January 12, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Gay man to lead sprawling Bay Area national park

by Matthew S. Bajko

Agay married dad with long ties to the Bay Area has been named the new superintendent for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The sprawling federal park site spans the counties of San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin.

David Smith, a 31-year veteran of the National Park Service, is set to become the new permanent GGNRA superintendent later this month. He will be the third LGBTQ leader of the 82,000-acre park over the past eight years.

Christine Lehnertz, a lesbian, served as the GGNRA’s first female superintendent between May 2015 and August 2016. She is now president and CEO of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, a philanthropic supporter of the national park site.

Craig Kenkel, a gay man, was named as the GGNRA’s interim superintendent in December of 2016. But he departed the following year when he returned to Cuyahoga Valley National Park to serve once again as its superintendent.

He had sought to remain in the position but lost out to another applicant. In January 2021 he took over as superintendent of Point Reyes National Seashore in the North Bay, where he continues to serve.

Since September 2014, Smith has been superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. He and his husband, John Evans, have two young adult children, daughter Jakiah and son Dante.

“I am thrilled to work with the staff and partners at Golden Gate to help visitors and families in the Bay Area and beyond enjoy one of America’s greatest and most unique park sites,” stated Smith in a January 9 news release about his appointment. “It is especially gratifying to return to the park after two decades and see the incredibly positive changes made by staff and partners. I’m anxious to get my feet on the ground in the park’s 50th anniversary year.” See page 10 >>

Atmospheric rivers wreak havoc in Bay Area

by John Ferrannini

There probably isn’t a single aspect of the Bay Area’s life that hasn’t been affected by the series of atmospheric rivers the state has been experiencing, which have shuttered businesses, closed freeways, led to power outages and, most tragically, at least 17 deaths in the past two weeks.

While officials were concerned about the

Russian River overflowing its banks, that has not happened so far. Those living in low-lying areas in the LGBTQ vacation destination of Guerneville and neighboring towns are advised to be on alert as the storms continue this week.

San Francisco saw 12.88 inches of rain over the prior two weeks (half a year’s total), KGOTV reported Tuesday. December 31 was the second-rainiest day in San Francisco history since record keeping began in 1849, seeing 5.46

inches (for the record the rainiest day was November 5, 1994, which saw 5.54 inches of rain).

Dave Karraker, a gay man who co-owns MX3 Fitness in the Castro, was hit harder than most. Karraker announced late Monday he resigned from his position as co-president of the Castro Merchants Association after his business was flooded on New Year’s Eve. (See related story, page 2.)

San Francisco supervisors elect Peskin as board president

by Matthew S. Bajko

The divisions among the San Francisco Board of Supervisors were on full display Monday as the 11 members voted to elect one of their own as board president for the next two years. After three supervisors were initially nominated for the powerful post, but no one was the winner after 12 votes, District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin emerged as the consensus candidate.

Though it took five more votes to elect him board president for a third time in the position. He was elected after 17 rounds on a 7-4 vote after gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman effectively dropped out of the running by voting for Peskin on the 16th vote.

“Much is made in the media about the alleged toxicity on this body, but I have to say that has not been my experience,” said Peskin. “We have differences, but I have found, even in the heat of debate, it has been a pleasure to work with my colleagues. I consider all to be my friends and look forward to work with you in a balanced way.”

The board’s progressives had split between District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who was elected president two years ago as the first Black man to wield the board gavel, and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, an immigrant woman of color. District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen had nominated Walton, while nominating Chan was District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, also an immigrant woman of color.

The board’s moderates backed Mandelman, whose name had also been floated three years ago to be president. District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani had nominated Mandelman, who would have been the first out board president since 2002, when former gay District 9 Supervisor Tom Ammiano passed on the gavel in early January of that year.

In 12 rounds of voting Melgar and Chan both voted for Chan, while the rest of the

progressives – Ronen, Walton, Peskin, Dean Preston (District 5), and Ahsha Safaí (District 11) – voted for Walton. Joining Mandelman in voting for him to become president were Stefani and gay Supervisors Matt Dorsey (District 6) and Joel Engardio (District 4).

At an impasse, Chan asked for nominations to be reopened, seconded by Peskin. With all but Dorsey and Engardio in support, the motion passed and Peskin nominated himself to once again be board president. He served in the role from 2005 through the start of 2009, while he had bowed out of the presidency contest in 2003 after the board had also deadlocked between three candidates.

“This was not on my list of things to do today, but I don’t want to get to that magic 15,” said Peskin, referring to the drawn out vote last week to elect Republican Congressmember Kevin McCarthy of California speaker of the House. “I am going to do something I have not done in 20 years and nominate myself in an attempt to break this logjam.”

Mandelman then asked for a “bathroom break,” and the board reconvened after a 10-minute break. Yet on the 13th vote, Peskin received no votes as the outcome remained the same with five for Walton, four for Mandelman, and two for Chan.

On the 14th vote Chan and Melgar threw their votes to Peskin, who voted for himself.

David Smith is the incoming superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Courtesy National Park Service

A swollen Russian River, seen Monday, January 9, from Highway 116 toward the walking bridge and Johnson’s beach in Guerneville.

George Pedroni

District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin was elected president of the Board of Supervisors after 17 ballots Monday, January 9.

Courtesy

Aaron Peskin

Biz group co-prez resigns after storm damage

by John Ferrannini

D ave Karraker, a gay man who co-owns MX3 Fitness in the Castro, among other locations, announced his resignation from the role of co-president of the Castro Merchants Association in an email late Monday.

Karraker, who, along with Terrance Allan, succeeded Masood Samereie in April 2022 as co-leaders of the business group, cited extensive damage done to the Castro location of his business due to the recent winter storms as the reason for his departure.

Karraker owns the gym along with his husband, Glenn Shope.

“With our gym in the Castro flooded during the New Year’s Eve rains and completely out of commission, along with a very rough 2022, I have made the very difficult decision to step away from Castro Merchants to focus on my family and our businesses,” Karraker wrote in his letter of resignation.

“Trust me when I say this decision did not come lightly as I believe Castro Merchants has made fantastic progress in the neighborhood in recent years – building on an already outstanding foundation

– which I am certain will continue under the leadership of President Terrance Alan and other members of the board.”

The merchants association did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Karraker told the Bay Area Reporter that he showed up at the MX3 Fitness on Market Street near 17th Street the morning of New Year’s Eve, during a bout of rain so

intense the 101 Freeway was closed in parts of San Mateo County.

“I showed up to check on the gym and when I was there the wall basically exploded in water,” Karraker said. “We took 700 gallons of water out of the gym. It was just gushing water that was stuck between us and Beaux.”

In a statement, Beaux managing partner Joshua Cook told the B.A.R. that the nightclub did not

sustain its own damage.

“We were not damaged by the storm at Beaux,” Cook stated. “We are very sorry that our neighbors at MX3 got the storm damage. We hope they are able to recover quickly.”

Karraker said the damage came at an awful time because New Year’s is typically when “people decide which gym they are going to join for the rest of the year.”

Karraker said that the space is seeing a soft re-opening this week; members can work out in part of the gym while repairs are done on the wall. Thankfully, he said, many members were able to be transferred to another location, at 16th and Guerrero streets.

Karraker also said he was “humbled beyond belief” that Core MVMT Pilates, a competitor across the street, started a GoFundMe for MX3, which has raised $7,378 of a $20,000 goal as of midday Tuesday.

“Anyone who knows Glenn [Shope] and his husband, Dave, knows they are the first people to show up and rally behind people when they are down,” stated Lisa Thomure, the owner of Core MVMT, who organized the GoFundMe. “From the moment I met Glenn, he has extended himself way beyond just a neighboring business owner – he has become a friend, mentor, cheerleader, and one of my biggest supporters. During the pandemic, Glenn and Dave created a coalition to unite the city’s fitness studios – a move that helped countless gyms in the city, including my own. Now they need

your help.”

The San Francisco Independent Fitness Studio Coalition lobbied for independent gyms and studios during the time of COVID pandemic restrictions.

Karraker also said his landlord has been “outstanding,” having sent out a crew within an hour of the December 31 incident.

Karraker said he is proud of his work at the merchants group, telling the B.A.R. that they have made progress in spite of the obstacles San Francisco has seen the past several years.

“We certainly faced a lot of challenges during my tenure, including the pandemic; the drug addicted and mentally ill who have taken up residency in our neighborhood; and an uptick in crime,” Karraker stated in his resignation letter.

“Through it all, I believe our organization led by example, initiating a significant number of projects to help support our members, including the city-funded program to compensate business owners for storefront windows/doors damaged due to vandalism and burglary; large-scale events to draw consumer foot traffic back to the Castro; being a very vocal, citywide leader in addressing the issues surrounding the unhoused (perhaps even inspiring some other neighborhoods!); and much more.”

Karraker was referring to a letter the merchants group sent to city leaders last summer demanding action on a number of issues business leaders experienced, including homeless encampments and people struggling with apparent mental health issues, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

What generated the most buzz, however, was a statement – not part of the letter – that threatened civil disobedience by businesses withholding fees they pay to the city. In December, a group calling itself the Tenderloin Business Coalition also contacted city officials with similar concerns in that part of the city. They are demanding a refund of taxes and fees to help them cover the costs of trying to sustain businesses amid the crime and drug dealing on the neighborhood’s streets, as the B.A.R. reported.

“I will continue to be a very vocal supporter of the neighborhood I love so much,” Karraker said. t

From page 1

“I showed up to check on the gym and when I was there the wall basically exploded in water,” Karraker said. “We took 700 gallons of water out of the gym. It was just gushing water that was stuck between us and Beaux.”

Flooding the same day shuttered Rainbow Grocery, a worker-owned co-op in the Mission adjacent to the Central Freeway, though it had reopened by January 6, according to an emailed announcement.

“We cannot foresee what will happen in the weeks to come with heavier rain on its way, but we promise to keep you updated with our current status and any pertinent news,” the

grocery stated. “Please consider telling your friends, family and neighbors that there are great independent and local businesses that suffered damage this past week and need support, like us – Shop local!”

Rainbow Grocery warned that “there may be limited or out-of-stock products for a short time” and that “parking will also be slightly impacted.”

Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, the LGBTQ reform synagogue near Mission Dolores Park, has moved its Shabbat services to virtual-only for the time being due to the flooding damage.

“The flooding over the last few days has hit 290 Dolores hard,” the synagogue announced in an email to

Flood damage hit MX3 Fitness in the Castro, leading proprietor Dave Karraker to resign as co-president of the Castro Merchants Association.

Courtesy Dave Karraker MX3 Fitness owner Dave Karraker

Courtesy Dave Karraker

Havoc

Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins released this photo of the swelling Russian River earlier this week.

Courtesy Lynda Hopkins

Alameda County supervisors seek recounts

by Matthew S. Bajko

Alameda County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to seek a recount of the votes cast in an Oakland school board election where the certified winner, a transgender married dad, it turns out did not receive the most votes. The five supervisors are also seeking recounts in the Oakland mayor’s race and two closely decided races in San Leandro, though it remains to be seen if they have a legal pathway to conduct the electoral tabulation do-overs.

All four of the races were decided by ranked-choice voting. But in a shocking turn of events, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis disclosed December 28 that his office had not properly counted ballots in the races.

The error didn’t affect the outcomes of any of the contests except the Oakland District 4 school board race, said Dupuis, though he did not disclose at the time what the results should have been. By then Dupuis had already certified on December 8 Nick Resnick as the winner.

“Definitely a situation we had to remedy,” Dupuis, who is now facing calls from the public that he resign or be replaced, told the Board of Supervisors at its meeting this week.

As the Bay Area Reporter has previously reported, Resnick’s being certified the winner meant he was the first transgender person elected to oversee a K-12 public school district in

California. And it made him only the second trans man elected to an education post in the Golden State.

The winner of the race, however, was Mike Hutchinson, who has been serving in the District 5 seat on the Oakland school board. The revelation has now mired the candidates in a legal morass, with Hutchinson last Friday seeking the Alameda County Superior Court to declare him the winner.

At a special meeting of the supervisors last week, Dupuis disclosed that Hutchinson’s vote tally should have been 12,421, giving him 50.52% of the total ballots cast to win the race. Thus, Resnick actually came in second place with 12,165 votes under the rankedchoice system, for 49.48% of the vote.

“Upon receiving this information l filed a petition in court to have a judge certify the correct results and declare me the winner of the election,” Hutchinson noted in a January 6 Facebook post.

Nonetheless, Resnick took his oath of office Monday, January 9, to become a member of the Oakland Unified School District board. He has also brought on attorney Jim Sutton

to represent him, who has raised “serious concerns” about how Dupuis has handled the ballot count mishap.

In a statement released January 5 Resnick’s campaign stated, “We question whether the new results accurately reflect the intent of the voters who filled out the ballots in question. I believe in Oakland voters and that they understand the ranked choice voting process.”

Resnick reiterated that he is “extremely proud to have been elected to the Oakland Unified School Board. I am honored by the opportunity to serve and believe that I can provide real leadership representing the residents, families, and students of District 4.”

What happens now still remains unclear. An attorney for Hutchinson called in to the supervisors’ January 10 meeting to agree with several other speakers that the “time for a recount has expired” and asked that whatever action the board took didn’t interfere with the court intervention the candidate is seeking.

Even Alameda supervisors voiced confusion Tuesday on if they had the legal authority to seek a recount in the four races. Supervisor David Haubert

asked of county counsel if it was “legal to do this still?”

To which County Counsel Donna Ziegler responded, “I believe we have a colorful claim. If the board approves these recs, the intent of county counsel is to pursue legal avenues for those reparations. Our intent is to pursue these goals by legal means.”

Supervisor Keith Carson had instigated the call for the recounts, the costs of which would be covered by the county registrar’s office. He addressed the questions about the relevancy of a recount now that Resnick and the winners of the other races have taken their oaths of office.

“We have direct oversight of the registrar’s office,” Carson noted. “Our attempt (is) to do checks and balances but also credibility for current issue as well as try to instill trust in Alameda County in the process of voting and selecting our government.”

The supervisors also voted to form a public oversight committee tasked with ensuring Alameda County properly conducts its elections going forward. t

CA bill aims to protect transgender youths’ privacy

by Matthew S. Bajko

Legislation introduced this week by gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) aims to protect the privacy of transgender youth in California. It would do so by requiring the courts to seal any petition for a change of gender or sex identifier filed by a minor.

Ward announced Janu-

ary 10 that he had filed Assembly Bill 223, which has been titled the Transgender Youth Privacy Act.

“Being ‘outed’ is a traumatic event for anyone –but especially traumatic for someone under the age of 18 years old,” stated Ward, a married father now serving in his second two-year term. “The Transgender Youth Privacy Act gives transgender

youth the confidence to navigate their gender identity without fear of retaliation from someone who discovers that information in the public record.”

The bill is seen as helping to address the mental health and well-being of trans youth. Ward pointed to a federal study that found transgender youth are three times more likely to attempt suicide than their cisgender peers, and other surveys that have found transgender youth are more likely to experience violence victimization, substance use, and depression.

Because a change of gender or sex identifier petitions are currently public records, it is possible for someone to learn that a youth is in the process of transitioning from the sex they were assigned at birth. Yet advocates of Ward’s legislation note that “outing” or “misgendering” someone can have severe negative consequences for adolescents.

They contend minors should be able to decide when, and how, they share their personal information with their peers.

“Often families were not even aware that these records are public until years after when a court order is discovered in a Google search of the youth’s name,” stated Kathie Moehlig, executive director of San Diego-based TransFamily Support Services. “Keeping these records public will put many students at high risk for bullying, hatred, and even violence.”

Moehlig’s adopted son Sam, now an adult, transitioned during his adolescence.

eligible for financial assistance, and 9 out of 10 members have received help to pay for their coverage. Plans can be as low as $0/mo and cover preventive care, doctor visits, hospitalizations, and more. Find a plan that’s right for

Nick Resnick was sworn into the District 4 Oakland school board seat January 9 even as it was revealed by the county registrar’s office that he did not receive the most votes.

Courtesy Nick Resnick

Assemblymember Chris Ward

Courtesy Chris Ward

Project maps queer Oakland with elders’ stories

by Heather Cassell

Queer and lesbian oral storytelling professional Elena BotkinLevy’s Mapping Queer Oakland brings the city’s diverse and unique LGBTQ stories to light.

San Francisco usually “gets all the praise and all the conversation around queerness,” Botkin-Levy said in a recent interview, but as an Oaklander she knew the city’s queer community had “incredible stories.”

At the same time, she wanted to tap into the conversations “around displacement and elders not having space” while exploring the ways “they call this place home or have called this place home” and the ways they arrived in Oakland, she said.

The community responded positively, and nearly double the number of people she had the capacity to interview answered her call to tell their stories, said Botkin-Levy. It inspired her to want to continue finding ways to add to the map in the future.

“It feels like such a beautiful array of people that are profiled,” said Botkin-Levy about the participants who ranged from Oakland natives to those who moved to The Town from San Francisco and other cities.

The participants – Janet Halfin, Norma Austin, Kenneth Kozi Arrington, Melanie DeMore, Jim Allio, Tupili Lea Arellano, Randy Jordan, Mali (Ernest Andrews), Pamela Spevack, Valerie Chan – all were different.

Each person tells three stories about “different aspects of their life” that are shown on the Oakland map and beyond, Botkin-Levy said.

One of her favorite stories is Mali and Jordan’s love story, she said about the longtime couple who are “madly in love.”

“I love their story,” Botkin-Levy said.

In the couple’s recorded love story, the two HIV-positive men came to Oakland and met in the 1980s at the Eagle Creek bar. Jordan and Mali contracted the virus in 1986 and 1987, respectively, they said. At the bar, Mali was doing HIV/AIDS outreach and Jordan was simply having a drink at the time. The two men circled each other “like satellites” for years after they first met until they finally got together in 1995, they said.

Mali called Jordan his “refuge” from his work where he faced racism and other issues.

“I realize the impact we had on other people just even being present and then I realized that was something special,” Mali said.

Jordan said he counts his blessings that he found the love of his life.

“Sometimes he may get sick of me saying, ‘I love you!’ but I’m just saying it because it was in my heart. I love you. I have no shame in saying it because I do,” he said.

The stories have received a positive response from the public since the project went live in June. “There’s been a great reception,”

said Botkin-Levy, stating that the site has received 1,273 visitors since Pride Month.

The seed

An oral storytelling professional, Botkin-Levy said she was inspired to produce the Mapping Queer Oakland Project by her former work on the Intergenerational Storytelling Project that she worked on at the now-defunct outLoud Radio.

The Intergenerational Storytelling Project was a collaboration between San Francisco’s LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ+ Youth [LINK: https://lyric.org/] and outLoud Radio, the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.

OutLoud Radio was a youth media organization that helped queer youth – many of them low-income and of color – learn media and leadership skills through storytelling. The program was acquired by YR Media in 2014, according to a new release from the organization at the time.

“There was such joy and such incredible exchange in the project,” Botkin-Levy said, recalling the program. “It was an inspiration for me in a lot of ways.”

Building the vision

Botkin-Levy chose to focus the first iteration of Mapping Queer Oakland on LGBTQ elders. She missed that connection between generations that isn’t common in the queer community.

“I just feel like it’s really rare to have an intergenerational conversation in general and particularly in the queer community,” she said, adding, “I haven’t seen an oral history project like this specific to Oakland.”

In 2019, Botkin-Levy set out to gather some oral histories from LGBTQ Oaklander elders with the help of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center and Berkeley’s Pacific Center for Human Growth. The centers helped her get the word out, select the first 10 interviewees who were 60 or older, and provided the space for her to record, she said. She did a small release of the interviews that year.

In 2021, Botkin-Levy found an opportunity to build on those initial interviews to bring her vision for Mapping Queer Oakland to life. The City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program was giving grants to individual artists for projects. The Oakland City Council approved a $7,000 grant for the project in No-

vember 2021, confirmed Raquel Iglesias, program analyst of cultural funding at the Cultural Affairs Division, Economic and Workforce Development at the City of Oakland.

Botkin-Levy started working on the project last January. She tapped Kin Folkz at the East Bay Queer Arts Center and Joe Hawkins at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center as advisers for the program.

Folkz said advising the project through both the EBQAC and Spectrum Queer Media, Folkz’s social justice and media literacy organization, was important. The center’s long history and vast network of San Francisco Bay Area community members and organizations allowed the project to reach a broad range of people. Spectrum provided access to other marginalized LGBTQ folks and one of the recording spaces for interviews.

“Each story from Bay Area elders who have lived in Oakland for years stands as a much needed voice and a powerful platform for both LGBTQ+ visibility and longevity,” Folkz said.

Hawkins did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The grant allowed Botkin-Levy to do longer interviews and build up the website. She paid the participants an honorarium, and hired an editor and a graphic designer for the website and accompanying zine. The zine was published in a limited print run and digitally on the project’s website.

Botkin-Levy called the LGBTQ elders’ stories “a lighthouse in a lot of ways” for her generation and younger generations.

“These are stories that help us tell our own histories,” Botkin-Levy added. “As Oakland changes and grows, and we think about queer community in new and different ways, it’s just valuable and informative and inspiring to remember, honor, and hear these stories.”

Currently, there isn’t a way people can donate to the Mapping Queer Oakland Project, Botkin-Levy said. She guided people to donate to the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center and the East Bay Queer Arts Center, both of which supported the project, and she plans to continue collaborating with them in the future.

To donate to the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, go to https://bit.ly/3CEQtYt. To donate to the East Bay Queer Arts Center, go to https://bit.ly/3VUWnve. t

The lack of resources the family was able to access prompted her to launch the nonprofit eight years ago.

Ward’s bill will go a long way toward securing “the safety and privacy of so many California youth,” according to Moehlig.

“Transgender and nonbinary youth are navigating a world of hate daily. By sealing the name and gender marker change records, we are bringing the courts in line with the laws around schools not outing students,” she stated. “We applaud Assemblymember Ward for bringing this forward and fighting for the right of trans and nonbinary youth across the state.”

It is the second bill filed this legislative session related to LGBTQ youth. As the Bay Area Reporter first reported last month, freshman gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-West Hollywood) introduced AB 5, the Safe and Supportive Schools Act, as one of his first two bills he is carrying this year.

If adopted, the bill would mandate that teachers and credentialed staff at the state’s 977 public school districts take an online LGBTQ cultural competency training course when it goes live next year.

The California Department of Education is working with the Los Angeles County Office of Education and the San Joaquin Office of Education on developing the training.

The state agency in late 2022 told the B.A.R. it intends to debut the online training in conjunction with Pride Month in June 2024. Should they meet that timeline, it would mark five years after state lawmakers first called for such a professional seminar to be created.

As Zbur had explained to the B.A.R., he authored AB 5 to ensure that the previous legislation calling for creation of the training didn’t end up “sitting on the shelf” somewhere in Sacramento. As the former executive director for the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California, Zbur had pressed for its passage. t

Mapping Queer Oakland Project producer Elena Botkin-Levy Courtesy Elena Botkin-Levy/GEMS Oral Histories

by Cynthia Laird

California Governor Gavin Newsom was upbeat in his second inaugural address January 6 even as he acknowledged the harmful mistakes of the past and criticized Republican leaders in other states.

Held on the second anniversary of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Newsom, a Democrat who easily won reelection in November, said Republican leaders “cry freedom but dictate choices people are allowed to make.”

“And yet, there are still forces in America that want to take the nation backward,” he said. “We saw that two years ago, on this day, when the unthinkable happened at a place most Americans assumed was invincible.

An insurrectionist mob ransacking a sacred pillar of our democracy, violently clashing with sworn officers up holding the rule of law.

“Since that terrible day, we’ve wres tled with what those events say about us, as a country,” the governor added.

“The ugliness that overflowed on January 6, 2021, was in fact decades in the making. Fomented by people who have a very different vision of America’s future.”

Newsom led a People’s March be fore his inauguration, which went from the Tower Bridge to the Capi tol Mall in downtown Sacramento. Among those taking part was Lieu tenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, who herself was sworn into a second term January 5.

LGBTQ leaders heralded the start of Newsom’s second four-year term.

“Congratulations, @CAGovernor @GavinNewsom, on your inaugura tion!” tweeted lesbian state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (DSan Diego). “I look forward to con tinuing to work with you to tackle the important issues facing our great state.”

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco) was also pleased.

“I congratulate Governor Newsom on his inauguration, and look forward to working with him to tackle critical challenges facing California like the housing shortage, the mental health crisis, and the upcoming fiscal cliff for public transportation,” Wiener stated to the Bay Area Reporter.

Held outdoors at Plaza de Califor nia, a park near the Capitol, Newsom was sworn in by new California Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, whom New som had administered the oath of of fice to just a few days earlier, on Janu ary 2. His family surrounded him: first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and their children Montana, Hunter, Brooklynn, and Dutch. Newsom joked at the top of his remarks that during his first inauguration four years ago, he was holding then-2-yearold Dutch in his arms.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about time,” Newsom, a San Francisco na tive, said. He recalled as a child of di vorced parents and who had dyslexia he did not want to go to school. Fi nally, one day his father, the late Judge William Newsom, picked him up one day “in his VW bus and took me to Chinatown.”

“I entered a completely different realm,” Newsom recalled.

Later in his speech, he pointed out that Chinatown was a remnant of rac ist laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act, which curbed Chinese immigration, and exclusionary zoning that prevent ed minorities from owning property in certain areas.

California also had its homophobic hate with the Briggs initiative in 1978, Newsom said. That ballot measure, which voters rejected, would have banned gays and lesbians from work ing as schoolteachers.

“It was our 1970s version of ‘Don’t Say Gay,’” Newsom said, referring to the law signed last year by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that

bans classroom discussion or teach- said. “They silence speech, fire teach-

what’s to come, Californians are in for a rough ride,” she stated. “Newsom’s first-term record includes three straight years of population decline, an outrageous cost of living, a mounting homeless crisis that now includes half of the nation’s unsheltered people, failing schools, inadequate water storage, lies about wildfire prevention efforts, and a commitment to release tens of thousands of violent criminals from prison early.

“Whether lecturing red states, plotting a laughable White House run, or making the rounds on cable news, the only lesson he’s actually teaching the nation is how to move your state in the wrong direction,” Patterson added.

Marriage equality

The governor mentioned his own history-making effort to jump-start marriage equality back in 2004 when

marriage ban. Lawsuits followed, culminating in a federal trial in 2010. In August 2010, following the trial, Judge Vaughan Walker, who was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush, ruled that Prop 8 was indeed unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that Walker’s ruling could go into effect, two years before the nation’s highest court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. Walker came out as gay after his ruling and retired from the bench in 2012.

“Just a few weeks ago, President [Joe] Biden enshrined the freedom to marry,” Newsom said, referring to the Respect for Marriage Act the president signed December 13.

The new law repeals the discriminatory “Defense of Marriage Act” that Congress passed in 1996 but had key provisions struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 (Section 3,

Governor Gavin Newsom, left,

by new state Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero

first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and their children

We’re looking for action by new SF board

Yes, we’re excited and optimistic, because for the first time ever, three gay men are serving as elected members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Rafael Mandelman represents District 8 that includes the Castro; Matt Dorsey represents District 6, which includes South of Market; and Joel Engardio is the new supervisor in District 4, which includes the Outer Sunset on the city’s western side. Mandelman was reelected, Dorsey was elected after being appointed to the position last year by Mayor London Breed; and Engardio staged a true upset by defeating former supervisor Gordon Mar. Trust us when we say it’s not easy to beat an elected incumbent.

The three joined their eight colleagues Monday for the board’s organizational meeting to elect a president. The voting went to 17 ballots as Mandelman, District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, and District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, the board’s previous leader, failed to secure six votes to win. It was District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin who, in an effort to break the logjam, nominated himself and after several more rounds of voting, emerged as the board president on a 7-4 vote. Peskin, an expert on the City Charter and the board’s longest serving member, has led the supervisors before and has the ability to bring the different factions together. He will need all of his experience as the city navigates many challenges this year. Those include addressing a looming $728 million budget deficit, adopting a Housing Element with 80,000 units established over the next eight years, and reviving downtown and other neighborhoods as the city recovers from the COVID pandemic.

Dorsey pointed out that 16 years ago, then-mayor Gavin Newsom, now the state’s governor, complimented Peskin on his ability to lead the board. Peskin, who had initially supported Walton for a second term as board president, said he had not planned to nominate himself, but with the supervisors deadlocked, he threw his hat into the ring. It was enough to bring the Mandelman and Chan supporters to his side.

During remarks later in the meeting, Dorsey, who openly talks about his recovery from substance use addiction and is HIV-positive, said

addressing the city’s overdose crisis is one of his top priorities, along with public safety. A former spokesperson for San Francisco Police Chief William Scott, Dorsey also served in that capacity for many years for former city attorney Dennis Herrera (now manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission). He said that residents he talked to during his campaign didn’t complain about how much in taxes they pay, but they do want the city to spend public dollars wisely.

Peskin, too, is in recovery. Nearly two years ago he sought treatment after several complaints were raised about his behavior. On Monday, he noted, “This is my 19th month of sobriety” and thanked those who helped him.

During his remarks, Engardio touched on themes he talked about at his January 7 swearing in ceremony. Public safety and education are his two priorities, along with the budget. “San Francisco needs to be a more family-friendly city,” he said, adding he wants to end the openair drug dealing that plagues some neighborhoods, especially the Tenderloin.

He also put nonprofits that contract with the city on notice. He said reports from the city controller “should be taken seriously” and that those agencies that misspend public dollars should be

identified and even shut down.

Mandelman acknowledged that he and his colleagues won’t agree on everything. He, too, wants to focus on public safety and “try and get those 500 officers” for the San Francisco Police Department, which is short-staffed. He also pointed out that the recent election didn’t signal an ideological shift among the electorate. “Voters didn’t lurch to the right,” he said, “but want a government that works. San Francisco is always more than a city, it’s an ideal, a shining city on a hill.”

Mostly, though, Mandelman was ecstatic that he finally has more gay colleagues. For most of his first term, he was the only LGBTQ supervisor, and, until recently, the only one in the ninecounty Bay Area. (Ken Carlson, a gay man, was elected supervisor in Contra Costa County in November.) “I’m overjoyed to have both of you,” Mandelman said to Dorsey and Engardio.

So as this new Board of Supervisors “gets to work,” as several said, the priorities are clear to us. Deal with the budget deficit in a way that won’t decrease existing services, and try new things like supervised consumption sites – or wellness hubs, as they’re now being referred to – to stem overdose deaths and offer a way into treatment for people who want it. The city needs to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars it allocates for homeless services more strategically, and needs to quicken the pace for housing at all levels, but especially affordable and below-market-rate units to help people get off the street. In terms of public safety, more officers are needed, but so are alternatives, like social workers who can respond to mental health calls.

We’re looking to Peskin to make strong appointments to the board’s committees and for the supervisors to work collaboratively to solve the city’s problems. That means saying yes to housing projects instead of empty parking lots. That means standing firm against the Biden administration to try new things like supervised consumption sites. And that means taking a hard look at the budget to eliminate duplicate spending or adjusting contracts with nonprofits if they aren’t meeting the necessary objectives and outcomes. Most residents want the city to work better, as Mandelman said. Now is the time for the Board of Supervisors to help make that happen. t

Reflecting on 2022 as we forge ahead into the new year

by Nguyen Pham

2 022 was a year of incredible highs and regressive lows, exhilaration and devastation, and many measures in between. As an American, I am alarmed by a widespread backlash created by deliberately discriminatory actions to roll back the human rights of LGBTQ+ people at the state level. In the lead up to November’s midterm elections, Republican candidates across the country ramped up LGBTQ+ bashing rhetoric and anti-trans hate messaging, equating gender-affirming health care and medical services with child abuse. From harassment at drag queen story hours to white nationalists arrested at Pride events and to the unfathomably tragic Club Q massacre, regressive policies have had real life consequences.

On a local level, the news has not been quite as bleak – we have seen tangible strides toward addressing injustices against marginalized members of our community. The launch of a guaranteed income pilot program for transgender residents put San Francisco at the forefront of policies that sustain the most vulnerable among us while paving the way for increased inclusion.

As president of SF Pride, I am energized by the steps we are collectively taking to enshrine radical inclusion in everything we do. While we are celebrated throughout the world for the SF Pride Parade and Celebration, we are striving toward making an impact beyond that one storied weekend of the year. Making an impact on a consistent basis is our resolution for 2023.

SF Pride is embracing the concept of living “Pride 365,” in essence, expanding the model of Pride beyond that one iconic annual weekend. Programs that translate this concept into actionable reality include our annual SF Pride

Ken Jones Awards reception and fundraiser as well as our history-making SF Pride Pro-Am Golf Tournament, which remains the first and only LGBTQ+ golf event en dorsed by the PGA.

Diversifying revenue is another priority, with an aim toward individual and community giving to balance out the corporate support that has been a key part of the event’s fiscal equation, and in keeping SF Pride a free event for everyone. Activities scheduled to take place throughout the year will support the Pride 365 model, divesting Pride from being anchored to only one weekend in June.

In the face of the onslaught of anti-trans legislation, our organization is focused on showing stronger solidarity against legislative and corporate efforts to harm or erase the communities they are sworn to protect

and represent. Giving voice to the voiceless and showing solidarity with critical community causes, including trans affirmation, reproductive rights, and economic justice are all key components of the Board’s collective mission.

This inclusivity speaks to the theme selected by members for 2023: “Looking Back and Moving Forward.” SF Pride’s renewed focus is on honoring those who fought before us, those on whose shoulders we stand today; forging on our path ahead bravely, harmoniously, and in solidarity with one another. As we gear up for our annual marquee event, we are proud to serve as a beacon for the LGBTQ+ community we serve every day of the year.

SF Pride is already well into the planning stages for the 2023 parade and celebration, which promises to be a reimagined experience all around, with emphasis on local voices and talent that bring vibrancy to the Bay Area’s arts and culture. Making the event more accessible is another priority as we focus on welcoming people of all income and ability levels.

In 2023, we are very excited about the return of the second fully in-person SF Pride Parade and Celebration since lockdown. We acknowledge and are grateful for SF Pride’s role as an important driver of San Francisco’s economic vibrancy and vitality, and part of our purview is to reimagine Pride as being truly and radically of, by, and for our communities. t

Nguyen Pham, a gay man, is president of the San Francisco Pride Board of Directors. For more information about SF Pride, go to https://sfpride.org/.

SF Pride board President Nguyen Pham

Courtesy SF Pride

The three gay members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Rafael Mandelman, Joel Engardio, and Matt Dorsey, stand together in the board chambers Monday, January 9.

Courtesy Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club

Barry

LGBTQ CA senators given key committee chairmanships

by Matthew S. Bajko

As state leaders grapple with a projected $22 billion budget deficit this year, LGBTQ members of the California Senate will be in key leadership posts to help address fiscal matters and other policy issues in 2023. Of particular note, lesbian Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (DSan Diego) has tapped her chamber’s two freshmen LGBTQ members for key committee assignments.

Chairing the Senate’s Budget Subcommittee #3 on Health and Human Services is lesbian Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley). Meanwhile, gay Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) is chair of the Budget Subcommittee #4 on State Administration and General Government.

In a tweet thanking Atkins for the chairmanship, Menjivar wrote, “As a social worker and previous EMT, I know how important it is to ensure our public healthcare systems are properly funded, with equitable distribution and access.”

As for the other LGBTQ members of the Senate, gay Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) is chairing Budget Subcommittee #1 on Education. He is also a member of the Budget and Fiscal Review committee along with Menjivar, Padilla, and lesbian Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman (DStockton), chair of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, who is also serving on the budget subcommittee chaired by Menjivar.

Eggman, also tapped as the Senate Democrats’ assistant majority leader, is chairing the Health Committee. Among its members are Menjivar and gay Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).

“It has a broad & crucial jurisdiction that impacts everyone across CA. I’m excited to continue working to ensure our behavioral health system meets people where they are & leaves no one behind,” tweeted Eggman.

For the sixth year in a row Wiener is chairing the Housing Committee, with Padilla one of its members. Among his top priorities this year, Wiener aims to make it easier for nonprofits and religious institutions to build housing on the property they own.

“I’m honored and humbled that our leader, Senator Toni Atkins, has once again given me the opportunity to help lead California’s fight for a better housing future – one in which people can find and afford good housing,” stated Wiener. “California continues to suffer the worst housing shortage in the nation, the costs of which are felt in working people’s dinner tables and throughout our economy.”

Having come under attack last year, including being subjected to death threats and threatened bombings of his home and offices, for his not only

being gay but also Jewish, Wiener this year will be co-chairing the California Legislative Jewish Caucus along with Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (DEncino). (The affinity group includes among its 18 members gay Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Santa Monica, and Chris Ward, D-San Diego, along with Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, a straight ally.)

“At a time of growing antisemitism, it is more important than ever we have strong Jewish leadership in the Legislature,” stated Wiener. “As a Caucus, we work to ensure California’s safety as a home for the Jewish people and to share our values of repairing the world, kindness, and caring for the stranger.”

As for Atkins, she is once again chair of the Rules Committee, with Laird among its members. He is vice chair of the Joint Committee on Rules, whose members include Atkins and Wiener, and is a member of the Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee.

Both Laird and Wiener are members of the Judiciary Committee, while Wiener also sits on the Appropriations; Governance and Finance; and Public Safety committees. (Another freshman, Senator Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, is chairing Public Safety.)

Laird is also serving on the Natural Resources and Water Committee with Padilla and Eggman. He and Eggman are also on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Eggman’s other committee assignments include seats on Business, Professions and Economic Development; Energy, Utilities and Communications; Legislative Ethics; the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management; and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Padilla was also named a member of the latter as well as the Agriculture and Governmental Organization committees, plus the Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies.

As for Menjivar, she is also serving on the Elections and Constitutional Amendments; Environmental Quality; Human Services; and Military and Veterans Affairs committees.

Despite the looming legislative battles to shore up the state’s finances and pass a balanced budget by the summer, Atkins noted legislators in Sacramento are heading into those talks from a position of strength.

“The state budget is a testament to our values – our promise to uplift all Californians. We’re seeing that in action as local communities, emergency responders, and state agencies do all

they can to help us get through these severe winter storms, armed with the resources and tools made possible in past budgets by lawmakers determined to prepare our state for what may come. While no one can predict the future, we are entering this year from a position of strength and readiness,” Atkins stated Tuesday after Governor Gavin Newsom released his 2023-24 state budget proposal.

Looking to 2024 campaigns

Attention already is turning to the 2024 election cycle, with Congressmember Katie Porter (D-Irvine) Tuesday launching her bid for the state’s U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Her announcement follows speculation all last year on whether Feinstein would resign early, reportedly due to growing health issues, or opt against seeking reelection next year.

“I’m a single mom of three schoolaged kids who drives a minivan and uses a whiteboard to break down the math behind corruption and greed. I’ve spent my career – both before and after being elected to the House – taking on special interests and delivering for working people, and I’m running for the Senate because Californians deserve a warrior fighting for them in Washington,” wrote Porter, 49, in a January 10 email to her supporters.

Feinstein, 89, a former mayor of San Francisco, first won election to her Senate seat in 1992. Expected to announce her electoral plans by the spring, Feinstein told the Los Angeles Times last month that she intends to serve out her current term.

Speculation has also circled for months around Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) on if she will either resign early or opt to retire when her current term ends in 2024. Reelected in November, Pelosi stepped down as House speaker and leader of the Democrats in the lower chamber after Republicans won back control of the House last year.

Planning Ahead is Simple

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

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

Wiener is widely expected to seek to succeed Pelosi when she does decide to leave the House. It is such an open secret that gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman joked at his swearing in ceremony last Friday that he had mistakenly introduced Wiener as a member of Congress at a different event.

“I promise to stop introducing him as a congressman,” pledged Mandelman, so it wouldn’t “jinx him” when the time comes that he does mount a bid for the House seat. t

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

Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium.

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State Senators Steve Padilla, left, Caroline Menjivar, and Susan Talamantes Eggman have been given important committee assignments.

Courtesy the subjects

Transition is not a destination, it’s a passage

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Recently, while in the throes of nostalgia, I went through a pair of filing boxes I have containing decades of old snapshots. Deep within the cardboard recesses, I saw photos of the unhappy child I once was, the teenager who buried themselves so deeply in the closet that their return address was in Narnia, and – at last –the scared young trans woman, making her first timid steps out into the larger world.

There were faded images from that first transgender conference I attended, and the first photo shoot I’d sat for at a professional studio in Southern California. At the time, I was less than two years into self-acceptance of my trans self, but I really wasn’t entirely sure what that was going to even mean.

I came across pictures from my earliest forays into transgender activism. And there were photos of friends from my America Online days, as we tried to change its rules and set up the Transgender Community Forum. There were visits to Houston for the sixth International Con ference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy. I saw myself grow into, well, me. Or at least an earlier version of me.

One thing I learned in those early years of self-discovery was that you don’t necessarily know what being transgender will mean for you. I recall that when I first came out, I only knew I was trans-something. I didn’t have all the

words for how I felt, and I knew it. I did not have the lived experience, and really did not feel I knew enough to be sure.

And yes, I knew how I’d felt as a kid, feeling out of place as I was perpetually told I was a boy, knowing that that fit on me as well as the overly-large USC jersey my mother bought me in my late tween years. Like it, there were a great many narratives that had been created about my life ahead, and a lot of expectations that had been built for me by my parents, friends, and family.

I also knew who I was in high school, trying so desperately to fight any such feelings, and fit in exactly where everyone thought I should be. I had learned to feel deep shame about who I was and was willing to try just about anything to kill those feel-

ings in myself. Or maybe just kill myself and let those feelings follow. None of that, of course, worked.

It took me a couple of years from when I first came out before I reached a point of knowing that I was indeed going to transition. I took a name –the one I wear to this day – and began to come out in earnest, planning for the life I have now.

One of the more important things I also learned in those early days, as I sought out and spoke to other transgender people, is that none of us are on the same journey. We may share common experiences, but it’s never 100% the same. We approach our transitions from different sides, like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, feeling around in the darkness for our truth.

It is highly unformed, obviously, for us to come from the exact same backgrounds. Transgender people exist among all races and cultures, and within all social strata. Our experiences are remarkably unique, shaped by our experiences and our background.

Our transitions are rarely this perfectly linear, Hollywood-style tale. You might be led to believe that we all learn about ourselves being trans at an early age, we work toward transition, and we move into our happily-everafters. The reality is much different.

This new year marks 30 years since I first started to discover the path I am on now, the path I will be on at least until I finally transcend this earthly form. It’s a path that has meandered, allowing me time to understand myself more as I go. Some of us, like me, may spend a

lot of time trying to deny our trans selves, in one form or another. Many trans women, for example, spend a large part of our lives trying to be as “manly” as possible, taking on highrisk jobs or joining the military and such. We’re most likely trying to push ourselves into being that masculine creature we’re all told we should be, with much more than a dash of selfharm in the mix.

Some of us, too, may dip our toes into transition, only to find the road is simply too hard, or circumstances don’t really allow transitioning right then, or even that perhaps transition isn’t the right step to take at all. Some of us might detransition, and many of us may also retranslation later on.

Some of us, too, may try on a number of identities, shifting as we wish as we seek to find what will

work best for us.

We may transition, then transition again to a more nonbinary or genderfluid state – or vice versa.

All of these things make up this wonderful, diverse thing that is the transgender community, and all of us should feel welcome to find their place. There simply is no “one size fits all” for being trans, and we, as a community, simply have to respect that about each other. We are all finding our place, and we are all discovering deeper truths about ourselves as we go along.

Frankly, that is how it should be: transition isn’t a destination, it’s a passage. t

Gwen Smith knows that her teen self would freak out to see her now. You’ll find her at www. gwensmith.com

Last chance to apply for SF drag laureate

compiled by Cynthia Laird

Calling all interested San Francisco drag artists: time is running out to apply for the inaugural drag laureate post the city created last year.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Mayor London Breed is expected to appoint the person this spring. The deadline to apply had been set for Monday, January 16, but it has been extended to Thursday, February 16. People must be full-time residents of the city and county and be at least 21 years old.

There will be an online informational session and webinar Tuesday, January 24, from 5 to 6 p.m., the mayor’s office stated this week.

A vetting committee of community leaders will recommend up to five applicants for Breed to choose from; half a dozen people have already applied, the B.A.R. has learned. The drag laureate will serve for 18 months and receive an honorarium of $55,000 to help cover the costs of performing their duties.

“San Francisco’s commitment to inclusivity and the arts are the foundation for who we are as a city,” said Breed in a November statement. “Drag artists have helped pave the way for LGBTQ rights and representation across our city, and they are a part of what makes our city so special. Investing in programs that continue their legacies and create opportunities for the next generation of drag performers to thrive help us to celebrate our city and this community.”

The city of West Hol lywood is also planning to select a drag laureate but its process is being retooled after a disappointing number of applicants, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

San Francisco’s drag laureate position comes as drag culture in general is increasingly maligned by conser-

vatives across the country, with lawmakers in a number of states backing laws to ban drag shows in public places. A star-studded holiday drag show in Florida is being investigated by the state after allegations that the show was marketing to kids. This was despite the venue indicating on the tickets that the show was for people 18 and over unless children were accompanied by an adult.

San Francisco’s drag laureate is expected to highlight drag culture in a variety of settings and is envisioned to be a boost for local nightlife.

“San Francisco would not be the beacon for LGBTQ rights it is without drag artists,” gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the city’s LGBTQ Castro district, previously stated. “This program is an appropriate recognition of the essential role drag plays in our queer culture, and I look forward to seeing who will be named our first drag laureate.”

Those interested in applying to be San Francisco’s drag laureate can do so online at https://bit.ly/3Zo8HqF

Join an SFAF social support group this year

Now that the new year has begun, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation is reaching out to invite people to join – or rejoin – one of its many support groups.

In an email announcement to supporters, Preston Vargas, Ph.D., interim senior director of community partnerships and engagement for the AIDS foundation, pointed to the various support groups that are available. Some, like walk-in substance use support and meth use support, deal with those specific issues. Others are program support groups, like SFAF’s long-running Black Brothers Esteem, Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network, Latino Life, and TransLife.

“As you think about how you want to create your new year, I invite you to discover (or rediscover) our Social Support Groups, consider attending an event, or perhaps even volunteer with SFAF in 2023,” Vargas wrote. “Everyone wants to belong, be part of a community, and be included. To be able to go into spaces where we can set down our armor, be vulnerable and be loved – is something I’m so grateful to have found at San Francisco AIDS Foundation.”

For more information on the array of support groups, go to https://bit. ly/3ZmfMYY

Oakland LGBTQ center seeks board members

The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center has announced that it has two open seats on its board of directors that it is seeking to fill.

“We are looking for dynamic and committed individuals to join our leadership team,” stated an email announcement from the center.

The center, which was established in 2017 and is located near Lake Merritt, provides a number of services such as those for queer youth, LGBTQ seniors, queer people of color, trans people, and more. It operates the Glenn Burke Wellness Clinic, and provides mental health support and rental/housing assistance.

To apply, interested people should email a cover letter and resume to jeffrey.myers@oaklandlgbtqcenter.org.

For more information about the center, go to https://www.oaklandlgbtqcenter.org/.

Lunar New Year stamp released in SF

The United States Postal Service has issued a new stamp for the upcoming Lunar New Year, which is the Year of the Rabbit.

The Forever stamp will be officially unveiled Thursday (January 12) at 11 a.m. at a dedication ceremony in San Francisco at the Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street. Those expected to be on hand include Breed; Derek Kan, from the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors; state Treasurer Fiona Ma; and Jay Xu, director of the Asian Art Museum.

The event is free and open to the public.

Lunar New Year begins Sunday, January 22.

This stamp design calls to mind the elaborately decorated masks used in the dragon or lion dances often performed in Lunar New Year parades,

according to a news release from the postal service. This three-dimensional mask depicting a rabbit is a contemporary take on the long tradition of paper-cut folk art crafts created during this auspicious time of year. The rabbit mask design incorporates colors and patterns with symbolic meaning.

Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamp and the pane with original art by Camille Chew, according to the release.

The Year of the Rabbit stamp is being issued in panes of 20. It will always be equal in value to the current FirstClass Mail 1-ounce price, the postal service stated.

Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays of the year for many Asian communities around the world and is primarily celebrated by people of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Malaysian, and Filipino heritage, the release stated. Across these varied cultures, many traditions exist for ringing in a new year of good luck and prosperity.

The stamps can be purchased at post offices or online at the postal service’s store at https://store.usps.com/ store/home. t

Christine Smith

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, at left, has announced that the application process for the city’s first drag laureate position is now open and closes February 16.

Rick Gerharter

The U.S. Postal Service’s new Lunar New Year stamp goes on sale January 12.

Courtesy USPS

Some of the boxes that Gwen Smith recently went through contained old photos from past conferences and her early activism work.

Gwen Smith

Gay investor aims to boost LGBTQ-led startups

by Matthew S. Bajko

As the saying goes, at the end of every rainbow should be a pot of gold. And one is likely to encounter a unicorn grazing nearby, according to legend.

The LGBTQ community has long embraced such mythological symbols. The rainbow is now closely identified with LGBTQ pride, while some have taken to using unicorn as a catchall phrase to refer to LGBTQ people.

Thus, it made perfect sense to Ben Stokes and his investment partners to name their venture capital firm Chasing Rainbows and incorporate a unicorn into the logo. Their aim is to funnel capital to LGBTQ-led startups, while also encouraging more LGBTQ people to invest in such companies.

“The naming is a way to represent the LGBTQ community,” explained Stokes, adding that, “if I go chase the rainbows, I will find the unicorns.”

Plus, in venture capital circles, the term unicorn is used to refer to privately held companies valued at $1 billion. Like their namesake creatures, such firms are seen as hard to discover, with about 1,200 recognized as of last October.

Stokes, speaking to the Bay Area Reporter via videoconference from Australia last month, launched Chasing Rainbows in the fall of 2021 after being an angel investor the previous five years. During that time, in talking to various LGBTQ founders of companies he considered investing with, Stokes heard over and over how hard it was for them to find people willing to finance their ambitions.

For most people behind startup companies, they can turn to a wide circle of family members and friends when seeking initial investors. But for LGBTQ company founders, that may not be the case, noted Stokes, who is on the board of and serves as

a mentor to other LGBTQ entrepreneurs via the nonprofit StartOut.

“I heard a similar track from a lot of them. When they came out, they lost friends and family due to bigotry,” said Stokes, 37, who is gay.

“When your first round of funding is usually from friends and family, where else are you supposed to go?

We founded Chasing Rainbows so they do have a place to find capital.”

It now has a $10 million fund from which it can make investments in companies who have LGBTQ people among either their founders or leadership team. Stokes said his goal over the next 18 months is to do a second fund totaling between $100 million and $250 million.

“It has been great,” said Stokes, who attended UC Berkeley’s Venture Capital Program.

He acknowledged, though, that the threshold to become an investor with his fund is out of reach for many LGBTQ people. Under U.S. rules to be an accredited investor, couples must earn more than $300,000, explained Stokes, while individuals must make more than $200,000.

“What we have seen, so far, is all the people who have invested in our fund to date are allies. They aren’t part of LGBTQ-plus community,” said Stokes. “I’ve found that the most interesting.”

His efforts have gotten him notice within the venture capital sphere. This month Venture Capital Journal named him one of its 40 under 40 rising stars for 2023, while Business Equality magazine named him to its Class of 2023 BEQ Pride LGBTQ Leader Under 40 list.

“Ben’s mission is to help create a world built on radical inclusivity, where diversity of knowledge and experience is celebrated,” noted BEQ in its write up about him.

Stokes is Sri Lankan and was abandoned by his birth mother at a hospital when he was a baby. A white couple from Tasmania adopted him a few months shy of his second birthday from an orphanage. Several years ago he addressed

the United Nations about his experience as an adopted child. He also went back to Sri Lanka and helped rebuild and expand the orphanage from having just six baby cribs to 18.

“One day I was there, two babies arrived and they had only room for one, so the other baby was not taken in,” recalled Stokes. “It made me think back to the day I arrived and what if I was that baby that was turned away?”

He later would graduate from the University of Tasmania to go on to earn a Master’s of Tropical Medicine and Public Health from James Cook University and a Bachelor of Law from Southern Cross University.

Stokes has advised the Australian Trade and Investment Commission and mentored Australian company founders through the Australian Landing Pad in San Francisco.

He has worked at both Oracle and Salesforce, and had served as the head of crowdfunding for Gay Games 11 Hong Kong 2022. He also has personal experience with launching a tech company as the founder of SocialTable.co, which aimed to create community for people around the world via gatherings at restaurants. The COVID pandemic threw a wrench into its business model.

The global health crisis also led Stokes to leave the Bay Area and return to Australia. He spoke to the B.A.R. via videoconference from a suburb of Brisbane on the country’s Sunshine Coast.

“I got stuck in Australia,” said Stokes, who lived near the Castro LGBTQ district. “I got the last flight out of San Francisco. I thought it would be over in a few months.”

Since last year Stokes has been part of the second cohort of fellows at the San Francisco-based Material

Change Institute. The program aims to bring more underrepresented people into the investment industry and introduces participants to venture capital funders via mentorships and other experiences.

“Ben is incredible,” said Eve Blossom, a straight ally who is a serial entrepreneur and investor who founded the nonprofit. “He just represents such an amazing change in the industry. All minorities and women have long been underrepresented in the asset management industry, so it is exciting to watch people like Ben.”

Blossom noted that of all assets managed globally, only around 1.4% is managed by women or minorities.

“That’s it. It has not changed significantly over the last decade,” she said.

It is why Blossom created the 15-month-long fellowship program to work with Stokes and others from marginalized communities in countries around the world who are trying to make a mark in the venture capital field. Applications are now being accepted for the third fellowship class, with the deadline to apply in April.

“The industry as a whole has not been so diverse. We are focused on changing that,” said Blossom, who joined the video interview with Stokes. t

To learn more about Chasing Rainbows, visit its website at https://www.chasingrainbows.vc/

For more information on how to apply to be a Material Change Institute fellow, visit its website at https://materialchange.net/

Got a tip on LGBTQ business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ ebar.com.

Hearing continued for man charged in Castro attacks

by John Ferrannini

A preliminary hearing in the case of a man arrested on suspicion of multiple attacks in the Castro neighborhood has been pushed back multiple times and was again continued this week.

The hearing in the case of Zero Triball, 36, was to be held Tuesday, January 10, but has now been continued to January 19, according to officials.

Triball, who has been arrested a number of times since 2020 for alleged physical attacks on various people throughout the Castro neighborhood, was booked on December 10. He is currently being held in San Francisco County

Jail on 15 separate charges, including battery with serious bodily injury, assault with force likely to commit great bodily injury, child endangerment, assault with a deadly weapon, contempt of court, vandalism, second-degree robbery, and assault. He is being held on $101,000 bond.

Triball remains in the custody of the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman had blasted the “revolving door” that has seen Triball bounce in and out of care numerous times to the detriment of both himself and the community in a letter to Superior Court Judge A. Melissa Chun.

Chun moved consideration of the case to Department 16, the courtroom of Judge Eric Fleming, during a hearing Wednesday, January 4. It is there that a witness is slated to give testimony.

Fleming originally slated the hearing for Thursday, pending the availability of the witness, saying that Wednesday’s atmospheric river left no time that day for consideration.

According to Randy Quezada, the public information officer for San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, the hearing was moved to Friday at 1:30 p.m. Midday Friday the hearing was moved to January 25, then by 4 p.m. Friday it was slated for Tuesday, January 10.

When asked the reasons for the multiple delays, Quezada told the B.A.R., “the case was continued to Tuesday, when we expect it to continue.”

Triball was accused by Bill Lem -

on, executive director of the Castro Country Club, a sober space in the LGBTQ neighborhood, of holding the Castro “hostage” through his alleged assaults and acts of terror, as the B.A.R. p reviously reported.

Greg Rojas, who has lived in the Castro for 24 years and was allegedly attacked by Triball on Hal -

loween last year as he was leaving a bar in the neighborhood, was pre pared to offer his own statement to Chun at the hearing at which the judge continued the matter to this week. But Chun encouraged him to “hold your statement” so that Rojas could offer testimony under oath during cross-examina tion by lawyers. t

Activists pay homage to Iranian martyrs

In solidarity with the Iran revolution that started with the murder of Mahsa Zhina Amini in September 2022, and to commemorate Iranians murdered by the Islamic regime of Iran, on January 7, 2023, the global day of “flowers for martyrs” and the third anniversary of the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 by the regime, Iranians and non-Iranians gathered at the plaque of gay martyr Fereydoun Farrokhzad (1938-1992) that is part of the Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro neighborhood.

Farrokhzad, a beloved showman, musician, and activist, was honored, as were other Iranian martyrs. Flowers were placed on his plaque and Farrokhzad’s music was played as well as live music. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener and others stopped by to pay homage. The event was organized by local Iranian American activists.

Photo: @instabita (Instagram) @Bitacam (Twitter) Lawminate (YouTube)

Ben Stokes has co-founded Chasing Rainbows, an LGBTQ-focused venture capital firm.

Courtesy Ben Stokes

Zero Triball, as seen in a video he posted to YouTube, is awaiting a preliminary hearing in San Francisco for a litany of charges.

YouTube.jpg

Smith attended UC Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in forestry/developmental studies. Among his many park service roles, he served as an interpretive specialist at the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, which stretches from San Francisco to Nogales, Arizona and has sites near the GGNRA boundaries.

“David is a proven leader with many years of diverse experience across the National Park Service,” stated Regional Director Frank Lands in the announcement about Smith’s new role. “He has a solid reputation for relationship-building with park partners, local communities, Tribal governments, and elected officials. These skills will be especially important as he leads one of the most urban and complex sites in the National Park System. The park will greatly benefit from having someone with his management and partnership experience at its helm.”

From page 1

But the other eight supervisors remained split between Walton and Mandelman. The 4-4-3 split outcome remained the same on the 15th vote.

Mandelman then voted for Peskin on the 16th vote, giving him four votes, while his three backers stuck with him and the other four remained with Walton. Ronen then asked for a five-minute recess.

When the board reconvened, the trio of gay supervisors along with Stefani threw their support behind Peskin, who once again voted for himself along with Chan and Melgar. The remaining four supervisors again voted for Walton.

Dorsey noted that 16 years ago then mayor Gavin Newsom, now the state’s governor, had remarked on Peskin’s “remarkable ability” to bring the supervisors together as board president.

“I still agree,” he said, “I am proud to be supporting him for president and urge my colleagues to do so.”

Recalling how former District 4 supervisor Katy Tang had worked well with Peskin years ago on passing a balanced city budget, Engardio said he looked forward to working collaboratively with Peskin this year on the budget at a time when the city is forecasting several years of deficit.

“I care about the budget,” said Engardio. “I look forward working with someone as seasoned on the budget as Peskin. The budget is probably the most important thing we will work on this year.”

The board presidency vote came

In response to the Bay Area Reporter’s request for comment about Smith becoming the new GGNRA superintendent, Lehnertz stated, “The Parks Conservancy is thrilled at the selection of David Smith for the position of general superintendent at the GGNRA. David is a proven innovator, community builder, inclusive leader, and devoted public land manager. We are very much looking forward to his arrival.”

No secret

In a sign of how more LGBTQfriendly the park service has become, Monday’s announcement specifically referred to Evans as Smith’s husband.

When Smith was announced as the new superintendent for Joshua Tree in the Mojave and Colorado deserts, the July 17, 2014 news release merely said he would “be joined by his spouse” and made a point to say he looked “forward to finding a local church.”

Yet Smith’s sexual orientation was

no secret. In May 2014 he had spoken to Think Progress to tout the park service’s launch of a project documenting LGBTQ historic sites and significant LGBTQ people. It included a photo of Smith with his husband and their then-young kids at Grand Canyon National Park where he had worked as a district naturalist.

“The gay and lesbian community are also part of our landscape,” Smith had said.

Four years later, however, Smith found himself having to defend the posting of a photo to Joshua Tree’s Instagram account that showed two men forming a heart with their hands while standing next to one of the park’s namesake trees. It was to commemorate Pride Month that June but had generated anti-LGBTQ comments.

“We believe national parks belong to all Americans regardless of whether they are gay or straight. As stewards of America’s treasures, civil servants welcome everyone to come and enjoy their parks,” said Smith, according to a

story posted by a newswire that focuses on environmental news, although it did not disclose that Smith is part of the LGBTQ community.

It was not the first time that Smith was caught up in controversy due to a social media posting. Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in the Trump administration reportedly admonished Smith for posting in the fall of 2017 on Joshua Tree’s official Twitter account that “an overwhelming consensus – over 97% – of climate scientists agree that human activity is the driving force behind today’s rate of global temperature increase.”

According to the Hill, which covers Congress, it led to Smith being ordered to Zinke’s office that November to be told “that the Trump administration doesn’t want national parks to put out official communications on climate change.”

Smith was born in Oceanside, California, and grew up in northern San Diego. He earned a Master of Science in Resource Interpretation

from Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas.

He has had many roles during his time with the park service, such as being a law enforcement park ranger at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, as well as at Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah. He also served as a legislative staffer on the House Natural Resources Committee as part of the NPS Bevinetto Fellowship program in Washington, D.C.

Prior to being sent to Joshua Tree, Smith had served as superintendent of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas. He is also a national winner of the Freeman Tilden Award for excellence in interpretation.

According to the release about his becoming the GGNRA superintendent, Smith and Evans are “recent empty nesters. One of their adult children is in college, and another is looking forward to entering the military. They enjoy hiking, rock climbing, and running on local trails.” t

“It sends a strong message that in San Francisco, a seat at the table for LGBTQ people is important, especially with the LGBTQ community under attack,” said Temprano. “We need to continue to diversify LGBTQ representation, of course, but we should be celebrating this historic representation.”

Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District, also recalled the concern of a few years ago at the dwindling number of LGBTQ supervisors in the city when the B.A.R. spoke with her at Mandelman’s event. Excited at the prospect of working with all three gay supervisors this year, Aiello added that she doesn’t expect them to agree on every single issue.

after San Francisco Superior Court Presiding Judge Anne-Christine Massullo administered the oath of office to the five winners of the even-numbered supervisor districts in the fall election. With the retention of Mandelman and Dorsey in their seats, and the election of Engardio to his westside seat, the board for the first time has three gay men serving together on it.

It is also the first time there has been a trio of LGBTQ supervisors in the city since 2012. While LGBTQ leaders hailed the milestone, they also noted more work is needed to elect a more diverse contingent of LGBTQ super-

visor candidates since the current trio is comprised of all white men.

“It’s definitely a historic moment and I am very excited to see we were able to expand our representation on the board. But there is more work to be done to see it is a much more diverse representation,” said outgoing Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club co-chair Gary McCoy.

Considered a potential candidate for the District 8 seat in 2026, McCoy told the B.A.R. when asked about his electoral plans at Mandelman’s January 6 community swearing in ceremony, “I will get back to you on that.”

Another potential District 8 candidate, former Mandelman legislative aide Tom Temprano, emceed his former boss’ event last Friday. Now political director for Equality California, which works to elect LGBTQ people to office across the state, Temprano noted to the B.A.R. that just a few years ago there was concern about seeing no LGBTQ supervisor serving in San Francisco for the first time since the late gay supervisor Harvey Milk’s historic election in 1977 as the first LGBTQ community leader to secure a board seat. (Then numbered District 5, much of Milk’s seat is now within Mandelman’s District 8 boundaries.)

“It is great that we know have people representing the LGBTQ community from all sides of the city and not just the Castro. But I don’t expect them to all vote the same because they have to represent their constituents,” she said. “It shows that LGBTQ people are moving all over the city. I think we will have more sway and votes on the board, but I don’t expect them to be a voting bloc. I look forward to working with all of them.”

Joseph Sweiss, a queer man who hails from a Christian Orthodox Arab household, served as Dorsey’s campaign manager. He told the B.A.R. Sunday at his swearing in ceremony that Dorsey’s election to a full term “still feels surreal.”

He added that “it is even more surreal for us, in 2023, to see not one, not two, but three gay supervisors” serving in San Francisco.t

While Newsom talked about the many positives California is known for – “a state of dreamers and doers,”

members. “A heroic crew of volunteers bucketed about 4’ of water from our boiler room. We are keeping an eye on upcoming storms and staying ahead of any new issues. However, for the next week, the building is without heat and elevator. Please keep an eye out for updates on upcoming events.”

The LGBTQ New Conservatory Theatre Center, located in the basement at 25 Van Ness Avenue, also reported flooding. Its website states that it is open and its next show, “Getting There,” is listed as opening January 20. Representatives of NCTC did not return a request for comment by press time.

Sonoma County

Concern over flooding is most acute in the communities around the Russian River, such as Guerneville, home to many LGBTQ resi -

he said – he also noted the low points in the state’s history. “I’m mindful that California’s statehood is sealed with the brutal genocide of Native American people,” he said.

The overarching message of freedom was at the center of his speech.

“In our finest hours, California has been freedom’s force multiplier, protecting liberty from a rising tide of oppression taking root in statehouses – weakness, masquerading as strength. Small men in big offices,” the governor said.

“More than any people, in any place, California has bridged the historical expanse between freedom for some, and freedom for all. We open our arms, not clench our fists. We turn our gaze upward, not inward,” he added.

feet early Sunday morning.”

Sonoma County’s department of emergency readiness, response and recovery is urging all residents to “avoid unnecessary travel and prepare for high winds, flash flooding, downed trees and the potential for power outages throughout the region, as well as the potential for landslides or debris flows in burn scar areas.”

“Freedom is our essence, our brand name – the abiding idea that right here, anyone from anywhere can accomplish anything,” Newsom said. t

Ben Tacla of the

dents. An evacuation order was issued January 4 and lifted January 10 “for residents of low-lying areas along the lower Russian

River, urging people to prepare to leave in anticipation of the river reaching flood levels of 33 feet on Thursday (January 5) night and 40

The evacuation order for all residents living near the Russian River floodway and its tributaries just south of Healdsburg to Jenner was lifted Tuesday afternoon. There are community support centers, featuring “charging stations for electronics and comfort kits with blankets, snacks and water,” open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily at the Fort Ross State Historic Park, the Bodega Harbor Yacht Club, the former Bank of America at 16390 Main Street in Guerneville, and the Sonoma Veterans Community Center.

Company, a

bar

Guerneville,

Bay Area

that all they can do is gather when they have the chance – and wait.

“The wind affected us – the power was out for about a day,” Tacla said January 6. “It came back yesterday afternoon and since then people have come back when there are breaks in the storm, we come together as a community.”

President Joe Biden approved California Governor Gavin Newsom’s request for a federal emergency declaration Monday. Newsom said the same day that “there are still several days of severe winter weather ahead and we need all Californians to be alert and heed the advice of emergency officials.”

Californians are advised to dial 211 or 311 instead of 911, unless they have a critical emergency. t

Matt Dorsey, left, is sworn in as District 6 San Francisco supervisor January 8 by Delancey Street Foundation President and CEO Mimi Silbert as Dorsey’s goddaughter Isa Burke holds a Bible that once belonged to the late gay supervisor Harvey Milk.

Rick Gerharter

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Water flooded the area outside the New Conservatory Theatre Center’s stage management booth on December 31.

Courtesy NCTC

2023 ushers in new SF LGBTQ Dem club leaders

by Matthew S. Bajko

San Francisco’s two main LGBTQ political clubs are bidding adieu to their male leaders of the past two years. It means new leadership for the groups in 2023, when no local elections are scheduled to take place.

At the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, male co-chair Gary McCoy stepped down Monday, January 9, when his two-year term came to an end. The club members elected Mawuli Tugbenyoh to succeed McCoy for a term that will end in early January 2025.

“I am confident in his ability to move Alice’s mission forward,” McCoy, who is gay, told the Bay Area Reporter about handing over leadership duties to Tugbenyoh.

His tenure coincided with not only two global health crises but also bitter battles last year over the city’s redistricting process and elections for the even-numbered seats on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. McCoy, formerly a staffer for Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), now works for HealthRight 360 and is a vocal advocate for opening safe consumption sites in the city as a way to address drug overdoses.

“The last two years have been met with the COVID-19 pandemic, the mpox outbreak, multiple recalls, many multiple election cycles, a return to our in-person Pride Breakfast, many policy debates and discussions, and continued relationship building – all with our club’s mission at the forefront,” wrote McCoy, himself in recovery, in his goodbye message as Alice’s co-chair.

Tugbenyoh, a gay man, is director of policy and communications at the city’s human resources department. A Bay Area native who grew up in the East Bay, he moved back to Oakland a year ago after living in San Francisco for a decade.

He has been an Alice member for 12 years and has served on its board the last nine, most recently as co-chair of the policy committee. Tugbenyoh is the club’s fourth Black co-chair.

For the next 12 months he will serve alongside the club’s female cochair and fellow Oakland resident Iowayna Peña, a director of real estate and development with the San Francisco Giants.

Her two-year term will end in early January next year. It is the first time Alice has been led by two Black co-chairs since the election in 2008 of Susan Belinda Christian to serve alongside the late Julius Turman.

“At least this year, when there are no elections scheduled at this point, I think it is a really good time for us to focus on building our bench of LGBTQ leaders in the city, and focus on community service as well as building up a diverse board. I think that is going to be really important,” said Tugbenyoh.

Change in election dates

Because of a ballot measure adopted by voters last year, all of the fall elections for city positions such as mayor and treasurer-tax collector that were to be held in 2023 will now be held the same year as U.S. presidential elections starting next year.

Tugbenyoh hailed the election in November of three gay men as supervisors in San Francisco, a first for the city, and noted all three are Alice members. With the trio all white and cisgender, he added that he does want to work on encouraging more people of color and transgender residents to run for local office.

There has yet to be an LGBTQ Black or Asian member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, nor one who identifies as trans or nonbinary. Plus, the other three gay men and one lesbian who served in the city’s state legislative seats in Sacra-

mento were all white.

“It is up to us as a club to do the work to be more inclusive and make sure we are reaching out to every community because I don’t think it is actually that difficult of a task,” Tugbenyoh told the B.A.R. “We have to position the club in such a way it is welcoming and inclusive to more Black members, more Asian members, and more trans members, and just make sure we are more welcoming to those folks.”

Contested Milk club presidency election

Meanwhile, members of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club are set to elect new leadership at their meeting Tuesday, January 17. Current club president Edward Wright decided not to seek a third one-year term.

He had been a legislative aide to former District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar, who lost his bid for reelection last year against his gay opponent, Joel Engardio, sworn in last Saturday to the westside seat covering the Outer Sunset and Lakeside neighborhoods.

“Being a legislative aide and Milk Club president were dreams I feel so lucky to have realized,” wrote Wright in a goodbye message he posted to his social media accounts. “I’ve been challenged and inspired, learned an immense amount – about myself, our city, and movement – and done things I never thought I could, or would do.” Running to replace him are several current Milk club board members.

Michael Rouppet and Melissa Hernandez are running to be elected as co-presidents, while Jeffrey Kwong is seeking to be the club’s sole president.

Kwong, a gay man, grew up in the city’s Chinatown district and graduated from Lowell High School. A provider of special education services to East Bay school districts, he has been serving as the Milk club’s vice president of events and fundraising the last two years. He had joined as a member in 2015 and was first elected to the board in 2018 as an at-large member.

“I think people have seen me work hard,” said Kwong, whose board position makes him responsible for the club’s involvement in events, rallies, vigils, parade contingents, and street fairs. “I think people know I live and breathe the Harvey Milk club. I want to create a stronger organization that is ready to take on 2024.”

Among Kwong’s goals should he be elected president this year is to double the Milk club’s membership and diversify it.

“If elected I will be the first Asian American elected in close to three decades,” noted Kwong, who told the B.A.R. the last such Milk club leader was Angie Fa.

She served as president in 1992. Fa that year also became the first out lesbian to win a seat on the city’s public school board.

Meanwhile, Hernandez would return female leadership to the club since the departure of former copresident Kaylah Williams in 2021. A pansexual Latinx femme who moved to the city from Texas a decade ago, she has been serving as the club’s vice president of communications.

She works as a legislative aide to District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, who will be up for reelection next year in a newly redrawn seat that now includes the Tenderloin and its Transgender District. Rouppet has been serving as one of the club’s events and fundraising officers and helped revive its HIV Caucus in 2021.

The queer activist and Bay Area native has called San Francisco home since 1992. He found himself homeless a decade ago following a wrongful eviction and worked for a time as a tenant counselor at the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco.

In a statement to the B.A.R. they

noted that over the past 12 months their work with the Milk club has included advocating for equitable access to the mpox vaccine and treatment, affordable housing, tenant rights, anti-corruption, and criminal justice reform in San Francisco.

“In this election, we are offering members a clear choice. Melissa and Michael have delivered on caucus building, increased membership, securing progressive policy positions and endorsements within the club, worked with legislators to secure progressive policy outcomes, and proven community organizing that will be critical for building a broader movement that brings the club back to its progressive roots,” they wrote.

They also want to take the off-year for local elections to focus on building up the club’s membership ranks, including offering dues waivers for those who can’t afford the fee to become a member, and drafting “an anti-corruption plank” in light of the corruption scandal that has rocked City Hall over the last several years, leading to the arrests or departures of several department heads. Rouppet last year launched an Anti-Corruption Caucus in the club.

“This year San Francisco will continue to face the same crises year after year without real leadership at the highest levels on: 1. An affordable housing crisis, 2. A homelessness crisis, and 3. An overdose crisis. These are queer issues and they affect our communities deeply,” Hernandez and Rouppet noted in their statement to the B.A.R. “Milk Club members have a genuine opportunity to lead policy discussions on these fronts and build a real progressive coalition of the US’s to address some of our biggest challenges ahead.

“Just months ago, we watched San Franciscans get redistricted to divide and diminish LGBTQ political power without respecting our community input or having any real accountability,” they added. “Looking ahead, it is clear we must organize to keep our values at the discussion table when progressive voices in San Francisco are being targeted and our most vulnerable groups are put at-risk. The future of our policy discourse and direction will have real life consequences.” t

for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner BENJAMIN RAMOS CANIZALES is requesting that the name BENJAMIN RAMOS CANIZALES be changed to CHRISTIAN ANMARC. 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 26th of JANUARY 2023 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398991

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE DA TEAM, 1400 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DALE BOUTIETTE. 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 12/13/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399007

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CALIFORNIA GLASS HOUSE, 3103 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ORNIN KHARYAD. 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 12/15/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399015

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LAS MESTIZAS, 2280 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FAUSTO MAY GONZALEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/16/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/16/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399012

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OHANA, 3150 18TH ST #225, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIAL PALMER. The registrant(s)

commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/17/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/15/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399034

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LA CHAPINA, 4790 A MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MAYNOR G DUBON CASTILLO. 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 12/19/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398891

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NIECEYFBEAUTYCOLLECTION, 640 FRANCISCO ST #1228, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANISA RANIQUE FRANCIS. 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 12/01/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0399005

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TORCH LEADERSHIP LABS, 100 BUSH ST #750, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed REDFISH LABS INC. (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/15/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/14/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399017

The following person(s) is/are doing business as COMPASS COMMERCIAL, 891 BEACH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed COMPASS CALIFORNIA II, INC. (DE). 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 12/16/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398934

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GUS’S COMMUNITY MARKET, 1530 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is

conducted by a corporation, and is signed HAIGHT STREET MARKET, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/10/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/07/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0399011

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SMARTLABS, 10 FAN PIER BLVD, 4TH FL, BOSTON, MA 02210. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SL SFT, LLC (DE). 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 12/15/22. DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE M-292891

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SMARTLABS, TWO TOWER PL #1700, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94080. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SL 2T, LLC (DE). 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 Mateo, CA on 12/06/22.

DEC 22, 29, 2022, JAN 05, 12, 2023

Mawuli Tugbenyoh, left, shown with Congressmember Nancy Pelosi, was elected as the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club’s new male co-chair.

Courtesy Mawuli Tugbenyoh

by Brian Bromberger

The new gay rom-com from Spain, “Smiley,” debuted on Netflix last month and is so engaging and uplifting, you will feel sad when you’ve finished binge-watching all eight thirtyish-minute episodes. It’s the mustwatch television you didn’t know you needed. Don’t let the subtitles scare you away from this delectable concoction.

Call me

Living in Barcelona, Alex (hottie Carlos Cuevas) is a bartender, who despite his winning looks, is unable to keep a steady boyfriend. In frustration, he leaves a long message full of anger and disappointment to his ex, asking why the relationship, which seemed so promising, ended so badly. The problem is that using the landline phone from the bar, he has misdialed the number, mistakenly calling Bruno (Miki Esparbe), an intelligent architect who doesn’t think he’s attractive. Bruno, whom Alex has never met, is also on the hunt for a lasting partnership but has become so frustrated after being dumped by his boyfriends who find him nerdy and boring, he’s deleted his Grindr account.

On a whim, Bruno calls back Alex and after a promising, flirty conversation, they decide to meet. Alex is skeptical but his best friend, lesbian bar co-owner Vero (Meritxell Calvo), reminds him of all the gorgeous disasters he’s dated, so urges him to take another chance. Meanwhile, Vero has her own issues with her long-term girlfriend Patri (Giannina Fruttero) as they prepare to move into a new condo but also decide to open their relationship by having joint threesomes.

Happy fates

Once they do meet, Alex and Bruno are total opposites with very different interests. Alex is gym-obsessed, sculpting his abs, while Bruno fixates on classic Hollywood movies, yet they have an underlying undeniable attraction to each other. They have great sex, but misinterpret each other’s cues and comments, resulting in passive-aggressive miscommunications, as this odd couple allow their previous experiences of hurtful relationships to negatively impact their current one. They never seem to meet on the same page at the same time.

Frustrated, they will each begin dating other guys. Alex pairs off with Ibra (Cedric Mughisha), a North African émigré, that’s initially a casual hookup but matures into something more substantial. Bruno romances an architectural colleague Ramon who is head-over-heels in love/ lust with him.

Still, Alex and Bruno can’t seem to let go of the feelings they have for each other and the series becomes a will they/won’t they scenario as they

series

One way or another

The series also skillfully develops several other characters such as Bruno’s best friend, straight coworker head architect Albert (Eduardo Lloveras), an aspiring painter who’s going through a rough patch with his wife. There’s also the lonely drag queen bar co-owner, 55-year-old Javier (Pepón Nieto), who performs nightly in a snarky comic/ musical routine at the bar.

Alex’s mother is setting up blind dates for him but she’s also visited by a former friend of her late husband, which may or may not spark a new romance. These aren’t just side stories but interweaving connections to the Alex/Bruno melodrama and you care about their travails (yes, even the straight ones) because the characters are so compelling and smart despite their all-too-human flaws.

Picture this

well as Alex and Bruno.

As part of the lighthearted refreshing viewpoints, we see Alex and Bruno simultaneously in opposite panels, a split-screen visually showing their different stances as they talk directly to the audience on camera. It sounds gimmicky but breaks up the pace and prevents the series from taking itself too seriously, even though

principal coach since 2011, Blanc said, “Coming back to SF Ballet has been a wonderful reconnection. It’s hard to believe how many years have passed, but it also just felt like yesterday. I was so welcomed and energized by the dancers and company leadership. It felt like I was in a place where I could freely create and let my inspiration fly.”

Blanc believes the artists at SF Ballet have a unique energy and work ethic that is unsurpassed, saying, “The dancers at SF Ballet push themselves so hard. I remember that feeling as a dancer with the company and it still feels exactly the same. My first two days with the dancers in the studio were so inspiring, positive, and dynamic, it was a set-up for the rest of the two weeks. It was like fireworks.”

Born and raised in a small town in southern France, Blanc began his training at age nine. He competed at only one competition: the world-renowned Prix du Lausanne, won the silver medal at age 17 and received a scholarship to the Princess Grace Academy in Monte Carlo. He completed his training at the Paris Opera Ballet School. Although he was disappointed to not receive a contract with that company upon his graduation, Blanc believes it opened up many more possibilities, saying, “I got to experience so many different types of companies, including Nice Opera Ballet, Dusseldorf Ballet, and Zurich Ballet, before making the big move to the U.S.”

by Philip Mayard

In celebration of San Francisco Ballet’s 90th anniversary, the company kicks off its spring season this month with the “next@90 festival,” featuring nine world premiere ballets by nine choreographers from around the world.

Although this will be the third new works festival the company has presented over the past 15 years, “next@90” looks to be the most diverse and forward thinking, showcasing the choreographic work of four women (including one person of color and one Japanese), two Black men, and one gay man: former SF Ballet Principal Dancer Nicolas Blanc, who returns to create his first work for the company.

Entitled “Gateway to the Sun,” Blanc’s ballet is an abstract reflection on five lines of a poem by 13th century poet Rumi:

“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance, when you’re perfectly free

As an SF Ballet soloist in 2003 and 2004 and a principal dancer from 2005 to 2009, Blanc’s return to the company in a creative role has indeed felt like a freeing experience. In a recent Zoom interview from his office at Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, where he has served as rehearsal director and

Living and dancing in SF

Blanc has many fond memories of his life in San Francisco.

“SF Ballet was the first American company I auditioned for, it was my dream job and I was so thrilled to get it,” he said. “I loved the variety of the company’s repertoire, especially the Balanchine works, because of [recently retired SF Ballet Artistic Director] Helgi Thomasson’s direct lineage to Balanchine. And I loved living in San Francisco, driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, going to the ocean and having such easy access to so much natural beauty. Being immersed in nature is a huge inspiration for me as an artist. You just don’t get that anywhere else.”

As an openly gay man since his early 20s,

Blanc initially struggled with his identity, but explains, “As I’ve gotten get older, I have more confidence and I’m proud of who I am. Now, when I teach and choreograph, I try to be inclusive of everyone, especially nonbinary dancers. I want everyone to feel included and accepted.

At Joffrey, we do lots of men-men and womenwomen partnering, and we recently presented a program by all LGBTQ choreographers. It’s important to maximize representation on stage, because when we do that, people in the audience can relate it to their own lives.”

For his ballet “next@90” work, “Gateway to the Sun,” Blanc researched the life of 13th- century poet Rumi and his relationship with a nomad man named Shams. They traveled together extensively and Blanc said, “Many writings say he had a spiritual relationship with Shams, some researchers say it was more than that. I wanted to bring that element into the work, so in the first movement there are two duets for men to represent that relationship.”

Likewise, he found opportunities to explore and speak the power of women in contemporary society.

“I was choreographing last July and the movement was going to be danced by all men,” he said. “But when the Roe v Wade decision went down with the Supreme Court, I changed it to all women. As an artist, I want to reflect on societal subjects that are important.”

LGBTQ Nite Out

It’s fitting that SF Ballet will relaunch its popular Nite Out series during the “next@90” festival, on Friday, January 27. The evening will include celebratory lighting of the Opera House, a pre-performance talk with an LGBTQ-identifying dancer, a performance of three works including Blanc’s ballet “Gateway to the Sun,” and a post-performance party with company artists at The Madrigal in nearby Hayes Valley. Nite Out’s community partner is LGBTQ youth organization Lyric.t

San Francisco Ballet “next@90,” $29-$448, Jan. 20-Feb.11, San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave. www.sfballet.org

constantly run into each other often at the most inopportune moments. Can they beat the odds and unite as one?

“Smiley” uses every clichéd trope in the romcom canon, yet avoids being predictable or cloying. In addition to the smiley emoji imagery, the series develops the Japanese legend of the red thread where everyone’s little finger is tied to an invisible red string which will lead that individual to another person to which the other end is tied, who will be their true love. This mythology will figure prominently in the final episode, as we are swept into a passionate maelstrom that overtakes the viewers as

Spain’s ‘Smiley’s a fun gay rom-com

Nicolas Blanc in William Forsythe’s ‘The Vertiginous Thrill Of Exactitude’

Erik Tomasson

Choreographer Nicolas Blanc

by Victoria A. Brownworth

Can lightning strike twice by bringing Anne Rice to the small screen?

AMC hopes so as it debuted “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” on January 8. Though not nearly as steaming-hot queer as “Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire,” “Mayfair Witches” is destined to be queer and hot.

The series begins in San Francisco where the main character, Dr. Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario, last seen in “The White Lotus”), is a neurosurgeon. It is there that she learns she’s heiress to the Mayfair dynasty in New Orleans, Anne Rice’s hometown. After a series of complicated and confusing events, Rowan goes to New Orleans to find out who she is and things get dramatic.

Series co-creator Esta Spalding talked about the long history of women in the medical arts, “midwives and healers in the Middle Ages being massacred and put to death because of their healing abilities,” and being targeted as witches.

At the Television Critics Association press tour in August, Spalding said that the series, which she created with Michelle Ashford (“Masters of Sex”), is definitely queer. Spalding said, “It was a complete and total priority for us, and we want our audience to look at this show and look at all of the characters in the show and feel that they see themselves, whoever they are; that the show is inviting and inclusive of every point of view and everybody who watches it.”

Ashford agreed, asserting, “We do feel that that’s the best way to honor Anne and how she felt about the world and people and life. We really feel we do it both because it makes for great television but also it’s the best way we can pay tribute to her.”

There are several queer characters in the series, but since two are a spoiler alert, we’ll leave it for you to discover. But it’s a compelling witch/thriller/ gothic series and beautifully shot in San Francisco and New Orleans, with Harry Hamlin, Tongayi Chirisa. Jack Huston, Annabeth Gish, Beth Grant, Erica Gimpel and others. In addition to Ashford and Spalding, writers on “Mayfair Witches” include out gay screenwriter and director Sean Reycraft. Rice’s gay son, writer Christopher Rice, executive-produced the series.

Oh, WeHo, woah!

“It’s hard being a public person and being a good example,” says stylist to the stars Brad Goreski in what is sure to be the dishiest show of the New Year.

“The Real Friends of WeHo” premieres on MTV on January 20 following an all-new episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The series highlights a different group of queens as it follows some of “Hollywood’s most influential and successful LGBTQ+ celebrities, personalities and entrepreneurs”: Goreski, choreographer and singer Todrick Hall, actor Curtis Hamilton, CEO of Buttah Skincare Dorión Renaud, TV host and business owner Jaymes Vaughan, and digital entrepreneur Joey Zauzig.

MTV says “The Real Friends of WeHo” (RFOWH) promises to be “an unfiltered and honest look at a select group of friends living, loving and pursuing their passions in the West Hollywood community.”

Calling “RFOWH” a “revealing and witty new ensemble docuseries” that promises to provide “an up close and personal glimpse into their lives” as they perform in front of crowds of thousands, make high stakes business deals, celebrate important life milestones, work the red carpet, and –most important for a reality series– “reveal their most intimate truths to family and friends.”

One “intimate truth” got spilled on Twitter by actor Chris Salvatore. Salvatore was allegedly contracted for “RFOWH,” but other gays on the series who apparently are higher up the red carpet food chain than Salvatore refused to continue if he was included. The reason given is that Salvatore has an OnlyFans account (nudes, but no porn). He said he was fired after one week in a post that got 2.1 million views.

In a subsequent post with 123,600 views, Salvatore said, “Karma’s gonna get em’.”

“RFOWH” is racially and ethnically diverse, it’s queer AF and it’s gonna be lit. Tune in for the tea!

Accusations

“Accused” is a new crime/thriller series debuting January 22 on Fox from the executive producers of “Homeland” and “24.” Based on the BBC’s BAFTAwinning crime anthology, each episode begins in a courtroom on the accused without knowing their crime or how they ended up on trial. So Kafkaesque! Told from the defendant’s point of view, Fox says “Accused” “allows viewers to discover how an ordinary person got caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back.”

“Accused” proffers some amazing Oscar- and Emmy-winning actors and directors. The cast includes some real heavyweights in the crime/thriller genre: Michael Chiklis, Abigail Breslin, Whitney Cummings, Margo Martindale, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Wendell Pierce, Rachel Bilson, Jack Davenport and Molly Parker. Among the directors are out gay Emmy-winner Billy Porter, Deaf actress and Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin, Tazbah Chavez, Sameh Zoabi and GLAAD media award-winner and out lesbian Lee Rose.

If it sounds like a must-see, it is. Set the DVR, as all the best shows are on Sunday nights on divergent networks.t

Read the full column, with video clips and trailers, on www.ebar.com.

there are love lessons for everyone regardless of gender or orientation. The fact that the action occurs throughout the Christmas and New Year holidays adds to the festive, celebratory nature of the series.

“Smiley” (not to be confused with the horror films “Smile” and “Smiley”), is hardly perfect, but turns tropes upside down and somehow makes them relevant and entertaining. It’s similar to other queer rom-coms that viciously parody dating apps even while the characters are engrossed with them. You will care about all the protagonists and their romantic exploits. We’d welcome a second season renewal. 2023 looks much brighter after watching “Smiley.”t

Alexandra Daddario in “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches”

“The Real Friends of WeHo” cast

by Jim Gladstone

“Iwas a girly boy,” explained Jason Gotay, an ache in his sweet, reedy tenor as he shared stories of growing up, coming out and finding a sense of self in musical theater during his solo cabaret show, “Where You’ll Find Me,” which had a brief, three-night run at Manhattan’s Minetta Lane Theatre last fall.

Gotay, who makes his San Francisco debut at Feinstein’s at the Nikko this weekend on January 13 and 14, played to just a few hundred audience members at the Minetta Lane, but his vulnerable recollections are now available to a much broader audience than performers typically have the opportunity to reach with a cabaret act. It’s now an audience that includes legions of present-day girly boys who live far from New York, are years too young to attend a nightclub, but stand to benefit the most from hearing Gotay’s stories of being bullied and building confidence.

“Where You’ll Find Me,” with music including surprisingly fresh, tender takes on ‘Over The Rainbow,’ ‘All I’ve Ever Known’ from “Hadestown,” and ‘When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It’ from “The Producers,” is one of a select few cabaret shows produced and recorded

live by Audible, Inc. for online sale (Others include “An Evening with Amber Iman” from the star of the recent Berkeley Rep smash “Goddess,” and “Legal Immigrant” by gay favorite Alan Cumming).

Gotay, 33, whose Broadway parts have included the title role in the infamous “Spider-Man: Turn Off the

Dark” and who last year won his widest recognition playing a gay high school teacher involved with one of his students in the “Gossip Girl” reboot from HBO Max, views the Audible production as a rare opportunity.

“I’ve played many different characters,” said the Brooklyn native in a recent phone interview with the Bay Area

Reporter, “But being given the chance to tell my own story on stage and have it distributed so widely was amazing.”

The stage and his life do mix, as Gotay recently married fellow actor Michael Hartung after meeting on the set of “Peter Pan Live!” as Lost Boys.

There is a bit of a downside for Gotay, though. “That show belongs to Audible now,” he said. “I’m not allowed to do the same act live on the road.”

Bummer for him, but a boon for Bay Area audiences who now have the opportunity to catch Gotay performing two different cabaret sets (albeit one via recording) in short order.

“It’s going to be a different show,” he said. “I’ll pull in some of the theater music I did in ‘Where You’ll Find Me’ but I’ll also do my spin on songs by some well-known pop artists I like: Nick Jonas, Shawn Mendes, Harry Styles.”

While Feinstein’s marks his local cabaret debut, Gotay has performed in the Bay Area twice before: On a 2011 pre-Broadway tour in the original cast of “Bring It On: The Musical” (with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda); and originating the role of Ramses in the world premier of Steven Schwartz’s “Prince of Egypt” at Silicon Valley Theatreworks.

Silas House’s ‘Lark Ascending’

gay, but it features a gay main character, and it features LGBT issues. I don’t know of another adventure story –and that’s mainly what I consider this book to be, genre-wise– that features a gay main character, so I love the idea of that. In the book, LGBT existence has been outlawed by this new regime. But the best way to show that was through human stories so it was important to have gay characters and people whose lives are endangered because of these new laws.

Also, it’s a story about losing everything: everyone you love, your country, your rights, so it made sense to me to encapsulate all of that loss through the POV of one main character. Trans people’s rights are increasingly endangered, especially, and gay people still don’t have full equality.

ask is why this story is being told now, and to whom. To me, it added to the overall theme of the book –survival, hope, and adapting to a new world– to have this old man telling his adventure story. Even though the book is set in the future, in a way their future is much more like our past—technology has pretty much been wiped out.

I loved thinking about this old man on his deathbed being haunted by his first great adventure, when he was twenty years old, and the way he

Creating new characters in new shows is one of Gotay’s favorite aspects of his career.

“I do a lot of readings and workshops of new material,” he explained. “You never know whether any individual project is going to take off, but the chance to build a role from scratch, collaborating with the creative team is such a valuable experience no matter what.”

Over the past few months, Gotay has performed in readings of a musical take on “A Wrinkle In Time” and a new show called “Teeth” by Pulitzerwinning “A Strange Loop” composer Michael R. Jackson. Gotay says he’s also on the lookout for opportunities to play queer roles.

“‘Gossip Girl’ was my first major gay part on a big platform. It was a scandalous storyline, but it got me some significant recognition in the business. I went right from that to playing a small gay part in ‘Spoiler Alert.’ I’m always going to be looking for quality queer stories that I can be a part of.”t

Jason Gotay at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, Jan. 13-14, 8pm. $55. 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinssf.com

has never let go of that beautiful love he had for Arlo, seventy years before. To me, it really helps to drive home the idea of this love that is so thick that it transcends time.

www.silas-house.com www.workman.com/authors/ silas-house

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

by Gregg Shapiro

It’s embarrassing to admit, but I’ve only read two of prolific gay writer Silas House’s novels. But what amazing books they are. “Southernmost,” from 2018, is a devastating novel about a flood, family, and forgiveness, that is nothing short of unforgettable. Equally powerful, and prescient, is House’s newest novel “Lark Ascending” (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2022), a dystopian (and queer) tale of survival against all odds. Silas House was gracious enough to answer a few questions about his novel.

Gregg Shapiro: In your 2018 novel “Southernmost,” you addressed the destructiveness of religious fanaticism, and you’ve returned to the subject in the dystopian “Lark Ascending.” What can you tell me about the draw of that subject?

I was raised in a strict Christian fundamentalist sect wherein most of the teachings were about judgment instead of love. It was especially homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, and racist. I got away from that as a teenager but

now I hear the same rhetoric being spouted by people in the highest seats of power, whether it’s members of Congress, recent presidents, or popular comedians and musicians.

I find it pretty terrifying that so much of the country sits by quietly while this new wave of bigotry sweeps across the land. I think it’s getting worse and so it’s a pressing issue for me. I’ve seen up close the damage this kind of thinking can do and to see the narrowing separation of church and state in our country is something that I feel compelled to write about. It is one of the things I know best, and it makes sense to me to use what I know best when it serves the human story at the heart of a novel.

As a gay writer, you don’t shy away from queerness in “Lark Ascending,” including references to Lark’s aunt and her wife, as well as his own aforementioned attraction to and relationship with Arlo.

I think too often queer main characters only show up in books that are queer books in big neon letters. I wanted to write a book wherein the novel itself is not necessarily all about being

Seamus the Beagle is as prominent a character as his human counterparts. Do you have a dog or dogs in your life, and if so, what do they mean to you?

My Beagle is always lying right next to me when I’m writing. I usually write on the couch so he can be near and often his big velvety ear will creep right over onto the keyboard of my laptop while I’m typing. So, Seamus is very much based on him; this book couldn’t have been written without my dog.

My last book, “Southernmost,” was all about empathy, and in that book, dogs were a motif for the presence of the divine. I think of “Lark Ascending” as being more about survival and the dog has a more active, prominent role. He really aids in Lark’s survival, just by being such a good, comforting presence. He keeps Lark going.

In the second part of the book, Lark refers to himself as an old man, and later, in the third part, mentions that he is 90. What was the significance of aging Lark in the way that you did?

I think one question a novelist must

Jason Gotay

Author Silas House

“Lead from the back, and let others believe they are in front.”

— Nelson Mandela