahogany, Evan Johnson, Elizabeth Clift, Matthew Florence, Nick Candito and Miles Davis Moody and Raja Gemini…plus some wonderful cameos by SF’s finest…like The Tom Shaw Trio, Tom Shaw, Roberta Drake and Paul Eastburn. A packed house roared at the horror!

HOLLYWEEN was San Francisco’s newest, sexiest party at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf just days before Halloween. A multitude of Hollywood celebs, both dead and alive, greeted us in wax. Stoli Vodka and Barefoot Cellars kept us lubricated, plus tasty bites were everywhere, special entertainment was by pop recording artist Xavier Toscano, as well as dancing to the beats of GoBang! The spooktacular event was hosted by San Francisco’s Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Passport magazine. Proceeds benefited THE RICHMOND/ERMET AID FOUNDATION. ACADEMY OF FRIENDS honored AoF founder Kile Ozier at Mission Rock Resort, and Gala Chair Amanda Watson announced their 2016 Gala theme, KINGS AND QUEENS: A VERY ROYAL AFFAIR, to be held on February 28th at the SF Design Center, 101 Henry Adams Street. Aof Board Chair Gil Padia also announced the November 12th SHN production of If/Then as a fundraiser, as well as the December 2nd Holiday Party at WilliamsSonoma on Polk Street. Ozier pointed out one of the original sponsors, John Newmeyer, who was present that night. “I am amazed that after 35 years this event is still going on,” said Ozier. “And for such important agencies.” AoF Treasurer Ruth Feingold announced those beneficiaries for this Gala as HIV Nightline/Suicide Prevention, Maitri Hospice, AIDS Legal Referral Panel,

MACY’S, OUT MAGAZINE, THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN, PROJECT INFORM, TREVOR PROJECT, and AIDS EMERGENCY FUND kicked off the season in style at Macy’s Union Square for MEN’S DESIGNER EVENT. We checked out the latest trends from Impulse and their topname designers, including Tallia Orange, Buffalo jeans, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Kenneth Cole, Guess, Armani jeans, and more modeled by handsome guest models from the Bare Chest Calendar, such as Bradley, LaGuan and Derek. Donations benefited the Human Rights Campaign, Project Inform, Trevor Project, and AIDS Emergency Fund.

The GLAAD Gala San Francisco, #THIS IS MY STORY, was held at SF Hilton Union Square. Looking’s Daniel Franzese hosted and screened his hilarious takeoff of Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me” with Daniel’s satiric version “Please Go Home” (backed with the SF Gay Men’s Chorus) about a trick that just would not leave. Funnny! The evening featured openly gay, proud black activist/ actor Jussie Smollett (starring as Jamal Lyon on Empire), who introduced also openly gay black activist DeRay Mckesson, co-organizer of “Black Lives Matter,” with an inspirational speech about equality for all people. Grammy-nominated recording artist Ledisi (Selma) took us to church with her awesome gospel performance, and then got the audience to sing along with Smollett with a different, rousing number, “All Right” with the really positive chorus: “You’re so beautiful!” Teenage trans sensation Jazz Jennings (I Am Jazz on TLC) spoke, as did Leo Sheng (out transgender advocate and Instagram personality of Instapride).

We honored YouTube star and LGBTQ youth advocate Tyler Oakley with the Davidson/Valentini Award, and celebrated those who work to advance LGBTQ acceptance through digital media. We also honored Megan Smith. “Throughout her career Megan Smith has been at the forefront of innovation and a staunch advocate for LGBT acceptance,” said GLAAD CEO & President Sarah Kate Ellis.

“Whether she was bringing LGBT stories to digital platforms at PlanetOut, developing a diversity initiative at Google, or advancing the future of our nation as the United States Chief Technology Officer, her advocacy and dedication make her one of the strongest leaders for equality and acceptance in the tech industry.” Ellis concluded, emphasizing that despite all the victories we LGBTQ people have won, the fight is far from over, and we must not become complacent COMING UP!

PHOTO BY RINK

SAN FRANCISCO TRANSGENDER FILM FESTIVAL will take place November 12-15, at the Roxie Theater and the Castro Theater. Founded in 1997 and originally named Tranny Fest, SFTFF was North America’s first transgender film festival.

They organized their first festival for the same reason so many other marginalized communities have organized film festivals: the absence of authentic representations of their lives and experiences in the mainstream commercial media. Click here for the Sister Dana (second from left) with Sister Kitty, Sister schedule: sftff.org/2015-festivalRoma and Mike Youens posing aboard the Van Ness cable car at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on October schedule/ 29 during the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation Hollyween Party.

(continued on page 30)

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How Should We Talk to Each Other? First Step: Remember Intentions speaking “my truth,” he tells me. It’s a free country, and he can say whatever he wants. Right again. But I remind him that his stated purpose in coming into therapy was to heal his relationship, and I suggest that he’s about as likely to arrive at that destination by talking like this as he is likely to get to Hawaii on his bicycle.

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Rubin and his partner Alan are trying to resuscitate their dying relationship by doing couples counseling. Rubin begins this week’s session with a long, angry monologue detailing his partner’s faults. He is, by turns, snarky, self-righteous, shaming, accusatory, self-pitying, sarcastic, and demanding.

I interrupt him to suggest that he examine the way he’s talking, and he hotly objects. Everything he says is true, he tells me, and besides, Alan talks to him in exactly the same way.

The old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me,” may be a brave retort for a kid who is being taunted in the school yard, but it’s completely untrue.

We can all remember times when another person hurt us deeply solely with words. Hostile and careless speech regularly destroys relationships, divides families, and all too often leads to violence and loss of life. Human beings evolved to be highly sensitive; not only to what other people say, but also on how they say it. When speech is hostile, it activates the same threat circuits in the brain that physical violence does. If you’re in a crowded restaurant, for instance, just notice how people stop talking and become alert and tense when they overhear somebody speaking angrily.

He’s right on both counts. He does describe every “fact” accurately, and Alan does talk to him in the same hostile and combative style. He is

And yet we’re so careless about how we speak to other people. So many of us seem to think, like Rubin, that as long as we’re “telling the truth,” it’s

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perfectly fine to say whatever we want.

They tell the truth on The Jerry Springer Show too, to the delight of people who like to watch “guests” use “the truth” to humiliate and destroy each other.

The phrase “polite speech” almost sounds quaint these days. When we’re out walking, or on our bikes, or driving, for example, it now seems to be perfectly acceptable to yell, swear, flip off or honk at anyone who inconveniences us or gets in our way, because, of course, anyone who does that is a “moron.” It’s as if we have a collective intention to make each other’s travels around town as stressful and unpleasant as possible.

Some of the debasement of speech in our culture must be due to social media, where self-righteousness, accusations, sarcasm, name-calling and ridicule are accepted tools for conducting debates. I’ve found that, whenever I participate in discussions anywhere in that manner, I always come away feeling agitated and not particularly happy with myself, even when I think I “made my point,” or that I “won the argument.” The conclusion is straightforward: if my intention is to be happy, then I need to understand that effective speech is more complicated than just telling the truth.

I think that we can call speech effective, or appropriate, or wise, when ends and means line up, when what we say serves, rather than thwarts, our intentions. Rubin and Alan do sincerely love each other, and do want to return to trust and harmony in their relationship, but they’ve lost sight of the prize. The short-term goals of protecting their egos, winning arguments, and getting even have eclipsed their deeper intentions.

They’ve forgotten why they ever wanted to talk to one another in the first place, and if they want to save their partnership, that is what they need to remember.

The first step then in speaking more productively is to constantly remember what our deepest intentions are. I want to be happy and contented. I want to give and receive love. I want relationships with others to be mutually satisfying and fulfilling.

How must I speak with others if I sincerely want to attain these goals?

Next time, I’ll discuss some tried and true guidelines for bringing our speech in greater alignment with these intentions.

Tom Moon is a psychotherapist in San Francisco. To learn more, please visit his website at tommoon.net

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GLBT Fortnight in Review

By Ann Rostow

Just Breathe, College Students I have little patience for older adults who pine for simpler days or reflexively critique their juniors. We all come of age in a particular time and place and context. Technology evolves with each generation. Complaining about smart phones and social media is the baby boomer’s version of the cook at Downton Abbey wringing her hands over the electric mixer. Ditto for the stereotype of the senior citizen bemoaning the antics of “young people these days.”

And there’s nothing worse than the man or woman who came out of the closet in the 70s or 80s who feels compelled to remind today’s teens and twenty-somethings of how hard it was to be gay or lesbian back in the day.

That said, let me express my disgust for a certain breed of today’s college student. The LGBT kids at a Colorado college who feel injured by a showing of the movie Stonewall because it focuses on a white homeless Midwestern guy. The Missouri protesters who screamed hatefully at a student journalist, insisting they “had the right” not to be photographed in broad daylight in the middle of campus. The childish whiners at Silliman, my own residential college at Yale, who demand that the college master resign because his wife wrote a long, thoughtful letter basically suggesting that everyone lighten up about politically correct Halloween costumes.

In a video from the Missouri protest, a young professor called for “muscle” to help remove the journalist from the protest space. At Yale, students jeered and spat on people leaving a conference on free speech. At colleges everywhere, we are reading about trigger warnings that protect delicate souls against disturbing topics in history and literature. We read about the need for safe spaces on privileged campuses where theoretically we are trying to help young men and women cross the threshold to adulthood, not retreat to the nursery. We read about “micro-aggressions,” and watch them greeted by macro tantrums, mob mentality and full-throated outrage.

So here it is: We handled macro aggressions. We had few safe spaces, and further, we lived through dangerous times. We protested Cruising, a movie that depicted a dark gay underworld, and later on, we targeted Basic Instinct, with its lesbian ice-pick killer.

We would have been pleased as punch with Stonewall. So there, younger generation!

In addition to our superior oppression quotient, by virtue of age, baby boomers now realize that life is interesting and complex. You can be civil even to those who actively oppose you, let alone those who accidentally trigger a micro insult. To become a kind and decent individual is a worthy and difficult goal. When you yell and spit on people for being intolerant, well, do I have to spell it out?

Et Tu Houston?

Moving along, I confess I didn’t write much about the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) in the run up to last week’s election. What was there to say about it, really? A civil rights ordinance, enacted a year or so ago by city leaders, was up for review by the voters. There was a nasty campaign being waged by the other side, so what else is new? I didn’t have poll numbers, so I left it alone.

I expected HERO to survive because Houston is a progressive city in many ways as witnessed by the fact that they have elected and reelected a lesbian mayor. That said, I would not have been surprised if HERO lost a close one, only because we are still dealing

with the “religious freedom” backlash from the High Court’s marriage decision.

But Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, slammed the ordinance by a 61 to 39 percent margin. We got creamed. As a Texan myself, living just a couple hours west of the scene of the crime, I felt sucker punched. If this can happen in Houston, we must all recognize the truth in the seemingly trite notion that “the fight isn’t over” just because we won marriage equality.

Wednesday morning quarterbacks blamed the loss on the absurd bathroom scare. Like many campaigns involving trans rights (HERO protected gays, trans, pregnant women, veterans and others), opponents focused on the threat of “men dressed as women” running into women’s bathrooms and molesting little girls. And although it’s often a mistake to single out one factor in a complex election loss, it seems clear that the bathroom nightmare had a significant impact on the result.

Setting aside the fact that transgendered men and women are not pedophiles, ignoring the fact that few women really want to share a sink with a bearded trans guy and few men want Caitlyn Jenner looking over their shoulders while they pee, and forgetting the fact that child molesters pay no attention to laws or ordinances to begin with (they’re child molesters, for God’s sake!), the bathroom campaigns do work.

Unlike the gay and lesbian stereotypes we laboriously undermined through years of education, the public confusion surrounding transgender men and women remains strong. It freaks people out! Gay and lesbian couples spent a couple of decades raising families, living in the suburbs and becoming butchers, bakers and candlestick makers before America realized we were not a bunch of deviants skulking around the back alleys. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) So how long will it take before the much smaller trans community can be seen as neighbors and coworkers, rather than oddball cross dressers?

More importantly, how can we help?

I was initially disturbed by an online petition calling on our community to “drop the T,” and narrow our focus on sexual orientation. After all, the change.org petitioners said, sexual orientation has nothing to do with gender identity. Meanwhile, the Ts are bringing us down. Witness Houston. And plus, they’re constantly accusing us of being politically incorrect! Who needs that?

On closer examination, the petition was initiated by a bunch of right wing gay men, and when last I checked, it seemed to be inspiring outrage rather than followers. That’s good because the last thing we need is another GLB versus T community debate, similar to the ones we’ve generated during the fight for the now-defunct Employment Nondiscrimination Act, and the rejection of trans-women by some radical feminists.

Make no mistake. Discrimination against gay men and lesbians is founded, not on our sex lives, but on our refusal to adapt to gender norms. It is not manly to sing show tunes. And even if a guy plays football and chews tobacco, it is not manly for him to love another man. Ditto for women who don’t wear makeup or super models with girlfriends instead of boyfriends.

Our social faux pas is not based on sex; it’s based on gender identity in the broadest sense. Many transgender men and women are straight. Indeed, a bisexual in an opposite-sex relationship seems straight enough. But all of us are still messing with society’s

black and white sense of gender and gender roles. We’re all in it together.

Of course there are dif ferences among us. And yes, to be transgender or intersexed is to be very different indeed. You can see how tempting it would be for some conservative white gay men to embrace the gains they’ve made over the last 20 years and tell the weirdo “Ts” to go fight their own battles. It’s sad, but the rest of us will carry on without them. While we’re at it, we should recognize that the courage it takes to be T in today’s world is arguably much greater than that demanded of the average GLB. C Is For Cocktails I don’t know why I’m being so serious. It’s my birthday, and I’m somewhat hung-over from an evening that wandered from Campari to Calvados through a succession of liquid detours.

Now, in order to sustain my trains of thought, I think it’s appropriate to resume my journey through the land of alcohol beginning with “c” via a glass of Champagne.

Let’s see. The Mormons were nice enough last month to remind everyone that the Supreme Court has spoken on marriage and the law is the law. Now, the Saints have announced that gay couples and their children will not be allowed in the church. The children can be considered at age 18 if they renounce their parents and move out of the house. Oh, and to confuse us further, Salt Lake City seems to have elected a lesbian mayor, Jackie Biskupski. Make of it all what you will.

And two lesbians vacationing in Hawaii from L.A. were arrested in a grocery store by a rabid off duty cop who saw them kiss. Depending on the source, the women either exchanged a peck or a passionate embrace, but hello? Is that criminal offense? One of them also said something mean to the cop, and before you could say “Sappho,” he was grabbing them, they were fighting back, and the two of them were hauled away on felony assault of an officer. Released on thousands of dollars in bail, the women remained in the Island State to see justice done. Meanwhile, the charges have been dropped, the officer is under investigation and the women are filing suit.

Pass the Thin Mints As for presidential politics, I don’t think any of the Republican candidates have actually distinguished themselves in the eyes of our vibrant GLBT community, but several have sunk to particular lows. Among them, the three candidates who joined rabidly antigay preacher Kevin Swanson at a bizarre religious conference in Iowa the other day, specif ically Mssrs Jindal, Cruz and Huckabee.

Swanson can be seen on video ranting and spitting about homosexuals, vampires, cannibals, witches and the other ne’er do wells who increasingly threaten American society. And he has come close to backing capital punishment for gays and lesbians.

This kind of lunacy did not stop our three Christian soldiers from sharing a stage with the man who called for a boycott on Girl Scout cookies because they promote lesbianism.

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio has hired evangelical Eric Teetsel to serve as his campaign’s director of faith outreach.

“The highest court in the land has done more than merely allow for citizens to do wrong; it has bestowed its imprimatur to homosexuality as both an identity and a way of life,” Teetsel lamented after the High Court’s marr iage r ul ing. “A sig nif icant cu lt u r a l i mped i ment ha s been removed, and so sin will spread. This (continued on page 30)

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Thanksgiving Recipe to Harvest Gratitude

By Kit Kennedy, San Francisco Bay Times Poet-in-Residence

With a whisper from Fall, my mind paints gourds, pumpkins and squashes, delighting in their names: butternut, acorn, Cinderella,

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Sugar Pie & Sweet Dumpling. Then I move into the upper realm of trees: pomegranate and persimmon.

But lately the mid-realm interests me.

Consider the corporeal grace of grapes—crimson, black, blue-black, yellow, green. The love of the grape and the lover who plucks them has been going on for close to 8,000 years.

Ask any cook. Harvest is best celebrated in the kitchen. So, while trying a new squash recipe, freeze bunches of red seedless grapes. Don’t skimp. Like treasured kisses, offer your lover frozen sweetmeats one at a time and remember long after the harvest, the living doesn’t stop. The same is true of gratitude.

PHOTO BY STACEY BOOM

Kit Kennedy is also Poet-in-Residence at herchurch Ebenezer Lutheran. She has published 5 poetry collections, and for the past several years she has hosted the poetry series at Gallery Café.

For more information, please visit her blog: http://poetrybites.blogspot.com

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GivingThanks Get Your Pilgrim On to unwrapping fowl and peeling potatoes and cracking open cans of cranberry and corn and pumpkin. We made two trips to the Co-op for forgotten provisions, including the roasting pan. The turkey was foilstewed, the crescent rolls Pillsbury, the spices McCormick powder. In an era when stale hotdog rolls were our primary staple, the whole hot feast eaten from bar stools at our kitchen counter seemed like a miracle.

East Side Story Heidi Beeler There’s a nip in the air, a splash of gold in the foliage. As dawn leans in close toward dusk and our grocer’s aisles fill with squashernalia, we’re getting our Pilgrim on for 2015.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Not so much the dinners of national and familial obligation growing up, where we sat at the Children’s Table over stiffening potatoes and waited until everyone finished eating before we could go play.

Since moving after college to the West Coast, though, I and my best-friend-sinceelementary-school Karen and her MIT bestie Barbara found ourselves separated from our families and discovered the true meaning of Thanksgiving.

If you think about it, Thanksgiving isn’t really about going home. You can’t get into the true Pilgrim spirit until you’ve traveled thousands of miles to a place you’ve never seen before. There, you sit down with the friends you brought and the new neighbors you found and put whatever you’ve got on the table and thank the heavens your larder had that.

That’s what Karen, Barbara and I did, Thanksgiving 1984. We were refugees from the East Coast in the strange land of California. Flying another 3,000 miles so soon before Christmas was unthinkable, so we piled into the little bootleg apartment in Berkeley Karen and I rented, opened the Betty Crocker Cookbook and set

Each year after that first counter-top Thanksgiving, our cooking repertoire grew. Cheesecloth and butter basting and fresh rosemary, thyme and sage were added to the turkey’s accessory list. Mixed greens salad with blue cheese and walnuts and fresh Brussels sprouts took the vegetables out of the canned foods aisle. Karen, whose eyes gleam and sharpen at the sight of a cooking turkey, was quickly named Official Carver and was presented with an electric carving knife. Sometimes Karen’s boyfriend Joe flew out from grad school, or her brother skipped a Tahoe ski trip, or friends from work or school dropped in.

The central ingredients stayed the same, though: Karen, Barbara, me and a turkey stuffed into a Bay Area apartment.

In 1991, the year our Thanksgiving hit its 7-year itch, it looked like our Bay Area colony might disband. Karen moved to Southern California that August to be with Joe, and Barbara left the Bay Area for a post-doc in Madison, WI. When Official Carver Karen offered to cook a turkey in L.A., I packed my cat and a sleeping bag into my little blue pickup truck at 4 am and high-tailed it south. It was our most efficient Thanksgiving on record. Joe put the turkey on the table as I stepped into their apartment around noon. We finished a plate, commented on how tired we were, and crashed on the floor on sleeping bags not 3 feet from the table for a nap.

Berkeley/SF and, after Barbara settled post-post-doc back west, San Diego.

The guest list ebbed and flowed with the circumstances of our lives. There was the Thanksgiving where Freedom Band members sat in every nook and cranny of my Berkeley flat. The year Karen and Joe unveiled their weddinggift dining room table. The year we met Barbara’s partner, Lee, along with her new hamster running in his ball on the ceramic tile under our feet. The year my vegetarian partner-now-wife added tofu loaf and bread upma to the menu and later various siblings and parents to the guest list.

It is this kaleidoscope of friends, family and food that I most love about Thanksgiving. For us, it has become a gathering of chosen family, a day to give thanks for the people around the table with a wisp of sage in the air.

And that’s something to celebrate.

East Bay-based rumpet player Heidi Beeler has been a member of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band since 1991. She is also a founding member of the Dixieland Dykes +3. For more information, please visit www.sflgfb. org or www.facebook.com/sflgfb

1991 might not have been our most Martha-Stewart-sanctioned Turkey Day, but it did mark a paradigm shift. That year, our Bay Area holiday expanded to cover California, shifting annually between L.A.,

Cultivating Gratitude, Even After Loss How lucky am I and how grateful I am for all that I have. This feeling of gratitude, a deep experience of joy and appreciation for my life, stayed with me and nurtured me across the arc of my day.

Aging in Community Marcy Adelman I grew up in New England where glorious autumn colors and crisp clear days filled me with joy and gratitude for all the people and things in my life. It has always been my favorite time of year. Even now, many miles and years away from those early days of my childhood, the fall remains a special time of the year for me. Just the other morning, as I drove past the palm trees on Cesar Chavez Street on the way to my office, I couldn’t help but laugh and smile (palm trees in San Francisco often have that effect on me) and thought, how much I love this city I live in, the people I know, love and work with, and the work that I do.

There have been a few times in my life when I have lost the capacity for experiencing gratitude—the death of my late partner more than a decade ago was one of those times. Initially, grief disrupted my natural balance. Finding my sense of gratitude and the joy of being alive was essential to my recovery and healing from loss. In time, my recovery provided me with a sustaining sense of the strength of my own resiliency, and reaffirmed my belief in the interconnectedness of all things. It isn’t easy staying open to painful losses or challenging experiences. You can do it, but you have to choose it.

This holiday season, remember to take time to reflect on and appreciate the good in your life. Gratitude opens us up to the best in ourselves and each other. If you feel you are sliding into a depression or suffering from a loss, you are not alone.

If you live in the Bay Area and need to speak with someone immediately, call Suicide Prevention’s 24-hour crisis counseling phone line, 415-781-0500.

If you are over the age of 60, call the Institute on Aging’s 24-hour Friendship phone line, 415-752-3778. And, if you or a loved one are in crisis and need immediate attention, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

For a referral and/or to make an appointment for counseling, call any of the following numbers: Institute on Aging provides short-term individual and group mental health services for people aged 60 plus, call 415750-4111 API Wellness Transgender Mental Health Services, 415-292-3400 Lyon-Martin Health Services for women, lesbian and transgender people of all ages, call 415-565-7667, http://www.sfccc.org/ lyon-martin-health-services/ Gaylesta, LGBT mental health practitioners’ online referral service, http://www.gaylesta.org/locate-atherapist Openhouse provides a variety of support groups that are LGBT senior specific, 415296-8995 Family Service Agency provides individual psychotherapy and counseling for all ages

and caregiver support groups, 415-474-7310 For referral and assistance in the East Bay: Pacific Center for Human Growth is the East Bay’s LGBTQ mental health service agency, 510-548-8283 The Woman’s Therapy Center provides individual and group mental health services for all women, 510-524-8288, http://womenstherapy.org/ And lastly, a heartfelt thank you to you. It takes community to age well and the spirit, generosity, strength and wisdom of our community is a constant source of inspiration to me. May your holidays be filled with grace and love.

Marcy Adelman, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in private practice, is co-founder of the non-profit organization Openhouse and was a leading member of the San Francisco LGBT Aging Policy Task Force.

SF Suicide Prevention Hotline (415) 781-0500 Institute on Aging Friendship Line (415) 752-3778

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Legendary photographer Irene Young, who was featured on the front page of the San Francisco Bay Times first issue of 2015 ( January 8), is known for her ability to create timeless images capturing important moments in our lives. Especially noted for her photography of Women’s Music artists, with her works featured in Bay Area exhibits this year, she is also known for her commissioned photography for wedding couples, families and civic and political leaders. Learn more about Irene Young and her images by visiting her website and Facebook page: http://ireneyoungfoto.com facebook.com/irene.young.foto

Friends, family and supporters of lesbian icon Phyllis Lyon gathered on Saturday, November 7, in Berkeley at the home of her sister to celebrate Phyllis’ 91st birthday and enjoy lunch, conversation and laughter together. Top left: daughter Kendra, Phyllis and sister Patricia. Right: Son-in-law Eugene, friends Pan, Diane and Oscar; Pauline and singer/songwriter Margie Adam. The photos were created in an exclusive to the San Francisco Bay Times by photographer Irene Young with coordination assistance by Margie Adam.

Daughters of Bilitis: Pioneers for Lesbian Dignity and Human Rights

Rainbow Honor Walk Dr. Bill Lipsky In October 1955, when no one was allowed to say “pregnant” on television and homosexuality could not be presented on the silver screen, four lesbian couples gathered in a San Francisco home to establish a new and very different organization they called the Daughters of Bilitis. Their hope was to create an alternative to the bars, frequently raided by the police, where lesbians could meet each other without fear of being harassed or arrested for being themselves. It quickly became something much, much more, however: the first homophile organization for women in the United States.

The women named their new group in honor of the supposed author of The Songs of Bilitis. Although they knew this contemporary of Sappho actually had never existed, the reference, they believed, would be meaningful only to like-minded women, and no one else, thereby protecting their privacy.

Besides, they thought the name “would sound like any other women’s lodge— you know, like Daughters of the Nile or the DAR…If anyone asked us, we could always say we belong to a poetry club.” Del Martin became the first president, Phyllis Lyon the first secretary. Leaders of the organization for most of its first decade, the two women came to more closely personify it than anyone else.

As a social club for lesbians, the group planned to have three events a month: a cordial gathering, a discussion group, and business meeting. Very quickly, however, as Martin later explained in

an interview, “The thrust of the DOB became educating the lesbian so she could cope with herself and society.” It was a simple to state, although not simple to achieve, goal.

The women showed exceptional bravery by creating an organization for lesbians. Sixty years later, the DOB’s objectives may seem modest, but as the historian Lillian Faderman wrote, “Its very establishment in the midst of witch-hunts and police harassment was an act of courage, since members always had to fear that they were under attack, not because of what they did, but merely because of who they were.”

From the beginning, many women hesitated to join the organization or even attend its meetings, concerned about what would happen if they were “exposed as perverts.”

At first the group met in private homes.

Directions to find them were vague. A greeter stood at the door, telling newcomers, “I’m ___. Who are you?

You don’t have to give me your real name, not even your real first name.”

The concern for privacy was well founded. One report in the FBI’s thick file for the DOB stated the organization was subversive because, “The purpose of [this group] is to educate the public to accept the Lesbian homosexual into society.” For the government of the 1950s, that alone gave it justification to beware of its doings.

The DOB’s achievements would have been remarkable in any time, but during an era when homosexuality was condemned by medical science, government authority, and social mores, they were exceptional. For women of a generation that, as Lesbian Studies pioneer Jeannette Foster put it, “concealed our gayness as if it were syphilis,” the organization first had to convince them that their personal lives would not become public knowledge.

Only then could it provide them with

vital information, help them to better understand themselves, and enable them to become more comfortable in the world around them, which it did.

In 1956, the women began The Ladder, the country’s first publication for lesbians and one of the most visible and important expressions of their existing in American society. Lyon was the first editor; Martin the first assistant editor.

A typical issue included news, essays, poetry, short stories, book reviews, letters from readers, and information about recent DOB meetings.

Occasionally it would devote an entire issue to the findings of a survey or study conducted by the organization’s own Research Committee. Another major accomplishment: the results presented some of the first objective information gathered about lesbians in the United States.

The Ladder was published continuously from 1956 until 1972, a remarkable achievement in itself. “For women who came across a copy in the early days,” the historian Marcia Gallo has written, “The Ladder was a lifeline. It was a means of expressing and sharing otherwise private thoughts and feelings, of connecting across miles and disparate daily lives, of breaking through isolation and fear.” For many, it was their only contact with the lesbian community, showing them that, as women who loved women, they were not alone in the world.

The contributions of the DOB to achieving human rights for lesbians and gays in the United States are immensely significant. Socially, the organization created some of the earliest opportunities for lesbians to meet and share their everyday concerns in privacy and safety, to learn honestly and objectively about themselves and about each other.

Emotionally, it enabled women who were isolated and felt alone in the

world to become part of a larger, understanding, supportive community.

Politically, before the feminist movement, before woman’s liberation, it initiated the long quest to achieve civil, equal, and human rights for all women. In all ways, it showed what a group of dedicated people could accomplish when let alone to be

themselves. Its pioneering work, its successes, and its legacy are integrally woven into the fabric of all that has followed.

Bill Lipsky, Ph.D., author of “Gay and Lesbian San Francisco” (2006), is a member of the Rainbow Honor Walk board of directors.

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OPEN ENROLLMENT IS NOVEMBER 1, 2015 TO JANUARY 31, 2016

A MONTHLY HIGHLIGHT FROM THE DE YOUNG AND LEGION OF HONOR

Luminous Worlds: British Works on Paper 1760–1900 In celebration of the recent exhibit J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free, the Legion of Honor presents an exhibition featuring drawings, watercolors, and oil sketches by Joseph Mallord William Turner and his contemporaries, including Thomas Gainsborough, John Robert Cozens, William Blake, John Constable, John Martin, and Samuel Palmer.

This installation emphasizes the rich holdings of the Fine Arts Museums’ Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, as well as important examples from private collections in San Francisco.

Luminous Worlds gathers about 40 works, ranging widely in subject matter and technique, which reveal the richness and versatility of British artistic production over the course of a century. The exhibition reflects the 18th-century vogue for portraiture and caricature; the rise of landscape painting, especially in watercolors; the Romantic engagement with themes from mythology and literature; and 19th-century Orientalism. Highlights include Gainsborough’s Upland Landscape with Figures, Riders, and Cattle (ca. 1780–1790), Sir Thomas Lawrence’s Portrait of Mrs. Sarah Siddons (ca.1790), Blake’s The Complaint of Job (ca.1786), and Turner’s View of Kenilworth Castle (ca.1830).

The exhibition, which runs through November 29, is curated by Emerson Bowyer, research assistant, European Paintings. For tickets and further information, please visit http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/exhibitions/luminous-worlds-british-works-paper

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Richard Dadd, “Bearded Man with a Pipe,” 1842-1843. Watercolor on paper. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, museum purchase, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Endowment Fund

You're Invited!

8th Annual Silicon LGBT Valley Movie Night Sunday, November 15, 4pm Camera 12 Cinemas 201 South Second Street San Jose, CA Tickets: www.defrankcenter.org or 650-316-1945

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SPONSORED BY SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND GILEAD

High Schoolers React to the LesbianThemed Movie Freeheld

Student- 12th Grade In their most recently premiered film, Freeheld, Ellen Page and Julianne Moore delivered a simply touching performance that was based on a true story about a civil rights case. Moore portrayed late Ocean County police lieutenant, Laurel Hester. Page played Hester’s spouse, Stacie Andree.

Hester was a 23-year veteran of the Ocean County police force and had earned much respect for her work on numerous cases. Although Hester was a lesbian, she kept her personal life a secret as she felt that her sexuality would interfere with how her coworkers perceived her.

Hester discovered very quickly that she was a lesbian, but because being gay was not celebrated or openly accepted, she kept this information private. Same-sex marriage had not been legalized, yet so many members of the LGBTQ community did not feel comfortable coming out, as they feared they might be harassed or lose their jobs because of their sexuality Hester demanded the respect she deserved from all around her, and her professionalism got her extremely far in her career in law enforcement. In 2000, Hester met her future partner and wife, Stacie Andree, who was 19 years younger than Hester. They travelled outside of New Jersey to officiate their domestic partnership and lived their lives as a normal, happy couple.

Unexpectedly to her, though clearly foreshadowed in the film, Hester was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2004, and was told that she only had a short time to survive.

Using her time sparingly, Hester requested that her pension benefits be left to her domestic partner of 5 years, Stacie. Her request was shortly thereafter denied. New Jersey counties had the option of granting extended pension benefits, but the Ocean County Freeholders did not recognize the legitimacy of the couple’s union. After the state’s LGBT civil rights organization joined forces to fight for Hester, the case became more apparent to the Freeholders that their decisions might have been unjust. After multiple appeals and much advocacy for Hester’s pension, the Freeholders reversed their decision and met on January 25, 2006, to extend pension benefits to registered domestic partners.

her cause. The chemistry of the two actors was extremely apparent in their roles, and because of this authenticity, this film was able to cover an aspect of lesbians in film differently as compared to the stereotypical, oversexualized perceptions usually found in media.

This story brought to my attention the need for social justice surrounding the LGBTQ community. One question came to mind: why do people have to fight so hard for the rights they are already guaranteed? Even after the equal protection clause of the Constitution was created when the 14th Amendment was ratified, people still try to argue that their rights are more important than those of minorities or those who do not conform to a binary construct of society. Who is to say that you are more equal than the person standing next to you? I believe that Laurel Hester’s fight for equal treatment was an incredible step for the gay community, but the last question I have to ask is: who decides whose opinion is right, and how can we further equal protection in society?

Student- 12th Grade On the evening of October 7, 2015, many students of Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts were invited to attend the premiere of Freeheld at the historic Castro Theatre.

This invitation was extended to students such as myself, due to our involvement in the first LGBTQ Studies course offered in San Francisco Public Schools. This film went along with the key theme of the class, which was the recognition of LGBTQ struggles and success in history.

The main roles of the movie were played by two very influential actors: Julianne Moore, who besides acting, has taken on the role of an activist; and Ellen Page, herself a representative of the LGBTQ community and an activist. The film opens with a police officer succeeding in a huge drug bust. By starting the film in this manner, it shows the portrayal of the character, Laurel Hester, as a successful police officer, respected and seen by her peers as one of them, rather than defined by her sexual orientation. It is later revealed that she is romantically interested in women.

Her interests are not played out as if they were out of the ordinary, because they should not be portrayed any differently from that of an heterosexual person. Just as Julianne Moore’s character, Laurel Hester, is always smoking a cigarette, which subtly foreshadows

I was moved by Hester’s plea for her civil rights. In her fight for equal rights and protection, the lieutenant remained grounded and honest. All that she wanted was equal treatment, nothing more. Moore delivered an effective performance that made me believe in

Fitness SF Trainer Tip of the Month From Cristina Araujo, Fitness SF Fillmore Trainer “Don’t be afraid of lifting heavy weight. Although simple, the squat is the king of all exercises. Perform squats for stronger glutes and quads.”

PHOTO BY JO LYNN OTTO

Teacher Lyndsey Schlax of the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts is teaching the nation’s first onsite high school LGBT course, according to district officials. In this column, students from her class will be anonymously sharing with the San Francisco Bay Times their thoughts about related matters, and what they are learning in the groundbreaking course, “LGBTQ Studies.”

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Legends, Mysteries, and Musicians

FREE FOR KIDS!

The Composer is Dead narrated by Dr. Robert Greenberg with music by Nathaniel Stookey and text by Lemony Snicket

Student Voices the later unfortunate diagnosis, the film’s treatment of her sexuality foreshadows the support she will later gain.

The director, Peter Sollett, in each scene thoughtfully uses every opportunity given for character development.

Even in the first date between the two characters, we learn how they react to new situations. Laurel Hester clearly shows her strong need for control, and her reactions to situations when she feels a loss of control. She begins to let go of control when she falls for Ellen Page’s character, Stacie Andree, showing her eternal love for her partner.

The actions that follow this turning point of the film are no longer based on her own personal interests. It is not for Laurel Hester’s own interests that she fights for the right of her pension; it is all done for her partner.

Edna Brewer Middle School students

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Music of Griesinger, Debussy and Bernstein

Sunday, November 15, 2015, 4:00 PM Lake Merritt United Methodist Church 1330 Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland Tickets $15 adults $10 seniors $25 for two No one turned away Tickets available at http://cwoconcert.brownpapertickets.com

Not only is this a great representation of a healthy lesbian relationship, but it is also the reenactment of a historical event. By seeing both perspectives, the injustice of the ruling is brought to light. No one should have to struggle for their given rights in such a time of loss. The audience has a chance to grow in their understanding of struggles of hidden communities.

This film was very touching to me because of my own sexual orientation.

It is rare that I see representation of healthy lesbian relationships in the media. Although it gave me much strength, it also showed how it is my responsibility to stand up for my own rights in order to help my community.

I do feel scared of who I am from time to time, because it is a terrifying concept to identify as someone who is looked down upon in many places, misrepresented in the media and seemingly unrecognized. Freeheld brought much hope, as well as a warning of injustice.

For more information about the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, please visit http://www.sfsota.org/ Lyndsey Schlax has been a teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District since 2008. She is uniquely qualif ied to address multiple areas of LGBT studies, having also specialized in subjects such as Modern World History, Government, Economics and U.S. Politics. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, and earned her M.A. in Teaching at the University of San Francisco.

San Francisco Bay Times welcomes Troy Macfarland of Fitness SF as a contributor. Troy provides monthly tips he’s learned from his colleagues who are professional trainers at local gyms.

He can be reached at tmacfarland@fitnesssf.com BAY T IM ES NOVEM BER 12, 2015

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Round About - NLCR’s Music & Conversation with Sara Ramirez

Photos by Trish Tunney for NCLR

Grey’s Anatomy fans joined NCLR leaders and supporters in welcoming Tony Award winner Sara Ramirez, who portrays the character Callie Torres MD, to the SF LGBT Community Center on Saturday, November 7. The event, a benefit supporting NCLR’s Ruth Ellis Women of Color Circle, also featured artist Maya Jupiter and the group Cambalache performing a set specifically planned for the evening, celebrating the past year’s history-making achievements in LGBT rights. To learn more about The Ruth Ellis Circle, visit: nclrights.org

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From the Coming Up Events Calendar See page 28 Now through November 15 - Pound - Marga Gomez’s hit show at Brava Theater www.brava.org

Friday, November 20 - Smuin Ballet’s Christmas Ballet kicks off at Lesher Center for the Arts www.smuinballet.org

Remastering Women’s Music in Political Times “Gripping” feminist energy literally resulted from a recent meaningful handshake and meeting between Margie Adam and Hillary Clinton.

Adam, who is based in the Bay Area and is one of the lesbian feminist architects of the Women’s Music movement, spoke with Clinton at a Hillary for America event on September 28 in Orinda, CA. As Clinton grasped her hand, Adam looked right into the Presidential candidate’s eyes and said, “I am carrying a message of support from thousands of lesbian feminists who believe in you and will have your back every day until you are elected President of the United States.”

For those of us who have drawn strength, healing and inspiration from Adam’s transcendent music over the years, we trust her every word.

Fast forward to this year, which marks the 40th anniversary of Women’s Music, and Adam is still as driven and passionate as ever. Her keynote speech at the 40th National Women’s Music Festival drew thunderous applause.

Entitled “Radical Feminist Leadership: Lessons from Women’s Music,” it can be heard and read in its entirety online (http://www.margieadam.com/info/ nwmf_2015.htm).

We are also thrilled to report that Margie Adam. Songwriter., as well as the instrumental album Naked Keys, were recently remastered. Songwriter features a veritable who’s who of Women’s Music, given that music greats such as Linda Tillery, the late Kay Gardner, Vicki Randle, Meg Christian and Woody Simmons contributed to the recordings.

First released in 1980, Naked Keys is a piano tour de force showcasing Adam’s mastery of the instrument. From ethereal meditative moments to fiery speaker-shaking passages, the album’s emotional range takes listeners on an unforgettable journey. Naked Keys was an immediate critical and commercial success that paved the way for countless other innovative instrumental albums that followed. We recently caught up with Adam to find out more about these recordings and her thoughts concerning the evolution of lesbian feminist culture.

San Francisco Bay Times: We can’t wait to experience Songwriter and Naked Keys

PHOTO BY IRENE YOUNG

The daughter of classical pianist Harriet McCollum, Adam began her career as a professional musician in 1973 with a performance at the Sacramento Women’s Music Festival.

The following year, she co-headlined the National Women’s Music Festival in Illinois with Meg Christian and Cris Williamson. In 1976, Adam’s first solo album, Margie Adam. Songwriter., coincided with a fifty-city tour that concluded with a performance of her song “We Shall Go Forth” at the National Women’s Conference in Houston. The lesbian feminist anthem is now part of the Political History archives in the Smithsonian Museum. again anew. Please explain what “remastered” means exactly.

Margie Adam: We recorded Margie Adam. Songwriter. wa-a-a-y back in the day—in 1976—on very large, threeinch tape providing twenty-four individual instrumental/vocal tracks that produced a very clean and true sound.

These tracks were mixed down onto a much smaller two-track tape (stereo sound!), which was then transferred onto a metal plate that stamped out vinyl LPs. Boom! With each one of these transfers, the sound quality of the original recording deteriorated to some degree. When CDs came along, that two-track analog tape sound went through a major transformation to a digital format. The sound quality deteriorated even more. The 21st century has brought with it better sound transfer technology so that the remastered versions of Songwriter and Naked Keys’ sound is closer to the original recordings.

San Francisco Bay Times: What led to the decision to remaster these two CDs? Margie Adam: I’ll give it to you in a meander: Sometime after the turn of the millennium, in the midst of traveling solo to Scotland and Wales year after year, visiting Neolithic stone circles here and there, working with the labyrinth and incorporating labyrinth walks more and more into my performances, I slipped into a new region of

possibility. After 2008, I stopped performing in concert and put myself in a PhD-Psychology program. When I came out the other side, I opened a private practice in counseling here in the Bay Area. I work with people in early recovery, and in other life transitions. When I was asked to give the keynote speech at the 40th National Women’s Music Festival this summer, it struck me that even though I wouldn’t be performing, I could thank the women who had enjoyed and supported my music all those years by reissuing/remastering a snapshot of our era: Margie Adam. Songwriter.

San Francisco Bay Times: Wasn’t Best of Margie Adam remastered previously? How were you involved in the process?

Margie Adam: I remastered and released Best of Margie Adam in 2005. By then, the process was easier, cheaper, and the sound quality was improved.

Remastering Naked Keys this year was easy. I had already worked with that recording a few times since 1980, so this recent remaster was a kind of dusting off and fluffing up effort.

The challenge for me in remastering and re-issuing Songwriter was that I had not worked on the recording in 30 years. It meant climbing back into the recording—song by song, performance by performance—to sign off on the new sound transfer. Had I been able to

let my engineer/producer do the signing off, Songwriter would have been released decades ago. However, I was simply not capable of turning over that kind of control over my music to someone else. Seems like a crazy choice now, but I accept it. I also accept that I have history with each of these songs and that, more than any other album, Songwriter is loaded with complicated memories and lessons, some of which I knew I would bump up against in the remastering studio.

San Francisco Bay Times: Now that you’ve reissued Songwriter, have you any other thoughts about the experience?

Margie Adam: I had lunch with an old friend and mentor, Phyllis Lyon, and as a birthday gift, I put together a CD of her favorite songs, including “Tenderly” sung by Rosemary Clooney and Sarah Vaughan, “Secret Love” sung by Doris Day, and a song I wrote called “Best Friend - The Unicorn Song,” which is on the reissued/remastered Songwriter. These days, our visits are mostly focused on the present, but on this occasion, as she listened to

“Tenderly,” Phyllis became increasingly animated and happily sang along.

Toward the end of the song, she pointed at a famous photograph of her marriage to Del Martin. “There she is,” she said, smiling broadly. Then on came “The Unicorn Song” and we both sang along, holding hands. And as I sat there, I remembered the first time I saw Phyllis—sitting in the front row of a concert I was doing for Inez (continued on page 30)

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Time to Build Your Wings, or Trust and Fly? you need practice having more faith to fly, or do you need to ground, organize, and put out effort to build your wings?

Astrology Linda Amburgey With Neptune and Saturn squaring off with one another, our collective Cosmic lesson will be to integrate ordinary literal reality with the non ordinary realm of magic, faith, and mystery. In Muhammad’s words, “You must trust Allah, and tie your camel.” Sometimes we have to struggle and exert effort (Saturn) in order to get what we want, while other times it behooves us to place our trust in a higher order, knowing that everything is as it should be, and will come to fruition in its own time (Neptune). Manifesting requires both. Generally, we tend to start with our strong muscle, and because the square is a challenging aspect, you can expect the Cosmic professor to be testing and grading you on the right use of your weaker function. Do

ARIES (March 21–April 19) Practical steps will help you to organize your life into the direction that your soul is longing to experience. Tiny seeds are being planted deep within your psyche, made possible by the raw soil of decomposition and loss. It may feel like a passage through the dark night of you soul, but remember, a birth will occur in time.

TAURUS (April 20–May 20) What kind of people do you want in your life? It’s time to envision your new tribe as reflected by the calling of your soul’s needs.

Remember to do the hard work necessary to keep the tribe members that your soul needs, but your personality stubbornly refuses to see their value. Soul-mates help our souls to evolve, and sometimes that ain’t pretty!

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) This is a good time to seek out mentors who are willing to seed your path with hard truths that you are unwilling to accept.

Knowing limitation can actually expand your world by sharpening your instincts to follow the path you are unable to see yet. Imagine yourself

in a huge maze trying to navigate the same path over and over vs. a few attempts, and then redirecting your efforts.

CANCER ( June 21–July 22) Try not to play it so safe right now. You need to bounce the taboo ball around the forbidden court in order to understand the deeper and hidden desires of your being. Rather than sitting on your temple cushion while your devotees anoint your feet, belly up to the bar with your fellow heathens, and share in the debauchery for a bit. The spiritual purpose will come to light once your hangover subsides.

LEO ( July 23–August 22) Life isn’t as fun as your playful self might prefer, but there is a deep and profound transformation occurring at the center of your soul. Darkness is only the temporary absence of light, and its emergence, like winter, is a divine part of the cycle. When light eventually emerges, you will have more of yourself to share.

VIRGO (August 23–September 22) Externalizing and internalizing your sense of home will be much easier to bridge if you would be willing to say absolutely everything that crosses your mind.

Complete transparency will allow your words to freely express what is

not yet seen by your inner vision. Others will provide an illuminating holding tank simply by hearing your secrets.

LIBRA (September 23–October 22) Work and money are the areas that should have your current focus. New streams of revenue may begin to show promise, but will require your commitment to the vision as well as your patience and strength. Cultivate your capacity to understand when to inhale and hold your breath, and when to exhale and blow like hell.

SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) Although you may prefer to f ly under the radar, your visibility is undeniable right now. Those creative projects may begin to earn you a little cash, and those starry-eyed lovers will be captivated by your mystique. The essence of your true power does not have to be hidden from the world. Let it shine.

SAGITTA R IUS ( November 22–December 21) Trust your intuitive instincts as if your life depends on it! You are dialed into the Cosmic flow, and even the darker images that appear in your dream body are full of potential possibilities. Paying attention to that which occurs to you in your quiet time will light the path to decisions around real estate and cash flow.

CAPRICORN (December 22–January 19) Reach out to your friends for some social hang time. You need the pleasure and release of this support as you may find the burdens of work projects frustrating and exhausting.

The good medicine of time with your community may even bear the fruit of an important introduction to a special someone.

AQUARIUS ( January 20– February 18) Feel deeply into your secret desires to contribute something you deem valuable to the world. You are seeding the foundation that will serve as your new and improved platform, but you will also need to push your sleeves up and add sweat equity to this project. She who moves mountains starts by carrying away small stones.

PISCES (February 19–March 20) There will be a lot of expanding and contracting for you this month. Communing with your instinctive side, and spending time in the world of nature, will gain you the confidence needed to appreciate the contracted moments, knowing they are merely helping you consolidate your life force energy. You must apply effort beyond your comfort zone to make your mark.

Linda Amburgey has owned Crystal Way Metaphysical Center for 11 years, and has been an Intuitive Reader for 20 years. To book readings, on-going counseling for couples or individuals, events and parties, please e-mail her at ConsciousCounsel@gmail.com or call 415-218-5096.

As Heard on the Street . . . How do you plan to celebrate Thanksgiving?

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compiled by Rink

Gina Gatta

Suzan Revah

Dana Van Gorder

Toni Newman

Joanna Parks

“I will enjoy the holiday with my brother at the Russian River.”

“I will be with my family in Washington D.C.”

“Something new this year; we are going out for dinner.”

“I will be in Los Angeles with my husband.”

“My mother and I will enjoy Thanksgiving on Oahu.”

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Training Across Borders and no harm need come to anyone.

The larger aim is to cultivate inner wholeness, and peace within the entire human family. Typical outcomes of ‘I’m okay and you’re not,’ using muscle-power and often brute force, are just not good enough or acceptable!

The KiAi Way Jamie Leno Zimron I recently returned from a life-changing “Training Across Borders” (TAB 2015) Aikido seminar, held at Loutraki SportCamp just outside of Athens, Greece. TAB’s purpose is to enable people in conf lict to venture across borders that divide us, whether mental or geographic. By providing opportunities for seeming ‘enemies’ to meet on and off the Aikido mat, we are physically giving the philosophy of peace a chance!

The first TAB seminar was held in 2005 on the island of Cyprus, in the U.N. Buffer Zone created to stop the Turkish-Greek war there in 1974.

Sponsored by our non-prof it Aiki Extensions, it was an unprecedented experience. Participants came from the U.S. and Iraq (during the war), Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia, and Ethiopia. Just 4 days of training together in Cyprus served to launch the Middle East Aikido Project, establish Aikido in Palestine and Ethiopia, and inspire new cross-borders projects including ‘mini-TAB’ seminars and many fruitful collaborations with Budo (Martial Arts) For Peace programs.

TA B 2015 successfully celebrated these achievements, and set the stage for even greater and wider Aikido peace-building activity in the decade ahead. Loutraki provided a beautiful, communal venue for 5 days of joy-filled Aikido training, breakout sessions, camp-style eating and bunkhouses, and evening cultural activities. Aikido demos from every country, singing and dancing, and a Saturday night banquet and Talent Show added awesome f lavors to the seminar. Plus an outdoor Mediterranean café (with Wi-Fi!) became the perfect place for people to converse over coffee and sweets throughout the day and into the wee hours.

I’ve been involved with the TAB project from the start, as a core organizer and instructor. And I can hear you wondering—how can f ighting arts be a vehicle for cultivating peace between people/s?!

All martial arts deal with the nature of power, and how to respond to attack and conflict. The Ai in Aikido is a Japanese and Chinese kanji (character) that actually means love, harmony, unity. Ki means life-energy, and Do means The Way. The techniques of Aikido connect and move with an attacker rather than counterattacking, so that aggression can be neutralized

So what we have is both a non-violent philosophy and practice for deep personal growth, and win-win conf lict resolution. Aikido training, by its very nature, builds bridges. Imagine learning to respond to attack or threat by engaging your full power of integrated body-mind-emotion-spirit action—knowing that it is inherently loving and ultimately the greatest force on the planet! Picture yourself facing a strike or grab, or punch or kick, or nasty words, by developing the centered skills to keep yourself safe as well as even the misguided attacker. You could become an embodied force for effective peacemaking.

This may sound like a stretch or a tall order, but it’s do-able. And transformative. TAB is living proof that finding empathy and cooperation within conflict can lead to all kinds of unexpected fun and friendships, healing and healthier relationships.

Aikido specif ically brings humane values into physical practice. Dedicating to physical fitness and openheartedness tend to be good things for everyone. Sports For Peace is now a growing social movement, with more players in many sports creating transcultural, non-political, safe ‘relational spaces’ for people in conflict to actually meet. They appreciate the shared collective experience, non-verbal communication and direct physical contact that sports can provide. With the simple aim of coming to play and work together, they know that fearfilled separation can be transcended, and tensions and violence reduced.

United Nations peacekeeping operations make great use of sports to generate reconciliation. They effectively rebuild health and trust, and support both children and adult combatants and civilians in the re-integration process as the horrors of war subside.

The U.N.’s Sport For Peace & Development home page states: “Sport as a universal language can be a powerful tool to promote peace, tolerance and understanding by bringing people together across boundaries, cultures and religions. Its intrinsic values such as teamwork, fairness, discipline, respect for the opponent and the rules of the game are understood all over the world and can be harnessed in the advancement of solidarity, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence.”

My experience through TAB is that people would much prefer to mix things up and ‘fight it out for fun’ on a playing field than to maim and kill each other for real on bloody battlef ields. It’s just amazing to be with Christians, Muslims and Jews rolling around together on the Aikido mat, within the harmonizing inf luence of Buddhist philosophy and eastern body-mind practices! Back home in Amman after Athens, a dear Arab colleague of mine said:

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMIE ZIMRON

“At the beginning of TAB, people didn’t know so well how to meet the other people. But then on the mats, we met and expressed ourselves doing Aikido and we just knew each other.

We felt: I can do this, I can know you and you can know me. We saw each other as a human, as a person, not as a nationality or religion. Then we could talk! Now we have friends from other places, and we know them as people.”

Jamie Leno Zimron, Sensei

I doubt anyone at TAB 2015 will ever forget the demo by a teenage Bedouin girl in hijab (Muslim head scarf) with several Israeli and Palestinian boys, showing how to handle unwanted harassments. Or her karate teacher rolling smoothly and loving Aikido. Or (continued on page 30) BAY T IM ES NOVEM BER 12, 2015

27

compiled by Jennifer Mullen

See many more Calendar items @ www.sfbaytimes.com

• 12 : T HURSDAY

Pound - Brava Theater. $20. 8 pm.

(2781 24th St.) Performances Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and Sundays at 3 pm. GLAAD Award winning solo performer Marga Gomez plays a cast of characters in a spoof on lesbians in film history. Directed by David Schweizer. Through November 15. www.brava.org LGBT Ivy Alumni Holiday Mixer - The Press Club. Free. 6 pm. (20 Yerba Buena Ln.) Join other Bay Area Ivy Alumni for a holiday get together. http://tigernet.princeton.edu/~ffr-gala/AlternateEmail. html SF Transgender Film Festival - Roxie and Castro Theaters. $12–$15.Various times.

(3117 16th St. and 429 Castro St.) The festival showcases films that detail the complexity of lives lived on the transgender spectrum. http://sftff.org/calendar/

• 13 : F RIDAY

Blame Sally, Catie Curtis, and Maia Sharp: Voices United Benefit - Freight and Salvage (Berkeley). $42–$55. 8 pm.

(2020 Addison St.) A benefit for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. http://www. freightandsalvage.org/voices-unitedcatie-curtis-blame-sally-maia-sharp

• 14 : S ATURDAY

Wise Women - Showcase Theater at Marin Civic Center, San Rafael. $28.50–$33.50. 8 pm. Nina Wise, Sylvia Boorstein and Anna Halprin present illuminating talk and enlightening theater. http://tickets. marincenter.org/

Blame Sally will perform at Freight and Salvage on Friday the 13th.

The Magic Flute - SF Opera. $36–$255. 7:30 pm. (301 Van Ness Ave.) A noble prince sets out to rescue a beautiful princess in this opera. www.sfopera.com Mr. SF Eagle 2016 Contest – Eagle. Free. 5 pm. (398 12th St.) The winner will go on to represent the Eagle in the Mr. SF Leather Contest.

Deadline to apply November 13. http://sf-eagle.com/storm/mrsfeagle-application.html The 12th Another Hole in the Head Film Festival – New People Cinema. $12–$15. 7 pm.

Day number nine of the 11 days of independent horror, sci-fi and fanta-

sy with 26 features and 90 short films. Through November 16. http://sfindie.com San Jose Holiday Art Market - The Historic Reed House. Free. 11 am–4 pm. (328 North Sixth St.) A unique arts and crafts fair with incredible products by a select group of Bay Area artists for sale just in time for the holidays. On Sunday too. https://www.facebook.com/ events/1652951968295120/

• 15 : S UNDAY

8th Annual Sillicon Valley Movie Night - Camera 12 Cinemas (San Jose). $25–$50. 4 pm. (201 South Second St.) Join 300 attendees for a screening of Spectre and a reception at Moscaic restaurant, with proceeds benefiiting the Billy DeFrank Community Center. http://www.defrankcenter. org/events/8th-annual-movie-fundraiser 6th Annual Fall Chocolate Salon - Fort Mason Center, The General’s Residence. $25. 10 am–5 pm. (1 Fort Maston Cntr.) The Fall Chocolate Salon participants include over 30 chocolatiers, confectioners, wineries and other culinary artisans. www.FallChocolateSalon.com Becoming Grace: Naomi Newman’s Solo Performance home of Kirstin Falke-Boyd in Berkeley. $20. 4 pm. (1936 Thousand Oaks Blvd.) Using the words from Grace Paley’s short stories, Newman creates a portait of the author. Email gentookb@ icloud.com

• 16 : M ONDAY

Monday Night Marsh - The Marsh. $8. 7:30 pm. (1062 Valencia St.) An ongoing works-in-progress series, featuring local emerging solo performers, musicians, playwrights and entertainers. Happening every Monday. www.themarsh.org Hella Close: Stories of Fat 28

BAY TIMES NOVEMB E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Queer Intimacy - Magnet. Free. 7 pm. (4122 18th St.) Join RADAR Productions for Part III of their three-part series, Hella Close, featuring various poets and artists. https://www.facebook.com/ events/1202593506434032

• 17 : T UESDAY

Thunderdome - Stagewerx. $5. 8 pm. (446 Valencia St.) Every Tuesday, a rotating cast of teams goes head to head for a night of theater and comedy. www.stagewerx.org 50/50 Poetry Nights: Presented by Intersection for the Arts - Tenderloin Museum.

Free. 7:30 pm. (398 Eddy St.) The last night of poetry readings, hosted

by Nomadic Press and featuring Tonga Eisen-Martin, Arisa White, Zack Haber, J.K. Fowler and legacy poet Shar Rednour www.tenderloinmuseum.org

Books Store Collective. Free. 7pm.

Writing The Walls Down explores the physical and metaphorical significance of walls within the LGBTQ community. http://moderntimesbookstore.com/events/ Out of the Box opening reception - a.Muse gallery. Free.

5:30–9:00 pm. (614 Alabama St.) An eclectic art exhibit designed with giving in mind featuring Bay Area artists Julie Blankenship, Rachel Phillips, Inez Storer (Courtesy Seager Gray Gallery), Hilary Williams, Silvi Alcivar, Michelle Indiana Anderson, Alex Garcia, and David King.” Through January 6. https://www.facebook.com/ events/1923640737860216/ Nightlife - California Academy of Sciences. $12. 6–10 pm. (55 Music Concourse Dr.) Enjoy a fun evening of science, cocktails and live music. www.calacademy.org

• 18 : W EDNESDAY • 20 : F RIDAY

Shakespeare Goes To War Thick House. $5. 7:30 pm. (1695 18th St.) High-school student Jack is inspired by his English teacher, who exposes him to Shakespere, acting, and the theater. Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm. Through November 28. www.therhino.org/

Free Film Screening of The People’s Palace - SF City Hall.

Free. 7 pm. (1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl.) The People’s Palace: San Francisco City Hall 100 Years commemorates a civic building, its architecture and the dramatic events that have taken place under its dome. http://www.eventbrite. com/e/the-peoples-palace-san-francisco-city-hall-documentary-screening-tickets-18538887311

• 19 : T HURSDAY

Helen Klonaris and Amir Rabiyah in Writing The Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices - Modern Times

Smuin Ballet kicks off The Christmas Ballet in Walnut Creek - Lesher Center for the Arts. Smuin Ballet lights up the holidays with its annual yuletide event.

8 pm. $56-$73. (1601 Civic Drive) At 2 pm and 8 pm on Saturday. http://smuinballet.org/buy-ticketsfor-the-20152016-season/holidaydance-program-the-christmas-ballet/ San Francicso, Mi Amor Galeria de la Raza. $15. 8 pm. (2857 24th St.) Monica Palacios performs with Rene Yanez in a comedic look back at her career during a remarkable time in LGBTQ and Chicana history. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monica-palacios-san-francisco-mi-amortickets-18909505841

• 21 : S ATURDAY

Peaches Christ’s Addams Family Values with Sharon Needles and Jinkx Mosoon The Castro Theatre. $32– $140. 3 pm and 8 pm. (429 Castro St.) Peaches Christ invites you to

Help4Holidays14-BayTimesAd.qxp_Dances from the Heart Poster 11/6/15 4:01 PM Pa

attend the world premiere of a new theatrical showcase. Starring the incredibly family un-friendly talents of Heklina, Manuel Caneri and many more. http://store.peacheschrist.com/products/158-addamsfamily-values.aspx Giving Benefit Concert: Poetry, Music and Images Tiburon Community Room. Sliding scale. 3 pm. (1505 Tiburon Blvd.) To support the Safe House Education (S.H.E.) College Fund. Kim Rosen and special guests Jennifer Berezn and Barbara Borden. RSVP to mindfulpsychotherapyandconsult @gmail.com The Great Dickens Christmas Fair – Cow Palace Exhibition Halls. $25–$90. 10 am–7 pm. (2600 Geneva Ave.) An elaborate party with hundreds of costumed players performing and interacting with patrons in over 120,000 square feet. Through December 20. http://www.dickensfair.com/

• 22 : S UNDAY

Bartok, Barber and Hope Briggs - Herbst Theatre. $25. 3 pm. (401 Van Ness Ave.) Soprano Hope Briggs joins Symphony Parnassus in its first concert of the 2015-2016 season. http://tinyurl. com/ovqa4vb Mindful Eating for the Holidays - Center for Stress Reduction in Oakland. $90. 1:30– 5:30 pm. (5845 College Ave., #2) Learn how to eat for the brain and for happiness, not weight. http://www.centerforstressreduction.com/holiday-mindful-eating. html Unicorn: A Monthly Queer Party - Powerhouse. Free. 6 pm.

(1347 Folsom St.) View and hear the works of Abominatrix, Laundra Tyme Phatima Rude and Dakota Pendent with beats by DJ Sailor Saturn. https://www.facebook.com/ events/854821367966001

✵

✵

DEC. 7, 2015

MARINES MEMORIAL THEATRE

✵

BENEFITING

AGUILAS & LARKIN STREET

✵

YOUTH SERVICES

✵

FEATURING

STEVE GRAND ‘All American Boy’ MARTHA WASH The original ‘Weathergirl’ MARY WILSON from the origninal “Supremes” SHARON MCNIGHT Tony nominee JAKE SIMPSON 2-time Star Search champion SHAWN RYAN America’s Got Talent’s JASON BROCK X-Factor star ✵ LEA BOURGADE Violinist RUSS LORENSEN & CARLY OZARD JESSICA COKER

✵

Cabaret stars

THE PHANTOM’S LEADING LADIES ~ OTHERS TO BE ANNOUNCED ~

VIP After Party at Clift Hotel 495 Geary Street, San Francisco

with DJ Steve Fabus of GoBang!

Sponsored by Celebrity Cruises TICKETS HelpisontheWay.org

This November at the Market!

ALL MONTH: Canned food and clothing drive!

Drop off any donations at the info booth, and at the end of the month we will donate it all to a local fire station.

NOVEMBER 18: Check out what our producers are cookin' up. Stop by the info booth for recipes submitted by your favorite vendors, using their seasonal products.

NOVEMBER 25: The market will be OPEN the day before Thanksgiving! Pick up your last minute produce, breads, and sweet treats before Turkey Day. CORACAO CONFECTIONS: Craving some hot chocolate? Local, organic, vegan hot chocolate to be exact. Grab your biggest mug and get some while its hot! pcfma.org

1.800.949.FARM F

fb.com/castrofarmersmarket

CALIFOR NIA REVELS PRESENTS THE 30TH ANNUAL

A VENETIAN MASQUE

Celebrating the Winter Solstice in Renaissance Italy Two Weekends: December 11 – 13 & 18–20, 2015 Ticket prices start at just $20.

Scottish Rite Theater on Lake Merritt, Oakland californiarevels.org 510.452.9334

• 23 : M ONDAY

Piano Bar 101 - Martuni’s. Free.

9 pm. (4 Valencia St.) Sing along to your favorite songs with friends and patrons. 415-241-0205 Benefit for the Riptide Bar with The Sam Chase & The Untraditional, Tom and Richard Frost (of Powder) and Whograss - Slim’s. $18–$43.

7 pm. Event to benefit the Riptide, whose property experienced fire damage earlier this year, as well as collect food items for the SF Food Bank. https://www.facebook.com/ events/1024306187632510/

• 24 : T UESDAY

Spreading Rolligon - LGBT Roller Disco - Church 8. $10. 7 pm–10 pm. (554 Fillmore St.) An LGBT roller skating disco happening every Tuesday. 415-752-1967. www.sfgay.org/spreading-rolligionlgbt-roller-disco-e2266691

• 25 : W EDNESDAY

Chanting Evening for Women - Rudramandir. $20. 7 pm. (830 Bancroft Way) Jennifer Berezan’s song circle with women – open chanting with guests Barbara Borden and Evelie Posch. Sing, dance, chant and meditate with other women on Thanksgiving eve.

bles for purchase. (Noe St. between Beaver and Market Streets) Through December 16. https://www.facebook.com/CastroFarmersMarket

(Pierce and Clay Streets). Every Wednesday. Join these free halfhour workouts that vary each week. https://www.facebook.com/ NovemberProjectSF

Free Outdoor Workout: Stairs, Core & Endurance Alta Plaza Park. Free. 6:30 am.

Castro Farmer’s Market Noe Street. Free. 4–8 pm Every Wednesday night throughout the season, the Castro Farmers’ Market offers California fruit and vegetaBAY T IM ES NOVEM BER 12, 2015

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ROSTOW (continued from page 13 )

SISTER DANA (continued from page 11) sftff.org/2015-festival-schedule/ LADY BUNNY appears in PIG IN A WIG! at SF Oasis November 18th21st, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 7:30pm. Bunny told me in a recent interview, “The show contains my usual raunchy humor and digs at pop culture. And as someone who has performed one woman shows in SF since Josie’s Juke Joint (where a pre-drag Cookie Dough aka Eddie Bell did my sound!), I do an ode to SF of days gone by in an actually touching and rousing version of ‘I’m Still Here’ with a shout-out to both Cookie and Arturo Galster, who slayed with his famous Patsy Cline impression at Wigstock for a couple years.” She continued, “And like San Franciscans, New Yorkers are wondering what happened to their city. And personally, I’m wondering how we became so politically correct that we can’t laugh. So I’m making daffy digs at Caitlyn

Jenner, RuPaul’s Drag Race, cell phone addiction, Kim Davis, and more.” Catch the always clever Bunny at 298 11th Street. Hop to it! sfoasis. com Peaches Christ Productions Proudly Presents ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES with the deliriously creepy and kooky Pre-Screening Parody Spectacular, Addams Apple Family Values starring Sharon Needles, Jinkx Monsoon & Peaches Christ at The Castro Theatre, November 21st at 3pm and 8 pm. Audience members are encouraged to don their best skintight black couture, and be sure to get a few drinks at the Camp Chippewa bar. peacheschrist.com MATERIALS OF SURVIVAL is artist/photographer GRAHAME PERRY’s exploration of the issues of HIV and long term survival at Magnet, 18th & Castro, through

November. It comes from the personal and communal experiences of being a long-term HIV survivor and ties it into the broader ideas of illness, stigma, health and survival. Fantastical depictions of pills, bottles, prescriptions, vials, and other paraphernalia provide a colorful, but poignant, visual vocabulary with which the artist tells his own story of struggle, uncertainty, memory, and survival. Most outstanding are his use of thousands of obituaries, and panels from the Names Project, creating two large works, Every AIDS Obituary and Healing Quilt.

Sister Dana sez, “Our democracy is in crisis, with voter turnout at an abysmal low. And with the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act in 2013, things are only getting worse. But there is one simple thing President Obama can do: He can sign an executive order to make Election Day 2016 a federal holiday, like it already is in so many other countries.”

is regrettable because sin, of course, leads to suffering. As our LGBT neighbors continue to experience the ravages of their sin, will anyone be there to explain to them its cause?”

everyone else will roast in Hell. Or something like that. Adventists worship on Saturday, and believe that people who worship on Sunday are guided by Satan. Seriously!

As for our fearless leader, Mr. Carson, I find it odd that the media is parsing the meaning of the word “scholarship” rather than investigating the wingnut cultists that call themselves Seventh Day Adventists. Descended from the famous Millerites, who abandoned their earthly possessions as doomsday approached in the mid-1800s, these jokers still believe that the end is near, and that they themselves will face the wrath of the majority of Christians as the world begins to fall apart. Once judgment arrives, of course they’ll be saved and

The man is “honest” enough to tell us that Joseph from the Bible built the pyramids with God’s help. Why doesn’t someone ask him about the rest of this stuff? Does he believe it, or is he some kind of reformed Seventh Day Adventist? Can you imagine the foreign policy decisions of a Commander in Chief who thinks the world is about to explode any day now?

I feel very strange saying that Donald Trump is beginning to look like a reasonable nominee. arostow@aol.com

November 20

Transgender Day of Remembrance

ZIMRON (continued from page 27 ) the Greek woman teaching internal Chi Qong, then sharing fast combatform T’ai Chi. Or seeing two slightly-built, gorgeous teenage Bulgarian girls being tossing around their burly instructors. So many awesome moments and images happened in Loutraki. Personally, I just love when reality blows away any preconceptions I may have in my mind. My eyes and heart open, and I am expanded into much better truths than I could have imagined!

Apart from sports or special events, “Training Across Borders” is really a concept. Whether local or global, it’s about stepping out of our comfort zones and reaching past limitations. Dissolving harmful divisions.

It’s about opening up our thoughts, and releasing stereotypes and judgments. Expanding possibilities. Allowing in new experiences, ideas and

beliefs. Joining hands with others and ‘the other.’ TAB can happen through sports, or theater, or business, or volunteering, or everyday conversations and actions. Or you may want to try Aikido. There are so many dojos (schools) and good teachers in the Bay Area that I’ve always called it ‘Aiki mecca’!

As we move together into the season of thanksgiving and m i r acu lous bi r t h and light, let’s cherish the hope of positive social change and of peace, knowing these are ours to create. As LGBT people, we k now how powerful it is to ‘come out,’ so that everyone can meet and appreciate one another in the realities and rights of our very beings.

‘TAB’ just might change all our lives, and the world.

Jamie Leno Zimron is an LPGA Pro, Aikido 5th Degree Black Belt, and Corporate Speaker-Trainer. Please check out her website: http://www.thekiaiway.com

ADAM (continued from page 25) Garcia’s Defense Fund. When I got to “Best Friend,” she sang full out—with complete abandon—”Loving is believing in the ones you love!”

San Francisco Bay Times: Take us back some in time, to when you first recorded Songwriter.

What inspired some of the songs, and what was the energy like during the recording sessions, given that so many talented musicians participated in the making of this remarkable work?

Margie Adam: Songwriter was part of an astonishing soundtrack of early Women’s Music. Some of the recording artists included Meg Christian, Ginni Clemmens, Cris Williamson, Woody Simmons, New Haven and Chicago Women’s Liberation Rock Bands, Casse Culver, Robin Flower, Mary Watkins, Willie Tyson, Holly Near, Gwen Avery, BeBe K’Roche, Teresa Trull, Kay Gardner, Diane Lindsay, Maxine Feldman, Linda Tillery, Sue Fink, Alive!, Berkeley Women’s Music Collective, Linda Shear, Baba Yaga, Deadly Nightshade…on and on. I’m talking early Women’s Music here—when we were just getting started. And you know, I have to say these names out loud, in print, because otherwise, some of our names will be lost. So many women’s names and the history of our accomplishments are already lost.

Anyway, Women’s Music Festivals were popping up all over the country wherever there was a women’s community, a women’s bookstore, a women’s radio show, a women’s study program, a women’s center—any of the above was all that was needed. Some of us played on each other’s albums during this era and Songwriter was one of those projects. I was already performing with 30

BAY TIMES NOVEMB E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Meg, Cris, Kay and Vicki Randle, so when we went into the studio in San Francisco, we recorded the arrangements we were currently performing for audiences all over the country. We were in love—so the arrangements were really HOT! When we sang together, we looked directly into each other eyes and played directly into each other’s hearts—and we were changed forever. I was changed forever.

stories. The National Women’s Political Caucus sponsored me on a fundraising tour for women’s candidates, which coincided with the release of the album. And probably most significant, I learned how to position and introduce my solo piano pieces in concert so that the audience members stopped using the instrumentals as cigarette and bathroom breaks!

San Francisco Bay Times: Was Naked Keys the first solo piano recording in the Women’s Music genre? What inspired you to record such an LP?

San Francisco Bay Times: Is there any chance that you will perform live again? We would, of course, love that, and would promote any such performance!

Margie Adam: I began writing solo piano music when I was in high school, so by the time Boo Price (my producer/manager/partner at the time) suggested I record a piano album, I had most of the material ready to go.

Recording an entire album of instrumental music seemed like the best way to define myself as a composer and pianist as well as a singer/songwriter.

At this time, women musicians outside the classical genre were rarely recognized as instrumentalists, only singers.

Our idea was also somewhat controversial in the women’s music distribution network.

Margie Adam: I have no idea if I’ll perform in concert again. Back in the 80s, I told everyone I was taking off a year. That break lasted for six years.

Who knows? What I can say is that I am riveted on the work I am doing as a counselor and I’m not done.

Accompanying a broken heart on its deep dive to healing and wholeness is a joy for me.

Some distributors were worried that the women’s music audience was primarily interested in singers, lyrics, and the folk/pop sound. My piano music was more like a pop/jazz/classical soundscape. Also, in 1980, the Wyndham Hill easy-listening instrumental context did not exist. Our distributors were understandably concerned that a solo piano album would be a hard sell. Nevertheless, we released Naked Keys and three things happened: National Public Radio picked up the album and used it extensively as incidental music in between its feature

San Francisco Bay Times: Please mention anything else that you would like our readers to know.

Margie Adam: As the LGBT community is integrated more and more into the mainstream, it seems to me that holding a place for our remarkable lesbian feminist culture is worth the effort—both for those of us who continue to draw strength and healing from its unapologetic presence in the world, and for lesbians who will come after us and wonder if there isn’t something special about loving women.

To learn more about Adam and to purchase her newly remastered CDs as well as other recordings, please visit http://margieadam.com/

Round About - All Over Town

Photos by RINK

AIDS Housing Alliance executive director Brian Basinger with Ken Wells of the Gay Grass Volunteers Joanna Parks, Steven Roots Gay Rights Foundation Satyricon and Suzan Reva at the at their party for beneficiaries The Gay Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation’s leadership team at their November 5th party with their check Gay Grass Roots Gay Rights Foun- of the Real Bad Party for 2015 Jerry Weller, Carlos Perea with Maitri’s Toni Newman and for $217,000; the total amount contributed to beneficiaries for 2015 Michael Smithwick at the Gay Grass Roots Gay Rights dation’s party at Beatbox on NovemFoundation party on Novmeber 5, at Beatbox ber 5

MAC Cosmetics’ Nancy Mahon with Project Inform executive director Dana Van Gorder at the Getting to Zero in the HIV/AIDS Battle Supervisor David Campos at the podium during the Getting to Zero in the HIV/AIDS press conference at Mayor Lee’s Battle press conference held in Mayor Lee’s office at City Hall on October 29 office on October 29

Actors Steven Satyricon and Andrew Darling at the opening night of “Hush Up Sweet Charlotte” at the Castro Theatre on October 28

Photographer and artist Grahame Perry at the opening party of his “Solo Show - Materials of Survival” held at Magnet on November 6

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence members and friends held an “Indulgences” vigil in front of Harvey’s bar on November 6 to welcome visitors to the Castro neighborhood and promote safe sex.

AIDS awareness poster model and safe sex educator Steve Ibarra (second from left) celebrating his birthday at The Cafe bar Entertainers Mad Otter, Sadie Ladie and Patty McGroin preparing to perform at the Rocket Dog with (left to right) George Kelly, Ibarra, AIDS Grove board member Eric Ciasullo and Steve Brisol Rescue benefit held at the Midnight Sun bar on November 1

Amy Meyers and Lou Fischer at the GLAAD Gala After Party on November 7

Frank Woo with event co-chair John Filmmaker Cheryl Dunye (Watermelon Woman) QBar’s Cip Cipriano (left) with friends at GLAAD’s annual gala held at the SF Hilton Hotel Marez at the GLAAD Gala held on and Jaimy Magdelena Dunye at the GLAAD Gala November 7, at the SF Hilton Hotel held at the SF Hilton Hotel on November 7 on November 7

Mayoral candidate Stuart Schuffman Honoree Tyler Oakley and presenter Raymond Braun on stage at Supervisor John Avalos, former Supervisor Michaela Alioto-Pier and and his girlfriend Ashley Lauren camGLAAD Gala co-chair John Marez on the runway with Donna Aaron Peskin at Club Fugazzi during the Peskin for Supervisor Vic- paigning on Castro Street on Novemthe GLAAD Gala held at the SF Hilton on November 7 Sachet at the SF Hilton Hotel on November 7 ber 1 tory Party on November 3 BAY T IM ES NOVEM BER 12, 2015

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isco’s San Franc ce favorite pla to shop

The 37th Annual

Benefiting The Women’s Building since 1978

November 27, 28 & 29th, 2015 Fort Mason - Herbst Pavilion - san Francisco

Fri, sat & sUn 10am-5pm Celebration of Craftswomen features over 150-juried artists from around the U.S. This show is a unique opportunity to find gorgeous, one-of-a-kind holiday gifts, fine crafts, and contemporary art.

learn more at www.celebrationofcraftswomen.org

Photo Credit: Ani Jenkins, Back to the Garden

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