August 3, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Aguirre

East Bay’s Rainbow center has new ED

by John Ferrannini

Christian Aguirre, an eight-year veteran of the Rainbow Community Center, is the new executive director of the only LGBTQ community center in Contra Costa County.

Aguirre, a 31-year-old gay man, had been the agency’s adult and family program director, overseeing programs relating to older adults, HIV and sexually transmitted infection prevention, the food pantry, and volunteers.

He also performs as drag queen Bella Aldama at Club 1220, an LGBTQ bar in Walnut Creek, as well as at venues in Oakland and in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro neighborhood. The day before speaking to the Bay Area Reporter, Aguirre attended the annual San Francisco AIDS Walk in Golden Gate Park in drag.

“I was the one who actually did the first drag queen story hour in Brentwood, and it was all over the news,” Aguirre said.

KTVU-TV reported at the time that the 2019 drag story hour was a success in spite of pushback from people on Facebook who thought it was inappropriate, an experience that foreshadowed for Aguirre some of the more heated vitriol against such drag events that has come in the past couple years.

“It really helped me learn about how different communities are impacted, whether it’s young children, parents, family,” he said. “I went to the event thinking there’d be 30 people but actually 700 people showed up, which is amazing, especially for a city like Brentwood where there’s not so much LGBTQ+ visibility.”

Aguirre’s journey to heading the East Bay center begins in his home of Guadalajara, Mexico. He immigrated to the United States in his youth, first settling in Martinez.

“Rainbow was the only LGBTQ nonprofit nearby in Contra Costa which made me realize how important these spaces are for the community,” he said.

At 14, Aguirre joined the center’s youth program. At 18, he became a volunteer.

“From there, you know, for me it was very important to connect with the community that gave so much to me – I had a hard time when I was freshly arrived to the United States and I was figuring out more about myself, my identity, before coming out as gay, and I saw that I did not have enough support at the time, because I didn’t

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Making a point at Up Your Alley

Adancer makes their point at the Up Your Alley street fair held July 30 in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. The fair returned to just about normal after more than three years of the COVID pandemic with sunny skies and large

crowds. People were struttin’ in their leather and kink – or nothing at all – during the event, which included games and entertainment. Next up, of course, is the Folsom Street Fair on September 24. Both kink fests produced by Folsom Street Events.

New owners of the building at 3991 18th Street informed tenants that this Pride flag would have to go.

Fate of Castro Pride flag in limbo after new landlord’s demand

by John Ferrannini

The new landlords of a Castro apartment building demanded last week that a rainbow Pride flag that’s been flying there for decades come down “or we will remove it and dispose of it,” according to an email to tenants.

Now, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman’s office has told the Bay Area Reporter that a resolution to the controversy has been reached – but this hasn’t been confirmed by either the landlords or tenants.

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California Humanities leader aims to amplify LGBTQ voices

by Matthew S. Bajko

With LGBTQ issues again a flashpoint in the country’s cultural and political arenas, the new leader of a statewide humanities organization in California is aiming to amplify the voices of LGBTQ individuals and organizations. The goal is to not just benefit those based in the Golden State, but those living and headquartered in states less affirming of LGBTQ rights.

For years California Humanities, the statewide nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has been funding LGBTQ initiatives and programs. It continues to do so, recently announcing grants to several LGBTQ agencies in the state.

But the current backlash against LGBTQ rights sweeping across the country, from Republicancontrolled statehouses in the South and Midwest to conservative-led school boards and city councils in California, has Rick Noguchi pledging to redouble Cal Humanities’ efforts in support of the LGBTQ community.

A straight ally, Noguchi took over as Cal Humanities’ president and CEO in May. In a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter, the Los Angeles resident said he sees the agency as playing an important role in counterbalancing the anti-LGBTQ voices and rhetoric growing louder throughout the U.S.

“I believe that equity should be at the heart of the

humanities. I am committed to continuing California Humanities’ efforts for supporting, sharing and respecting stories from across the state and including those from the LGBTQ-plus community,” said Noguchi, 55, formerly the chief operating officer at the Japanese American National Museum in his hometown. “We have a long tradition at California Humanities of amplifying those voices of the LGBTQplus community in California.”

As an example, for its emailed newsletter at the start of Pride Month in June, the agency highlighted

the Hi-Desert Queer & Trans Oral History Project, a recipient of one of its quick grants this year for smaller organizations. The project is working to preserve the history of the LGBTQIA+ community in Southern California’s western Mojave Desert region.

“It was important for us to put that as the first story and to make that statement this is normality, or should be, in California. There are all these different stories, and we should celebrate the LGBTQ+ community,” said Noguchi. “I am very aware of my

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Drag king's car torched

Jerron Herman Belinda Carlisle

Christian

Courtesy RCC

Rick Noguchi took over as president and CEO of California Humanities in May.

Courtesy Cal Humanities

Gooch

Courtesy Henry Walker

SF DA’s office not charging Castro-area crash suspects

by John Ferrannini

San Francisco District Attorney

Brooke Jenkins’ office is not charging the man and woman accused of a carjacking that led to a dramatic crash down the Sanchez Street stairs in the Castro last weekend.

But Jenkins’ spokesperson Randy Quezada criticized media outlets for reporting charges were dropped because they’ve been discharged, but not dismissed, he told the Bay Area Reporter.

“It’s a bit much,” he said, when asked if it’s accurate to say Jenkins dropped the charges. “I’m emailing everyone saying ‘Hey, that’s not exactly right’ because it implies dismissal when what we’ve done is discharged because you have to do more investigation. When you dismiss something you drop it. That’s not what happened here. There’s a lot to this case – it’s very complicated, it’s not there yet. I get the click game some people are after. I’m telling people. It’s frustrating.”

Quezada said that more investigation is needed and witnesses are currently unavailable.

Kevin Nelson, 36, and Jennifer Bonham, 31, both of San Francisco, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy, carjacking, and receiving a stolen vehicle, police stated in a news release

July 26. Bonham was also arrested on suspicion of reckless driving.

Video of the crash shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, July 22, had circulated on social media and television news.

The arrests were made Tuesday. Nelson was treated for injuries at a local hospital; Bonham was transported to

County Jail No. 1.

Both are now out of custody, according to jail records.

Police responded to the crash, at Sanchez and 19th streets, and “observed a vehicle that had rolled over and was resting on its hood,” according to the release. A tree was knocked down and other damage was visible in the video. The car left the roadway at the dead-end of Cumberland Street above the stairs.

The pair had allegedly stolen the car at 19th and Dolores Streets just before the crash, police stated. Police also stated that the person whose car was allegedly carjacked approached them shortly after the incident.

“While on scene, officers were approached by a victim who identified himself as the owner of the vehicle involved in the collision,” the release stated. “The victim stated that he was sitting in his vehicle near 19th Street and Dolores Street when he was approached by unknown suspects who carjacked his vehicle. The victim reported non-life-threatening injuries

caused by the incident.”

Quezada issued a statement July 28 that the charges were discharged.

“The charges against Ms. Bonham and Mr. Nelson have been discharged at this time pending further investigation and witness unavailability,” Quezada’s statement reads. “Anyone with information is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.”

Jenkins has controversially opted not to charge, or drop charges entirely, in a number of high-profile cases in recent months, such as against the man who killed Banko Brown in April, Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman previously thanked the SFPD for the arrests on X (formerly Twitter).

Mandelman told the B.A.R. July 29 that he hopes that the police and DA “will be able to bring those responsible to justice.” t

Ex-security guard, firm fined by state in Brown case

by John Ferrannini

A state agency has fined the former Walgreens security guard and the private security company he worked for in connection with the fatal shooting of Banko Brown, an unarmed Black trans man, earlier this year.

The California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, part of the Department of Consumer Affairs, fined former security guard Michael Earl Wayne Anthony $1,500 on July 24 for having a concealed weapon and not wearing a security badge. The fine was not for killing Brown, 24, on April 27.

Kingdom Group Protective Services was fined $5,000.

“As a result of a Bureau investigation, it was discovered that on April 27, 2023, Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony was involved in a shooting while on duty wearing a sweatshirt that did not have bureau-approved patches on each shoulder that read ‘private security’ and included the name of the company by which Anthony was employed,” a letter from the bureau states. “It was further discovered that Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony was carrying a concealed firearm in a zippered pouch on the

tactical vest he was wearing over his sweatshirt.”

The agency had the power to fine Anthony because he is a registered security guard. He first obtained a registration January 20, 2012, the letter states, which will expire July 31, 2024, unless renewed. His most

recent firearm permit expired May 31. He was issued a baton permit May 11, 2013 in perpetuity.

Anthony could not be reached for comment Friday.

His former employer, Kingdom Group Protective Services – which Walgreens had contracted with

to provide security at the Market Street Walgreens where Anthony shot Brown after the latter allegedly attempted to shoplift $14 of snacks and a Sprite – was also fined by the bureau according to a July 13 letter. The bureau accused the company of failing to keep an accurate record of Anthony’s trainings, and of not filing an incident report within seven business days of the killing.

Walgreens cut ties with the company in the weeks after the shooting. Kingdom Group Protective Services told the Bay Area Reporter it has no comment for this report.

Civil rights attorney John Burris is representing Brown’s family, who is suing Walgreens, Anthony, and Kingdom Group Protective Services. That civil suit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court.

During a police interview after the shooting, Anthony said Kingdom Group had switched its recovery policy for stolen merchandise just that day to a “hands-on” policy.

“Walgreens is responsible – it’s Banko’s blood on their hands, because they put in motion hiring these security guards,” Burris said in a May 26 news conference. “Of course, you have the security guard company, because they sent a person

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out there who was not emotionally fit to be there.”

Asked about the fines July 28, Burris told the B.A.R., “I’m surprised they’d [Kingdom Group Protective Services] have him [Anthony] working but I think it goes to the lack of willingness to ensure their workers were being compliant with state law. My feeling is that, given that he had no badge apparent, uniform apparent, and a gun in a concealed manner, it’s conceivable Banko Brown didn’t know he was being attacked by a security officer. That may have escalated the situation.”

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declined to prosecute Anthony, citing self-defense, in a decision criticized even by some of her supporters. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to ask California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office to investigate. Bonta’s office confirmed it is looking into the matter of whether Jenkins’ decision not to file charges in the case was an abuse of discretion.

The Board of Supervisors had also asked the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene, but as the B.A.R. recently reported, it punted the case to Bonta’s office. t

Valor LX2 3-sided gas fireplace shown here with Murano glass, and reflective glass liner

A car that was allegedly carjacked plummeted over the Sanchez Street stairs in the Castro July 22.

Julia Brown’s YouTube

A memorial to Banko Brown was on view May 1, before the start of a rally and vigil in support of the trans man who was killed by a Walgreens security guard April 27

John Ferrannini

LGBTQ leaders mostly OK with repealing travel ban

by Matthew S. Bajko

In interviews with the Bay Area Reporter in recent months a number of LGBTQ leaders in other states and across California said they have no issue with Golden State legislators ending the policy that forbids using tax dollars to pay for most state employee travel to states that have rolled back LGBTQ rights in recent years. A bill to do so is moving through the state Assembly, after California’s state Senate passed it in May.

San Francisco officials already did away with their travel ban policy in the spring, arguing it had no impact on stopping the assault on LGBTQ rights in other states since the city’s so-called no-fly list went into effect in 2016. Lesbian state Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) echoed that argument earlier this year in introducing her Senate Bill 447 called the BRIDGE Act, which stands for Building and Reinforcing Inclusive, Diverse, GenderSupportive Equality.

It would replace the state’s travel ban, set to cover 26 states by October 1, with a marketing program in those states aimed at making their lawmakers and residents rethink their stance on LGBTQ rights. Atkins’ bill doesn’t specify how much money would be allotted for the ad campaigns or where the funding would come from to pay for them.

The Assembly Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy Committee voted 6-1 in favor of SB 447 on July 11. The bill is awaiting a vote in the Assembly Appropriations Committee when legislators return August 14 from their summer recess.

“The BRIDGE Project’s donationdriven, nonpartisan, inclusive messaging campaign will be designed to uplift and show compassion for LGBTQ+ people, and champion in-

clusivity in communities like the one I grew up in, where it’s needed most,” wrote Atkins, who hails from Virginia, in a guest opinion piece for the B.A.R. last month.

Gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino), who authored the bill in 2015 that established the statewide travel ban policy, has given qualified support for Atkins’ bill. At the time of its introduction, Low had stated it should ensure “an alternative action in combating discrimination” replaces the travel ban.

Just one out-of-state leader the B.A.R. spoke with felt it wasn’t the right time for California leaders to change course on the matter. Equality Texas gay CEO Ricardo Martinez said lifting of the travel ban would send the wrong message at a time when Republican lawmakers in nu-

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“That will never change in these states. If their own state governments are not going to look out for their constituents then who is?” asked Roem.

Gia Pacheco, a transgender Texas native who is the full-time program coordinator for Organización Latina Trans Texas based in Houston, sees California’s travel ban policy as being “just a political move.” She argued it doesn’t do much for the LGBTQ people it claims to be helping in other states.

“It is just for show. I am sorry, but it is not helping anyone not in the state of California,” said Pacheco, “and it is not helping anyone in the state of California because it is putting barriers on what they can do. A ban like that is a nice and flashy show but not doing anything for anyone.”

Such a policy plays into the toxic mentality of “we will show them,” argued Pacheco, in attempting to somehow punish the state of Texas.

merous statehouses have pushed through a record number of antiLGBTQ bills this year.

“I will say I am not totally fine with it going away. Optically, it sends the wrong message,” said Martinez. “It is a timing thing. When it comes down to it, if it is this hostile at this moment, like why not wait? Is it really that critical to do that now?”

Martinez acknowledged that had he been asked about doing away with the travel ban policy late last year or in early January, he likely would have given a different answer. But after seeing the flurry of anti-LGBTQ legislative activity over the first half of 2023, Martinez said his feelings about the matter had changed.

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ter. We are not going to take a stand,” said Martinez, whose nonprofit has been able to defeat most of the antiLGBTQ bills introduced in Texas this year but not all, such as ones that target drag performers and transgender youth. “It could be perceived in many different ways. For me, I like to understand the why behind something.”

Since it is a matter of policy, Martinez said he hoped California legislators would ask several questions as they debate SB 447.

“How much good is it going to do versus how much bad? If it is going to do good, who will it do good for and who will it be bad for or feel the negative implications of the change? Is it worth it is the thing I would go to next,” he said. “If we all approach policy from that perspective, either in changing policy or introducing new policy, I think that type of emphatic process helps.”

Other views

Allowing California state employees and leaders to assist LGBTQ individuals on the ground in the states where their rights are under fire is why transgender Virginia state Delegate Danica Roem told the B.A.R. she sees lifting the travel ban as a positive. Having visited a number of conservative states across the country, Roem recalled a quote from the late television host Fred Rogers, better known as Mister Rogers, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

“I understand the idea that you don’t want tax dollars going to those states. I get it,” said Roem. “But if you go to Bentonville, Arkansas and Fayetteville, North Carolina, you will see Progress Pride flags all over those downtowns. There are people there who still care.”

Roem noted that during a trip she took to Boise, she noticed more Pride flags flying in the downtown of Idaho’s capital city than in her Northern Virginia district.

“It is an act of defiance for them,” said Roem. “Why not support Boise giving everything it’s got for LGBTQ residents? Why not support them?”

Even if every LGBTQ person were

“You forget once you are trying to do that you are not punishing (Republican Governor) Greg Abbott or the bigots doing these policies. You are punishing the population,” she told the B.A.R. “You disregard the populations going through it.”

Transgender Los Angeles resident Justine Gonzalez, who is running for a California Assembly seat next year, wasn’t opposed to seeing the state follow San Francisco’s lead in lifting its travel ban. Of more concern for the parent of a gender-nonconforming child was how state leaders are responding to the pushback against LGBTQ rights, particularly in public schools, being waged in California this year.

“I am not sure of the impact of those travel bans. I wouldn’t weigh too much on critiquing the Legislature on that or the governor’s office on that,” she told the B.A.R. “I would say what efforts are they making locally to protect LGBTQ rights here? Are they ensuring LGBTQ youth locally in our schools and across the state have the protections they need?”

Nonbinary Oakland resident Ari Jones, who performs in drag as Pop Rox, has been raising money for LGBTQ groups in other states where their rights are under attack, such as last Sunday’s benefit for the Texas nonprofits. Jones told the B.A.R. they understand the arguments for and against doing away with the travel ban policy.

“First is do we want our taxpayer dollars here in California to go toward government employees spending money in those oppressive jurisdictions? So I understand not wanting that,” said Jones. “But, at the same time, if there is an opportunity for allyship or community building that would be facilitated by that travel then I support that.”

Echoing Roem’s remarks, Pacheco noted not every LGBTQ person can, or wants to, leave their home state even if it is not affirming of its LGBTQ community.

“This is a population of all ages. So once you find out your child is a trans teenager, what are you supposed to do, move your entire fam ily to another state because your state is not affirming? It is such a flawed mentality,” said Pacheco. “It is that savior mentality that we have to

(3)

Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez, left, does not support repeal of California’s travel ban, while Virginia state Delegate Danica Roem and California Assembly candidate Justine Gonzalez do favor doing away with the law.

Courtesy the subjects

Out former SF cop who became chief in Nebraska quits

by John Ferrannini

Alesbian former San Francisco police commander who became the first female and first out LGBTQ chief of police in Lincoln, Nebraska has resigned.

Teresa Ewins became Lincoln’s chief in 2021 after 26 years at the San Francisco Police Department, as the Bay Area Reporter noted at the time.

For a time she’d been captain of the Tenderloin station, whose jurisdiction includes the city’s longtime transgender neighborhood near City Hall.

One of four finalists for the position, she’d been nominated by Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and was endorsed by the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper and the Lincoln Police Union. Two years later Ewins tendered her resignation July 21, effective immediately.

The exact reason remains unknown – she couldn’t be reached for comment for this article. Both the Lincoln mayor and police department’s offices told the B.A.R. they could only share the contents of a news release.

Ewins stated she was honored to have served as chief.

“Over the past two years, we have made great strides, even amid challenging times for our nation and our community,” she stated in the release. “And it is you – my colleagues, my officers … my friends – who

<< Rainbow center

From page 1

have a support system within the school district, and Rainbow was the avenue for me and other youth. It was important for me to give back,” Aguirre said.

“I also connected with Rainbow’s mission, serving different communities,

have done the heavy lifting. I will be stepping down as chief of this department and moving on. This was not an easy decision, but I have determined it is the best one.”

She called Lincoln’s department “one of the best.”

“Your hard work and dedication to this community is evident, and felt, every day. I will always value each and every one of you. And I know that you determine the

and people living with HIV,” he added.

“Friends and family members have been affected by this, and that’s why I started volunteering.”

As Bella Aldama, Aguirre shares information about how to prevent HIV transmission.

Aguirre replaces Dodi Zotigh, who’d been interim executive director after the departure of Kiku Johnson. The B.A.R.

course of this department. Do your best and do what is right – no matter what you confront. I believe in you,” she stated. “In addition to the law enforcement professionals with whom I have served, I very much want to thank the community – the people of Lincoln – for their support of this department and for my tenure as chief. It has been a pleasure to serve and be a part of this community. Thank you.”

reported last October that Johnson, who’d been executive director for nearly three years, had accepted a job offer in Oregon.

“Christian is poised to take on this new role at Rainbow where he can grow as an LGBTQIA+ community leader,” Zotigh stated in a news release. “During these times where the rhetoric against our community continues to increase in vitriol, and anti-trans legislation is at an

Baird thanked Ewins for her service.

“During her tenure, Chief Ewins and I worked to deliver the high level of public safety that we have here in Lincoln,” Baird stated. “I thank her for her service to our community. Together we added officers, dispatchers, and support personnel positions to LPD’s staff and negotiated a labor contract that made LPD officers the highest-paid law enforcement in the state. We also opened a new Northeast Team Station, secured additional equipment, and increased training for officers responding to mental health-related calls for service.”

Baird appointed Michon Morrow, a veteran of Lincoln’s police department since 1995, to serve as interim chief. Morrow called the department “an extension of my family.”

“I care deeply about it and the community we serve. I am honored and humbled to be asked to serve in the acting role as Chief of Police,” Morrow stated. “The Lincoln Police Department is a tremendous organization with very talented and dedicated staff who are proud to serve this City. They deserve my best. My best, while always a work in progress, is a product of many leaders and peers who supported and mentored me throughout my career. I am grateful to all of them and Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird for placing their trust in me. I’m excited and look forward to working in

all time high, we need folks who understand what is at stake, have empathy, ask the right questions, pull in and uplift the talent of our community, and who are willing to push through challenges even when they seem insurmountable – that’s what Christian will do.

“No one knows how to throw shade and get it done like a drag queen - so when needed he has his drag persona,

partnership with the Mayor’s Office, our community partners, and our team at LPD.”

The Journal-Star reported that several now-former officers had issues with the department.

Internally, two former police officers had filed lawsuits alleging discrimination and harassment before Ewins was hired and, after she became chief, five more officers came forward with similar allegations and two more filed lawsuits, the paper reported.

Just one of those officers is still employed by LPD, and Ewins fired four of them following internal affairs investigations that occurred after they’d come forward, according to the paper.

“As is outlined in our clients’ lawsuits, Chief Ewins and the City of Lincoln failed LPD employees by ignoring numerous complaints of sexual misconduct and retaliating against those who raised awareness about this issue,” said Kelly Brandon, the attorney who had represented the LPD officers who had sued the city, the Journal-Star reported. “Because of their failure to acknowledge and remedy this ongoing toxic culture, Chief Ewins and the City of Lincoln made LPD a more dangerous place for employees. We hope LPD’s new leadership is willing to acknowledge the problem of sexual misconduct at LPD … and work to improve the safety and well-being of all employees.” t

Bella Aldama, to lean into as well! I’m so excited to have Christian step into the executive director shoes – I know he’ll wear them with style, poise, and fierceness!” Zotigh added.

Robyn Kuslits, the president of the Rainbow center’s board of directors, voiced a similar enthusiasm.

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Looking

Former Lincoln, Nebraska Police Chief Teresa Ewins

Courtesy City of Lincoln

Volume 53, Number 31

August 3-9, 2023

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Congress must reauthorize PEPFAR

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It is critical that Congress reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR. Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) wrote a Guest Opinion piece on that topic for the Bay Area Reporter in March, but since then, the legislation faces the new threat of abortion politics that could derail what has been seen as a successful program to curb HIV transmissions and AIDS cases around the world.

Truly, this is the one thing that President George W. Bush got right when he established PEPFAR 20 years ago with the help of Lee, the Congressional Black Caucus, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The bipartisan support is a hallmark of PEPFAR that has – so far – withstood the polarization of politics.

Yet, today, reauthorization of PEPFAR is in doubt. A Washington Post article details that it “has been abruptly bogged down in a domestic political fight, with Republicans citing allegations that the program’s funding is being used to indirectly support abortions – claims that health advocates, Democrats and PEPFAR officials say are baseless.”

The paper goes on to report that lawmakers have spent months arguing about whether PEPFAR should be reauthorized for five years, one year, or not at all. “If PEPFAR doesn’t get reauthorized, the program can continue –but it could send some pretty chilling messages to people in the field who depend on PEPFAR for life support,” said Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, a health policy organization that has tracked the provisions set to expire September 30, according to the Post article.

The Kaiser Family Foundation pointed out that there are some requirements that are timebound and would sunset if a reauthorization

bill is not passed, or Congress could extend them through another legislative vehicle. The Biden administration is pursuing a five-year “clean” reauthorization and does not prefer the one-year renewal that some Republicans have suggested.

Shannon Kellman, a co-chair of the Global AIDS Policy Partnership and senior policy director at Friends of the Global Fight, said that PEPFAR is crucial and has been credited with saving more than 25 million lives. “It has long-standing bipartisan support,” Kellman said during a Zoom call with the B.A.R., adding that the program provides treatment and access to medicine. She confirmed that if PEPFAR is not reauthorized, “the funding won’t stop but Congress will lose oversight.”

And, she noted, “We risk the role the U.S. plays in fighting not just HIV but other dis-

eases. PEPFAR is probably the best known program in Africa funded by the U.S.” One thing that would be lost if PEPFAR is not reauthorized is what’s known as the global match. Kellman explained that the PEPFAR law also authorizes the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The global match requires that for every $1 the U.S. contributes to the Global Fund, $2 must come from other donors, such as other governments or entities. This has proved to engage and maintain support for fighting infectious diseases and demonstrates that the U.S. is not funding more than its fair share, Kellman said. Countries contribute funds so they have a seat at the table. “That match requirement would disappear without reauthorization,” she said. All told, eight clauses sunset on September 30 without reauthorization.

See page 11 >>

Mayor George Christopher: A man misunderstood

by Evelyn Rose

Christopher Park in Diamond Heights is named for San Francisco’s last Republican mayor, George Christopher. Earlier this year, Ken Maley, a District 3 (North Beach/Telegraph Hill) representative of the San Francisco Park, Recreation, Open Space Advisory Committee (PROSAC) accused Christopher of being “a rabid homophobe” (see the Bay Area Reporter, February 1, 2023). He added, “I think it is a shame to have ... any park in the city and particularly in District 8, that is named after George Christopher.” He then announced he would submit to PROSAC a proposal for a name change.

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PROSAC members are liaisons between the Recreation and Park Commission and the communities they represent. In February, the two District 8 seats on PROSAC were vacant (one is now filled). Despite the vacancies, the District 3 representative neglected to reach out to anyone in District 8, particularly the Diamond Heights Community Association, the nonprofit Friends of Christopher Park, and gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. F

or some, the threat to rename Christopher Park felt like an attack on their community.

As a community historian, I was equally surprised. When researching a forgotten tavern in Glen Park that once featured female impersonators, Christopher’s name had not bubbled up. With additional digging, however,

I reached the opposite conclusion: George Christopher was never “a rabid homophobe” (see my rebuttal in the July Noe Valley Voice, page 5).

Based on this outcome, representatives of the Diamond Heights community and Mandelman agree that a name change for Christopher Park is unfounded and unnecessary.

There are two absolute essentials when proposing a name change for a public space: community outreach and comprehensive review.

Community outreach

Diamond Heights, the city’s second redevelopment project, is a self-contained community in the middle of a big city. Described as “a new kind of suburbia,” the community includes “homes for the rich, the poor, all races, all religions.”

Designed with community input, Christopher

Park became the treasured centerpiece of the Diamond Heights neighborhood center. During a recent renovation, the community and city collaborated again to save historic midcentury play structures to maintain the architectural integrity of the new playground with the neighborhood. Many of the original homeowners continue to reside in Diamond Heights, so the high level of investment in their public space is not surprising.

The San Francisco Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee (MMAC; only covers civic art) has observed that building relationships with diverse communities “is essential to engagement. It takes time to build trust, and ... should not be rushed.” Because San Franciscans are fiercely loyal to their parks, the path to consensus for a proposed name change requires community outreach and collaboration before any formal submission is made. Communities collaborating with PROSAC can pursue the necessary research to confirm whether the evidence supports a name change or if a name change is even necessary.

Comprehensive review

Maley based his conclusion about Christopher on

one source, Nan Alamilla Boyd’s “Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965.” While very credible, it only offers a singular perspective.

In February, Mandelman “stressed the need for a well researched, community process around the name of the park.” Because history is rife with complexities, a quick internet search of content that is neither fact-checked nor peer-reviewed will not reveal all sides of the story or be entirely accurate (for example, Wikipedia warns users they make “no guarantee of validity” of the content they provide). To make a fully informed conclusion, more intensive research from multiple resources is required.

My research goal was to either confirm or deny the accusation (my approach is described in a separate post).

After reviewing contemporary media reports about Christopher, my initial takeaway was that hostile police actions against homosexuals and others had been in full swing long before he became mayor. Christopher was instead working to revamp the San Francisco Police Department and quash its militant approach. This was confirmed by the work of a historian focused on the SFPD and the gay community.

PEPFAR, which marks its 20th anniversary, is up for reauthorization this year.

Courtesy U.S. State Department

Tula Christopher, left, former mayor George Christopher, Mayor Joseph Alioto, and the Reverend Father Gregory Ofiesh, pastor of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church, attended the dedication of George Christopher Playground in Diamond Heights on April 7, 1971.

Fang family San Francisco Examiner photograph archive negative files, BANC PIC 2006.029 - NEG, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

CA transgender House candidate Maebe A. Girl sees path to victory

by Matthew S. Bajko

The last two times Maebe A. Girl has run for a Los Angeles-based U.S. House seat, she garnered 12% in the primary. While it wasn’t enough for her to advance to the general election in 2020, it did net her one of the two spots on last fall’s ballot.

But the progressive Democrat lost to incumbent Congressmember Adam Schiff (D-Los Angeles) by a wide margin. Nonetheless, she saw her percentage of the vote nearly triple to 28.9%, netting 60,968 votes.

With Schiff running next year to succeed retiring U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), his 30th Congressional District seat is now open. And Maebe is counting on those voters who cast ballots for her last November to help her survive what is shaping up to be a crowded primary race next March, where the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation will advance.

Nearly 20 people have pulled papers to seek the seat. Due to federal election rules, Maebe must use her given name of G. Pudlo in addition to her preferred name for her ballot designation.

“Now is my best chance,” noted Maebe, 37, during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter at coffeehouse Intelligentsia near where she lives in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. “I got 60,000-plus votes in 2022, and with that many people running next year, that is a winning number for the March primary.”

Should she win the seat, Maebe would be the first nonbinary drag queen elected to Congress and could be one of several of the first transgender people to serve on Capitol Hill. Since 2019, she has been an elected atlarge representative on the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, an advisory body to the Los Angeles City Council, the first trans person elected to such a municipal position.

Maebe has an extensive platform on her campaign site detailing what she would want to accomplish as a congressmember. First and foremost would be to introduce the Protect LGBTQIA+ People Act, a comprehensive LGBTQ rights bill to counteract the hundreds of discriminatory measures being proposed and adopted by Republican-controlled statehouses across the U.S., such as bans on drag shows at public venues.

“I feel very confident in our campaign this time around,” said Maebe. “It is time California’s 30th Congressional District got a progressive representative and for Congress for the first time to see a trans person walking the halls.”

Yet, Maebe is seen as an underdog in the race, largely due to her paltry fundraising to date. According to her campaign finance report for the first half of 2023, she raised $30,572 and had $16,593 in cash on hand.

She has had to fight for media coverage in mainstream outlets and is often overlooked due to the current and former elected officials now running for the House seat. To date, they include straight allies Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Burbank); former state senator Anthony Portantino, who lost his bid last year for a county supervisor seat; and former Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer, who had served in the state Assembly and on the Los Angeles City Council and dropped out of the mayoral race last year.

“It is frustrating,” Maebe told the B.A.R., noting she requested a correction earlier this year from the Los Angeles Times after it reported on the race and didn’t mention her. “I am one of the frontrunners as someone who made it to the general election last year. They called it a landslide loss for me, yet any one of the people now running would have lost last year if they had run.”

Next year’s race has also attracted several other out candidates. Lesbian West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne profiled in last week’s Political Notebook, would be the first queer Iranian woman to serve in Congress were she to win the seat. Also running are gay Armenian Americans Jirair Ratevosian, Ph.D., and Dr. Alex Balekian, an ICU physician.

Ratevosian is a Democrat and former legislative director for Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who is also running for Feinstein’s seat. Balekian had filed as no party preference but recently switched to run as a Republican.

He came under fire from Maebe last month for misgendering her and using her deadname. After she posted about it on Instagram, both Shyne and Ratevosian offered support for her and other trans individuals who face similar disrespect from people not using their correct names or pronouns.

“It is wrong and no candidate for office should be treated this way especially when standing up for our community,” wrote Shyne, the first candidate in the race to respond.

Added Ratevosian, “We will not tolerate hate and transphobia from anyone, let alone a candidate for Congress.”

Despite living in one of Los Angeles’ more LGBTQ-friendly neighborhoods, Maebe is no stranger to homophobia and transphobia. During her interview with the B.A.R. last week, a man with “Trump for President” bumper stickers on his car began shouting a gay slur at patrons of the coffee shop.

“If you are not at the table, you are on the menu,” said Maebe, as for why she has remained committed to seeking the House seat. “LGBTQIA people are very much on the menu right now.”

Asked about her breaking through a pink political glass ceiling, Maebe responded, “Why shouldn’t a trans person be elected to Congress when all this anti-LGBTQ legislation is moving through the U.S.?”

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Maebe moved to Chicago at the age of 9. In 2010, she helped move a friend to Los Angeles and fell in love with the city.

Two years later she started renting her Silver Lake apartment and moved permanently to California by 2014. She came out as trans in 2016 but has yet to legally change her name, thus it is why her given name appears on ballots.

During the day she works at a cafe in the city’s Echo Park neighborhood but declined to name it due to the online harassment she receives. At night she performs in drag and hosts a drag brunch on Sundays in West Hollywood.

“Between those, it is enough to get by,” said Maebe.

Her first taste of elective politics came when she sought a seat on her neighborhood council. Now in her

third two-year term, Maebe is the most tenured person on it and serves as treasurer.

“It is the job nobody wants to do,” she joked about the fiscal role, “but after I was appointed by my predecessor, I loved it. Budgets are moral documents, and my intent is to give back as much money to the community and spend the least amount on administrative purposes.”

She had thought about running for a City Council seat but opted not to after other progressives entered the race, as “I didn’t want to dilute the vote,” Maebe told the B.A.R.

Dissatisfied with Schiff, a more moderate Democrat, Maebe decided to run against him. Despite being outspent 100-to-1, she came to realize that money alone isn’t a deciding factor when seeking public office. Even more important is having a strong ground campaign, she argued.

“I am not being naïve that money doesn’t matter in running a campaign, because you have to get your message out there,” acknowledged Maebe, though she also noted, “You can raise a lot of money, but it doesn’t equate to voters. It is why I put in the work in this district.”

She is aiming to raise $100,000 ahead of the primary. Although she has no plans to fundraise in the Bay Area, Maebe told the B.A.R. she would make a trip up north should someone host her for an event.

“Our campaign, as local and grassroots as it is, we have already raised close to $40,000, which is more than we raised during the whole 2022 race,” she noted.

Planning to rev up her get-out-thevote efforts after the holidays, Maebe also plans to wield her large social media presence to her advantage. She argued that her positions she has taken on myriad issues, from being a pacifist and anti-war to supporting universal health care and housing for all, align with that of most voters in the congressional district.

“My values represent the voters of District 30. A lot of my opponents are DINOS, or Democrats in name only,” argued Maebe.

Most LGBTQ groups have yet to endorse in the House race, though Shyne does have the support of LPAC, which works to elect lesbians, queer women, and nonbinary people to office. Maebe has applied for an endorsement from the national LGBTQ Victory Fund and is in the process of doing so with the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California.

“I hope to have their support,” she told the B.A.R.

To learn more about her candidacy, visit her campaign website at maebeagirlforcongress.org. t

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of profiles of out 2024 congressional candidates in California.

Planning Ahead is Simple

Planning Ahead is Simple

The benefits are immense. When

Planning Ahead is Simple

The benefits are immense.

The benefits are immense.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial burden, allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial burden, allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

matter most at that time—you.

Maebe A. Girl is running for a Southern California House seat. Courtesy the candidate Barry

SF drag legend loses car to arson

by John Ferrannini

T he car of a San Francisco drag icon was torched in the Bayview just before Pride weekend, and answers have been hard to come by.

Fudgie Frottage, 68, a nonbinary genderqueer person who founded and co-hosts the San Francisco Drag King contest, told the Bay Area Reporter he thought it might’ve been a hate crime because copies of the B.A.R. were strewn behind his 1989 Toyota MR2 SC, which had been burnt to a crisp.

“It’s very potentially a hate crime,” Frottage said, adding that copies of the Bay Area’s LGBTQ newspaper of record had been in his trunk. “Of course, I don’t know. There’s no camera from SF Rec and Park on the street.”

Adding insult to injury, Frottage said he’d not heard back from either the office of District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton or the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.

The incident happened June 22 after Frottage went to a swimming class at the Martin Luther King Jr. Pool, which is in Walton’s district.

“There were 40 people in the pool. The meet was from 6-7 [p.m.],” Frottage told the B.A.R. “I left at 7:15 and I thought ‘why are the cops here?’ and then I saw my car and thought ‘what the fuck.’”

Pictures show the interior of

Frottage’s car burnt and partially melted. Interestingly, the Club steering wheel lock is still intact. Frottage theorizes the blaze may have stemmed from what was intended to be a theft.

“The Club is still on the steering wheel though the whole cabin is melted,” Fudgie said. “Maybe they tried to steal the car, they got frustrated, so opened the trunk, put gas all over it, and set it on fire.”

The San Francisco Police Department did not return a request for comment from the B.A.R. asking for a report on the incident; however,

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Captain Jonathan Baxter, the public information officer for the San Francisco Fire Department, did confirm that the fire is under investigation.

Frottage stated to the B.A.R. that the SFFD had been in touch. A fire lieutenant told him “that they are looking into the person of interest, checking video footage in that area, which, sadly, is sparse,” Frottage stated.

Frottage wrote an email to several city agencies and officials July 14, including Rec and Park and Walton, in whose district the fire occurred. (Frottage himself resides in Bernal

Heights, which is in District 9.) It included a description of someone passersby told Frottage was looking into the car, and who was spotted at an Arco gas station.

“This city is no longer safe, and the blame lands on politicians who are not doing their jobs effectively,” Frottage’s letter stated, in part.

“Meanwhile, people like me get our cars destroyed, broken into, stolen, catalytic converters stolen, not to mention the ridiculous constant bicycle thefts, disassembling, rebuilding and sales that you are allowing to exist as a lucrative form of income while legitimate businesses are forced to close up shop.”

As of August 1, Frottage was still waiting for a response from Rec and Park or Walton’s office.

“If it were a private business and a car was set on fire, I’d think they’d be like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so sorry.’ Not one person has contacted me,” Frottage said. “I contacted them. I’m shocked.”

Park and Rec did not return a request for comment from the B.A.R. as of press time. Walton’s chief of staff Natalie Gee and legislative aide Tracy Gallardo told the B.A.R. they could not find an email from Frottage on the matter, and requested the B.A.R. provide his info directly.

Frottage provided the B.A.R. a copy of the email, including his and the other email addresses, showing

it’d been sent to waltonstaff@sfgov. org on July 14; Walton’s staff did not return a request for comment from the B.A.R. as to whether they’d been able to locate it themselves.

Frottage said he feels he can’t return to the MLK pool.

“I used to swim every day of the week at one point, then maybe six days a week, then with the pandemic everything got screwed up in the pool,” Frottage said. “I love swimming. Now I feel I can never go back to that place because there’s a pyromaniac running around.”

Frottage had owned the car for almost 20 years and was about to put new insurance on the car after a paint job.

“The car was very well maintained,” Fudgie said. “Needless to say, I did not have comprehensive insurance on it so I couldn’t collect anything from insurance. … I had to buy a car out of pocket.”

Thankfully, Frottage’s friends helped out with donations.

“It’s great my friends helped me and it’s great we do have a community,” Frottage said. “It’s sad we don’t have an effective government.” t Fudgie Frottage’s 27th annual San Francisco Drag King contest takes place Sunday, August 6, at 7 p.m. at Oasis, 298 11th Street. Tickets are $25-$55. www.sfdragkingcontest.com

Italian cities tighten up on kids’ birth certificates

by Heather Cassell

P adua recently became Italy’s first city to retroactively remove non-biological same-sex parents from children’s birth certificates as other jurisdictions alter their processes. LGBTQ rights groups and politicians condemned the move and expressed concern that other cities will soon follow suit.

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The Conversation reported Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ultra-conservative government defines a “traditional family” as headed by a mother and a father. Meloni, whose political party, Brothers of Italy, has been called Italy’s most far-right political leader since the fascist era of Benito Mussolini, was elected in September 2022. Meloni’s government came to power a month later.

Meloni used gay and lesbian families as a part of her anti-LGBTQ election campaign, calling the LGBTQ movement the “LGBT Lobby” and rallying against so-called gender ideology.

In January, Matteo Piantedosi, Italy’s interior minister, acted on a December ruling by Italy’s Court of Cassation and issued a memorandum ordering all Italian mayors to stop automatically registering the births of children born or conceived abroad using assisted reproductive technologies. The court ruled the birth certificate of a child of a gay couple who used a surrogate abroad to conceive should not be automatically recognized and recorded in Italy.

Last month, Padua Prosecutor Valeria Sanzari followed that court decision and a directive introduced by Family Minister Eugenia Roccella that only the biological parent of a child could be named on the birth certificate. The law is one of the first of Meloni’s campaign promises to crack down on same-sex parenting.

It obliges the second gay or lesbian parent to obtain written permission from the biological parent to pick up

their child or children from school, among other daily tasks. If the biological parent dies, the child or children could become a ward of the state and the second parent would have to undergo a lengthy and expensive adoption procedure to get her child or children back, reported Reuters .

The government ordered city councils to stop registering new birth certificates of children of same-sex parents in March, reported CNN.

Milan stopped registering nonbiological parents of same-sex couples on children’s birth certificates after the Prefect of Milan issued a letter.

In April, the birth certificate of one child born to two mothers was annulled in Bergamo, a city northeast of Milan, reported The Conversation.

But Padua appears to be the first city to retroactively remove a parent’s name.

“Our families in Padua have been overwhelmed by a real tsunami: little girls and boys risk seeing

their mothers, brothers and sisters erased, who will no longer be considered as such, becoming strangers before the Italian state,” Italy’s Association of Rainbow Families, which represents LGBTQ+ families, said in a statement, reported CNN. Gay Paduan Alessandro Zan, who is a center-left parliamentarian and a leading member of the Italian gay organization Arcigay, condemned his hometown’s action, calling it “a cruel, inhumane decision.”

“These children are being orphaned by decree,” he told Reuters. Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of Mussolini and a rightwing member of the European Parliament, called Padua’s actions “unworthy of a civilized country” and accused Italy’s government of “throw[ing] a bomb into a family” that will “hit only the children,” she told CNN. Sanzari announced plans to remove nonbiological parent’s names from 33 birth certificates of children born to lesbian couples, CNN reported.

Drag king Fudgie Frottage’s 1989 Toyota MR2 SC was destroyed during an apparent arson outside the Martin Luther King Jr. pool June 22.

Fudgie Frottage

Reuters

US Mint discloses design of Rev. Pauli Murray quarter

compiled by Cynthia Laird

The design has been released for the U.S. quarter that will posthumously honor Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray as part of the U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters program. It is the latest American coin that will feature a queer female icon.

It will be released in 2024, along with a 25-cent piece for Civil War era surgeon Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, a women’s rights advocate and abolitionist with an LGBTQ-focused health clinic in Washington, D.C. partly named after her, as the Bay Area Reporter’s online Political Notes column first reported in February.

Murray, as the B.A.R. noted in a 2021 LGBTQ History Month story, defied gender norms and variously identified as a woman, a man, and as neither. She was a Black civil rights activist, attorney, and much-published poet and essayist. Murray had created new feminist theory and lived a lesbian life for decades. Murray’s was a life of firsts: first Black woman law school graduate at Howard University, first Black person to earn a JSD (doctor of the science of law) degree from Yale Law School, and first Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest.

Next year will be the third year of the four-year spe cial U.S. quarter program, which was authorized by Congress. The program features coins with reverse (tails) designs emblematic of the accomplishments

<< Out in the World

From page 8

As of July 20, 27 lesbian mothers’ names had been removed. CNN reported about 300 women protested the removal of the nonbiological parent’s names from birth certificates outside Padua’s Palace of Justice at the end of June.

The Paduan lesbian mothers were inseminated overseas and legally registered their children under Sergio Giordani’s center-left government in 2017.

Italy is one of the last countries in the European Union that does not legally recognize same-sex marriage. In 2016, the country passed civil unions. Same-sex parents cannot legally adopt children. However, there was a loophole in the law and Italian same-sex couples could go abroad for surrogacy services and register their children at home.

Letters >>

City is less livable due to mayors

Thank you for the thoughtful article about San Francisco’s past LGBTQ mayoral candidates [“With no LGBTQ SF mayoral candidate expected in 2024, past contenders recall steep hill they faced,” July 20].

I moved to San Francisco at the beginning of 1992, just as Art Agnos’ term was winding down, and Frank Jordan was inaugurated. I remember Roberta Achtenberg’s 1995 mayoral slogan, “She’ll never sell us out.” Sadly, with her later position with the hardly progressive San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and now I learn from this article, not supporting Mark Leno for mayor, that slogan is sounding questionable.

Since I’ve lived in San Francisco, the mayor’s office has been held by Jordan, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, Ed Lee, and London Breed; Brown’s successors have all been his cronies. [Mark Farrell, appointed by the Board of Supervisors, served as mayor for six months in 2018.] There

and contributions of trailblazing American women, an U.S. Mint release noted. Five quarters are issued each year.

Murray, who died in 1985 at the age of 74, was conflicted over her gender identity. At various times in her early life, Murray identified as a man and dressed in androgynous clothing throughout most of her life. As the Pauli Murray Center details, “Murray actively used the phrase ‘he/she personality,’ during the ear-

Meloni’s government is attempting to close that loophole to limit the rights of the non-biological second parent of gay and lesbian families. Last month, the prime minister’s government approved legislation extending the national ban on surrogacy internationally. Those who break the law would face at least two years in jail and fines ranging from $651,000 to more than $1 million, reported CNN.

The laws also pose challenges for children of binational gay and lesbian parents. In some cases, the children won’t be granted Italian citizenship, reported The Conversation.

Roccella, the family minister, denied discrimination against children defending the law before Italian lawmakers, claiming the children will not lose access to education and health care.

The proposed bill would also af-

have been moments of hope with the campaigns of Tom Ammiano, Matt Gonzalez (though I supported Ammiano in the primary), and Leno, but they have all been overwhelmed by the Brown machine. Don’t forget that the now-convicted Mohammed Nuru was reportedly involved 20 years ago with voting improprieties on behalf of Brown and Newsom, and he was rewarded with a patronage job by that dynasty.

The policies of those who have held executive political power (while scapegoating the legislative branch, the Board of Supervisors) have resulted in a city that has become less livable; where small business storefronts are empty from high rent blight, homeless people are a campaign chit but never given effective help, buildings built on bribes stand vacant, and hope for effective city government is scarce.

Larry Roberts San Francisco

ly years of their life. Later in journals, essays, letters and autobiographical works, Pauli employed ‘she/her/hers’ pronouns.”

Her quarter was designed by Emily Damstra and sculpted by Joseph Menna, chief engraver of the U.S. Mint, the release stated. It depicts Murray’s eyeglass-framed face within the shape of the word “Hope,” which is symbolic of Murray’s belief that significant societal reforms were possible when rooted in hope, the release noted. A line from her poem “Dark Testament” that characterizes hope as “a song in a weary throat” is featured as an additional inscription in

fect straight couples seeking reproductive services in Italy and abroad to help them grow their families.

Human Rights Watch raised the alarm about discrimination and violence against lesbian, bisexual, and queer women around the world in its report, “‘This Is Why We Became Activists’: Violence Against Les-

the design.

The other quarters in the 2024 series will honor Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first woman from Hawaii to be elected to Congress; Cuban singer Celia Cruz, who eventually came to the U.S.; Zitkala-Sa, a Yankton Dakota writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and political activist; and Walker, who became the first female U.S. Army surgeon during the Civil War.

On-sale dates for products containing the 2024 American Women Quar-

bian, Bisexual, and Queer Women and Non-Binary People,” published in February. The report found that access to fertility treatment and the rights of non-gestational lesbian mothers were two of the top concerns for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women activists across 26 countries. t

ters Program will be published on the Mint’s product schedule at https://tinyurl.com/46hnerk2. When available, the Mint will accept orders at catalog. usmint.gov/.

‘Queer-aoke’ night at San Mateo center

The San Mateo County Pride Center will hold its inaugural “Queer-aoke” karaoke event Thursday, August 10, starting at 7 p.m. at 1021 S. El Camino Real in San Mateo.

Hosted by Krystle CanSINGo, people are invited to share their vocal talents and cheer on their friends.

The event is open to all ages and is co-sponsored by Outlet, a program of Adolescent Counseling Services. stated. For more information, go to sanmateopride.org/events or call (650) 5910133.

Horizons reports on Give OUT Day

Horizons Foundation has reported that this year’s Give OUT Day was a success, with over $1.2 million raised for almost 500 LGBTQ nonprofits during Pride Month in June.

The San Francisco-based foundation operates the national program, in which people pledge funds online to their favorite queer nonprofit.

People, of course, are free to make donations to the various organizations at any time. For the results of this year’s campaign, go to https://tinyurl. com/2ft3n6ks. t

Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or oitwnews@ gmail.com

Each of our communities offers a unique place where you feel welcome, can be yourself, live among friends and experience new adventures, all while securing your future. Explore your next steps by giving us a call today!

is what it is all about.

The Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray, left, will grace a U.S. quarter next year and the design was recently unveiled.

Courtesy Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute; U.S. Mint

The imbroglio started July 24 when the tenants at 3991 18th Street got an email from AA Property Rentals, which had purchased their building effective August 1. The email begins by introducing the new ownership company and giving instructions for how to pay rent.

“On another note, I would like to inform you that displaying flags on our rental properties is not allowed due to safety & liability concerns. Whomever put it up please have it removed by the 1st of August or we will remove it and dispose of it,” the email concludes. “Thank you for renting with us.”

That didn’t sit well with Henry

<< Rainbow center

From page 5

“I am very excited the board of directors chose to hire Christian,” Kuslits stated. “Nobody is better at building relationships, a crucial skill needed as we pursue our strategic plan to lead with partnerships. Christian has experienced Rainbow at all levels: client, volunteer, manager, and director, and brings these perspectives to his new leadership role. His commitment to Rainbow and its mission is unmatched. I am so proud of Christian and can’t wait to see him lead Rainbow as we expand to meet the needs of our community.”

As the B.A.R. previously reported, the Concord City Council did not pro-

<< Guest Opinion

From page 6

After reviewing several other resources, two clinched it for me. The first was a vote at the 1959 convention of the Mattachine Society, a homosexual rights organization based in San Francisco. It unanimously approved a resolution recognizing Christopher’s “enlightened attitude” for making San Francisco a “wel-

From page 1

colleagues across the states where it is difficult for them to take those positions. We see ourselves at California Humanities as able to take that position for those from across the country.”

Backing him is the agency’s board, which supports Noguchi’s desire to see Cal Humanities “play a national leadership role in addition to doing the work locally,” said Daryle Williams, Ph.D., dean of UC Riverside’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. (Noguchi’s daughter attended the school.)

“California Humanities is there to support, create, shape, and amplify so many different experiences and voices through the tools, disciplines, and avenues of the humanities,” said Williams, “so LGBTQ voices, subject matter, and people should be in there and has been in there. Having an openness to different experiences and voices, including queer voices, is part of the approach I am drawn to in California Humanities.”

A gay man born in San Francisco and raised in the Bay Area until the age of 7, Williams, 55, returned in 1989 as a graduate student at Stanford and lived in the LGBTQ Castro and Mission districts of the City-by-the-Bay. Now living in Riverside with his husband, Williams joined the Cal Humanities board in February just as it was concluding its search to find a replacement for Julie Fry, who stepped down after leading the agency since 2015.

“Julie left things in a really strong foundation,” said Williams. “You get Rick coming in now who doesn’t have to worry how to put out a fire and clean up the mess, but how do I continue to build on and tell these stories more by using some of the tools we have through media, education, and marketing to tell stories in a more savvy way.”

Noguchi “represented a vision for the humanities in our state that was expan-

Walker, a 59-year-old gay man who has maintained the flag since moving into his unit four years ago. Walker told the B.A.R. that the flag has been up “at least 20 years.”

“Initially it was a little startling because it was a ‘safety and liability’ concern,” Walker said. “That’s vague and ambiguous – because I was not sure what safety concern there would be. … The tone was very harsh, particularly for the first communication we got from the new company.”

Walker said that all of the building’s tenants are LGBTQ community members and support the flag. He said he has actively maintained the flag and flagpole.

“The flag has been replaced this year and in 2020, so every three or so years,” he said.

vide any funding to the center earlier this year when it doled out $7 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to nonprofits. The center, which had applied for $270,604, was not among the 22 groups selected.

Promoting visibility

Aguirre said during his tenure he wants to improve relationships in the community and promote the nonprofit’s visibility.

“There are still people who don’t know about Rainbow and all the work we do in the Contra Costa community and I really want to elevate all the programs we do and the great stuff we have at Rainbow with the services we provide,” Aguirre said. “Services prevent isolation.”

coming place for homosexuals.” Yet, unbeknownst to society members, the resolution had been introduced by a felon working for Christopher’s mayoral opponent, Assessor Russell Wolden, as part of a smear campaign. Wolden’s smear backfired and Christopher easily won reelection. Through their unanimous vote, Mattachine members had voiced their honest perceptions of Christopher.

Christopher also recorded an oral history interview in 1990 that

Section 1940.4 of the California Civil Code protects political speech by tenants in some circumstances.

California law specifically protects tenants’ rights to place signage inside their unit related to an election, legislative vote, initiative, referendum, recall, and “issues that are before a public commission, public board, or elected local body for a vote.” The law “permits a tenant to post or display political signs in the window or on the door of the premises leased by the tenant in a multifamily dwelling,” though it doesn’t protect signage that is over six square feet.

That said, the flag is affixed to the building’s exterior, not on a door or in a window.

Landlords who don’t put an outright prohibition on signs, flags and decora-

Gay Contra Costa County Supervisor Ken Carlson is a previous president of Rainbow’s board; he said he hopes the county’s Board of Supervisors can step up where Concord’s City Council didn’t, and had nothing but fond things to say of Aguirre.

“He’s been at the center since I was over there as a board member,” Carlson said. “It’s sad in the sense that they had to go through a transition, but Christian is well suited for the job. He comes from within; he knows the programs. He has that institutional knowledge and is engaged with the people receiving services for the past decade.”

When asked about the organization’s top challenges he plans to address, Aguirre continued on the theme of outreach.

“For me, taking this position, I really

is archived at the GLBT Historical Society. He shared, “Whether we’re talking about morals or art or the gay community. ... Every kind of community in San Francisco had a right to do what they had to, or wanted to do, so that everybody, regardless of who they were, had the opportunity to get a job, and to earn a living, and to be left alone, as long as they weren’t bothering somebody else.” These and other comments in his interview added much greater context to his

tions in their lease agreements are on murky legal ground, according to civil rights attorney Edward Forman, who answered a similar question from a viewer in Ohio on WBNS 10-TV.

Walker and his fellow tenants decided that the situation needed mediation and reached out to Mandelman’s office.

“It was so adamant,” Walker said of the request. “There was no room to respond, so we reached out to Rafael’s office to mediate for us.”

Adam Thongsavat, a legislative aide to Mandelman, told the B.A.R. that the supervisor is on vacation and so can’t provide comment, but that he shares the tenants’ concerns and is committed to ensuring the flag continues to fly outside the building.

wanted to focus on bringing the community together, focusing on marginalized communities – people of color, people with HIV, transgender and nonbinary folk, and unhoused community members in Contra Costa,” Aguirre said. “That’s something I want to highlight, and involve community members, to make sure they have more engagement with what we all do on the services we provide, and how we can impact them.”

Aguirre also has a word about the backlash against drag performers that’s led to legislation in several states.

“I think a lot of the changes that are being suggested have a broader impact with the LGBTQIA+ community, women, trans people, people of color, and also (are) not allowing for our community members to have a safe space where

progressive character.

In the end, the proposal to rename Christopher Park is unfounded and unnecessary. This event highlights the importance of community collaboration and comprehensive research to ensure such critical decisions are based not only on the totality of evidence but also achieved through consensus among all community stakeholders. t

results in myriad benefits.

“We have an opportunity to demonstrate what can be successful in one state and inspire another state humanities council to continue that work, or adopt that work, even in the face of legislative hostility or civic activism,” said Williams.

Telling diverse California stories

The humanities run the gamut from film, dance, and poetry to history, literature, and languages. It also encompasses a wide array of settings, from academia and large cultural institutions to regional museums and online-based archives.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awards grants directly for state-based programs and projects, announcing $3.6 million in such funding to California recipients in January. It also funds the statewide humanities agencies.

Thongsavat told the B.A.R. July 31 that he had a fruitful discussion with AA Property Rentals on July 28.

The company assured him that the issue wasn’t the content of the flag that was a concern but, rather, fears about the stability of the flagpole that led to the email, Thongsavat said.

The company pledged to Thongsavat that it would send a crew to assess the flagpole’s safety, reinforce it if necessary, and will keep the office apprised of the situation.

The company also told Thongsavat it would reach out to the tenants; as of August 1, this hasn’t happened, Walker said, and the company did not return a request for comment from the B.A.R. the same day. t

they can be themselves,” Aguirre said. “I think [performing at drag story hour in 2019] forced me to experience some of the backlash myself, first-hand. … I think it’s also tough for the community to not feel safe or welcome at places we frequent.”

Aguirre did not disclose his salary; the center’s most recently available IRS Form 99 shows Johnson making $95,281 in reported compensation in Fiscal Year 2021-22. It also shows the nonprofit ran a deficit of $147,522, having taken in $1,624,379 in revenue and having expended $1,771,901.t

Evelyn Rose, a gay woman, is founder of the Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project (GlenParkHistory.org) (https://www. glenparkhistory.org/) covering Glen Park, Glen Canyon Park, Sunnyside, Fairmount Heights, and Diamond Heights. She is also chief tramping officer of TrampsofSanFrancisco.com. (http:// www.trampsofsanfrancisco.com/) Rose can be contacted at GlenParkHistory@gmail.com

used by the Tongva and Chumash (tomol) peoples from present-day Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, to be launched from the National Park Service’s Aquatic Park in San Francisco, which sits on Ohlone land, during the city’s 2024 National Queer Arts Festival. The project, ‘Eyoomkuuka’ro Kokomaar (We Paddle Together), is a Two-Spirit centered collaboration between L. Frank Manriquez, the Queer Cultural Center, and Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS).

One aspect of Noguchi’s vision for Cal Humanities that impressed Williams was his focus on not just agencies and projects in the state’s larger metropolitan regions but also in more ex-urban and rural sectors of California. Geographic diversity is critical in a state of such immense size, noted Williams.

sive and inclusive,” said Williams. “He was someone who had done the work and thinks about what that work means in a state of such diversity and size.”

Among Noguchi’s plans is not only continued funding for LGBTQ programs but also using Cal Humanities’ marketing prowess to take more public stands on various issues. The agency is in the process of hiring a new director of development to lead its fundraising effort to support such messaging in addition to its other work. (The deadline to apply is Friday, August 4.)

“We do see that as one of our platforms as a leadership organization, not to just be a grant maker that passively awards funds but takes positions on issues,” said Noguchi. “We are here to support the diversity of communities in California and we strongly believe in equity. Right now, when we get applications from organizations that are lifting up those voices, they will be considered in our process. We are always happy when we are able to fund something that supports those voices.”

In its July newsletter, the agency criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing a Christian web designer to discriminate against engaged same-sex couples based on her faith. It called the opinion from the court’s conservative majority “a dangerous precedent that will compromise civil rights protections in the U.S.” and “inconsistent” with its own values.

The agency also highlighted its opposition to book bans and support of state leaders’ efforts to block such policies in public schools and libraries, while also providing links to resources for those interested in getting more involved in pushing back.

“A range of perspectives are core to the humanities, so when diverse voices are banned and silenced, then we must step up and call out the dangers to our democracy,” stated Noguchi. “The voices of people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals must be represented and heard.”

Noting there are “pretty dark clouds gathering” in numerous states, Williams said Cal Humanities can serve as an example that supporting diverse voices

Thus, the federal agency awarded Cal Humanities $3.5 million this year, with $1,855,000 to be regranted to various applicants from around the state. Its total budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, which ended June 30, was $4,644,660. (Noguchi’s salary is nearly $180,000.)

“Our federal tax dollars are having a direct impact in our state through Cal Humanities,” noted Williams, whose college has been a recipient of grants from the agency. “I think it is pretty important when we think about where our tax dollars go and how they benefit and enrich people’s specific lived lives.”

In June, the state agency announced $270,000 in Humanities for All Project Grant awards, with one going to Los Angeles County’s ONE Archives Foundation, the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the United States. The grant will help support its upcoming anniversary commemoration “70 Years as ONE: A Queer History Festival,” taking place in October during LGBTQ+ History Month.

Another grant went toward creating a ti’aat, or traditional plank-built boat

“Each of the different parts of the state have different feels and different audiences that all should be receiving support,” he said.

Katherine Fobear, Ph.D., with the Qistory program associated with Fresno’s Community Link, told the B.A.R. she hopes the grants that Cal Humanities awards to smaller organizations continue under Noguchi’s leadership. A $5,000 Humanities for All Quick Grant her volunteer-run group received last year funded its “Mapping Queer Fresno” project.

“It is one of the greatest supporters of local arts and humanities all across California. It is also very accessible in regards to applying for grants and getting money to support a wide and diverse array of programming, from individual artists to documentarians, to help supporting public history initiatives like Qistory,” said Fobear, 37, a queer cisgender woman who is the founder and coordinator of the new LGBTQ studies minor at California State University, Fresno. “Cal Humanities is incredible at supporting projects very locally based.”

See page 11 >>

Daryle Williams, Ph.D., is dean of UC Riverside’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and serves on the board of California Humanities.

UC Riverside

Qistory’s founder, Jeffrey Robinson, died in January 2022 months before the program learned it had received the grant from the state agency. Fobear and her colleagues used the funding to host a series of public talks last fall, which helped guide the creation of the website https://qistory.org/ that went live in May.

“There are very few resources or grants out there to fund something that locally based,” said Fobear, who lives in Madera and grew up in Michigan. “Qistory is this small program under Community Link with a focus on empowering people to collect and to become public historians, as well as try to preserve as much of our local history as possible for future generations.”

Without the Cal Humanities grant, Fobear told the B.A.R. it is unlikely they would have been able to launch the online repository for Fresno’s LGBTQ history. Because the state agency didn’t re-

As the deadline draws near, it’s worth noting that PEPFAR spans more than 50 countries, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Fiscal Year 2023 spending was $7.5 billion, with approximately $5.5 billion for bilateral HIV efforts and $2 billion for U.S. contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

quire it to have matching funds, Qistory was able to apply, she noted.

“It is a lower barrier for collectives of individuals, whether local historians,

Kellman and her colleagues at GAPP and its partner organizations are reaching out to lawmakers.

“PEPFAR has always been a coalition of strange bedfellows,” she said, quoting Dr. Mark Dybul, a gay man who’s the former executive director of the Global Fund. Organizations on the far left and far right, including faith-based groups, support the program.

It’s unsurprising that some fringe Republicans in Congress are trying

artists or educators, to get some funds to support a project. From that, you can build,” said Fobear. “For our program to grow, we needed that website. We didn’t have space for a museum or capacity to do something like that.”

The small grants Cal Humanities awards may seem insignificant, said Fobear, but they are critically important and should continue to be offered.

“We still have to fight for a seat at the table sometimes,” Fobear said of

to tie abortion to an HIV/AIDS program – they will seek any opportunity, however unrelated and unfounded, to cut spending on successful health programs like PEPFAR. The accusation that PEPFAR was being used to “prop up” abortion providers first surfaced in a conservative Heritage Foundation report in May, according to the Post. Heritage accuses the Biden administration of using PEPFAR as a “well-funded vehicle to promote its domestic radical social

LGBTQ organizations. “For me, I am very grateful for the opportunity Cal Humanities did for us. It has given us a launching pad to continue building our program.”

Noguchi told the B.A.R. he wants to maintain and expand the smaller grants.

To do so, he aims to increase the private dollars Cal Humanities is able to attract.

It will also provide a buffer against economic downturns that result in less government provided funding.

agenda overseas, as it has done with other foreign aid programs.”

We haven’t seen evidence of this, but radical conservatives don’t rely on facts, as we see time and time again on numerous issues, especially those that help people of color and other vulnerable groups, such as those living with HIV/AIDS or at high risk for the disease. Not all Republican lawmakers are opposed to PEPFAR or buy into this latest version of alternative facts.

“Any organization has to have a diverse stream of revenue, so I am looking at private donations,” he said. “It will give us more flexibility in the work that we do.”

For its grantees, having the support of Cal Humanities can be leveraged to attract other funders, noted Williams. For donors, even if making a less sizable contribution, they can support projects of importance to them that may otherwise go unfunded, he added.

“It provides a more direct connection to see themselves in the endeavor of the humanities,” said Williams.

And it will assist in another goal of Noguchi’s, increasing Californians’ awareness about the humanities.

“Once people understand the power of the humanities, they will be very supportive of what we do, especially in bridging communities and developing empathy in individuals, so we can better understand each other,” he told the B.A.R. t

Kellman is hopeful that in the end, there will remain broad bipartisan support for the program and it will be reauthorized, ideally for the full five years. PEPFAR is one program that the U.S. does right, and members of Congress should see the program for what it actually does – help prevent HIV/AIDS – and not what some right-wing foundation has drummed up without evidence. t

Legals>>

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thority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: AUGUST 14, 2023, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from

Katherine Fobear, Ph.D., teaches at California State University, Fresno.

Courtesy Cal State Fresno

“It is one of the greatest supporters of local arts and humanities all across California.”

–Katherine Fobear, Ph.D.

by Jim Provenzano

For the 11th annual State of Play Dance Festival, August 3 through 13 at ODC Theater, a dozen visiting and local choreographers and many dancers will participate in showings of works in progress as well as workshops and site-specific performances. One standout is Jerron Herman, whose extensive solo confronts the artistic ‘perfection’ of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing.

Having worked with prominent choreographers like Heidi Latsky, Herman, 32, has also spent years developing his own repertory in group projects and solos. He premiered “Vitruvian” last year. Since then it’s been adapted for a film version as well. Along with acclaim for this work, and being featured on the cover of Dance Magazine, he’s received grants for the project from several arts foundations.

Herman’s abridged solo will be part of the festival on August 10 and 12. Born in San Francisco and raised in Alameda, Herman has spent the last 14 years living in New York City. We discussed his background in dance and his focus on re-seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man embodied by a Black disabled queer man.

Jim Provenzano: Your concept of the Vitruvian Man become live and your interpretations of it are quite intriguing. You’ve performed this at a few places, right?

Jerron Herman: Yes, I premiered it in New York City in May 2022 at Abrons Arts Center. I took it to the Baltimore Museum of Art in March this year. ODC will be the third stop, but it also lives as a film that’s had releases at Abrons Arts Center and also Lincoln Center.

Jerron Herman

Gregg Shapiro: Your new EP is titled “Kismet,” which is defined as destiny or fate. Would it be fair to say that it was kismet that you would work with Diane Warren again?

Belinda Carlisle: It was complete kismet [laughs] That’s what it was. I mean I wasn’t planning to really do anything new. My son (James) ran into Diane at a coffee shop in L.A., and she asked, “What is your mom doing? Let’s call her.” She called me and said, “Come to the studio. I have some songs for you.”

I was like, “Oh my God! Do I really want to do this? It’s a big commitment.” But you can’t say no to Diane. I went to the studio, and she played me the most amazing songs. It was almost like the universe saying you’re not meant to slow down right now. So, here I am talking to you.

Your history with Diane goes all the way back to your 1988 hit single “I Get Weak.” What makes Diane the kind of songwriter whose compositions are a good fit for you? She has a really good sense of what I am, who I am, how my voice sounds, and everything. I have a good sense of that, too, thank God. As with any songwriter, including Diane, I just know it right off melodically. There’s a type of melody that’s a little bit melancholic, but very beautiful in the same way that “Big Big Love” is on “Kismet.” She played me songs that I just knew would be good for me, and that she thought would be good for me, too. She was right! We were both in agreement on most everything creatively with this.

Last summer, Entertainment Weekly included your rendition of “I Get Weak” on its list of “The 20 best Diane Warren songs.” What does it mean to you have made that list?

It is an amazing song, and to be on that list … I had no idea. She’s written for everybody, so it’s quite a compliment, I would say.

by Gregg Shapiro

Belinda Carlisle is the definition of a music legend. From her beginnings as drummer Dottie Danger, an interim member of L.A. punk band the Germs, to co-founding the allfemale band the Go-Go’s, where her trademark vocal belt and distinctive dance moves made her

all the rage, Carlisle grabbed our attention and never let go.

After three albums with the Go-Go’s, Carlisle launched a successful solo career, even earning a Grammy nomination for the song “Heaven Is A Place On Earth.” She regrouped with her former fellow band members for 2001’s “God Bless the Go-Go’s,” reissued in an expanded edition in 2021, and has toured with the band (who were

the subject of an acclaimed 2020 documentary) on and off for years.

The host of “Mad About Music” on SiriusXM’s 1st Wave channel, Carlisle, the mother of a gay son, is also known for her activism for the LGBTQ community. For her new five-song EP “Kismet” (BMG), Carlisle has teamed up again with Diane Warren (writer of Carlisle’s hit single “I Get Weak”) for a delightful set of tunes.

I really like the song “I Couldn’t Do That To Me,” and I’m glad you included a power ballad on the EP. Can you say something about how you approach ballads, as opposed to more rhythmic or rocking tunes?

That is really hard to nail, generally, not just vocally, but usually production-wise, too. I’m working with Mati Gavriel, who produced everything.

See page 17 >>

Nick Spanos

Cowboy contemplation

by Jim Gladstone

Go west, young them!

A gregarious spirit of pioneering and possibility animates “Howdy, Stranger” creator-performer Luca Torrens’ solo show, which they describe as “a transmasculine Western.”

This month, Miami-based Torrens will visit the Bay Area for the first time, presenting three performances of her bowlegged brainchild as part of the 2023 San Francisco Fringe Festival, which runs from Aug. 10 through 26 (Torrens performs on August 13, 16 and 17).

“It’s like a live cartoon,” said Torrens, 23, describing the 50-minute show in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “It’s a little ridiculous and I loooove doing it.”

The musical tall tale of a cowboy named Jean who wants to be a lawman but has an aversion to gunplay feels a bit like “Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” but sweeter and more sincere. Beneath its silly surface, Torrens has incorporated themes with strong personal resonance.

“This young man, Jean, is trying to earn a badge from the Sheriff, who’s sort of a father figure, an outside source of validation.” Torrens explained. “But he’s a very sensitive,

pacifist kind of guy. He’s uncomfortable with the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ mentality and gets made fun of because of that.

“I’m not sure whether Jean is a guy or is transmasculine –which is what I consider myself– but he’s definitely

Luca Torrens plays the SF Fringe Festival

Torrens first developed a shorter version of “Howdy, Stranger” last year as a senior theater project at the New World School of the Arts, but the show’s origins go back to their early childhood.

Into the Fringe

“My professor told me that I should pick a topic that I was passionate about and the one thing that I love and could talk about forever is cowboys. My family always watched a lot of movies together, and the Westerns always stood out to me. There’s just this huge mythology to everything,” Torrens recalled, voice growing giddy with memories.

“I’m really inspired by the music of Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash, these storytelling trail songs. And I love horses. God, it’s just so cool!”

lottery, from which a final bill of performers is selected. Performers pay a small fee for the performance space and earn back some of their investment through ticket sales.

“This spring I got an invoice in the mail from them,” Torrens recalled. “I thought I was being scammed and then I remembered that I’d entered.”

The opportunity spurred Torrens –who graduated in May and has been jumping between acting jobs in South Florida– to expand her script and add four more original songs to the pair featured in the original version.

And with that, in a dust cloud of innocence and optimism, the young cowboy gallops into town, heart on their sleeve, open to all possibilities.

queer. And I think that queer people and trans people can connect to the whole idea of wanting to fit in but worrying about how you’re being perceived. Just being yourself is a huge dissonance and you’ve got to find acceptance within yourself.”

‘Sylvester, the Mighty Real’

by Jim Gladstone

When you hear the name Sylvester, does your mind go to a Puddy Tat or to a bussy tap?

If it’s the former, get ready to be schooled. If it’s the latter, prepare for a thought-provoking dance down memory lane and into the future.

On Friday, August 11, local theater company EyeZen Presents will debut “Sylvester: The Mighty Real,” a performance-walking tour that celebrates the life and cultural impact of Sylvester James, Jr., the San Francisco-based dance music diva who boldly demonstrated that flamer and trailblazer are in no way mutually exclusive terms.

“Over the past year,” said producer Seth Eisen in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, “90 percent of the times I’ve told people that we were making a show about Sylvester, I’ve gotten a blank stare. A large majority of the straight community don’t know him. Among younger queers, there are

some people who’ve heard of him, but if I delve into it and ask them to name a song? Usually they can’t.”

Yet Sylvester’s biggest hit, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),” a queer anthem released in 1978, is one of only 625 “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” audio recordings now included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry (25 are added annually).

In an essay published by the Library in conjunction with the song’s addition to the registry, Joshua Gamson –a University of San Francisco professor and author of the authoritative 2005 biography “The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music, The ’70s in San Francisco”– wrote:

“Disco was, at its roots, as Black and gay as you could possibly get… the collective experience of the dance floor were bodily reminders of freedom: the individual and collective throwing off of stigma, the devotional embrace of strangeness, joy, and queer

pleasure, the making of the fantasy self into an actual being. ‘Mighty Real’… was the sound of disco preaching.”

Not a conventional biography Sylvester, born in Watts, Los Angeles, was a campaign ally of Harvey Milk; a staple performer at the Castro Street Fair and San Francisco Pride parades; an unapologetically gay guest on national television talk shows; and an early, steadfast activist for AIDS patients who went on to speak frankly with the press about his own diagnosis at a time when most queer celebrities remained deeply closeted.

“There’s no way to tell all of Sylvester’s story in a one-hour and fifteenminute show,” said Eisen. “Maybe it could be done as a television series. But our show was never intended to feel like a biopic.”

Working from a script by local writer and theologian Marvin K. White and directed by Michael French, each performance of “Mighty Real” features two guide characters who will lead audiences of no more than 35 people on a walk along several blocks of Haight Street where Sylvester lived and spent time beginning in 1970, when he first came to the city and moved into the communal house shared by gay avantgarde theater troupe, The Cockettes.

Among other touchstone locations along the tour are the sites of long-gone gay bars and clubs that once lent Haight Street a sense of queer community very different from that of the Castro.

Monday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Tuesday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Wednesday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Thursday 8am Open 24 Hours

Friday

Open 24 Hours

Saturday

Open 24 Hours

Sunday 7am (last seating 9:45pm)

Open Daily! New Adjusted Hours

After Torrens presented a 20-minute version of the show at school, a professor who was familiar with the San Francisco Fringe Festival, suggested Torrens apply for a spot. She did, then promptly forgot about it.

Like many Fringe festivals in North America, the San Francisco iteration operates without curation. Would-be participants pay a small fee to enter a

With the San Francisco presentation of “Howdy, Stranger,” Torrens says hello to new audiences and a bold new sense of self. It’s not just a Western, it’s a coming-of-stage tale.t

“Howdy Stranger” is one of 15 works being presented at the Exit Theatre in the 2023 San Francisco Fringe Festival. “Howdy Stranger,” Aug. 13, 16 and 17. $14-$20. Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor St. www.theexit.org

Immersive theater experience tells fab tales

Proudly serving the community since 1977.

3991-A 17th Street, Market & Castro 415-864-9795

Between stops, audience members will wear radio-controlled headsets and a carefully curated soundtrack, including snippets of interviews with friends and colleagues of Sylvester who spent time with him on the very blocks that the tour traverses.

Bridging past and present

“The show isn’t about nostalgia,” said Eisen. “It’s about connecting the past to the present and hopefully helping make a path to a better future. Sylvester arrived in San Francisco at a moment when the counter culture and queer community were very strong. It was a time where there was a lot of race- and gender- and classconsciousness.

“When you think about what’s happening in our country now, there are a lot of connections. People wanting to be who they are, dress how they want to. What was it like for Sylvester as an out, Black genderqueer person to

come here and try to figure out, ‘Who is my community here? Who are the people who are going to back me in bringing my vision to life?’

“We want audiences to feel like they are following in Sylvester’s footsteps and to think about some of the things he might have been thinking about. The show isn’t about trying to recreate Sylvester. It’s about conjuring his spirit in his absence and considering how to honor him in this particular space and time.”

Eisen hopes that audience members will come out of the show with a sense of today’s Haight Street as a palimpsest through which both past and present can be considered from fresh perspectives. And while reluctant to

reveal some of the show’s surprises, he says that he thinks attendees will find themselves eager to re-listen to Sylvester’s albums or to delve into his music for the first time.

Along with the ticketed tour, EyeZen has partnered with the San Francisco Heritage organization to mount a visual exhibition celebrating of Sylvester’s creativity and style at the Doolan-Larsen Building on the corner of Haight and Ashbury, which will be open to the public, free of charge, on weekdays through September.t

‘Out of Site: Sylvester, the Mighty Real,’ Fridays-Sundays, Aug. 11-Sept 29. Tour begins at 1035 Haight St. Sliding scale, $15-$125. www.eyezen.org

Luca Torrens in ‘Howdy Stranger’

Cemora Valentino Devine, left, and Nic Sommerfeld in ‘Sylvester: The Mighty Real’

Robbie Sweeny

Sylvester EyeZen producer Seth Eisen

<< Jerron Herman

From page 13

A few prominent disabledinclusive dance companies like AXIS Dance in Oakland and Candoco in London have expanded opportunities, but there are still few. What was your introduction to dance?

It was actually a very out-of-theblue invitation from another choreographer, Sean Curran. He and Heidi Latsky –hers was my first company that I was with– were both early Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane dancers. They’re very good friends, and I was an education apprentice at the New Victory Theater during college. I was assigned to be his assistant for one of his workshops. And he was like, “No, I don’t need an assistant. Be a participant.”

And over the course of a week, he was interested in my movement and introduced me to his company and the concept of modern dance. And then finally, he brokered an audition for me with Heidi’s company. I auditioned for her, and I was with her for eight years.

With Heidi’s company, the preeminent physically-integrated dance company in New York City, but I think that her having her lineages and her legacy and practice in Modern dance really spoke to how my body already moved. And so there was a kind of simpatico or a bit of mirroring with respect to the form and then how my body worked, how my body moved already.

It became a lot about translating what I already do or how my body expresses. We were both very surprised with how there were some things that fell in line with typical line or typical of athleticism and some things that really had to be modified. So it was a journey in her company of piecemealing

or thinking about the variety of ways that I was either exhibiting some elements of Modern dance already and ways that I was able of being taught. I really learned on the job. That was a trial by fire and one of the most exciting art moments of my life because it was so unexpected.

I’m curious about your inspiration for the specificity of the da Vinci ‘perfect man,’ which he used as a geometric sign to show the human form.

I’ve always been a big art history nerd, and I’ve always had a fascination with antiquity as a source of maybe some hidden truths, some ideas that we can assimilate to in modernity. One of my biggest barriers to that realm is its lionizing of symmetry, and for me being quite asymmetrical, I found incongruity.

I just didn’t fit. What do you expect? I’m a Black, disabled, twenty-first-century man. I wouldn’t be Hercules if I tried, but nevertheless, there was this thing around the idea; how do you get to an image? How do you get to enflesh or embody something? That journey was really exciting to me. And I come from the theater world, so I thought about what could my story ballet be if I were to create a world and create a narrative?

And the Vitruvian Man was oddly so present in my life, just this idea of constantly being, if not explicitly, then definitely implicitly always matched up with this idea of using all four of your limbs, using your faculties as best as possible.

My childhood in the Bay Area and at the storied Kaiser Permanente was littered with Physical Therapy sessions that were all about me utilizing my body to an extent of sociality and to efficiency. And in my work, solos have always had this bridge of the past

and present that is a personal history of, say, my experiences with cerebral palsy and that being quite misunderstood, my use of athleticism not being clocked as legitimate because they have been underneath the time clock. But so this kind of falls into the same vein where I’m going back into the history and finding ways that I do match and fit into the image.

Did you know of AXIS or other companies or even spaces that would welcome you?

My parents were always very adamant about me finding my community when I was growing up, getting entrenched, understanding disability for myself when I was in adolescence. I was quite into being a maverick and doing it all myself and independent. I do remember, though, because I grew up in Alameda, so the Alice Arts Center, which was the Malonga Casquelourd Center back in the day, was in downtown Oakland.

I went there for one class, I think it was a contemporary hip hop class, and

we did a combination to Justin Timberlake’s “Senorita,” but I didn’t realize that that was the holding house for AXIS. And so it was as though I had just missed them and missed an opportunity of understanding that. But I think about that often. I went to New York to find my community and that’s been kind of strange for me, knowing that the Bay Area is the birthplace of the modern disability rights movement. And I had to go all the way to New York to figure that out? That’s really funny to me. But what I realized is that my journey was about it being authentic, so I definitely couldn’t do what my parents told me to do, so I rebelled.

That’s why coming to ODC this summer is impactful and important, because it’s a true homecoming. I’m bringing this piece back to the roots of not only my childhood and how I was reared, but also kind of offering to disability rights and just disability justice legacies. I’m bringing what I’ve learned away from them back to the environment that really spurred it on without any of my help.

The empirical nature of traditional modern dance and ballet is that the height of perfection is a goal, but not anymore, and not for many choreographers.

A step’s being perfect is definitely an internal goal, or that the performance itself could lend or exhibit the intentions of the choreographer or the idea person; that’s always forefront. Excellence and rigor won’t be relaxed, but what will be is a sense of shame, I guess.

When we think about accommodating disabled people in spaces and in society, it’s not that we can’t do the rigorous things the whole time. It’s that we might have bursts that are in the pocket and then others that aren’t, or that we might need more accommodation before we get to the thing and then on and then off, more accommodation.

It’s temporal, and I think that that’s one of the things around disability that people still feel awkward about. It’s like they now expect a yes or a no.

It’s more malleable. And there’s something around it that is quite germane to a dance practice.

Do you find opportunities within “Vitruvian” that are improvised?

There are definitely moments of improvisation. There are still places to respond to the environment where the improvisation happens within structured places. There’s a section that’s literally called “Break,” and that is both for the audience, for myself, for the ancestors of all the people I talk to. It’s an eight-minute section. It will be shortened for ODC because the whole piece is 45 minutes, but I’m doing a 30-minute section.

Allowing an audience and myself to sit for eight minutes proved to be challenging to folks, but also really helped them to assess their speed and time, because before that, I’m ripping and raring for a good ten minutes. They’re with me in this energy, and then we slow it down. It definitely changes the room.

My Baltimore concert was particularly interesting because there was a new community of disabled artists that I had met that really came to the show; we came for each other. It was like I was just the context that they got to have their time, so that was kind of fun. I was like, great, you’re not even coming for me. You’re coming for your friends. I loved it, because they, in terms of spaces, got to be together for something that is about them. They have those moments that aren’t theatricalized, so to have someone register it as a theatrical moment was really special. And so, yeah, that’s what I do. If I’m making an improv moment, it’s to serve the story, and it’s also to serve the response, how I can respond to real time.t

‘State of Play’ at ODC Theater

August 3-13, $10-$30 (Jerron Herman Aug. 10 & 12, 6pm). For some shows, ASL interpretation available, and facemasks required. ODC Theater, 3153 17th St. www.odc.dance/stateofplay www.jerronherman.com

Jerron Herman performs “Vitruvian”

Maria Baranova

Artist Chella Man redrew da Vinci’s Vetruvian Man for Jerron Herman’s dance.

The past recaptured

by Tim Pfaff

The huge expansion of the active opera repertory that has taken place in our lifetimes has been less about birthing viable new operas than with the revivals of “old” operas that have, over time, fallen off the stage. The notion that operas fade into the wings because they’re not up to snuff –some conservative wags have dubbed revivals “exhumations”– is now itself out of date.

No other living musician has done more not just to reinstate neglected operas but also to prove why they were once exemplary and still reward re-hearings than Christophe Rousset, leading his now 30-year-old ensemble Les Talens Lyriques. It’s now become a bit of a shock when the intrepid band turns its attention to repertory chestnuts like Gounod’s “Faust,” but when they do, they make the old new again. Now a recording of Gaspare Spontini’s “La Vestale” (Palazetto Bru Zane) has gotten its turn.

Turning the light back on

The opera, which had its premiere in Paris in 1807, tells the story of Vestal Virgin Julia, who almost fatally lets the fire on the sacred altar go out. Predictable amorous chaos ensues until, three acts and onstage hours later, a stroke of lightning rekindles the flame. This manifestation of divine forgiveness of Julia leads promptly to her now-sanctioned marriage to Roman General Licinius. A major success, it has yielded some revivals in French,

but its tenuous place in the repertory since has benefitted from a translation into Italian by which it has largely been known.

Important singers have taken on the role of Julia over the decades, but it was the recording of the 1954 La Scala production featuring Maria Callas, and her famous performance of its main aria in a Frankfurt recital in 1959, that has kept Julia’s nose over the water line ever since. But even Callas at her most fiery can’t wholly conceal that rather static oratorio of the Italian “Vestale.”

Of course there’s more to translation than a swap of words, and the Italian “La Vestale” is nearly a different opera from its French parent. As with the Italian “Medea,” the success of any “Vestale” has largely depended on star performers willing to sing the hell of

the thing. For Rousset, Marina Rebeka is tasked with making her mark in Callas’s sonic shadow, but she is as incisive and individual.

There’s nothing pastel about Rousset’s mainly francophone cast. It’s an object lesson in the particulars of French singing, a style that is having something of its own revival. You hear it in the agile tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac (Julia’s love interest Licinius) and woodwindpungent baritone Tassis Christoyannis (Cinna). But, as usual, it’s Rousset’s keen sense of style, pungent sonorities –and, preeminently, drama– that fires all the musicians. This “La Vestale” has a future as well as a past.

The Rachmaninov year

If there were major productions of operas by Sergei Rachmaninov during “The Rachmaninov Year,” just ending, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, they would certainly have qualified as revivals, but if there were any, they eluded me. But audiences have never stopped loving, and demanding, music by the man now known as “the Rach” in some circles.

The new recordings of the composer’s Second and Third Symphonies and tone poem “The Isle of the Dead,” bring to a finish Yannick Nezet-Seguin’s illustrious survey of the major orchestral music with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The orchestra’s long, direct Rachmaninov association began in 1909, when Rach was in the audience for the Philadelphia premiere of the Second, having conducted the premiere the previous year.

The Second –the big-ticket item here– can be a long night in the auditorium, with multiple orgasms that can be cumulatively draining. NezetSeguin spares us excesses in a performance rich in both detail and sweep. You really can hear everything in the score, with the elements in ideal balance, all stretched over a huge dynamic canvas near inaudibility at the lower end.

Does sex sell?

In the first third of the last century, Franz Schreker was a composer of original operas second only to Richard Strauss. The difference between the two men’s work was less musical than thematic. Schreker, who wrote his own librettos, drew heavily from the burgeoning psychology of his era to create dramas with a psycho-sexual focus that can make “Salome” and “Elektra” seem tame or at least better behaved.

Nazi persecution put an end to Schreker’s career (and, eventually, life), and for decades the only two of his completed operas to maintain a place, however tenuous, in the repertory were “Der ferne Klang” and “Die Gezeichneten.” Recently, enterprising European opera companies have mounted productions of all the Schreker operas, while on this side of the Atlantic, only the two biggies have been staged.

Schreker’s penchant for technicolor orchestration and his overall genius with instrumental music –music not tied to texts– kept his work in such circulation as it had. In a new recording of suites and chamber compositions, conductor Christoph Eschenbach, leading Berlin’s Concerthouse Orchestra (DG), captures Schreker’s unique idiom, beginning with the Nachtstück interlude from “Der ferne Klang.”

Taking the place of opera excerpts here are five orchestral songs superbly sung by Matthias Goerne and the early two-song cycle “Von ewigen Leben” (“On Eternal Life”), featuring soprano Chen Reiss. The texts for the latter are by Walt Whitman, and those for the orchestral songs from a German translation of the “Arabian Nights.”

Even at its most pointed Schreker’s vocal music can be elusive, but these superb musicians cut to the expressive chase with revelatory fervor, yielding sonorities that decay only in the natural way sounds do, otherwise leaving lingering, if often disturbing, impressions. Eschenbach has succeeded in making music that can be hard to get a grip on theatrically gripping.t

Gaspare Spontini, “La Vestale,” Christophe Rousset, director, 2 CDs and streaming, $39.95 www.bru-zane.com

Glad as you are that Nezet-Seguin does not fake an orgasm, beneath or behind it all there’s a weird, unexpected reticence that can increasingly feel like a lack of depth. The orchestra (and most of the music world, really) is even more besotted with Nezet-Seguin than with Rach. The instrumentalists play their hearts out for him if not quite for all of us.

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3, “The Isle of the Dead,” Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor, CD and streaming, $19.98 www.deutschegrammophon.com

Franz Schreker, “Der ferne Klang,” orchestral works and songs, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, 2 CDs and streaming, $19.98 www.deutschegrammophon.com

Sip a beer with pals at The Midnight Sun (see photo), take in “The Tudors” at the Legion of Honor, or clap along to the rousing “Tina Turner Musical” at the Golden Gate Theatre. We’ve

Left to Right: Conductors Christophe Rousset, Yannick Nezet-Seguin and Christoph Eschenbach

Eric Brissaud

It was like that song had to have a little bit of restraint and then build it, but it was strange because we didn’t know what kind of approach we were going to take with that song.

It kind of revealed itself in the studio when I was doing the background vocals on that song. It started reminding me a little bit of “Nothing Compares 2 U.” I wanted it to have that element of restraint. I think we achieved that. I think it’s an amazing song and it’s one of my favorites off the EP.

“Big Big Love” sounds like it could become a summer teadance classic… …[laughs] I hope so!

Especially in the hands of the right DJ or remixer. What would it mean to you to have the LGBTQ community embrace the song and take it to the top of the Billboard Dance chart?

That would be it for me! To be able to walk into a gay bar seeing it on the monitor or blasting? That would be amazing. My son, who you probably know is gay, is like, “Mom! This could be amazing in the clubs.” I hope so!

“Sanity” is by far the most dramatic track on the “Kismet.” It’s the kind of number you could imagine a drag queen having a field day with. Have you encountered drag queens doing Belinda Carlisle numbers over the years, and if so, did you have a favorite performer and song?

I haven’t really seen somebody as me singing, no. But I would love that. “I Couldn’t Do That To Me” would be perfect, or “Sanity” or “Heaven (Is A Place On Earth).” I mean there’s plenty to pick from through the years. That would be epic.

Speaking of drag queens, the LGBTQ community, especially the drag and trans communities, are under attack from conservatives across the country, and around the world. As the mother of a gay son, as well as a longtime ally, do you have any thoughts about that?

I don’t understand non-acceptance. It’s hard for me to get my head around. I think it’s very sad. My son came out when he was fourteen. What kind of world is he going to live in? What kind of world is it going to be for him? Since then, it’s been like ten steps forward and then five back. We’re in five back period right now. It’s heartbreaking. But I think you just have to keep at it. Hopefully, we’ll get to a place where there’s acceptance of everyone. That’s all I can hope for.

Back to “Kismet.” Is there any possibility that these songs might be incorporated into a full-length album, or that you have a different full-length album in the works?

I have a completely separate project that we started doing before the

pandemic with Gabe Lopez, who is a great songwriter. He works on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and all sorts of stuff for RuPaul. He’s a great artist, himself. I have a project with him that I have to finish, which I’ll probably finish early next year. I don’t ever plan things. I just kind of winged as I went along.

Working with Diane and Mati was such an amazing experience that I’m totally open to doing something else. I don’t know what that is. I don’t know when, because my life is pretty full, but if something comes along that I love, I’ll make time for it, for sure.

Do you have plans to perform live shows in support of “Kismet”?

I have a string of dates on the East Coast in July, and I have a string of dates on the West Coast in August. I have Australia at the end of the year. People can go to the Facebook page and see what those dates are; they’re up there.t

Belinda Carlisle performs on August 20 at August Hall in San Francisco. $15-$50, 8pm. All ages. 420 Mason St. www.augusthallsf.com www.facebook.com/BelindaCarlisleOfficial

<< Belinda Carlisle

From page 13

Belinda Carlisle

Christie Goodwin

by Tim Pfaff

Oh, to judge a book by its cover. Eliot Duncan’s debut novel, “Ponyboy” (Norton), enters wearing a striking collage of photos by three different photographers, provocatively welded together by designer Richard Ljoenes. It’s the kind of cover that will make queers of a certain slant of mind and lovers of black and white photography generally want to pick it up. Just as in

Up Your Alley Street Fair

Photos by Steven Underhill

San Francisco’s 40th annual Up Your Alley Street Fair on July 30 welcomed thousands of revelers in a diverse array of kink, leather, furry and other almost indescribable gear. See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.

the novel, many will touch; more will move on.

Like that cover, Duncan provides his stories in three sections, called “negatives,” presented in reverse order. For all its surface and latent sensationalism, Duncan’s story is quite ordinary by present-day standards.

An Nebraska-born trans male known to others by the nickname Ponyboy moves to Paris for no more pressing reason than that, like Doro-

thy’s Oz, it’s not the Great Plains anymore. In Paris, he lives with his girlfriend, Baby. They’re poets, but this isn’t “La Boheme.” Almost heroically, they consume piles of powder and rivers of booze between “readings.”

When Baby gets a job in Berlin, Ponyboy follows. Things get worse. More men enter the picture. He hits bottom spectacularly, Berlin being one of those places, like Bangkok, where people famously go with that single goal. Then it’s back to the Midwest, Iowa this time, for some overdue if promising recovery. Phoenix rises from the ashes.

Of all the things “Ponyboy” is, it’s at heart an addiction story –parable, really– with a standard, predictable arc that lingers over the “drunkalogue” because it’s so much better copy.

The problem with addiction stories is that they are, like addiction itself, fundamentally boring, if only for all the repetition. The addict and a segment of his audience stay entertained, but people outside the blast radius have either heard it all before or don’t want to sit for the repeats.

There’s an appropriately drunken quality to the prose of the first two sections (negatives three and two, respectively): the darting in and out of time; the broken sentences; the skewed time frames; confusing changes of speaker within paragraphs from which quotation marks have been banished. Any narrative gain is offset by the superficiality of the elements and the skirting of the psychological issues.

The prose sobers up with the return to Iowa. Like many newly sober people, Ponyboy can’t shut up, but there’s banality and something dangerously

close to preaching just beneath the surface. The writing feels imitative, if not always of exactly what. The novel has too indistinct an authorial voice to accommodate the voices of its other characters.

When Duncan is not bending the words to his will (there’s a fair amount of bending, mostly over, in this novel), some inviting prose floats in. Of a gray Berlin morning:

“We sat in Tempelhof and the sun ate away at our hangovers.”

“I reminded myself not to compare our articulations of masculinity.”

With a dash of Silicon-ese:

“Toni steps down the hill. My/their skirt, unzippered on their hips, falls thoughtfully. The reach to hold onto it, pleats in the wind. Their bare legs uninstall gender.”

Getting drunk with Gabriel over a song blasting in a bar, Ponyboy’s “blood chimes in the syncopated notes of my heart. Some deep part of me falls to my stomach in a colossal note. A vibrational sureness pulses in the cock-crux of me.”

The overwriting is chronic and intrusive. It even takes the form of quotations or invocations from the likes of Nietzsche and Freud, who haunt the paragraphs. It sometimes resorts

to orthographical special effects to do what words can’t or for the moment won’t. There’s some pasted-in “art.”

The subject matter is deliberately disturbing, but it’s the autofiction that’s creepy. Duncan is an alum of the legendary Iowa Writers’ Project, about which we’ve read a lot over the years, since it has not only hatched fine writers but also has served as the setting of recent gay novels.

What feels derivative about “Ponyboy” is the way it shadows the major gay novel of the Iowans. On the surface, there’s the expat stories. Then, its three sections mirror those of “What Belongs to You,” with similar diversions into the ruminations on the sins of the father. Front and center, there’s the candor about sex and the raw depictions of it, which have come to feel de rigueur in a certain strand of gay literary fiction.

In a time of book bans, there’s some cause for celebration that such a book can get published at all. But for a deeper look into the means and mysteries of transgender lives, Susan Faludi’s “In the Darkroom” remains the gold standard.t

‘Ponyboy’ by Eliot Duncan. 232 pp., $16.95 www.wwnorton.com

Eliot Duncan’s ‘Ponyboy’

Author Eliot Duncan

Lucien Phoenix

Gotta have faith

LGBTQ-inclusive spirituality books, part 1

by Brian Bromberger

At a time when evangelical/fundamentalist Christians are renewing their backlash against queer people, it’s imperative to remember there are other Christians appalled at this injustice and lack of compassion, who are supportive of their queer brethren, especially mainline Protestants and progressive Catholics. Spurred on by the pandemic, these books mostly written by queer believers who want to supply succor and strength to those who have remained in the institutional church.

In this survey, many of these books are forming a nascent queer spirituality, which not only affirms LGBTQ people as loved by God and recognize the goodness and beauty of their experiences sexual and otherwise, but with spiritual practices helps them develop an existential well-being enabling them to weather oppression. We begin with Christianity, with other faiths in next week’s issue.

Called Out: 100 Devotions for LGBTQ Christians by E. Carrington Heath, $20 (Westminster John Knox Press) Heath is a nonbinary Senior Pastor of the Congregational Church in Exeter, New Hampshire. These 3-5 minute devotions consist of a bible verse, a reflection, then a short prayer. Designed for progressive Christians, he covers topics such as coming out, relationships, chosen family, religious

trauma, with such enticing titles as ‘Afraid of God?,’ ‘Alligators and Ice,’ ‘Open to Rearranging,’ ‘Compassion for the Bully,’ and ‘The Gifts of the Disagreeable.’ Perfect for a quick read right before you start your day for inspiration, strength, and fortification.

Queering Black Churches: Dismantling Heteronormativity in African American Congregations by Brandon Thomas Crowley, $29.95 (Oxford University Press)

Thomas, an African-American minister and a lecturer in Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School, provides an systematic approach for dismantling heteronormativity within African American congregations by first outlining a history of trans-andhomophobia in black congregations.

Then using the lenses of practical theology, queer theology and gender studies, he examines the theologies, morals, values, and structures of black churches and how their longstanding assumptions can be challenged. Drawing on the experiences of several historically Black churches that became open and affirming (United Methodist and Missionary Baptist examples) he explores how those churches have queered their congregations based on the lived experiences of Black Queer folks trying to subvert their puritannical ideologies.

Crowley wants to move beyond surface-level allyship toward actual structural renovation. At times theo-

retical, he winds up offering practical proposals for change that can be a valuable resource for students clergy, and congregants.

The Gospel of Inclusion, Revised Edition: A Christian Case for LGBT+ Inclusion in the Church by Brandan J. Robertson, $23 (Cascade Books)

An exercise in queer theology, Robertson is the Lead Pastor of an LGBTQ Missiongathering Christian Church in San Diego who makes a compelling case for queer inclusion based on an original contextualized reading of the six traditional passages referring to homosexuality in the Bible. He suggests that the entire thrust of the Christian gospel calls the church towards the deconstruction of all oppressive systems and structures and the creation of a world that celebrates the full spectrum of human diversity as honoring God’s creative intention.

Gay Catholic and American: My Legal Battle for Marriage Equality and Inclusion by Greg Bourke, $26.00 (University of Notre Dame Press) Compelling and inspirational memoir about information technologist Bourke, who became an outspoken gay rights activist after being dismissed as a troop leader from the Boy Scouts of America in 2012 and his historic role as one of the named plaintiffs in the landmark U. S. Supreme Court decision Obergefell vs. Hodges, which

legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. After being ousted by the Boy Scouts, he became a leader in the movement to amend antigay Boy Scouts membership policies.

The Queer Bible Commentary, 2nd Edition, edited by Mona West and Robert E. Shore-Goss $112 (SCM Press)

First published over a decade ago, it has been newly revised including updated bibliographies and chapters with new voices taking into account the latest literature relating to queer interpretations of scripture. Contributors, both English and American, draw on feminist, queer, deconstructionist, utopian theories, the social sciences and historical-critical discourses. The focus is both how reading from lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender perspectives affect the interpretation of biblical texts and how biblical texts have and do affect LGBTQ+ communities.

Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians, Updated and Expanded Edition with Study Guide by Austen Hartke, $20 (Westminster John Knox Press)

Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture, $19.99 (Wm. Eerdman’s Publishing Co.)

Both these authors weave their personal trans experiences into reflections on well-known biblical stories, such as eunichs for Christ/Acts’ Ethiopian

‘Better Living Through Birding’

by Jim Piechota

One of the more memorable entries in the “When Karens Attack” rage reel features a May 2020 Manhattan incident when a young white dogwalker named Amy Cooper, (no relation) in Central Park’s Ramble area verbally accosted a Black man after he requested that she leash her dog (which is required in that area). She then called policeemergency and manufactured a false scenario that he’d threatened her and her dog’s life.

That man was Christian Cooper, a hardcore native New Yorker bird enthusiast, and his life would never be

the same after that racially charged encounter, which, incidentally, occurred on the same day as the arrest and murder of George Floyd.

Cooper’s smart cell phone surveillance documented the incident that sealed the doom for the nowinfamous racist dog walker who was charged with filing a false police report. It was a moment when Cooper’s “choices would be informed by a lifetime of being Black, queer, and even a nerd.”

Thrust into the media spotlight, Cooper’s name became known nationwide. His engrossing memoir, “Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natu-

ral World,” chronicles his life as the first openly gay writer and editor at Marvel Studios and his experiences introducing the first gay male superhero to the franchise in the early 1990s, as well as a character in the “Starfleet Academy: Star Trek” series.

The book also delves into his early history as a boy born on Long Island in 1963 to parents who were both teachers and veterans of the civil rights movement.

“I had to grow comfortable in my own Black skin in a white world, in my own rainbowqueer body in an era when sexuality was only seen in black and white.”

Cooper writes eloquently and passionately of his early discovery of bird-watching and how it became a lifelong interest. Other stories are not so pleasant, like one of his first college roommates at Harvard who hung a Confederate flag in the dorm suite he shared with three young men. But Cooper was and continues to be resilient, reflecting that the college moment became a learning opportunity for his roommates and he eventually came out to all of them as queer.

His history in LGBTQ activism is long and impressive and extends back decades to when he was cochair on the board of directors for GLAAD in the 1980s.

eunich, Jacob wrestling with God, sex worker Rahab and the Israelite spies, Ezekiel and the dry bones, the transfiguration of Jesus, and trans implications of the resurrection, not as a moment but a process. They reveal how these stories have helped shape their own identities. Both believe transgender Christians have unique and vital theological insights for the church, especially new ways to think about gender with clever chapter titles like “God Breaks the Rules to Get You In” and “The Best Disciples Are Eunuchs.”

They unpack the terminology, sociological studies, and theological perspectives that affect transgender Christians, contradicting the notion God makes mistakes. Hartke is the founder of Transmission Ministry Collective, an online community dedicated to the spiritual care, faith formation, and leadership potential of transgender/ gender-expansive Christians.

He has an MA in Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible Studies. Kearns is an ordained priest, playwright, and theologian, who has given popular TED talks. Both books provide scriptural ammunition against religious critics who attack trans people as defying God’s binary creation of man/woman, promoting a more diverse, expansive view of the divine. “We know what it is to not fit in, to have to fight for a place for ourselves in the world and in the church.”t

For more titles, read the full article on www.ebar.com

Author Christian Cooper

Across the decades of Cooper’s life, birding became a consistent source of solace and internal peace. He openly shares moments of a failed marriage, rocky relationships, a long-overdue reconciliation with his father, and crushing family deaths. Throughout it all, Cooper admits, “the Ramble is now my companion, and though it doesn’t have more than twenty warblers for me today, it finds other ways to move me.”

Additionally, Cooper has since channeled his accidental fame into creative causes for good including a comic book, “It’s a Bird,” a National Geographic television program which he hosts, and the creation of Black Birders Week, a week-long series of online bird-watching events.

Back in 2020, however, while the Central Park incident itself continued to reverberate through the na-

tion’s conscience, Cooper notes in the memoir’s closing chapters of his surprising refusal to assist in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation. He candidly discloses that he didn’t want the ordeal to cause Amy Cooper any further misery.

He decided to instead remain dedicated to the larger issue of systemic racism and still stands staunchly committed to addressing and working to alleviate the “deep-seated racial bias against us black and brown folk that permeates the United States.” t

‘Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World’ by Christian Cooper; Random House, $28. www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.instagram.com/christiancooperbirder

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