LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area
CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES Est . 1978
San Francisco Dyke March
San
Francisco Dyke March CALL TO ACTION
San Francisco Dyke March Is Back for 2025!
By Judy Graboyes and Cyndi Vee
The San Francisco Dyke March will return this June 2025 with a newly formed, reinvigorated, and committed team of volunteers. They come from many generations and include those who are Black, Brown, White, Trans, Non-Binary, Cis—and with femmes, butches, and everyone in between— all working to rebuild the organizational structures and resources necessary to ensure the Dyke March’s long-term success for many more years to come. A lot of work goes into making the Dyke March happen!
With that said, the San Francisco Dyke March Interim Steering Committee and the members of the current planning teams, including ourselves, would like to thank the legions of dykes who have stepped up and continued First Amendment marches on Pink Saturday during San Francisco’s Pride Weekend these past few years in lieu of an organized rally and march from Dolores Park.
The San Francisco Dyke March Interim Steering Committee
We are grateful for the hard-working members of the 2025 San Francisco Dyke March Interim Steering Committee:
• Crystal Mason, Board Chair;
• Celestina Pearl, Board Member;
• Ruth Villaseñor, Board Member;
• M Rocket, Interim Project Director.
The OG Dykes Who Marched
The first Dyke March in San Francisco was held in 1993. That initial group was comprised of fierce dykes flexing their First Amendment right to conduct a protest march, take up space, and let their voices be heard. These amazing women were truly the OGs!
Now in their 70s and 80s, many have since retired from organizing but are still around today to remind us, the next generations of dykes and dyke leaders, of our roots and why it is so important, particularly in the current political landscape of our nation and the world around us, that we not lose sight of why we march. We call for liberation and justice for all dykes across the world!
The mission of the San Francisco Dyke March, as well as Dyke Marches and Dyke Days in many other parts of the U.S. and beyond, is to bring dyke communities of all stripes together to celebrate our unity, increase dyke visibility, and raise awareness of the issues that continue to oppress queers: sexism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia, just to name a few.
It has always been important to own our dyke identity to preserve dyke culture, and
that is all the more significant now with the current administration threatening our lives. Lesbians have always been an integral part of the larger LGBTQ+ community, thinking of the power of Dyke Love, Dyke Vision, Dyke Anger, Dyke Intelligence, Dyke Strategy, and our ability to care for, uplift, and propel the queer community forward.
And so, we march! But we need your help. Yes, you!
How You Can Support the SF Dyke March
Most people are surprised at just how much a fully organized march, and rally at the park, costs. Judy was part of the Dyke March committee back in 2006, and it was a hefty lift even back then. Now, everything is exponentially more expensive.
A full out San Francisco Dyke March costs upwards of $60–100k, depending on what the community wants to have as part of the event. We do not take money from large corporations, just as we do not have sponsorships from political figures. The first focus of the new planners has been fundraising, which is ironic since many of us are anti-capitalist dykes.
All the fixings cost money, such as the sound truck, EMS/ambulances, an accessibility trolley for dykes with mobility-assistance
needs, clean-up crews, street barricades, porta potties, and more. We have to raise at least $60k just for the march alone and to keep our dyke marchers safe. Our goal, however, is to raise $100k so that we can also have a stage at Dolores Park with all the logistics needed to make that happen.
We are thankful to have already received support from the Castro LGBT Cultural District, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and individual donations through our crowdfunding campaign. But we still have so much further to go.
Please donate at https://bit.ly/42GN0EK
Share this link widely on your socials, with friends, families, and, heck, why not even with your frenemies!
Upcoming Fundraisers Benefiting the SF Dyke March
Want to support the San Francisco Dyke March while dancing, seeing old friends, and meeting new ones? Here are three of the fundraisers that are scheduled so far:
April 27
Dyke March Fundraiser and Celebration of Dr. Betty Sullivan’s Birthday Noon–5 pm
Catch French Bistro in the Castro
For more details and to register: https://bit.ly/4ioyLuc
May 10
Super Big Gay Dance Party
3–8 pm
El Rio
https://bit.ly/4jL8t6t
June 14
SF Lipstick Lesbians’ Pride Event & Dyke March Fundraiser
(Must be a member of Lipstick Lesbians.)
For more information: https://bit.ly/42lcsRo
How else can you help? Volunteer! The Dyke March cannot happen without volunteers. It is a wonderful experience to be a part of this celebration of dyke history and culture.
Everyone loves the Dyke March, but we need community support to make it a reality.
Over a million people come to San Francisco over Pride Weekend. When hundreds of thousands of dykes descend on San Francisco the last weekend in June, there must be a Dyke March to welcome them!
For more information on all things San Francisco Dyke March, go to: https://www.thedykemarch.org/
Judy Graboyes and Cyndi Vee are volunteers for the San Francisco Dyke March, which is a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives.
Judy Graboyes
PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS
DJ Black (second from left) and friends aboard “The Dyke March Truck” (2019)
San Francisco Dyke March CALL TO ACTION
San Francisco Joins Nationwide Celebration of Lesbian Visibility Week, April 21–27
Lesbian Visibility Week USA (#LVWUSA25), powered by The Curve Foundation, kicked off on Monday, April 21, 2025, and will run through Sunday, April 27, with special events happening in San Francisco and across the nation.
This year’s Lesbian Visibility Week (LVW) embraces the theme “Celebrating Rainbow Families” with a diverse range of events honoring the many ways our communities forge meaningful connections beyond traditional family structures. From high-profile ceremonies in New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, to cultural festivals and sports-focused gatherings, LVW showcases the power of professional relationships, art & creativity, civic engagement, mentorship, and athletic participation in building strong, inclusive communities. This year’s celebration highlights the deep bonds that unite our diverse rainbow families, fostering connection and belonging in all its forms.
“In this moment, being visible is an act of defiance. Lesbian Visibility Week is about standing proud, sharing our stories, and making sure our voices are heard. It’s a chance to stand in our values, build community, foster understanding, and create a lasting legacy that ensures LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people are never erased,” said Franco Stevens, the Founder of Curve magazine and Co-Founder of The Curve Foundation.
Highlights from the week will include the lighting of San Francisco City Hall on April 24 in the colors of the lesbian flag, plus a Coast-To-Coast Flag Raising Ceremony with LGBTQ+ centers, university groups, and nonprofits across the country.
Special thanks to San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman for their support, advo-
cacy, and instrumental role in organizing the City Hall events.
President Mandelman said, “In our community’s darkest hour, lesbians in San Francisco and other cities stepped up—caring for dying gay men during the AIDS crisis, and providing political leadership when we most needed it. Carole Migden, Roberta Achtenberg, Susan Leal, and Leslie Katz earned their seats in our Board chamber and fought for queer rights and a better San Francisco. Today, lesbian women continue to lead in critical positions across our city departments. Appropriately recognizing the historic and contemporary contributions of lesbians to our politics and culture is long overdue. Lesbian Visibility Week is an opportunity for San Francisco to do just that.”
the Mayor’s Balcony (by invitation only). Later in the evening, at 7:30 pm, San Francisco City Hall will be illuminated in the colors of the lesbian flag.
Calendar of Lesbian Visibility Week Events
The Curve 2025 Power List was released earlier this week: https://bit.ly/4iwQQGD
Curve on April 22 also released its special LVW issue: https://www.curvemag.com/
On April 23, there was a Wellness Wednesday with free wellness activities hosted at select LGBTQ+ community centers, including Queer & Well at the SF LGBT Center.
Today, the date of this publication on April 24, at 4 pm is the Official LVW San Francisco City Hall Reception and Flag Raising on
On Friday, April 25, at 6 pm there will be the opening of the Queer & Proud Art Exhibition: A Celebration of Lesbian Visibility. Step back in time for an evocative art opening at the SF LGBT Center.
award-winning Bay Area director and screenwriter Alice Wu.
On Saturday, April 26, at 12:30 pm, there will be a Queer Women in Sports Day panel called Power and Pressures of Being Out in Sports. This will be held in partnership with Rikki’s, San Francisco’s upcoming women’s sports bar. The event will be located at Manny’s.
On Sunday, April 27, at 3:30 pm, there will be a screening of the film Tank Girl at The Roxie, presented by Frameline and
Also on April 27, there will be a Dyke March Fundraiser and celebration of the birthday of San Francisco Bay Times Co-Publisher and “Betty’s List” Founder Dr. Betty Sullivan at Catch French Bistro in the Castro. For more information and to register: https://bit.ly/4ioyLuc For additional details on these Bay Area
The Sistah Boom marching contingent (2015)
Dyke March organizer Ruth Villaseñor (right), Diane Pfile and a friend at 18th and Dolores Streets (2016)
Activist Alex U. Inn (holding flag) rides behind her wife Ellen Morrison in the Dyke March 2016.
The Dyke March front banner (2016)
San Francisco Dyke March CALL TO ACTION
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events and the slate of activities nationwide, the full LVW calendar is available at https://lesbianvisibilityweekusa.com
About the Curve Foundation
The only national nonprofit championing LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people’s culture and stories from an intergenerational perspective, The Curve Foundation works to empower and amplify the voices of the Curve Community—lesbians, queer women, trans and nonbinary people of all races, ages, and abilities. The Curve Foundation is built upon the 30+ year legacy of Curve magazine, one of the most influential publications dedicated to representing and advocating for the experiences of lesbian and queer women. In addition to LVW and the Curve Power List, The Curve Foundation’s programming includes: the Curve Fellowship for Emerging Journalists, created to support career development and raise the visibility of LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people; and Curve Conversations, intersectional and multi-generational speaker events that provide context and a throughline between critical conversations forming our movement from the 1990s to today. For more information about The Curve Foundation, visit https://thecurvefoundation.org
Sponsors & Supporters
LVW is sponsored by the London Stock Exchange Group, HSBC, DIVA, GLAAD, and Kantar, and supported by the SF LGBT Center, QWOCMAP, Frameline, Greenwood Pride, Women of Provincetown Innkeepers, NCLR, The 19th, NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, Garcia Real Estate Group, Indy Pride, Uniting Resilience: Native Two-Spirit, Mazer Lesbian Archives, GLBT Historical Society, Equality Florida, Babes & Bois, Gerber/ Hart LGBTQ+ Library & Archives, Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, The Sports Bra, A Bar Of Their Own, Shelly Bean The Sports Queen, Watch Me! Sports Bar, and Rikki’s Sports Bar. The San Francisco Bay Times is proud to be a media sponsor of LVW.
PHOTO BY RINK PHOTO BY RINK
PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS
Guys enjoy the Dyke March gathering at Dolores Park along with their gal pals. (2019)
Friends, including former Golden Gate Business Association president Audry deLucia (left), co-founder of ellaprint, enjoy camaraderie at Dolores Park during the Dyke March Rally.
City of San Francisco Commissioners Martha Knutzen and Andrea Shorter with activist, educator, and entertainer Maria Cora (2019)
PHOTO BY PAUL MARGOLIS
Volunteers at the Dyke March 2016
Marchers and their dogs at the Dyke March 2018
A fellow wearing an “Honorary Lesbian” t-shirt at the 2008 Dyke March
A couple holding hands at the Dyke March Rally 2019 in Dolores Park
Gal pals sharing space at the Dyke March Rally 2019 in Dolores Park
The Growing Resistance
People’s March for Democracy, April 12, 2025
Photos by Rink
On Saturday, April 12, 2025, the People’s March for Democracy (Fight Fascism) took place in San Francisco. A large, diverse crowd of protesters gathered in Justin Herman Plaza starting at 11:30 am before marching to City Hall. The protest was part of The People’s March & Rally series of actions initiated in 2020 by activists Juanita MORE! and Alex U. Inn. They are meant to show solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community and bring San Francisco’s Pride events back to their original activism roots.
Members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence led protestors on Market Street, progressing to City Hall, and carrying a familiar banner declaring, “Drag Up! Fight Back!”
The organizers assembled a coalition of young progressive officials, faith leaders, teachers, trans leaders, immigrants, BIPOC, artists, the disenfranchised, and others who feel they are subject to the unlawful policies of the new administration. The protest was aimed at fighting fascism and promoting democracy. As the organizers wrote ahead of the protest: “Nobody should live in fear because of their color, faith, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ancestry, or political beliefs.”
The Growing Resistance
50501 Day of
Photos by Mike Kirschner
Action
in San Francisco, April 19, 2025
In cities nationwide, an estimated 1,665,000 protestors took to the streets in protest of the Trump administration on Saturday, April 19, 2025. “50501,” which was inspired by a Reddit meme, refers to 50 states, 50 protests, 1 day. This past Saturday was no exception, as images from across the nation, including from San Francisco, reveal.
In San Francisco, protestors rallied in the Civic Center, Union Square, Chinatown, and in front of the Tesla showroom on Van Ness Avenue. On Ocean Beach, a “human banner” spelled out on the sand: “Impeach + Remove.”
The organizers of the 50501 movement shared, “We, the American people, have banded together in the interest of a common goal; to end executive overreach and reject the authoritarian actions of the Trump Administration. We are not paid, or coerced into action. We are driven to act out of our own sense of what is right: decency, democracy, and civil liberty for all people.”
Another National Day of Action is being planned for May Day. https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
The Growing Resistance
We Are in Our Hero Era
On April 17, 2025, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) convened a small but mighty group of community leaders for a panel discussion led by SFAF’s CEO, Dr. Tyler TerMeer, to discuss the impact of the current administration’s first 90 days upon their work, and to reflect on how to move forward.
ing attacks from the administration, these leaders talked about their daily, endless struggle to protect their clients, their staffs, and their communities as they are impacted by paradigm-shifting budget cuts, chaotic (and often illegal) executive orders, and a blizzard of policy changes. In the best of times, their jobs are challenging. Right now, as J.M. Jaffe, Executive Director of Lyon-Martin Community Health, described it, “We’re seeing attacks on every single level.”
Representing nonprofit organizations that support communities under escalat-
dying of AIDS every 12 minutes. And, as a researcher, she and her staff also have to cope with trying to prevent important research grants from being canceled simply because they contained words like “they.” “It’s such a waste; it’s so ridiculous,” she said.
Dr. Monica Gandhi, director of the UCSF Gladstone Center for AIDS Research and medical director of SF General Hospital’s HIV Clinic, Ward 86, shared the emotional toll she feels of trying to care for her HIV/AIDS patients while federal programs for such programs are being gutted. On a global level, she shared her horror at the impact of ending the life-saving PEPFAR program: the rate of deaths from AIDS accelerating to one every three minutes, and one child
Planned Parenthood (PP) Mar Monte is the largest PP affiliate in the U.S., serving over 300,000 clients in Northern California and Nevada. President and CEO Stacy Cross is no stranger to fighting for the right to health, reproductive, and gender-affirming care for their clients: Planned Parenthood has been a favorite target of conservatives for decades. But she admitted that “this is not a normal time; we’re living in chaos.” They have had to walk away from badly-needed federal funds rather than bend a knee to the current administration’s flurry of executive orders and demands, while taking on a greatly-increased caseload of clients pouring into California and Nevada for care that they cannot get in their home states. They have also had to enhance security at their facilities. Cross said, “Our clients are afraid. Our staffs are afraid. Our communities are afraid.”
She is a seasoned fighter, always looking for ways to continue providing the care their clients need. She said, “We bought a copy of Project 2025. We studied it. We were prepared.” Even with such preparation, she admitted that the speed and downright cruelty with which the administration enacted the Project 2025 plans has been challenging. But no matter what, she vowed, “We’re very creative and resilient.”
how you can help.)
As President of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Imani RupertGordon affirmed that “our job is to do our work to the best of our ability.” That can often mean shutting out the noise: the constant drumbeat of attacks from Washington. “It’s scary and chaotic, and that part is intentional.” As our civil rights and the rule of law are being eroded on a daily basis, she said, “Every single week we are less safe than the week before.” But that just means we all need to step up and fight harder: “We are in our hero era,” she declared. This is the time for us all to step up and act, bravely and strategically. Showing up at a rally means something. Calling your elected representatives means something. Supporting the organizations on the frontlines means something; it sends them a signal that you care about the work they are doing. (See the links shared in this piece for
Lyon-Martin Community Health, an organization that has been providing essential health care for some of San Francisco’s most marginalized populations for nearly 50 years, is especially feeling the weight of being a target right now. With federal funding for research disappearing overnight, both physical and cybersecurity under constant attack, and anti-trans executive orders and legislation ramping up weekly, Jaffe said, “This is definitely a ‘death by 1000 cuts’ situation.” But pointing out that LyonMartin has never closed its doors in its almost 50 years of service, Jaffe confirmed that they are more committed than ever to serving their clients.
After hearing from the leaders of each of these organizations, Dr. TerMeer reminded us that “even the revolution requires rest.” We’ve been fighting these attacks for only three months, and this level of attack is unsustainable. We need to pace ourselves, give each other breaks, and grace, because each of us will be overwhelmed at some point.
All of the organizations represented on this
Joanie Juster
J.M. Jaffe
Dr. Monica Gandhi
Stacy Cross
Imani RupertGordon
Dr. Tyler TerMeer
The Growing Resistance
Carolyn Kangaroo Has a Message for the Supreme Court
6/26 and Beyond
John Lewis
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether or not to require public school districts to permit religiously conservative parents to opt their children out of educational activities that could include storybooks with LGBTIQ or LGBTIQ-accepting characters. Plaintiffs in the case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as a “hardline religious-right group” that has “long relied on the use of demonizing falsehoods to justify discrimination against LGBT people.”
Many observers believe that the lawsuit is part of a national campaign strategy not merely to permit parental opt-outs, but to ban books with LGBTIQ content from public schools altogether. The Becket Fund asks the Supreme Court to reverse a unanimous group of federal appeals court decisions that have upheld the inclusion of such type of books which make no mention of religion whatsoever in school curricula.
carry?
I immediately recalled helping my dad clean out our family home several years ago after my mother had died. As we went through a dusty old box of books in the basement, my dad suddenly exclaimed in delight, “There’s Carolyn Kangaroo!” He quickly added with excitement, “Carolyn Kangaroo was your favorite book as a small child. You would sit on my knee and ask me to read it to you over and over again!”
brought tree bark for itself and grass for others; lion cubs, “earrrs of corrn”; a field mouse “the biggest, swee-eetest cheeeeeese!”; and a bunny rabbit, “carrots, crunchy carrots! Lots and lots of carrots.”
A squirrel came with lots of nuts, announcing, “I saved them all winter just for today!” And a little skunk, clearly aware of its reputation for malodor, greeted Carolyn with a goodwill offering of marigolds as it climbed in. Carolyn exclaimed, “How sweet they smell!” She added wryly that “they taste good, too.”
en route to the picnic, and it also brought mushrooms that, if not picked properly, could be poisonous. But Carolyn welcomed him with a smile. All the while, a little duck rode along, uttering “Mmmmm!” to each new passenger’s culinary contribution.
When I first perused the voluminous docket sheet for the case, a simple question for the Supreme Court came to mind: With democracy itself on the line at this critical juncture in American history, don’t you have something better to do than sit around your chambers reading children’s storybooks, such as Pride Puppy, My Rainbow, and Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, to scrutinize them for some hypothetical danger they might somehow pose?
That question aside, looking at the record in this case centering on storybooks caused me to ponder a different question: What book did I love most as a small child, and what message did it
I had no memory of Carolyn Kangaroo myself, but it definitely went into the “keep” pile. As soon as we took a break, I opened it to find out what the book I couldn’t get enough of as a child was all about. I learned that the book, whose full title was Carolyn, The Kindest Kangaroo, by Jules Farber (1957), was the story of a very friendly and kind kangaroo named Carolyn, who on a “very special day” in the forest—“Picnic Day”—carried all the “baby animals” in her pouch “like a bouncing zoo” to a festive afternoon feast.
As Carolyn makes her way through the forest to pick everyone up in her pouch, it soon becomes apparent that the picnic was going to be a potluck featuring highly eclectic fare, because “each little animal brought something” different. A beaver
When a porcupine neared, Caroyn understandably could have been concerned about how painful the creature’s sharp spines might be if they pierced her pouch
Finally, a zebra and a fox, notorious for hunting down and devouring barnyard animals, approached, and seeing Carolyn’s bulging pouch, asked, “Room for us?” Carolyn replied without hesitation: “Of course,” proclaiming that “there is always room.” With her warm embrace of everyone who wanted to hop in for a ride, Carolyn would have undoubtedly had room today for LGBTIQ beings, too. That would include Roy and Silo, the penguin protagonists of the acclaimed children’s book And Tango Makes Three, based on two actual male penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo, who bonded during
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Riding Out Market Volatility: Why Rebalancing Matters
Money Matters
Brandon Miller
Lately, the stock market has been a bit of a rollercoaster, with a mix of factors—geopolitical tensions, inflation worries, and tariffs—causing some wild swings. Over the past few months plus the S&P 500 has taken a dip, shaking up investors who haven’t seen many pullbacks of this size since 2022, when the index dropped -25% at one point. But here’s some perspective: in 22 of the past 42 years, the S&P 500 saw double-digit drops at some point during the year—yet in 14 of those cases, the market still finished the year strong.
With all this turbulence, it’s natural to feel a little uneasy about your portfolio. But here’s the good news: market ups and downs are
nothing new, and staying disciplined can make all the difference. One of the best ways to navigate volatility is through regular rebalancing: adjusting your investments to keep your portfolio aligned with your longterm goals.
Why is rebalancing so important? As markets move, some assets gain value while others decline, which can throw your target allocation out of whack. If left unchecked, you could end up with more risk than you’re comfortable with. Plus, volatility can create opportunities—like harvesting capital losses for tax benefits or strategically buying assets that are temporarily out of favor.
Rebalancing keeps emotions in check by taking the guesswork out of investing. It’s tempting to react to headlines and shortterm swings, but a structured approach helps investors avoid knee-jerk decisions that could derail long-term success. Sometimes, rebalancing means selling high-performing assets to buy ones that are struggling, but history shows that sticking to a strategy, rather than chasing trends, is what really pays off.
The opinions expressed in this article are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security. It is only intended to provide education about the
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Probate Horror Stories: Lessons You Don’t Want to Learn the Hard Way
Trust Essentials
Jay Greene, Esq., CPA
Probate can turn into a nightmare for families, dragging out the distribution of an estate with long delays, steep costs, and even bitter disputes. Consider the case of Prince, who passed away without a will—his $100–$300 million estate was stuck in probate, racking up over $7.5 million in fees by 2019. Then there’s Marilyn Monroe, whose estate took 39 years to settle, losing half to taxes while her likeness ended up in the hands of unintended parties. These real-life probate horror stories show just how stressful and costly the process can be for loved ones left behind.
The good news? You can spare your family this ordeal. With smart estate planning, espe-
cially through living trusts, you can sidestep probate entirely and ensure your wishes are carried out smoothly.
What Is Probate?
Probate is the court-supervised process of validating a will (if one exists) and distributing a deceased person’s estate. Without a will, state laws dictate who gets what, often ignoring the deceased’s true intentions. It’s a public, expensive, and time-consuming ordeal that can spark family conflicts and delay inheritances for months or even years.
Five Benefits of Estate Planning With a Living Trust
1. It avoids probate.
A living trust lets your estate skip the probate process altogether. Unlike a will, which requires court approval, a living trust transfers your assets directly to your beneficiaries—quickly and without hefty legal fees. Imagine if Prince had a living trust; his heirs could have avoided years of probate chaos and millions in costs.
2. It keeps your affairs private.
Probate lays your financial details bare for anyone to see—creditors, predators, or even nosy neighbors. A living trust keeps everything confidential, shielding your family from unwanted scrutiny. Marilyn Monroe’s
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Message from Leadership
Preparing to Pass the Leadership Torch as GGBA Begins New Chapter
By Nancy Geenen, MA Ed., J.D.
This is my last message to our community as President of the oldest LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce in the world. I am resigning as President and will continue as a board member, focused on our sponsors and the GGBA Gives Back Foundation. I am proud of how our community has pulled together both as an economic unit to preserve our heritage and our LGBTQ+ business community.
During this first quarter of 2025, we spent many hours discussing our why and examin-
ing our purpose. Our Board leadership has met with the leadership at NGLCC (National LGBT Chamber of Commerce), our sponsors, and many advisers. We listened to the members who reached out, and we received feedback from our critics. We managed the budget. We upgraded our infrastructure and our systems. We have restarted our Monthly Make Contacts and will continue to add events throughout the rest of the year.
Most importantly, we reconstituted our board in September. At our board meeting on April 22, 2025, we added several new members who will guide the organization for the next several years. Hopefully, many who
read this column will attend the May Make Contact (see the website for details) to meet our new board members.
I also want to thank those allies, partners, and sponsors whose commitment never wavered. In addition to thanking all of our board members, I owe a special thank you to Board Members Aaron Boot-Haury, Josh Nair, Tali Bray, Imani Brown, and Gina Grahame for their wisdom and guidance throughout this past year. I love you all.
I appreciate the patience, support, and caring that the GGBA experienced over the last 12 months. As a community, we have and continue to address many challenges: political, economic, environmental, professional,
GGBA Member Spotlight Alex Lahmeyer of Boundless Arc
As the Founder and Principal Consultant of Boundless Arc, Alex Lahmeyer focuses on access to opportunity. They are a fractional DEI leader, consultant, and career coach who builds inclusive talent strategies and operations. They have provided consulting and facilitation services to multiple organizations within technology, beauty (cosmetics), entertainment, finance, government, and numerous additional fields. Read on to learn more about Lahmeyer and Boundless Arc.
GGBA: Describe Boundless Arc for those who are not yet familiar with your innovative business.
Alex Lahmeyer: Boundless Arc is a consulting and coaching business dedicated to expanding access to opportunity in the workplace. As the Founder and Principal Consultant, I partner with organizations to embed equity and inclusion into every step of the talent lifecycle—think hiring, development, performance, engagement, and so on. I also coach LGBTQ+ professionals and allies to navigate their careers with confidence, clarity, and authenticity.
In fiction, a narrative arc is the path of someone’s story. Our careers have arcs, too. But many are stifled by inequitable workplace practices and self-limiting beliefs. I chose the name Boundless Arc because I wanted to evoke a vision of a world without barriers.
In my work with clients, I have four partnership principles: tend to the roots (root cause analysis), break down barriers, design like an architect, and embrace more stories. These function as shared values to guide how we strategize and solve problems together.
GGBA: Why did you decide to create Boundless Arc?
Alex Lahmeyer: I joke that I started my business because I’ve been employed every other possible way (full-time, part-time, contract, temp, gigs) but I still hadn’t tried self-employment. Worth a shot, right?
In all seriousness, I craved autonomy and creative freedom—two things that can sometimes be hard to find working for someone else. I wanted to challenge myself, grow my confidence, and stretch my skills in new ways. As a business owner, you’re constantly learning new things outside your comfort zone that help you grow as a human.
and personal. Many of those challenges require us to continue to show up, speak up, and never give up supporting each other and the community as a whole.
To the Publishers of the San Francisco Bay Times, thank you! This publication continues to be a standard bearer for our community. As I said in one of my early messages: Icons don’t die; they reinvent. The GGBA has done just that.
Nancy Geenen is the Acting President of the Golden Gate Business Association. She is also the Principal and Chief Executive Officer at Flexibility https://www.flexability.com/
Although I’ve been focused on workplace inclusion (DEI) for nearly a decade, our current sociopolitical climate has underscored how necessary it is. I’m deeply passionate about my work and see it as one way I can contribute to a greater movement focused on the liberation of marginalized people. I love helping leaders in different organizations and industries uncover the role they can play, big or small.
GGBA: Why did you decide to join the GGBA, and how long have you been a member?
Alex Lahmeyer: I’ve lived in San Francisco for nearly 11 years, but I’ve been working remotely since 2020. Since 99% of my work is online, I was looking for ways to reconnect with the local community. After learning that we have the world’s first LGBTQ+ chamber, it felt like it would be a great opportunity to get more involved, meet new people, and grow along the way. I joined the GGBA in February 2024, so I’ve been part of the chamber for just over a year.
GGBA: Although it’s been just over a year, how has being a GGBA member helped your business so far?
Alex Lahmeyer: My business was recently certified as an LGBT Business Enterprise by the NGLCC, and I credit the GGBA with demystifying the process and making it more accessible. They even helped with one of the documents for my application! Now that I’m certified, I’ve been focused on understanding
the different types of procurement and contracting processes out there.
From a social standpoint, it’s also been fun to meet a diverse range of LGBTQ+ business owners who do all kinds of interesting work. It’s a great source of inspiration, especially as a solopreneur.
GGBA: What other advice would you give to someone who is thinking of starting their own business?
Alex Lahmeyer: Be open to the possibilities! You may start with one idea, but it might evolve into something different that’s more aligned with what people need—or what you truly want to do. A lot of learning, connections, and opportunities have come from the unexpected twists and turns that were never in my original business plan.
For example, I never set an intention to provide career coaching. But when I saw the simultaneous rise of mass layoffs and antitrans legislation in 2023, I decided to tap into my recruiting background and provide pro bono and pay-what-you-want coaching to LGBTQ+ job seekers. Unexpectedly, I got a lot of positive feedback and some requests for paid services, so I decided to add it as a line of business. It’s grown into a meaningful way to work directly with the LGBTQ+ community.
Try not to limit yourself—we’re capable of a lot more than we think we are.
https://www.boundlessarc.com/
Alex Lahmeyer
The GGBA page is sponsored by Anne Sterling Dorman
Openhouse Spring Fling 2025
Photos by Charlotte M. Fiorito
Openhouse, the nonprofit co-founded by San Francisco Bay Times columnist Dr. Marcy Adelman, provides community, services, and housing for LGBTQ+ seniors. On April 13, 2025, Openhouse held its Spring Fling fundraiser at The Four Seasons Hotel Ballroom. The emcee was Sister Roma and the auctioneer was Michael Tate.
Honorees this year included:
Susan DeMarois, Director of the California Department of Aging Recipient of the Adelman-Gurevitch Founders Award;
Anjali Rimi, President of the Center for Immigrant Protection Recipient of the Trailblazer Award;
Juanita MORE!, Drag icon, activist, and tireless fundraiser Recipient of the GenOUT Award.
The event not only is a success from a fundraising standpoint, but also is a highly anticipated celebration during the heart of the spring season. For more information about this year’s Spring Fling: https://bit.ly/42AM3xL
Preparations Underway for the 30th Annual Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks
By Patrick Carney
The 30th annual Pink Triangle will have its main installation the morning of Saturday June 7, 2025, at 7 am. It will be followed by a commemoration ceremony at 10:30 am. The Pride Band and Leanne Borghesi will be performing and various speakers will address the current conditions facing our community that make this year’s milestone Pink Triangle more urgent than ever.
The hatred coming out of Washington, D.C., toward the LGBTQ+ community is beyond the pale. The Pink Triangle has been a reminder and a warning for decades, but now it seems we really are headed into times similar to the 1930s & ‘40s. Personal freedoms, free speech, and even due process are under attack from the current administration. The transgender community, drag queens, and even Pride celebrations are being targeted. Overturning marriage equality is one of their goals too. (Clarence Thomas has already stated as much.)
There will be at least eight volunteer days in total, including the installation of the “pink outline” the afternoon of Friday, June 7, which is a day prior to the main installation and ceremony on June 8. I plan to post a SignUp link near the end of the month so volunteers can sign up for one or many of the volunteer days. Everyone who helps will get one of the Pink Triangle t-shirts, and the shirts this year will have a 30 on the sleeve to call out the milestone number of times the Pink Triangle has been installed!
Patrick Carney is the Founder of the Pink Triangle project: www.thepinktriangle.com
Photos courtesy of Patrick Carney
Patrick and Hossein Carney at Twin Peaks
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mating season, and hatched and raised a baby penguin named Tango. Unfortunately, And Tango Makes Three is one of the most banned and challenged books in the U.S. today, along with the books at issue in the current Supreme Court case. We have no idea about Jules Farber’s intentions in writing Carolyn Kangaroo, but we note that it was published in 1957, just three years after the Supreme Court issued a full-throated embrace of diversity and inclusion in public education, by declaring racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v.
Board of Education. As far as we know, Farber’s book did not face challenges when it came out, but we wonder whether a modern-day Carolyn Kangaroo, in which Roy, Silo, and Tango find welcome in her pouch, would be threatened with bans today.
At the end of the book, all the animals gather around Carolyn and sing her a “special song,” proclaiming their love for her as “the kindest kangaroo ... who takes care of all of us,” to the point of looking “like a crowded bus” with everyone aboard. As the Justices weigh how to decide this year’s case,
we think Carolyn, The Kindest Kangaroo is all the precedent they need to reach the right decision.
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for over three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. Their leadership in the grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA contributed in 2015 to making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
panel—and many more—need and deserve our support more than ever. And I’m adding to this list the ACLU, which is on the frontlines, litigating on our behalf every day.
Please give what you can: these folks are fighting for all of us.
Lyon-Martin Community Health: https://tinyurl.com/LyonM
National Center for Lesbian Rights: https://tinyurl.com/NCLR2025
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte: https://tinyurl.com/PPMM25
San Francisco AIDS Foundation: https://tinyurl.com/SFAF25
UCSF/Ward 86: https://tinyurl.com/UCSFW86
Hitting the Streets, Again and Again
Huge thanks to everyone who came out for the nationwide Hands Off! Protest on April 5; the numbers were impressive in every state and around the world, making it hard to ignore the fact that people everywhere are not happy with having their freedoms, their financial stability, their security, and their very government stolen from them. And yet more thanks to everyone who came
out for the People’s March on April 12. Once again, the community came together to make their voices heard in peaceful but powerful protest.
Please keep it up, folks. Nonviolent protest, again and again, every chance you get, is spreading the word, helping to inform and educate people who might not have realized until now the existential dangers facing our country. Public perception is turning the tide.
HIV/AIDS Funding: You Can Help
Among the most alarming budget cuts from Washington is the slashing of funding to HIV/AIDS programs. These cuts will cause great harm, both to people already living with HIV or AIDS, and to those at risk of infection.
Two of San Francisco’s biggest annual fundraisers for HIV/AIDS programs are coming up soon. Please do what you can to support SF AIDS Foundation’s annual (and, this year, final) AIDS LifeCycle, as well as the annual AIDS Walk San Francisco. You can participate in these events as a fundraiser, or support other participants. Here are the links:
AIDS LifeCycle: https://tinyurl.com/ALCF25
AIDS Walk SF: https://tinyurl.com/AWSF2025
Shhh ... They’re Listening!
There have been a lot of articles recently on how to protect yourself from surveillance, as DOGE, ICE, and more ramp up intrusion into our personal lives. It’s a good idea to take them seriously.
FYI, the largest cybersecurity conference in the world—the RSA conference—will be taking place at Moscone Center in San Francisco April 28 through May 1, and the city will be crawling with cybersecurity experts. Given the massive security leaks coming out of Washington recently, this year’s conference promises to be even more interesting than usual. More info: https://tinyurl.com/RSASF25
Until Next Time
Stay strong, stay vigilant, and keep bugging your elected officials. No one is coming to save us; we only have each other.
Joanie Juster is a long-time community volunteer, activist, and ally.
LEWIS
JUSTER (continued from pg 8)
GLBT Fortnight in Review
By Ann Rostow
Where to Start?
There’s much to consider this week. The Pope has died, the High Court is considering a GLBT case, Trump has sued the state of Maine over transgender athletes, several states are banning transgender men and women from using bathrooms, the U.K. has ruled that women who are transgender are legally not women, and the list goes on.
I’ve been digesting this grist while keeping an eye open for amusing tangents. Surely we can’t spend our entire column in a grim progression from one sober discussion to the next. I did notice that Kristen Stewart got married to her longtime partner, Dylan Meyer, so I’m happy for her. I’m very fond of the lesbian actress; she would have been just my type if she’d been around back in the day, but since she wasn’t, my admiration is merely materteral.
“Materteral? What the hell, Ann!”
Hey, I hear you! I was going to write that I have an “avuncular” affection for Stewart, but, of course, the adjective describes a male. I checked and it turns out the female version of “avuncular” is “materteral,” an ungainly piece of vocabulary that borders on sexist when you consider how neatly “avuncular” rolls off the tongue. I recoil at the word and only used it in order to tell you about it. (Even spell check refuses to recognize this cumbersome locution!)
For Shame!
Before we dive into the serious side of things, I did notice an odd account by a former Senate staffer who had sex in a Senate hearing room and let his partner video the tryst for reasons unclear. That happened back in 2023 and was picked up and publicized online by The Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson’s “news” site. (Readers, I just dropped into The Daily Caller for the first time in my life to witness the action. That’s the sort of sacrifice you can expect from me.)
The man, once tagged the “Senate Twink,” has reemerged in Sydney, where he recently mused about the scandal with The Sydney Gay News. “Everyone in D.C. knew me, and it was kind of gross and horrifying because I’m not someone who likes to be in the public spotlight at all,” he said.
Aidan Maese-Czeropski said his therapist diagnosed him with PTSD, which I associate with the trauma of warfare or violence, not with one’s own bad judgment. He further speculated that his status as a bottom rather than a top contributed to his disgrace. “I got all these death threats, hatred. And the guy who was the top didn’t.”
No one condones death threats, but this guy was a Senate aide and there’s no evidence that Mr. Top had any such connection. At the time, Maese-Czeropski, who was 24, claimed he would never disrespect his job and was being “attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda.” He also made a pompous statement about “exploring what legal options are available to me in these matters.”
Twinkie, you were “attacked” for having sex in a Senate chamber, and allowing it to be recorded and find its way onto the internet!
You had no legal options available, you were not targeted due to your sexual orientation, and you don’t have PTSD according to any definition I’ve encountered. That said, since it’s been two years and since you’ve moved to Sydney, we will agree to speak of it no more.
I’m sorry to add that our miscreant was a Democrat, working for Ben Cardin of Maryland until his sexcapade hit the screen.
A Loss for Us All
The death of Pope Francis is momentous for the Catholic world, but when one of the world’s most public and powerful leaders dies, it has an impact on everyone. From the perspective of our GLBT news coverage, I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to cover some vaguely pro-gay statement or action from Pope Francis that’s been heralded as a remarkable step forward. Yet the Catholic Church continued to condemn those who live gay and lesbian lives, even as Pope Francis seemed, well, like an incredibly nice guy who was constrained by the Church from making any significant changes for gays or women or celibate priests.
The best commentary I’ve seen from the perspective of our community came from Frank Bruni in The New York Times who called Pope Francis a paradox who made a “muddle” of the Church’s position on gays and lesbians. Bruni pointed out the irony of the Pope’s reported use of a gay slur (“frociaggine”) during a closed-door meeting about gay men in seminary, followed quickly by his honest acknowledgement that, indeed, he did make the comment, and his gracious apology for doing so.
“For every advance, there was an asterisk,” Bruni wrote, “and for every proclamation of love, a delineation of limits, so that Francis ... personified the indelible tension in the church’s official teaching about homosexuality, which he never squarely renounced. That teaching holds that being gay isn’t a sin but that acting on those feelings is ‘intrinsically disordered.’”
That said, the man’s humility and pure goodness shined throughout what felt like a short papacy. And the remarks from leaders around the world reflected the extraordinary example he set of Christian love and generosity. I was struck by the eloquence of various kings and presidents and prime ministers, until it came to Trump, who moronically texted: “Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!”
Really? He sounds like a teenaged influencer.
Supremes Poised to Mess with GLBT Kids Books
On Tuesday, April 22, the High Court heard arguments in a case that pits a Maryland school district against a bunch of religious parents. At issue is whether or not the school should be obliged to give these parents a way to opt out of exposing their elementary school kids to a handful of age-appropriate GLBT storybooks.
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San Francisco Community Health Center’s Show of Hope Gala 2025
The busy spring fundraiser season included San Francisco Community Health Center’s packed Show of Hope Gala 2025 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco on April 18. The emcee was Reggie Aqui, ABC7 News mornings anchor. Music was provided by the talented DJ Mod Girl and Ada Vox, who gave a remarkable performance showcasing her exceptional vocal range and soulful delivery. This year’s Health Justice Champion is Toni Newman. As the organizers shared, Newman is “a trailblazing leader and advocate” who has “dedicated her career to advancing health justice across multiple movements. From her transformative leadership at organizations like St. James Infirmary and the Black AIDS Institute to her groundbreaking work at NMAC and beyond, she has been a relentless force
for justice.” She was celebrated for “her visionary contributions and commitment to creating a more just and compassionate world.”
Read more about the gala in Donna Sachet’s column in this issue, and additional information and photos are also at: https://bit.ly/3Gz9n7C
TBy Donna Sachet
he recent flurry of exciting events has certainly helped to turn our attention away from gloomy national news and back to the powerful and inspiring local picture. Our community is vibrant and resilient and there’s no turning back!
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
We joined Juanita MORE!’s and Alex U. Inn’s People’s Rally & March on Saturday, April 12, filling Justin Herman Plaza with a beautiful spectrum of our LGBTQ+ Community and allies. We don’t often actively participate in such public gatherings, wondering whether they really have any substantive impact, but sometimes a sense of frustration and powerlessness impels us to action. We saw so many friends who must be feeling similar emotions and we were encouraged by a group of speakers, most notably former Supervisor Aaron Peskin and Director of Transgender Initiatives Honey Mahogany. We applaud those who put in the hard work to organize such a massive display of outrage and encourage all of you to find a way to join this movement of visible opposition to cherished civil liberties.
Friday morning, April 18, 4:30 am: Where were you? We were at Lotta Crabtree’s Fountain, the downtown gathering spot where, 119 years ago, San Francisco was still reeling from the Great Earthquake and Fire and stunned citizens searched for loved ones and surveyed the damage. Yes, we joined the annual commemoration for the 10th time, a truly “only in San Francisco” event. The hour is ungodly, but the ceremony is very special, including a handful of speeches from our elected officials, always including Da Mayor Willie Brown and this year the new Mayor Daniel Lurie, Fire Chief Dean Crispen, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, and Police Chief Bill Scott. This unique event is attended by many in period costume, including Emperor Joshua Norton and Countess Lola Montez, some attending every year and many for the first time, summoning up their heartiest demeanor and taking a moment to remember the tragic loss of life and property and the brave efforts of so many against such implacable odds. This was Donna Ewald Huggins 50th and final year helping to organize the event and she was appropriately honored with flowers and praise. We were pleased to see so many Imperial friends among the crowd, adding our special dramatic flair. And at precisely 5:12 am, like every year, the sirens of multiple fire trucks began to blare, creating an echoing cacophony throughout downtown and causing our little puppy Peanut to howl, bringing this bizarre, but beloved, ceremony to an end. The rest of our weekend was spent in the always attentive company of Gary Virginia at a series of events small and large. Friday night, we first popped into Lookout to celebrate with their staff and regulars the amazing announcement that this popular bar has lent its support to events raising over 2 million dollars over the past 17 years. That’s what we call a supportive community business.
From there, we dashed to the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero for SF Community Health Center’s Show of Hope Gala. Forget your presumptions about staid and formal galas! Chief Executive Officer Lance Toma makes sure his attendees are swept up in a dizzying setting, amazing crowd, and riveting program. After a lively cocktail hour, emcee ABC7’s Reggie Aqui got things going in the main ballroom festooned with yellow roses and circles of white light. Awards went to Toni Newman of Coalition for Justice and Equality Across Movements, Code Tenderloin, and the inimitable Juanita MORE! and Mr. David Glamamore. A fast-paced live auction raised significant sums, even more so with the Fund-a-Need, leading to the announcement that the evening had resulted in over half a million dollars raised for SF Community Health Center. Of the hundreds of guests, we were only able to chat personally with a handful, but among them were SF Pride’s Suzanne Ford, Larry Hashbarger, Tita Aida, Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, Cammy Blackstone, LGBT Asylum Project’s Dinora Gonzalez, and Miguel Bustos & Alexander Rivera. Rounding out the night was the crowd-pleasing dynamic vocalist Ada Vox; what a voice and what a delivery!
The following night was Soirée 2025, the LGBT Community Center’s annual gala, another fresh take on such events with delicious food, wines, and cocktails at City View at the Metreon. During the cocktail hour, we were able to socialize with Mayor Daniel Lurie, Mark Leno, Frank Woo, D’Arcy Drollinger, Katya Smirnoff Skye, Horizon’s Roger Doughty, GLBT Historical Society’s Roberto Ordenana, and The Academy’s Nate Bourg. Our hosts were long-time friends David Gin & Gary Nathan with a prominent table full of entertaining guests. People make an event engaging and the right people were on stage with co-emcees Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany, inspiring, energetic, and funny!
Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe spoke passionately of the need for ongoing support and announced that, after 22 years, she will be leaving at the end of the year.
Friday, April 25
26th annual EQCA Gala Dinner & Awards
The Conservatory at One Sansome Street 6–10 pm $250 & up www.eqca.org
Saturday, April 26
All the Tea: Disco Birthday Party for Donna Sachet
Another year around the sun with the old girl
DJ Sergio Fedasz
Go-go dancers & flaggers
Midnight Sun, 4067 18th Street 5–9 pm $5 www.midnightsunsf.com
Sunday, April 27
Mimosa: Benefit for Dyke March 2025
Support our Dyke Community, emceed by Alex U. Inn
Celebrating Betty Sullivan’s Birthday Singer Nadirah Shakoor & pianist Dee Spencer
DJ Lady Ryan
Catch French Bistro, 2362 Market Street
Noon–5 pm
$15 www.catchfrenchbistro.com
Her steady and determined leadership will be greatly missed. Michael Tate once again brought his considerable auctioning talents to the event, even doubling the original goal during the Fund-a-Need portion. After dinner, the crowd moved to a dancing area with music and entertainment, curated by Juanita MORE! The crowd spilled out onto the open-air patio with spacious city views.
This very busy weekend wrapped up with Easter Sunday and we found ourselves basking in sparkling sunshine surrounded by thousands of the very people whom some say don’t even exist. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence once again invited our community to commune with them in
(continued on page 18)
MILLER (continued from pg 10)
financial industry. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results. Any indices referenced for comparison are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. As always please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional.
Brio Financial Group is a registered investment adviser. SEC Registration does not constitute an endorsement of Brio by the SEC nor does it indicate that Brio has attained a particular level of skill or ability Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Brio Financial Group and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Brio Financial Group unless a client service agreement is in place.
Brandon Miller, CFP®, is a financial consultant at Brio Financial Group in San Francisco, specializing in helping LGBT individuals and families plan and achieve their financial goals. For more information: https://www.briofg.com/
GREENE (continued from pg 10)
decades-long public probate battle could have been avoided, preserving her privacy and legacy with a living trust.
3. It controls how your assets are distributed.
With a living trust, you decide exactly how and when your beneficiaries inherit. Want your kids to receive their share only after they turn 30 or graduate college? You can make it happen. This control prevents mismanagement and ensures your loved ones benefit when they’re ready to handle the responsibility.
4. It protects you during incapacity.
A living trust isn’t just for after you’re gone—it also safeguards you if you can’t manage your affairs due to illness or injury. Your chosen successor trustee steps in seamlessly, avoiding the need for a court to appoint a conservator. It’s peace of mind knowing your finances are in trusted hands no matter what.
5. It adapts to life’s changes.
Life isn’t static, and neither should your estate plan be. Living trusts are revocable, meaning you can tweak them as circumstances evolve—think marriage, divorce, or a new grandchild. This flexibility ensures your plan always reflects your current wishes.
Take Charge of Your Legacy Today
Don’t let your family face the probate nightmares that have haunted others. A living trust offers a simple, effective way to protect your assets, your privacy, and your loved ones. Contact Greene Law Firm, P.C. today to start building your estate plan and secure the future you envision. Call us at 415-905-0215 or email us at info@greenelawfirm.com today.
Statements In Compliance With California Rules of Professional Conduct: The materials in this article are for educational purposes only and are not legal advice. Consult an estate planning attorney for personalized guidance.
Jay Greene, Esq., CPA, is the founder of Greene Estate, Probate, & Elder Law Firm in San Francisco, helping LGBT individuals, couples, and families secure their future. For more information, visit: https://greenelawfirm.com
SACHET (continued from pg 17)
Dolores Park and we filled it to capacity. Entertainment on and off the stage kept the party going. Festive spring hats and complete outfits were everywhere. There was none of the rude and impatient behavior often associated with such crowds; we saw smiles, hugs, and sharing all around. After soaking up a couple of hours of this annual tradition, we adjourned to 440 to catch up with friends and enjoy Gary Virginia’s witty banter at his Easter party. The Castro remained active well into the night, as the hundreds of park denizens streamed into their favorite watering holes.
Donna Sachet is a celebrated performer, fundraiser, activist, and philanthropist who has dedicated over two decades to the LGBTQ Community in San Francisco. Contact her at empsachet@gmail.com
ROSTOW (continued from pg 15)
I’ve gone back and forth on this case. At first, I just had a knee-jerk reaction against narrow-minded parents. The books are just a few of many, many kids books that are read or, I don’t know, left around the classroom. There’s one about a kid’s uncle marrying a man, and another about a girl who makes a valentine for her friend, and so forth. I guess parents in the past have bitched and moaned about non-Biblical science books or wizards and witches, but courts have ruled that presenting different topics does not violate the religious freedom of those who disagree. If that’s the case, I figured, then the gay books should stay.
I was swayed the other way thanks to a really good essay by New York Times contributor Megan Stack, a Maryland parent who is not involved in the lawsuit. Why, she asked, was it necessary for both sides of the conflict to be so entrenched that they wind up facing the Supreme Court and possibly triggering an anti-gay precedent that could damage the community far beyond the Montgomery County School District? Parents opt out of sex education all the time for religious reasons and schools have no problem with this. Why not let a few super conservatives opt out of the books and move on?
“I can’t decide which conceit is more delusional,” she wrote, “the school district grandstanding about social tolerance while forcing a minority of religious families to engage with books they consider immoral or the religious parents claiming that they can’t properly rear their children in faith if the kids get exposed to a few picture books. Both positions, it seems to me, rest on a cartoonishly inflated sense of school’s influence on children. And both seek an ideologically purified classroom while underestimating the sweep of ideas and information kids absorb simply by existing in our world.” (Emphasis mine.)
Few of us can argue with Stack’s dismay at the rigid posturing we so often see on both sides of some of these cases. The failure “to resolve a thoroughly predictable tension with the time-tested tools of straight talk, compromise and extending one another a little grace has made for a demoralizing spectacle,” she concludes.
But I came back around for a pragmatic reason. Unlike sex education, which is confined to a class or a segment, the books are like drops in a glass of water. They are part of a collection that consists almost entirely of heterosexual families and cisgender boys and girls with a tiny soupçon of gay or trans characters or stories. The district maintains that it tried to let parents opt out but it was too difficult to administer the exceptions, too hard to figure out where and when these particular books might appear. And again, like the wizards or the books on evolution, the mere fact that a parent might disapprove of the subject does not mean the parent’s faith is somehow violated, nor should public schools have to twist themselves into knots in order to placate everyone’s personal sensibilities.
It’s not clear that our conservative Supreme Court will agree with the lower courts that ruled for the school district. A Washington Post article said the justices seemed poised to back the parents after oral arguments, so we’ll see.
Jailed for Hitting the Ladies Room
I confess I’ve only skimmed the news out of the United Kingdom, where the Supreme Court has ruled that transgender women are not covered by the “sex discrimination” part of the Equality Act 2010, a civil rights law that bans discrimination based on all sorts of characteristics. The Court ruled that “sex” is defined as your sex at birth, an ironic contrast from our Supreme Court, which ruled 6–3 in 2020 that “sex” includes sexual orientation and gender identity in the context of our Title VII’s ban on sex discrimination in the workplace. Confusingly, it seems that the British Equality Act also bans discrimination based on “gender reassignment,” which sounds as if transgender men and women are protected elsewhere in the statute. There are so many anti-trans cases and incidents throughout the U.S. that I can’t be bothered with figuring out U.K. law. I think I mentioned that Maine is now obliged to defend the state law that protects transgender athletes. Maine’s steely governor, Janet Mills, is one of the nation’s toughest constitutional champions, telling Trump that she’ll see him in court. “Let today serve as warning to all states: Maine might be among the first to draw the ire of the Federal government in this way, but we will not be the last.”
I have other news, including a story about a deranged Indiana woman who attacked a teacher for assigning a project about flags that included the rainbow banner. Carrie Rivers was arrested after confronting the teacher at school while wearing a gun. She also sent a number of emails, including one that read: “U messed with the wrong family. I’ll tell you that so please say ur prayers and kiss ur kids goodbye and goodnight u never know when god says its our time so always be prepared.” Jeeze Louise, Carrie! Take a pill or something. I love these people who are outraged by gay people, but apparently think cold-blooded murder is just fine. Finally, many of my other items involve bathroom laws, which are the latest cool thing in Red State legislatures. I’ll focus on one incident, in particular: a woman who deliberately used the ladies’ room in defiance of a Florida state law that bans transgender men and women from public bathrooms. I guess this happened in March, but I only found out about it now.
According to The New York Times, Marcy Rheintgen, 20, sent 160 letters to state lawmakers and officials, announcing her intention to use the ladies’ room in the State Capitol building on March 19. There, she was met by police officers who said she would be given a trespass warning if she entered. Rheintgen went in for about thirty seconds, and was arrested when she came out.
Here’s the astonishing aspect of the story. This 20-year-old young woman was then imprisoned for 24 hours; put behind bars. Rheintgen was charged with “trespass on property after warning,” whatever that means, not for violating the “Safety in Private Spaces Act.” She will be arraigned in May. Brave girl. arostow@aol.com
Frances Power Cobbe and Mary Lloyd: A Love Story
Faces from Our LGBT Past
Dignitaries from all over the world celebrated Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904) on her eightieth birthday for her lifetime of great works. “We, who recognize the strenuous philanthropic activity and the high moral purpose of your long life,” they proclaimed, “wish to offer you this congratulatory address as an expression of sincere regard.” Working to save children from the horrors of the workhouse, to free battered women from abusive marriages, and to rescue animals from needless cruelties, she campaigned tirelessly for social change.
Cobbe was consistently forceful when writing about “women’s concerns,” including their right to vote, to receive a university education, own property, and
leave an abusive marriage. She was born into a prominent Irish family near Dublin, and explained that “a married woman’s inheritance and even her own earnings (if she could make any), were legally robbed from her by her husband,” who having “beaten and wronged his wife in every possible way could yet force her by law to live with him and become the mother of his children.”
With divorce then especially difficult to get, Cobbe demanded that Parliament change the marriage laws to at least protect women from domestic violence by their husbands. In her bluntly titled pamphlet Wife Torture in England (1878), she wrote, “The notion that a man’s wife is his PROPERTY in the sense in which a horse is his property, is the fatal root of incalculable evil and misery.” Only when women had the legal right to leave their abusive husbands, she believed, would they be safe.
Her advocacy led Parliament to pass the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1878.
For the first time, women could file for a legal separation from their husbands, be granted custody of their children, and receive financial support, although it was rarely granted. Even so, Cobbe believed, “The part of my work for women ... to which I look back with most satisfaction was that in which I labored to obtain protection for unhappy wives, beaten, mangled, mutilated, or trampled on by brutal husbands.”
her Autobiography (1894), “is undoubtedly due to wretched fashions of tight-lacing, and wearing long and heavy skirts, and tight, thin boots, which render free exercise of their limbs impossible.” Almost as bad was seeing “the adornments so many women use of dead birds, stuck on their empty heads and heartless breasts. These things are a disgrace to women.”
From the earliest days of her career, Cobbe advocated for the humane treatment of animals. Her first of many articles, “The Rights of Man and the Claims of Brutes,” which “I hoped might help to direct public attention to them,” appeared Fraser’s Magazine in 1863.
“So far as I know,” she wrote later, “it was the first effort made to deal with the moral questions involved in the torture of animals either for sake of scientific and therapeutic research, or for the acquirement of manipulative skill.”
Always their stalwart champion, Cobbe occasionally took women to task for causing their own troubles.
“A great deal of the sickliness of women,” she wrote in
Although “frequently described” by her critics as “a woman ‘who would sacrifice any number of men, women, and children, sooner than that a few rabbits should be inconvenienced,’” she persevered. Her work against the callous and unconcerned use of animals in scientific and other research led to the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876. It remained in force for 110 years, when it was replaced by the Animals Scientific Procedures Act of 1986, which currently regulates the use of animals in experiments in the United Kingdom.
Supporting Cobbe in all her advocacy was Welsh sculptor Mary Lloyd (1819–1896), her life partner for 34 years and whom she met when visiting Rome during the winter of 1861–62. Both were friends of famed American actor Charlotte Cushman (1816–1876).
“One day,” she wrote in her autobiography, “Miss Cushman asked whether I would drive with her in her brougham to call on a friend of Mrs. Somerville, who had particularly desired that she and I should meet.” When they arrived, “we happily found Miss Lloyd, busy in her sculptor’s studio.”
Learning that Cobbe was an avid rider, “she kindly offered to mount me if I would join her in her rides on the Campagna. Then began an acquaintance, which was further improved two years later when Miss Lloyd came to meet ... me at Aix-les-Bains; and from that time, now more than thirty years ago, she and I have lived together. Of a friendship like this ... I shall not be expected to say more.”
Theirs was a happy life together. In 1864 they returned to London, “where Miss Lloyd—one morning before breakfast— found, and, in an incredibly short time, bought the dear little house in South Kensington which became our home with few interruptions for a quarter of a century.” The house, “though small, was very pretty and airy” and “we often had in it as many as 50 or 60 guests,” including naturalist Charles Darwin, political economist John Stuart Mill, poets Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning, and actor, writer, and abolitionist Fanny Kemble.
There was no doubt in their minds or in the minds of anyone who knew them that they were a devoted couple in every way. With friends, Cobbe often referred to Lloyd as “my wife,” “my husband,” “my life-friend,” “my better half,” and “ my dear friend.” A decade after they met, Cobbe wrote a long poem to Lloyd, which she included in the revised edition of her autobiography (1904). Describing their deep and enduring bonds of friendship and love, she included the following lines:
In joy and grief, in good and ill, Friend of my heart: I need you still, My Guide, Companion, Playmate, Love, To dwell with here, to clasp above, I want you—Mary.”
When Lloyd passed, Cobbe wrote, she was “a friend who knew me better than anyone beside could ever know me, and yet— strange to think!—could love me better than any other; this was happiness for which, even now that it is over, I thank God from the depths of my soul.” After Cobbe, too, was gone, novelist Blanche Atkinson (1847–1911) stated that theirs “had been such a friendship as is rarely seen—perfect in love, sympathy, and mutual understanding.” The two women rest together under a single headstone in Llanelltyd in the County of Gwynedd, Wales.
Bill Lipsky, Ph.D., author of “LGBTQ+ Trailblazers of San Francisco” (2023) and “Gay and Lesbian San Francisco” (2006), is a member of the Rainbow Honor Walk board of directors.
Dr. Bill Lipsky
Frances Power Cobbe, Manchester College, Oxford University, dedicated 1908
Photos Courtesy of Bill Lipsky
Portrait of Frances Power Cobbe
Mary Charlotte Lloyd
Hajjin, the beloved dog of Frances Power Cobbe and Mary Charlotte Lloyd
Play Ball! San Francisco Gay Softball League Opening Day 2025
By Dawn E. Dzurilla
“Play Ball!” This echoed across Moscone Field and was proclaimed by Fremon, the Women’s+ D Umpire, on a brilliantly calm, warm, blue-sky morning on March 23, 2025. Framed by Fremon’s rainbow-colored goatee, a vibrant and proud statement against the serene sky, it was the unmistakable call to action marking the start of the long-awaited 2025 San Francisco Gay Softball League (SFGSL) season.
“It’s important for queer people who love sports to play sports, and make no mistake, there’s a political component to this—especially in the times that we are living through,” said San Francisco President of the Board of Supervisors, Rafael Mandelman, who, together with California State Senator Scott Wiener and San Francisco Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford, strongly expressed their support for our ballplayers and the LGBTQ community by tossing-out the first ball—perfect strikes at both Kimbell Field and Moscone Field!
As Allison Corbin, a long-time player and coach in both the SF Rec league and SFGSL’s Women’s+ D, observed, “Recreation softball is about softball; SFGSL is also about community.”
Corbin added, “The crack of the bat, the cheers from the sidelines, and the laughter and cheers from the benches weren’t just sounds of a game; they were the sounds of belonging. Opening Day was a reunion of a powerful and pride-filled community. Around the fields, the league’s spirit was clear: a diverse and electric mix of game, competition, fun, and LGBTQ+ community pride. SFGSL’s uniqueness, what sets it apart from other leagues, lies in the bonds and shared experiences of its participants, both on and off the field.”
A lot has changed since 2008, when Vincent Fuqua first became Commissioner of SFGSL. As Corbin said, “Today, we are a lot more aware of purposefully acknowledging diversity. The board is putting our best efforts to be more inclusive.” This means not just representation, but creating spaces where every individual feels seen, heard, and valued—expanding our outreach, and fostering a culture of genuine respect and understanding.
In her 25 years playing in SFGSL, Ina Fried has witnessed plenty of changes as she has in society serving as an acclaimed journalist; she is the Chief Technology Correspondent at Axios. Fried said, “Back then, we had absolutely no policy for trans athletes. In SFGSL we are rated on our ability, not our identity. Our model is one for all recreational leagues to adopt.”
It’s clear that SFGSL isn’t just a league for some, but a home for all within our diverse LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Beyond the scorebook, the camaraderie has come to define our league. “My third-year, we have fun. We are all a team. We are a community. We need camaraderie as players,” shared Nico Gonzales of Women’s D’s Just 4 Fun. Longtime team Manager and player, Jim Oswald, said, “When I first started playing 9 years ago, I didn’t know how to play! This is such a great sport, great people, welcoming you regardless of your walk of life.”
In the stands, cheering her competitive husband Robbie Talton of Open D’s SF Pups, Savannah Belk-Talton shared her love of softball and our community. “Everyone welcomed us with opened arms. Robbie’s teammates are very kind.” Belk-Talton is a mental health therapist, originally from North Carolina. She continued, “We live in a bubble, a safety net. Our rights are being threatened and we need to support this community.”
Senator Scott Wiener is widely acknowledged as a national and local LGBTQ+ advocate and effective legislator. He offered a cautionary warning: “This is a moment of time in this country where more people are trying to tear our community apart, where ugly things are happening, and where even uglier things are going to happen. We need to continue to fight and stand together as a community.”
Echoing this feeling, Commissioner Vincent Fuqua reiterated, “We put the trans statement out there in the wake of everyone, because it’s the right thing to do. We cannot live in fear, no matter what others think of us!” Jeffrey Dowling, an Eagles D player, put it succinctly: “We need community more than ever!”
In his 3 years playing for the Open C division SF Cougars, Mason Engel, who arrives each week from the South Bay, compared Opening Day with “seeing your childhood family at supportive social events.” And did you know that, near Moscone Field, we have a new queer establishment? For the first time, I recently visited Wizards & Wands, proudly sponsoring a new Open D team: the Rabbit Holes. Brett Frost, Co-Owner, enthusiastically said, “Sponsoring a team in SFGSL is a no-brainer. We are excited to be welcomed into the league and the community.”
“Community, purpose, safe space, standing together—all the above—we have to stand together and especially to support our trans community,” stressed Suzanne Ford, the first Trans Executive Director of SF Pride, whose theme this year is “Queer Joy Is Resistance.”
Ed Busch, Manager of the Open D’s F-Liners, has welcomed a lot more diversity in the league, especially more women players. “The friendships that we build have stayed with us for years,” he said. “The people we are with make it so enjoyable. Softball is not only an on the field sport but also a friendship sport.”
SFGSL’s 2025 Opening Day was a powerful remind er of our community’s strength, especially now. Beyond the game, it was about building bonds and finding hope. Every player, from veteran to rookie, felt the joy and connection that make SFGSL unique—a chance for competition, fun, new beginnings, and lasting friendships, every day.
Dawn E. Dzurilla is a SFGSL Board Member & Partnerships Director. She plays in Women’s+ D division’s Blazing Hot Peppers. She is the Founder & Managing Partner of SFGSL League Sponsor, Gaia Human Capital Consultants. She can be reached at sponsorship@sfgsl.org
SFGSL Team Hot Peppers
from SFGSL Team Knockouts
Photos courtesy of San Francisco Gay Softball League/Facebook and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman
(Left to Right) Suzanne Ford, San Francisco Pride Executive Director; State Senator Scott Wiener; Supervisor Rafael Mandelman; and Dawn Dzurilla, San Francisco Gay Softball League
SF Gay Softball League to Host the 2027 iPride Gay Softball World Series
The San Francisco Gay Softball League (SFGSL) is thrilled to announce that it has been selected to host the 50th annual International Pride Softball (iPride) Gay Softball World Series in 2027. This prestigious event, whose theme is “50 Years of Pride,” will bring together over a thousand athletes and fans from around the globe to celebrate LGBTQ+ sportsmanship and community.
“This is a tremendous honor for our league, and an incredible privilege to bring the Gay Softball World Series to San Francisco and the entire Bay Area in 2027,” said Vincent Fuqua, SFGSL Commissioner. “As the host city, this a huge milestone and we can’t wait to welcome teams from around the globe and to showcase San Francisco, the Bay Area, and our incredibly vibrant and proud LGBTQ+ community!”
The 50th Gay Softball World Series will be a historic event, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the launch of this tournament—a pivotal moment in the LGBTQ+ and athletic rights movement.
“We are excited to invite everyone to join us in making this Softball World Series a historic event and are grateful to everyone who has contributed to the success of iPride for almost 50 years,” said Dawn Dzurilla, SFGSL’s Partnership Director and 2027 World Series planning committee member. “As you might expect, such a large event costs money. Lots of money. We’re working to secure sponsors. Financial and community volunteer support will help us ensure that this World Series is a worldclass event.”
Fuqua added, “Together, with everyone’s support, we can create the 2027 World Series to be a truly memorable and fun experience for all and, a resounding success!”
For more information: www.sfgsl.org and https://ipridesoftball.org/
SFGSL Team SF Soar
SFGSL Team Knockouts
SFGSL Team Comebacks
SFGSL Team Knockers
SFGSL loyal fans
From Spitfire to Sultry to Blacklisted: Overlooked Latinas in Classic Hollywood
silent days until the treacherous world of the McCarthy Era.
She told me for the San Francisco Bay Times :
Once in a while a fascinating female comes into my life and takes me on an amazing journey. Most recently that was Tina D’Elia, who is a self-proclaimed “mixed race Latina lesbian queer artist.” As she explained, “I’ve always wanted to know my ancestors and celebrate others, especially combined with my passion for classic Hollywood.” You are definitely in my wheelhouse, Tina!
It would be a challenge to find someone who loves classic Hollywood as much as I do, but Tina is right with me. As an award-winning solo performer, she opens the glamorous, gutsy, politically repressed, and scandalous worlds of Dolores del Río, Rita Hayworth, Lupe Vélez, and others to us in her show presently at the Marsh in Berkeley, Overlooked Latinas. It is, she adds, the new queer telenovela farce of our century!
As much as I loved the two books The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood by Diana McLellan and Axel Madsen’s The Sewing Circle: Hollywood’s Greatest Secret, Tina brings the characters she presents to new heights. She captures their colorful struggles to thrive and survive in Hollywood through the
“It started for me as a child when my parents took us to see the Marx Brothers and Kate Hepburn (hey, me too!). I became driven to uncover the Hollywood Red Scare, Rosie the Riveter, the icons, and unsung heroines. I could not stop studying and devouring. It was usually these fascinating women, but Ramon Novarro lived openly as a gay man, coming to a tragic end. Had Lupe Vélez found Lucille Ball fame, or Dolores del Río (cousin of Novarro) not had her visa taken by the right wing for being ‘soft on international communism,’ or if Rita Hayworth chasing male dominance (had been) allowed to speak freely about her pinup being used to bomb Hiroshima, there may have been a slightly level playing field.”
Dolores del Río is fascinating; she was the first major Latin American crossover star. We are talking glamour on par with Dietrich and a career spanning more than fifty years. Her marriage to legendary MGM production designer Cedric Gibbons, partnership with Orson Welles, outspoken political beliefs, and her worldwide fame as a sort of feminine Rudolph Valentino (she lasted much longer) is quite remarkable. She constantly attacked Hollywood for stereotyping Mexicans and Latinos, furious at the movies for regarding her people as uneducated or bandits. She wound up going back to Mexico to make films that are regarded as classics today. I highly recommend Linda B. Hall’s book Dolores del Río: Beauty in Light and Shade
Tina and I ended on a positive vibe, deciding Hollywood is still a poisonous jungle
for out lesbians but they might have less to struggle with. It is still possible to be blacklisted, but the police raids, breach of contracts, oppression, and harassment have changed. Now if I can just get Tina to make a documentary. This is too good! Her show is directed by Mary Guzmán, who has collaborated for two decades with her. Their seamless sync clearly makes for a Latina lesbian dream team. Do not miss a chance to see the amazing Overlooked Latinas
Jan Wahl is a Hollywood historian and film critic on various broadcast outlets. She has two Emmys and many awards for her longtime work on behalf of film buffs and the LGBTQ community. Contact her at www.janwahl.com
Off the Wahl
Jan Wahl
Tina D’Elia
Lupe Vélez
Rita Hayworth
Dolores del Rio
Making Magic With Queer Actor Joe Apollonio
Film
Gary M. Kramer
In writer/director Amalia Ulman’s deadpan, shaggy dog comedy, Magic Farm, opening May 2 in the Bay Area, bisexual actor Joe Apollonio charms as Justin, a sound man for a documentary series. The producer, Jeff (Alex Wolff), mistakenly sends the team—which includes Justin as well as the show’s host Edna (Chloë Sevigny) and cinematographer Elena (Ulman)—to San Cristóbal, Argentina, when the story the crew is chasing is actually elsewhere in Latin America. To compensate for their error, they decide to fake a documentary using the locals they encounter, which creates its own challenges. Meanwhile, they ignore a more serious issue affecting the town.
Apollonio, who has mostly appeared in various short films and episodic TV, is an engaging screen presence in Magic Farm Watching the not-too-bright Justin get taken advantage of by a local store owner, or flirt with the unnamed hotel receptionist (Guillermo Jacubowicz), is amusing. And he rocks his vintage costumes.
I recently chatted with the actor for the San Francisco Bay Times about his career and making Magic Farm.
Gary M. Kramer: What appealed to you about this project, and playing Justin?
Joe Apollonio: I was attached to this film from the get-go. Amalia had seen my skits on Instagram, and she thought I was funny
and pitched Magic Farm to me. This was in late 2020. It wasn’t an instance of getting the script before shooting and mulling it over. I helped her create my character. I can relate to Justin in that I’ve been in these flirtations and relationships that are ultimately star-crossed. Love can feel so intense when you can’t have it. I relate to Justin’s situation where he is flirting with a man he can’t have because of these miscommunications, from the language barrier to the receptionist not knowing that Justin is gay. That hasn’t happened to me specifically, though.
Gary M. Kramer: What backstory did you give Justin?
Joe Apollonio: It wasn’t too far from my real life—absent dad, dominating, strongwilled mom. I envisioned him feeling like he’s on the outside looking in in almost every social circle in his life, especially at his current job. His friendship with Elena is a reprieve from that. He dropped out of college, but I graduated.
Gary M. Kramer: I understand there was very little improvisation, but
(continued on page 39)
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Six Days in Bombay (fictionhardcover) by Alka Joshi
Six Days in Bombay takes place during the tumultuous time of the late 1930s. Maya is an Anglo-Indian nurse forced to prove her innocence after a famous painter dies under her care. Joshi takes readers on a journey from Bombay, throughout Europe, and into the U.K.
Lost at Sea: Poverty and Paradise Collide at the Edge of America (non-fiction - hardcover) by Joe Kloc
Lost at Sea is a nine-year account of the unhoused community known as “anchor-outs” that lived on abandoned boats in Richardson Bay. Kloc documents the ups, the downs, and the eventual end of a community living on the outskirts of one of the wealthiest counties in America.
Upcoming Events
Thursday, April 24 @ 6 pm (non-ticketed - Corte Madera store) Kate Folk, author of Sky Daddy: A Novel Sky Daddy is a daring and hilarious debut novel that follows Linda and her secret obsession. Linda is sexually attracted to airplanes, and at the end of every month, she heads to SFO for a regional flight with a new suitor. Folk will be joined in conversation by Chang-rae Lee.
Monday, April 28 @ 5:30 pm (non-ticketed - SF Ferry Building store) Kirthana Ramisetti, author of The Other Lata
The Other Lata is a novel of mistaken identity set in the glamorous world of upstate New York. There’s Lata and then there’s New York Socialite Lata. Due to an incorrect email address, Lata receives an invitation to a very exclusive party, but instead of deleting the invite, she decides to go—as the other Lata. Ramisetti will be joined in conversation by Erin Carlson.
Wednesday, April 30 @ 6 pm (non-ticketedCorte Madera store) Susannah Cahalan, author of Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary
Most commonly known for being the wife of Timothy Leary, psychedelic high priest, Rosemary Woodruff Leary has a story that’s never been properly told. Acid Queen brings her to the forefront, highlighting her as the pioneering psychedelic seeker that she was. Cahalan will be joined in conversation by Meg Josephson, LCSW.
https://www.bookpassage.com/
Lit Snax
All the
Emma Denny
A cozy romance set in 1362 Oxfordshire, it’s kind of a lesbian knight in shining armor story, with a jousting tournament for good measure.
My Little Golden Book About Pride by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Michelle Jing Chan
Will wonders never cease? Children can now be introduced to the LGBTQ+ rainbow through the magic of Little Golden Books!
Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir by Bishakh Som
If you’ve been hankering for a graphic novel with a trans, south-Asian protagonist and a dancing cat on the cover, this is your lucky day.
https://www.fabulosabooks.com/
Painted Stars by
Sisters’ 2025 Easter in the Park
Photos by Rink
The confluence of 4/20, Easter, and a beautiful spring day made the Sisters’ 2025 Easter in the Park one of the best ever. This year’s theme, “No Easter Without the T,” honoring the transgender community, resonated strongly in the face of ongoing Trump administration attacks.
Although the political climate could bring a cloud to any gathering, this event at Mission Dolores Park was a blast of needed brightness. The emcees were Honey Mahogany, Alex U. Inn, and Sister Roma. The show, which began with a Children’s Easter at 10:30 am featuring an egg hunt and visit from the Easter Bunny, at noon transformed to an adult event that included appearances by trans opera sensation Breanna Sinclairé, Ronnie Reddick Presents “I’m Every Woman” with The Ladies of AsiaSF 2.0, hip hop legends The Momma’s Boyz featuring Ariel B. and Lambert, and local punk favorites Pansy Division.
Cowboy Carter Jesus, astride a massive fiberglass bison covered with mirror-ball tiles, looked like a winner even before he was declared this year’s Hunky Jesus. Several scantily clad men wearing cowboy hats accompanied Cowboy Carter Jesus, who waved a large rainbow Pride flag as he rode to victory.
Dollar Store Candle Mary, cleverly resembling her namesake items, was the 2025 Foxy Mary. In fishnet stockings and knee-high black boots, she likely would be the sexiest such candle on any Dollar Store shelf.
Cunty Bonnet, sporting a colorful ensemble with a playful nod to female anatomy, won the Easter Bonnet contest.
Congratulations to the Sisters, including Sister Roma and our own Sister Dana Van Iquity, on the success of this always amazing annual event.
Castro Night Market, April 18, 2025
On the eve of Easter Weekend and during the week of Passover, the latest Castro Night Market took place on Friday, April 18, 2025, from 5–10 pm. It featured live entertainment, local vendors, a visit from the Easter Bunny (Juan Davila of the San Francisco Bay Times team), and much more.
Mark your calendar for the next Castro Night Market, May 16, and check out the organizers’ website for future dates and additional information: https://castronightmarket.com/
Tenderloin Tessie Easter 2025
Tenderloin Tessie volunteers served up a free Easter dinner with all the trimmings at The First Unitarian Church on April 20, 2025. The Easter Bunny (Juan Davila of the San Francisco Bay Times) made an appearance, as did the Blue Grass Band, who provided music. LoveCuts, a pop-up barbershop, provided free haircuts. Free gift bags, clothes, coffee & cookies, and more were also provided to appreciative guests. Thank you to Michael Gagne, President and Volunteer Coordinator of Tenderloin Tessie Holiday Dinners, for making all of these free holiday dinner events possible. Keep up with them at Facebook: https://bit.ly/3S7yUr3
Photos by Leticia Lopezz
Photos courtesy of Juan R. Davila
SF LGBT Center Soirée 2025
City View at Metreon was the site of a triumphant evening on April 19, 2025, as the SF LGBT Center staff celebrated 23 years of service during their annual spring fundraiser, Soirée. It was a bittersweet event, as longtime Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe—leader of the Center for 22 of its 23 years—announced her retirement.
In a statement she shared: “Leading the Center has been the honor of my life. I’m proud of how far we’ve come, and I believe the Center is prepared for what’s ahead. But I know the work doesn’t end with me. This is a moment that calls for courage, solidarity, and collective action. I ask the community to keep showing up for each other, and for the generations of LGBTQ+ people who will continue to walk through our doors seeking connection and belonging.”
Soirée was hosted by Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany (who teamed up again just a few days later for the Sisters’ Easter in the Park). Entertainment was by legend in her own lifetime Juanita MORE!, who also had a busy holiday weekend. Popular DJ Lady Ryan spun tunes, and the auctioneer was Michael Tate, fresh off very successful stints for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Openhouse, and more.
After the Soirée dinner program there was an After Party, live auction and raffle, dancing, and open bar. Many guests danced the night away overlooking the spectacular scenes of the city from the vantage point of City View at Metreon.
Anatolian Kitchen, Broadway Under the Stars in Sonoma, and San José Theater Month
Welcome back to my temporary culinary column, as I fill in for David Landis who is healing up from shoulder surgery. The love of food and the restaurant industry runs deep in my family! Both my brothers own successful restaurants, respectively in Provincetown, Cape Cod, and Miami Beach (proud sister!), and as the co-founder of Spritz, a lifestyle marketing agency that partners with many restaurants in the Bay Area, I’m constantly driven to explore new flavors, taste everything, and share my culinary and wine adventures.
I’m thrilled to share some of my latest discoveries across the Bay Area— from savoring the rich Turkish flavors of Anatolian Kitchen in Palo Alto, to experiencing the magic of Transcendence Theatre Company’s Broadway Under the Stars in Sonoma, to celebrating
San José Theater Month, and exploring the brand-new Alora Social in San Ramon. Each destination offers its own unique blend of culture, cuisine, and community—perfect for anyone looking to soak up the best of what the region has to offer.
Culinary Gem in the Heart of Palo Alto: Anatolian Kitchen
If you’re looking to experience the vibrant flavors of the Mediterranean in a warm and casual yet elevated vibe, Anatolian Kitchen in Palo Alto is an absolute must. This gem offers an authentic taste of Anatolian cuisine—blending timeless culinary traditions with a modern touch in an atmosphere that is both welcoming and refined.
From the moment you arrive, the warmth of the staff and the charm of the restaurant’s interior—traditional brick walls, glowing chandeliers, and cozy elegance— set the tone for a truly memorable meal. The heated outdoor patio on California Street is perfect for enjoying the springtime weather, with its inviting tables and ambient lamp lighting.
What to Eat
The menu is a rich tapestry of flavors spanning from the western shores of the Mediterranean to the eastern reaches of Anatolia. I started with the Mediterranean dips and loved the Muhammara—a standout appetizer from the meze platter. Its blend of walnuts, roasted bell peppers, and pomegranate molasses was a perfect balance of savory, sweet, and smoky—an elegant nod to Spanish romesco, paired beautifully with warm, house-made pita bread.
Other dips like the creamy hummus, eggplant with tomato sauce, and eggplant purée were deeply flavorful and perfect for dipping. I suggest sharing the mixed appetizer platter—it is generous and a fantastic way to sample the kitchen’s range of flavors and all of the dips. Among the hot appetizers, the fried calamari, falafel plate, and especially the Içli Köfte (deep-fried bulgur balls stuffed with seasoned minced meat, walnuts, and pistachios)
By Beth Schnitzer
were all excellent—crispy, flavorful, and served with a tangy yogurt sauce. Appetizers range from $14–$18; the Mixed Appetizer Platter, $36, can easily be shared with four people.
For entrées, the Iskender-Alexander’s Favorite is not to be missed. This Turkish classic layers tender slices of lamb and beef over cubes of pita bread, soaked in a rich tomato sauce, creamy yogurt, and finished with sizzling butter—comforting, indulgent, and utterly delicious. Another standout dish was the classic Moussaka, a baked casserole of lamb, beef, eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers topped with melted Kasar cheese and served with rice pilaf.
One of the standout features of Anatolian Kitchen is its incredible selection of Turkish kebabs. Whether you prefer lamb, beef, chicken, or want to try a bit of everything with the mixed grill, each option is cooked to perfection—grilled over an open flame for that irresistible charred, smoky flavor. The kebabs are served with rice pilaf and tender, fresh sautéed vegetables, making for a hearty, satisfying, and beautifully balanced plate. My fellow diners loved the portions and raved about them! The Adana kebab, with its spicy ground meat, and the lamb shish kebab were particularly impressive—juicy, flavorful, and packed with traditional Anatolian flair.
Seafood lovers will be happy to know the grilled salmon was beautifully cooked and steak-cut. It was served with smoky eggplant purée, thin potato crisps, and fluffy rice. I loved the salmon and the portion
size was very generous. Next time, I’ll be back for the whole grilled Branzino, which looked spectacular as it was served at nearby tables.
Vegetarians will also find options like the Vegetable Moussaka and The Turlu— stewed tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, and carrots with rice pilaf.
Entrées range from $25 to $35 and are generously portioned and thoughtfully plated.
Cocktails, Wine, and Beer
The beverage menu is just as well curated, with a variety of wines, beers, and signature cocktails. I started with a glass of Prosecco, but was intrigued by their selection of Turkish wines like the Amour Nasa Sultana, alongside domestic favorites from Napa, Sonoma, and the Willamette Valley. Cocktails like the Hibiscus Margarita, Lychee Martini, and Pomegranate Martini offer refreshing pairings for the meal. For something more traditional, the Rakı on the Rocks or a Smoky Old-Fashioned hits the mark.
Dessert
No Turkish meal is complete without dessert. The Pistachio Baklava was everything baklava should be—crispy, syrupy, and nutty. But the real surprise was the baked Butternut Squash Pumpkin—a unique dish topped with tahini sauce, whipped cream, and walnuts that was both comforting and unexpected. Don’t skip the
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(continued
Beth Schnitzer
Photos courtesy of Beth Schnitzer
Beth Schnitzer and Justin Westley at Anatolian Kitchen, Palo Alto
Sunset at Transcendence Theatre Company
Turkish coffee either. It’s strong, rich, and rounds out the meal beautifully.
Music Festival
Every third Thursday, California Avenue comes alive with a fabulous free music festival—a perfect backdrop to an evening at Anatolian Kitchen. The street fills with the sounds of local musical groups, and you can drink and dine outdoors on their charming patio while soaking in the festive atmosphere. It’s a wonderful evening filled with great entertainment, food, and drink—an ideal way to experience the best of Palo Alto’s community and culture.
Final Thoughts
General Manager Levent Altan was a gracious host, ensuring every table was well taken care of. Service throughout the night was prompt, warm, and attentive. We even requested extra bread just to savor every last bite of the dips!
Whether your plans involve a Stanford event, a stroll through downtown Palo Alto, or a craving for excellent Mediterranean fare, Anatolian Kitchen promises a delightful experience. The spirited vibe, ambiance, exceptional dishes, and unforgettable hospitality make it a standout choice.
Highly recommend it. I’ll definitely be back. Open daily for lunch and dinner.
Anatolian Kitchen:
340 California Avenue, Palo Alto, https://anatoliankitchen.com/
Transcendence Theatre Company’s Broadway Under the Stars Summer Season
As a former New Yorker, I grew up enchanted by the magic of Broadway— the lights, the energy, the unforgettable
performances and shows that define Manhattan’s theater scene. While I’ve enjoyed plenty of outdoor concerts and wine country events since living in the Bay Area, I’ve never experienced a Broadway Show under the stars until now. I’m thrilled for the upcoming 14th annual summer season of Transcendence Theatre Company (TTC) Broadway Under the Stars taking place at Sonoma’s Field of Dreams, just a block from the town’s historic plaza.
Founded in 2008, Transcendence Theatre Company is California Wine Country’s premiere entertainment experience known for its spectacular open-air performances and top tier talent from Broadway and beyond. This year’s season promises to be unforgettable with three distinct productions that celebrate the spirit of musical theatre in the heart of the wine country.
Summer Performances
Broadway’s Best Night Ever kicks off the season with an all-new original production (June 12–15 & June 19–22). Created by TTC, this high energy show will feature dynamic songs and dances from over 40 beloved Broadway musicals—a celebration of the stage’s greatest hits brought to life under the open sky.
The Tony and Grammy Award-winning Beautiful - The Carole King Musical (August 7–10 & August 14–17) will also be staged, starring Sarah Bockel, who previously played King on Broadway. I listened to King growing up and will be thrilled to relive those Beautiful days on August 7. Finally, Ladies of Broadway (September 4–7 & September 11–14), an updated version of a past TTC show, will celebrate influential women in musical theater.
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PHOTO BY CHRIS HARDY
David Landis, The Gay Gourmet, is recovering from shoulder surgery but will be back with taste buds tingling in late May.
Transcendence Theatre Company
Pre-Show Picnic
One of the most delightful and uniquely Sonoma-style elements of the Broadway Under the Stars experience is the pre-show picnic, where the magic begins long before the curtain rises. Starting at 5 pm before each performance, guests are invited to relax on the picturesque lawn of The Field of Dreams, enjoying local food, wine, specialty cocktails, and live music as the sun sets. You can pre-order a gourmet dinner box from one of Transcendence’s local restaurant partners and pick it up on site, or stroll through offerings from Sonoma vendors, sampling regional flavors at your own pace. It’s also a wonderful chance to meet cast members, mingle with fellow theatre enthusiasts, and soak in the festive, communal energy that makes these evenings truly special. I can’t wait to be part of it!
Community Nights
There is also a series of themed community nights that celebrate inclusivity, culture, and connection. There will be Broadway Family Night on June 13, August 8, and September 5. Latin Heritage Night will light up the stage on June 14. An ASL-interpreted performance of Beautiful will take place on August 16, ensuring greater accessibility for all, and there will be a Pride Night on September 6 that promises to be a joyful celebration of love, identity, and community.
Tickets
Early bird tickets are now available in Gold, Premium, and General Reserved tiers, with a portion of ticket sales supporting The Field of Dreams and local youth programs. Take advantage of early bird pricing through May 6 and be part of an unforgettable season where Broadway meets the beauty of Sonoma under the stars.
https://transcendencetheatre.org/tickets/
San José Theater Month
San José Theater Month is in full swing, offering the perfect opportunity to experience world-class performances paired with a delicious pre-show dining experience. From Broadway hits to locally produced gems, San José’s renowned theaters are lighting up stages across the city with an exciting lineup that showcases the richness of its cultural scene.
Dinner & Show
To elevate your night out, Rollati Ristorante offers a seamless “Dinner & a Show” experience. Nestled in the heart of downtown San Jose, Rollati is a modern Italian American restaurant that brings the iconic flavors of Italy’s diverse regions to life. I love the restaurant’s blend of sleek sophistication and old-world charm, with blackand-white photographs evoking a sense of nostalgia, all set against the buzz of an open kitchen where house-made pastas are rolled and cut fresh.
For theatergoers, Rollati’s special $45 prix-fixe menu featuring Italian specialties like Garlic Bread Al Forno, Rollati’s Caesar, Rigatoni alla Vodka, Spaghetti alla Limon, and Dolce Panettone for dessert. The attentive staff ensures you’ll make it to your performance with plenty of time before the curtain rises.
Rollati Ristorante
181 East Santa Clara Street San Jose
https://www.rollatiristorante.com/ Upcoming Performances
Upcoming theater performances include Nikki Glaser, Waitress, The Rock Orchestra by Candlelight, Six the Musical, and Les Misérables. San Jose’s historic theaters, such as the California Theatre, Montgomery Theater, Center for the Performing Arts, and San Jose Civic, add to the charm of the experience.
Whether you’re a seasoned theater lover or looking for a memorable night out, San José Theater Month offers the perfect blend of arts, culture, and cuisine—a true celebration of the city’s vibrant creative spirit.
https://www.sanjose.org/theatermonth
Savor
San Ramon: New Restaurant Opening
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Alora Social, a brand-new addition to San Ramon’s City Center at Bishop Ranch. From the creators of Alora in San Francisco, Alora Social offers a fresh, coastal Mediterranean dining experience that’s casual, vibrant, and designed for sharing.
Mediterranean Flavors, Family Style
With a family-friendly approach to Mediterranean flavors, Alora Social brings together seasonal, comforting dishes and an inviting atmosphere perfect for gatherings with friends and family. The menu features an expanded selection of pastas, a fantastic array of dips, and hearty, shareable favorites rooted in Mediterranean culinary traditions.
What to Eat
One standout for me was the Spring Pea Hummus—a bright and refreshing blend of spring peas, mint, preserved lemon, and nutty whole-seed dukkah. I also loved the Moutabal, a creamy, smoky eggplant dip with yogurt, garlic, and lemon. The Sampler Platter includes five Mediterranean-inspired bites, perfect for those who want to taste a little of everything. Vegetarian diners will enjoy the Wild Mushroom Dolma, and the Sigara Börek—a Mediterranean take on spanakopita spring rolls—adds a crisp, savory twist.
Seafood lovers will appreciate dishes like the Frutti di Mare, and I personally loved the Farina Macarena, a Turkish-style mac and cheese with a rich, fluffy egg yolk finish. I ordered the Walnut Za’atar Crusted Salmon, and it was absolutely perfect— tender, flavorful, and cooked to perfection. We also shared the side of the grilled veggie skewer.
Cocktails, Wine, and Happy Hour
Alora Social also boasts an approachable, playful beverage program, featuring inventive cocktails, a thoughtfully curated wine list (both local and imported), and eight rotating craft beers on tap. Their weekday happy hour from 3–6 pm offers deals on drinks—cocktails $10, wine $8, beer $5, snacks $8–13, making it a perfect stop after work or before a movie at the nearby LOT Cinema.
Relaxed Design in a Beautiful Setting
The space itself is warm and modern, with a spacious indoor-outdoor layout, fire pits, and ample patio seating. It’s a perfect addition to the relaxed, residential charm of San Ramon, joining notable neighbors like The Slanted Door, LB Steak, and Fieldwork Brewing Co. I’m loving the laidback vibe of the green hills of San Ramon, and Alora Social fits right in as a new go-to dining destination for locals and visitors alike.
A Special Celebration
I was there celebrating my business partner’s birthday with his wife and their three-year-old daughter, and the evening couldn’t have been more special. Our server was warm and attentive, and the team surprised us with a candle and several scoops of ice cream for dessert. They also brought out a cute kids’ menu along with crayons, which kept the little one happily entertained. It was the kind of thoughtful touch that makes a meal feel truly memorable.
Alora Social: 6000 Bollinger Canyon Rd Suite 1100, San Ramon https://www.visitalora.com/ Open daily for lunch and dinner
Discover San Ramon: https://discoversanramonca.com/
City Center Bishop Ranch: https://citycenterbishopranch.com/
Beth Schnitzer is the Co-Founder and President of Spritz, https://spritzsf.com/
The sampler at Alora
Interior at Alora
Spaghetti alla Limon at Rollati
Symmetry in the Storm
Cocktails With Dina by Dina Novarr
In the relentless political maelstrom that is happening right now, a small sanctuary on Florida Street (pausing for the irony) in San Francisco’s Mission Creek District, In-Symmetry Spa, offers a different kind of resistance: the radical act of balance. It is owned and operated by New Orleans native and self-described “lesbionic” Candace Combs. The spa isn’t just another wellness establishment; it’s a testament to surviving cultural whiplash through the ancient art of equilibrium.
“The concept of ‘symmetry’ revolves around balance,” explains Combs, who abandoned a six-figure tech career in 2000 to pursue bodywork, creating a business model that feels like the antithesis of our fractured Republic. Her journey from the conservative South to San Francisco’s progressive refuge gives her a unique perspective on America’s cultural divide.
“Growing up in a loud Sicilian family in New Orleans taught me about moderation in an extreme environment,” Combs continues, with the wry smile of someone who has seen both sides of America’s increasingly deep divides. “Being kicked out of high school and eventually finding myself in San Francisco was its own form of political detox.”
As a lesbian white woman from the Deep South now running a healing establishment in San Francisco, Combs embodies the kind of bridging identity that’s becoming increasingly rare in our polarized landscape. Her spa’s philosophy—finding balance between opposing forces—reads like a political manifesto disguised as wellness practice.
“Coming from the South, I’ve learned that empathy isn’t agreement,” Combs notes. “You can understand someone’s pain points without sharing their politics. That’s literally what I do all day—find tension and work with it rather than against it.”
Whether through professional spa experiences like In-Symmetry Spa or homebased rituals, political engagement doesn’t require constant consumption. In fact, it’s healthy to recognize when it’s time to disconnect, reset, and approach our collective challenges with refreshed minds and spirits (myself included here at the moment). For some, this may be through professional spa experiences like In-Symmetry Spa or homebased rituals. My way of restoring balance is writing articles like this one. As we navigate 2025, perhaps the most radical act isn’t arguing, but rather turning inward, finding balance, and emerging more centered— mocktail in hand. As Candace reminds, “When everyone around you is drunk on outrage, sobriety becomes an act of rebellion and an act of peace.”
We spoke for several hours these past two months and collaborated to bring you this mocktail, Scorched Earth, featuring the vital elements of a good sip: Earth, Smoke, Herbs, Pop.
Scorched Earth
Ingredients:
10 sage leaves
1 cup of water
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
Pinch of salt
2 oz of the Charred Sage Tea
4 ounces of Lyre’s American Malt Fresh lemon squeeze and leave it in the drink
Dried pineapple and Amarena cherries for garnish
Preparation:
Char just the edges of 10 sage leaves and then boil them in 1 cup of water with 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and a pinch of salt until it reduces by onethird. Strain. Use 1 ounce of the Charred Sage Tea, 2 ounces of Lyres American Malt, and a squeeze of fresh lemon. Garnish with dried pineapple and Amarena cherries. Pour over crushed ice.
“In New Orleans, we understand that devastation isn’t the end of the story,” she says, referencing her hometown’s hurricane history, which seemingly parallels our political climate. “You rebuild by finding what remains balanced and working outward from there.”
In a nation where the extreme edges draw all the attention, In-Symmetry Spa offers a radical reminder: the most sustainable position in turbulent times might just be the centered one—feet planted firmly, weight evenly distributed, ready to absorb the next inevitable shock without toppling over. As we step into spring, let’s enjoy a sober sip to refresh ourselves from the daily drunk barrage.
San Francisco-based Dina Novarr enjoys sharing her passion for fine wines, spirits, non-alcoholic craft beverages, and more with others.
Candace Combs
LGBTQ+ Sports Fans at Spring Events
From March Madness to the Final Four, the Bay Area has been a site for major sports events this spring. Ladies Go Biking, a group led by Adrienne Miller and presented by “Betty’s List” and the San Francisco Bay Times, is also gearing up for a new outing in May.
March Madness
San Francisco Bay Times supporter
Annette Tracy hosted friends, including Deb Stallings and Betty Sullivan, in her reserved box seats at Chase Center for the March Madness Western Regional final game on Saturday, March 29, 2025, between the Florida Gators and Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Final Four
More than 20,000 fans gathered in Tampa to support the Women’s Final 4. Bay Area lesbians joined the throngs, including Selisse Berry shown here with Executive Director of Equality Florida, Nadine Smith.
Bay Area women’s sports fans are now anticipating the local season opening game at Chase Center for the Valkyries and the launch of the new women’s sports bar Rikki’s located in the Castro.
Ladies Go Biking
The “Betty’s List” and San Francisco Bay Times Ladies Go Biking group traces its origins back nearly two decades, such as with a lunch outing led by Dr. Kathleen McGuire in 2007, and a ride led by Adrienne Miller in 2013. Plans for a ride in May are underway. For more information, email questions to Milleraf@comcast.net or visit Ladies Go Biking on Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/3eccm6vm
Sister Dana Sez: Words of Wisdumb from a Fun Nun
By Sister Dana Van Iquity
Sister Dana sez, “May you have a very happy MAY DAY, CINCO DE MAYO, and all things MAY!”
Bob Ostertag, author of ENCOUNTERS WITH MEN, appeared on April 10 at Fabulosa Books for their Author Reading. Bob’s spine-chilling chapter regarding his longago El Salvador reference to murderous fascists back then is mind-blowing and quite prescient for today’s horrendous “immigrant deportation” human rights violations. There is also a heartwarming chapter about a possible hookup that turned into a comforting hug for someone whose chest was covered with awful K.S. lesions back at the start of the AIDS epidemic. And this (most times) jolly journalist has plenty of humor— including his unexpected awkward encounter with his father who had come out gay at age 70 and a strange cowboy at a public urinal. What joy to see my old friend Bob at the same bookstore where we would gather in the late 1980s and beyond for author events! His fascinating new memoir tells a lifetime of intimacies and distances, moments with fathers and teachers, friends and lovers, soldiers, cops, and criminals—even one of the great mass murderers of the late twentieth century. Bob writes of the men he has known in stories with both deep love and deep violence, with sex often at the core. This speaks of the worst of the AIDS epidemic and the best of humanity. Ostertag has published more than twenty albums of music, seven books, two podcasts, and a feature film, covering a wide range of topics. His writing has won the “Most Censored Story of the Year” award from Project Censored and the “Most Important Book of the Year’’ designation from The Nation He directed, edited, and produced Thanks to Hank , a feature documentary on the unsung hero of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, the late great Hank Wilson. Go buy this masterpiece at Fabulosa Books, 489 Castro Street!
“President Trump’s second administration is riddled with d ishonesty, d isarray, and a total d isinterest in the health and well-being of the American people,” stated Attorney General Rob Bonta on April 7 about Trump’s “three d’s.” “On WORLD HEALTH DAY, I can’t help but think about one of the most egregious and dangerous examples: Trump’s disingenuous campaign to ‘make America healthy again,’” said Bonta. He concluded, “The sad reality is, Trump is making it harder to
be healthy in America, priming us for failure in the next pandemic, cutting our public health advancements off at the knees, and undermining our global leadership.”
THE PEOPLE’S MARCH/FIGHT FASCISM FOR DEMOCRACY was a massive march and rousing rally drawing hundreds on April 12 in SF supporting everyone under attack by the current government administration. Assembled was a coalition of young progressive officials, faith leaders, teachers, transleaders, immigrants, BIPOC, artists, the disenfranchised, activists of all kinds, and anyone else who felt they were subject to the unlawful policies of the new administration. Nobody should live in fear because of their color, faith, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ancestry, or political beliefs.
The People’s March & Rally was created in 2020 by activists Juanita MORE! and Alex U. Inn to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community and bring back activism. As I always stress: The People— not the government—should have the power!
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders have been speaking out to huge crowds during their record-breaking “FIGHTING OLIGARCHY” tour. Continuing their travels, on April 12 they spoke to vulnerable, GOP-held districts in California (San Jose and Los Angeles), Utah, Idaho, and Montana over those next five days. After those appearances, they held the largest political event in Idaho since Obama in 2008. And the fight continues!
Gay makeup artist with a love of theater, Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, had fled Venezuela last summer, and had later been detained in San Diego after border officers wrongfully suspected him of being a Tren de Aragua gang member—something he repeatedly denied. He was “disappeared” (not legally deported) without evidence nor due process on March 15 to an El Salvador prison known for torture, where no one from Romero’s legal team has been able to contact him ever since, and they are very concerned for his safety. Many activists are fighting to bring him back home, including California Governor Gavin Newsom . “Hernandez Romero was denied the opportunity to defend himself against unsubstantiated allegations of gang involvement or to present his asylum claim,” Newsom stated on April 10. “We are not a nation that sends people to be tortured and victimized in a foreign prison for public relations victories.”
Join EQUALITY CALIFORNIA on April 25, 6–10 pm at The Conservatory at One Sansome for the 2025 SAN FRANCISCO EQUALITY AWARDS to celebrate our community and honor the inspirational leaders whose selfless work helps create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people! Co-chair Hon. Rafael Mandelman summed it up best, saying that for 20 years and counting “Our work means that transgender youth and their families can receive healthcare.
It means that access to PrEP and PeP is expanded; IVF is accessible to LGBTQ people and covered by insurance; conversion therapy remains a banned and discredited practice; and so much more.” https://www.eqca.org/
MSNBC-TV ’s Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace are calling out Trump’s lies and corruption every single day. They’re amazing! So, of course, the psychotic, autocratic, oligarchic Trump has
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Dennis McMillan (aka Sister Dana) with honoree Toni Newman, Director of The Coalition for Justice and Equality Across Movements, at the San Francisco Community Health Center’s Show of Hope on Friday, April 18, at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero
angrily officially called for them to be fired from MSNBC. Nonetheless, good Democrats are rallying behind Rachel, Nicolle, and every brave MSNBC journalist who refuses to bend the knee to Trump. In the latest interview, RFK, Jr., has admitted he has no idea what funding is being cut, why billions are being stripped from local health departments, and acknowledged he’s been firing thousands of the wrong people (as many as 20% of workers were wrongly terminated!). Sister Dana sez, “RFK, Jr., is the most unqualified and incompetent HHS Secretary in history. He should resign, or better yet: be FIRED!”
Join NCLR’s legal experts for a discussion on Trump’s impact for the LGBTQ community with their THE FIRST 100 DAYS, a virtual briefing on May 1, 3 pm, as they cover the executive orders, federal rule changes, proposed congressional legislation, and court rulings from the first 100 days of the Trump administration. You’ll hear from NCLR’s legal staff and have time to ask questions after the presentation. A recording from the event will be shared on their YouTube page following the briefing. https://www.nclrights.org/
HANDS OFF April 16 ZOOM, Facebook, and other live-streamed events were brilliantly hosted by Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson of Working Families Party—when I learned so much, including when Cathryn Ann Paula Jackson of CASA said, “The kids need their dad,” regarding Maryland undocumented immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia who has three children: two have autism and one has epilepsy. Union member Garcia was wrongfully, illegally abducted to an El Salvador torture prison with no hope of returning to the U.S. if Trump has his way—completely ignoring the United States Supreme Court unanimous ruling to bring him home. National Director of Working Families Party Maurice Mitchell
concluded, “Authoritarians and fascists— the worst of the worst—have taken government power and are using it for cruelty. But remember that public courage is contagious!” At the end of that Hands Off mass call, over 150 direct actions had been planned by folx in the ongoing chat. Next up is the May 1 action at https://maydaystrong.org/
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled on April 17 to El Salvador to speak with the spokesperson for the E.S. dictator, but was refused. The Senator was given the chance to talk with Garcia, but not allowed to take him home.
Of course, Dictator Donnie-J.T. was furious that anyone should try to free an immigrant from mass deportation.
The good news is that U.S. NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNSEL
(composed of 18 Intelligence agencies) has finally been contradicting Trump’s justification for mass deportations. Among the discoveries, it has been found that, although there are some low-level contacts between the Maduro government and Tren de Aragua, or TdA, the gang does not operate at the direction of Venezuela’s leader. And El Salvador should not be involved—especially with their heinous prison system.
Longtime Republican operative and Fox News contributor Karl Rove had something he wrote on April 17 for the Wall Street Journal that both shocked and delighted me regarding Trump and his administration with their horrible tariffs and revenge amid the uncertainty around the country’s decline: “It isn’t only inflation and tariffs. Every week the White House throws its weight behind a new issue that went largely or entirely unmentioned during the campaign. Rename the Gulf of Mexico!
Acquire Greenland! Take back the Panama Canal! Make Canada the 51st State! Americans find themselves asking, ‘Where did that come from?’” Rove raved on, “There’s
way too much retribution. Most of the president’s revenge attempts will end badly for him. Republicans could rue the day they set a new justification for retaliation from Democrats!” Sister Dana sez, “Something I NEVER thought I’d say, but: God bless Rove for his insight!”
At the SHOW OF HOPE on April 18 at the Hyatt Regency, THE SAN FRANCISCO COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER , under the leadership of SFCHC Chief Executive Officer Director Lance Toma , gave out several amazing awards. Toma was surprised by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to be officially granted sainthood at the event as “Saint Lance-a-lotta Love.” SFCHC honored Mr. David Glamamore and Juanita MORE! with the Arts & Activism Award to the roaring cheers of us assembled fans. Toma said, “In our dear city, two names resonate with power, resilience, and unabashed glamour—Juanita MORE! and Mr. David Glamamore. True icons on the stage and in the streets who embody the essence of art, activism, and fierce individuality. In these challenging times, their lights shine even brighter!”
Toni Newman was named “Health Justice Champion.” She is the Director of The Coalition for Justice and Equality Across Movements at NMAC in Washington, D.C. She was previously the Interim CEO of the Black AIDS Institute and Interim President of the LYRIC Youth Foundation. Toni is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors for TransCanWork. She serves as the Membership Chair of the California Black Leadership Council and appointed member to the Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board. Concluding her acceptance speech, she got us all to chant along, over and over: “When we fight, we win!”
CODE TENDERLOIN was given the Community Impact Award. Relentless in its mission to break down barriers to employ-
ment and create equitable access to the tech industry for individuals who have traditionally been excluded—through workforce development, coding classes, professional skill-building, and unwavering mentorship—this organization has helped more than 18,000 people to achieve economic stability.
Handsome ABC-TV news anchor Reggie Aqui emceed with special guest vocalist Ada Vox , the VOICE of Drag, singing live such heart-tugging numbers as “The Impossible Dream” and “Defying Gravity,” crowd-pleasers like “What’s Goin’ On” and “A Natural Woman,” and inspirational pieces like “Pure Imagination,” which she sang and also intermittently played on the flute.
THE SF LGBT CENTER celebrated the Center’s 23 years of service to our LGBTQ community at their annual SOIRÉE 2025 on April 19 at City View Metreon for an evening filled with festivity, reunion, and community brilliance. The dinner program was followed by an awesome after-party. Hosted by Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany with entertainment by Juanita MORE! and music by Lady Ryan , the night featured gorgeous performances, inspirational speeches, and sexy dancing. This was also a time to honor The Center’s Executive Director Rebecca Wolfe, who was retiring after 18 years of service. Senator Scott Wiener took the stage to give her many, many well-deserved accolades. We wish her the best in whatever her next step may be.
Sister Dana sez, “Congratulations and Drag Elations to BOB THE DRAG QUEEN of RuPaul fame for winning the contest After Midnight Mania against comics Paul T. Tompkins and Greta Titelman! That LGBTQrrific late-night CBS-TV comedy show is absolutely hilarious!”
Julie Johnson “Original Joe’s in North Beach”
compiled by Rink
Valerie Tucker “The Buffalo Corral in Golden Gate Park”
Mark Garza “The Presidio”
Maria Gonzalez “Pier 39”
Peter Wong “The Roxie Theater, because it’s a great place for catching weird films that the average multiplex would never show”
you get a running joke about using the bathroom, and some other deadpan comic exchanges. Can you talk about your comic timing and creating the dynamic you had with your ensemble costars?
Joe Apollonio: Everyone really brought their own thing. I just honed in on what the other actors were doing, and I listened to them and just reacted. I wanted to be authentic in front of the camera. I stuck to the script about 90% of the time. There were a few scenes, the ensemble scenes, where we got to play around a bit more and get off script. The dynamics you saw on screen were reflective of the dynamics offscreen. Amalia is one of my closest friends. I met Simon [Rex, who plays Dave, the series’ producer] and Alex [Wolff] and the three of us hit it off immediately. We are all 12-year-old-boys stuck in adult men’s bodies. Chloe and I got along, but I had admired her from afar for so long. There’s a timidness with my approach with her character than other members of the ensemble. The first time I met Chloë, I was bar backing at a restaurant in 2013, and I had to serve her hot water for tea. I was so star struck my hands were shaking as I was pouring hot water.
Gary M. Kramer: Justin and the documentary crew are consistently encountering problems in San Cristobal. He is not always bright, but he seems to maintain a mostly sunny disposition. How do you think Justin handles chaos, and how would you behave in a similar situation?
Joe Apollonio: I was reading some initial reviews, and everyone wrote, “Justin is kind of dumb but charming.” Justin and I have some similarities. I’m a bit more cynical than he is. How would I handle this situation? I would probably be a bit panicked and pissed off at whomever was responsible for us traveling that far for no reason, but ultimately, I would think, “Well, I am here, we only live once, let’s try to have a good time and make the most of it,” which is not far off from Justin. It’s such a long flight, I would not want to go back to New York right away. Let me chill out and have a good time before I go home.
Gary M. Kramer: Magic Farm is about embracing difference and being weird as well as cultural appropriation. Justin does both with his wardrobe, which provides him with a cultural identity, and the series. What observations do you have about Justin’s appropriating culture?
Joe Apollonio: He is definitely inspired by the ‘70s in how he dresses. Appropriating fashions from the past and being nostalgic aren’t problematic. It’s different than going overseas and fetishizing a trend from different races. Then there is that whole discussion of classism. Magic Farm gets into that in how these Westerners are so much more privileged than the people who live in this Argentine town.
Gary M. Kramer: Is the documentary show celebrating or satirizing these cultures they are filming?
Joe Apollonio: I think these characters probably thought they were celebrating these other cultures until they were in this situation where they had to fabricate a story. That uncovers their deep, satirical viewpoint of other cultures. It’s a spotlight on American ignorance as a whole. The other part of it is that the joke—and what makes it sad—is that there is a pressing real life environment issue in front of them, but they are so focused on fabricating a stupid, fake fashion trend that they ignore it.
Gary M. Kramer: Justin tries to woo the hotel receptionist, putting a mic on him in one scene and helping him wash dishes shirtless. What are your thoughts about Justin’s attraction to the receptionist? Why does he go after him?
Joe Apollonio: I’m bi, and I have always been attracted to people who are a different type—whether they are older, or with men, a little bigger. I have never been attracted to people who are my mirror image. Justin is looking for the antithesis of himself aesthetically and visually. That can be really sexy. There is a real beauty to Guillermo, the actor who plays the receptionist. He has the most childlike, beautiful eyes. There is a kindness and a warmth to him. Justin, not having a proper father figure in his life, would find a man like that attractive, especially seeing how much the receptionist loves and treats his son. He is not getting validation from Edna or Dave.
Gary M. Kramer: You have mostly made short films and episodic TV. This is your second feature. Do you find you are drawn to playing queer roles, or do you fear being pigeonholed, which is often a concern for gay actors?
Joe Apollonio: Even the stuff I’ve done on TV has been gay or queer-coded. I don’t have any issue being pigeonholed as a queer actor as long as there are roles that challenge the way that we think and navigate our world. I wouldn’t want to play a character who is heteronormatively gay unless it’s super funny and spotlighted on his shortcomings. I would love to play roles that are much different than who I am in real life. It’s easy to get cast in roles that are extensions of who you are. If you are lucky, you can become someone else. I like roles that are departures from who I am. I did a guest star on FBI, where I played the CEO of a tech company with a wife and two kids. It was easier when you have nothing in common with the character, because you can start everything from scratch.
© 2025 Gary M. Kramer
Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” He teaches Short Attention Span Cinema at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and is the moderator for Cinema Salon, a weekly film discussion group. Follow him on X @garymkramer
A Canine Old Soul and a Feline Loverboy
Old Man Jenkins
At 9 years old and just under 43 pounds, Old Man Jenkins arrived at the shelter underweight, with visible injuries to his face and an unspoken story of hardship. Despite it all, he remains calm, kind, and full of quiet dignity. He’s easy on leash, enjoys short strolls, and takes treats ever so gently—especially if there’s a kind word to go with them.
He’s looking for a calm, loving home where he can spend his golden years surrounded by kindness. Come meet Old Man Jenkins at Oakland Animal Services and give this beautiful boy the retirement he deserves.
Monster
Truck
This handsome grey male, a domestic short hair just over a year old, sports a beautiful striped grey coat that appeals to both humans and other cats alike. He has drawn the attention of other cats at the shelter, both male and female, so Monster Truck has some sort of feline mojo that is very attractive in the cat world!
This sweet senior is independent but content in the company of others, including well-matched dog friends. He won’t demand much—just a warm place to rest, someone to love him for who he is, and a soft voice to remind him he’s finally safe. He enjoys brief affection, short walks, and peaceful companionship. He’s started to gain weight since arriving and would benefit from continued vet care and lots of TLC.
If you’ve got a soft spot for the old souls who ask for little and give so much, Old Man Jenkins may just be your match.
He is neutered, microchipped, up to date on his vaccinations—and available for you! Please consider adopting this charismatic cat who is just out of kittenhood and ready to begin his new life with a loving human(s). And please consider renaming him! We’re not sure where “Monster Truck” came from—well, it does grab some attention—but we have nicknamed him Loverboy.
The OAS adoption process focuses on matching you with a pet who is a good fit for you and your family. Come by during open adoption hours Thursdays 12–7 pm and Fridays/ Saturdays/Sundays 12–3 pm to adopt your new best friend, or to learn more about the OAS adoption process. Please see the OAS website to learn more about how you can help by adopting, fostering, volunteering, and donating: www.oaklandanimalservices.org
Take Me Home with You!
Meet Spritely: SF SPCA’s Most Talented Cat Is Ready for Her Big Break
If you think cats can’t learn tricks, think again. Spritely, a dazzling and whip-smart feline at the SF SPCA Mission Campus, is out to change your mind. With a sleek coat and a confident stride, she’s more than just a pretty face—this brilliant girl knows how to sit, stand, spin, and lay down on cue. Yes, really!
Spritely isn’t your average lap cat. She’s an independent thinker who appreciates mutual respect and a human who understands the subtle art of feline communication. Tail flick? She’s speaking. Ear twitch? She’s got a message. With the right person, she’ll reward you with affection, intelligence, and the occasional performance of her trick repertoire. Because of her strong personality, Spritely would do best in a home without young children, and she thrives when she has access to the outdoors—whether it’s a secure catio or safe, supervised adventures.
If you’re ready for a companion who brings both brains and beauty to the table, come meet Spritely at the SF SPCA Mission Campus, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm, and Tuesday from 1 to 6 pm. She’s ready to impress. https://www.sfspca.org/adoptions/
Spritely
Monster Truck
Old Man Jenkins
SUPER FRIENDS NYC
Easter Parade NYC 2025
Was ‘So Gay’
The 2025 Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival in New York City was as gay as ever, according to Fernando Camino, who is the Founder of SuperFriends NYC and represents the San Francisco Bay Times in New York. The events date back to the 1870s and he attended them this year on Fifth Avenue from their start at about 10 am to the late afternoon.
“The Bonnet Festival this year was so gay—in the most colorful, joyful, and fabulous way,” Camino said. “I wore a lavender hat that I made the night before, and it fit right in with all the wild, creative looks on display.”
He added, “From drag queens to rainbow flags, the whole event felt like a celebration of queerness and self-expression. There were so many gay people there, just being themselves, and the energy was pure joy. It was like Easter met Pride, and they threw a party on Fifth Avenue. Being part of it reminded me how vibrant and inclusive New York City can be. I’m so glad I showed up in lavender.”
Camino was especially proud to have met “Helena,” a 103-year-old woman wearing bunny ears and rocking pink and white attire for the occasion.
Check out the (almost) weekly livecasts that Camino presents from Times Square featuring the Midnight Moment sponsored by the Times Square Advertising Coalition. The themes from previous Midnight Moments are at https://bit.ly/4cIR7Vv
And be sure to visit the SuperFriends NYC page on YouTube and click “Like”: https://bit.ly/3EdhLc9
Transgender Day of Visibility 2025 in San Francisco
Photos by Rink
Spearheaded by the U.S.-based youth advocacy organization Trans Student Educational Resources, the International Transgender Day of Visibility has been held annually on March 31.
Transgender activist Rachel Crocker is noted as having initiated it in 2009 as a day of positive recognition and celebration. Until then, the only transgendered-centered day was the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which mourns the murders of transgender people.
San Francisco’s 2025 Transgender Day of Visibility was celebrated a day ahead of the traditional observance this year on Sunday, March 30, with an award ceremony and program held at the War Memorial & Performing Arts Center’s Green Room. It was supported by a coalition of partnering organizations: The Transgender District, Queer Cultural Center, Center for Immigration Protection/Parivar, Oakland Liberation Center, Miss Major Alexander L. Lee TGIJP Black Cultural Center, El/La Para Translatinas, the Girls Book, SF LGBT Center, Transboom, and Rosen Creative House.
The event was live-streamed at http://twitch.tv/transmarch
Also see the event’s website: http://tdov.org-2025
http://sfbaytimes.com/
Recycled Cotton Woven Throws
Feel like staying home and hiding under a blanket? Get cozy with our selection of woven throws made from recycled cotton. We have assorted colors and styles for $34.99 each.
Air plants are back in stock! Add a pop of color to your space with these uncomplicated, versatile, and resilient tillandsias.
We have six different varieties available, starting at $7.99 each.
Keep up with Cliff’s Variety news at Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/CliffsVariety ) & Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/hilario_sf/ )
Daddy Ray Tilton Practices Love Unbound and Is a Beacon of Light in San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ Community
Practice Makes Love Easy
Sir Kippy Marks
All communities practice love in some fashion. We gather together for festivals, shows, performances, fundraisers, and protests; the overall doing of good deeds helps bring about togetherness. A lot of this happens behind the scenes and out of the mainstream media, so with the help and continued support of the San Francisco Bay Times, I am extremely honored to shed light on individuals who do not get nearly enough recognition, yet they are true champions.
This column is written to honor, to give gratitude, to praise, and to give recognition to the countless unsung champions within our communities who practice the art of love on the daily. These individuals are true representatives of love in action and I am blessed to share these individuals with you through their stories and thoughts, and through sharing information about their loving deeds within their communities.
Our third PMLE (Practice Makes Love Easy) champion is Daddy Ray Tilton, who inspires, supports, uplifts, and builds bridges to love for so many of us every day. He practices love unbound. This individual is a beacon of light who shines brightly for our beloved community. I recently spoke with him for the Bay Times.
Sir Kippy Marks: What is your current position within the LGBTQ+ community?
Daddy Ray Tilton: I have been involved in the leather scene/community for almost 40 years and was Mr. San Francisco Leather 1990. So as the current Owner and Executive Producer (of this contest) it’s been quite a road these last 35 years being associated with this legacy contest and representation of coming together.
Sir Kippy Marks: Who or what motivated you to become the community activist/giver that you are today?
Daddy Ray Tilton: I was raised and shown what “quiet service” meant watching my father. As a young gay from a small farming area in Kansas, I inherently knew that who I was and who I was becoming would bring about special struggles. With that and being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS over 40 years ago, in and around those small towns it was natural for me to become an out and visible activist. I haven’t looked back. As my email signature says, “I am too busy doing what I do to think about what I’ve done.” Moments like these give me a sweet rare moment, however, to reflect.
Sir Kippy Marks: For Bay Times readers, I want to share your email signature:
POZitively yours, Ray Tilton
“My Bark Is Worse Than My Bite” “Actions Speak Louder Than Words” “I’m too busy doing what I’m doing to think about what I’ve done.”
Sir Kippy Marks: How old were you when you made the decision to become an out and visible activist?
Daddy Ray Tilton: I was 19 years old.
Sir Kippy Marks: What advice would you give to others on how to practice love on the daily?
Daddy Ray Tilton: Whatever motivates you to do good things and make positive changes, remember to keep your heart safe and at the forefront. We have endured much at almost every turn and rightfully so we are angry and sometimes allow the outward hate to fill us and we act on it. Keep the bigger picture in your mind’s eye and always close to your heart.
Sir Kippy Marks: If you were granted 2 Universal wishes, what would you wish for?
Daddy Ray Tilton: Wow, only 2 wishes? What comes to mind is (1) that we could
all have everything we need and (2) that we could always be enough.
Sir Kippy Marks: Please share any current practices that our readers could find useful, and let us know where we can find you.
Daddy Ray Tilton: My leather brunches are really where my heart lives. Over the last 10+ years of doing them, the love I have overwhelmingly felt from the thousands of attendees truly sustains and inspires me during the in-between times.
Look for Daddy Ray Tilton on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/ray.tilton.9 ) and friend him to sign up to attend one of his historic leather brunches.
Sir Kippy Marks is a spirited solo entertainer whose shows are permeated with an infectious joy. His distinctive sound arises from his heart, through his 1822 violin consort, Izabella. Marks’ rare talent, broad smile, and radiant warmth will brighten any event to create lasting impact. He is also Grand Duke XL of The Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco. He isthe first ever elected African-American Grand Duke.
Daddy Ray Tilton
Brunch group hosted by Daddy Ray Tilton
BY DADDY RAY
Mimosa
Sunday, April 27
Raffle
Noon–2
Brunch
2
3
Alex U. Inn
Dr. Dee Spencer
DJ Lady Ryan
Nadirah Shakoor