February 17, 2022 edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

Oakland's new Pride plans

LGBTQ seniors and Omicron

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Vol. 52 • No. 07 • February 17-23, 2022

Campos, Haney lead in SF Assembly race by Matthew S. Bajko

ay former District 9 supervisor David Campos and District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney are leading in the special February 15 election for San Francisco’s vacant 17th Assembly District seat. They are vying to serve out the term of former assemblymember David Chiu. His resignation in November to become San Francisco’s first Asian American city attorney sparked the special election Tuesday for his legislative seat covering the eastern neighborhoods of the city. The district includes the LGBTQ enclaves of the Castro, Tenderloin, and South of Market. Due to their name recognition and serving on the Board of Supervisors, Campos and Haney had been seen as the leading candidates among the four Democrats who had sought Chiu’s seat. With so many people in the race, it was also expected that no one would be able to win the seat outright this month by garnering more than 50% of the vote. Thus, the top two vote-getters are expected to face off against each other in the special April 19 runoff election. The victor will serve

Rick Gerharter

Ken Bunch, also known as Sister Vicious Power Hungry Bitch, will soon have a portion of Alert Alley named “Sister Vish-Knew Way” thanks to approval February 15 by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Supes name street for Sisters’ co-founder by Matthew S. Bajko

ome Easter weekend in mid-April Sister Vish-Knew should be posing for photos underneath new street signs bearing her name. The co-founder of the international drag nun philanthropic group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is now one of three drag personas with streets named in their honor in the City-bythe-Bay. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted 11-0 February 15 in support of ceremonially naming Alert Alley as “Sister Vish-Knew Way.” It means residents of the alley between Dolores and Landers streets will not have to officially update their addresses. The new street signs bearing both names are expected to be unveiled Saturday, April 16, the day prior to Easter when the Sisters plan to hold their annual celebration of their founding over Easter weekend in 1979. It was when Kenneth Bunch helped birth the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence inside an apartment in the building at 272 Dolores Street, near the alley. Bunch, 69, who for decades has lived nearby the roadway in the Mission Dolores neighborhood, had brought several nuns’ habits with him when he relocated from Iowa to San Francisco in early 1977. Two years later he and some friends donned the religious garb on the eve of Easter and headed out into the city’s streets. It was the first public unveiling of the Sisters, which today has orders in 60 different cities and 14 countries. The street naming honor for Bunch is believed to be the first time a member of the Sisters has had a roadway named after them anywhere on the globe. “I love it,” Bunch told the Bay Area Reporter about having a street named in his honor. Initially, he had gone by Sister Ady in reference to Ardhanarishvara, which is a form of the Hindu deity Shiva combined with his consort Parvati. They are usually depicted as half-male and half-female. Later, Bunch was ordained the Sister’s Grand Mother Vicious Power Hungry Bitch. He shortened it to Sister Vish-Knew so his name wasn’t so long or sounded as harsh.

Personal Loan

Assembly District 17 candidate David Campos, center, looked at early returns with supporters at the Eagle bar February 15.

through the end of Chiu’s term in early December and needs to seek a full two-year term first on the June 7 primary ballot then the November 8 general election. According to the unofficial early returns,

Haney was in the lead with 24,422 votes for 37% of the ballots tabulated so far. Campos was in second with 23,177 votes for 35% of the 65,344 ballots counted so far. See page 10 >>

SF follows state in lifting indoor mask mandate by Eric Burkett

f everything felt a little more open, freer, on February 16, that might very well have been because California has loosened its COVIDinspired indoor mask mandate and eight of the nine Bay Area counties have followed suit. Of course, people have been here before. For the first time since December 15, Californians in most parts of the state were allowed to go about their daily lives without having to mask up, in most situations. The state eased restrictions for vaccinated folks in bars, restaurants, and gyms but continues to require masking in the state’s K-12 schools. That is expected to be reviewed at the end of the month, said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly at a news conference in Sacramento Monday, February 14. While many parents around California are demanding the state drop its masking requirements for K-12 students, Sacramento isn’t quite ready to go there. Despite insistence from critics that, if vaccinations are successful, masks aren’t necessary, Ghaly insists the state must use “a collective approach” drawing upon a wide variety of methods to contain the virus. The masking requirement, Ghaly said, isn’t the only factor in California’s success in keeping its schools open during the pandemic. However, for the state’s businesses, it’s now being left up to proprietors to determine whether they’ll require masks on premises. They’re still

See page 8 >>

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Signs posted on the door of San Francisco’s LGBT Community Center last week indicated that masks are required inside; most places in California ended indoor mask mandates February 16.

required to check vaccination status, or recent negative test results for the unvaccinated. Masking is still required,” regardless of vaccination status, in public transportation, health care settings, congregate settings like correctional facilities and homeless shelters, long-term care facilities, and in K-12 schools and childcare settings,” according to a statement from the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Masks are still required throughout San Francisco International Airport, as well as on trains, buses, and BART. In San Francisco, all city facilities such as li-

braries, recreation centers, offices, and other service sites operated by the city, including City Hall, will continue to require masking regardless of vaccination status. The Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano, Sonoma, and the city of Berkeley, as well as Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties have all lifted universal mask requirements. Santa Clara County, the Bay Area’s most populous, is still struggling with high infection rates and keeping its mask mandate in place. The South Bay county is recording 1,145 average cases per day as opposed to San Francisco County with 348 average cases per day, well below the state mandated maximum level of 550 cases. How long this reprieve will last is anyone’s guess. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are currently monitoring at least 10 variants although they don’t believe they pose “a significant and imminent risk to public health in the United States.” In the Castro, reactions to the new guidelines were mixed. “We’re not exactly quite over this,” said Tina Valentin Aguirre, manager of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, in a phone interview. ”The surge is on the downward trajectory. People are still getting infected.” See page 8 >>

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • February 17-23, 2022

LGBTQ E. Bay leaders plan revamped Oakland Pride by Eric Burkett

fter last year’s implosion of Oakland Pride’s annual celebration, a new group is organizing a festival for the East Bay city this fall. Dubbed PrideFest 2022, community members from several LGBTQ businesses and organizations have begun planning for the September 11 event, which will not include a parade. COVID-19 had dogged Oakland Pride’s efforts over the past couple of years, forcing the group to move the celebration to a virtual event in 2020 then canceling again in 2021 just two weeks before its scheduled date. (It had some virtual content last year.) Now, PrideFest organizers are moving forward to bring an in-person street festival to The Town. “We’re just in the formation stages,” said Sean Sullivan, a gay man who owns the Port Bar in downtown Oakland. At this point, organizers haven’t even finalized the location or whether they´ll be charging festival admission

Jane Philomen Cleland

The Oakland Unified School District and its Gender and Sexuality Alliance were one of many contingents in the 2019 Oakland Pride parade.

as Oakland Pride did, Sullivan said in a February 10 phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. Sullivan said that this year’s event is jumping off from a PrideFest the Port Bar and Oakland Black Pride held last year when it became clear there would be no Oakland Pride event. Asked if Oakland Black Pride was involved this

year, he said no. “I did mention it in October to Olaywa Austin and she did not express interest,” Sullivan said, referring to the founder and CEO of Oakland Black Pride. Mirroring planned PrideFest activities that weekend will be events organized by Oakland Black Pride, Austin said in a phone interview.

Austin said the group will have events throughout Oakland’s three-day Pride weekend, with quite a few activities focused in the city’s new Brooklyn Basin neighborhood just south of Jack London Square along Interstate 880. “We don’t want it to always be in the same place,” she said. “We’re excited about what we have in store for y’all.” Sullivan did not provide any budget figures, either for the PrideFest organization or the planned event. A team of diverse LGBTQ East Bay leaders is spearheading the effort. According to a news release, in addition to Sullivan they include Michael Barajas from Gilead Sciences; Valentino Carrillo from Que Rico; Richard Fuentes, who is Sullivan’s partner, form BART; Christie James of Pride Radio/ iHeartMedia; Nenna Joiner, owner of Feelmore Adult; Joe Hawkins, executive director of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center; Janelle Luster of TransVision; and Val Klein of iHeartMedia. Some of the organizers have worked with Oakland Pride in the

past. Hawkins is a co-founder and past board member, while James managed the women’s stage from 2017-2020, the release stated. “We want to lead this effort with love for our community and make the celebration one we are truly proud of, where we have accountability and transparency around the expenses and can raise funds for our LGBTQ organizations,” stated James, who managed the stage at last year’s PrideFest. The release stated that the Oakland LGBTQ center would be PrideFest’s fiscal sponsor. “Accountability and transparency are being written into the creation of this organization and its bylaws,” Hawkins stated. “Our goal is to make PrideFest Oakland an organization that will produce an incredible and inclusive pride celebration, that also raises funds for LGBTQ nonprofit organizations that provide critically needed services for our community.” See page 7 >>

Gay SF cop gets $225K in settlement of bias case by Eric Burkett

hree years and seven months after a gay San Francisco cop filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco alleging workplace harassment and discrimination, his case has finally been settled. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to award a settlement of $225,000 to Officer Brendan Mannix at its February 8 meeting. It was the second and final board vote on the settlement. Mannix was 28 when he filed his lawsuit back in 2018 after allegedly experiencing continued harassment by Sergeants Patrick Tobin and Lawrence McDevitt, as Mission Local reported. The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleged the two sergeants in Central Station, where Mannix was transferred in 2016, frequently made comments to Mannix relating to his sexual orientation. The suit claimed the officers commonly called Mannix “such a queen,” and “too dramatic.” When Mannix did something that the sergeants considered stereotypically gay, the suit claimed they said, “Ugh, you gays,” or “God, you gays.” The harassment “was so severe, widespread, and/or persistent that a reasonable gay man in Plaintiff´s circumstances would have considered the work environment to be hostile or

Courtesy SFPD

San Francisco police Officer Brendan Mannix

abusive,” according to statements in the original filing. The city settled the case rather than proceed with the lawsuit. “Given the inherent costs of continued litigation,” Jen Kwart, communications director for the San Francisco City Attorney’s office, wrote in a text, “we believe the settlement is an appropriate resolution.” Calls to Mannix´s attorney, Lawrence Organ, were not returned by deadline. In 2018, Organ had told the B.A.R. that Mannix decided to sue so that “in the future if an officer complains they know the department will treat the complaint seriously and protect them against any retaliation.” Mannix’s lawsuit alleged numerous hostile acts by Tobin and McDevitt.

In addition to snide comments and mockery, the suit included charges that Mannix’s colleagues failed to support him when he called in for back-up. According to the lawsuit documents, in April 2017, Mannix witnessed a robbery in progress. Pursuing the suspect down Market Street, he radioed for back-up but “no backup arrived immediately.” The young officer nabbed the suspect on his own and, fortunately, officers from another station were nearby and able to help, the complaint states. “Mr. Mannix remained on the scene for over an hour,” the documents read, “but no sergeant from his station arrived, despite SFPD policy.” When Mannix finally made it back to Central Station, he found Tobin “relaxing at a desk.” When he stated his concerns about the lack of support, Tobin replied, “Jesus, don´t be such a queen!” the complaint states. Mannix found inaction on the part of SFPD when he tried to report his complaints. Following three months of leave from May to August 2017, during which time Mannix tried to recover from anxiety and sleeplessness due to the harassment, he decided to file a formal complaint with the city’s Department of Human Resources, the suit states. On August 27, Mannix asked Sergeant Maria Ciriaco to file a formal

complaint on his behalf to both the Department of Human Resources and its Equal Employment Opportunity Division. “Sergeant Ciriaco was dismissive, but said she would document it,” according to the lawsuit documents. When she actually wrote up the complaint, however, she omitted “nearly all” the incidents Mannix had described to her, insisting “his other allegations could not or should not be included. Mannix took her at her word,” the suit states. Harassment continued even after the complaint was filed, according to the suit. Additionally, Mannix found himself receiving “the worst assignments” from Ciriaco, who further instructed others not to make any changes to her assignments for Mannix when he complained. He frequently found himself being given hourslong assignments from Tobin and McDevitt as his own shift was drawing to a close. Usually, there were other officers on duty earlier in their shifts, who would have been able to take on the tasks instead. In December, 2017, the human resources’ Equal Opportunity Division found against the complaint Mannix had filed with Ciriaco because she had allegedly omitted so many of the incidents he had attempted to report. The settlement approved by the Board of Supervisors brings the case to a close.

Since then, Tobin has retired but not before taking a position as a reserve police officer with the Broadmoor Police Department in June 2017. Brought in by former SFPD Deputy Chief Michael Connolly who was serving as police chief of the Peninsula community, Tobin was later promoted to commander in the Broadmoor department, where he also received notable perks, according to an April 21, 2021, story by Mission Local, including two Ford Explorers: one for on-duty use and, another, for “off-duty.” Soon after, Connolly resigned in a flurry of scandals involving cronyism, abuse of power, and misuse of funds. Tobin assumed Connolly’s position as interim chief in July 2021 and was replaced by current police chief Mark Melville last December. McDevitt and Ciriaco are both still working with the SFPD but as to whether McDevitt faced any disciplinary action, the SFPD’s media relations department declined to say. “We are not able to speak to personnel matters such as disciplinary actions,” Officer Robert Rueca with the SFPD’s media relations department, wrote in an email. It also declined to comment on Ciriaco. Tobin could not be reached for comment. Mannix is still at the SFPD’s Central Station. He did not respond to an inquiry from the B.A.R.t

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Election 2022>>

February 17-23, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

Voters recall San Francisco school leaders by Matthew S. Bajko

oters recalled three members of the San Francisco school board, according to the early election results Tuesday. Meanwhile, the city’s appointed assessor-recorder was easily elected to finish out his term. San Francisco Board of Education President Gabriela López and Commissioners Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins were ousted from the oversight body for the city’s public schools. Mayor London Breed will name their replacements, and the new school board members will need to seek election in November. The recall of López was passing with 75% of the vote. The effort to remove Collins was passing with 79% of the vote. The recall against Moliga was passing with 72% of the vote. Of the three, he had launched the strongest effort to maintain his seat on the school board. He posted a gracious note on Twitter accepting his being unable to fend off the recall and maintain his school board seat. He said, “it has truly been an honor” to have served on the elected body. Within minutes of the first vote tallies being released Tuesday, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) hailed the recall of the three education leaders and pledged to work with the school district and to support funding for public education in the state budget. “Today San Franciscans made a clear statement: We need a Board of Education focused like a laser on stabilizing our schools, keeping them open, and supporting students and families in the most effective possible way,” stated Wiener, who had supported the effort. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to the grassroots network of parents and

Lopez, VotersEdge.org; Moliga, courtesy Moliga; Collins, courtesy Twitter

San Francisco school board President Gabriela López, and Commissioners Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins were recalled in Tuesday’s special election.

other San Franciscans who worked day and night to create accountability. Your efforts have completely shifted the political dynamic in our city. More people than ever are focused on what the Board of Education is doing and who is – and who should be – serving on the board.” Wiener added, “With the recall now behind us, I look forward to the mayor making three strong appointments to the Board of Education and to all of us circling wagons around our school district to stabilize and strengthen it.” Breed also hailed the results of the recall, noting in her own statement that “the voters of this city have delivered a clear message that the school board must focus on the essentials of delivering a wellrun school system above all else. San Francisco is a city that believes in the value of big ideas, but those ideas must be built on the foundation of a government that does the essentials well.” She also recognized “all the parents who tirelessly organized and

advocated in the last year. Elections can be difficult, but these parents were fighting for what matters most – their children. The days ahead for our public schools will not be easy.” Wednesday Breed said she would be interviewing various candidates over the next month who are interested in being appointed to the school board and asking them numerous questions that parents have sent her centered on how they will address the needs of the city’s public school students. “This will be one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make as it relates to appointments because of the significance of what this means and what the people of San Francisco expect in who I will appoint,” said Breed, adding she didn’t regret her appointment of Moliga to a school board vacancy amid his 2018 campaign for a seat. Autumn Looijen and her partner Siva Raj, who is a bisexual parent, had launched the recall drive after being fed up with the school board’s handling of the COVID-19 pandem-

ic and its impact on schools and students. They tapped into parents’ anger at seeing the city’s public schools remain closed for much of 2020 and 2021 while private and parochial schools reopened. “In this deeply divided city, in this deeply divided country, it shows that there are some things we can all agree on. Competent leadership. Good public schools. Protecting our most disadvantaged kids,” stated Raj and Looijen the morning after the election. “Today we’re celebrating that San Francisco is with us. Tomorrow the real work will begin.” A proposal to rename 44 schools in the district while they were closed brought national scorn and ridicule on the school board members. Many objected to the lack of public outreach around the renamings, including ones bearing the names of President Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), a former mayor and supervisor. Historians cried foul over the flimsy research an advisory committee cited for why the schools needed to be renamed. The three school board members also drew the ire of many in the LGBTQ community with their rejection of gay dad Seth Brenzel to the district’s volunteer Parent Advisory Council due to his being white and not a person of color when the body had no LGBTQ or male members. Collins’ past tweets using racist language against Asians also fueled anger within the city’s Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. She further inflamed her critics and many local leaders by filing a baseless lawsuit against the school district and her board colleagues seeking $87 million after they removed her as vice president last year. It cost the district $110,000 in legal fees at a time when it faced a budget

deficit of about $125 million. State education officials threatened to take over control of the school district if it did not balance its budget. Other issues like the board’s changing the admission policy for the district’s most coveted high school and wanting to shroud a mural at a school site some consider racist also led to frustration with its leadership.

Local recall reform sought

A recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin will go before voters on the June 7 primary ballot. A majority of the Board of Supervisors, critical of the recalls for costing the city money to conduct and thwarting the will of voters, approved placing a charter amendment before voters on the June ballot that would revise how San Francisco allows recalls to be held. It would extend the ban on the initiation of recall petitions from six to 12 months after the official has assumed office. It would also prohibit recalling an elected official within 12 months of their having to run for reelection in a regularly scheduled election for their office. All three of the school board members facing recall were elected in 2018, thus they would have been up for reelection in November. The charter amendment would also strip the mayor’s power of appointing someone to fill a vacancy created by a recall election and could then seek election to the position. Instead, the mayor could only appoint a caretaker who would be barred from running for the elected post. The supervisors voted 7-4 Tuesday to submit the charter amendment for the primary ballot, with Supervisors Rafael Mandelman, Ahsha Safaí, Myrna Melgar, and Catherine Stefani opposed. See page 5 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • February 17-23, 2022

Volume 52, Number 7 February 17-23, 2022 www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Eric Burkett CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tavo Amador • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • John Ferrannini Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone Liz Highleyman •Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith •Sari Staver • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood

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Breed should pick queer parent for San Francisco school board

ollowing the resounding recall of three members of the San Francisco Board of Education, Mayor London Breed gets to select their replacements. The seats aren’t expected to be officially vacated until sometime in late March, 10 days after the Board of Supervisors certifies and approves the election results. While each of the new commissioners will need to seek election this November for full fouryear terms, the mayor has a unique opportunity to further diversify the school board for the rest of this year. We urge her to pick an LGBTQ parent for at least one of the vacancies. The school board presently has one gay member, Commissioner Mark Sanchez, and while he is a longtime educator, he is not a parent. Last year, as readers will recall, the school board commissioners made a mockery of diversity when they debated for two hours the fate of a white gay father, Seth Brenzel, to serve on the district’s volunteer Parent Advisory Council. Without asking Brenzel a single question, such as why having an LGBTQ person on the PAC is important, the commissioners decided that they knew best and tabled the vote on Brenzel. Keep in mind that at the time, the PAC had no male members and no LGBTQ person on it. This is just one of the many decisions, or lack thereof, that the school board made that prompted the historic recall. (Proponents likely would have tried to recall all seven commissioners, but the three on Tuesday’s ballot, Board President Gabriela López, and Commissioners Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins, were the only ones who were eligible. The other four commissioners had just been elected or reelected and thus, could not yet face a recall.) Having an LGBTQ parent on the school board is critical, and the school board has not had one since Tom Ammiano served in the early 1990s. He, of course, went on to serve on the Board of Supervisors and in the state Assembly. Lesbians on the board have included Angie Fa, Juanita Owens, and Heather Hiles. While all worked to make San Francisco’s public schools safer and

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Rick Gerharter

Mayor London Breed has a chance to transform public education; LGBTQ appointees should be part of her goal.

more welcoming for queer youth, an LGBTQ parent would bring a perspective that is missing from the school board now, particularly as all parents continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and the constantly changing rules amid the coronavirus variants. Remote learning has also significantly impacted students and faculty, in addition to parents, who have at times scrambled to help their children. Bringing an out voice to the board would help ensure that queer families in the school district are heard and have representation.

City College vacancy

The school board vacancies are not the only ones Breed must fill. There is also an opening on the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees. Tom Temprano, a gay man who served on that board for five years, resigned Tuesday to become the new political director for Equality California. (He also resigned as an aide to gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.) One of two out trustees (the other is Shanell Williams, a bisexual woman), Temprano was a steady hand on the college board as it continues to confront

low enrollment and financial issues made worse by the pandemic. City College provides many local residents, LGBTQs and immigrants, an opportunity to enroll in community college – it’s an important stepping stone for many that also ensures we are nurturing our local labor force. Breed should appoint an LGBTQ person to Temprano’s seat to ensure that the LGBTQ community continues to have robust representation on the college’s governing body. The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club expressed a similar view in a letter it plans to write to Breed. According to the club’s website, it would also like to see a new trustee who “has a personal connection to the college.” Moreover, the Milk club advocates that the mayor consult with City College students and educators on the appointee. In a statement on the school board recall after early results were posted, Breed mentioned the challenges the district faces and said that the city is ready to offer support. “It’s time we refocus our efforts on the basics of providing quality education for all students, while more broadly improving how this city delivers support for children and families,” she stated. Breed has a chance to transform public education at the local level, something that most mayors don’t get to do. Rather than political appointees, the mayor should look for qualified candidates who support public schools and will be strong voices on these two oversight bodies. The school board will be looking for a new superintendent; both education boards need to get a grip on their district finances. The new commissioners and the new trustee must be able to quickly meet the challenges they face. We cannot overstate how critical it is that the LGBTQ community is part of that process through at least one commissioner for the school board and the replacement for Temprano at City College. t

Celebrating a name change? Protect your financial future by Eric J. Ellman

ers and challenges still exist for many consumers throughout this process, f you’re transitioning into your true the three nationwide credit bureaus gender identity, legally changing want to help make this change easier. your name marks an important mileThis month the Washington, D.C., stone in becoming your authentic self. based Consumer Data Industry AsIt’s a time for celebration and it’s also a sociation, which represents the three time for paperwork. Following a legal nationwide credit bureaus, launched name change, it might seem obvious a consumer education campaign to update your identification, bank, to spread the word about what they Courtesy Eric J. Ellman and mailing information. It might can do to avoid this issue and ensure Eric J. Ellman not be obvious that you should also a smooth credit transfer from their contact the three nationwide credit deadname to their new legal name. bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – The most effective action a transgender or to let them know of this change. nonbinary consumer can take is to directly inWhy? form each of the three nationwide credit bureaus Information like your name is critical to disof new identifying information, which can be tinguishing your identity when the credit budone using their online customer support sysreaus assemble your credit report. Credit reports tems or by calling the companies directly. This are unbiased, factual, legally regulated records of small but important step provides the critical link the debts you owe or have owed. to maintaining the integrity of their credit report They’re the basis for your credit score, during their transition and potentially avoiding which lenders use to assess your creditworthiany misunderstanding with creditors or lenders. ness and whether to give you a loan. These deIn addition to CDIA’s resource page, consumers cisions can help you start a business, get a car, can also find more information on the process or find a place to live. directly through the bureaus: Banks and other lenders report consumer inEquifax: https://bit.ly/3JvOjer formation to the three credit bureaus often on a Experian: https://bit.ly/3GPGvm7 monthly cycle. The date on which this informaTransUnion: https://bit.ly/3rKv2Qx tion is reported varies by organization – it could be Empowering the transgender and nonon the first, middle, or last day of the month. Let’s binary community with this inforsay a transgender or nonbinary consumer is a cusmation is at the nexus of CDIA’s tomer with Bank A, and it reports to the credit bubroader work to advance finanreaus on the first of every month. On the second cial inclusion and equity for all day of this month, the consumer legally changes consumers. This year, CDIA is their first name. On the third day, that consumer working to continue our induscelebrates by purchasing a new car they have been try’s momentum on advocating saving up for using their new name for the loan for the utilization of expanded paperwork. Due to the bank and credit bureau’s data – or information not curreporting processes, the consumer’s credit integrently found in traditional credit rity could be disrupted since the loan was taken reports – in lending decisions. out using a different name than what was reported Expanded data like rental, utility, and cellular on that month’s bank information. payment information is a key tool to increasing In recent years, Equifax, Experian, and Tranopportunity and access to the financial mainsUnion have seen an increase in the number of stream for consumers in historically underserved consumers undergoing a name change as part of communities. In fact, it’s estimated that the stantheir gender transition. Recognizing that barridardization of expanded data in our financial

Bay Area Reporter

system could help 63 million unbanked or underbanked American adults obtain access to fair and affordable credit. Long-term, this gives them a better chance to save more money and build intergenerational wealth. For the transgender and nonbinary community, which experiences disproportionately high rates of poverty, this is an especially exciting step toward financial equity. Making meaningful progress on financial equity requires policymakers, nonprofits, and the private sector to all play an active role. As CDIA has made progress on the legislative side of this issue, the credit bureaus we represent are working individually and collectively toward this goal. Last year, Equifax began offering the industry’s first Spanish-language credit reports online and by mail to help the millions of Spanish-speakers in the U.S. better understand their credit profiles and enhance their financial well-being. Experian recently launched a new, free program, Experian Go, to help people without a credit history establish their financial identity by creating an Experian credit report. In an effort to advance consumer awareness and education, TransUnion is partnering with Credit Builders Alliance, a national nonprofit network, to help those considered “credit invisible” or “credit disadvantaged” build their financial health. CDIA – and our industry – is passionate about empowering consumers with information that can help them achieve financial goals and advocating for policies that advance financial inclusion and equity. Taking steps to educate the transgender and nonbinary community on how they can ensure a smooth legal name change is just one part of that equation. Changing a gender identity and legally changing a name is worth celebrating. We want to be part of that celebration. t Eric J. Ellman, a straight ally, is the senior vice president of public policy and legal affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association.

Politics >>

February 17-23, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Lesbians seek Bay Area county school superintendent posts

by Matthew S. Bajko

ince winning election in 2018 as San Mateo County superintendent of schools, Nancy Magee has yet to meet a counterpart in another county who is also LGBTQ. Magee, the second consecutive lesbian to serve in the countywide elected position, is the only superintendent of schools listed on a map of out elected leaders in California maintained by the LGBTQ Victory Fund. That could change this year. Amie Carter, Ph.D., a gay married mother, is running for the open Sonoma County superintendent of schools this year. The first openly gay candidate to run for the education post, she would be the first woman to hold the position in Sonoma in almost 100 years if elected. Steven D. Herrington, after first being elected superintendent in 2010, decided not to seek reelection this year. Carter is one of three candidates who have filed to run in the June 7 primary election. Straight married fathers Brad E. Coscarelli, a school principal in Santa Rosa, and Ron Calloway, superintendent of the Mark West Union School District, are also running. If none of the three garners more than 50% of the vote then the top two vote-getters advance to the November ballot. “When the superintendent in Sonoma announced his retirement, a lot of people were reaching out saying, ‘You got to do this.’ For me, I think it’s such a fluid time and challenging time in education that I really think it’s the right time to lean in and offer my gifts to my community,” Carter, 50, told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview. Magee, 61, is seeking reelection on the primary ballot, and as of yet, is not facing an opponent. Over the weekend she spoke with Carter and endorsed her candidacy. “She comes well recommended by other education leaders. I think she would be amazing for Sonoma County,” Magee, who a year ago became a grandmother, told the B.A.R. this week. Also supporting Carter is Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke, who is stepping down this year after serving in the position the past 28 years. She told the B.A.R. her endorsement is not a reflection on the other two candidates in the race. Rather, she said it is based on her having worked for a number of years with Carter, first when Carter was an assistant superintendent in the Novato Unified School District and more recently as the assistant superintendent of education services in the Marin County education office. “She is both energetic and she is knowledgeable. She is able to develop a team and inspire them to move toward a common goal on behalf of students,” said Burke. “In my view those are exactly the qualities you need to be successful in a leadership role countywide.”

Voters

From page 3

Assessor-Recorder Torres wins race

Less controversial of an election was Assessor-Recorder Joaquín Torres’ bid to serve out the remainder

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law Courtesy Amie Carter, Ph.D.

Amie Carter, Ph.D., is running for Sonoma County superintendent of schools.

Carter participated in a Victory Fund training for LGBTQ candidates this month. She has lived in Petaluma for nearly a decade with her wife, Michelle Charpentier, who works in the pharmaceutical industry. They have five daughters ranging in age from 20 to 30 years old. She was raised in Orem, Utah, the only girl of six siblings in a Mormon family. She first moved to California in 2000 after accepting a teaching job in the Central Valley with the Ripon Unified School District. Eleven years later she became a school principal there then, in 2013, moved to the North Bay after being hired as a school principal in the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District. Last January, Carter joined the Marin county education office amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has upended school life for the past two years. “I think this is a moment where we need to capitalize on innovation. We’ve just been through one of the strangest times in academics,” she said. “And we have these glaring inequities that have never been just more apparent and laid bare.” While some students have done well, others have struggled, Carter said, with many of those from families with less socioeconomic status. She wants to ensure all students can succeed in school in the coming years as county superintendent, who helps school districts in their jurisdiction meet their educational goals and provide professional development for staff. Their office also ensures local schools are adhering to state educational policies around curriculum and students’ rights. “It is time to step in,” said Carter. “I have seen teachers get really creative around education. I want to keep that going and build it back better and stronger with a more equitable focus.” One goal of hers is to see more teachers of color and educators with diverse backgrounds be hired to work for schools throughout Sonoma County, which has a sizable Latino population as well as many LGBTQ families. “So much research shows when you hire educators of color or diversity, that student performance

rises across the entire campus,” said Carter. “I really think we need to be out there recruiting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ educators and getting them into our classrooms to represent the students who are in the hallways.” In terms of whether masks should still be required in schools – California could lift its mandate they be worn on campuses later this month – Carter said that she doesn’t have the medical expertise to make such decisions. She would follow the guidance of county health officials as superintendent, Carter told the B.A.R. “I am not a physician. I always just embrace the recommendations of county health officials,” she said. “I would do everything I can to make sure those directives are followed in our schools.”

of former assessor-recorder Carmen Chu’s term through early January 2023. After Breed named Chu as the new city administrator, she appointed Torres as her successor. No one filed to run against him on the ballot, though longtime gay activist Michael Petrelis won approval to

be a write-in candidate. He dubbed his campaign WIMP: Write-In Michael Petrelis and received 53 votes, according to the early returns. Torres easily won the race with 99.93% of the vote. He will need to run for a full four-year term in November. t

San Mateo County

Magee told the B.A.R. that as soon as the pandemic hit in 2020, she and her team created a Pandemic Recovery Framework by early April for the 23 school districts on the Peninsula under her jurisdiction. They have routinely updated it as new information and rules arose regarding COVID. She expects when the state revises its mask rules for schools there will be some resistance, with not everyone ready to forgo the face coverings in the classrooms. But her office will follow the state guidance and work to support its various school districts in adhering to them, Magee pledged. “We are fully ready to help our districts respond to that,” said Magee. If the pandemic has taught her anything, it is the need for strong leadership of schools, Magee told the B.A.R. It is why she is running for reelection. “We just have been shaken to our core in every way possible,” she said. “The pandemic really exposed so much of the system that is broken and not serving students. That is why I actually feel extremely compelled to be in a space to be part of the solution going forward.” In running for another term Magee said she is also thinking about what her granddaughter will need to become a successful adult. “Now I am really specifically projecting what I want the world to look like when she is 18, 19, 20 years old and heading off into her big success to be whoever she is going to be,” said Magee. t

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<< LGBTQ Seniors

6 • Bay Area Reporter • February 17-23, 2022

Omicron leads to changes at agencies serving LGBTQ elders by John Ferrannini

he Omicron variant of COVID-19 was certainly not what anyone wanted – especially for LGBTQ seniors and the agencies serving them, beleaguered after two years of constant adjustment to the pandemic’s challenges. A year ago, when the Bay Area Reporter published a series of articles on various issues of import to LGBTQ seniors – including the loneliness that comes with social distancing, getting needed services to the vulnerable, and housing, the nation was optimistic that the roll-out of vaccines would bring a return to living like it’s 2019. Now, policymakers are playing catchup as new variants emerge the world over that are more likely to cause breakthrough infections. The more laissez-faire approach that the federal government is taking to the pandemic in the post-vaccine world – as well as the record number of cases caused by Omicron that started in late November and continues disrupting the workforce nationwide – is leaving local nonprofits and agencies to figure out for themselves how to respond and stay as safe as possible. Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D., a lesbian who is the executive director of the LGBTQ senior housing and community services agency Openhouse, told the B.A.R. that “we haven’t had – fortunately – too many” cases among staff. “We have really stringent guidelines in the office, and Safer Together provides us with free testing on-site, ondemand for staff,” Sullivan said. Unfortunately, the new Openhouse + On Lok Community Day Services center that the B.A.R. reported on late last year has had to pivot, for now, to a virtual space. “We do home-based programming, including daily calls to our community members, art at home projects, meals delivered, and connection to online programs through

Christopher Robledo

Openhouse and On Lok staff, clockwise from lower left, are helping LGBTQ seniors navigate the COVID pandemic and include Ephraim Getahun, director of strategic partnerships at Openhouse; Gessika Krieger, program manager of day services at Openhouse + On Lok; John Blazek, On Lok executive director of day services; and Kathleen Sullivan, Openhouse executive director.

Zoom,” Sullivan wrote in a February 11 email. “Our in-person programming will commence again on March 4. Openhouse programming is via Zoom, in-person, and we continue to call our community members.” Sullivan’s predecessor, Karyn Skultety, Ph.D., a bisexual woman, told the B.A.R. that during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic Openhouse started making hundreds of support calls to LGBTQ seniors to make sure their needs were being met and so they’d know someone was looking out for them. In early 2021, Openhouse was making 300-500 such calls weekly. Sullivan said that the wellness calls have picked up due to Omicron, and that Openhouse is making “probably around 400-500” presently.

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Donna Personna, a transgender activist and drag performer, stood in the outside courtyard of Openhouse’s 95 Laguna Street senior housing complex earlier this month.

“Some of these folks we were just reconnecting with,” Sullivan said. “When COVID-19 came on strong, we started doing massive amounts of phone calls to our community members. When things felt better and started to open up a little bit, it started to wane. But when Omicron came on, we thought we should start connecting again over the phone. A lot of folks don’t want us to call them, but most do. “If some people need a weekly call, we are going to be doing that for the next couple of weeks, if not longer,” Sullivan added. Omicron started to affect Openhouse services in early December, when “the numbers were going up, just before the holiday break, when we closed our office from the [December] 24 to [January] 3,” she said. “We had protocols put in place for the staff and really started to slow down in-person care navigation, moving housing navigation to Zoom,” Sullivan added. The B.A.R. asked Sullivan if the residents of the LGBTQ-welcoming senior apartments 55 and 95 Laguna Street, served by Openhouse, are experiencing COVID fatigue. “There is sort of a community at 55 and 95 Laguna and to be honest I think older adults – when they live in community – seem to be incredibly resilient,” Sullivan said. “People are really hoping that – everything we’ve been reading is that this is going to be shorter-lived, for instance, than the Delta variant – and I get really positive, so I always have to temper my positivism, but the experts are saying in February it will have run its course.” Donna Personna, a 75-year-old transgender woman who lives at 95 Laguna Street, said that the spread of Omicron increased her anxieties already tested by the pandemic. “I was at a fever pitch of being terrified,” Personna said in a recent phone interview, adding she sought psychiatric help. “I’m very outgoing. I’m very, very social by nature, and I’m a drag queen performer, an activist, and now I’ll say that’s the most important thing for me is my activism in the LGBT community,” Personna said. “It’s been getting worse for me. I get all the feels, and so many of them are not happy ones. I’m sad and scared.” Sullivan said that taking care of people’s mental health remains a difficult challenge. She pointed to a 2021 survey of LGBTQ older adults funded by the San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services, Horizons Foundation, and the Bob Ross Foundation that found “during the pandemic both the severity of depression and the number of older adults self-reporting depression increased significantly.” “During COVID, the percent of older adults with self-reported symptoms of depression increased to 13.5%, almost three times more than preCOVID,” the survey found. “[People of color] respondents and respondents with a disability had the highest percentages of people with possible depression, both during and prior to COVID and the stay-at-home man-

date. More than one in four [trans and gender-nonconforming] respondents and respondents who live alone may have had depression during COVID. Nearly 8% of respondents said they had seriously thought about committing suicide in the past 12 months.” As the B.A.R. reported last August, the survey was based on responses from 500 LGBTQs over 50 years old. It also found that “people who live alone report higher levels of loneliness during COVID-19 than people who do not live alone.” “During COVID, nearly 65% of older adults reported they felt lonelier than before the pandemic began in March 2020. Over 80% said they felt isolated from others, with almost 40% said they often felt isolated. Notably, 20% of older adults scored the highest score possible on the Loneliness Scale, suggesting high degrees of loneliness,” the survey found. “During the pandemic 11% of older adults reported they had three or more days with no contact with another person, compared to less than 4% before the pandemic.” Sullivan addressed the isolationrelated pain older people are going through. “People are tired,” Sullivan said. “There’s definitely a fatigue that comes along with not being able to be around large groups of people, and when I say they’re resilient, I think they have a great perspective on this and they give me hope for the future. ... People are going remarkably well, given the difficulty of the circumstance.”

Safest at home

Personna said that she feels safest in her apartment. “I conceive of myself as a very strong human being,” she said. “I have confidence. I believe in myself, and all of that has been challenging for me, and the latest variant has made it even worse for me.” Nonetheless, Personna is proud of herself for continuing her drag career over Zoom. Personna said she didn’t start performing until age 59, and is busier now than before, “if that’s imaginable.” Personna said that she planned a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan to speak before students February 15. The address had to be delayed from January due to Omicron, she said. “I’m terrified,” Personna said a couple of weeks before the scheduled trip, but nevertheless “I enjoy my creativity and passion.” “I’m just learning about myself that my performing is an act of activism, too,” she added. “You can start drag at 59 and you can go to the tippy top. … Every song I lip sync to, I have a message I want to get to the viewers.” Personna moved into 95 Laguna just before the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. “Before the pandemic started, we had community events, coffee hours,” Personna said. “Those things, I believe, were instituted so we could get to know one another and have things to do without leaving the community.

At the time COVID-19 hit, all those things were changed.” Robert “Buzz” Taylor, a 77-yearold gay man, had similar recollections. He, too, moved into 95 Laguna just before the lockdown, when COVID had “started, but nobody knew what it was.” “The place was a very different place before that year,” Taylor said. “We had all these lunches, coffee, a community room. There was a lot of interaction – there was a lot of community.” Taylor said that “as COVID progressed … people started becoming frightened and became aloof. So the community that had been there took a big blow, and people started spending time in their apartments by themselves. That’s still true – people aren’t social with their neighbors.” Nevertheless, Taylor and a group of friends “who’ve had all our shots and done what we’re supposed to do and haven’t come down with it,” have gotten the opportunity to become closer in recent months. After Taylor had what he said was a “serious health issue” that required surgery, these friends “came to visit with me after surgery and they did my dishes.” Taylor said he’s “thankful” for his friends, and also for 95 Laguna. His apartment is larger than his prior one in a three-story walk-up in Hayes Valley. “I would be a prisoner of my apartment right now,” he said, had he continued living there. “There’s more support here and there’s more mooring of all your life here,” he added. Openhouse, according to its most recent publicly-available IRS form 990, had total expenses of $2.6 million in Fiscal Year 2019-2020. That year the organization took in $4.3 million.

On Lok

Last year On Lok, which runs an eponymous senior center at 30th and Dolores streets in San Francisco, told the B.A.R. about its meal delivery program. In January 2021, On Lok Mission Nutrition served an average of two meals a day to 348 people. On Lok PACE also runs a health care plan for seniors who need support but live independently. According to Sandra Rivas, the assistant director of day services operations for On Lok, only the organization’s 30th Street center opened inperson during 2021. Omicron forced services to move online or to home delivery or take-out for meals. “On Lok began offering some activities at the On Lok 30th Street Senior Center in-person in 2021, with safety protocols in place,” Rivas stated via email. “These activities have been shifted virtually due to Omicron.” Rivas stated that meal delivery and pick-up are still available. “On Lok continues to deliver meals, despite Omicron. Meal pickup is still available,” Rivas stated via email. “This is the only in-person activity at On Lok 30th Street Center at this time. Everything else is being offered virtually. To-go meals and essential social services appointments are the only in-person activity.” Rivas stated that in 2021, some 271,650 meals were delivered or picked up. Nicole Torres, the vice president of On Lok PACE, stated that PACE has adopted a hybrid model of homebased and center-based health services. “We have been providing a combination of both center and homebased services to continue to serve and respond to their needs during unpredictable times,” Torres stated via email. “Our balance of center and home-based services has allowed us to serve our participants well despite the highs and lows of the pandemic.” Dr. Ben Lui, On Lok’s chief medical informatics officer, said that these services include COVID-19 vaccination booster shots. See page 8 >>

Community News>>

February 17-23, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Gay PA man to lead Spahr Center in Marin by Eric Burkett

fter an impressive career in building community and services for LGBTQ Pennsylvanians in Allentown, Adrian Shanker has set his sights on California, specifically, the Bay Area. Shanker, a gay man and New York native, is the new executive director of the Spahr Center, Marin County’s “nonprofit community agency devoted to serving, supporting, and empowering Marin’s LGBTQ+ community and everyone in the county living with and affected by HIV,” according to its website. The center serves 600 clients per year. He will start work April 1, replacing the retiring Dana Van Gorder, a gay man who has held the post since 2019. “As a passionate advocate for the health and wellness of LGBTQ+ and HIV communities, I am deeply motivated and beyond excited to join the team at the Spahr Center as its next executive director,” Shanker, 34, stated in a news release. “The Spahr Center has a strong history of providing essential services for Marin County’s LGBTQ+ and HIV communities, and I’m thrilled to become part of its next chapter.” Denny David, the Spahr Center board president, stated that Shanker has the experience the organization was looking for. It began a search for its next executive director last year, after Van Gorder announced he would be stepping down. Van Gorder previously led Project Inform until 2018 and, prior to that, held a leadership

Oakland Pride

From page 2

Hawkins did not return a message seeking comment. Sullivan said that the group did not contact Carlos Uribe, Oakland Pride’s co-chair. Uribe did not respond to a message seeking comment. Last year, as the B.A.R. reported, emails detailed problems with Oakland Pride, as officials there tried to persuade the Oakland LGBTQ center to take over the event. The emails sent to the B.A.R. indicated Oakland Pride had a debt of about $125,000. Hawkins responded to Oakland Pride’s email that the center was asked in July, just a couple of months before the September festival. “However, from a nonprofit management and legal perspective, it is not a simple or quick process,” Hawkins wrote in one of the emails. “Per nonprofit law, we would not be able to legally take over Oakland Pride ASAP! “Your decision to allow the center or any entity to take over Oakland Pride, sets in motion a series of legal requirements for both organizations,” Hawkins continued. “Your board would need to vote to dissolve your organization and our board would have to vote to take over what is left of Oakland Pride after it is dissolved.” Now, it appears that rather than take over an existing organization, PrideFest has formed to produce its own festival. “In response to your reporting, we decided to step into the void,” Sullivan told the B.A.R.

Location not set

Sullivan is not sure where the Pride festival will be located but would like it to be in the downtown area near where the Oakland Pride events would take place, around the intersection of 20th Street and Broadway. “We want to be in the heart and soul ... of downtown Oakland,” Sullivan said, adding they want to try and stay within the footprint of the celebration held in 2019 in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. Toward that end, he and fellow organizers are working closely with the city and AC Transit to determine the best location. The bus system typically altered routes of some bus lines for the Oakland Pride festival.

Courtesy Spahr Center

Incoming Spahr Center Executive Director Adrian Shanker

role at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Project Inform closed in 2019. “We are excited to welcome Adrian to our community,” David stated in a news release. “We know that his experience founding an LGBT center and commitment to health equity will ensure the Spahr Center reaches the goals outlined in our strategic plan: ensuring every LGBTQ+, HIVpositive, and affected person in Marin County feels that we belong, are valued, and that our civic institutions ensure our health and well-being.” The incoming executive director brings an impressive history of activism and experience to his new post. Shanker founded the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center back in 2014, and since then “has led the fundraising, property acquisition and

PrideFest has found support in outgoing Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office. ¨The mayor has always been a big supporter of Oakland Pride,” said Jonathan Bair, a gay man and assistant to Schaaf, who added in a phone call that the mayor is looking forward to a resumption of the Pride festivities. Sullivan said the new Pride group has not talked with lesbian at-large City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan about its plans. Currently serving as vice mayor and expected to run for an Alameda County supervisor seat this year, Kaplan did not respond to a text message seeking comment. PrideFest must also make plans for the same issues that befell Oakland Pride, particularly around the COVID-19 pandemic. “The main thing is to make sure we’re disaster planning,” said Joiner, a Black lesbian who owns Feelmore, a sex shop in downtown Oakland not far from where the Pride festivities had taken place. “What happens if another variant happens?” Key to this effort, however, is that organizers are already looking beyond just this first celebration. Organizers are treating this effort “as if this has never been done before,” Joiner said. Besides organizing September’s event, volunteers “want to build a strong foundation” that will carry this celebration on into future years, she added. The core of those efforts, Joiner added, is fundraising. “Is the corporate appetite there?” she asked. With so many LGBTQ people working from home over the past couple of years, corporate LGBTQ culture has changed, she said. Expectations, too, have changed, with people perhaps not yet ready for the sweaty celebrations typical of those prior to the pandemic. They may be looking for something different. “It’s about mirroring the commonplace in people’s lives,” Joiner said. Sullivan said that PrideFest is looking for more people to get involved. “I acknowledge the bars leading the effort and accountability is more than just bars,” he said. “We are open to more people getting involved to represent the broadest spectrum of the queer community in Oakland.” t

program development from the startup phase to its current annual budget of $1.6 million with two-dozen employees,” according to the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown. “Our greatest success has certainly been the physical opening of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in 2016,” Shanker wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. “With tremendous community support, we were able to acquire and open a 13,000 square foot facility in the heart of downtown Allentown, and then completely eliminate the center’s mortgage just four years later.” Under his leadership, the Allentown center participated in a national coalition that successfully sued former President Donald Trump’s administration challenging a proposed rule that would have allowed health care providers to deny services to patients if the provider felt that doing so would compromise their own religious or moral convictions. In 2011, Shanker was elected president of Equality Pennsylvania by the membership, succeeding Brian Sims, a gay man who went on to serve in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and is currently running for lieutenant governor. Shanker served for three years before moving on to what

would become the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center. Somehow, in the midst of all that, Shanker has also written or edited two books, “Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health,” and “Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic.” “As the founding executive director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center it was certainly a bittersweet decision to leave Allentown, Pennsylvania, and relocate to the West Coast,” Shanker wrote in the email, “but I’m also super excited about the programs and mission of the Spahr Center. I am especially excited to join an organization that provides harm reduction programs such as syringe services, which is not possible in Allentown because of restrictive state laws in Pennsylvania.” News of Shanker’s departure from Allentown prompted much praise in the local press for the man and his work, including from the mayor of Allentown. “Adrian is someone I know I can go to who’s not going to BS me about anything,” Mayor Matt Tuerk told the Morning Call in an article published February 1. “He’s not going to tell me what I want to hear. He’s going to tell me what I need to hear. You’re lucky

to have someone like that in your life. He’s someone I can check in with on any number of issues and questions.” Van Gorder said he feels confident he’s leaving the Spahr Center in good hands. “I think he’s super impressive,” said Van Gorder of his successor in a telephone interview. “By virtue of having founded a community center and built it from the ground up, he clearly has the chops …” Van Gorder is leaving a strong institution to Shanker, he said. During his tenure, the Spahr Center went from about a $995,000 budget to a $2.4 million budget. “We’ve created a lot of new programs on the LGBTQ side and developed a solid strategic plan for the work at the center,” he said. “The HIV portion is very well funded and very robust,” Van Gorder added. “The challenge, however, is finding the funding to beef up the center’s additional community services.” That shouldn’t be a problem for the new executive director, Van Gorder noted, as Shanker loves fundraising. The Spahr Center has an annual budget of $2.4 million; Shanker will earn $120,000 a year as executive director. Dana Van Gorder earned $105,000 per year. t

<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • February 17-23, 2022

LGBTQ elders

From page 6

“On Lok has been providing our On Lok PACE participants with COVID booster shots since they were approved by the FDA and CDC last fall, thus providing our participants with additional protection against the Omicron variant,” Lui stated via email, referring to the federal Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have enhanced our PPE protocol by recommending N95 use for all direct care staff.” According to the organization’s most recent IRS form 990, On Lok had $18.3 million in total expenses in Fiscal Year 2019-2020. That year the organization took in $14.9 million.

Housing

Vince Crisostomo, a queer man who is the director of aging services with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and is the program manager of its Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network, discussed last year how SFAF was advocating for more housing subsidies in San Francisco for 300 households in Fiscal Year 2021-2022. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael

Courtesy SF Pride

Vince Crisostomo is director of aging services at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Mandelman fought for the request to be included in the city’s budget. It included 300 housing subsidies, at $10,000 each, at a cost of $3 million. “We were successful in that advocacy,” Crisostomo, 60, said, adding that, “We were actually able to connect a few of our 50-Plus members who needed support coming out from COVID, who’d fallen behind.” “That was helpful,” Crisostomo said. “We were very happy to help get those burdens eliminated. A lot of talk about housing is really depressing,

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but we were able to get at least three long-term [HIV] survivors housing subsidies, which I’m really happy for. I’m glad we were able to find some support for them.” Crisostomo said that Bill Hirsh, the executive director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, had been instrumental in pushing for the 2021 subsidies. Hirsh, a gay man, told the B.A.R. that “this is one strategy to address the housing crisis.” “ALRP and other advocates have been successful in advocating for housing subsidies for people living with HIV and others (seniors, persons living with disabilities) for several years,” Hirsh stated via email. “The subsidies were intended to be deep and ongoing and flexible. Many of the folks we work with will not see their incomes rise, so they will need the subsidy moving forward. “The subsidies were intended to both prevent people from becoming homeless as well as take people out of becoming homeless,” he added. “The number of folks served has been based on an average of about $10K per year per client, so if we got $3 million we would be able to serve about 300 folks.” Hirsh stated that the amount included $1 million for Fiscal Year 20202021 and $750,000 for Fiscal Year

Sisters’ co-founder

From page 1

The second half came about from repeatedly being asked if he knew the Sisters would have such longevity when he helped found them so many decades ago. The first half is in homage to the Hindu god Vishnu. “I am thrilled that San Francisco is going to recognize the invaluable contribution that Ken Bunch, aka Sister Vish-Knew, has made to the quality of queer life around the globe,” Sister Roma, recently elected the local order’s Mistress of Novices to assist new aspirants, told the B.A.R. Roma had initially broached the idea of naming a street in honor of Bunch last June, as the B.A.R. first reported in January. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Mission Dolores neighborhood, agreed to sponsor the civic honor for Bunch. In presenting it Monday to the Board of Supervisors’ land use and transportation committee, which unanimously voted 3-0 in support, Mandelman said Sister Vish-Knew was worthy of being recognized for “her lasting impact on San Francisco and the global LGBTQ+ community.” In addition to his philanthropic work Bunch has played a prominent role in various chapters of LGBTQ history. He and fellow activist Tracy Bjorgum in 1976 were the first men to apply for a same-sex marriage license in Iowa, generating newspaper headlines

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regularly since last fall. Over 1,000 people utilized the service. Aguirre said they don’t see discontinuing the service any time soon, and are funded through June. Beyond that, the tests “will continue until we determine people are no longer using the services.” A February 10 newsletter about the city’s cultural districts from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development had stated that the testing and vaccine hubs were likely to continue in March through the rest of winter but Aguirre said the district has pivoted to continuing the service. Some Castro business leaders are nervous.

2021-2022. “The previous provider of the HIV-specific subsidies will no longer be contracting with the city so the city is putting all of that money out to bid and hopes to get a new contractor in place to provide these subsidies,” Hirsh stated. “Historically, the city is reluctant to use its general fund dollars to pay for ongoing subsidies. I believe we have had some success with advocating for these subsidies to be ongoing, but they are still part of the annual city budget process.” Mandelman’s office did not return a request for comment for this story.

Generations Project

Wes Enos, 35, who is based in New York City, achieved his goal of relaunching the Generations Project, which seeks to connect LGBTQ people intergenerationally. “Things went pretty well, all things considered,” Enos said, regarding 2021. “We had a mix of virtual programming that catered to people interested in being part of virtual programs, and we created a hybrid model of storytelling events.” Generations Project was able to get back in-person (Enos had told the B.A.R. in early 2021 about virtual events), which Enos said was the most

meaningful part of the year. “It’s been really cool to finally meet people we’ve been working with virtually,” Enos said. The agency’s intergenerational writing party is still virtual, and so are its storytelling workshops. But its live storytelling events are in person, said Enos. “We have two programs we offer, [including] less pressure and more fun activities that are less of a commitment,” he said. The live storytelling comes out of four-to-five people who workshop ideas. All the in-person events have been in New York City, including at the New York City AIDS Memorial, the Eagle in Chelsea, and at Henrietta Hudson, a queer restaurant in the West Village that had a queer Italian heritage event. Enos said he hopes that these events will come back after Omicron “sooner rather than later.” He also stressed that people from all over the country can sign up for virtual events on the Generations Project’s website. t This article was written with the support of a journalism fellowship from the Gerontological Society of America, The Journalists Network on Generations and the Silver Century Foundation.

across the Hawkeye State. Two years prior Bunch helped publish the first issue of the Radical Faerie magazine RFD from the attic of his Iowa home. In 1974, he also produced the first Midwest Gay Pride Conference at the University of Iowa. He marched alongside the late Harvey Milk, San Francisco’s first gay supervisor, protesting anti-LGBTQ laws in 1977. Two years later Bunch was among the demonstrators outside of City Hall taking part in the White Night riots protest of the lenient verdict handed down to Dan White for assassinating Milk and then-mayor George Moscone in 1978. For five years in the early 1990s Bunch helped produced the first Halloween in the Castro event with the Sisters and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars shared with the event partners Community United Against Violence and the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. He also is credited with being the first person to demand, at the 1993 Creating Change Conference, the inclusion of transgender issues and speakers at the LGBTQ events the March on Washington and the Stonewall 25th anniversary. “Sister Vish-Knew has been an activist for more than half a century and she is still involved in the community and the organization she created in San Francisco in 1979. She has transformed the lives of thousands of people for the better and raised millions of dollars for charity,” said Sister Tilda NexTime, an abbess and current president of the local

order, at the committee hearing. “I do believe she deserves recognition. She is one of those characters who make San Francisco the city we love so much.” The street signage is sure to be a draw for locals and visitors alike, predicted Sister Tilda NexTime. “It will be a place to celebrate diversity, inclusion and equality in San Francisco,” she said. “It will inspire new generations of social activists.” Not too far away from Alert Alley is José Sarria Court along the block of 16th Street where the Eureka Valley/ Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library is located. Sarria performed in drag at the North Beach gay bar the Black Cat in the 1950s and, with his 1961 unsuccessful bid for supervisor, was the first out LGBTQ person to seek elected office in the U.S. The 100 block of Turk Street is also called Vicki Mar Lane on behalf of trans performer Vicki Marlane, who died in 2011 at the age of 76 due to AIDS-related complications. She had hosted a popular drag revue show at gay bar Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, located at 133 Turk Street, and was the first transgender person to be honored with a street naming in San Francisco. Other LGBTQ luminaries with San Francisco streets named for them include Frida Kahlo, Dr. Tom Waddell, Alice B. Toklas and Jack Kerouac. The 100 block of Taylor Street is also named Gene Compton’s Cafeteria Way for the business where a transgender-led uprising against police brutality occurred in 1966. t

“We are concerned that the state and city are once again lifting the mandate too early,” Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally and manager of Cliff’s Variety on Castro Street, wrote in an email. “ We hope we are wrong.” Nonetheless, the venerable hardware store will allow customers without masks although employees will continue to sport them. The memory of the last time the city attempted to ease mask mandates remains a source of concern for Bennett. “The last time the mask mandate was lifted we experienced a drop in foot traffic and an increase in curb-side pick-up requests,” she stated. “This pandemic has proven that trying to forecast how business will react to the ever-changing situation is about as accurate as asking a Magic 8 Ball. In other words, I don’t know what impact this is going to have on business, but we will continue to put one foot in front of the other and do our best to keep everyone safe.” At Fitness SF on upper Market Street, masks are now optional inside the gym as of Wednesday, according to an email it sent to members last week. It is still

requiring people working out be vaccinated, but they do not need to have gotten a booster dose of the vaccine. Across the street at MX3 Fitness, gay co-owner Dave Karraker was notably more enthusiastic about the mask policy change. Masks will not be required in his gym, he wrote in an email. “Let’s face it, no one wants to be doing lunges or downward dogs with a mask on,” he stated, “so we are really pleased to see a move towards normalcy that will encourage folks to get back in the gym.” Where Bennett saw a drop in foot traffic, Karraker saw opportunity. “We do think that the elimination of the mask mandate will not just be good for gyms in the Castro, but for all the businesses around them,” Karraker stated. ”Gyms create daily, consistent foot traffic for any neighborhood, so that benefits the dry cleaners, the taco joints, and the flower stores. Anything that can bring more people out of their houses (and off Amazon!) to support Castro small businesses is a good thing.” t

Community News>>

February 17-23, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

AIDS grove honors Black History Month compiled by Cynthia Laird

he National AIDS Memorial Grove has announced special online programming to honor Black History Month. According to a news release, the material, which the public can access online for free, uses the power and beauty of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to bring to light the countless Black men, women, and children who have died of AIDS during the 40 years of the pandemic, and the continuing impact of HIV in the Black community today. The AIDS grove took over stewardship of the quilt in 2019 and has been doing various online programs to bring new attention to the panels that memorialize those lost to the disease. “Our hope is that these online programs help raise greater awareness about the ongoing struggle with HIV and the impact systemic barriers have on positive health outcomes, particularly in the Black community,” stated John Cunningham, AIDS grove CEO. “This collection of powerful stories are part of the hope, healing, and remembrance these two national treasures – the grove and the quilt – bring to our nation throughout the year.” The virtual exhibition of the quilt features touching stories that include letters, news stories, and photos about quilt panels made to honor Black people who have passed away. One panel shares the story of Belynda, a Massachusetts AIDS activist who dedicated herself to helping organize Black churches in the fights against AIDS (Block 5718). Other panels include those honoring Black men, including several that have military uniforms sewn into them to honor their service (Block 5976). Also included are panels remembering musical legend Sylvester (aka Sylvester James Jr.), AIDS activists Reggie Williams and Ken Jones, poet Mary Bowman, Sean Sasser, hemophilia leader Val Bias, and Lonnie Payne, a long-term survivor and board member of the AIDS grove, who shares the loss of his twin brother, Lawrence, to AIDS. “The grove and quilt hold a special place in my heart,” Payne stated. “Both have provided comfort to millions of people during the darkest days of the AIDS pandemic. Today, they are important teaching tools to raise greater awareness about HIV/ AIDS, particularly in Black and

Courtesy National AIDS Memorial Grove

Some of the National AIDS Quilt panels in the Black History Month virtual exhibition are from the “Call My Name” program that organized quilt-making events in Black communities.

Brown communities where rates of infection continue to be disproportionate.” To view the exhibition, go to https://www.aidsmemorial.org/

San Mateo center to hold Black History Month event

The San Mateo County Pride Center and the African American Community Initiative will hold a virtual Black History Month intergenerational dinner Friday, February 25, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Participants will enjoy games about iconic African American figures in history and there will be a special presentation by former Black Panther Party member Pamela Ward Pious, who will share her experiences and community advocacy work. The event is free. To register, go to https://bit.ly/3rNg8Jc

Film on South Bay LGBTQs premieres

The BAYMEC Community Foundation will have a premiere of the documentary “Queer Silicon Valley” Friday, February 25, at 6 p.m. at San Jose State University’s Hammer Theater, 101 Paseo De San Antonio between Second and N. Third streets. The film spans almost 50 years, from the 1970s to today, and features 22 activists recounting the struggles and discrimination they endured, a news release stated. It’s a companion piece to the museum exhibit, “Coming Out: 50 Years of Queer Resistance and Resilience,” that is on display at History San José. The film was directed by awardwinning documentarian and SJSU

Professor Bob Gilner, who coproduced the film with Ken Yeager, executive director of the BAYMEC Community Foundation. (Yeager is also a former San Jose City Councilmember and Santa Clara County supervisor.) “Each of the 22 inspirational people interviewed in the film are deserving of their own hourlong documentary,” Yeager stated. “Their impact on queer politics and culture has been profound. I’m proud to give them the recognition they deserve.” People featured in the film represent the diverse South Bay LGBTQ community, including African Americans, Latinos/as, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. COVID-19 protocols will be enforced at the event. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at https://bit. ly/3BkBMI0.

BALIF gala goes virtual

gather as a community face-to-face,” an email from the LGBTQ bar association stated. “However, it has become clear that a live gala just isn’t a feasible option for BALIF this year; the risk of COVID transmission, low event attendance, and reduced membership and sponsor support compared to years past remain an unfortunate reality for many organizations as the pandemic continues on, including ours.” Organizers stated that there will be an in-person after-party at a local bar at 8:30 p.m. after the virtual event. Additional details were not available. Tickets for the virtual gala are $100 for students, government, or nonprofit workers, and $150 for attorneys in private practice. Sponsorships are also available. For more information, go to https://www.balif. org/event-4624530.

Former B.A.R. writer needs help with medical costs

A former Bay Area Reporter freelance writer is experiencing health issues and her husband has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with medical costs. Mary Richards-Rocos was a longtime freelancer with the paper. She and her husband, John Rocos, relocated to the Palm Springs area more than 20 years ago. “My beloved wife of 37 years is losing more physical and mental abilities and needs more care as time goes on,” John Rocos wrote on the crowdfunding site. “She needs oversight and care around the clock, which I give her. She has suffered a number of falls and has had both hips replaced in the last few years. Thankfully hospital tests show there were no breaks or permanent injuries. She should be healed up in about four to six weeks.

“Social Security is a wonderful thing but a bit more is required to keep things working,” he added. “For years now we have been able to fill in the cracks, but with COVID shutting out some opportunities and inflation increasing and more medical expenses, Mary needs a fund to keep her safe and sound in her home with her two kitties for a while. Otherwise, she will face a crisis.” In the 1980s, in the middle of the AIDS crisis, Richards was a volunteer on San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 5A, the AIDS Ward, helping the patients after work and weekends. She also worked as a Shanti Project volunteer: visiting, home cleaning and providing care to people dying alone in their homes of AIDS, her husband noted. “She has been a supporter of human rights for LGBT people for decades and wrote many pieces for the Bay Area Reporter over the years. Since we have been here she has been a volunteer for the Palm Springs Animal Shelter and the Cathedral City Senior Center,” he added. The campaign’s goal is $15,000. As of February 16, it has raised $3,800. To donate, go to https://bit. ly/3LyAf5J t

Obituaries >> Matt Arietta June 2, 1965 – January 15, 2022

Friends will gather at 440 Castro on Saturday, February 26, from noon to 3 p.m. to remember and celebrate our dear friend, brother in song, and beautiful soul.

Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom was going to have its annual gala return to an in-person format this year, but organizers now say it will be virtual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Two years ago, BALIF’s gala was one of the last in-person events before the city shutdown at the beginning of the pandemic. The gala takes place Friday, March 4, at 7 p.m. “When we chose ‘Unity in Strength’ as this year’s theme, it was a testament to our belief that 2022 would be the year we may once again

Courtesy B.A.R. Archive

50 years in 50 weeks: 2016: Pulse tragedy

t was a sunny day in the Bay Area on Sunday, June 12, 2016 when news broke that there was a terrible mass shooting inside Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Within hours, spontaneous vigils were held in San Francisco, Oakland, and numerous other cities to mourn the loss of 49 mostly gay Latino lives and the 53 others who were injured. The shooting happened during the club’s popular Latin Night, and the assailant, Omar Mateen, who was killed in a shootout with police, held people captive for hours. Happening during June, many LGBTQ Pride organizations beefed up security at their own festivals and events, as it was unclear whether the attack

was homophobic, domestic terrorism, or a combination of the two. Two years later, Mateen’s widow, Noor Salman, was tried and acquitted on obstruction charges related to the shooting. Today, Barbara Poma, a straight ally who owns Pulse, has established the OnePULSE Foundation to honor the victims and survivors. An interim memorial is at the site of the former nightclub as the foundation moves forward with plans for a permanent remembrance for those killed. To view the issue, go to https://issuu.com/bayareareporter/ docs/bayareareporter_june_16_2016

TAKE THE SURVEY! https://bit.ly/3rvtKZG

<< From the Cover

10 • Bay Area Reporter • February 17-23, 2022

SF Assembly race

From page 1

Campos, endorsed by the Bay Area Reporter and a slew of LGBTQ leaders and groups, would be the city’s first Latino legislator and return LGBTQ representation from San Francisco to the Legislature’s lower chamber. He would bring the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus in Sacramento back to having nine members. Should Haney win the race, he would resign from his supervisor seat on the board, requiring Mayor London Breed to fill the vacancy. He has campaigned for Assembly by noting his de facto chief of staff at City Hall, Honey Mahogany, could be named as his successor and become the first transgender person to serve as a supervisor in the city. Also running in the special election was former Obama adminis-

Christopher Robledo

Matt Haney, right, greeted supporters during a campaign event last year.

tration staffer Bilal Mahmood. He would be the first person of Muslim identity and Pakistani American identity to serve in the California Legislature.

Mahmood was in third place with 21% of the vote, according to the early returns. City College of San Francisco Trustee Thea Selby, seeking to

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

by a corporation, and is signed JESITA, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/22.

return female leadership to the state Legislature from San Francisco, was in fourth place with 6% of the vote. The race had become increasingly negative in recent weeks, with Haney and Campos arguing over who would be better to help lead the charge for creating a system of universal health care in California. The latest legislative effort to do so recently died in an Assembly committee, but lawmakers are expected to revive it in the future. They both faced questions over how they would address the state’s affordable housing crisis, with the two criticized for not doing enough to build more below-market-rate housing in San Francisco as supervisors. Haney also came under fire for the open-air drug usage and dealing, crime, and homeless encampments in his district. Mahmood, a relative unknown in city politics, was endorsed by

the San Francisco Chronicle but also faced questions about his failure to vote in local elections over the years. With $550,000 of his own money, he flooded television screens for weeks with campaign spots in an attempt to raise his visibility among voters. Haney, endorsed by the San Francisco Examiner, and his union backers also paid for TV ads, one of which needed to be bleeped for using a swear word as part of its tagline. Financially unmatched, partly due to his self-imposed restrictions on the contributions he will accept, Campos had in recent weeks been able to afford pop-up ads online. Meanwhile, Selby made the most of the numerous candidate forums myriad groups held in order to pitch herself to voters. It has been a decade since San Francisco has had a female representing it in the Legislature. t

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/22.

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556920

In the matter of the application of MARVIN MCNEALY, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARVIN MCNEALY is requesting that the name MARVIN MCNEALY be changed to MARLEY MARVIN ALOFATASI MCNEALY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 24th of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556857

In the matter of the application of JEAN GROMER, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JEAN GROMER is requesting that the names JEAN GROMER AKA JEAN DORNHOEFER GROMER AKA JEAN ANN DORNHOEFER AKA JEAN CRYSTAL GROMER AKA CRYSTAL GROMER AKA JEAN D. GROMER AKA CRYSTAL DORNHOEFER GROMER AKA JEAN CRYSTAL D. GROMER be changed to JEAN CRYSTAL GROMER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 1st of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556861

In the matter of the application of RACHEL TSE-WAN GEARY-SHEN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RACHEL TSE-WAN GEARY-SHEN is requesting that the name RACHEL TSE-WAN GEARY-SHEN be changed to RACHEL AIGUL MATSON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 7th of APRIL 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556860

In the matter of the application of ANA SILVIA ARBUES DE CUELLAR & ROBERTO ANTONIO CUELLAR MORALES, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ANA SILVIA ARBUES DE CUELLAR & ROBERTO ANTONIO CUELLAR MORALES is requesting that the name JASON ANTONIO CUELLAR be changed to JASON ANTONIO CUELLAR ARBUES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 5th of APRIL 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556866

In the matter of the application of BEVERLY JOAN SCHLENKER AKA JESSE JOAN SCHLENKER, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BEVERLY JOAN SCHLENKER AKA JESSE JOAN SCHLENKER is requesting that the name BEVERLY JOAN SCHLENKER AKA JESSE JOAN SCHLENKER be changed to JESSE JOAN SCHLENKER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 3rd of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039603800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LUISA ANDERSON ENROLLED AGENT, 580 CALIFORNIA ST 12TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUISA C. ANDERSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/25/07. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039607200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OAKWILD RANCH; TOBONI VINEYARDS; 3364 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH P. TOBONI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/22.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039598300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FUNG SOONG REFLEXOLOGY–TY, 1623 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed XINRU LUAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/11/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/11/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039605800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CURRY IN A HURRY, 845 MARKET ST SPACE #FL12, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LATIF SHAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/20/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/20/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039593900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOTAHOE; SOTAHOE COMPASS, 891 BEACH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JILL TEAKELL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/29/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039609100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PRISM PASTRIES, 1395 22ND ST #247, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBIN LUU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039598600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CEDAR LINE STAGING, 1667 32ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAMI FARA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/03/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/11/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039608500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LC AUTO DETAILING, 7 PERSIA AVE #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ALAN YAIR LOPEZ CASTANEDA, IRVING GABRIEL LOPEZ CASTANEDA & GABRIEL LOPEZ GARCIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/21/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039604600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CREPES ON COLE, 100 CARL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CREPES ON COLE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/03/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039605500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ED DANNY MARKET, 999 SOUTH VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SOUTH VAN NESS MARKET INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/19/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/20/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039605000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as REGENCY HOTEL, 1214 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed POONAM, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039605100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PERRAMONT HOTEL, 2162 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039605200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as TWIN PEAKS HOTEL, 2160 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AMISH PROPERTIES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039609500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THERAPY DEVA, 582 MARKET ST #1008, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DEVA SEGAL, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY AND CONSULTING, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/22.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF ROBERT M. CRONHOLM #PDW-21-061210 SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO

Notice is hereby given to the creditors and contingent creditors of the above-named decedent, that all persons having claims against the decedent are required to file them with the Superior Court of the State of California for the City and County of San Francisco, Department 204 Probate, 400 McAllister St., Rm. 202, San Francisco, CA 94102, and deliver pursuant to Section 1215 of the California Probate Code a copy to Susan S. Cronholm and Charles A. Lowenhaupt, as trustees of the trust under indenture dated August 13, 2010, wherein the decedent was the settlor, at 1401 S. Brentwood Blvd., Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63144 within the later of four months after Feb. 3, 2022 (the date of the first publication of notice to creditors) or, if notice is mailed or personally delivered to you, 60 days after the date this notice is mailed or personally delivered to you.. A claim form may be obtained from the court clerk. For your protection, you are encouraged to file your claim by certified mail, with return receipt requested. SUSAN S. CRONHOLM AND CHARLES A. LOWENHAUPT, TRUSTEES, C/O LOWENHAUPT & CHASNOFF, LLC, 1401 S. BRENTWOOD BLVD., STE 100, ST. LOUIS, MO 63144

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039590200

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556878

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BATHING CULTURE, 1975 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BATHING CULTURE PBC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/21.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039604200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MONTESACRO MARINA, 3317 STEINER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AGV VENTURES, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/19/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039594700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FABRIX, 432 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FABRIX SAN FRANCISCO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/16/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039602300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE SAGE & DRIFTER, 1368 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SEVIN AND KO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/22.

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039609300

In the matter of the application of JADE AUGUST, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JADE AUGUST is requesting that the name JADE AUGUST be changed to FARON EMIL CARVER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 8th of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556885

In the matter of the application of ALFIELLI CUNADA VILLARMEA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ALFIELLI CUNADA VILLARMEA is requesting that the name ALFIELLI CUNADA VILLARMEA AKA ALFIELLI MIRANDA CUNADA be changed to ALFIELLI CUNADA LUCA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 10th of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556884

In the matter of the application of EMMANUEL CORDOVA VILLARMEA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner EMMANUEL CORDOVA VILLARMEA is requesting that the name EMMANUEL CORDOVA VILLARMEA be changed to EMMANUEL GERSOM LUCA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 10th of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039613100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ROYAL INN, 130 EDDY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed URAVI LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/21/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as J&E INSURANCE SERVICES AND REGISTRATION SERVICES, 2390 MISSION ST #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAMON ERNESTO LOPEZ OCHOA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/22.

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-039550900

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039607000

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as CREPES ON COLE, 100 CARL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by HAIL S. JWAINAT. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/16/21.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RUTH’S, 3050 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAREN FINNEY LYONS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/22/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/22.

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038214200

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039609200

JAN 27, FEB 03, 10, 17, 2022

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as THERAPY DEVA, 582 MARKET ST #302, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by DEVA SEGAL. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/18.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MOE’S FOOD MART, 2400 SAN BRUNO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MOHAMED AZIZ AHMED. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039613000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ORGYMUSIC TOURING, 3012 16TH ST #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103-5933. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LOU GORDON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/27/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039591800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LB&M CONSTRUCTION, 1325 EVANS AVE #13, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN MIXON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/04/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/04/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039592700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as POLK-N-POST SNACKS, 1101 POST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ESIHAQ AL MURISI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/03/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/04/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039613700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DISTRIBUTION WAREHOUSE CONSULTANT, 8100 OCEANVIEW TERRACE #206, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSE A. ESCOBAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039615800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FAMILY EQUITY PARTNERS, 739 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LATOYA PITCHER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/04/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039616100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOUR CHERRY COMICS, 3187 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LEAH MORRETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/18/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039612700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ECHOS HAIR DESIGN, 555 SUTTER ST #217, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed EDUARDO LAZO & KUKHI LAZO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/27/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039613400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ACME’S TRUCKING INC., 696B AMADOR ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ACME’S TRUCKING INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/27/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039612000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BELOW THE SURFACE, 701 GOLDEN GATE AVE #802, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BELOW THE SURFACE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039615500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as

<< Legals

11 • Bay Area Reporter • February 17-23, 2022

CHAAT CORNER INDIAN GROCERY, 320 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CHAAT CORNER SAN FRANCISCO INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039610000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as EXPRESS TRANSPORTATION LLC, 196 MENDEL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed EXPRESS TRANSPORTATION LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/21/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/25/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039612200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MCCARTHY MOVING & STORAGE, 2118 26TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed STATEWIDE MOVING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/25/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039612300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHICANO NUEVO, 1166 GENEVA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NUEVO INDUSTRY GROUP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/22.

FEB 03, 10, 17, 24, 2022

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF MOIRA HASTINGS SCHERER IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-22-305097

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of MOIRA HASTINGS SCHERER, C/O SUTTER C. SELLECK (SBN 290247), SC SELLECK LAW, 150 N. WIGET LANE #105, WALNUT CREEK, CA 94598; (925) 899-9130. A Petition for Probate has been filed by MEGAN HASTINGS in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that MEGAN HASTINGS be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: MARCH 02, 2022 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 latter 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 the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Petitioner: MEGAN HASTINGS, 9428 SW 192ND ST, VASHON ISLAND, WA 98070; Ph. (925) 899-9130.

FEB 10, 17, 24, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556903

In the matter of the application of JESUS ELIAN SEPULVEDA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JESUS ELIAN SEPULVEDA is requesting that the name JESUS ELIAN SEPULVEDA AKA JESUS ELIAN LOPEZ be changed to JESUS ELIAN LOPEZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103N on the 22th of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 10, 17, 24, 2022

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF CAROLYN E. ROBINSON IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-22-305087

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of CAROLYN E. ROBINSON. A Petition for Probate has been filed by RONNIE ROBINSON in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that RONNIE ROBINSON be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority 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: MARCH 02, 2022, 9:00 am, Rm. 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 latter 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 the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from

the court clerk. Petitioner: RONNIE ROBINSON, 1635 WALLACE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124; Ph. (650) 580-1192.

FEB 10, 17, 24, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039616500

was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/02/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039620400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SIMMONS ROAD CREATIVE, 3375 17TH ST #203, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS SIMMONS-STERN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SF CONNECTED CHIROPRACTIC, 476 MONTEREY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DR. STANTON WONG, A PROFESSIONAL CHIROPRACTIC CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/22.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039615100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039616900

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EMILIO ORLANDI, 2282 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EMILIO GIRAUDBIT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/27/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039618300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MS. GOLDIE REED MINISTRIES, 327 MADISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DENISE CARTER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/02/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/02/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039609700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HARMONY BODYWORK AND ENERGY THERAPIES, 3882 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CYNTHIA MEIRI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/17/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/24/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039620500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HOME RANCH LAND REALTY, 1160 BATTERY ST #100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUAN CHAVARRIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/25/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039622300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CORNERSTONE CONSTRUCTION, 955 WISCONSIN ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SHANE O’REILLY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/03/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039617000

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039627200

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GRAPHITEBUILD, 8 DELLBROOK AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed YNWA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/07/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/07/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039624400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as JUPITER.CO; JUPITER GROCERIES, 1955 JERROLD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TALAR, INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/09/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039615400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BAY OF BURMA, 1174 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed L-TERA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/31/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/31/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039620700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KONA’S STREET MARKET, 32 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 32 3RD STREET MGMT LLC (CA), A GENERAL PARTNER OF 32 3RD STREET LP. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039614400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039620900

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TALISMAN SOUND, 1363 PAGE ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JONATHAN RICHARD WILSON & JONAH SCOTT PERRY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/02/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039597200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MAGIC WASH, 645 LARCH WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed LEONID BEKER & YULIYA BEKER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/10/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039613800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MIKAWA JAPANESE CURRY, 2435 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SANHUA-HD, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039613600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LA PAZ RESTAURANT, 1028 POTRERO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LA PAZ RESTAURANT, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/05/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039617600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as VEINWELL; PHYSICOS AESTHETICS, 100 BUSH ST #918, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PHYSICOS AESTHETICS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/22. The statement

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039602900

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039623300

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039621000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039623100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ARL RELIANCE LIMOUSINE SERVICE, 1801 39TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WEIBIN LEI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PRISM GROUP, C/O COMPASS, 891 BEACH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID PAUL BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CALIFORNIA STREET STAFFING CO., 235 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TICKED TURTLE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/28/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TURKEY & REUBEN, 1208 FUNSTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MARA EZEKIEL & NOA SHNEORSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039626400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as VIDEOFAX, 1750 CESAR CHAVEZ ST #G SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MINERVA PROFESSIONAL CAMERA SERVICES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/02/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RIDGELINE COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY, 1012 TENNESSEE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GENE CUTLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/02/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SUGA STUDIO, 499 ALABAMA ST #112, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed USU (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/03/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039623400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GOODBOI SERVICES; GIGGLE & GROW, 660 4TH ST #115, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GOODBOI LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/07/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/07/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039622800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as TONIC BEVERAGE CATERING, 2565 3RD ST #313, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE FIRE SOCIETY, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/04/22.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038276100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as TONIC BEVERAGE CATERING, 2495 3RD ST #313, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by DOGPATCH SF, LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/22/18.

FEB 10, 17, 24, MAR 03, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-556924

In the matter of the application of VANYA RENEE MORALES AKA VANYA RENEE COLE, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner VANYA RENEE MORALES AKA VANYA RENEE COLE is requesting that the names VANYA RENEE MORALES AKA VANYA RENEE COLE be changed to VANYA RENEE COLE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 29th of MARCH 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039625000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SUZ BAX ART, 305 STEINER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SUZANNE BAXTER. The registrant(s)

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TRISHINE, 676 GEARY ST #105, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOMELYN CAOILE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/08/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039603600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CORDON BLEU RESTAURANT, 1574 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATIE YU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/15/95. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/18/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039629700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ORTHODONTIC CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO; JANICE C. TAM, DDS, MSD, 2411 OCEAN AVE #102, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANICE CAROL TAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/01. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039628100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FINITE FACTORY, 339 COLLINGWOOD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSE KRISS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039629900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as KATHARTIC STUDIO, 11 OAKWOOD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATHLEEN DONAHUE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/02/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/11/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039606200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SONJA CHENG DESIGN PRACTICE, 1463 19TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SONJA CHENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/21/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039627500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GIANTPIXELS STUDIO, 775 POST ST #511, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHAD DEMOSS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/22.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NOT LATTE, 2142 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HA TEA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/09/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039628600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ALCHEMY ARTS & HEALING ACADEMY, 2014 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ABC SF HOUSING INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/11/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039629000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CLAY OVEN INDIAN CUISINE, 1689 CHURCH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed APPAM SF CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039629100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CLAY OVEN INDIAN RESTAURANT, 385 WEST PORTAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed N MALHI SF CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/29/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039629200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as INDIA CLAY OVEN RESTAURANT AND BAR, 2436 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed COURTYARD SF CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/30/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039629300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as INDIAN OVEN, 233 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed J MALHI (SF) CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/29/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039626700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as VALENTI DIGITAL, 1072 14TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed APPLIED PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/08/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039628500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PACIFIC COCKTAIL HAVEN, 550 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed 580 SUTTER STREET MGMT, LLC (ON BEHALF OF 580 SUTTER STREET LP) (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/02/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039628700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SF EXPEDITIONS, LLC, 1700 VAN NESS AVE #1038, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SF EXPEDITIONS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/02/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/10/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039630700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as STUDIO RHYE, 3579 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHELLE LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039631400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ALCHEMY ART HEALING ACADEMY, 2014 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GEORGIA BUIE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039623600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LUCKY CAT STICKER, 158 FARALLONES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KA YI LI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/07/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039631100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as AFRICAN OUTLET, THE, 4942 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed JUDAH DWYER-DAHLSTROM & HORGAN EDET. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/03/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/22.

FEB 17, 24, MAR 03, 10, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039627600

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be: a drag haven, a place to be as flamboyant and disgustingly outrageous as possible without really shocking anyone, a people-watching paradise, or just a safe place to party with a family of freaks who knew your drag name and your birth name. With its Muppet Show starting theme, back then, it would be every Tuesday night when The Stud held court to the Trannyshack stage spectacle, and Jenkinson was there. It’s tucked within these chapters that the author shines with exuberantly shared stories and fond memories of the people in this “alternate universe” that made her heart sing. The memoir also pivots back in time to fill in the gaps in Jenkinson’s childhood (she wanted to be a fairy) and then races forward to describe her early embarrassment at the art of lip-syncing and, of course, the moments leading up to her crowning as Miss Trannyshack, and her performance legacy that soon followed. Like Jenkinson herself, the book can never be called boring. Her memoir crackles and buzzes with the frenetic energy of her boundary-shattering one-woman stage shows, her feminism, her passion for drag and performance, even the evolution of her stage-name transition from the misguided “Glory Holesome” to the brilliance of Fauxnique. It’s also a San Francisco namedropper’s extravaganza. But that doesn’t mean the book isn’t relatable or rewarding, even for readers of a younger generation who missed out on the party entirely. But sprinkled throughout are references to a veritable who’s who of San Francisco drag legends whom she credits with not only presenting a welcoming platform from which to perform her stage magic as Fauxnique, but also in offering unique, non-judgmental friendships that were solidaric, challenging at times, yet always comforting. Jenkinson’s journey is both a fantastic trip down memory lane and a reflective perspective on the vibrancy, diversity, and fabulousness of queer culture.t

by Jim Piechota

hen artist, performer, choreographer, and writer Monique Jenkinson won the Miss Trannyshack pageant in 2003 as creative persona Fauxnique, she made drag history in San Francisco and beyond. Her memoir, a dazzlingly unfettered exposé of life as a soulful performer, begins, of course, with style, fashion, and budding star quality. At eight, Jenkinson recalls her mother Mitzi driving them both from Modesto to San Francisco to attend a business dinner. Outfitted in a white linen dress with red tulip pockets, she was a precocious 1979 vision of grace and innocence. But when complemented by a particularly flamboyant man, something inside her triggered a distant kinship with him, a spark of relate-ability. She admits to always loving gay men and the community which helped foster her love of performance drag, a talent outlet honed to perfection after years spent “under the microscope of classical ballet training.” It was during this rigid ballet education when Jenkinson developed body dysmorphia, but soon transformed from a 1980s teenager into a fearless performer, thanks to legions of friends both inside and outside of clubland who ushered her beyond the velvet rope and onto the drag stage.

Art and drag

Monique Jenkinson’s memoir, ‘Faux Queen’

These friends are liberally scattered throughout the memoir and are animatedly depicted through dispatches of quick-witted dialogue and episodes of spastic, meticulously-detailed drag numbers. “The drag club gave me a release valve exactly when I needed it,” Jenkinson writes. “I walked into that queer space mortally afraid of saying the wrong thing, and the generous people there clobbered my

Lorraine Hansberry Two biographies on the life of ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ lesbian playwright by Brian Bromberger

ithin the last four years, playwright Lorraine Hansberry has had another long-deserved, long-delayed cultural moment. 2018 saw the electrifying PBS American Masters documentary about her life

Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart as well as a memoir/ tribute, Looking for Lorraine, by Imani Perry. Last year, Georgetown Professor Soyica Diggs Colbert published her Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry, a scholarly analysis of her written work. And now we have the first traditional mainstream biography by a major publisher written by Charles J.

fear with laughter.” As author Evan James writes in the book’s introduction, the San Francisco drag community in the late 1990s and early 2000s had been reveling in its own singularly creative subculture for years and now “appeared to be enjoying a special moment, part of a long and continuing process of mutation. Drag was busy both celebrating and transcending itself.” And an event named Trannyshack was the place to be, for whatever you wanted it to

Main photo: Fauxnique’s 2017 performance work, C*NT, or, The Horror of Nothing to See. Inset: Author Monique Jenkinson

Shields, a respected literary biographer. All this attention on Hansberry seems amazing for a writer who died at 34 and produced only one significant work in her lifetime. But Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun is now recognized as one of the greatest American plays of the 20th century. It also has the distinction of being the first Broadway play written by an African-American woman. In 2013, her full uncensored (meaning lesbian-themed) private papers, correspondence, diaries, articles, and unpublished manuscripts were made available to researchers, proving that Raisin in the Sun was just the tip of her creative genius iceberg, with her role as social critic underappreciated. Shields traces her family’s roots in Chicago. Lorraine’s father Carl was the most influential figure of her life, yet Shields’ reveals a complex, contradictory character as any Hansberry devised on stage. He was a real estate broker who saw that the increase in Black population, due to migration from the South to escape Southern Jim Crow laws, was driving many whites out of Chicago into the suburbs. Opposing racially restrictive housing covenants, Carl bought a house in an upscale white neighborhood for the family, and residents terrorized them. Shields describes the harrowing scene of mobs hurling a cement chunk through the window, almost hitting seven-year-old Lorraine in the head. Hansberry remembered her desperate and courageous mother “patrolling our house all night with a loaded German Luger, doggedly guarding her four children.” Her family’s past haunted her, as Hansberry had to flee Chicago on opening night of

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Raisin to avoid capture by the police because the city had issued arrest warrants for all the Hansberrys, including Lorraine, for unpaid fines and poor living circumstances. For the rest of her life, she instructed her lawyer to put legal distance between her and the family business. Despite her latent feminism, no novel advanced her understanding of lesbianism, though she would send pseudonymous letters to the Daughter of Bilitis’s magazine The Ladder and the editors urged her unsuccessfully to come out. Another inconsistency she never quite overcame was her connection to wealth. Shields implies her unease over the family’s fortune might have precipitated her move toward Marxist politics. Her journalist career at blacklisted entertainer/Communist advocate Paul Robeson’s magazine Freedom while living a bohemian Greenwich Village existence radicalized her, with some calling her a “Pan-Africanist with a socialist perspective.” She met such Black intelligentsia as W.E.B. DuBois, Alice Childress, Malcolm X, and her close friend James Baldwin. But her politics resulted in her becoming an F.B.I. surveillance target, betrayed by informants, with a file that grew to 1,000 pages at her death. Hansberry’s subsequent marriage to white Jewish Marxist activist and publisher Robert Nemiroff –a bold move in 1953 segregated America– reinforced her political convictions, though it was clear almost from the outset that they didn’t mesh sexually. See page 14 >>

Art & Music>>

L’art dans l’air

February 17-23, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

‘Imagine Picasso’ at The Armory

Imagine Picasso at The Armory

by Jim Provenzano

hile the Vincent van Gogh immersive art exhibit may be closing on March 6, soon to be replaced by a similar Frida Kahlo immersive experience, it’s clear that such projected art spectacles are here to stay. Downtown, an immersive 3D NFT art exhibit’s getting attendance at The Mint, and a Gustav Klimt exhibit scheduled to tour Boston, Phoenix and Toronto may be on its way. Meanwhile, at the San Francisco Armory, Imagine Picasso, a new immersive installation, is underway. While its creators are sincere in their devotion to the works of Pablo Picasso, including the endorsement of his grandson (who attended the press briefing from France via Zoom), it still leaves the question as to whether these spectacles actually bring viewers closer to the art or just provide a computer-assisted form of sometimes interesting entertainment. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) a singular master of Modern 20th-

century art, was born in Spain, and spent most of his life in France. His major works are recognizable to even the least devoted of visual art fans, and have been sold and resold at record prices. At the February 8 press opening for the Imagine Picasso installation, the French creators offered sincere thoughts on why they decided to create these installations. Conceptualized by Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron, pioneers of immersive, multi-projection experiences around the world, Imagine Picasso offers a new and modern perspective of Picasso’s unparalleled work. The creative team also includes architect Rudy Ricciotti and curator and art historian Androula Michael. 200 Picasso works are included in the show. Like the van Gogh exhibit (reviewed in May 2021), Imagine Picasso offers some visual dazzle with nicely matched audio scores for each phase of Picasso’s styles (traditional, Blue Period, Cubist, African-influenced, even a section focusing on his antiwar masterpiece, “Guernica”).

But are such exhibits really immersive or do they merely provide an opportunity for selfies (of which I’m also guilty)? While the front room offered informative animated clips in a historical context for Picasso’s work, and a panel of miniature reproductions of Picasso’s work as well as text panels showed the extent of his experience in multiple genres of visual art, the main room felt spacious, certainly, but a bit shy of depth. Along with huge wall set pieces that displayed 200 of Picasso’s works through his career, a few large center sculptural pieces (frames with stretched fabric) have been installed, each of them sharply angular like icebergs, perhaps skate park ramps or set pieces from a dramatization of the animated film The Point. And what is the point of such installations? The angled center structures, according to its designers, resolves the simple ‘verticality’ of a traditional exhibit. “This was really kind of problem for us,” said Mauger, ”because we didn’t know how to replace this verticality by something else, so we decided to use angles, and that’s was such a new way to understand the master’s work.” Mauger also stated that this is not an art exhibit exactly but more a “performance interpretation” of Picasso’s art, complete with a gift shop, of course. The problem is that for the projected works, we mostly see only a partial view; intentional, according to the design team. It is nice to see the Armory space being used for a new purpose since Kink.com left town and the fate of the building was in question. This is the same space where large circuit parties as well as hundreds of BDSM bondage videos and Naked Kombat wrestling/sex tapings and

Q-Music After Marianne and Melissa

events took place. That it’s now the home of a family-friendly Modern Art experience is perhaps not ironic, just funny. Nevertheless, I cannot help but recall a marvelous day in Paris in 1995 when I happened upon the Picasso Art Museum. Along with outdoor sculptures that one could touch, the palpable excitement of seeing an original artwork by a master, some strokes of paint thick enough to draw shadows, cannot be matched by slideshow of slightly animated spectacles. The fragility of a painting on canvas is missing. Yet Mauger and her team estimate that Picasso himself would have enjoyed such an exhibit. He was an innovator, even in his later years delving into multimedia, puppet shows and films. Frida Kahlo, however, would probably be dismayed by the overcommodification of her work even before such immersive shows. Reproductions of her art now verge on banal kitsch. And I can’t help but recall a scene in the rebooted Doctor Who (sea-

Monday 8am

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Tuesday 8am

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son 5, episode 10) where Vincent van Gogh (played by Tony Curran) is catapulted through time to see his work finally getting deserved exhibitions and devoted fans, leaving the destitute artist in joyful tears. But how would he feel about animated crows flying above him? Will viewers be encouraged to attend actual art museums and galleries to see art in person after having participated in such installations? That remains to be seen. At each of these events, face masks and proof of vaccination are mandatory.t Imagine Picasso at The Armory, through March 27. 1800 Mission St. $20-$50. www.imagine-picasso. com/san-francisco Immersive van Gogh, through March 6 at SVN West, Van Ness Ave. at Market Street. $40-$55. www.vangoghsf.com Immersive Klimt: www.immersiveklimt.com Verse: Immersive NFT Exhibit, SF Mint, 88 5th St. $65. www.versenftcryptoart.com/sanfrancisco/

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Proudly serving the community since 1977. Left to Right: Marianne Faithful, Melissa Etheridge, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Gypsum, Zvrra

by Gregg Shapiro

esbianism dabbler Marianne Faithfull is the very definition of a survivor. She triumphed over Mick Jagger and drug addiction. She returned from obscurity with the brilliant Broken English comeback album in 1979 and has gone on to record several albums since then. One of those albums, 1999’s Vagabond Ways (BMG) has just been reissued on 180-gram vinyl, marking the recording’s debut in the format. The 10 songs, sung in her trademark late-in-life growl, find Faithfull leaving her distinctive mark on songs by Elton John and Bernie Taupin (“For Wanting You”), Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters (“Incarceration of a Flower Child,” previously unrecorded by the prog-rock legends), and Leonard Cohen (“Tower of Songs”), and Daniel Lanois (“Marathon Kiss,” featuring Emmylou Harris on backing vocals), as well as a pair of songs – “File It Under Fun From the Past” and “Wider Shores of Love” – on which Faithfull is reunited with Broken English collaborator Barry Reynolds. It’s also worth mentioning that in 2020 Faithfull kicked COVID’s ass! Lesbian rock icon Melissa Etheridge released her eponymous

debut album almost 35 years ago. In that time, she went from being a midwestern roots rocker to a full-fledged superstar, as well as an outspoken LGBTQ icon. Sure, it’s been a while since she’s topped the charts, but that doesn’t mean she’s been sitting idle. Her latest release, One Way Out (BMG), is an interesting project in which she reunited with her original band members (the then and now photos are fab!) to record seven songs she composed in the late 1980s/early ’90s. Additionally, the album closes with a pair of vintage (2002 is vintage, right?) live recordings. In many ways, Faithfull and Etheridge paved the way for countless queer artists who came after them. New Orleans-based Bronx native Alynda Segarra aka Hurray for the Riff Raff is one such performer. On Life on Earth (Nonesuch), HFTRR’s first LP since 2017’s universally acclaimed The Navigator, Segarra has created a “nature punk” narrative over the course of 11 songs. With its “don’t turn your back on the mainland” mantra, the first single “Rhododendron,” as well as the irresistible “Pierced Arrows,” are message songs you can dance

to if so moved. The haunting title cut warns of leaving the planet “beyond repair,” and the spoken word anti-I.C.E. statement “Precious Cargo” is every bit as powerful as you might imagine. In a queerly poetic movie, Segarra is joined by acclaimed gay writer Ocean Vuong on “Nightqueen.” Queer LA-based female post-rock trio Gypsum makes a memorable impression with its years-in-themaking eponymous Sonic Ritual Records debut LP on limited edition 180-gram opaque vinyl. Distinctive and shimmering guitar work and percussive drumming combined with mesmerizing harmonies result in a modern sound with echoes of the past. This is especially true on the songs “Lungs,” “Gull Lake,” the kaleidoscopic “Kaleidoscope” and lightly funky “Satisfied.” Chicago-based trans musician Zvrra calls on techno and house influences for their five-track new EP Array of Light (Whited Sepulchre). The songs, numbered 1-5, share their name with the EP title, but each one offers its own unique electronic experience. The first recalls classic Paradise Garage disco, while there’s a dark wave aspect to the second, and the closing track is glittered with glitch.t

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<< Books

14 • Bay Area Reporter • February 17-23, 2022

AUTO EROTICA Keith Butler An ‘Unapologetic Memoir’

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emoirs by LGBTQ authors continue to be more popular than ever. Little Black Gay Boy: An Unapologetic Memoir of Surviving, Coming Out, and Recovering (Acta, 2021), by Keith Butler, is another addition to the genre. Butler, who grew up in Virginia before relocating to Chicago where he currently resides, has written a no-holdsbarred book about his personal struggles and his path to recovery.

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Gregg Shapiro: Keith, why was now the time to write your memoir Little Black Gay Boy? Keith Butler: I have been wanting to do this for so long but never thought I had a story to tell or that anyone would really care to hear it. Over the last five years, I have really done some intense work on myself and realized that my story could help others and it was time to get it out. You write with brutal honesty about your journey, ranging from childhood sexual abuse to coming out, to meth addiction, to recovery. Was there ever a point in the process of writing the book that you considered writing it as a novel instead of a memoir? No. I wanted people to know the truth about my life and by writing it as memoir they would hear my story in a compelling way because it really did happen this way. As a novel, people that I speak of, my family, could deny the things that I talk about but as a memoir, it’s my voice telling the truth about my experiences, and no one can deny or downplay my experiences In the book, you do write about the abuse you suffered at the hands of some of your rela-

Author Keith Butler

tives, which made me wonder if you were aware of whether any of them have read the book, and, if so, what they think of it? There are a couple of relatives that will read the book and I am sure they will not be happy to hear me tell the truth of the abuse I suffered because of their actions. I am really not concerned or care what they think after they read it because it’s the truth and maybe it’s time they look at the part they played in my upbringing. Each chapter of the book concludes with a “For Little Black Boys Who Want to…” mantra followed by advice that you offer the reader. Would it be fair to say that Little Black Gay Boy is as much a memoir as it is a self-help/advice book? My publisher wanted that piece added at the end of each chapter because even though the story, in some cases, could be universal, he wanted me to have a moment that I speak directly to “Little Black Gay Boys.” So, I guess you could say that. I feel it’s a brief conversation I get to have with them directly and a self-help book would have some numbered questions to

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Biographer Charles J. Shields

Lorraine Hansberry

From page 12

“I want one or two things which you simply cannot give,” she wrote. Hansberry pursued clandestine same-sex relationships, most of which were unsuccessful, calling herself a “heterosexually married lesbian,” though Shields moniker, the invisible lesbian, is probably more truthful. Nemiroff was her protector, editor, manager, and encouraged her to write even when in anguish she felt her work was a failure or useless. For better or worse, he was designated her literary executor after Hansberry died. He urged her to buy a house in Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County as a country writer’s retreat where there would be fewer distractions, but it also isolated her. In Raisin, Hansberry avoided her mistake made in previous plays of “putting picket signs on the stage.” For her, realism expressed in the Younger family’s relationships with each other, emboldened them, despite racism, not to give up. Freedom requires action as a form of witness, which for the Youngers, meant mov-

ing into a white neighborhood. Hansberry’s way to overcome injustice is to recognize the inherent dignity that unites all people, despite race, class, gender, or sexual difference, even if one is constantly tottering between despair and hope. James Baldwin wrote, “Never before in the entire history of the American theater had so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen on the stage.” As a feminist lesbian Black nationalist and internationalist,

reflect or write on that would be about them taking action to look at their lives. Beginning with the chapter “Chicago, My Kind of Town” you write about your relationship with your adopted hometown, where, in 2017, you were inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. What does such a distinction mean to you? When I was told I was being inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame, I broke down crying because I was being recognized and put in a category with some amazing people that had done so much for our community. To be told, “We see the work you have done to elevate our community,” meant my life and work really has meant something in the lives of others. I am so grateful that this is part of my legacy, and it motivates me to keep doing the work.t www.actapublications.com/littleblack-gay-boy

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com

Hansberry was arguing for intersectionality decades before it had even been defined. Her second Broadway play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, opened in October 1964, about a racially mixed group of activists dealing with racism, women’s rights, homosexuality, and suicide. She was dying of pancreatic cancer and didn’t have the energy to do the necessary rewrites. The critics were merciless in denouncing it, having instead hoped for an upbeat sequel to Raisin. With the exception of Baldwin, who had emigrated to Paris, Hansberry was the only person of color artist attempting to balance all these competing justice issues. There was no Black, lesbian, feminist community to support her. Even the lesbians she knew and intermingled with were white. A very serious lack in the book is that Shields devotes only 20 pages to her post-Raisin career when she became the female equivalent to Baldwin’s Black public intellectual spokesman, both willing to converse about racial democracy on TV talk shows. See page 15 >>

Biographer Imani Perry

Pageantry>>

February 17-23, 2022 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Imperial Coronation celebrations

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Royals galore and a glam toddler at 2020’s Coronation, held at The Park Central San Francisco

by David-Elijah Nahmod

n February 19, residents of San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo Counties will have the opportunity to vote for a new Empress and Emperor of San Francisco. Voting will take place at the Cinch, 1723 Polk Street, from 11am to 4pm, at the Castro Muni Station from 12 noon-6pm, and at the Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom Street, from 1pm-5pm. All voters must present valid ID proving residency in one of the three counties. Several related events are scheduled for the next two weeks. It was quite a year for outgoing Empress Juanita MORE!, who reigned over San Francisco with wit, glamour and compassion alongside her Emperor David Glamamore. Both have reigned since April 25. 2021. As she prepares to step down, MORE! looked back on her reign with pride. “The Emperor Mr. David Glamamore, The Court of More is MORE!, and I have worked tirelessly throughout this very chal-

lenging year to fundraise, create a bigger family, and build a stronger community,” MORE! told the Bay Area Reporter. “We have created one of the most diverse courts in the history of the Imperial family.” MORE! said she will never forget her year on the throne. “It has been an honor to serve San Francisco in this capacity,” she said. “I will forever be grateful.” Soon a new empress will be crowned, and in less than a week we’ll know who she is. For Empress candidate Ehra Amaya, this is an exciting time, a time of hope and reflection. Amaya came to this country eleven years ago from the Philippines, and for a time struggled to find her place in the community. But that soon changed. Amaya found a welcoming home with the Imperial Council. “The members welcomed me with open arms,” she said. “The organization has a long history of supporting our community and people who may feel that they don’t belong, people like me.”

impacted her life, personally and professionally. Yet even adopting this non-objective viewpoint, she conveys much more clearly than Shields why Hansberry remains relevant, why she was ahead of her time, and why people still want to learn about her life a half century after her death. Perry also analyzes much of her unpublished work (including Sappho’s poetry and lesbian short stories), seeing her radical politics as the key to interpreting her career, especially Raisin. Few could Photo of a scene from the play A Raisin articulate more brilliantly the struggle for human rights, in the Sun. From left-Louis Gossett even though Hansberry reluc(George Murchison), Ruby Dee (Ruth tantly concluded in despair, Younger) and Sidney Poitier (Walter Younger). Everyone shown in the photo that all forms of resistance (legal/illegal, violent/nonviolent) reprised their roles in the 1961 film. were necessary for black freedom, both here and in Africa. Lorraine Hansberry Shield’s book is at its From page 14 strongest tracing her literary influences. His biography works best There is nothing about her exas an introduction to Hansberry perience writing the screenplay for for readers familiar with Raisin the Raisin 1961 film, who know little about its author. One can only speculate what We can only hope as more scholHansberry might have achieved ars and activists investigate her had she had more time. The book private papers they will continue ends with one of her final heartto write about her, as it becomes breaking journal entries, while dyincreasingly clear Lorraine Hansing in hospital, desperately wanting berry was one of the inspirational to return to the Sidney Brustein founding mothers of Black Lives production. Matter and her spiritual artistic “The writing urge is on. Only presence echoes through every death or infirmity can stop me demonstration and protest.t now.” Shields brings the shadowy Lorraine Hansberry: The Life Hansberry back to life, but Perry’s Behind A Raisin in the Sun by book is the greater achievement Charles J. Shields. Henry Holt and because it restores her revolutionCompany, $29.99 henryholt.com ary voice, even if it is not a standard Looking for Lorraine: The Radibiography. ant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry. Beacon Perry’s slant is more what HansPress, $17.95. www.beacon.org berry means to her and how she

One of Amaya’s role models has been MORE! “She has always been amazing to me and definitely achieved what she set out to do,” Amaya said. “Juanita has shown a much needed spotlight on the organization, both in person and online. And naturally, she’s bolstered our ranks with a lot of fresh new faces and perspectives.” Amaya has high hopes for her reign should she win. She has set a fundraising goal of $100,000 to support the work of the organizations that will benefit from the council’s ongoing efforts to build a better community. “Should the wonderful people of San Francisco elect me their Empress, my mission will be to connect LGBTQIA+ people who need immigration, education and healthcare assistance with organizations that can help them,” she said. “Nonprofits that will offer stability, security and opportunity.” The Imperial Council has a number of events scheduled:

Empress Galilea 14th Annual Earthquake Party February 20, 4-7pm.

Absolute Empress 41 Galilea will be joined by Jackie Best, Stephen

Voting and parties fill the royal roster

Dorsey, and Marisol Miranda for the 14th edition of this fun party. Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk St.

In Town Show/Awards February 23, 6-9pm.

Hosted by outgoing Emperor and Empress David Glamamore and Juanita MORE! at Blackbird Bar, 2124 Market St.

Anniversary Monarch’s Reception February 24, 7-8:30pm

Hosted by Emperor XXVIII A. N. John Carillo and Absolute Empress XLIX Misty Blue. Ha-Ra Club, 875 Geary St.

Out of Town Show February 25, 6-9pm

Priority to reigning monarchs. The Cat Club, 1190 Folsom St. $25

Hospitality February 26 11am-2pm

The Imperial Council reserves the right to edit all protocol for brevity, they strictly observe the one title, one walk rule. No house names, award recipient titles permitted. Monikers will be permitted for reigning monarchs only. Hyatt Regency, 50 Third St.

Coronation 57 February 26, 5-11:55pm

Coronation starts promptly at 6pm at the Midway, 900 Marin St. Complimentary bus transportation from the host hotel will be provided starting at 4:30pm.

Annual Cemetery Pilgrimage February 27, 8-11am

Hosted by the Brotherhood of Emperors; bus departs host hotel at 8am; for the new monarchs to clean the plaque of our founder, then to Woodlawn Cemetery for the traditional pilgrimage to Emperor Norton and Empress Jose.

Victory Brunch February 27, 11:30am-1:30pm

Host Hotel, Hyatt Regency, 50 Third St. $30

Hawaii, Alaska and Texas Party (H.A.T. Party) February 27, 3-6pm

Hosted by the Courts of Hawaii, Alaska and Texas. Detour SF, 2200A Market St. For more info, visit www.sfimperialcouncil.org.

Ehra Amaya

Emperor candidate Brent Marek, outgoing Empress Juanita MORE! and Mr. David Glamamore, and Empress candidate Ehra Amaya

A sesquicentennial soirée of scenes from all 14 of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas. STAGE DIRECTOR: Nicolas Aliaga Garcia CONDUCTOR: David Drummond

CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF

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