June 1, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

San Francisco Pride announces some security plans

by John Ferrannini

The organization that puts on the San Francisco Pride parade and celebration announced it’s taking measures to keep the event safe. It comes as Pride committees and LGBTQ organizations are taking greater security precautions amid an intensifying national backlash to LGBTQ rights with Pride Month kicking off Thursday.

In San Francisco, several LGBTQ nonprofits have banded together to seek $350,000 in the city’s new fiscal year budget to pay for security upgrades and safety assessments of their locations. It is in reaction to several receiving threats of violence, such as the bomb threats the LGBTQ youth focused agency LYRIC received last year.

Various LGBTQ groups in the U.S. have hired security consultants ahead of Pride month, the Associated Press reported May 30. Spokespeople for the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee stated to the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday that there will be law enforcement, a private security team, and “a comprehensive bag check and screening process at the entry points of the event.”

The committee stated it’s working with LIVE Management Consulting “to implement a robust security plan that was created in collaboration with the [San Francisco Police Department] and other appropriate law enforcement agencies.”

LIVE Management Consulting didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The two-day celebration will be held June 24-25 at the Civic Center Plaza, and the parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. June 25 at Market and Beale streets.

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DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ laws run afoul of 1st Amendment, attorneys say

by John Ferrannini

Attorneys are questioning the constitutionality of some of the anti-LGBTQ laws signed by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just before he launched his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

Michael Trung Nguyen, a gay man and attorney in San Francisco who is the current board chair of the GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, or GAPA, also performs in drag as Juicy Liu. Nguyen told the Bay Area Reporter that in his opinion, laws targeting drag performances or limiting discussion of homosexuality in schools aren’t being passed in order to withstand constitutional scrutiny. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives the country one of the world’s strongest protections for free expression.

“The laws are on our side,” Nguyen said. “Drag is not a crime. Drag is an art form.”

DeSantis launched his campaign May 24 with Twitter CEO Elon Musk in a glitch-filled talk on Twitter Spaces. He currently trails former President Donald Trump in the fight for the GOP nomination, 56%-25%, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.

DeSantis has said he wants to “make America Florida” as he touts his record, which includes a six-week abortion ban, a ban on COVID vaccine and mask mandates, blocking an African American study program, and a new immigration law penalizing businesses if they’re found to be violating a number of mandates.

The presidential candidate has had an eye toward the queer community in particular, however. Last year, he shepherded the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation into law, banning discussion of homosexuality or gender identity in schools through the third grade.

The DeSantis administration has subsequently gone after several venues for hosting drag performances, as the B.A.R. previously reported; banned gender-affirming care for trans youth; and extended the “Don’t Say Gay” rule through the 12th grade.

Most recently, DeSantis signed a slate of bills making the Sunshine State – home of Key West,

Orlando, and Miami Beach – perhaps the most restrictive for LGBTQ people in the nation. These include a license to discriminate in health care; criminal penalties for gender-affirming care for trans youth; a bathroom bill that requires people to use facilities in public buildings in accordance with their sex assigned at birth; statutory expansion of Don’t Say Gay; forbidding of public funds for gender-affirming care for people of any age; and an “adult live performances” law that’s even more stringent than one passed in Tennessee earlier this year. (That law doesn’t specifically mention drag but drag artists are wary of it.)

Anti-drag bills similar

Luke Boso, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, included a question on the constitutional implications of the Tennessee drag ban on the final exam of his constitutional law class in May.

“I used Tennessee’s version of their drag ban and asked them what First Amendment implications there were,” Boso said. “Florida’s ban is pretty similar to Tennessee’s but it’s a little more specific in the way it defines ‘adult live performance’ than what Tennessee’s does by focusing more on depictions of nudity, sexual conduct and sexual activities, and it specifically is trying to work its way into established Supreme Court precedent on obscenity law in a way that Tennessee’s doesn’t necessarily do.”

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California lawmakers have advanced many LGBTQ-related bills ahead of a June 3 deadline for passing out of their house of origin.

CA LGBTQ bills advance

by Matthew S. Bajko

More than a dozen LGBTQ-related bills have already passed out of their house of origin in the California Legislature, with several more waiting for floor votes prior to the June 3 deadline for lawmakers in the two chambers to pass them.

One bill already moving on that has garnered national attention this session would scrap the state’s ban on using taxpayer money for travel to 23 states that have passed anti-LGBTQ legislation over the last eight years. San Francisco officials already have repealed their city’s similar travel restriction policy.

Arguing such travel bans have not had the desired effect of stopping attacks in other states on LGBTQ rights, and instead hamper California officials and leaders from making the case for such issues via out-of-state travel, lesbian state Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) introduced this year Senate Bill 447.

It is called the BRIDGE Act, using an acronym for Building and Reinforcing Inclusive, Diverse, Gender-Supportive Equality. It would repeal the travel ban policy and replace it with a marketing program supportive of LGBTQ rights in conservative-led states. Atkins’ bill doesn’t allocate any funding, though, for such ad campaigns.

The Senate passed SB 447 31-8 on May 24. It now heads to the Assembly, where the initial author in 2015 of the travel ban policy, gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino), has expressed qualified support for Atkins’ legislation.

Atkins hailed its moving forward by noting “hundreds of discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced this year alone – it’s unprecedented, and my heart hurts for all of the folks in other states where this is happening. The folks who feel alone and isolated. This bill is about reaching out to them with messages of support and understanding, and at the same time, helping open hearts and minds so that acceptance, instead of animosity, wins the day.”

Many of the 21 LGBTQ bills the Bay Area Reporter is tracking this legislative session build on LGBTQ laws previously enacted by state lawmakers that focused on issues impacting public

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An exuberant crowd watched last year’s SF Pride Parade on Market Street. Rick Gerharter

Courtesy Twitter

Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has made culture issues a focal point of his campaign.

North Bay mayor nixes Pride

Theater activists urge calls to ‘swing vote’ supes

by John Ferrannini

Those opposed to Another Planet Entertainment’s plan to remove the fixed, orchestral seating at the Castro Theatre made their pitch in a May 30 virtual town hall, asking viewers to contact two supervisors they have identified as possible swing votes on an amendment to the interior landmarking that would have the seating remain.

Tuesday’s the day that the full Board of Supervisors is slated to vote – at long last – on approving an interior landmarking ordinance for the theater. While that’s expected to pass, the pertinent question is whether to approve the amendment to the landmarking that could require that the current style of seating remain in place.

The landmarking as originally written was recommended by the Historic Preservation Commission; District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, a straight ally, proposed the seating amendment, which passed 2-1 out of committee May 8.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro, has voiced opposition to that amendment, which could complicate APE’s proposed renovation and remodeling plans for the theater, which it took over managing last year. The

supervisors were to have voted on May 16, but that was pushed back because District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani was absent due to a family health emergency.

Jeffery Kwong, a gay man who is the president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, identified Stefani and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí as the swing votes during the Zoom call.

“We want folks to reach out to Catherine Stefani and Ahsha Safaí,” he said. “If you’re a resident of those two districts, please reach out and engage them and tell them you’re their constituent.”

The town hall – San Franciscans to Save the Castro Theatre – featured other representatives of the various groups that comprise the Save the Castro Theatre Coalition, too, including the Castro Theatre Conservancy, which unveiled its own proposal for the theater to continue operating as a full-time movie house in April. That proposal was shot down by APE and the Nasser family, which owns the theater. In a letter dated May 1, Chris Nasser stated that “CTC’s latest proposal ... does not meet the minimum expectations for investment, rehabilitation, and preservation of the building.”

Peter Pastreich, a straight ally who is the executive director of the Castro Theatre Conservancy, disagreed with that assessment and framed the rejection as provisional on the supervisors’ decision.

“We don’t know what the APE and the Nassers will do,” he said, if the proposed amendment passes. “They have said they will close the theater, but that would be a spiteful response, and one that would cost them both.”

Pastreich reiterated the belief of some

APE opponents that the theater should be run as a nonprofit, and stated that there have been pledges of financial support for the conservancy’s plans.

“We hope the Nasser family will consider seriously – as they have not done so far – the conservancy’s plan to renovate the theater and run it as a nonprofit. … The Nassers and Supervisor Mandelman have objected to the plan on the basis of it being, quote, funded. Let me say, first of all, the APE plan isn’t funded either,” he said. “We have pledges from several members of our working group which would be sufficient for at least the first couple of years of operation. I don’t think I can tell you how much has been pledged.”

Pastreich said that the conservancy has shown an ability to raise money before – $200,000, which has helped it operate thus far. He conceded this is well-below the $20-40 million price tag of the capital renovations the conservancy has proposed.

Viewers were also asked to show up to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors wearing red to symbolize support for the fixed seating.

‘We’ve been betrayed’

Several speakers expressed their disappointment in Mandelman, who has facilitated negotiations between the

Help Build Meaningful, Compassionate Connections in Your Community

two sides arrayed against one another.

“We’ve been betrayed by our representative, Rafael Mandelman, who has chosen to side with a chosen posse of white, affluent, mostly young men,” said Jesse Oliver Sanford, a young white Castro resident. “But as they say, it is mostly darkest before dawn.”

Tom Ammiano, a gay former assemblymember and city supervisor, agreed, but was optimistic about next week.

“There’s a lot of emotional fabric here, and this is going to be a win for us,” he said. “It comes down to political will, and I am very disappointed in the queer members of the Board of Supervisors. This should’ve been a slam dunk.”

When asked about these comments, Mandelman told the B.A.R. that “on the merits, I don’t believe it makes sense to modify the Historic Preservation Commission [recommendation] just to kill the APE project. The APE project is not before the board on June 6; the landmarking is, and I intend to follow the recommendation of the HPC.”

Supervisors Matt Dorsey and Joel Engardio, gay men who represent Districts 6 and 4 respectively, did not return requests for comment.

Ammiano and others brought up the legacy of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay San Francisco supervisor.

“People like to grandstand on the legacy of Harvey Milk, but I don’t see Harvey Milk in any of the responses or lack of responses from the queer members,” Ammiano said. “Jesse is totally right: there have to be consequences.”

Terry Beswick, a longtime gay community fixture, also brought up Milk, who wrote a letter dated July 19, 1977 urging then-supervisor John Barbagelata to vote in favor of landmarking the theater. (The exterior of the Castro Theatre was designated a city landmark that year.)

“I hear over and over again people saying ‘Why did they tear down the Fox?’” Milk wrote, referring to the Market Street movie house that was demolished in 1963. “The same will happen here.”

Beswick said that “a lot of the young people don’t know what they’re losing until it’s gone, and as Harvey Milk said in his letter about the landmarking, once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Planning, preservation meeting

In addition to attending the June 6 supervisors meeting, supporters are being asked to attend a June 8 joint meeting of the historic preservation and planning commissions, which is at 10 a.m. at City Hall, Room 400. There, they can give comments on a proposed certificate of appropriateness that APE is seeking. Those who cannot attend in person can call in.

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When asked for comment on the town hall, gay APE spokesperson David Perry stated, “We’re looking forward to next week’s hearings, and appreciate everyone’s passion for saving the Castro Theatre: a passion everyone at Another Planet and our supporters share.

“However, passion doesn’t pay for the renovation, restoration, and revitalization that is needed, and long overdue, for the Castro Theatre,” Perry added. “Our well researched, well documented, and fully funded plans are overwhelmingly supported by local businesses, neighbors, and Castro residents who understand the need for a Castro Theatre that not only honors its past, but sustains it for the future, including a robust schedule of music, film, special events and LGBT programming.”

Michael Murray, a gay man who’s cochair of Neighbors for a Restored Castro Theatre that supports APE, stated, “We encourage supporters of APE’s restoration plans to attend next Thursday’s hearing and wear blue to show their support,” referring to the joint planning-HPC meeting. “We hope that city officials will respond to the outpouring of community enthusiasm for the project over the last few weeks and allow it to move forward without further delay.” t

Jessie Oliver Sanford spoke during a virtual town hall held by groups working to save the seats at the Castro Theatre.

Screengrab via Zoom

Vacaville mayor refuses to recognize Pride Month

by John Ferrannini

V acaville Mayor John Carli will not be issuing a proclamation to recognize Pride Month, and will not raise the rainbow flag, according to the Solano County Pride Center.

“Solano Pride Center met with Vacaville Mayor Carli on May 24, 2023, to discuss celebrating and acknowledging Pride Month,” Sarah White of the Pride center in the North Bay stated in a May 25 news release. “Breaking precedent, Mayor Carli is refusing to raise the Pride flag, or issue a proclamation recognizing June 2023 as LGBTQ Pride Month in Vacaville.”

Indeed, as White stated, Vacaville’s two previous mayors recog -

From page 1

At the end of last year’s celebration there were false reports of a mass-casualty shooting that caused a stampede in Civic Center Plaza. Separately, there were physical fights, and someone sprayed pepper spray into the crowd.

“It was very unfortunate that occurred, but overall it was a very safe event and parade, which I was so grateful for on the other side Monday,” SF Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford, a trans woman, said when asked about security by the B.A.R. in April

Ford had said that JJLA, the Los Angeles-based live event and entertainment company that will be producing the event, will be bringing in new security.

“There’s one security contractor that reports to them and reports to me,” Ford said. “We will obviously be hiring other security companies. Not just one. And we will hire some queer-owned security companies that will help too.”

JJLA did not respond to requests for comment for that article or for this report.

Ford also had told the B.A.R. there will be metal detectors at the entrance to the celebration grounds, as there have been in years past.

Since the April interview, the B.A.R. reached out to the SF Pride organization 11 times for more details on safety before receiving the May 30 statement. Initially, on May 1, a source with the organization stated simply that SF Pride has a similar level of investment from state and federal law enforcement as the Super Bowl, and issued a statement from Ford that “SF Pride is working with local authorities and our security team to coordinate a comprehensive plan to protect our community.”

Requests to identify the companies providing security, and to interview a representative, have still not been answered.

“As we approach this joyous celebration of love, diversity, and equality, we want to take a moment to reassure the public of our unwavering commitment to keeping all participants safe,” the statement reads. “We understand the significance of creating a welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone can express their authentic selves without fear or hesitation. With this in mind, we have implemented comprehensive measures to safeguard the Pride festivities and ensure a positive experience for everyone involved.”

Thorough statement out of NYC

SF Pride’s statement came after New York City’s Heritage of Pride issued a thorough news release May 25 on its safety policies, stating that it was moved to provide “transparency for how community members can be safe as we care for ourselves, our communities, and our environment.”

The New York release links to a page stating that personnel will be trained on evacuation, exit and communication plans; active shooters and other threats; de-escalation training; and capacity and

nized June as Pride Month and for the last two years has flown the rainbow flag. According to White, Carli’s refusal means Vacaville will be the only city in Solano County not to recognize Pride Month in some fashion.

“Now more than ever, LGBTQ rights across the U.S. are under assault,” White stated. “With over 400 bills introduced targeting trans/ nonbinary people, attempting to ban drag shows, seeking to block access to gender-affirming healthcare, and banning books in schools that mention LGBTQ people.

“At this inflection point in our nation’s struggle for LGBTQ equality, it is unfortunate Mayor Carli has decided to move Vacaville in the wrong direction by not stand -

spacing policies imposed by event venues and government agencies.

It also tells people planning on attending the Big Apple’s Pride festivities what they can do to stay safe, such as advising people of one’s whereabouts or changes in plans, keeping electronic devices charged and writing down emergency contacts, designating an emergency meet up spot, and avoiding drunken or otherwise impaired driving.

ing in solidarity with the LGBTQ community,” White added.

A spokesperson for the city of Vacaville told a B.A.R. reporter May 25 via phone that he “should be hearing back from the mayor” and took down his number.

In 2020, Dixon was the sole city in Solano County not to recognize the Pride Month, which celebrates the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the United States, as the Bay Area Reporter reported contemporaneously

At that time, Dixon’s mayor, Thom Bogue, did not respond to the B.A.R.’s questions.

Carli, a former police chief of seven years, was elected to a four-

Tense environment

The concern over security comes in an increasingly tense environment for LGBTQ Americans – including the mass shooting at a Colorado Springs queer nightclub last year.

Five hundred anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures this year thus far, and already people are moving from Florida, Texas and other states, citing a hostile environment created by measures ranging from the Sunshine

year term as Vacaville’s mayor last November. He’d been with Vacaville police since 1989.

The Pride center noted its longstanding work in the city and county.

“Solano Pride Center has supported the LGBTQ community of Vacaville for 25 years, and will continue to stand united with LGBTQ people in Vacaville and across Solano County,” the center’s statement continued. “The unwillingness and resistance by Vacaville’s mayor illustrates why it is necessary to host Vacaville Pride annually.”

The Solano Pride Center will be hosting its third annual Vacaville Pride Saturday, June 3, from noon to 4 p.m. in Andrews Park, 614 E. Monte Vista Avenue. t

State’s newly-expanded “Don’t Say Gay” law to those targeting drag shows and banning gender-affirming care for minors, as the B.A.R. previously reported

Speaking in general terms, SF Pride’s statement read, “We’ve provided extensive training to our volunteers and staff members on safety protocols, emergency response procedures, and conflict de-escalation techniques.” It states that medical services will be available throughout the festival grounds,

that there’ll be “accessible seating areas, wheelchair-accessible stages, ASL interpretation, and accessible restrooms,” and a zero-tolerance policy on harassment.

The San Francisco Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Last year, the SFPD issued a statement that it would provide “adequate public safety staffing at pride events throughout Pride

See page 8 >>

Vacaville Mayor John Carli has refused to recognize June as LGBTQ Pride Month, according to the Solano Pride Center.

HIV advocates to press funding request at City Hall

by Matthew S. Bajko

As budget negotiations heat up in the coming weeks, San Francisco HIV advocates will be marching on City Hall June 5 to press their case for a variety of funding needs. For months, they have been calling on Mayor London Breed to include roughly $7 million toward various HIV health services and program needs in her two-year budget proposal.

Monday they will march from the offices of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation on Market Street to City Hall at 12:30 p.m. An hourlong rally is set to take place from 1 to 2 p.m. on the steps of the building followed by meetings with at least nine of the 11 supervisors.

Among their priorities are $3.6 million to fund 200 additional housing subsidies for people living with HIV so they do not become homeless and $500,000 to expand mental health services for long-term survivors of the HIV pandemic. They have also sought $1 to $2 million to open a safe consumption site for drug users with the goal of preventing fatal overdoses and connecting them to services.

Another $500,000 is being sought to fund intensive case management for people living with HIV experiencing acute behavioral health challenges so that they remain in care. HIV organizations are also seeking $500,000 to cover their increased cost-of-doing-business for federally funded programs.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is also seeking $1.5 million for its Stonewall Project program that provides harm reduction services to drug users. The funding had been cut from the budget submitted to the mayor by the city’s Department of Public Health.

“We are still really waiting and hoping the mayor is going to fund some of these critical needs that our community is facing. I think that is the message we really want to push. Where we are at at this point is we are fighting for life-saving services,” said Ande Stone, who is queer and is SFAF’s senior community mobilization manager.

Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter

Tuesday afternoon, Stone said the coalition of HIV advocates and service providers had not been apprised about what among their funding asks Breed would include in her proposed budget covering fiscal years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.

“We are expecting the mayor to come out and be a strong champion of HIV services,” said Stone. “We are eagerly waiting to see what comes out in the budget.”

The mayor released her budget proposal Wednesday morning, with $14.6 billion in spending for FY 2023-24 and $14.6 billion for FY 2024-25. A news release sent out by her office made no mention of any of the HIV funding requests, and spokespeople for the mayor told the B.A.R. Wednesday they needed to confer with different department officials before being able to provide any specific dollar amounts.

Breed wants to provide nonprofit service providers with a 3% cost-of-doingbusiness increase for next fiscal year, which would be an ongoing cost to the city of approximately $27 million per year. Breed is also proposing an additional 1% investment, an ongoing cost of $5.5 million per year, for contracts that provide services related to health and homelessness due to the high rate of staff vacancies such agencies experience.

While not specific to people living with HIV or AIDS, Breed included $1.1 million ongoing investment for 60 new

adult shallow rental assistance subsidies, according to the budget documents.

She also proposed an increase to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s prevention budget by $18.2 million dollars in FY 2023-24 and FY 2024- 25 “through the addition of 825 new prevention and problemsolving slots” so people remain housed.

As for a safe consumption site, the document states it “would be funded by private entities.” A word search of the 362-page document found no mention of the Stonewall Project.

But the mayor did propose $18.9 million to open up to three Wellness Hubs over the two budget years “to improve the health and well-being of people who use drugs, including those experiencing homelessness, and reduce public drug use.”

“This budget is about change. This budget is about doing things differently,” said Breed in announcing her spending plan inside City Hall’s North Light Court.

Stone could not be reached for comment about the mayor’s budget proposal by the B.A.R.’s press deadline Wednesday. An aide for gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who is a member of the budget committee, told the B.A.R. it would take some time to review the budget document to determine what was included.

Mandelman told the B.A.R. Tuesday that he plans to make the HIV funding requests a priority during the board’s budget negotiations.

NCLR to hold Pride in the Park

compiled by Cynthia Laird

The National Center for Lesbian Rights will hold its second annual Pride in the Park celebration

Saturday, June 3, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

The event is designed to highlight the joy and beauty of the LGBTQ community and is a family-friendly celebration with entertainment, food and beverages, and activities, organizers stated in a news release.

“At a time when we are seeing historic and unprecedented attacks on the rights of the LGBTQ community and our families, it is important to be reminded that not only will we fight for our community, we will also celebrate our community,” stated NCLR Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon, a Black queer woman who recently marked her third year leading the public interest legal nonprofit.

Tickets are $100 and can be purchased at nclrights.org/event/ pride-in-the-park. The AIDS grove is located at Nancy Pelosi Drive and Bowling Green Drive.

‘Drag Me Downtown’ events in June

Downtown SF Partnership, the community benefit district that

oversees 43 blocks across San Francisco’s Financial District and Jackson Square Historic District, is kicking off Pride Month with celebrations every Thursday in June with “Drag Me Downtown,” a series of pop-up performances featuring some of San Francisco drag’s biggest names, a news release stated. The sequin-studded series will feature new performers at different downtown restaurants and bars each week in an effort to provide direct support to local businesses, shine a light on the city’s LGBTQIA+ com -

munity, and drive a diverse range of economic activity to the area, the release stated.

All of the pop-up events run from 5 to 7 p.m. The pop-ups will kick off June 1 at Schroeder’s, 240 Front Street. The rest of the schedule is: June 8 at Latin Steakhouse, 56 Belden Place; June 15 at Nigella, 388 Market Street, Suite 105; June 22 at One Market Restaurant, 1 Market Street; and June 29 at Pagan Idol, 375 Bush Street.

Featured performers will include Bionka Simone, Bobby Fri-

day, Coco Buttah, Dulce De Leche, Helixer Jynder Byntwell, Jota Mercury, Madd Dogg 20/20, Mary Vice, MGM Grande, Nicki Jizz, Rahni NothingMore, Vera, and Voodonna Black, according to the release.

Drag Me Downtown is free to attend, however, pre-registered attendees are guaranteed to receive a free fan and feather boa, according to the release. All pre-registration proceeds benefit Trans Thrive, a trans-centric nonprofit that works to create safe spaces, events, and services for the trans and gendernonconforming community.

To register or for more information, go to downtownsf.org/do/ drag-me-downtown.

Hayward to raise

Pride flag

The East Bay city of Hayward will raise the Pride flag Thursday, June 1, during a ceremony at noon at City Hall Plaza. The flag will fly for the entirety of Pride Month, according to information from the city that Alameda County Supervisor Elisa Márquez included in her recent newsletter. Márquez, who was appointed to the county board last month, is a former Hayward City councilmember.

In addition, the Hayward City Council will issue a proclamation Tuesday, June 6, designat ing June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Queer, Intersex, 2-Spirit and Gender Non-Conforming Pride Month in the city.

Hayward City Hall is located at 777 B Street, near the Hayward BART Station.

ALRP history panel

The AIDS Legal Referral Panel is marking 40 years of service this year and, as part of the commemoration, the organization will hold a special panel on the history of the organization and the attorneys who helped start it.

The free event, which is open to the public, takes place Wednesday, June 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the law

“I think the main thing we are focused on at this point is no cuts to HIV services,” said Mandelman. “I think that a major concern I have had is around funding for substance abuse and prevention efforts through the Stonewall Project. It is an issue I have raised with the mayor’s office and DPH, and I am hoping will be addressed.”

The supervisors’ budget and appropriations committee will now take up the budget and make revisions to it. It is expected to vote on the proposed budget June 29, with the full board scheduled to cast its first vote on it July 11 and expected to finalize the budget July 18 in order to send it to Breed to sign by August 1.

District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, the board’s budget chair this year, was critical of the mayor’s proposed budget.

“As your budget chair, my approach will be to comb through the mayor’s proposed budget: I will go through every line item, and ask each and every city department how they will spend our public dollars and deliver the results we all deserve. They all will be held accountable, dollar for dollar,” stated Chan.

According to Stone, as of May 30 the HIV advocates had confirmed meetings with all of the supervisors except for District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the board’s president, and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who is running to be mayor against Breed in 2024 . t

offices of Morrison & Foerster, 425 Market Street in San Francisco.

According to a flyer promoting the event, 40 years ago a handful of attorneys at Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom drew up a short list of their colleagues who could quickly get to hospitals and draft wills for people who were dying of AIDS. That list grew into ALRP, which continues to serve people living with HIV/ AIDS through its staff and donated legal services from attorneys. Panelists will include Mark Senick, Carol Wolf, and Frederick Hertz. They will be joined by moderators Shawn Matloob and Cassandra Frias.

To RSVP, contact julied@alrp.org.

SF library Pride events

The San Francisco Public Library, home to the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, is celebrating Pride with free programs for all ages and an exhibit featuring poetry and art from 16 Black, Indigenous, and people of color trans and gendernonconforming Bay Area artists. According to a news release, the Hormel center and main library will offer programs that center queer creativity.

“When you include the library as part of your Pride celebrations, you embrace San Francisco’s rich shared queer history while simultaneously strengthening our community, affirming our values as a city and nurturing the creators that are writing today’s queer stories,” stated Cristina Mitra, program manager at the Hormel center. “Pride at the library has something for everyone.”

Art-making programs include a queer collage workshop led by artist Terrance Graven on Sunday, June 4, and a retro zine workshop, Zinething, presented in partnership with Zinefest on Tuesday, June 20. On Sunday, June 18, Louis Niebur, author of “Menergy: San Francisco’s Gay Disco Sound,” goes back in

The One and Only Rexy, left, joined Melanie Sparks, Kipper Snacks, Madd Dogg 20/20, and Miss Shugana at last year’s NCLR Pride in the Park.

Courtesy NCLR

Mayor London Breed has released her proposed two-year budget.

Rick Gerharter

Volume 53, Number 21

June 1-7, 2023

www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER

Michael M. Yamashita

Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013)

Publisher (2003 – 2013)

Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003)

NEWS EDITOR

Cynthia Laird

ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR

Jim Provenzano

ASSISTANT EDITORS

Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl

Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth

Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell

Michael Flanagan •Jim Gladstone

Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen

Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno

David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish • Tim Pfaff

Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel

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There’s no going back

Last week, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 presidential campaign with the tagline “Make America Florida.” But the way things are going, he may not have to win the GOP nomination to do that.

Riding high after getting Bud Light sales to drop after the beer brand used trans TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson, the leaders of the resurgent queerphobia in our nation have set their targets on … well, Target – leading the company to remove some Pridethemed merchandise in some retail stores and, in some parts of the country, to move the apparel locations to less conspicuous parts of the stores.

The LGBTQ community has always had mixed feelings on so-called rainbow capitalism, and several community groups, including San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, joined the Human Rights Campaign in making a joint statement May 25 asking Target to “put Pride merchandise back on the sales floor and online in full” and “ensure the safety of team members who are on the front lines.”

However, at least one person who identifies as a queer, trans Target employee feels the statement doesn’t speak for them, stating on Twitter that “I would (personally) prefer the company be ‘safe rather than sorry’ bc I don’t get paid enough to get threatened, assaulted, or possibly gunned down at work over a swimsuit.” Indeed, Target’s move came after videos of people accosting staff and destroying property made their rounds on the internet.

What’s clear is that no matter what Target sells, or if or where it displays merchandise, the homophobia and transphobia won’t stop there. We know this because the voices of hate have made it clear their goal is to make people afraid

– through boycotts against corporations, blatantly unconstitutional laws, smear campaigns, and other attempts at intimidation – to be out of the closet.

“The goal is to make ‘pride’ toxic for brands,” far-right political commentator Matt Walsh stated on Twitter .

“If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let’s keep it going. … The Bud Light boycott will prove to be one of the most significant conservative victories of this decade. It was never just about Bud Light. It was about sending a message.”

Another time Walsh – the Daily Wire columnist who first made the rounds with his online film “What Is a Woman?” – stated, “Here’s what we should do: Pick a victim, gang up on

it, and make an example of it. We can’t boycott every woke company or even most of them. But we can pick one, it hardly matters which, and target it with a ruthless boycott campaign.”

Anyone who thought that homophobia would evaporate with Obergefell v. Hodges –the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide – or any of the other signs of progress we’ve seen, should be completely disabused by that notion now; as should any lesbian, gay, bisexual or other queer people who thought attacks on our trans siblings that began with questions about youth athletics or bathrooms wouldn’t come to affect them.

In DeSantis’ Florida, some Pride events this month are being canceled. The state is seeking to revoke business licenses from establishments that host drag shows. And as the B.A.R. has been reporting, queer Floridians are saying as loud as they can that he’s taking these actions precisely because they will play well in a Republican presidential primary.

Before Target entered the headlines, it was the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, invited, uninvited, and then re-invited to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Pride Night, who were the “victims” – in Walsh’s words – of the week. We wrote about that imbroglio last week.

If it really is unintentional that figures from presidential candidates to San Francisco’s own Catholic archbishop are choosing this moment for their smears – a moment when the United States government is warning for the second time in a year about intensifying threats of violence against us – then it must be because they don’t care.

This Pride Month is less a flood of rainbows and “love is love” T-shirts that you can still, blessedly, find at Target. It is more about standing firm and making it clear – to our allies, to those against us, and most of all, to ourselves – that the closet door has been shattered, and there’s no going back. t

Breaking barriers: Advocating for diversity in tech

by Paul Pastor

Irecall interviewing for my first role at The Walt Disney Co. almost 17 years ago. I had 14 interviews. I went home and said to my partner at the time, “I think I was interviewed by 12 gay guys!”

He was floored, as was I. But immediately it spoke to the culture and openness of the team at Disney and, just as importantly, the barrier-busting leadership of the person who would become my boss, friend, and mentor, Rich Ross.

Disney, like many in the media and entertainment industry, valued its LGBTQ+ employees, creators, and storytellers. Our representation therein was felt throughout.

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After over 15 years in media, I’ve moved into the tech sector. With so much of the culture of tech built by companies coming out of the Bay Area, the tech industry was equally supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. We even boast a few of the top executives leading some of the world’s business companies, including Tim Cook at Apple.

But somehow, the support and the representation at the highest levels of the industry didn’t seem to translate into the on-the-ground community at large. Anecdotally, at industry conference events like the Consumer Electronics Show and the National Association of Broadcasters Show, I found that 90% of the attendees were male and 99% of them were straight.

Where was the diversity and inclusiveness that is so strongly advocated?

As someone who has benefited from community and mentorship afforded through representation, I felt there was more that I could do – and more that we, Quickplay, could do.

Taking it upon ourselves to create change

Since 1967, CES has been one of the most significant tech events in the world. The world’s biggest names in the game come together, showcasing breakthrough technologies and innovations – everything from flying cars to mixologist robots who can whip up a cocktail in seconds.

The Consumer Technology Association, the organization behind CES, has made strides toward creating a more diverse environment in terms of

gender and ethnicity by showcasing programs and conversations led by women and people of color, highlighting a variety of diversity and inclusion, or D&I, networking events, and more. But, until now, it didn’t squarely focus on LGBTQ+ representation.

When we pitched the idea of adding a co-sponsored gathering at the 2023 event, they immediately said: “Let’s do this!”

Together, we used our networks to spread the word about the first-ever LGBTQ+ Ally-dedicated CES gathering. We transformed a conference room into a haven, a place where 100 people swapped stories, shared experiences, and built connections. Better yet, we had many allies show up to support, and companies and people started to commit resources to next year.

Importance of representation and doing the right thing

Have you ever walked into a room with senior leadership, looked around, and thought, “I really should have watched football last night?”

I have on more than one occasion. Football often becomes the default social currency in a boardroom and or senior leadership offsite. I don’t harbor any ill will toward football, or any sport for that matter, and there are plenty of women and LGBTQ+ individuals who love the sport.

But, it can say something about an organization and its lack of diversity if it is the only form of connectivity.

A room that reflects the diversity of the population and target consumers will likely have conversations on more subjects, will provide for more diverse viewpoints on those subjects, and most importantly, will help drive creative thinking on strategies and consumer opportunities.

That’s why representation matters in all rooms, including conference rooms.

It’s also why we wanted to create a space within tech conferences to encourage inclusivity and more diverse conversations.

After CES, Quickplay hosted another LGBTQ+ Ally event at the NAB show. Google Cloud joined us as co-hosts for this event. We had well over 100 attendees, including allies that were there to showcase their support.

One of the moments that sticks out is what Anil Jain, the global managing director at Google Cloud, said at our event: “Quickplay is a company that shares the values of how we like to operate and that’s the type of company we want to do business with.”

Does it get any better than one of the world’s largest companies, and one of our biggest partners, standing up to say they like to do business with you simply because we were ourselves?

We plan to expand on our efforts and take our Tech and Entertainment Assembly for LGBTQ+ to more events this fall and to take our efforts beyond just building community. We want to show the next generation that it’s possible to be out and successful in tech.

I am fortunate to have colleagues at Quickplay that are so supportive of our efforts. I hope that we can serve as an example of the impact that a tech startup can have on both who and what the tech industry looks like in the future. t

Paul Pastor, a three-time founder and pioneer in Direct-To-Consumer services, is the co-founder and chief business officer of Quickplay a cloud-native, OTT platform and services company. He is also the co-founder of Struum, an SVOD aggregation platform backed by Michael Eisner’s Tornante Ventures, and Unite Broadcast Ventures, a branded SaaS OTT platform to support European market streaming joint ventures.

Paul Pastor

Courtesy Paul Pastor

Pride-themed merchandise is in the front of the store at the Target in Alameda.

Cynthia Laird

SF again faces prospect of having no LGBTQ state legislator

by Matthew S. Bajko

Back in 2016, when gay former state Senator Mark Leno was term-limited from running again for his San Francisco seat, the city was facing the possibility of having no LGBTQ representatives in the state Legislature. Yet Scott Wiener, a gay man serving at the time on the Board of Supervisors, won a hard-fought race to succeed Leno and took his oath of office that December.

With Wiener eying a run next year for Congress, San Francisco is once again faced with the prospect of seeing no one from the LGBTQ community represent it in Sacramento following the 2024 elections. It all depends on if a series of electoral musical chairs plays out among the city’s political leaders, and who decides to run for – and wins – the city’s state Senate seat and two Assembly seats.

The candidacy news would first be set off by Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) opting not to run for reelection next year. Wiener, who already has set up an exploratory committee to seek the House seat, would then officially jump into the race for Pelosi’s open 11th Congressional District seat.

As his current term in the Legislature is up next year, it would mean Wiener’s Senate District 11 seat would now be open in 2024. A likely candidate to succeed Wiener would be Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), who was just elected to his 17th Assembly District seat last year.

“If Scott were to run for Congress … then I would consider it at that time. I am not spending time on it right now,” Haney told the Bay Area Reporter when asked about his running for the legislative seat.

He has pulled papers to seek reelection to the Assembly next year. But with Haney long talked about as a mayoral candidate at some point, his holding the citywide Senate seat is seen as bolstering his chances in a future bid for Room 200 at City Hall.

Yet he could find himself fending off a challenge from a more progressive Democrat were he to run for Wiener’s seat. Haney would also face questions about wanting to leave the Assembly so soon for the Legislature’s upper chamber.

“Haney needs to stop playing musical chairs. He needs to finish a term,” said gay former Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). “It is a bad look for us and a bad look for him.”

Were Haney to run for Senate, it would mean his Assembly seat would be up for grabs in 2024, as the elected position is on the ballot every two years. Jumping into the race would almost assuredly be gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, now serving his final term on the board.

Mandelman has made no secret of his desire to run for a legislative seat. He recently opened up a 2028 state Senate campaign account, which is when Wiener would be termed out of office if he ends up running for reelection next year.

“If there is an open state legislative seat, I intend to run for it. Which and what year remains to be seen,” said Mandelman.

He could transfer any funds raised in that account toward a 2024 Senate bid. But when asked about how next year’s elections could play out, Mandelman told the B.A.R. he isn’t interested in competing against a sitting state legislator.

“I have no intention of running against Matt Haney,” he stressed. “Lots of different things could happen and could happen quite soon. I would like to be ready for any eventuality.”

Another likely candidate for Haney’s Assembly seat would be his district director Honey Mahogany, who is transgender and nonbinary. The well-known Black LGBTQ leader currently chairs the San Francisco Democratic Party and lost her bid last year to succeed Haney in the District 6 supervisor seat.

“I am going to keep an open mind, certainly. I haven’t made that decision,” Mahogany recently told the B.A.R. when asked about running for the Assembly seat.

Mahogany did say she has no plans to move to either District 5, which now includes the Transgender District she helped form, or District 9, where she lived for a number of years, in order to run for one of those supervisorial seats next year.

“I think it is a pretty crowded field already,” she said of the D9 race, where three out candidates have already pulled papers, as the Political Notebook reported last week. “District 5 now includes a neighborhood that remains near and dear to my heart, the Tenderloin. But I don’t live there now and don’t plan on moving out of D6 in the future.”

While Mandelman and Mahogany would be strong out candidates for the Assembly seat, a straight candidate could also jump into the race and potentially win. San Francisco hasn’t had an LGBTQ member of the Assembly since 2014, when Ammiano was termed out of office that December.

The westside

To date, no LGBTQ candidate has announced a run to succeed Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), who is termed out of his 19th Assembly District seat in 2024. San Francisco District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, like Mandelman serving her last term on the board, has filed to seek the seat, which covers San Francisco’s western neighborhoods and several of San Mateo County’s most northern cities.

Queer BART board member and current president Janice Li has been talked about as a likely candidate for Ting’s seat. But she told the B.A.R. Tuesday that she isn’t planning to enter the race, with her focus squarely on addressing the regional transit agency’s budget crisis and her professional work addressing antiAsian hate.

“I am not making any moves to file and I am not making any moves to prepare for that filing deadline. That is probably the best and most accurate way to put it,” said Li, who also noted that she has no plans to begin raising money for such a campaign.

With California holding its primary next year on March 5 due to it being a presidential election year, the filing deadline for 2024 legislative candidates is December 8. If the incumbent officeholder opts not to run for reelection, then the deadline will be extended to December 13.

“If I end up running it is because something has seriously happened that makes me feel I have to do it. I am not feeling that right now,” said Li, who did tell the B.A.R. she would like to see a progressive Chinese leader enter the race. “I am not ready to jump in.”

As for the prospect of seeing no LGBTQ legislator from San Francisco for the first time since 1996, Li told the B.A.R. part of the responsibility lies with the current officeholders helping to build a pipeline of younger out leaders who could step up and run.

Mahogany noted it would “be great” to

see the city once again elect a woman to represent it in Sacramento. The last to do so was Fiona Ma, who was termed out of the Assembly in 2012 and is currently the state’s elected treasurer.

“I am not worried about that. San Francisco has a long history of sending LGBTQ candidates to Sacramento. I am sure some LGBTQ representation will be continuing in Sacramento one way or another,” said Mahogany. “Frankly, other communities are under-represented in Sacramento as well.”

Haney told the B.A.R. there continues to be a need for an LGBTQ legislator from San Francisco and sounded confident such a person would be serving in Sacramento during the 2025 legislative session.

“Whether it is a senator or assemblymember, we absolutely should have an LGBTQ representative in Sacramento, and I think we will,” he said.

Asked about the absence of queer representation in the Statehouse from San Francisco, Mandelman said, “I think that would be a significant problem at a time when folks around the country and around the world are looking to California to lead.”

Gay man announces

Sacto mayor run

Gay former Sacramento city councilmember Steve Hansen is running to become mayor of the state’s capital next year. He was widely expected to do so after the city’s current mayor, Darrell Steinberg, announced last week that he would not stand for reelection in 2024.

Hansen officially announced his candidacy Tuesday, May 30, with the release of a launch video. (https://youtu.be/ z7FaA45uvkQ) The partnered father of two young sons also emailed supporters of his past council campaigns about his decision.

“Growing up, people like me didn’t serve in elected office. A closeted gay kid, raised by a single mom, my family struggled. We moved around a lot, faced housing insecurity, and even spent some time in a domestic violence shelter,” wrote Hansen of his time living in St. Paul, Minnesota.

After graduating from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, Hansen relocated to California. In 2012, he became the first out person elected to Sacramento’s city council.

But he lost his bid for a third term on the March 2020 primary ballot and stepped down from his council seat that December. Now he is vying to be elected his city’s first out mayor on next year’s March 5 primary ballot; the national LGBTQ Victory Fund and statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California both endorsed Hansen May 31.

If no mayoral candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, the top two votegetters will face off in the November 5 general election. Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), prosecutor Maggy Krell and epidemiologist Flojaune Cofer are also running, with more candidates likely to get into the race.

Should Hansen be elected, he could be the second out mayor to lead one of California’s 10 largest cities come 2025. Gay San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is seeking a second term next year.   t

Planning Ahead is Simple

Planning Ahead is Simple

The benefits are immense.

Planning Ahead is Simple

The benefits are immense.

The benefits are immense.

ahead protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress

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.

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.

San Francisco District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, left, and San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Honey Mahogany may both run for a legislative seat in 2024.

Courtesy the subjects

In the company of Pride

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

J une is upon us, and with that Pride season.

This year, in particular, Pride feels tenuous, as if the whole festivity is hanging by a thread. Many events, in states such as Florida, have had to be canceled due to onerous bans on drag that have chilled such gatherings, while others will be clouded over with the anti-drag, anti-trans, and antiqueer attitudes pervasive in 2023.

I’ll be honest; I’m not sure how many Pride seasons are left, given the current political trajectory. Yet one thing clearly remains, and that is corporations glomming onto Pride as a feel-good marketing gimmick. Setting aside the worst offenders, say big banks or defense contractors seeking to “pink wash” reputations or otherwise court the LGBTQ dollar without doing more than a vaguely worded “love is love” statement coupled with a rainbow icon on social media, I can’t help but notice that most retailers are at least trying their best to get on the bandwagon.

Every ad in my email and every store I walk into seem to have some attempt at capitalizing on Pride Month. Even my supermarket was selling kits for decorating rainbowthemed sugar cookies in the same spot that recently had Easter egg cookies and shamrock treats.

I’m not a big fan of companies coopting Pride to line their pockets.

At the same time, I know that

Christine Smith

when a young LGBTQ child, or even a deeply-closeted adult, sees a Pride display in a store like Walmart or Target in their hometown, it makes a difference. It shows they matter, especially in an increasingly hostile world. We may sneer at the basic old stores and their sometimes questionable, rainbow-colored goods – and I’m right there with you, wondering who thought a green jumpsuit with the word “Gay” in yellow emblazoned on the back was a tasteful product for the local Target – but I know that for some, this does make a huge difference. That, in itself, should be applauded.

Yet, I do want to talk about Target, as well as Hershey’s, Bud Light, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, each of which have stories to tell this Pride season.

Way back in March, Hershey’s launched its “Her For She” campaign, promoting five female ac-

Dorsey, who represents the city’s South of Market neighborhood along the parade route, told the B.A.R. that he’s been to a mandatory safety training hosted by Pride.

tivists as part of an International Women’s Day campaign in Canada. One of those, Fae Johnstone, is a transgender woman. Needless to say, Johnstone’s presence riled up conservatives who felt that she was somehow “erasing women” by being part of the campaign.

Likewise, Anheuser-Busch, which I’ve written about before, created a single can featuring Dylan Mulvaney, a trans woman and social media influencer. It was part of a marketing deal, with Mulvaney pushing the brand on her TikTok channel. This led to large boycotts, including bomb threats aimed at AnheuserBusch distilleries.

After this, the L.A. Dodgers planned a Pride Night, includ ing honoring the L.A. chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. After complaints from Catholics, as well as Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the invite to the drag nuns was rescinded. (It was later reinstated after backlash from the LGBTQ community and its allies.)

Finally, Target. Like previous years, Target made a big deal out of a Pride display in their stores, with several LGBTQ-themed items. As well as the aforementioned jumpsuit, this display included “tuckable” swimsuits for adults as well as a sweatshirt and

gold standard on safety, not just for its own training and education programs but for its longstanding partnerships with local law enforcement and private security services.”

two bags designed by Abprallen, a U.K. trans-led company.

Target, like the others, faced threats of violence from angry, rightwing, anti-trans bigots, including direct threats to their employees as well as the same sort of bomb threats that Anheuser-Busch suffered.

Also, like Anheuser-Busch and the Dodgers, Target caved in, removing the items designed by Abprallen, as well as the swimsuits and potentially some other items as well. Just like the others, this was a mistake.

Those pushing these boycotts have made it clear that they are designed to be incremental, taking out one company at a time, expecting smaller companies to fall into line to avoid controversy.

“The goal is to make ‘pride’ toxic for brands,” said rightwing provocateur Matt Walsh. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain.”

The attacks on Target – and other brands – are still ongoing, with the right claiming that the swimsuits were marketed to children (they weren’t) and that the Abprallen designs featuring Satanic imagery were being sold in stores (they weren’t). No one is apparently going to let the truth stand in the

film “Mrs. Vera’s Daybook,” “The Girl

From 7th Avenue,” and performances by DJs, dancers, and local legends showcasing the unique talent of our community,” the release states.

way of a successful moral panic.

Meanwhile, each time a brand does capitulate, it also leads to backlash from our own community, who – rightfully – see just how shallow the corporate commitment to LGBTQ people is.

The Dodgers, to their credit, did reverse their decision, and the Sisters are allowed at their June 16 Pride Night – though I expect to see the Dodgers quietly shutter Pride Night in the future. Bud Light has all but reversed course from Dylan Mulvaney, while Target executives – still very much being criticized by the right – are trying to figure out what they did wrong, all while their designer partners face their own direct attacks from the right. I, too, expect the company to scale back in future years, while other companies do what they can to avoid the watchful eye of right-wing protesters.

I said before: it is important for those of us who may be in areas where it is that much harder to be ourselves to see that the big-box store will cater to them. But if the store is unwilling to weather any hint of protest, then I don’t think it’s helping anyone. At the very least, it’s not the sort of corporate allyship that serves anyone’s needs. t

Gwen Smith did get a couple of the Pride items at Target, but no jumpsuit. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com

Month. Our officers will be vigilant for unlawful or unsafe activity and will respond as appropriate.”

Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt

“San Francisco Pride takes public safety extremely seriously,” he stated.

“Among the major events our city hosts, in fact, I think SF Pride is the

Sign up!

SF Pride Castro Theatre fundraiser

SF Pride will be hosting a fundraiser Friday, June 2, at the Castro Theatre called “SF Pride 2023 Kick-Off: A Night of Queer Entertainment,” according to a May 30 news release.

The evening begins at 7 p.m. and the suggested donation is $20. Tickets will be available at the door and at Eventbrite.com.

“The entertaining lineup includes the play “The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot,” the

DeSantis

From page 1

That precedent was set forth in Miller v. California, decided by the liberal Warren court in 1971. In the Miller case, the court ruled 5-4 that obscene materials are not protected by the First Amendment, but lessened the definition of “obscene material.”

For something to be obscene, and thus not covered by the First Amendment, it must appeal to the “prurient interest,” that is, sexual appetites; lack “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value;” and describe “in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.”

All three of these prongs have to be satisfied for expression to be legally obscene.

“I think that there’s a couple of potential problems with Florida’s law,” Boso said. “The first [prong of the Miller test] is probably more easily satisfied, because it’s a local standard over whether it meets a prurient interest – a shameful or morbid interest in sexuality or excretion. In Florida there probably are locales that would consider some drag performances to meet that standard.

The second is more straightforward – is this something the state Legislature has defined as offensive by statute, which is what this is trying to do.”

It’s with the third prong of the Miller test that the law runs into problems, he said.

“The third runs into trouble because it’s a national standard,” Boso said. “It’s asking, ‘does the performance lack serious

“This kick-off event is fittingly in the vibrant heart of the Castro, which is a historic epicenter of inclusivity and art,” stated Nguyen Pham, SF Pride board president. “We anticipate starting this Pride season with exceptional entertainment. Mark your calendars, gather your friends, and get ready for a Pride season you will never forget.”

David Perry, a gay spokesperson for Another Planet Entertainment, which operates the Castro Theatre, stated to the B.A.R. that the theater is “the perfect place to kick off Pride.”

“Another Planet is honored to be part of this, especially in a time when, sadly, so many businesses in other parts of the country are giving into fear, ignorance and hate,” Perry stated. “We have always stood with the queer communities and always will.”

The B.A.R. previously reported that SF Pride is facing a financial shortfall. Ford told the B.A.R. in April that Pride will be accepting donations along the parade route. Victor Ruiz-Cornejo, a gay man who advises Mayor London Breed on LGBTQ issues, didn’t immediately answer whether the city would be stepping in to fund any of the $800,000 that the organization said it needs. t

used in an attempt to criminalize drag – has led some Pride festivities to be canceled in Florida, such as in Tampa and Port St. Lucie.

“Florida has recently passed a number of laws that target the LGBTQIA+ community,” Pride organizers in the community of St. Cloud stated. “These laws have created a climate of fear and hostility for LGBTQIA+ people in Florida. We believe that holding an LGBTQIA+ event in this environment would put our community at risk.”

GAPA’s Nguyen agreed.

literary, artistic or political value?’ Drag is a lot of ways inherently political given that it’s a commentary on gender norms and expectations. Some drag could be done in a non-political way, but I think the fact that drag is so much a part of the national conversation about gender and sexuality means it has become more political and, as a result, it’s hard for the statute to survive the third Miller prong.”

The second issue the law faces is the chilling effect on expression.

“When the government seeks people to get permission from the government before they express themselves that’s a prior restraint and there are more stringent standards with that,” Boso said.

“There needs to be clear criteria and important reasons why. It has to leave reasonable alternative channels of communication available.”

That chilling effect seems to be working, however.

The tension and the “adult live performances” law – which critics say could be

“It’s part of a boogeyman the far right wants to create in the LGBT community and also just really to try to silence us, to ban our expression and ban us from public life,” Nguyen said.

Families want to leave

The current environment has led some LGBTQ people to leave the state, as the B.A.R. reported.

Statewide LGBTQ rights group Equality Florida was joined by other civil rights groups such as the NAACP in issuing a travel advisory warning against visiting, as the B.A.R. also reported .

Seventeen percent of LGBTQ parents had started taking steps to leave Florida, according to a 2022 UCLA Williams Institute study (https://williamsinstitute. law.ucla.edu/publications/impact-dontsay-gay-parents/), and 56% had considered doing so.

Even more of an infringement on the First Amendment is the Don’t Say Gay law that catapulted DeSantis’ national

See page 12 >>

Attorney and drag artist Michael Trung Nguyen

Michael Trung Nguyen

Wrongful death lawsuit filed in Banko Brown case

by John Ferrannini

Longtime civil rights attorney John Burris announced that the family of Banko Brown is suing Walgreens, the security guard who killed the 24-year-old unarmed trans man killed outside a San Francisco location of the pharmacy chain, and the company that employed him.

“This is a young person whose life was taken unnecessarily so, because of what Walgreens did,” Burris said at a news conference at his Oakland office Friday afternoon.

Specifically, the suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, is being brought by Banko Brown’s father Terry Brown and his mother Kevinisha Henderson against Walgreens, Kingdom Group Protective Services, and Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, the security guard who killed Banko Brown on April 27.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins opted not to prosecute Anthony, despite his arrest on suspicion of homicide by police, in the most controversial move of her tenure. In a report earlier this month, Jenkins’ office stated, “Anthony is not criminally liable for the death of Brown.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office will be investigating if Jenkins’ decision is an “abuse of discretion,” after Burris and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors requested he do so, as the Bay Area Reporter reported earlier this week.

Walgreens stated May 26 that it will not be commenting for this report. Kingdom Group Protective Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Anthony could not be reached for comment.

The suit states that Banko Brown died as a result of the defendants’ actions.

“As a consequence of defendants’ conduct, plaintiffs suffered non-economic damages, including, but not limited to, loss of love, affection, care, society, service, comfort, support, right to support, companionship, solace or moral support, expectations of future support

<< News Briefs

From page 4 time to rediscover the Castro-born sounds of “high-energy” dance music.

The release noted that on view through June 29 will be “I Still Love You: Queerness, Ancestors, and the Places that Made Us,” an exhibit that features original poetry, artwork, and historical works from the Hormel center collection, some never exhibited to the public. Co-curated by local queer women of color artists Tina Bartolome and Natalia M. Vigil, the exhibit includes works by Amalia Macias-Laventure, Izaac Limón, J. Torres, and several others. For families, there are Pridethemed storytimes, and arts and crafts activities such as a rainbow sun catcher workshop at the Western Addition branch on Wednesday, June 7; Pride flag-making at the Visitacion Valley branch on Wednesday, June 21, and a Pride bracelet class Saturday, June 24, at the Merced branch.

The Harvey Milk/Eureka Valley branch in the Castro LGBTQ neighborhood will host its annual open house Saturday, June 10. It will include music by J.D. Limelight, drag

and counseling, other benefits and assistance of Decedent Banko Brown, in an amount in excess of the jurisdictional minimum, but no less than $25,000,000,” states a copy of the complaint.

Burris, 78, said this is one of “the most, most, most disturbing” cases he’s seen over the course of his career, which also included the Rodney King, Oscar Grant, and Mario Woods cases. King, a Black man, was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991, which led to riots in the city. Grant was a young Black man fatally shot by a BART police officer in 2009. Woods was a young Black man who was fatally shot by San Francisco police officers in 2015.

“This death case seems so woefully unnecessary because it was a choice that was made,” Burris said of Banko Brown’s killing. “It wasn’t in the heat of the moment, when one person pulls out a weapon. This was not that kind of situation.”

Other events include film screenings and an LGBTQIA book swap. For more information, visit sfpl.org

Sunday Streets in the Tenderloin

Sunday Streets, San Francisco’s community-powered open streets program, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year and will hold its next iteration of the popular event in the Tenderloin Sunday, June 4.

“We’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone year with our neighbors and partners who have loved coming out to Sunday Streets throughout the years,” stated Darin Ow-Wing, executive director of Livable City, home to the program since its inception in 2008. “We’re proud of our collective impact on building more connected and vibrant communities.

Sunday Streets empowers local communities to transform miles of streets into car-free spaces filled with cultural programming, free health resources, local vendors, and recreational opportunities for all ages, a news release noted. The program is supported by the city, including the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency as presenting agency sponsor, the release stated.

Sunday Streets takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free

Upcoming Sunday Streets are in ern Addition September 24, and the

Burris said the case “has all the evidence of a homicide, clearly, of murder.”

“He [Anthony] said, ‘It’s a lot of pressure,’” Burris said, quoting remarks Anthony made in a police interview. “It’s very important he says, ‘It’s a lot to deal with. It’s a lot of pressure. A person can only take so much. When you’re limited to certain options something will happen.’ That’s the state of mind he had when he approached Banko at the door – tired of people like [him], people like them. He’s the one with an agitated state of mind. Banko didn’t have that state of mind. He wasn’t the aggressor.”

Anthony was attempting to stop Banko Brown from leaving the store with unpaid items. According to store video released by the DA’s office, Anthony confronted Banko Brown, tackled him on the ground, then appeared to let him leave. As Banko Brown is walking backward outside the store, Anthony shot him, the video shows.

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

“Walgreens is responsible – it’s Banko’s blood on their hands, because they put in motion hiring these security guards,” Burris said. “Of course you have the security guard company, because they sent a person out there who was not emotionally fit to be there.”

Burris said that Terry Brown and Henderson would not be speaking, when the B.A.R. directed a question to them about what they hope to get out of the suit other than the money they are seeking.

“They don’t want to talk – they have answered a lot of questions already – but I can tell you what they’ve said, what they want, they want the officer prosecuted for murder, period,” Burris said. “They don’t want manslaughter, they want murder. He was backing up,

he had a gun out, he could’ve walked away, he chose not to do so.”

Burris said Banko Brown was “not a lost soul” and was proud of his trans identity. He said that his parents “accepted him,” though they continued to refer to him by his name at birth.

“They accepted him and her as she was and loved how confident he was and who he was and the family accepted him and her as he was and that’s the part that is most damning here,” Burris said. “This was a young person who was confident as to who he was. We all know stories and have read stories of trans people going through various challenges, trying to get their identity together and be comfortable in new skin. [Banko] was not that way, he was confident in who he was.”

Banko Brown had struggled financially in the weeks before his death and was unhoused, according to friends. He had been an intern at the Young Women’s Freedom Center.

Banko Brown’s funeral was held May 25 at Third Baptist Church in the Western Addition. According to media reports, disputes erupted during part of the service between family members. According to the San Francisco Standard, the dispute was about who should be referred to as Banko Brown’s mother, as his stepmother was also present.

Regarding the state attorney general’s office, Burris said he hasn’t heard anything from Bonta since he announced his intention to investigate earlier this week.

“Petty theft has become a systemic problem but deadly force is not the way to handle it,” Burris said. “They have a right to protect property but not to kill people.”

Walgreens cut ties with Kingdom Group Protective Services last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Kingdom Group CEO James Vierra told the Chronicle that, “We enjoyed working for them.” t

you feel welcome, can be yourself, live among friends and experience new adventures, all while securing your future. Explore your next steps by giving us a call today!

y is what it is all about.

Attorney John Burris points to an enlarged photo of the Walgreens security guard and Banko Brown just before Brown was shot.

John Ferrannini

Former tech worker Joseph Bucciarelli dies in San Jose <<

by Cynthia Laird

Joseph Bucciarelli, a gay man who once had a promising career in the tech field but whose mental illness eventually led him to be homeless, died May 13 in San Jose after he was struck by a transit van. He was 49.

Mr. Bucciarelli, a former San Francisco resident, had been missing for about the past four years, his mother, Teresa Bucciarelli, told the Bay Area Reporter. In spite of friends searching for Mr. Bucciarelli, and occasionally spotting him, he hadn’t contacted his mother during that time, she said.

“We’ve been out there twice to find him,” she said in a phone interview from her home in Florida. “He was homeless, abandoned his apartment. Everybody was always trying to help.”

Teresa Bucciarelli said that she wants her son to be remembered and that was part of the reason she was speaking out. “It wasn’t an overdose; he didn’t jump off a bridge,” she said of her son’s passing. “The truth is just as tragic.”

According to Teresa Bucciarelli, Mr. Bucciarelli was struck and run over at the intersection of Stevens Creek Boulevard and De Anza Boulevard. A spokesperson at the Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner-Coroner confirmed Mr. Bucciarelli’s death at about 10 p.m. May 13 of multiple injuries. The spokesperson said that Mr. Bucciarelli was a transient.

The San Jose Police Department said it had no matching reports and referred the paper to the California Highway Patrol. A CHP spokesperson said it had no report under Mr.

Bucciarelli’s name. A second request to SJPD, asking the department to check again, was not responded to.

Tod Wohlfarth, who dated Mr. Bucciarelli for about six months back in the mid-1990s, said he was “such a sweet man.” The two met at a queer-friendly coffee shop in Long Beach, California, in late 1993 or early 1994, he said.

Wohlfarth, who now lives in New York state but previously lived in San Francisco, said in a phone interview that it was his understanding that Mr. Bucciarelli was in New York City prior to coming to California and was working near the site of the first World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. He said he thinks Mr. Bucciarelli may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of that experience.

“He really didn’t get help after that,” Wohlfarth said of the period just after that tragedy. “He worked at the mall where everybody had to evacuate.”

Initially, their breakup was hard on Mr. Bucciarelli, Wohlfarth said. “He held it against me for years,” he said.

Wohlfarth moved to San Francisco and attended UC Berkeley. Mr. Bucciarelli eventually also made his way to the city and the two became friends again.

“He had good friends and had a good job,” Wohlfarth said.

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In the mid-1990s, Mr. Bucciarelli was working in IT for Wired magazine with Jennifer Holmes. The two became roommates in an apartment in the Castro above Sui Generis on Market Street between 16th and Sanchez streets, Holmes said in a phone interview.

“He had just dropped out of Bennington and was totally self-taught,” Holmes said, referring to the college in Vermont. “He was a tech whiz kid. He was super cute and a genius.”

Holmes, a bi woman who started in accounts payable at Wired and left as executive assistant to the executive vice president, recalled the late summer of 1995, when Mr. Bucciarelli wanted to go to Burning Man.

“Everybody was going to Burning Man but the [Wired] server crashed so he couldn’t go,” Holmes recalled. She sent a photo showing Mr. Bucciarelli gathered at the apartment with Burning Man co-founders the late Larry Harvey, Flash Hopkins, and John Law, along with artist Dana Albany in 1996.

terness, just nice to catch up with each other for a little bit.”

First hints Holmes said that Mr. Bucciarelli’s first mental breakdown in 2002 was precipitated by his use of crystal meth, a breakup with his boyfriend, 9/11, and the death of his brother in 2001 of an accidental overdose. She said that Mr. Bucciarelli did stop his meth use and talked about his PTSD with her.

But a second mental breakdown occurred later – not due to drugs, Holmes said – as Mr. Bucciarelli tried to get his medication dosages balanced.

“In 2018 he reached out to me, and we talked and he pulled himself together and got a good job,” Holmes said. “He was so good about his health care and advocating for himself.”

“He was really together but he spiraled into deep mental illness,” she added. “He was dragged back down.”

Holmes said that the last text she received from Mr. Bucciarelli was in July 2019. “Then I discovered he cut me off social media,” she said.

Ramona Ocean, a queer woman, was also once roommates with Mr. Bucciarelli in San Francisco. She could not recall the exact years but it was before he was roommates with Holmes on Market Street. In a phone interview, she said he was the best roommate she ever had and they were friends for over a decade. The two were part of a core group of friends – mostly gay men – who would spend holidays together. At one of those gatherings several years ago, Mr. Bucciarelli disclosed that he’d been hospitalized.

But over time, Mr. Buccarelli’s mental state deteriorated, she explained.

It was Ocean who filed the first missing persons report with San Francisco police, at the request of his mother, years ago, she said. The police found him, she said, but Mr. Bucciarelli indicated he did not want people to look for him.

“I didn’t see him after that,” Ocean said, though she received occasional text messages asking for money.

Mutual friends would try to get him help in the neighborhood, but he did not want it, Ocean said.

“He is truly missed, and has been for years,” Ocean said. “He was such a fabulous person.”

Muth said that about a year ago, Wohlfarth forwarded him “a bunch of Facebook videos where Joseph seemed incredibly tortured. He mentioned us both by name repeatedly and I’ve felt incredibly guilty for any damage I may have done.”

Wohlfarth remained in contact with Teresa Bucciarelli through her son’s struggles. He said he believed Mr. Bucciarelli was hospitalized under a psychiatric hold at least once, but was released. Ocean said that she and some friends did have Mr. Bucciarelli placed on a 72-hour hold known as a 5150.

Teresa Bucciarelli said that her son suffered for many years and was hospitalized many times for psychiatric care. His last job, she said, was at BBDO, a marketing firm in San Francisco, but that “he stopped showing up.”

BBDO did not return a message seeking comment.

“Four years ago I was [in San Francisco] for Mother’s Day for a week,” she said. “He was fun and witty and smart and handsome. He was so sweet.”

Holmes was still in contact with Mr. Bucciarelli at that point in 2019 when his mother visited. “He seemed super happy” with the visit, she said.

Mr. Bucciarelli was born September 9, 1973. His mother said that he grew up in Oak Valley and Glendora, both in New Jersey, and Tampa, Florida. He graduated from Gaither High School in Tampa and attended Bennington College in Vermont.

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Holmes, the former producer of the Pride at City Hall party, said Mr. Bucciarelli was charming, funny, and spiritual. He had friends in several circles, from the Radical Faeries to baby bears, she recalled.

“I felt lucky to have him as a roommate,” she said.

Around 1999-2000, Mr. Bucciarelli began dating Kevin Muth, a friend of Wohlfarth’s who also lived in San Francisco. In an email, Muth, who now lives in New York City, wrote that he and Mr. Bucciarelli “enjoyed eating sweets, playing video games, listening to music, and occasional trips up and down the coast on my motorcycle.” At the time, Mr. Bucciarelli was managing the IT for a design company in the South of Market neighborhood, Muth wrote, adding that it was a stressful job.

Much of their relationship was long distance, Muth wrote, as he traveled around the world. “But he came to Bali for a couple weeks of luxury and adventure, riding on the back of my motorcycle, eating exotic fruits and visiting ancient temples,” Muth stated.

“When we broke up, he didn’t feel like he could continue a friendship, and I moved to New York soon after,” Muth wrote. “We bumped into each other two or three times over the decades since then, when I was visiting the Bay Area. There didn’t seem to be any hard feelings or bit-

Ocean said that she and Mr. Bucciarelli remained close after he moved to another apartment. She became his power of attorney and once had to authorize a blood transfusion once when he was very sick in the hospital.

In addition to his mother, Mr. Bucciarelli is survived by a sister, Lana Bucciarelli; cousins; and many friends. Wohlfarth said that the lack of appropriate care for people struggling with mental illness, such as Mr. Bucciarelli, was a tragedy.

“Joseph was a wonderful, sensitive man,” Wohlfarth wrote in a text message. “The world failed him. We failed him.” t

DISPLAY OBITUARIES & IN MEMORIAMS

Joseph Bucciarelli

Courtesy Teresa Bucciarelli

Joseph Bucciarelli photographed when he lived at the Market Street apartment with roommate Jennifer Holmes around 1999.

Courtesy Jennifer Holmes

BAY AREA REPORTER’S 2023 JUNE PRIDE EDITIONS

>JUNE 1 • Pride Month Begins

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profile, leading to an ongoing, protracted fight with The Walt Disney Co. – the state’s largest private employer – after it expressed disapproval.

The law’s vagueness represents a considerable prior restraint, Boso said. Lawyers advised school administrators in Florida’s Orange County against allowing teachers to place photographs of their same-sex partners at their desks, and against wearing rainbow articles of clothing, according to The Hill .

“People don’t know what they can or can’t say about their own partners, or if a child comes out to them in their capacity as a teacher,” he said. “I think that’s part of the point.”

Don Hayden, a gay Florida attorney, and a partner at Mark Migdal and Hayden, agreed.

“So, senior year in high school you can’t talk about gay issues,” Hayden said, referring to the Florida Board of Educa-

<< LGBTQ bills

From page 1

schools and foster youth. Several relate to protecting HIV prevention efforts.

Education-related bills

Another closely watched bill is Assembly Bill 5, the Safe and Supportive Schools Act, authored by gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-West Hollywood). It would mandate that teachers and credentialed staff who serve public school pupils in grades seven to 12 take an online training course in LGBTQ cultural competency when it goes live in two years.

As the Bay Area Reporter’s online Political Notes column reported in early May, Zbur amended the bill so it mandates one hour of training annually for middle and high school teachers and certified staff. Initially, the bill had called for the covered school employees to do four hours of LGBTQ cultural competency training every three years.

A bill that called for creating the training became law in 2019, but the necessary funding for it wasn’t allocated until 2021. The California Department of Education had said last year it would debut during Pride Month in 2024, but it has since sought an extension until June 30, 2025 “due to delays in establishing the necessary contracts,” according to a legislative analysis done on Zbur’s bill.

The Office of Legislative Counsel keyed the bill “as a possible statemandated local program,” though it is unclear what the cost to implement it would be if AB 5 becomes law. One of the state’s major unions has made its passage a top priority this year and hailed its advancing out of the state Assembly by a 64-4 vote May 22, which California celebrates as Harvey Milk Day in honor of the late gay San Francisco supervisor.

“AB 5 is a key plank in SEIU members’ justice agenda this year because we believe every child deserves the right to learn while feeling safe and accepted,” stated Max Arias, Service Employees International Union Local 99 executive director and member of the executive board of SEIU California.

Another bill aimed at protecting LGBTQ students, especially those who are transgender or gender-nonconforming, is Senate Bill 857 by gay state Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz). It would require the state’s superintendent of public instruction to convene a task force on the needs of LGBTQ+ pupil needs by July 1, 2024.

According to the bill, the advisory body would be tasked with assisting in the implementation of supportive policies and initiatives to address LGBTQ+ pupil education. It would be required by January 1, 2026, to report on its findings and recommendations to the Legislature, the superintendent, and the governor.

As the B.A.R. has reported, a report card on LGBTQ school issues now twice issued by the Equality California Institute, most recently in 2022, has found

tion’s recent expansion of the Don’t Say Gay. “Makes it difficult for a gay teacher to talk to his students.”

Nonetheless, U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee threw out a lawsuit in February, saying the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue because the law had not been enforced against them.

The plaintiffs have appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A similar suit in Orlando was dismissed last fall.

“We’re in a very different time down here,” Hayden told the B.A.R. “It’s a sorry state; I hate to say it. We are not even a purple state – we are a red, red state.”

‘He’ll trample on anyone’

DeSantis first won the governorship in 2018 by less than half a percentage point against Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum, who subsequently faced a corruption trial in which the jury was hung on most charges, which were subsequently dropped.

Gillum, who is married, came out as bisexual in 2020, six months after being found inebriated by police in a Miami Beach hotel with a male sex worker.

DeSantis, 44, a Republican former congressmember, became a national figure with his more laissez-faire approach to COVID-19 restrictions during the height of the pandemic. According to the U.S. Census, Florida is No. 1 in net migration. A Democratic voter registra-

they “promise to affirm, encourage, and praise the chosen gender identity and sexual orientation of a foster child, no matter how young, and be able to cooperate in the medical transitioning of that child with drugs and surgeries.”

Advocates for SB 407 counter that LGBTQ youth need to be protected from abuse in the state-funded foster care system, particularly at a time when LGBTQ youth are confronted with vitriol on social media platforms stemming from other state legislatures rolling back their rights.

tion edge has been flipped to a 330,000 GOP advantage, and DeSantis beat former Republican Governor Charlie Crist (who previously changed parties and was running as a Democrat) in last year’s governor’s race by 19 points – including with a victory in historically liberal Miami-Dade County.

Democrats “didn’t get the vote out, [and] didn’t have the right candidates,” Hayden said.

Hayden said the rest of the country needs to take heed at DeSantis’ consolidation of power.

“He’s been able to create, with the supermajority in the Legislature, he’s been able to create and provoke fear and headlines – what he wants for his presidential bid,” he said.

“He’ll trample on anyone to get the attention of the base he’s trying to attract, and that includes trans youth, it includes drag queens, it includes gay teachers, it includes kids who feel afraid to even talk about their sexuality to their teachers or to their peers,” Hayden added. “And he doesn’t care. In his mind, he

doesn’t think we have the same rights as everyone else. Be aware, because what I’ve seen [are] over 300 bills around the country that are copycat bills of what we’ve seen in Florida.”

University of San Francisco’s Boso said that there’s no guarantee that present court interpretations of the Constitution will hold, either.

“In the same way we saw Dobbs last summer, many people were surprised,” Boso said, referring to the Supreme Court decision that eliminated abortion as a constitutional right. “Folks who study constitutional law saw the writing on the wall. This is a very different court.

A 6-3 conservative majority does have the power to reinterpret or overrule or disregard past precedent, so I do suspect that’s one of the hopes.”

DeSantis’ press office did not respond to a request for comment for this report. t

intersex community, including, but not limited to, information relating to medical care, mental health disparities, and population size. It is awaiting a final vote in the Assembly.

Also yet to pass out of the Assembly is AB 1487 by Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles). It aims to establish the Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex Wellness Reentry Fund to provide grants for reentry programming “specifically to support transgender, gender variant, and intersex people who have experienced carceral systems.”

lackluster results among the state’s public school districts. Laird partnered with the California Association of Student Councils on SB 857 with an eye toward seeing better results on the report cards, which should be released by EQCA every two years.

The Senate passed the bill by a 35-0 vote May 15.

“SB 857 is an important opportunity to empower the growing community of LGBTQ+ students, ensure the enforcement and implementation of existing laws, and work to address the real needs of all California students,” stated the student council group.

The Assembly voted 62-16 Tuesday, May 30, to advance AB 1078 by gay Assemblymember Corey Jackson, Ph.D., (D-Riverside) that would ensure school districts in California are using instructional materials inclusive of the role and contributions made by Latino Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, and members of other religions and socioeconomic groups to the “total development” of the state and the country. It comes amid school districts and state lawmakers across the country banning books and school curriculums that touch on topics about race, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

“We must strive to create a more equitable and inclusive education system for all students. This bill will ensure that students in California receive a comprehensive education that celebrates the diversity of our state and promotes a sense of belonging in the classroom,” stated Jackson.

Youth bills

After what his office described as “an emotional exchange on the Senate floor”

May 24, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) saw his SB 407 pass by a 30-9 vote. The bill directs the state’s Department of Social Services to amend the foster care vetting process to ensure LGBTQ foster youth, who account for more than 30% of all youth in the foster care system, are not placed in hostile foster homes.

Conservative groups like the California Family Council have attacked the bill as an attempt to “weed out” Christians from being foster parents unless

“While red states are stoking fear about LGBTQ youth to justify rolling back civil rights, California is expanding protections for our most vulnerable children,” stated Wiener. “In California we believe that every child deserves to feel safe and affirmed at home, regardless of their identity. It’s imperative that we support this value in the state-funded foster care system, where LGBTQ youth are over-represented.”

Other bills aim to protect the privacy of transgender youth in California. AB 223 by gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) would require the courts to seal any petition for a change of gender or sex identifier filed by a minor. It passed out of the Assembly 63-0 back in March and is awaiting a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Also before the Senate committee is AB 957 by Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), dubbed the TGI (Transgender, Gender-Diverse, and Intersex) Youth Empowerment Act. It would allow courts to consider a parent’s affirmation of their child’s gender identity when making decisions about visitation and custody.

The bill would also require courts to strongly consider that affirming a child’s gender identity is in the best interest of the child when one parent does not consent to a minor’s legal name change to conform with the minor’s gender identity. It passed out of the Assembly 51-13 at the end of March.

“As the mother of a trans child, it is jarring to know that TGI youth are at a higher risk of depression, mental health crises, self-harm and suicide than their cisgender peers,” stated Wilson.

Gender identity bills

Along with lesbian Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona), Wilson is also pushing for passage this year AB 760, which sailed out of the Assembly May 8 on a 58-0 vote. It would require the California State University system by the 2024–25 academic year to have campus systems that are “fully capable” of allowing current students, staff, or faculty to declare an affirmed name, gender, or both name and gender identification.

It also would require the state universities to update certain records with such information at the request of an individual. A bill adopted in 2021 prohibited California public universities from deadnaming trans and nonbinary students – that is using their former names they were given based on the sex

they were assigned at birth – on their diplomas and academic records.

As the B.A.R. has previously reported, the University of California system had released in late 2020 a new policy on gender identity that all of its campuses must implement by the end of this year.

AB 760 would “request” that the UC schools enact the same policies as the bill would require of the CSU campuses.

Still awaiting a final vote in the Senate is SB 760 by state Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), which would require all K-12 schools in California to provide at least one accessible all-gender restroom for students “to use safely and comfortably during school hours.” It is believed to be “first-of-its-kind” legislation, according to LGBTQ advocates, and passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 5-1 vote May 18.

Related legislation by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), AB 783, would require cities to notify all business license applicants that singleuser restrooms in any business, place of public accommodation, or government agency must be identified as all-gender restrooms. Under a previous bill that took effect in 2017, the state has required establishments with single-occupancy restrooms to mark them as being gender-neutral.

It passed out of the Assembly 64-9 in late April. The Senate Governance and Finance Committee will now take it up.

Several other bills relate to gender identity issues. SB 372 by lesbian state Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) would ensure that the public records kept by the state’s Department of Consumer Affairs don’t use the deadnames or disclose the home addresses of licensed mental health professionals. It passed out of the Senate 33-4 on May 22.

Meanwhile, AB 1163 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-Arleta) would require various state agencies and departments to revise their public-use forms, by January 1, 2025, to be more inclusive of individuals who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, or intersex. It would also require the impacted agencies and departments to collect data pertaining to the specific needs of the transgender, gender nonconforming, or

It includes no funding, though the bill’s backers would like to secure at least $5 million for it. It mirrors the state fund Santiago pushed to create that pays for trans health care services several years ago, which Newsom appropriated $13 million for in 2021.

Bills tackling LGBTQ health care issues

California lawmakers are also moving forward several bills supportive of LGBTQ health care services. For example, Atkins’ SB 487 would ensure that a health insurer, or health care service plan, doesn’t penalize a licensed California health care provider who performs gender-affirming care services.

It also protects abortion providers. The Senate passed it May 24 on a 31-8 vote.

“With patients coming to California for abortions and medical care that is restricted or limited in other states, providers are currently putting themselves at risk by performing those services both here, and when they travel to other states to make abortion care accessible,” stated Atkins. “The least we can do is ensure they are protected and able to provide this care in California, where it is legal.”

In a similar vein, AB 1432 by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) would close loopholes in existing law to ensure that health insurance policies provided to Californians by out-of-state employers with out-of-state insurance contracts include coverage for abortion and gender-affirming care. Menjivar’s SB 729 would require health plans to provide coverage for fertility care, including treatment for infertility and in vitro fertilization, and ensure that LGBTQ+ people are not excluded from such coverage.

Carrillo’s bill was sent to the Senate May 18 on a 61-13 vote. The Senate passed Menjivar’s legislation 30-3 on May 24.

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (DOakland) has authored two bills this session to further protect paid leave provisions for LGBTQ people and others who need to care for their chosen family members, i.e., people they are not related to but have close bonds with and care for when they are sick. Her AB 518 by would give workers the right to receive Paid Family Leave wage replacement benefits while on leave to assist their chosen family.

Wicks’ AB 524 would make it unlaw-

Florida attorney Don Hayden

Courtesy MMH

Assemblymember Corey Jackson

Courtesy Jackson’s office

State Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins

Courtesy Atkins’ office

by Heather Cassell

Downtown Oakland has a new hangout that’s a little bit wild and sexy: Feelmore Social.

“Feelmore is a sex-forward bar,” Nenna Joiner, owner of the popular adult shop and gallery, Feelmore Adult Gallery said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “We want to create a space where sexual weirdos can come.”

The lounge isn’t only for sexually forward and sex-positive people, Joiner, 48, a Black queer nonbinary person, clarified. The bar is also for the less sexually adventurous to be in a relaxed and open atmosphere sipping good cocktails. If they feel

Feelmore Social, Oakland’s latest cool bar

locations in San Francisco and Seattle.

like talking about sex they can do so openly.

“They can feel open to ask any question and not feel shame,” they said.

The sexy cocktail lounge is the newest evolution of the Feelmore brand. Joiner opened Feelmore Adult in 2010. Right before COVID-19 hit they opened the Berkeley location in February 2020.

They also launched Feelmore Home in 2018. The adult shop is around the corner from the new Oakland bar. It’s in the heart of downtown Oakland on Broadway close to the 12th Street BART Station.

Feelmore Social’s official opening, a latex night theme, is June 2. The bar did a test night opening April 28 a week ahead of its soft opening May 5. The theme will be fun for people to dress up, be in community, and enjoy cocktails. They can

explore what latex means to them, Joiner said. “Is that a fetish? Is it just an outfit? What is it to you?” they asked. The conversation will be in a nontraditional environment that’s relaxing and fun for talking openly about sex and fetishes.

Recently, I met with Joiner for a happy hour at Feelmore Social to talk about the bar’s concept and vision, benefiting from the pandemic, and being one of several LGBTQ bars owned by queer people of color opening post-pandemic in Oakland.

Sophisticatedly seductive

Feelmore Social is sophisticatedly seductive.

Patrons are greeted by an original sign from the Lusty Lady, a former North Beach strip club that attracted feminist and alternative dancers to its

Russian River’s recovery & revelry

The space is warm, dark and inviting with dark blue velvet wallpaper. The bar has soft lighting. Sky blue velvet chairs pop with color along the white marble bar top decorated with flowers. Sex toys replace fancy high-end liquor on the top shelf.

The cocktail menu features drinks with playful names such as Golden Shower (I drank and it was light and refreshing), Breast Milk, Hoetic Justice, Power Bottom, The Baldwin, and Larry June Creamsicle (inspired by Bay Area rapper Larry June) to name a few. A mixologist helped Joiner craft the drinks inspired by sex, social justice, travel, and other cultures.

by Enrique Asis

As summer events in Guerneville and Monte Rio return, it’s worth looking back to see how Russian River venues have recovered from the pandemic and a series of floods and fires. The history of LGBTQ attractions, with insights from several longtime business owners and visitors, brings us up to date.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that Guerneville at the Russian River was the most important gay town and resort of the West Coast in the 1980s, with many gay owned enterprises, where most venues with pools have nudity as an option,” said Michael Preaseau, The Woods hotel owner and manager and a resident of Sonoma County for more than 50 years.

“There was one gay-owned entertainment establishment who had everything: rooms, restaurant and a clothing-optional pool on Armstrong Woods Road. There were many gay bars, as well as a gay bathhouse,” he continued. “The Coffee Bazar started in the 1980s as a gathering location for the community and still is. Also Dino’s, which later became the River Village, almost exclusively served the gay community, was gay-owned, had a piano bar, restaurant and rooms to rent.”

Nudes news

Preaseau added that the previous incarnation of iconic Woods Hotel always welcomed optional nudity in the 1980s. The Willows, another gayowned lodge with camping along the Russian River at a large grass area that led to a private beach, were centerpieces of the town’s gay history.

Feelmore Social owner Nenna Joiner sits in front of the sign from the original former San Francisco strip club the Lusty Lady, that greets customers when they walk into Oakland’s new sexy cocktail bar and lounge.

Heather Cassell

“These are all personal to me,” Joiner said about the cocktail names.

Examples of how Joiner’s experiences and travels show up at Feelmore Social, the yogurt drink, Breast Milk, is inspired by Joiner’s travels through Vietnam. The layered gin drink, Le Garcon, is inspired by thier tour of a Berlin lesbian bar taken over by the Nazis during World War II.

Branching out

Opening a business in downtown Oakland is personal to Joiner. It’s their neighborhood. During the last decade, Oakland’s business corridor Broadway grew darker and darker. Bars, restaurants, and storefronts one by one locked their doors and bordered up, they said. They once sponsored events and shows at many of the shuttered businesses.

Joiner wanted to expand Feelmore’s retail footprint. But doing business as usual wasn’t working anymore. It was challenging to open an adult sex shop. They had to address communities’ objections and navigate local governments’ red tape. The retail landscape in the United States was changing from brick-and-mortar to digital.

A new business model was needed. An avid traveler, Joiner took note of other small business models around the world. The businesses were adapting and diversifying long before COVID-19. They were also deeply entrenched in their communities, some for more than 100 years.

Joiner began branching out and launched Feelmore’s home line selling candles, which took off. At the same time, Joiner explained, “We would have customers come in and say, ‘Hey, where can I go and get a drink?’”

In the quest to diversify the Feelmore brand, Joiner landed on the idea of opening a cocktail bar. Oakland’s bar owners met Joiner’s interest in the bar business with silence. Joiner continued selling sex toys and kept

searching for openings to see their vision take root and grow. One opening was finding the answers to their questions working for Alameda’s lesbianowned Fireside Lounge, where they learned the ropes of owning a bar from owner Sandy Russell.

When the pandemic hit, the remaining bars and surrounding businesses went dark. Ultimately, many shuttered. Oakland’s downtown became a ghost town.

“We saw a lot of the bars actually closing up shop,” said Joiner. “What is going to happen to my neighborhood?”

Unlike many of the businesses in their neighborhood, Joiner’s business thrived during the pandemic. They pivoted by selling personal protective equipment, now known simply by its

acronym PPE, and saw sales increase.

The pandemic and the wake of George Floyd’s murder by four former Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020, was opportunity knocking for Joiner. “There were very few businesses around here, ours was one of them, that was able to benefit and profit from the pandemic.”

Joiner was able to finally see their vision for a sexy lounge become a reality. Shuttering bars were selling liquor licenses, access to capital, and new partnerships opened. Joiner did not snap up one of those licenses. Instead, they entered the California Alcoholic Beverage Control lottery, and won a license.

Transformative

A business loan helped transform the space from a retail shop to a bar. Everything was Oakland-based, from the building owner to their bank.

“It’s only when someone actually gets a stake in the ground or a key to a door that we can really see that things are changing,” Joiner said. “I really consistently believe that economic empowerment and enlightenment is actually the key for a lot of people.”

“We’ve had great energy here,” Joiner added about the space that is now Feelmore Social’s home. “There are a lot of big spaces out there, but this was something that I felt was very intimate, very similar to the size of the retail stores that we consistently put out there.”

The fact that Feelmore Adult is so close to Feelmore Social is an added value.

“Now we can say, here’s a bar that’s like-minded of Feelmore where you can talk about flogging,” they continued, stating that they are incorporating Feelmore Adult’s culture of sex education, consent, and level of service at Feelmore Social. “I want to create a cool environment where people, music, ambiance, and kindness are the main stars while people get a quality cocktail.”

In addition to serving quality cocktails, they can upsell a drink to a sex toy. Customers are responding positively, Joiner said. One of Feelmore’s values, beyond teaching healthy and responsible sex practices, is being green and sustainable.

“We tend to hire people within a two- to three-mile radius of us. It is less stressful when you can walk, live, and work in your same neighborhood,” said Joiner who bikes, walks, and buses to work from Oakland’s Laurel neighborhood.

A business’s legacy isn’t about its size, they said. “It matters about the impact, the work that gets done, and the community it serves.”

Being a business owner is all about community for Joiner, who also tried their hand at running for Oakland

City Council’s District 4 seat last year but lost in November.

Building a queer, cool Oakland Oakland is also seeing a younger generation that is thirsty for a nightlife scene. Joiner pointed out that San Francisco’s Castro District gets most of the attention. They stopped short of calling Oakland’s efforts to build an LGBTQ district “intentional,” but Oakland LGBTQ business owners, many of whom are people of color, are working “to create a queer atmosphere here in Oakland.”

“The Bay Area has this culture,” said Joiner. “If we can actually do the business culture right, we can actually ‘bat signal’ to other people around the world like, ‘Hey, this is where you should really be coming. That’s the history I want to make, this collective history I want to make with others.”

Joiner is happy to see Broadway being revived with Feelmore Social and Fluid510, which shares a wall, after a decade of storefronts sitting vacant.

“I think it’s going to create a great flow,” they said about the new queer bars opening in Oakland. Joiner expressed similar sentiments to the new gay bar, Town Bar and Lounge owner, Joshua Huynh’s desire to create an LGBTQ district where people can walk from bar to bar. “People want to walk” from one entertainment space to another.

Joiner hopes by people walking in

downtown Oakland, they will see the possibilities the city has to offer.

Derrick Polk is an example of the flow Joiner hopes will grow throughout Feelmore’s products and services. The Black educator stopped by Feelmore Adult where he learned that the bar was open. Curious, he walked over to check out Feelmore Social.

“It was a pretty cool place. It was awesome,” Polk, an Oakland native who is an ally, said. “It really stands out when you walk inside. It kind of reminded me of an upscale cocktail lounge in New York.”

He told the B.A.R. he loved the chill vibe of the bar, the sex toys for sale behind the bar, the tongue-in-cheek sexual names of the drinks, and that the bar is owned by a Black queer person.

Polk plans to return to Feelmore, “I was very impressed,” he said, stating that he will support anything Feelmore does.

Open businesses downtown, especially at night, make the “street safer for people to actually walk to those places” rather than drive, Joiner said. “They don’t get stuck at one bar,” due to driving and parking they continued. “They can go to all bars.”t

Feelmore Social’s grand opening party is June 2, 5pm to closing time at 1542 Broadway in Oakland. The theme for the night is latex. RSVP by email: 1542Feelmore@gmail.com www.feelmore510.com

Preregister to receive Drag Me Downtown Fan and Feather Boa. Preregistration proceeds benefit

Patrons enjoying drinks at Feelmore Social, Oakland’s new sexy cocktail bar and lounge.

Feelmore Social

Feelmore Social owner Nenna Joiner in front of Oakland’s new sexy cocktail bar and lounge.

Heather Cassell

Feelmore Social’s London Flog, a milk-washed gin, with a flogger surrounded by flowers, at Oakland’s new sexy cocktail bar and lounge.

Feelmore Social

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Sauropods were Mesozoic marvels, measuring up to 60 feet tall and weighing up to 80 tons. Discover the world’s largest dinosaurs at the world’s only aquarium + planetarium + rainforest + natural history museum. With life-size models, fossil replicas, and more.

Now open | Get tickets at calacademy.org

Every visit supports our mission to regenerate the natural world.

“Founded in 1945, The Hetzel’s Motor Lodge, also known as the Russian River Resort, was a gay-owned and operated hotel, restaurant, bar and entertainment venue,” said Glenn Dixon, the Russian River Resort’s CFO. “The Highlands Hotel was clothingoptional from 1991 to 2021. Even in Forestville there was a gay Sunday barbeque at the Rusty Nail.”

“Gay nudity and naked pool parties were always important in gay recreational events, and in bear week celebrations,” said Paul and Tim Burns, longtime Santa Rosa residents.

Preaseau noted that the Highlands Hotel opened in 1991 and was clothing-optional. Ken and Lynette McLean were the proud owners for 38 years. But with a change of ownership in April 2021, a switch to a “family-friendly” operation left the gay community with no nude pool options.

In 2004, The Woods Cottages & Cabins opened in 2004, noted Preaseau, “with an offering of a unique display of different-sized cottages, and cabins surrounding a solar thermal swimming pool. We took the name from the original Woods. We were clothing-optional for Lazy Bear and some weeks in the summer.”

At the request of frequent patrons, the new Woods became a year-round clothing-optional pool in October 2021.

“In reality, the nudity option is code to the gay community that we are a sexpositive hotel,” said Preaseau. “The fact that we don’t sell alcohol, and we have a year-long nudity option, makes us the only sex-positive venue in town. Since then, we are in high demand, especially

the spring and summer.”

Currently, The Woods is the only gay-friendly clothing-optional swimming pool operating in Northern California, Preaseau added. “We are also the only exclusively gay-owned lodge in town.” The Woods proudly hosts the daily naked pool parties during Lazy Bear Week.

Floods, fires and lockdown

Carl Ray, a Sonoma County resident for more than 13 years, recounted the recent series of environmental events that nearly destroyed multiple homes and businesses.

“The climate-related tragedies started in 2006 with Russian River big floods,” said Ray. “The merchants, retailers, restaurants and the hospitality industry in Guerneville suffered big losses and setbacks during the 2017 and 2019 floods.”

During the floods, everyone in Guerneville was evacuated, and the inundations had catastrophic conse-

quences for town merchants and businesses.

Byron Serrano Wilson, a fireman in active duty during those periods, and a Santa Rosa resident, is now the Logistics Officer of the CAL FIRE Sonoma Lake Napa Unit.

“These fires were of historical proportions,” said Serrano Wilson. “The Guerneville population and other towns were evacuated entirely during the disaster. Two days in October 2017 were devastating. The Tubbs fires were considered the worst disaster in Sonoma County in many decades.”

And in 2019, the Kincade fires ravaged the county for more than a week in October through November 6, 2019. Then, in 2020, the Waldbridge fires raged in August. During the 2020 summer lockdown and during all these fires, the entire Guerneville community had to be evacuated. The

COVID-19 lockdown and the pandemic were the latest stroke in a series of devastating tragedies for Guerneville residents.

Lazy Bear revived

Before and after the many unfortunate disasters, a few larger events have become quite popular, and have helped revive the economy of Russian River tourism. The Russian River Women’s Weekend has been held annually for four decades and returned this year, the most recent edition on May 12-14.

The other big event is Lazy Bear Week. Started in 1996 by Harry Lit and a group of local bears, neighbors and bear groups in the Bay Area, the event has grown each year. Partial proceeds benefit the Lazy Bear Fund, which has raised thousands of dollars for charities and community groups since 1996.

David Barker, a member of the Lazy Bear Week Fund leadership, briefly tells the event’s history.

“In the 1990s, the gay and bear community had an important role in Guerneville development,” he said. “Bear-friendly groups were a regular feature in town, especially in the summer. It’s become the most bear-friendly and successful gathering in California and one of the most important in the US and the world.”

Barker added that “surviving the pandemic years and lockdown made the community and the Lazy Bear Week of events stronger. Lazy Bear keeps growing, attracting crowds from all over the country and the world.”

Lazy Bear Week 2023 takes place at multiple Guerneville venues July 31

through August 7.  www.lazybearweek.org

Bringing sexy back

Another lesser-known group is Sexy Bastards, a San Francisco-based 1000-men online network that hosts two recreational spring and summer weekends in partnership with host hotel The Woods since 2021.

Steve McGown, a Santa Rosa resident and organizer, said, “The Sexy Bastards weekends are a lot of fun, and include communal hikes, three nighttime parties, naked games at the pool, picnics around the swimming pool and communal meals in local restaurants. Michael Preaseau leads a walking tour with exploration around town, into the woods and the river. It’s a fascinating piece of town, gay and bear history, and is our contribution to Guerneville recovery.”

Added Paul Burns, “Michael Preaseau makes it fascinating along the tour, with gay stories and anecdotes while visiting iconic areas, and other spots at the riverside.”

Officer Byron Serrano Wilson, who is also a group member, said, “It’s a special time in the summer with visitors from everywhere. The community blossoms and celebrate.”

The next Sexy Bastards weekend is July 21-23, a week before Lazy Bear. Sexy Bastards also volunteers as a group and participates during Lazy Bear Week.t

Enrique Asis is the coordinator of Sexy Bastards and a health professional working in San Francisco.

Left: The Woods resort during the 2019 Sonoma flood Right: The completely renovated Woods resort this year

Both photos: Michael Preaseau

An evening party at a recent Lazy Bear Weekend

A cozy room at The Woods

Michael Preaseau

The Woods owner / manager Michael Preaseau

David Barker of the Lazy Bear Week Fund

Fireman Byron Serrano Wilson

Celebrate Pride with San Francisco Public Library Celebrate Pride with San Francisco Public Library

FREE Programs

Author Christopher Castellani, Leading Men

Sunday, June 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch 1 Jose Sarria Court

Castellani discusses his latest book set in the glamorous literary and film circles of 1950s Italy. Q&A to follow.

Mid-Century Gender-Bending Drag Shows in Glen Park

Wednesday, June 7, 6 – 7 p.m. Glen Park Branch, 2825 Diamond Street

Discover the history of Casa Blanca Lounge in Glen Park, which hosted “San Francisco’s Finest Female Impersonators” in the mid-1960s .

Author Louis Niebur, Menergy: San Francisco’s Gay Disco Sound

Sunday, June 18, 2 – 3 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center

Learn about “high energy,” the music genre born in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, with historians Louis Niebur and Joshua Gamson. Book sale provided by Fabulosa Books.

Zinething

Tuesday, June 20, 6 – 7:30 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Martin Paley Conference Room

A monthly LGBTQIA zine-making meetup presented by SF Zine Fest in partnership with the Hormel LGBTQIA Center. Tell your story, tell your truth! Every 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Remembering Club Q

Thursday, June 29, 6 – 7:30 p.m.

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Koret Auditorium

Honor and celebrate San Francisco’s famed 90s queer women’s monthly dance party, Club Q, through film, archival photos and a star panel featuring Club Q founder and legendary DJ Page Hodel, choreographer Richelle Donigan and many more special guests. Hosted by local educator and artist tanea lunsford lynx.

I Still Love You: Queerness, Ancestors and the Places That Made Us

Through June 29

Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, Jamec C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center

Queer and trans BIPOC Bay Area writers conjure their queer ancestors and living legends from the archives through original poetry, artwork and historical treasures.

For Familes

Summer Stride Kickoff Party with Drag Story Hour featuring Per Sia

Saturday, June 3, 1 – 5 p.m.

Portola Branch Library, 380 Bacon Street

Storytime: Pride Celebration for Families

Wednesday, June 7, 11:30 – 12 p.m.

West Portal Branch, 190 Lenox Way

Celebrate LGBTQIA Pride Month with songs, stories and rainbows. Space is limited and first come, first served.

Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial

Branch Open House

Saturday, June 10, 12 – 4 p.m.

Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch

1 Jose Sarria Court

Stop by the Open House for fun events all afternoon long, including Drag Story Hour with Panda Dulce, crafts, face painting, light snacks and more.

For more Pride programs visit: on.sfpl.org/sfplpride23

The Wiz, kids

Director Sam Pinkleton rethinks Oz for the stage

“Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” Pinkleton is also pleased to let hardcore Oz film fans know that the intermittently restored and rescinded “Jitterbug” song and dance is included in the A.C.T. production.

Considering his own long relationship to “The Wizard of Oz,” Pinkleton decided to lean into the familiarity of both company and audience members in approaching the material.

by Jim Gladstone

We’re off to see…the movie?

That’s the question that’s been cycloning around my mind ever since last April, when American Conservatory Theater first announced its planned production of “The Wizard of Oz,” now in previews with opening night June 7.

After all, though the long and winding yellow brick road technically began with L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book, the Oz that has been definitively imprinted on the consciousness (and subconsciousness) of generations is the 1939 MGM movie musical starring Judy Garland. A broadcast staple beginning with the advent of color television in the 1950s, it turned even the smallest cathode ray set into an intracranial IMAX.

Indeed, Sam Pinkleton, the director of the A.CT. production, fell in love with the film when he was growing up in the small town of Hopewell, Virginia, “It’s really the moviest of movies. It does everything that film is great at.”

“I’ve never seen a stage production [of “The Wizard of Oz],” said Pinkleton, “But to me, the challenge is to honor the story and its themes by using everything that theater is great at doing, rather than trying to imitate what movies are great at. I wanted to make a stage version that makes you feel as thrilled with theater as the film makes you thrilled about movies.”

“Even if A.C.T. had said to me, ‘You can have a cast of 600 and an unlim-

ited budget,’” said Pinkleton in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter at A.C.T.’s rehearsal studio, “it would be an unconscionable amount of time and human resources – and it still wouldn’t be as good as the movie! But to try and recreate the movie on stage is a fool’s errand.”

An errand, as it happens, that fools have chosen to run. Pinkleton and company will be working with the same screenplay-derived script used in a massive, spectacle-laden cinema simulacrum first mounted by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987 and adapted into a touring arena show.

Here’s the Associated Press on that production’s 1989 engagement at Radio City Music Hall:

“The house is lifted by wires to a figure-eight dolly on the dome of the Music Hall, where it totters slowly… like a car on a Ferris wheel … There is no brutal force – even the sound effects and lighting are limp.” (Fun fact: That show’s Dorothy, Grace Grieg, was discovered by its producers in the Las Vegas run of “Beach Blanket Babylon”).

A review in the Los Angeles Times was pithily headlined: “If it only had a heart.”

To Oz? To Oz.

Intimacy rather than imitation is key to Pinkleton’s staging, which employs a multicultural cast of 11 familiar faces from the local stage scene and a small musical ensemble with an exciting take on the fondly remembered score that puts a sonic, theatrical spin

on the movie’s sudden shift from black-and-white to color.

“There are four actor-musicians who play on stage during the Kansas section of the show and then – bam! – our five-piece band takes over with a sound that will really feel surprising. Our music supervisor Ada Westfall has taken orchestrations originally written for 26 pieces and transformed it into a modern electronic sound that’s inspired by Wendy Carlos, the transgender synthesizer pioneer from the 1970s and 1980s.”

While Pinkleton’s Oz has a very handmade, DIY visual aesthetic (David Zinn designed the sets and costumes), he says Westfall’s electronic interpretation of the music has been influenced by the story structure, which he likens to a video game.

“The show is a series of starts and restarts. ‘We’re going to a place, and then we get there. Oh no, something goes wrong! We deal with that and now we’re off to the next place. It’s very Super Mario in that way.”

Another musical surprise is the restoration of introductions and verses to some of the songs by composer Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg that were written for the film version but cut on set and in post-production.

“There are these fun fake-outs,” said Pinkleton, “You’ll hear this unfamiliar intro and it seems weird. You’re like ‘What is this?’ and then it turns into ‘If I Only Had A Brain’ or another iconic song you love.”

Tony-nominated for choreographing

Fangs, but no thanks

by Jim Gladstone

Imagine if John Hughes made a vampire movie, set in Sweden.

Would you like a side of modern dance with that?

Well, that’s what’s on the menu –along with big gulps of stage blood –at Berkeley Repertory, where the National Theatre of Scotland’s mystifying production of “Let the Right One In” plays through June 25.

Based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist which was previously adapted for Swedish and American films – both of which leaned much harder into supernatural horror than the awkward teen angst that battles for primacy here – this handsomely mounted but ultimately insubstantial play is both chilly and silly.

A compelling, bone-deep performance by Noah Lamanna as the melancholy vampire, Eli, provides occasional breakthrough moments of shivery pleasure. But the show as a whole, particularly in its languorous spells of wordless movement, will have audience members enacting their own chair-bound choreography: a sequence of eye rolls, gags, head scratches and yawns.

In a remote rural town, Oskar (Diego Luciano) is the target of school bullies who torment him with emas-

“I know the Good Director thing for me to say is that I approach any work as if we’re doing it for the first time. But on the first day, I said to the company, the fact of the matter is that we’re not doing this for the first time. Part of the fun is knowing that and being able to play with what people expect. I think all of our past experiences with the material have been a tool to help us make the story more exciting, more surprising, sillier and funnier.”

And queerer.

While Pinkleton assures that his Wiz is family-friendly – “There won’t

‘Let the Right One In’ at Berkeley Rep

kid (Playwright Jack Thorne’s distribution of empathy is a tad uneven).

A parallel plotline has murder victims being discovered in the eerie birch woods outside of town, their bodies hung upside down from the trees, their blood drained through slit throats (The elegant set design, complete with snow flurries, is by Christine Jones).

Long before the local cops have a clue, the audience learns that the killings are the work of a mysterious stranger, Hakan (Richard Topol), who is collecting life force to feed Eli, whom he refers to as his daughter and keeps hidden away in a steamer trunk.

Eli emerges at mealtimes, after dark, writhing and twitching as if afflicted by fetal alcohol syndrome. Hakan watches on, doting, almost drooling, in a most unfatherly manner.

The stories intertwine when Oskar and Eli cautiously befriend one another and then fall into saucer-eyed puppy love. Eli, both undead and nonbinary, eventually reveals both of these betwixty secrets to Oskar.

be anything you need to put your hands over the eyes or ears of your six-year-old for!” – he’s delighted to be mounting this particular show in San Francisco during Pride month.

“’The Wizard of Oz’ is the thing that showed me as a kid that maybe I should get away from where I was. I just remember feeling like I was Dorothy. I wanted to go on an adventure. I wanted to meet colorful people.

“I think so many queer people make families for themselves in new cities where they didn’t grow up. And San Francisco to me is like the top, top, top of the list of where people have started new lives with friends who know them better than their own families do.

“As a kid,” Pinkleton confides, “I always thought that Dorothy made the wrong choice. Oz is really so much more fabulous than Kansas.”t

‘The Wizard of Oz,’ through June 25. $25-$110. A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St. (415) 7492228. www.act-sf.org

culating and homophobic locker room slurs. Their Phys Ed teacher (Julius Thomas III) offers lip service support to Oskar but ultimately fails to protect him.

Also pathetically unprotective are Oskar’s divorced parents: Drunk Mom and Gay Dad, written not as three-dimensional characters, but further excuses for us to feel awful for the

Playwright Thorne (“Harry Potter and The Cursed Child”) lets ugly, muddled parallels slip into play here, haphazardly implying that there are similarly anguished limbo states between childhood and adulthood, life and death, and, ahem, male and female.

When Oskar pledges his undy-

ing devotion to Eli, it’s bad news for Hakan. Horrorphiles will have come to realize that he is Eli’s longtime familiar, about to get booted in favor of the warmhearted twink who’s meddled in their permafrosty world. Hakan’s dismissal is age discrimination at its ugliest, complete with a face full of acid and the audible snap of his spinal cord.

Throughout the proceedings, gelid blue lighting by Chahine Vavroyan and an ever-present, overamplified score by Gareth Fry – more appropriate for a film than a stage play – combine to create an almost physical barrier between audience and action.

In other hands, the combination of bloody mayhem and teenage trauma might be ratcheted into a Grand Guignol guilty pleasure (Carrie in Lapland!).

But director John Tiffany and movement director Steven Hoggett opt to approach their material with a stately pace, robotically delivered dialogue and stilted passages of tai chistyle choreography that scream High Art instead of Bloody Murder.

“Let the Right One In” left me out in the cold.t

‘Let the Right One In,’ through June 25. $24-$131. Berkeley Repertory, 2015 Addison St. (510) 6472949 www.berkeleyrep.org

Diego Lucano (Oskar) and Noah Lamanna (Eli) in the West Coast premiere of the National Theatre of Scotland production of ‘Let the Right One In’ at Berkeley Repertory

Kevin Berne

Chanel Tilghman (Dorothy Gale), Cathleen Riddley (Lion/Zeke), Darryl V. Jones (Tinman/Hickory) in rehearsal for ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at American Conservatory Theater.

Bekah Lynn Photography Director and Choreographer Sam Pinkleton in rehearsal for ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at American Conservatory Theater.

Bekah Lynn Photography

Scenic design by Tony Award winner David Zinn

Bekah Lynn Photography

Summer in The City

Music, dance, and theatre around the Bay Area

by Philip Mayard

From unique interpretations of classic plays and musicals, to fusion music that blends different cultural influences, and site-specific performances staged to highlight some of the Bay Area’s most iconic landmarks, summer performing arts experiences offer a chance to immerse yourself in the spirit and energy of San Francisco. Just remember to bring a blanket and dress in layers for outdoor performances. Our “cool, grey city by the bay” can get particularly cool, if not downright chilly, when the afternoon fog rolls in.

DANCE

ODC/Dance

Summer Sampler

San Francisco’s premiere contemporary dance company presents its annual Summer Sampler at its own intimate performance space in the Mission, featuring world premieres by guest choreographers Sonya Delwaide and Dexandro Montalvo, plus revivals of signature works by Brenda Way and Kimi Okada.

Delwaide has been an active member of the Bay Area dance community for 20 years, having created works for AXIS Dance, Berkeley Ballet Theater and Oakland Ballet, but this marks her first creation for ODC. The piece is currently unnamed, but is a humorous nod to San Francisco’s notoriously cold summers. Montalvo, a longtime faculty member at ODC School, is an award-winning choreographer whose works have been performed by Dance Theatre of San Francisco, Robert Moses’ Kin, and pop-rap group The Black Eyed Peas.

$25-100, July 20-22, ODC Theater, 3153 17th Street. www.odc.dance/ summersampler

ographer for more than four decades, presents the world premiere of “Solaz,” a new multimedia flamenco work inspired by the extraordinary history of the Egyptian Temple of Debod. For more than four decades, La Tania has set the international standard as an innovator and icon of traditional and contemporary flamenco. The creation of “Solaz” is rooted in La Tania’s own lived experiences with displacement, her empathy for others, and the humanity and solace of origin and place.

$15-45, July 21-22, Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Avenue. www.presidiotheatre.org

Amy Seiwert’s Imagery

The 13th annual Sketch Series features four world premiere works by Imagery Artistic Director Amy Seiwert, Artistic Fellow Natasha Adorlee,  Hélène  Simoneau (2021 Choreography Fellow with New York City Center), and Trey McIntyre (Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet).

Siewert, who was recently named Associate Artistic Director of Smuin Ballet, has become one of the dance world’s most prolific and sought-after choreographers, having created works for ballet companies across the U.S. Her Sketch series features dancers from the Bay Area and beyond, who come together for an intensive collaborative workshop process, culminating in the performance of four new works. This program is always a major highlight of the San Francisco summer dance season.

$13-65, July 28-30, ODC Theater, 3153 17th Street. www.asimagery.org

THEATRE The Keeper

With our beloved California

comedy, and theatrical programs at its spectacular Bruns Amphitheatre in Orinda. After a highly popular run last year at Alameda Point, “The Keeper” is a delightful, thoughtprovoking one-woman show about Caretta, a lighthouse keeper who chooses a solitary existence. The production is presented by nomadic theatre company We Players, known for adventurous, site-specific works around the Bay Area.

$20-$60, August 18- 27, Bruns Amphitheatre, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda. www. weplayers.org

Cirque du Soleil’s “Corteo”

Cirque du Soleil returns to the Bay Area for the first time in three long years with one of its most beloved, magical productions, “Corteo.” The Montreal-based troupe will not be performing under its signature blue and yellow tent this time, but fans can look forward to experiencing Cirque’s grandiose blend of eyepopping visual theatrics, glorious live music, and high-flying, heartstopping gymnastic athleticism at our region’s three largest athletic/ performance arenas.

$45-$159. SAP Center (San Jose), August 9–13; Oakland Arena (Oakland), August 17–20; Chase Center (San Francisco), August 23–27. www.cirquedusoleil.com/corteo

MUSIC

San Francisco Symphony

Our hometown symphony’s summer season kicks off with their annual “Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular” at Shoreline Amphitheatre, a fun, eclec-

tic program featuring the music of John Williams, Copeland, Gershwin, and Stevie Wonder, as well as a tribute to Aretha Franklin. If you’re not up for a road trip to Mountain View, two days later the symphony returns to Davies Hall for a program featuring Dvořák’s “New World Symphony” and a special appearance by up-and-coming violin prodigy Alexi Kenny.

Don’t put away your Pride rainbow drag until after July 19, when the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus joins the SF Symphony at Davies for “Hello Yellow Brick Road,” a lively program featuring music from Elton John’s iconic “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” album, as well as selections from “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Wiz,” and the musical “Wicked.”

$18-$89, various Bay Area venues. www.symphony.org

Stern Grove Festival

It’s been a rough few years for the team at Stern Grove. Losing their 2020 season due to the pandemic, the festival cautiously re-emerged the next summer, only to be devastated by a massive flood in late August 2021 that forced the cancellation of the final concert of the season. Then this past March, intense storms caused a massive eucalyptus tree to fall on the Grove’s iconic Trocadero Clubhouse, destroying the 19th-Century landmark. But like the city of San Francisco itself, rising from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake, Stern Grove is back for 2023 with a robust line-up of programs that offers something for every musical taste.

Highlights include the Indigo Girls (June 25), Lyle Lovett and His Large

Band (July 9), Angelique Kidjo with Jupiter & Okwess (July 16), San Francisco Symphony with funk/rock band Lettuce (July 23), and legendary rock icon Patti Smith (August 3). Free, but tickets must be reserved one month prior to concert dates. 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard. www.sterngrove.org

Feinstein’s at the Nikko

If you’re looking for something a bit more intimate, head to one of our city’s last remaining cabaret-style clubs, Feinstein’s. The elegant venue has amped up its programming in recent years, bringing in an impressive array of renowned Broadway stars and jazz artists, as well as showcasing local musical and theatrical talents. This summer’s highlights include LGBTQ favorites Justin Vivian Bond (June 1-3), The Skivvies (June 9 & 10), Spencer Day (June 16 & 17) Sandra Bernhard (June 22-24) and Adam Pascal (July 7-8).

$65-$135, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason Street. www.feinsteinssf.com

Merola Opera Program Grand Finale

Widely recognized as one of the world’s leading training programs for aspiring opera artists, SF Opera’s Merola Program offers a full range of exciting public performances and educational programs each summer, showcasing the next generation of opera stars. This year’s finale program will feature a spectacular array of arias, duets and ensemble pieces.

$28-$53, War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue. www.merola.orgt

Left: ODC/Dance dancers in ‘Something About a Nightingale.’ Middle Left: La Tania’s “Solaz” Middle Right: Amy Seiwert’s Imagery Right: We Players ‘The Keeper’

Robbie Sweeny

Left: Anjelique Kidjo at Stern Grove Festival Middle: Sandra Bernhard at Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Right: Tenore Chance Jonas-O’Toole in the Merola Opera Program Grand Finale

Left: Cirque du Soliel Above: San Francisco Symphony

Below: San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus

Lauren Matley

‘Side Notes from the Archivist’

dropping bombs over africa burnt hair in the middle of your philly street”

The culmination of many of the poems in this collection is “The Black Woman as an Altar.”

“write a letter to womb call it magical call it home call it hers call it god (but hide this letter in case the government decides to step in)”

In “Black Marsha (P) Johnson,” Anastacia-Renée pays homage to Marsha P. Johnson, the transgender activist who rose to prominence in New York City after 1969’s Stonewall uprising, and died in 1992 under mysterious circumstances.

by Laura Moreno

Anastacia-Renee is an award-winning writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDx speaker, 2020 Arc Fellow (4Culture), Jack Straw Curator, podcaster, and served as Seattle’s Civic Poet. Her fascinating new book of poetry is called “Side Notes from the Archivist.”

As the title implies, the book is a historical document that provides insight into five decades of American history. The book provides “side notes” or personal impressions as a Black, queer feminist experiencing life in her own skin as national and local historical moments unfold around her.

The book is separated into five sections with titles like ‘Retroflect’ and ‘Retrofuckery.’

Beginning with her coming of age poetry about growing up Muslim in Philadelphia in the 1970s and ’80s to the soundtrack of disco queen Donna Summer, her poems explore the role

of popular culture, religion, and the political wave of the moment in the formation of identity.

At times, the poems are heartbreaking for the strangeness of being a young black girl “at life’s mercy.”

Here is what she writes, for example, in “episode (0).”

“in this episode of the black girl (which will not air), where the black girl conjures up her dead baby & the dead baby conjures up the dead womb & the dead womb conjures up its womb’s lineage & the lineage tells the girl her baby has joined the sea, that dead black babies all start out as black girls & all black girls who are black girl babies start out as god. floating. we just find this too far-fetched. even if fantasy or sci-fi we can’t sell this.”

She deals head-on with the cognitive dissonance of knowing the leaders of your city actually decided to illegally bomb your neighborhood with your own tax dollars in “1985 (1),” a news story I didn’t hear about until years later.

“& you almost choked on your own memories of the helicopter

“black marsha i gathered you as a bouquet center of my table talk & some of the people there tried to pick you apart & i know you would say pay it no mind”

The poem “episode (24)” brings insight.

“at the black girl’s job, she overheard coworker a. tell coworker b. that she heard ‘kale is the new vegetable’ & black girl thought to herself, there ain’t nothing new about kale or collards or mustards or soil underneath a black girl’s fingernails”

This collection of experimental poetry can be read at one’s leisure. Interestingly, her poems grapple with homophobia and navigating queer relationships, the white gaze and the exploitation of blackness, the AIDS crisis, and is an important work of literature that will be cherished by generations to come. t

Anastacia-Renée’s poetry and fiction have appeared in: Spark, Foglifter, Auburn Avenue, Catapult, Alta, Torch among others. ‘Side Notes from the Archivist’ by Anastasia-Renée, Riverside Books, $29.95 hardcover www.harpercollins.com www.anastacia-renee.com

“There will always be enemies. Time to stop being your own.”

—Larry Kramer

Author Anastacia-Renée

June bugs

The Lavender Tube on Pride programs, pickets & comedies

Casa Susanna

For Pride, PBS has the outstanding “Casa Susanna” documentary from their “The LGBTQ+ Experience Collection.”

“Casa Susanna” is a groundbreaking story of a secret community, written and directed by Sébastien Lifshitz. As PBS describes it: “In the 1950s and ’60s, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found refuge at a modest house in the Catskills region of New York. Known as Casa Susanna, the house provided a safe place to express their true selves and live for a few days as they had always dreamed – dressed as and living as women without fear of being incarcerated or institutionalized for their self-expression.”

by Victoria A. Brownworth

It’s Pride Month! Happy ‘What has the GOP done to take away more of our rights’ month! Cue sarcasm font as we await the excitement of which stores we can’t shop in any more (We’ll miss you, Target!), which beer we can’t drink any more (We never liked you, Bud Light!) and which politician will throw us under the bus next (Way to besmirch your father’s name, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.).

Pride is further complicated for those of us looking forward to a June filled with TV shows designed just for us. As series finales slam up against the ongoing writers’ strike that no one talks about like it’s not even happening, expect more reality TV shows to flood the airwaves. Dating shows, cooking shows – anything that doesn’t really require a writer.

The 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike is an ongoing labor dispute between the WGA labor union, representing 11,500 writers, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It began May 2. It already almost killed the Tony Awards and all of late-night talk shows.

Some series and specials pre-date the strike and were prepped to go,

but expect to shell out more money for various streaming services as the summer heats up, due to the strike. It’s frankly shocking and gross that absolutely nothing has moved on the strike in a month and worse that there are so many rumors about using AI to replace writers.

So what can we watch in June? Netflix says, come on over for their Pride Month line-up. “There’s no better way to spend June than with our Pride Month collection, which features amazing shows, movies and specials for, by and about the LGBTQ community.”

The Ultimatum: Queer Love

Tie the knot or call it quits? Five long-term couples – all queer women and nonbinary people – are put under pressure to get married or move on in this queer-centric spin-off of “The Ultimatum.” The couples must work out, on camera, their conflicting feelings about marriage while simultaneously assessing the other participants for romantic potential by going into trial relationships with them.

Oh yes, it’s like that. If it sounds like a deliciously hot mess, it is. It’s also so laden with easy spoilers, all we can say is, once you start watching, you won’t be able to quit; on Netflix. Go get it.

“Casa Susanna” is “told through the memories of those who visited the house, the film provides a moving look back at a secret world where the persecuted and frightened found freedom, acceptance and, often, the courage to live out of the shadows.”

Using a rich trove of color photos of Casa Susanna’s guests, archival footage and personal remembrances, the film introduces Diana and Kate, two people whose lives were forever changed at Casa Susanna. They travel back to the now-abandoned site and share their memories of a time when people like them, from all over the country, came to a place where they were free to dress and live as women from morning to night. They found each other and the refuge of Casa Susanna through word-of-mouth and Transvestia, a magazine for and by the trans and cross-dressing community.

With lush cinematography by Paul Guilhaume, the documentary is a history we have not seen previously. The memories of those who visited the house where they found the freedom and acceptance they needed to live the lives they always dreamed of are incredibly poignant. Beautiful, heartbreaking, “Casa Susanna” is must-see programming. June 27, on PBS or watch online.

Smothered

This irreverent dark comedy is not for everyone, but it is fast and dirty and often hilarious and with very short episodes you can decide quickly whether you want to play with it or not.

Middle:

Below:

“Smothered” is described by creators Jason Stuart and Mitch Hara as “an hysterical and sobering look at a hateful, gay, Jewish middle-aged couple who can’t stand each other, but can’t afford to get divorced.”

Season one of “Smothered” relied on the handy device of Hara and Stuart’s bickering couple going to a different couples counselor every five or sixminute segment. Season two opens things up, ushering in a slate of recurring secondary characters, including

Meh-made remake Disney’s live-action ‘The Little Mermaid’ falls short

by Gregg Shapiro

Disney’s Oscar-winning 1989 animated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” launched a whole new era for the studio. With songs co-written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, “The Little Mermaid” initiated many young viewers into the world of Broadway-style musicals.

However, in recent years, some of the flagship features of that golden animation period, such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King,” have been remade as CGI-enhanced live-action movies with meh results (with perhaps the exception of “Beauty and the Beast”).

Helmed by Rob Marshall, whose 2014 movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into The Woods” ranks among the worst movie musicals ever made, the director’s clunky touch is felt throughout this new version of “The Little Mermaid.”

Already a subject of buzz for the casting of Halle Bailey, a young, virtually unknown Black actress and singer in the lead role of Ariel, there ultimately doesn’t really seem to be an actual reason for this movie other than the profits that come from vault-raiding.

Almost an hour longer than the 1989 edition (meaning it’s at least 35

minutes too long), “The Little Mermaid” does make good use of technology in the colorful and dazzling underwater sequences. But it’s almost as if its intention is to distract you from the movie itself being as hollow as coral.

Ariel (Bailey), the beautiful and free-spirited daughter of King Triton (a completely miscast Javier Bardem), the ruler of the ocean kingdom of Atlantica, is fascinated by humans and their belongings, many of which she collects following shipwrecks. Triton has forbidden Ariel from making

contact with humans (smart move!) but that doesn’t stop her from trying, causing grief for Sebastian (Daveed Diggs), a crab who has been tasked with watching after her.

An encounter with Prince Eric (hot Jonah Hauer-King), a landbased royal whose rebellious nature comes close to matching Ariel’s, leads to a life-changing deal for the mermaid.

Closely observed by the wicked Ursula (a marvelous Melissa McCarthy, who has credited drag queens and Divine in particular as the inspi-

ration for her portrayal), the vengeful sea witch sister of Triton is obsessed with retribution. In an opportunity to take advantage of Ariel’s attraction to Eric, Ursula offers Ariel the chance to briefly experience what it’s like to be human in exchange for her siren’s song. As you may recall, this involves both romance and regret, resulting in an epic battle.

That epic battle is the film’s lowest low point (trust, there are others), in which Marshall forgot he was making a Disney movie and decided to dabble in some Marvel mayhem.

mobbed-up family members, a lesbian mother, a formidable warden at a halfway house, and even a sexy “plumber.”

“Smothered” seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Revry and are available on YouTube and Amazon Prime; with Amanda Bearse, Jai Rodriguez, and Carole White, and directed by Carlyle King.

So for the romantic, the edgy, the sexy and the history – always the history – you know you really must stay tuned.t

This may also explain why “The Little Mermaid” now has a PG rating. In an effort to find something nice to say, Bailey holds her own, and both McCarthy and Awkwafina (as clueless seabird Scuttle) provide necessary comic relief. Perhaps the most disappointing part is the way that the music, both the original songs by Menken and Ashman (including “Part of Your World” and “Poor Unfortunate Girl”), as well as the new (yawn) contributions by Lin-Manuel Miranda, feel like afterthoughts in a way they weren’t in the cartoon. Rating: Ct

Left: Halle Bailey in Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ Right: Melissa McCarthy and Halle Bailey in Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’

Authors Nnedi Okorafor, George RR Martin and Neil Gaiman at a Santa Fe WGA picket.

Instagram

Above: Mal Wright and Yoly Rojas in ‘The Ultimatum: Queer Love’

‘Casa Susanna’

Jason Stuart and Mitch Hara in ‘Smothered’

Country music crossovers

by Gregg Shapiro

Country music artists are regularly crossing genre boundaries, some even recording covers of Stephen Sondheim musical numbers. Here are four new outstanding audibly artistic diversions.

Performed in Americana-style arrangements that the late composer probably never imagined, the 14 Stephen Sondheim tunes on “Keep A Tender Distance” (Ghostlight Deluxe) by  Eleri Ward  have the potential to appeal to listeners from

The fascinating trend of hipster musicians (and producers) introducing their fanbase to artists with whom they may be unfamiliar continues with no sign of abating. Artists such as Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, and Bettye LaVette have Rick Rubin, Jack Black, and Joe Henry, respectively, to thank for their late-career resurgences. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who did something similar for Mavis Staples, has now turned his attention to Grammy-winning singersongwriter  Rodney Crowell  on “The Chicago Sessions” (New West).

The Crowell connection makes sense as he was at the forefront of the

minded “Ready To Move On.” www.rodneycrowell.com

Over the course of her lengthy performing career (more than 40 years!), singer-songwriter  Beth Nielsen Chapman has written (or co-written) songs covered by an impressive array of country artists including Faith

Hill, Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Tanya Tucker, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Suzy Boggus, and Crystal Gayle, among others.

Queer listeners might be interested to know that Elton John and Bette Midler have also sung Chapman’s songs. More than a dozen years into her own life as a recording artist, she

most recently released “CrazyTown” (Cooking Vinyl/BNC), featuring the politically-oriented female empowerment anthem “Put A Woman In Charge” (co-written with Keb Mo’). Other highlights include “4leafclove,” the rocking “The Universe” (featuring trans musician Cidny Bullens on backing vocals), “Pocket of My Past,” and the gorgeous “With Time.” www.bethnielsenchapman.com

“Star Eaters Delight” (Sub Pop), the third album by Virginia native  Lael Neale opens with the electronic beat of “I Am The River,” which sounds as if the singer/songwriter had been listening to Le Tigre for inspiration. By the second song, “If I Had No Wings,” Neale has shifted gears, sounding like she’s singing an original hymn, paying homage to her rural roots. Neale alternates between electronic beats (“Faster Than The Medicine”) and bare-bones arrangements (“In Verona”), before settling on the latter for a brief album that delivers delight. www.laelneale.comt

Left: Eleri Ward Middle Left: Rodney Crowell Middle Right: Beth Nielsen Chapman Right: Lael Neale

“My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself” —Tina Turner (1939-2023)

Behind the Golden Curtain @ Orinda Theatre

Photos by Steven Underhill

Behind the Golden Curtain, a celebration of the TV series “The Golden Girls,” brought fans of the show to the Orinda Theatre May 26-28 to enjoy a drag homage show performed by The Golden Gays, plus panels with several of the show’s directors, writers, and guest stars. https://behindthegoldencurtain.com/ See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.

BROADWAY BARES | SAN FRANCISCO STRIPS VI

DNA LOUNGE

JUNE 17 · 6PM, 9PM

WITH SPECIAL GUEST NICK CEARLEY OF “THE SKIVVIES”

BIT.LY/BROADWAYBARESSF2023

Directed by Deb Leamy. Executive Producers Deb Leamy, Damien Beard, Ken Henderson & Joe Seiler. Produced by Broadway Bares SF and REAF. Benefiting REAF & Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.