March 23, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Suspect appears in court in Marsh killing

by John Ferrannini

AUC employee charged in the stabbing death of an Oakland Black gay man now has an attorney, though his plea date was pushed back to next month as he appeared in an Alameda County courtroom Tuesday.

Sweven Waterman, 38, of Oakland is now set to enter a plea Wednesday, April 5, in Department 112 at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse, near Jack London Square.

See page 12 >>

No arrest made in Davis killing

by John Ferrannini

Oakland police continue to investigate the shooting death of gay Black man Devonte Davis and no arrest has been made, a department spokesperson said.

Davis, 27, also known as “Tay,” was identified March 16 as the victim of a homicide near the Oakland Coliseum that occurred March 12.

“Unfortunately, there has been no arrest made in this case,” Oakland Police Department Officer Rosalia Lopez stated to the Bay Area Reporter March 20.

Davis’ killing came less than a week after police made an arrest in the stabbing death of another gay Black man, Curtis Marsh, a former member of the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus. (See related story.)

See page 12 >>

‘Saints’ step in to help Sisters

It was a fun afternoon all around Sunday, March 19, at the Edge bar in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were the beneficiaries of a party organized by “Saints,” or people they’ve honored for their community work, at “When the Saints Go Marching In.” And, while the party was to raise funds for the Sisters, they got to perform their own good work by “sainting” Joe Prince Wolf, center, as “Saint Prince Ahhhhrrrroooooo, Pre-

cocious Paddler to the Nightlife Stars & Maker of Merry for our Community.” Sister TildaNexTime, second from left, sported an elaborate mask of three faces, and postulant Mya Neurosis, right, joined in the festivities. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, last summer the Sisters were the victims of embezzlement, and the party was to help raise funds for the Sisters’ upcoming Easter party at Mission Dolores Park, set for Sunday, April 9.

Agency opens first trans services center in SF

by Matthew S. Bajko

Caught in Tuesday’s early morning rainstorm without an umbrella on route to attend the official opening of the first stand-alone facility dedicated exclusively to serving San Francisco’s transgender and gendernonconforming communities, Gizelle Mattingly slipped into the room holding the wardrobe offerings of the SheBoutique. Filled with free clothing that trans women and others can use for job interviews or other needs, Mattingly picked out a soft-pink blazer to borrow.

A client and volunteer with the San Francisco Community Health Center’s Trans Thrive program, Mattingly wanted to be presentable for the grand opening ceremony for the program’s new dedicated space since she expected to be interviewed by the invited media. The experience was “inspirational,” she told the Bay Area Reporter.

The 8,000 square foot facility, which includes 2,000 square feet of usable outdoor space, signals a true commitment to the trans and nonbinary people who will walk through its doors, said Mattingly, 38, a trans woman who moved

See page 2 >>

CA bill would protect LGBTQ foster youth from non-affirming homes

by John Ferrannini

ACalifornia lawmaker announced a bill March 17 would limit the ability of prospective foster parents who aren’t affirming of LGBTQ youth identity to become resource families.

Senate Bill 407, introduced by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is seeking to clarify section 16519.61 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, which governs how counties or departments can deny or refuse someone’s ability to become a foster parent.

Wiener told the Bay Area Reporter that while some people may have objections to LGBTQ rights – 29% of Americans were not in favor of same-sex marriage according to a 2022 Gallup poll, for example – that doesn’t give them license to hurt queer young people developing a sense of their identities.

“Being a resource family is a privilege, not a right,” Wiener stated, referring to foster parents.

“If a family feels that their religious beliefs prevent them from supporting a foster kid’s full identity, they are unfit to take on this responsibility. A person’s religious views don’t override a kid’s right to be safe.”

Wiener also stated, “every child deserves to be 100% supported at home.”

“SB 407 ensures that foster youth receive this essential support by specifically requiring LGBTQ acceptance be considered in the resource family approval process, creating standard documentation for the assessment of LGBTQ youth needs, and ensuring more frequent follow-up,” he continued. “These youth are at high risk for homelessness, criminal justice involvement, and

mental health issues, and we must do everything in our power to ensure they have a safe home in the state of California.”

The law currently states that the California Department of Social Services “may deny a resource family application or rescind the approval of a resource family, and the department may exclude an individual from any resource family home, for ... conduct that poses a risk or threat to the health and safety, protection, or well-being of a child, another individual, or the people of the State of California.”

Erik Mebust, Wiener’s communications director, told the B.A.R. that “the part we’re trying to clarify with our legislation” is whether that conduct includes not affirming a child’s LGBTQ identity by, for example, holding that homosexuality is wrong, or that gender is fixed at birth.

“Right now it’s unclear if that conduct qualifies as a threat to the child and our legislation would clarify that it is, and that it’s valid grounds to deny a potential resource family,” Mebust stated.

“Our bill expressly clarifies that conduct of these kinds posing risk/threat to protection or well-being of a child specifically includes LGBTQ youth,” he added.

See page 100 >>

State Senator Scott Wiener

Courtesy Oakland LGBTQ Community Center

Curtis Marsh was found stabbed to death March 4.

Courtesy Sen. Wiener’s office

Gooch

Devonte “Tay” Davis was shot and killed in Oakland March 12.

Courtesy Oakland LGBTQ Community Center

Films to decrease at Castro

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

There are many who want to claim that transgender lives are built on falsehoods, that everything about us is a lie.

For those of us who are trans feminine, you may hear fanciful stories about us transitioning merely to attack other women in bathrooms, or to coerce other lesbian women into sexual relationships. You’ll also hear how we’re somehow only identifying as transgender in order to dominate the lucrative world of women’s sports.

In some circles, we’re called “traps,” a slang built on the idea that we appear as alluring females in order to “trick” straight men into having “gay” sex. I, quite frankly, don’t feel I have any reason to explain how ludicrous that is.

Meanwhile, trans masculine people are presented without agency. You

Vernadette Broyles is president and general counsel of the Child and Parental Rights Campaign Inc.

crass and obvious reframing of the old “gays recruit” trope, reimagined for the QAnon era, somehow equating pedo

of their young daughter, tossed out manufactured claims of inappropriate contact between her transitioning spouse and the child.

While outside divorce court, my trans friend overheard opposing counsel stating that it was obvious to them that the trans woman must be lying about not molesting her daughter, because, after all, she was trans and inherently deceptive.

Indeed, the popular culture view of transgender people is one of deception. Even the so-called good examples seen in any number of comedies, such as “Mrs. Doubtfire,” still present any sort of trans presentation as one of deceit.

Yet, these aren’t the sort of falsehoods I want to focus on.

Mother Jones recently published a feature article on attempts to adopt anti-transgender legislation around the country. This year, for example, over

being done in secret between a network of anti-trans organizations.

Indeed, many of the bills going around share similar language and aims, clearly crafted not by individual lawmakers, but by these groups behind the scenes. In more than one statehouse, for example, lawmakers could not explain exceptions allowing genital surgeries on intersex children in their own bills, or even seemed to know what “intersex” meant.

One of those named in the Mother Jones article is Vernadette Broyles, who serves as the president and general counsel of The Child & Parental Rights Campaign based out of Georgia. Among many other things, Broyles is currently representing Jamie Reed.

Reed has made some incendiary claims

ing misleading information about the effects of hormones and puberty blockers, she also passes along a story of one trans child who claimed to be an attack helicopter, and was quickly prescribed hormone replacement therapy. Apparently, she did not know that “I identify as an attack helicopter” is a fairly well-known meme, and one usually used to mock transgender people. There is a bigger issue or two at play with Reed, however. The patient information alluded to in the aforementioned “attack helicopter” story she provided, as well as other details she presented, make it clear that she is retaining confidential medical information – and providing some of it to journalists.

On top of this, many people have called out much of what Reed has claimed, perhaps most importantly that she was somehow an innocent bystander turned whistleblower. One parent, Jennifer Harris Dault, took to her Twitter account to directly speak “I was told I’d receive an email with resources, including therapists ... but that at my child’s age (6 at that point) no therapist would really see her unless she was at risk of selfharm,” wrote Dault. “She [Reed] also told me that the clinic would not see up until puberty started.”

Like so many other things, this turned out to be false.

I would like to say that the idea of transgender people being deceptive might be a certain level of projection on the part of these anti-transgender bigots, but I’m not entirely sure that’s true.

Rather, I feel that many do believe that transgender people are deceptive. It is a deep-seated trope, as I noted before.

So, in believing that, these bigots feel justified to “fight fire with fire” and embrace their own desires to deceive.

It’s time for some truth. t

Gwen Smith is here to live her truth. You’ll find her at gwensmith.com

<< Trans center

From page 1

to San Francisco from San Diego two years ago.

“I love it. It is so big; my dreams could fit in here,” she said of the space with brick walls and wood-beam rafters. “Trans people are so often put in a corner of an office in a cubicle. It is amazing to see trans people occupying a space like this that we can be proud of.”

The new facility is seen as providing a true “home” to the city’s transgender community, said Nicky “Tita Aida” Calma, a trans woman who is the San Francisco Community Health Center’s managing director. It provides everything from mental health and substance use counseling, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, to case management and social support groups like its weekly Taco Tuesday get-togethers and new Folk & Swagger meet-up for trans men.

“What we have here is groundbreaking,” Calma said.

She is one of 13 full-time staffers who are trans or gender-nonconforming and now overseeing the new Trans Thrive location. It soft opened March 13 and is currently open from 2 to 5 p.m. weekdays at 1460 Pine Street near Polk.

“Seeing it open feels amazing. I have never seen a place like this before,” said Alejandra De La Vega, a

See page 12 >>

AIDS Memorial Quilt & Gilead

At Gilead, we understand that it’s going to take a combination of both science and social change to help end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere. It’s only by collaborating with advocates and organizations across the country that we can reach this collective goal. Together, we’re working tirelessly to improve health equity and bring awareness to the HIV epidemic.

Film screenings will decrease at Castro, APE says

by John Ferrannini

One of the many criticisms of Castro Theatre management company Another Planet Entertainment is that the movie palace has been dark a good portion of the time since it took over last year and that likely will continue, officials said.

What once were daily movie showings at the theater gave way to its closure when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. Then, in January 2022, APE announced it was taking over management of the theater. APE’s clunky rollout upset many movie buffs and others in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood. Tensions have not eased as crucial city hearings loom.

With APE seeking city approval on its proposed renovations, it recently issued a community benefits package that reveals films will be shown about one-third of the time.

“Daily film screenings are not going to happen again” at the site, David Perry, a gay man and APE spokesperson told the Bay Area Reporter. “That’s a fact. Will there be a robust film schedule? Yes.”

“No one wants to program the theater more fully than Another Planet,” Perry continued. “It takes a while to schedule events. There’s no way to compare what happened in 2019 before the pandemic to the reality of the theater now.”

Perry stated that the theater’s website has what he described as an exhaustive community benefits package, which among other things states that APE “recognizes that cinema remains at the heart of the Castro Theatre and is dedicated to keeping film an integral component of the theatre’s programming.”

The theater “will continue our commitment to host the Annual Holiday Gay Men’s Chorus performance, PRIDE activities, Harvey Milk Day, Lesbians Who Tech, and seek counsel from a panel of LGBTQ+ community leaders so that the theatre’s programming reflects the needs and desires of the queer and Castro communities,” the website states.

But that programming accounts for far fewer days of events compared to the theater’s old schedule.

Perry mentioned Frameline, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and Lesbians Who Tech – which is tentatively planning on holding its October confab at the site as the B.A.R. previously reported – as groups that APE is in discussion with.

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus responded to a request for comment on the community benefits package and discussions with APE as of press time.

“San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus looks forward to returning to the Castro Theatre this upcoming holiday season with what has become a muchanticipated tradition for our community,” Executive Director Christopher Verdugo stated to the B.A.R.

So, too, did Frameline.

“Frameline will screen at the Castro Theatre between June 14-24, 2023, and we’ve very happy to be back,” Executive Director James Woolley stated.

Lesbians Who Tech has not responded as of press time.

Known for concert promotion

APE is best known for concert promotion, such as at the Fox Theatre in Oakland that it manages, and the Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco. Perry told the B.A.R. that APE has made this commitment to showing movies at the Castro Theatre while he answered questions about why it isn’t screening films on a regular basis anymore.

Before the pandemic, the theater often showed films many times a week. In recent months, it has been dark for long stretches at a time.

Perry gave two reasons for this –one: the uncertainty of the theater’s future considering city hearings that touch upon APE’s plans for an interior renovation; two: a lack of audience for film screenings per se.

A dark Castro Theatre exacerbates the efforts of business leaders to woo people back to the LGBTQ neighborhood, which has seen visitors plummet during the pandemic. When programs or films took place at the theater, oftentimes patrons would have a drink or meal at a nearby restaurant or bar, increasing business –and foot traffic – in the area.

Terry Beswick, a gay man on the board of the Castro Merchants Association, told the B.A.R. that “common sense would suggest … that the change of use from multiple daily film screenings and shows to late night concerts once or twice a week with three inhouse bars and occasional rentals will be a net loss for neighborhood business,” but that “no one really knows” what the impact of APE’s future changes will be because “they have not been forthcoming with the details.”

“We do not have a good sense of the impact on neighborhood businesses because although we have asked for their business model they have not been forthcoming,” he stated.

Perry asserted that the theater will not have three bars inside, stating after the initial online publication of this report that claims otherwise are “inaccurate and inflammatory.”

“There will be two concessions (as there are now),” Perry wrote in a text message. “Yes, they will serve alcohol

Palm Springs?

as is quite standard. They are not bars.” APE’s community benefit package does state it will work with local restaurants and offer “meaningful business opportunities on all activities associated with the theatre and its programming.”

“Event concessions will feature various menu items from a wide array of Castro restaurants, as well as hiring these local restaurants to provide catering services to performers and their staff,” the document states “Other aspects of APE’s internal operations will include utilizing local businesses for theatre maintenance, painting, electrical, janitorial, and hospitality needs in their efforts to repair the dilapidated conditions of the theatre.”

City hearings

As the B.A.R. previously reported, hearings relating to the future of the Castro Theatre’s interior landmark status and the appropriateness of APE’s plans for the interior of the historic movie palace have been pushed back to April 3 and 13, respectively.

At issue with many critics is APE’s desire to remove the raked orchestra seating. APE recently announced a revised seating plan for the theater that would preserve the raked element for film events. It includes a motorized floor that makes both raked seating and tiered standing arrangements possible, according to an announcement on the theater’s Facebook page.

“We didn’t program anything for several months because the status of the theater was up in the air,” Perry said. “I do understand the community concern.”

Last month, as the B.A.R. previously reported, the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission approved recommending expanded interior landmarking for the Castro Theatre, but stopped short of specifically stating the orchestra seats were part of that. Instead, the commission recommended to the Board of Supervisors that the interior include that the character defining features of the orchestra level include the raked floor,

aisles, and “presence of seating.” It did recommend landmark status for 1920s seats in the balcony. (The exterior of the theater was designated a city landmark in 1977.)

Final approval for the landmark status rests with the Board of Supervisors, whose land use committee will hear the matter in early April.

Those advocating keeping the orchestra seats asked the Historic Preservation Commission to further clarify the language in the proposed ordinance to more accurately restate the factual findings approved by the commission, but the commissioners declined to do so.

During that same Historic Preservation Commission meeting Jim Abrams, an attorney representing the Nasser family that owns the theater, showed internal numbers from the theater’s 100th anniversary last year revealing that out of 1,400 seats some screenings – such as a matinee of “Casino” on June 10 – got as few as 16 patrons.

The theater “operated on a loss on over three-quarters of the days only films were shown,” Abrams said.

Perry echoed this sentiment.

“It takes money to open the doors of the Castro Theatre,” he said. “Everything that we do has to be paid for.”

Perry said that if the certificate of appropriateness is granted by the planning commission and APE’s plans move forward, the time the theater is closed for the renovations –which would involve changing much of the fixed seating to moveable raked seating among other plans – would be considerable.

“You can safely say this is not going to be a three-month renovation,” he said. “It will take several months to see that the theater is renovated.”

Perry said that for the time being, the theater is actively seeking bookings.

Nonetheless, the next scheduled event isn’t until the show “Meg Stalter, Patti Harrison, Sarah Sherman: The Live Nude Girls Tour” on Saturday, April 29, at 8 p.m.

Critics weigh in Rob Byrne, a straight man who is president of the board of directors of the Castro Theatre Conservancy, a group fighting to preserve the seats and other aspects of the theater, isn’t so convinced by Perry’s explanation.

The conservancy is one of the groups spearheading the Save the Castro Theatre Coalition, which wants to block some of APE’s proposed changes.

“The next scheduled show is April 29,” Byrne said. “I can’t speak to Another Planet’s motivation for that – I don’t know if they’re trying to make a point or if it’s the explanation they’ve given, but we are very interested in seeing the theater opening every day of the year.

“I’m not sure why you take one of the best, most iconic, most important movie theaters in America and turn it into a nightclub and think you’re doing anything for the community or the city,” he added.

Byrne said that as for the 100th anniversary going badly last June, there wasn’t a lot of promotion that events were taking place.

“People wondered if they [APE] were intentionally doing a bad job to demonstrate that film has no future at the Castro Theatre,” Byrne said.

Byrne said that moviegoers are coming back to theaters now that COVID is more of a factor of daily life and most restrictions have been lifted.

“There’s a huge amount of interest in attending cinema again,” he said. “It’s definitely resurging.”

While theater-going nationally has increased from pandemic lows, it was still down 47.6% in summer 2022 from summer 2019, according to CNBC.

And theater closures are taking place. Downtown Berkeley’s last theater closed in January, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported. It was part of a downsizing by Regal Cinemas after its parent company announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the paper reported.

Stephen Torres, a queer man who is executive co-chair of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, said in regard to the APE’s film commitment, “we don’t know what these percentages are based on.”

“This latest, sort of, high-gloss statement they are providing seems to be a continuation of the same statements they’ve made before with vague allusions to programming that will tick the box for LGBTQ film or cultural programming but with no binding commitments,” Torres said. “They’re continuing to pursue proposals that are extremely cost prohibitive for many of the programming groups that’ve done programs at the Castro to return.”

Torres said that Perry’s comments “illustrate the lack of cultural competency” because of the theater’s historic role as a space where LGBTQ culture intermingles with classic films.

“They continue to assert repertory film is a thing of the past ... and yet so many of the grassroots purposes of the theater are tied to repertory film,” he said. “There was just a piece on ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ about the revival of repertory exhibition and how this is tied to our cultural heritage, and they are trying to divorce this from LGBTQ culture?” t

Castro Theatre rental inquiries can be made by contacting thecastro@anotherplanet.com

Tickets for the April 29 show are $35 and are available on APE’s website at https://bit.ly/40jj8eW.

Play ball!

Castro Theatre management company Another Planet Entertainment has said that films will be part of the programming, but one-third of the time.

Scott Wazlowski

Under storm clouds the San Francisco Gay Softball League held its opening ceremony Sunday, March 19, though an exhibition game with members of the San Francisco Police Department was postponed due to rain. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), left, and gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandel-

man threw out ceremonial first pitches at Kimbell Field. There were also appearances by Cheer SF and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the city’s official band. SFGSL is marking its 50th anniversary this year, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.

Jane Philomen Cleland

SF supes OK 2 LGBTQs for homelessness panel

by John Ferrannini

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved six people for the brand new Homelessness Oversight Commission at its meeting Tuesday, including two LGBTQs who were recommended by the body’s rules committee last week.

They are Bevan Dufty, a gay man who is currently an elected member of the BART Board of Directors and was formerly a District 8 supervisor, and Joaquin Whitt Guerrero, a TwoSpirit trans man who is director of housing for Our Trans Home SF.

The oversight panel for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Services was approved by voters last November as Proposition C. Four are appointed by the mayor with the consent of the supervisors, and three by the supervisors.

The supervisors’ picks were recommended by the rules committee at its March 13 meeting, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. (https:// www.ebar.com/story.php?323603)

The third appointment is Christin Evans, who was an advocate for Prop C and is the co-owner of Booksmith Bookstore and The Alembic Restaurant and bar in the Haight, where she lives with her husband.

At Tuesday’s meeting, District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí – a member of the rules committee that selected the trio of Dufty, Guerrero, Evans – spoke highly of them.

“We had a lot of great people apply,” said Safaí, who represents the Excelsior and Outer Mission neighborhoods. “I don’t agree with every one of these people on every issue, but that’s not the point. Commissions should reflect the diversity of our city and these nominees will.”

District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston and District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen declared their support, too. But gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman moved to separate Evans’ nomination, which would have allowed the board to approve Dufty and Guerrero but reject Evans.

A vote to do so failed 7-4. Mandelman was joined in his quest by gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey – chair of the rules committee – as well as gay District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio and District 2 Supervisor

The neighborhood’s living room

The Castro Theatre is the living room for the Castro neighborhood. Not only do we, the residents of the Castro, love it, visitors are amazed by its beauty and welcoming vibes. If alterations are made, believe me, these changes will be forever. There will be no turning back.

Please attend the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ land use committee hearing on April 3 [“Crucial

Catherine Stefani, a straight ally.

After that, the supervisors unanimously approved the three.

Mandelman, Engardio, and Stefani did not respond to requests for comment for this report as of press time as to why they voted to sever the vote for Evans.

But Dorsey did, telling the B.A.R. late Tuesday that “I was extremely impressed with Tracey Mixon and I think we missed an opportunity to have an outstanding commissioner with a uniquely well informed perspective on homelessness, personally and professionally. If there was a path for getting Tracey on our homelessness oversight commission, I wanted to support it. The votes weren’t there, obviously, and I respect that.”

Dorsey had supported Mixon, a peer organizer with the Coalition on Homelessness, during the rules committee hearing, but Safaí and straight ally vice chair District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton went with Evans.

In a statement to the B.A.R. after the vote, Evans wrote, “I’m looking forward to serving on the homeless oversight commission. As I understand we will formally begin our work in May. My priority will be to ensure that there is a sense of urgency, in everyone involved, to house our homeless neighbors.”

Dufty told the B.A.R. after the vote that “there’s some very basic things that need attention.”

Castro Theatre meetings pushed to April,” March 9] Write to members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors urging them to approve that the interior of the theater be granted landmark status and protection.

George Knuepfel

San Francisco

“If we don’t do a good job with the programs that serve individuals, neighborhoods are not going to welcome us,” he said. “We need a tool box to make sure programs that serve our population are welcoming and safe and productive. We want people to live productive lives.”

Dufty once served as the late mayor Ed Lee’s homeless czar, running the Housing, Opportunity, Partnerships, and Engagement program.

Dufty noted that it was fortuitous that the vote was held after the board’s hourslong committee of the whole discussion about Mandelman’s “A Place For All” proposal. The board had passed “A Place for All” last June, which makes it city policy that San Francisco offer all homeless individuals a place to sleep. In December, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing produced a report calling for an additional $1.45 billion in spending aimed at the creation of permanent supportive housing. That was discussed Tuesday, and Mandelman said that he hoped the hearing would serve as a re-set.

“We don’t have an extra $1.45 billion, but we can probably find enough in the budget for 2,000 more shelter beds,” Jackie Thornhill, a trans woman who is a legislative aide to Mandelman, told the B.A.R. Wednesday. “Mandelman is calling on the mayor and the board to fund rapid expansion of shelter beds in the coming

Art gallery adds hope to Castro

I write in response to the recent front-page story “Beleaguered Castro seeks signs of hope” [March 1].

I am disappointed that, amid the appropriately sober accounting of the state of local business and street conditions, no mention was made of the most hopeful young business on Castro Street. I’m speaking of Queer Arts Featured, the robust art gallery occupying the footprint of Harvey

budget, and he is open to amending the homelessness gross receipts tax ordinance to remove the arbitrary cap on revenue that can be spent on shelter to do so. He is also open to finding the money in the general fund.”

Dufty said that the meeting was “fascinating.”

“Supervisors were talking in great detail about what they hoped to see and what will get the city on the right path. It was fortuitous: four hours, hearing from the public, and this is emblematic of the work this commission gets the opportunity to do,” he said. “A word that came up was anger, disappointment, anxiety about homelessness.

“At one point, one of the supervisors talked about not being defeatist, and that really spoke to me because this work can be very difficult and it can be polarizing, but it was a reminder that we can only succeed if we put our intellect and energy and investment into solving it and so I felt honored to be unanimously approved by the board and I feel very excited about being part of the effort to change the trajectory of homelessness in San Francisco,” he added.

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

The supervisors also approved three of Mayor London Breed’s nominations to the homelessness panel. They are Katie Albright, CEO of Safe and Sound; Jonathan Butler, Ph.D., a social epidemiologist and associate director of the Black Health Initiative at UCSF and executive director of the San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition; and Sharky Laguana, the former president of the city’s Small Business Commission and nightlife advocate.

The fourth mayoral nomination withdrew before the rules committee had the chance to vote on him last week: Vikrum Aiyer, a straight man, fudged his resume regarding his education and billed U.S. taxpayers for personal expenses that totaled more than $15,000 when he worked in former President Barack Obama’s administration, as had widely been reported.

Committee hearing

At the rules committee meeting, Dufty said he understands residents’ frustration.

Milk’s historic camera shop.

In its mission to enrich the community by showcasing local queer creators, Queer Arts Featured represents a continuity of purpose that follows Milk’s: amplifying LGBTQ expression in order to provide hope to those struggling to find it. I am part of the rising generation inspired to embrace this pursuit, as are Queer Arts Featured’s millennial founders. They land within a junior minority among Castro business owners, proving that the enterprising spirit of the neighborhood might persist into the future if given the chance.

Queer Arts Featured offers dynamic programming that attracts new crowds into the Castro. I lead a community event, Queer Bedtime Stories, which recently held a successful first gathering in the gallery. It drew 40 attendees eager to indulge in the words of LGBTQ authors. Many who attended are newcomers to San Francisco and moved in when rent became more affordable compared to pre-pandemic pricing.

Queer Arts Featured is a crucial foothold for young queers passionately engaged in the struggle to manifest vibrant communities in the wake of historic loneliness and exis-

“I have a good sense of what San Franciscans are feeling and I’m hopeful that the commission can get things done and create some shared values around how to respond to homelessness in an effective and caring manner,” Dufty said.

Dufty also noted how important it is to have LGBTQ representation on the committee (as the B.A.R. editorialized recently).

Guerrero could not be reached for comment after that hearing, but he voiced a similar sentiment during his remarks.

“Like many trans leaders in San Francisco, I came here to access trans services and be somewhere I can be myself with safety,” Guerrero said. “I’m here because I feel a sense of duty as a transgender person as our community is under attack.”

The committee agreed about the need for trans representation since the problem of homelessness disproportionately affects the community. Breed last year released a plan to end trans homelessness by 2027.

“Forty-one percent of transgender people of color experience homelessness in their lifetime,” Dorsey said during the proceedings. “Transgender community members face five times the rate of homelessness. One of the things I’ve seen throughout my career, but especially in the last couple of years, is the disproportionate violence that targets the transgender community, particularly transgender people of color.”

Dufty said that his goal is to increase the public’s confidence in city government, which he characterized as low.

When asked about alternative approaches, Dufty brought up Pathways to Housing PA in Philadelphia. The group helps people address the problems that lead them on the path to eviction. He was adamant in the meeting that “we’ve got to stop the evictions.”

“I think it [stopping the evictions] looks like providing the financial support necessary to prevent an eviction and then providing support to the tenant to address the issues that put them there,” Dufty said. t A longer version of this story is online at ebar.com.

tential political threats. The gallery space is often aglow with welcoming events like drag makeup tutorials, clothing swaps, mindfulness workshops, and art show openings that can erupt into the street with music, dance, and general gay revelry.

This moonshot of a business exists because of $39,000 collected from about 100 donors, proving that hope emerges when we pool our resources. As recently reported by the B.A.R. [“Castro arts gallery starts fundraiser as rent doubles,” February 6], the gallery’s mission continues to conjure collective support via a GoFundMe campaign, ), which aims to mitigate a more-thandouble rent increase.

The fact that the gallery’s pink neon sign stays lit despite myriad struggles endemic to the Castro can help brighten the gloom.

Want to find hope in a beleaguered Castro? Look to the cushioned bench planted at 575 Castro Street. Then, step inside Queer Arts Featured to marvel at the dazzling creativity within our community. Harvey Milk, the Godfather of Hope whose painted face beams from the shop’s front wall, would be proud.

Scott Sessions San Francisco

Former San Francisco supervisor and current BART board member Bevan Dufty, left, and Joaquin Whitt Guerrero, director of housing for Our Trans Home SF, were approved for seats on the city’s new homelessness commission by the Board of Supervisors.

Screengrab via SFGov.TV

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Volume 53, Number 12

March 23 - 29, 2023

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Oakland leaders need to step up

Two gay Black men were killed in Oakland in the span of about nine days, and the East Bay city’s LGBTQ community is on edge. While the two incidents appear unrelated – the suspect in the first case was in jail when the second killing occurred – we can’t recall a time when there was this much violence against gay Black men in the city in such a short period. While Oakland police have said that, so far, evidence doesn’t point to a hate crime in either case, the two killings cry out for more action by Mayor Sheng Thao and the Oakland City Council.

Curtis Marsh, 53, was a hair stylist and a former member of the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus. He was also known by his drag persona, Touri Monroe, and was a Miss Gay Oakland emeritus. Marsh was found stabbed to death in his home in the city’s Adams Point neighborhood near Lake Merritt March 4. A suspect, Sweven Waterman, 38, was arrested March 9 and charged with homicide. He has not yet entered a plea. (https://www.ebar.com/story.

php?ch=news&sc=latest_news&id=323815)

It is not yet known how or if the two men knew each other.

Devonte “Tay” Davis, 27, was found shot to death by a homeless encampment near the Oakland Coliseum March 12 (https:// www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=News&sc=Cri me&id=323811). So far, no arrest has been made. Friends remembered Davis as someone who went out of his way to help others.

The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center held memorials for both Marsh and Davis. But it’s the relative silence from city leaders that has us concerned.

After declining to comment on the Marsh killing, Thao’s office finally issued a statement after Davis was gunned down, stating, “Our office is in contact with the Oakland Police Department for updates on this case, which is currently under investigation. This is a tragic loss of life and our hearts go out to Devonte’s family, friends and the entire LGBTQ+ community. Mayor Thao and our Oakland Police Department are committed to working each day to make sure all

our communities are safe in our city.”

We understand that the police need to investigate these incidents, and, in Marsh’s case, prosecutors and Waterman’s attorney have begun assembling information. But, as Joe Hawkins, a gay Black man who cofounded the Oakland LGBTQ center and is its CEO, told us, there are little in the way of resources in the city for LGBTQs, especially queer people of color. “Few victim services exist in Alameda County for the kind of crimes queer people and men of color, particularly men, are most likely to experience, such as threats of violence, acts of violence, robbery, or that take into account their specific cultural, sexual orientation, or gender identity experiences,” Hawkins stated. And he noted that the epidemic of violence hits home.

“The actual number of Black gay men who are victims of homicide is severely underreported due to homophobia and stigma in Black communities,” Hawkins stated. “Many families will not disclose the sexual orientation of their family member who was murdered. This is also true of Black transgender individuals. It is critical that advocates, friends, and allies provide a holistic description of queer victims of homicide in order for au -

thorities to determine if a hate crime has been committed.”

That’s where Oakland’s leaders need to step up. They should be working more closely with the LGBTQ center, especially now after this recent spate of violence. Many in Oakland’s LGBTQ community need time to grieve and to attempt to understand what is happening. The center, always in need of resources, has established itself as the place in which LGBTQ people can safely gather. City councilmembers who represent the districts where Marsh and Davis were killed –Carroll Fife and Kevin Jenkins, respectively – should hold a joint town hall at the center. So far, neither has responded to our requests for comment.

The council’s two out members have been silent as well. Lesbian at-large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan has not issued a statement, nor has queer District 4 Councilmember Janani Ramachandran. While she doesn’t represent the areas where the killings occurred, Ramachandran has been touting a public safety plan for her district – some of those ideas might be good to implement citywide.

Oakland leaders are grappling with major issues like other Bay Area cities, including homelessness and public safety. Thao is in the process of appointing a new police chief. Yet when these senseless killings occur, leaders must step in to help ease people’s fears. In other words, they need to lead. That seems to be missing in Oakland right now.

In San Francisco, leaders routinely hold community town halls after major events. Gay District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio had one shortly after a house exploded. More recently, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman organized one in Noe Valley with public safety leaders. We’d like to see similar efforts in Oakland, especially after violent incidents occur.

In the meantime, kudos to the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center for not only getting information out to people but also for holding the two memorials. Those events gave family members and friends a chance to connect and pay tribute to Marsh and Davis – two gay Black men who didn’t need to die. t

A more inclusive Alameda County Democratic Party is good for everyone

by Annie Koruga

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Over the past few years, the Alameda County Democratic Party has made significant progress on LGBTQ+ issues. In fact, LGBTQ+ representation on the ACDP executive board doubled in our most recent leadership election. This past January, queer ACDP executive board members Andy Kelley and Victor Aguilar each retained their seats as the corresponding secretary and vice chair for the 18th Assembly District, respectively. (Kelley is an elected member of the Berkeley Rent Board and Aguilar last year was reelected to the San Leandro City Council.)

I’m proud to say that the ACDP also elected two lesbian members to its leadership body: myself as the recording secretary, and Bobbi Lopez as the vice chair for the 15th Assembly District. This brings the total to four LGBTQ+ members on the 11-person executive board, making the leadership body just over 36% queer – likely the highest this percentage has ever been. Queer members are serving in other positions of leadership within the ACDP as well: both our assistant treasurer George Perezvelez and parliamentarian Lance Kwan, a member of the Ohlone College Board, are queer.

It’s encouraging progress. We as a committee started the previous term, which ran from 2016 to 2020, with only one openly queer regular member, and we’re ending the next term with four LGBTQ+ members in elected leadership. As for the composition of the entire ACDP, we have at least 26 openly LGBTQ+ members. At least one member representing each of the five Assembly districts within Alameda County is queer, providing a great diversity of

queer perspectives. The varied assortment of LGBTQ+ perspectives is certainly refreshing, and has enabled the committee to pass serious LGBTQ+ inclusive reforms, such as a first in state pro-LGBTQ+ endorsement policy, adopted as a bylaws amendment in the fall of 2021.

A strong set of queer voices is needed since explicitly and virulently anti-queer candidates have run for local office in the Bay Area in recent years and likely will in the future. In my own city of Fremont (which has not yet elected an openly queer person to either its City Council or its school board) during the 2022 general election, one of the most clearly antiqueer candidates I’ve ever seen run for public

office in Alameda County was on the ballot. Jennifer Kavouniaris ran for a seat on the Fremont school board. She espoused homophobic views on drag queen story hours, and, as the East Bay Insiders newsletter reported, expressed far-right and religious positions on things such as critical race theory as was opposed to teachers’ unions. Not surprisingly, she lost her race.

It’s good to see LGBTQ+ representation and issues continue to matter to the ACDP. It definitely seems like we’re on the right track on the matter, and we’re taking the time to intentionally consider, and then address, systemic inequity. I and many other committee members have been appointed to the Strategies for Change standing committee, chaired by lesbian ACDP member Brendalynn Goodall, which will investigate potential reforms on a variety of fronts and explore the methods of other county Democratic parties.

LGBTQ+ people are under attack nationwide, from what is widely interpreted as a drag ban in Tennessee to the “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida, which makes it all the more important for us to be welcoming in California. The Democratic Party, just like California, prides itself on being a champion of diversity, inclusivity, and equity. In the ACDP, I’m glad to say, LGBTQ+ committee members have been empowered to have a hand in leading our committee down the path toward fully realizing those values. t

Annie Koruga, a lesbian, is the recording secretary of the Alameda County Democratic Party, and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. They are a 14-year resident of Fremont, and have been active in the Democratic Party since 2018.

Alameda County Democratic Party recording secretary Annie Koruga

Courtesy Annie Koruga

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Courtesy Sheng Thao

Trans Palm Springs leader Middleton revives state Senate bid

by Matthew S. Bajko

Aiming to become the first transgender person elected to the California Legislature next November, Palm Springs Councilmember Lisa Middleton revived her campaign for a state Senate seat Tuesday. Her legislative bid comes amid a national backlash against rights and health care for trans individuals, particularly youth.

Middleton is seeking the 19th Senate District seat that includes the LGBTQ tourist and retirement mecca of the Coachella Valley. It will be vacated in late 2024 by termed out state Senator Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore).

“My foundation is the neighborhoods I represent. My path to being the first transgender Californian to be elected to a political office began by standing up for Palm Springs neighborhoods and street repair funding,” stated Middleton in a lengthy statement she released March 21. “I will go to work every day in the state Senate to improve the quality of your life, in your neighborhood.”

Her winning her council seat in 2017 marked the first time a transgender person in California had been elected to a non-judicial position. Middleton won reelection in 2020 and was elected her city’s ceremonial mayor by her council colleagues the following year.

It has long been expected that Middleton would seek the open legislative seat, and she had initially launched her campaign for it in October 2021. But she suspended her bid later that year after the seat was given an odd number due to the 2020 redistricting process, landing it on the 2024 ballot instead of last year’s. (The decision meant Melendez could serve an additional two years, as she was to have termed out last year.)

Following the outcome of the 2022 legislative races, there are now a record 12 members of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, though none identify as trans or nonbinary. It is the first such affinity group for out statehouse members to represent 10% of its legislative body.

Middleton’s candidacy brings the number of Southern California legislative races with LGBTQ non-incumbents to five. She would be the first out state legislator elected from the Coachella Valley.

The Senate district she is seeking stretches from La Quinta to Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains to Hemet in the San Jacinto Valley and up to Barstow in the High Desert. Middleton and her wife, Cheryl O’Callaghan moved to Palm Springs in 2011 and married in 2013, having first started dating in 2000.

Following the defeats last November of two out candidates seeking to represent districts that overlap with the state Senate seat –bisexual Palm Springs City Councilmember Christy Holstege who ran for a state Assembly seat and gay former federal prosecutor Will Rollins who sought a U.S. House seat – to their Republican opponents, some have questioned if an LGBTQ candidate can win in the districts as currently drawn. They include more conservative parts of San Bernardino County and/or Riverside County.

As a Democrat running for a seat currently represented by a Republican, Middleton alluded to the political makeup of the Senate district in her announcement this week.

“I’m running to make a difference in Sacramento and be an effective voice for the 19th District by fighting for pragmatic, common-sense solutions that will improve the lives of all Californians.

I’m not running to represent the blue team or the red team – I’m running to represent the people of Riverside and San Bernardino counties,” stated Middleton.

Native Californian

A native Californian, having grown up in East Los Angeles, Middleton graduated from UCLA and received a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California.

She moved to San Francisco in 1994 when she was working for California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund. It was at that time that she came out as transgender.

She served on the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s LGBT advisory committee and, between 2001 and 2004, Middleton served on the board of Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services, the San Francisco-based health clinic for lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender individuals that last year ended its affiliation with HealthRIGHT 360 and rebranded as Lyon-Martin Community Health. During that time she and O’Callaghan moved to Belmont on the Peninsula until relocating to San Diego in 2004 for work.

In 2010 she retired from her job with the state agency after 36 years. Before running for her council seat, Middleton was seated on the Palm Springs planning commission and served as interim executive director of the Desert LGBTQ Center.

Four years ago Middleton was appointed to the board that oversees the California Public Employees Retirement System, which provides pensions to 1.9 million people and health benefits to over 1.5 million people with in -

vestment assets exceeding $450 billion. She currently chairs the finance and administration committee and is vice chair of the risk and audit committee.

“I spent most of my adult life working in state government –helping ensure that workers injured on the job got the compensation they deserved, and fighting fraud, waste and abuse. I have seen government succeed, and I have seen it fail. The difference always comes down to leadership,” stated Middleton. “Throughout my career, I have been a leader who listens to and delivers results for the people I represent. In the state Senate, I will work to return our state and country back to a place where a crisis – whether it be a pandemic, wildfire, earthquake, or a snowstorm – is not an opportunity for partisanship, but for us to save lives through preparation and cooperation.”

Middleton has two adult children: John Middleton and Lauren Medlin , who both became teachers. She and her wife are also now grandmothers.

“My grandson is expected to live to see the 22nd century. The business of California is building the schools, the equality of opportunity, the transportation and communication networks, the jobs and climate that give my grandchild and every child the foundation to build their California Dream,” stated Middleton. “I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and do the hard work. I hope you’ll join me.” t

To learn more about Middleton and her campaign platform, visit www.electlisamiddleton.com

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, which will return March 27.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes

Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com

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Palm Springs City Councilmember Lisa Middleton announced March 21 that she’s seeking a state Senate seat next year.

Courtesy Lisa Middleton

HIV confab highlights SF research

by Liz Highleyman

The recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections featured the work of San Francisco experts, including studies of long-acting injectable HIV treatment and antibiotics to prevent sexually transmitted infections. Highlights from CROI were discussed at the March 9 meeting of the San Francisco Getting to Zero consortium.

Though primarily an HIV meeting, CROI, which took place last month in Seattle, also includes breaking research on new infectious diseases, which this year included COVID-19 and mpox. Mpox has declined dramatically in the Bay Area and across the country, but it still poses a threat to vulnerable people, including those with untreated HIV.

At the conference, Dr. Chloe Orkin of Queen Mary University of London presented results from an analysis of nearly 400 HIV-positive mpox patients in 19 countries, mostly gay men, who had a CD4 T-cell count below 350. Many developed severe manifestations, including extensive lesions, tissue death, and lung involvement. No one with a CD4 count above 200 died, but mortality reached 27% for those with a count below 100.

The presentation of mpox is “very starkly different” among HIV-positive people with advanced immune suppression, Orkin said at a CROI press briefing. She and her colleagues argue that mpox should be considered an AIDS-defining opportunistic infection.

In San Francisco, “we saw some really extreme mpox cases, mainly in people with low T-cell counts,” Getting to Zero co-chair Dr. Diane Havlir of UCSF said at the recap meeting.

“People did not get [severe mpox] if they were taking HIV treatment and had viral suppression. We absolutely can’t let our guard down.”

HIV vaccine study

Dr. Susan Buchbinder of UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health presented further details about the latest HIV vaccine failure at CROI.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the Mosaico trial, which included 30 participants in San Francisco, was halted ahead of schedule in January after interim results showed that a combination vaccine regimen did not provide protection. The HIV incidence rate was 4.1 cases per 100 person-years in both the vaccine and placebo groups. Researchers are now focusing on broadly neutralizing antibodies and more sophisticated vaccine approaches, some of which use the same mRNA technology as COVID vaccines. “There’s a really robust pipeline” of new prevention strategies, Buchbinder said.

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Doxy-PEP

Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis for STI prevention, dubbed doxy-PEP, was among the biggest news at the CROI.

As previously reported, the DoxyPEP study enrolled more than 500 gay and bisexual men and transgender women in San Francisco and Seattle who were either living with HIV or taking PrEP pills. Participants who were randomly assigned to take a single oral dose of doxycycline within 72 hours after sex had about a 65% lower likelihood of being diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis per quarter.

One concern with this approach is that overuse of antibiotics could potentially lead to drug resistance.

Dr. Annie Luetkemeyer of UCSF presented follow-up results showing only modest changes in gonorrhea and staph drug resistance in people who used doxycycline for STI prevention.

“We didn’t see a marked increase in antimicrobial resistance associated with doxy-PEP use,” she told reporters. “We need larger and longer studies of what happens to common bugs,” but this must be weighed against the benefits of a substantial reduction in STIs, she noted.

Dr. Jean-Michel Molina of the University of Paris Cité presented findings from another study that evaluated doxycycline PEP plus a vaccine to prevent gonorrhea. The Bexsero meningococcal B vaccine is approved for the prevention of meningitis caused by related bacteria, but it also offers protection against gonorrhea.

The DoxyVAC study included 502 gay and bisexual men on PrEP who had an STI within the past year. They were randomly assigned to receive doxy-PEP or standard care and separately randomized to receive the vaccine or not. Over nine months of follow-up, doxy-PEP and the vaccine each reduced the risk of gonorrhea by 51%, and men who received both had additive protection.

“Even a vaccine with moderate effectiveness could have a big impact,” Molina said. “It could reduce the overall burden of gonorrhea, which is becoming more and more resistant.”

Unfortunately, doxy-PEP did not

<< LGBTQ foster youth

From page 1

Thirty percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ, Wiener’s office stated, making them overrepresented in the system.

Specifically, Wiener’s bill would require explicit consideration of LGBTQ youth in home and environmental assessments; create standard documentation by the Department of Social Services for these assessments to include LGBTQ youth needs; and review county-approved resource families to evaluate if they are meeting the needs of LGBTQ youth and investigate related incidents as needed, a legislative fact sheet from his office stated.

Additionally, SB 407 would ensure that resource families have the necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities to

work so well for cisgender women. The dPEP Kenya trial enrolled 449 young cisgender women on PrEP. Here too, they were randomized to take doxycycline within 72 hours after sex or received standard care. STI incidence was high, at 27%, with no significant difference between the two groups. Presenter Jenell Stewart, a doctor of osteopathic medicine at the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute in Minneapolis, said the lack of protection could be attributable to anatomical differences between women and men, poor adherence, or a high level of pre-existing drug resistance.

Another presenter said the results were discouraging.

“The results from the study are deeply disappointing, and we are committed to understanding why doxycycline PEP did not work in this population and also determining the next steps for how to identify prevention tools that will work for and can be used by women,” stated principal investigator Dr. Elizabeth Bukusi of the Kenya Medical Research Institute.

DPH is already rolling out doxyPEP for gay and bi men and transgender women in San Francisco. Asked whether the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should recommend doxy-PEP, Luetkemeyer said, “I think there’s enough data out there, and people are looking for guidance. I think it’s time to weigh in now as we continue to learn more.”

In a statement commenting on the study findings, Dr. Leandro Mena, director of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, said, “These and other data will be vital to our ongoing efforts to ensure CDC’s STI treatment and prevention guidance and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices vaccine recommendations are aligned with the latest science.”

HIV treatment

People living with HIV in San Francisco generally receive good care, but disparities persist. At CROI, DPH researchers presented findings from two studies looking at treatment and PrEP use among approximately 500 people who inject drugs (PWID) in San Francisco based on data from the recently completed National HIV Behavioral Surveillance survey.

Despite an overall decrease in new HIV diagnoses in the city between 2018 and 2022, new cases among PWID jumped by 33%; this group now accounts for 27% of newly diagnosed people. Although 80% of PWID living with HIV in San Francisco are diagnosed, 73% are on antiretroviral treatment and just 52% have an undetectable viral load. Only people experiencing homelessness (an overlapping group) have a lower viral suppression rate, at 27%, according to DPH’s 2021 HIV epidemiology annual report; this compares with an overall viral suppres-

support LGBTQ youth; and clarify existing law that conduct that poses risk to the health and safety of LGBTQ youth is a valid reason for denial of a resource family, the fact sheet stated.

The Los Angeles-based Trevor Project reported, “73% of LGBTQ youth report that they had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at least once in their lifetime, and those who did attempted suicide at more than twice the rate of those who did not in the past year.”

The agency stated that a “2020 peer-reviewed study by The Trevor Project’s researchers, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that transgender and nonbinary youth who report experiencing discrimination based on their gender identity had more than double the

sion rate of 72%. What’s more, just 55% of PWID were aware of PrEP (versus 98% of gay men) and only 1.5% were using it in 2022 (compared with 65% of gay men).

“San Francisco is not on course to get to zero HIV infections among PWID,” the researchers concluded. “PWID-sensitive and focused programs are needed to increase HIV testing overall, sustain retention in care, and address stigma if San Francisco is to end the epidemic for all.”

Long-acting injectable therapy may be one way to improve outcomes among people who use drugs, people with unstable housing, and others who struggle to stay engaged with traditional HIV care.

The federal Food and Drug Administration approved the first injectable antiretroviral regimen, Cabenuva (cabotegravir plus rilpivirine), in 2021, but only for people with an undetectable viral load who wish to switch to monthly or everyother-month treatment. But this may also be a feasible option for people who have been unable to achieve and maintain viral suppression due to challenges with adherence.

The Ward 86 HIV clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center is now pioneering this approach with SPLASH, the Special Program on Long-Acting Antiretrovirals to Stop HIV. The program offers intensive support, including case managers, phone or text reminders, and street-based nursing services. Ward 86 medical director Dr. Monica Gandhi said that if a person misses an injection, clinic staff call them and even go looking for them in the community.

Gandhi and her team evaluated outcomes among 133 people who switched to Cabenuva from oral antiretrovirals. Two-thirds were homeless or lacked stable housing, a majority reported substance use, and many had mental health issues. Among the 76 people who already had an undetectable viral load, all maintained viral suppression after switching to the injections. The more exciting finding was that all but two people who started the injections with a detectable viral load were able to get their HIV under control. These response rates were “equivalent to those in clinical trials,” Gandhi told the B.A.R. Use of Cabenuva for people without viral suppression goes beyond the FDA-approved indication, and it might not be an option for those who don’t get the same level of intensive support. But for some, it could offer a lifeline.

“For those of us treating HIV on a daily basis, we know that some patients have challenges taking pills, including substance use, housing and food insecurity, and stigma,” Gandhi said. “If used creatively and used boldly, long-acting antiretroviral treatment could really make a dent in the epidemic.” t

odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who did not experience discrimination based on their gender identity.”

In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 175 by Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson), which added the right of foster youth to be referred to by their stated name and pronouns in the Foster Youth Bill of Rights.

Nonetheless, “LGBTQ foster youth are still being placed in homes with families that discriminate against or are hostile toward them based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity,” the fact sheet from Wiener’s office stated. “To maximize the opportunity for LGBTQ foster youth to succeed, we need to ensure they are placed in homes that support them.”t

The Pet Daddies

Dr. Annie Luetkemeyer of UCSF presented research at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle.

Liz Highleyman

Jean-Baptiste Carhaix, known for Sisters’ photos, dies

by Cynthia Laird

Jean-Baptiste Carhaix, a gay man best known locally for his large-format photographs of members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, died March 7 in Lyon, France. He was 76.

Gerard Koskovich, a queer man and historian, posted on Facebook that Mr. Carhaix had been hospitalized in Lyon for the past month.

Mr. Carhaix had lived in Lyon for the past two decades, but back in the late 1970s he started spending his summers in San Francisco, Koskovich wrote. He was principal of the FrenchAmerican International School in the city in the early 1980s.

In a biography on his website, Mr. Carhaix wrote that the Sisters were influential to his work.

“My first important subject was to follow the politico-theatrical provocations of a group of anti-religious Californian gay activists: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – San-Francisco: 1981-1983 (distributed between 1984 and 1987 by the news agency Sipa),” he wrote. “Then, no longer satisfied with the simple reporting of their street actions, I staged these characters between 1984 and 1996 (during the summers of 1984-19871989-1993-1996). All of the staging work is doubled in B&W and color.”

Ken Bunch, aka Sister Vish-Knew, started the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with three other friends in a San Francisco apartment. Last year, the city renamed in his honor an al-

ley near his longtime Dolores Street residence, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported. He moved to the city in 1977 and brought with him some nun habits. On Easter 1979, Bunch and his roommate, then living in the Haight, donned the habits and paraded on city streets, he wrote in a history of the Sisters. He told the B.A.R. he first met Mr. Carhaix at the 1979 Castro Street Fair. The Sisters were officially founded in December 1979, he wrote.

“I was in nun drag,” Bunch wrote in an email of that day at the street fair. “It was before I and three friends founded

the Sisters. JB photographed me and from that point on he was obsessed. We say, ‘he caught the nun bug.’

“He returned to San Francisco from southern France every two years to photograph us,” Bunch wrote of Mr. Carhaix. “He was a true visionary. Each time he did location reconnaissance and composed the photos in his mind before shooting them. He knew what he wanted. His Sister photos had shows in very prestigious galleries in Europe.”

Mr. Carhaix was a rarity – an honorary member of the Sisters, Bunch explained.

“One year before he died he asked to be an honorary member of SPI. He is the only ‘honorary member:’ JB Carhaix Pope Condom the First. May he rise in power with the other ‘Nuns of the Above,’” Bunch wrote, referring to the term used for Sisters who have passed away.

Sister Roma, a longtime member of the organization, remembered Mr. Carhaix on Facebook.

“His images of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Inc., shot on the billowing precipices of the Marin Headlands, became instantly iconic and contributed to our notoriety in Europe,” Roma noted. “For his decades of service and devotion to the Order, JB was sainted and last Easter we made him an honorary Pope Condom the First.

“We were so lucky to have him visit this past Easter where he attend the official street naming reveal party of Sister Vish-Knew Way in honor of his longtime friend Kenneth Bunch,” Roma added.

During the time he was starting to photograph the Sisters, he also took note of the AIDS epidemic when that started in the early 1980s.

“AIDS was then ravaging the homosexual community and some of my models were affected by it,” he wrote in his biography.

Mr. Carhaix added that “... among other things, the militancy of these activists acting as alternative nuns with the sick (1982-1983): raising funds

San Mateo Pride Center to reopen

compiled by Cynthia Laird

The San Mateo County Pride Center will have its grand reopening Friday, March 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 1021 South El Camino Real in San Mateo.

The evening will feature community reconnection, celebration, and

Obituaries >>

John Leonard Haas

May 30, 1940 – February 10, 2023

John Haas passed away peacefully at his home in Palm Springs, California on February 10, 2023.

John was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 30, 1940. He left Cincinnati to proudly serve and receive an honorable discharge from the military in 1963. He later worked as a bartender in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In San Francisco, John later joined Lloyds Bank California where he advanced to vice president. He then worked as a gym manager at Muscle Systems until he moved to Palm Springs.

John had many friends who loved him as he loved them. John was a loyal, honest and direct friend. He men-

a re-introduction to the facility, an email announcement stated.

The center has largely been closed the last three years due to the COVID pandemic. The Bay Area Reporter noted in a 2021 article that the center was working to partially reopen, but many programs have been held virtually.

Francisco “Frankie” Sapp, the center’s executive director, recently told the B.A.R. that other issues also affected the facility.

“We’ve always known the importance for our clients and community to access the physical space of the Pride Center,” Sapp wrote in a March 20 email. “When working with individuals and groups, we’ve been able to accommodate folx by request as well as offer office hours or drop-ins when possible. Our reopening of the Pride Center has had many delays due to the ever-fluctuating pandemic but also caused by an unfortunate flooding of the center last year. However, the team, our parent agency StarVista, and our community came to our aid to help repair the damage.”

The center is a program within StarVista, a $12 million social services organization in San Mateo County. It receives one of its major grants from San Mateo County Behavioral Recovery Services and partners with various agencies in the area.

Sapp, a disabled, biracial, queer, transgender man, also noted that the center had a lot of work done while it

was closed. Some of that was reported in the 2021 B.A.R. article, such as remodeling the center to make it more accessible and acquiring new furniture.

“While closed, we invested a lot of work to upgrade and improve the site in the name of accessibility and overall health and wellbeing,” Sapp stated. “Fortunately, this work was not lost.”

He added that it was disappointing that the reopening has taken so long.

“We will be testing our new hybrid model three days a week onsite and

for the poorest, demonstrating in the streets in order to push the federal government to act in the emergency, distributing – after having written it –the first leaflet advocating prevention through the use of condoms. ...”

Koskovich stated in his post that Mr. Carhaix “had nearly 70 one-artist exhibitions and numerous group shows starting in 1980. He exhibited widely in Europe and the United States.” His work is part of the permanent collection of the GLBT Historical Society, on whose board Koskovich once served. Mr. Carhaix’s work is also in the permanent collection of the Muceum in Marseille, France.

Mr. Carhaix was born André Menguy on May 8, 1946 on the Mediterranean coast in Golfe-Juan. Under that name, he pursued a successful career in education, initially as a teacher. After completing a doctoral dissertation at the University of Nice in 2000, he became a professor of education. He ultimately published a revised version of the dissertation in 2011 under a title that can be translated as “Children and Television: Young Audiences and Audiovisual Fiction” (Editions Universitaires Européenes). Some of his first published and exhibited photos also appeared under his birth name, but by the early 1980s, he adopted the moniker “JeanBaptiste Carhaix” to distinguish his work as photographer from his work as an educator. t

remain virtual all five days while we acclimate to our new systems,” Sapp explained. “Our goal is, and has always been, to continue to serve our community in the best ways possible. We know many of our clients benefit from our virtual services while some need that one-to-one connection. The entire team is excited to be able to provide both beginning March 27.” Marilyn-Rose Calosing Fernando, the marketing and community engagement lead for the center, wrote in the announcement that the center is “excited to welcome you home.”

tored many people in his life. We will miss John forever. As John wished, his ashes are resting on the mountains around Palm Springs, where he enjoyed the sun rising and setting daily.

John David Lopez

April 24, 1961 – November 19, 2022

John David Lopez, 61, passed away at his home on November 19, 2022.

David, as he was known, was born in Salina, Kansas, on April 24, 1961. He was raised in an Air Force family and lived in many locations including Fairbanks, Alaska and Okinawa, Japan. He graduated high school in San Jose, California, and attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco.

David had a successful career in the retail sector, beginning as a sales associate and ultimately working his way to regional manager. He worked for many well-known brands including Gap Brands, Saks, Bloomingdales, Ralph Lauren, and Neiman Marcus. He was well-known and respected at all levels of the industry.

David was a charming, gentle, kind-spirited man with a great laugh. He was loved and cherished by all who knew him. He leaves behind his mother, Kay Lynn Lane, of Cary, North Carolina; spouse Tim Simpson, of San Francisco; and numerous friends. His younger brother, Jeffery Lopez, and his father, Stanley Lopez, preceded David’s passing.

A memorial service will be held at the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, 1881 Pine Street, Saturday, April 8, at 1 p.m. Donations may be made to the charity of your choice in David’s name.

W. I. (Michael) Westcott, M.D. twin of Bruce J. of NYC, and brother of Peter F. of Scottsdale AZ, was born in Doylestown, PA on February 1, 1937, and died of complications to COVID and Parkinson’s Disease on December 30, 2022 at age 85.

He attended Wesleyan University and Temple University graduating in 1961 with a BA, then graduated from Hahnemann Medical College in 1966 with an M.D. and was conscripted into the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.

Making San Francisco his home, he came out of the closet in 1978, served as a Psychiatrist with the Adult and Geriatric Community Mental Health Centers in San Francisco, and retired in 2006.

He was an avid member of AA since 1983 and completed many courses on alcoholism and mental disorders and taught courses on treating alcohol dependence and dually diagnosed mental patients.

He was an avid scuba diver and travelled to the world’s best sites. He was a pipe organ enthusiast and in his 60’s took up lessons and travelled in Europe on pipe organ tours. He also collected and restored antique oriental rugs.

At his wishes he was cremated, and his ashes interred at the San Francisco Columbarium.

Jean-Baptiste Carhaix waited in a tent at Mission Dolores Park on April 17, 2022, as he was prepared to be introduced as honorary Pope Condom I by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at their annual Easter party.

Gooch

Francisco “Frankie” Sapp stood in the main room at the San Mateo County Pride Center two years ago; the center is reopening March 24.

Matthew S. Bajko

trans Latina woman who joined the staff in September and was recently promoted to program manager.

By the summer the Trans Thrive team hopes to expand the daily operating hours and also have the facility be open on weekends. It is only about a 10-minute walk from the nonprofit’s main clinic and offices a few blocks away on Polk Street and near its Community Living Room drop-in space on Ellis Street.

Outside of the Tenderloin

The new location is purposefully outside of the city’s Tenderloin, home to the Transgender District. An assessment Trans Thrive undertook last year to hear directly from its clients about what they wanted to see in the new facility revealed that many didn’t want to have to walk through the Tenderloin with its open-air drug dealing and people using drugs on the street in order to access it.

“They didn’t want to go too much further into the Tenderloin because of the drug use and harassment they have faced there,” noted Tatyana Moaton, Ph.D., a trans woman of color

<< News Briefs

From page 11

For more information on the Pride center, visit its website at https://sanmateopride.org/.

Trans visibility event in Solano County

The Solano Pride Center will hold a rally celebrating Trans Day of Visibility Friday, March 31, at 4 p.m. at 675 Texas Street in Fairfield.

In a post on Facebook, the center noted, “This year in particular, we feel the need to rally together in solidarity to show our support for our trans and nonbinary family due to the re-

Davis

From page 1

The two cases do not appear to be related, and there is no evidence that either was a hate crime, police said.

Regarding the Davis case, OPD Public Information Officer Kim Armstead previously stated to the B.A.R. that the department is investigating “a shooting that occurred on March 12, 2023, just after 9 a.m., in the 8100 block of Baldwin Street. Upon officers’ arrival, they located a victim who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.”

Emergency responders showed up to assist the victim, Armstead stated.

“The victim was then transported to an area hospital where they succumbed to their injuries and was pronounced deceased at the hospital,” Armstead continued. “A homicide callout was initiated, and the investigators responded to begin the followup investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death.”

KTVU-TV reported that Davis was killed near a homeless encampment. Friends told the TV station that Davis went out of his way to help others.

Oakland police told the B.A.R., “At this time, there is no evidence of a hate crime, however, investigators are looking into all possible leads.”

From page 1

He is currently in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin after having been charged by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office with the homicide of Curtis Marsh, 53, also of Oakland.

At a hearing Tuesday morning, David J. Briggs – a private attorney with an office in Richmond – became Waterman’s lawyer.

Briggs declined to comment to the Bay Area Reporter while leav-

who conducted the assessment and is the health center’s senior strategy adviser based out of Chicago. “We looked at sites as far as the Castro but the clients were against that because of the harassment and stigma the trans community has faced there.”

The nonprofit health agency first launched Trans Thrive in 2006 and for years has sought to house it in its own facility. Last year, the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc. awarded it a $1.2 million two-year

cent efforts to strip away the rights of trans and nonbinary people across the country.”

Participants will meet in front of the Solano County Administration Building in downtown Fairfield. There will be a brief program with speakers from Solano Pride Center and the community.

“Please bring trans/Pride flags, bring your family and friends and let’s rally together to show solidarity with our trans & non-binary siblings!” the announcement stated.

For more information, check out the Facebook page at https://bit. ly/3lupFVe

grant that helped pay for the assessment of Trans Thrive and finding a location for it.

The program has an annual budget of roughly $2.5 million. The agency signed a five-year lease for the Pine Street location, which costs $12,000 a month to lease.

“It’s unbelievable and so joyful for me to be a part of it,” said Lance Toma, a gay man who is the nonprofit’s longtime CEO. “It represents a place of refuge and sanctuary for trans people so

SF Superior Court seeks grand jurors

The San Francisco Superior Court is seeking individuals who want to serve on the 2023-24 civil grand jury. This body works to identify issues with city government that could be a catalyst for reform and improvements, a news release stated.

“I am looking for citizens from all backgrounds to reflect the rich diversity of our community,” stated Judge Eric R. Fleming, the chair of the civil grand jury. “The court wants the grand jury to have a collective voice that reflects a cross-section of the community. Accomplishing that goal will help ensure that the grand jury fairly fills its func-

they can be able to realize their potential, hopes and dreams.”

Mattingly came to Trans Thrive in order to meet trans people in the city and make new friends. Her partner is in the military and stationed overseas, so she felt a bit isolated at being in a new city. Although her first engagement with the program was via a virtual support group, it left a lasting impression.

“Just seeing everyone and being able to talk to other girls in that support group, I wanted to do more,” recalled Mattingly. “I asked if I could volunteer and have been doing that ever since.”

She has especially enjoyed being able to talk to trans elders in the community.

“It is interesting to hear how they managed the journey of their life without a resource like this,” said Mattingly.

Attending the new center’s ribbon cutting was District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, currently president of the Board of Supervisors, as it is located within his district. Noting the Polk Gulch neighborhood’s long history as being an LGBTQ neighborhood, Peskin said he wasn’t offering “a welcome” but “a welcome back” to the facility’s staff and clients.

tion to ensure that an honest, efficient government is operating in the best interest of the people.”

Civil grand juries are required in every California county. They don’t investigate crimes but serve as citizen “watchdog” groups by examining local government through independent investigations, the release stated. City agencies are required to respond to the grand jury’s reports, and to participate in public hearings with jurors before the government audit and oversight committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The civil grand jury consists of 19 people, who are selected by a panel of judges, the release stated. The term is

he went. The light brightened up any room he went into – changed it completely and made it so positive.”

Joe Hawkins, a gay Black man who is a co-founder and CEO of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, told the B.A.R. that Davis’ death is part of a larger problem.

“The actual number of Black gay men who are victims of homicide is severely underreported due to homophobia and stigma in Black communities,” Hawkins stated March 16. “Many families will not disclose the sexual orientation of their family member who was murdered. This is also true of Black transgender individuals. It is critical that advocates, friends, and allies provide a holistic description of queer victims of homicide in order for authorities to determine if a hate crime has been committed.”

Its opening also served as a reminder, added Peskin, that the city’s initiative to end trans homelessness by 2027 “is achievable.”

Pau Crego, director of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, noted how the opening of the new facility contrasts with the legislative steps being taken in states across the country to strip trans and gender-nonconforming people of their rights and restrict their access to gender-affirming care, particularly for youth.

“In our country we do need spaces like this,” said Crego, a queer transmasculine immigrant. “We see the violence happening to people around the country. Spaces like this are truly lifesaving now and will continue to be lifesaving for our community.”

Also noting the attacks on trans rights being led by conservative lawmakers and groups, Calma hoped the opening of the new facility could help refocus attention on what is possible to achieve for the betterment of the trans community.

“Let’s change the narrative,” said Calma. “Let’s focus on everything we aspire for.”t

To learn more about Trans Thrive visit https://sfcommunityhealth. org/program/trans-thrive/

for one year, beginning July 1. Volunteers are not paid, though reimbursed a small amount for meetings. Civil grand jurors must be U.S. citizens, at least 18 years of age, and have lived in San Francisco for at least the past 12 months with no felony convictions, according to the release. All jurors must be able to communicate in English. The release stated that the court is especially interested in recruiting people of color and residents who represent a wide range of San Francisco neighborhoods.

The deadline to apply is May 12. For more information and an application, go to https://civilgrandjury. sfgov.org/join.html. t

or gender identity experiences,” Hawkins stated.

He noted that the center, which opened in 2017, was established to help the community.

“Our LGBTQ center here in Oakland is founded by Black queer men and led mostly by LGBTQ people of color,” he stated. “We are uniquely connected to communities of color and the issues we face. This connection allows us to be aware of and shine a spotlight on crime and how queer communities of color are impacted.”

A memorial was held for Davis March 18 at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center. There, Davis’ partner, Darrell Jackson, was comforted by friends and family members.

YB, a Black lesbian from Oakland who knew Davis, told the B.A.R. March 17, “Our gay Black men are being exterminated like animals.”

“I loved him,” said YB, who goes by that name. “I think it was unfair

ing the courtroom of Judge James Cramer.

Marsh, who was also known as drag artist Touri Monroe, was a hair stylist and a Miss Gay Oakland emeritus who used to sing with the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus. Originally from Iowa, friends described him as fun, helpful, and active in his church.

He was killed the morning of March 4, police said. Police responded to the 200 block of Vernon Street in the Adams Point neighborhood just before 8 a.m. after a report of a disturbance, Oakland Police

and nobody should ever have to leave that way. We know we are all going to leave, one day, but to be taken out. It makes no sense. He was only 27 years old. I want there to be justice.”

YB said she’d known Davis for “over 15 years.”

“I knew him through his sister,” YB said. “He was wonderful. He was kind, funny and fun – he was a Leo like myself and he brought a light everywhere

Officer Darryl Rodgers stated in an email to the B.A.R.

That “disturbance” consisted of “reports of an individual screaming,” Chambers confirmed. When officers arrived, Oakland firefighters were on the scene extinguishing a fire.

“Upon arrival, officers located an Oakland resident with multiple lacerations,” Rodgers stated. “The victim succumbed to their injuries and medical units pronounced the victim deceased on scene. Investigators from the OPD Homicide Section responded to the scene to begin

Hawkins added that the center will be there to advocate for communities of color.

“Few victim services exist in Alameda County for the kind of crimes queer people and men of color, particularly men, are most likely to experience, such as threats of violence, acts of violence, robbery, or that take into account their specific cultural, sexual orientation,

the follow-up investigation into the circumstances surrounding the homicide.”

Neighbors told KTVU-TV that the perpetrator set the fire and left the front door and gate open when running away. No motive has been given, nor the circumstances of if or how the two men knew one another.

Waterman is on administrative leave from his job as a senior custodian with UC Berkeley, the school told the B.A.R. on March 13. He has six prior convictions dating back to 2002, including felony evasion,

After the initial publication of this story online, a spokesperson for Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao told the B.A.R., “Our office is in contact with the Oakland Police Department for updates on this case, which is currently under investigation. This is a tragic loss of life and our hearts go out to Devonte’s family, friends and the entire LGBTQ+ community.

Mayor Thao and our Oakland Police Department are committed to working each day to make sure all our communities are safe in our city.”

The office declined to comment on the Marsh case last week. City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins, who represents the district where Davis was killed, has not responded to a request for comment. t

forgery, robbery, and vehicle theft, according to Berkeley Scanner .

The DA’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this report as of press time.

A memorial was held March 11 at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center where friends remembered him.

Marsh is one of two gay Black men who were killed in Oakland this month. But so far no suspect has been found in the March 12 shooting death of Devonte Davis, police told the B.A.R. March 20. t

Darrell Jackson, center, the partner of Devonte “Tay” Davis, was comforted by Alexanderia Gee, far left, and Davis’ sister, Geneva Davis, right, during a March 18 memorial at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Gizelle Mattingly, a volunteer with the San Francisco Community Health Center, opened her arms in joy at the ribbon cutting for the new home of the agency’s Trans Thrive program Tuesday, March 21.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Kehinde Wiley’s

‘An Archaeology of Silence’

Stunning new exhibit at the de Young

by Cornelius Washington

Kehinde Wiley has been a very special, insightful artist for quite a while, but his work always appears fresh, modern and important, reshaping the way we see Black people in portraiture and sculpture.

“What I was always struck by whenever I saw his portraits was the degree to which they challenged our conventional view of power and privilege,” President Barack Obama, a prominent portrait subject, has said of Wiley.

Lyrical and poetic elements comprise his latest exhibition at the de Young Museum, and the first to premiere his newest works of large-scale

paintings and sculptures. The spacious exhibition directs focus on the works with dark green and red-painted walls, retaining a feeling of intimacy, even with the enormous awe-inspiring sculpture of a fallen man atop a horse.

In his works, Wiley investigates and questions how death and sacrifice have been portrayed across art history through a series of works that

Bored Game

confront the silence surrounding systemic violence against Black people.

The romanticism and subtext are note-perfect, and the Bay Area is the place for it. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s,with the creation of the Black Panthers, the emergence

See page 19 >>

and can help underwrite more profound fare (like the Playhouse’s recent “Indecent” and “Follies”) by pulling in ticket buyers who don’t habitually attend theater or read the works of theater critics.

The dead don’t rise

But for afficionados who regularly patronize Bay Area stages and turn to critics for intellectual arguments as much as consumer advice, “Clue” will prove a losing game. This production simply doesn’t consistently deliver enough of the vaudeville precision and finely caricatured characters that could help it transcend the blah blueprint of its script.

Wonderfully fusty Col. Mustard is counterbalanced by a frustratingly nondescript Professor Plum (Michael Gene Sullivan). Vivid vavoomy French maid, Yvette (Margherita Ventura), is offset by a befuddling butler/host (Dorian Lockett, who on opening night repeatedly flubbed lines). Mrs. Peacock (Stacy Ross), is described by another character as a nasty old lady, but more often comes off as middle-aged ditz.

And Greg Ayers, whose high-kneed prancing as Mr. Green is a consistent delight, is undermined by some really retrograde homophobia in the script (While the play is theoretically set in the 1950s, it was written in the 2010s, and period references essentially disappear after the first few scenes).

While the individual character performances are of inconsistent quality, when the cast moves en masse to explore Heather Kenyon’s handsome manor house set, full of nifty hidden rooms that slide in and fold-out like illustrations in a pop-up book, its synchronized movement is a hoot. Sliding side-by-side like a chain of paper dolls or tiptoeing in a prissy phalanx, they’re the perfect herd of ninnies.

by Jim Gladstone

Sandy Rustin. In her study. With a bludgeon.

I hereby declare the playwright of “Clue,” which is now on stage of the San Francisco Playhouse, guilty of the comedic equivalent to bloody murder: anemic humor.

While attempting to ensnare audiences in a non-stop flurry of rim shots, her script thumps us into the doldrums.

All the mugging and capering that director Susi Damilano and choreographer Nicole Helfer can coax out of their plucky eleven-member cast is not enough to keep this stage adaptation of a

film adaptation of a board game from feeling flat and overlong, even at just over 90 minutes.

“My apologies,” says Colonel Mustard (played with delicious obliviousness by Michael Ray Wisely) early on in the proceedings, “I struggle with nuance.”

His line is an appropriate epigram for “Clue” as a whole. It’s a toothless confection of silly slapstick and would-be witticisms

While one might generously credit the show as aspiring to the ingenious mayhem of Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off!” or even the parodic, chaotic fun of Patrick Barlow’s spin on Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps,” my more cynical take is that Rustin and the other “Clue” creators’ motives are far more

commercial than artistic (Rustin’s script has been aided and abetted by “additional material”– never a good sign – from Hunter Foster and Eric Price).

With its borrowed brand name and broad physical comedy, “Clue” seems to be gunning for the stupefying success of “The Play That Goes Wrong,” a literal and figurative shambles that is about to be succeeded on Broadway by a sequel “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” (Double-barreled brand name there!).

Look, I hold no grudge with a high-quality independent local theater like San Francisco Playhouse for adding the likes of “Clue” to their varied season’s mix. My harshing aside, this show has a kind of mass appeal that’s virtually critic-proof

As muddily as some of the color-coded characters are played, their rakish costumes (designed by Alice Ruiz) sort them out in glorious detail: Mrs. Peacock’s fascinator and petticoats are divine. The black-on-black mourning suit worn by secretive Mrs. White (Renee Rogoff) is a smashingly fashionable paradox.

Still, despite its staging and style strengths, this burlesque of a murder mystery is moribund on arrival and never gets zhuzed up beyond zombiedom. All in all, I’d rather be clueless (And yes, there’s a stage version of that as well.)t

‘Clue,’ through April 22. $15-$100. San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St. (415) 677-9596 www.sfplayhouse.org

Kehinde Wiley at the March 15 press preview of his exhibit at the de Young Museum.

Miss Scarlet (Courtney Walsh), Mrs. White (Renee Rogoff), Mrs. Peacock (Stacy Ross), Professor Plum (Michael Gene Sullivan), Mr. Green (Greg Ayers), and Colonel Mustard (Michael Ray Wisely) eavesdrop in San Francisco Playhouse’s ‘Clue.’

The dating games t

by Victoria A. Brownworth

For the first time in the bazillion years since it’s been on the air, we are watching ABC’s “The Bachelor.” I have no excuses. I’ve been in a fragile state since my beloved died suddenly some weeks back and have had a difficult time watching shows the two of us watched together.

I’m pleased to discover that there are some queer dating shows in the mix.

Lesbian filmmaker Nicole Conn (“A Perfect Ending,” “Elena Undone,” “More Beautiful For Having Been Broken”) has a lesbian dating show “Coming Out for Love” that debuted on Valentine’s Day.

Jessica Clark, model and actress who you’ve seen in that queer Christmas movie, “True Blood” and Bravo’s “Girlfriends Guide To Divorce,” is the soignée host. Clark introduces the “ladies” in a series of videos, so even if you choose not to watch, you can have a tease or four.

Amber Whittington, a YouTube influencer with nearly two million followers to her “Amber’s Closet” platform, is “The Key Master.” There are 16 super hot contestants. Let the fun begin.

Conn says, “I’m so proud we are the first out with a reality dating show for our community because I’ve been trying to make this show for 15 years. It’s going to be sexy, romantic and unpredictable. It will be progressive and inclusive, where our newly comingout lead dates 16 women of all stripes, living in one house, eliminating all but one by the final episode.”

There are four “bundles” one can buy to watch, all listed on the website, www.comingoutforlove.com

Got Game?

Not to be outdone in the love match department, Bigo Live debuted “Game Changer with Milan Christopher,” which they tout as “the first original live-streaming LGBTQ+ dating reality TV show on social media.”

Bigo states, “Unlike other dating reality shows, “Game Changer” focuses on the unique experiences of queer individuals. The first episode featured five queer singles looking for love and a chance to win a date in Los Angeles with Milan Christopher, reality TV’s most eligible single heartthrob, hip hop artist, and television personality.”

“I’m deeply honored and proud to be part of this groundbreaking show that has received such positive reception,” said Milan. “Too often, queer voices and perspectives are erased or marginalized in mainstream media. ‘Game Changer’ centers the stories and experiences of LGBTQ+ people and showcase the different ways that queer love can exist and thrive.”

He adds, “Bottom line: representation matters. Shout out to BIGO for providing a powerful platform for our community to showcase the beauty, diversity, and struggles in our search for love and acceptance.”

Tune into the BIGO app for the show and subscribe to BIGO’s YouTube Channel.

Where Conn’s show has superb production values, BIGO’s is much more cable access. But “Game Changer” is fun and flaming, so just settle in and enjoy.

Yellowjackets

We love this show so much and have been waiting for season two.

To review, as Showtime explains, “‘Yellowjackets’ tells the narrative of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who survive a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to warring, cannibalistic clans, while also tracking the lives they have attempted to piece back together.

Sophie Nélisse, Jasmin Savoy Brown,

Sophie Thatcher and Sammi Hanratty star as the teenagers, while Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis portray their adult counterparts as they reveal the truth about their survival 25 years later.

Yes, “cannabalistic clans.”

All the players are fabulous. Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci do psycho well, but Melanie Lynskey is perfection. Her timing is always amazing. Simply amazing.

In season 2, the Yellowjackets barely made it through summer, but now as winter begins to bite – literally – we’ll discover if hunger and desperation turn into full-on psychosis with our fine young cannibals.

This is such a totally queer show and has so many layers to it about friendship, loyalty, expectations, devotion, attraction, fear–it’s much deeper than the standard “wendigo in the woods” scare-fest. And the performances are fabulous. Season 2 premieres March 26 on Showtime.

Oh and just as an aside, Jasmin Savoy Brown, queer IRL, went Instagram official with partner Anouk in a steamy kissy pictorial.

School Spirits

“School Spirits” is a new really dark supernatural series about a dead girl investigating her own disappearance.

It has overtones of “13 Reasons Why” (which we loved) and “Pretty Little Liars” as well as stellar acting, with an astonishingly good performance by Peyton List in the main role as Maddie Nears.

The premise is simple yet complicated. As Paramount explains, “Maddie is a teen girl stuck in the afterlife investigating her own mysterious disappearance; she goes on a crime-solving journey as she adjusts to school in the afterlife, but the closer she gets to the truth, the more secrets and lies she discovers.”

There’s a lot of nuance in this series, which is not usually found in the paranormal and teen angst genres, and of course, queerness, because it’s high school angst.t

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

NEW

Michael Golden & Michael Levy Robert Holgate

Lowell Kimble Ted Tucker

William Dicky & Matthew Huyck Hallie Henle Cole Kinney & Dale Becherer Andrew Leas & Bong Villa-Leas Ken Prag & Steve Collins

Alan Mattacola Frank Yellin & Mark Showalter

Left: Nicole Conn (right) speaking with the cast of ‘Coming Out for Love’

Right: Milan Christopher hosts ‘Game Changer’

Carolyn S. Russell Above: The younger cast of

The cinematic curse of disabled queerness

Yet many non-disabled actors have won Oscars for playing disabled and the list is shockingly long at nearly 70 nominations and 27 wins.

The same questions are raised continually: Why don’t directors cast disabled people in disabled roles or cast LGBTQ people in LGBTQ roles? How much does the lack of true representation influence how these roles are portrayed on screen and who chooses to bring them to the screen at all? Why is the disabled villain a trope and the disabled gay villain, like “The Whale’s” Charlie a villain by virtue solely of being one or the other or both?

by Victoria A. Brownworth

Brendan Fraser is a good actor, possibly even a great actor. But when he won the Best Actor Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards, count me among those not cheering. I didn’t need yet another depiction of a tragic disabled person who would rather be dead than disabled and whose gayness is yet another trope for misery.

Fraser’s performance in “The Whale” was heralded as emotionally riveting and deeply compelling. But for many queer and disabled (and queer disabled) viewers, it was yet another example of the villainizing of disabled and fat people on screen. It was also, yet again, a straight actor winning an Oscar for playing a dying gay person, exactly 30 years after Tom Hanks won the Oscar for playing Andy Beckett, a gay man dying of AIDS in “Philadelphia.”

Long ago, I learned about the dead lesbian trope as a teenager, watching Shirley MacLaine hang herself late one night on TV in an airing of “The Children’s Hour.” That film of the Lillian Hellman play both introduced me to lesbians on screen and shaped – or perhaps warped – my teenage lesbian life. So too did seeing a repertory screening of Sandy Dennis, a real life lesbian, and Anne Heywood in the film version of D.H. Lawrence’s novella “The Fox.” Dennis’s character is felled by a tree so her sexually frustrated butch partner, Heywood, can return to wearing dresses and be with a man.

Both films were nominated for Oscars and other awards, with MacLaine and Heywood winning acting awards for their portrayals of unhappy les-

bians. “The Fox” was the fifth most popular film in Britain in 1968.

Stigmatizing

The history of how Hollywood handles disability and queerness and its intersection is as fraught as it is disturbing and outraging. That history melds the terrible treatment by the studios of gay and bisexual notables with the stigmatizing of disabled people.

With only a handful of exceptions, disability only wins awards when it’s presented by non-disabled directors and actors. It’s still shocking that in 2021, the Academy thought there was more humanity in an octopus than in the story of the groundbreaking disability rights movement in America.

The Oscar for Best Documentary Feature went to “My Octopus Teacher” instead of the extraordinary story of a major civil rights movement impacting America’s 63 million disabled people, “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution.”

Hollywood’s dark history of hiding gay and lesbian actors with sham marriages and fake news stories about heterosexual liaisons slams up against the equally long history of having straight actors play gay roles and non-disabled people play disabled. That actors are nominated for and/or win Oscars for playing gay or playing disabled is almost always a given.

Some actors have built their careers on playing dying or murdered LGTBQ people who are also sometimes disabled. Just as Fraser won the Best Actor Oscar for playing a dying disabled gay man, Jared Leto won Best Supporting Actor in 2014 playing a dying trans woman and Matthew McConaughey won Best Actor that same

year for the same film, “Dallas Buyers Club,” for his role as a straight man with AIDS.

Oscar-worthy?

Hilary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar in 1999 for playing murdered trans man Brandon Teena in “Boys Don’t Cry” and in 2005 won Best Actress again for playing disabled in “Million Dollar Baby.” Charlize Theron played mentally ill lesbian serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2004 and won the Best Actress Oscar for making the complicated and deeply damaged Wuornos into deranged and despicable terrorist in “Monster.”

In 2005 Sean Penn won Best Actor for playing the murdered Harvey Milk in “Milk.” Eddie Redmayne was nominated for two Best Actor Oscars back to back in 2015 and 2016. He played disabled physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” and trans woman Lili Elbe in “The Danish Girl.”

He won for his portrayal of Hawking.

At this year’s Oscars, several nominees were straight actors playing gay. In addition to Fraser, Cate Blanchett was nominated as Best Actress for her role as narcissistic lesbian conductor Lydia Tár. (In 2016 Blanchett was nominated for playing the eponymous lesbian role in “Carol.”) Stephanie Hsu was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” in which she plays lesbian Joy Wang and also Jobu Tupaki, who is homicidal.

Thus far only three disabled actors have won Oscars: Harold Russell, an amputee and veteran of World War II won Best Supporting Actor in 1947 for “The Best Years of Our Lives,” Deaf actor Marlee Matlin won Best Actress in 1987 for “Children of a Lesser God” and Deaf actor Troy Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor in 2022 for “CODA.” (Matlin co-stars in that film.) So every 30 to 40 years a disabled actor gets to play disabled and win.

Daniel Aronofsky, who directed “The Whale,” has made a career of portraying disabled and gay people as monstrous and winning awards for it. In addition to “The Whale,” Natalie Portman won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a psycho lesbian ballerina, Nina, in Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” Ellen Burstyn was nominated for Best Actress for “Requiem for a Dream” where she also loses her mind.

So, how is adding another gay disabled monster to the film canon a good thing? Why are we made to be repulsed by Charlie and why was such a depiction lauded by the Academy?

The addition of queerness and disability into the Hollywood canon as anything but vehicles for non-LGBTQ and non-disabled actors may be much further down that path of inclusion. Lauding “The Whale” as anything but a vicious and stigmatizing portrayal of the intersection of disability and queerness would be an error, and yet another setback for marginalized people who deserve their own true-to-life stories.t

Q Music: men’s men

by Gregg Shapiro

Listening to “The Bible” (Merge) by distinctive-voiced Kurt Wagner’s Lambchop, one gets the impression that he might have been listening to gay singer/songwriter John Grant, particularly because of the way he blends lush arrangements (“His Song Is Sung”) and electronic dance tracks (“Little Black Boxes”). Wagner’s singular baritone also gives the songs a timeless quality, as you can hear on the (experimental) piano and vocal number “Daisy,” the jazzy “Whatever Mortal,” the brassy “Police Dog Blues,” and the spoken/sung “Every Child Begins the World Again.”

Beginning with his near-perfect

2015 album “I Love You, Honeybear,” and continuing through “Pure Comedy” (2017) and “God’s Favorite Customer” (2018),  Father John Misty  (aka Josh Tillman) has been proving himself to be the (Harry) Nilsson of the 21st century (with a touch of Randy Newman thrown in for good measure). That’s a compliment, by the way. If anything, modern pop is sorely lacking in Nilsson influences.

Father John Misty’s “Chloë and the Next 20th Century” (Sub Pop) not only continues the sonic tradition he has established, but also comes close to being the kind of linked set of songs that are practically begging for a stage or movie musical adaptation. In other words, “Chloë and the Next 20th Cen-

tury” is a far better homage to old Hollywood than Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon.”

Father John Misty will perform at Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park (Aug 11-13, date/time TBA) www.fatherjohnmisty.com

At the opposite end of the vocal spectrum,  Marlon Williams’ blueeyed soul and twang benefits from him occasionally venturing into his upper register on his new album “My Boy” (Dead Oceans). You can hear it on the title track, “My Heart the Wormhole,” “Don’t Go Back,” “Soft Boys Make the Grade,” and his dazzling cover of “Promises,” written by Barry Gibb for Barbra Streisand’s “Guilty” album.

On  Bret McKenzie’s solo de-

but “Songs Without Jokes” (Sub Pop), Marlon Williams’ fellow New Zealander takes a page from Father John Misty’s playbook and gives us the Nilsson-inspired “A Little Tune.” McKenzie also conjures Billy Joel on “If You Wanna Go” and “America Goodbye.” Best known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, the tunes on “Songs Without Jokes” (mostly) live up to the promise of the title, and McKenzie delivers a set of pop numbers worthy of your time.

John Darnielle of  The Mountain Goats  is the new reigning king of the concept album. From the painful “Tallahassee” and “The Sunset Tree,” all the way through the religionoriented “The Life of the World to Come,” the wrestling-themed “Beat the Champ,” and “Goths” (the title speaks for itself), Darnielle has found a formula that works for him, and he appears to be sticking with it. The Mountain Goats’ latest, “Bleed Out” (Merge), pays tribute to (violent) action movies; hence

the title. In addition to the revenge anthem opening cut “Training Montage,” song titles such as “Mark On You,” “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” “Extraction Point,” “Bones Don’t Rust,” “First Blood,” “Hostages,” and “Need More Bandages,” tell part of the story, and the music does the rest.

When  Freedy Johnston’s third album, and major-label debut, “This Perfect World” was released in 1994, it established him as a singer/songwriter of merit. But then, even though the albums that followed were strong, he lost some of the momentum with the public. Johnston’s ninth studio album “Back on the Road to You” (Forty Below) confirms that Johnston hasn’t lost his songwriting chops nearly 30 later. The ten songs are catchy (check out “There Goes a Brooklyn Girl”), and the guest vocalists, including

Susan Cowsill (yes, that Susan Cowsill) on “The Power of Love,” Aimee Mann on “Darlin’,” and Susanna Hoffs on “That’s Life,” all add something special.t

Left: Brendan Fraser accepting the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 95th Oscars on March 12.

Middle: Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn in ‘The Children’s Hour’

Right: Charlize Theron won Best Actress for ‘Monster.’

Left: Best Documentary nominee ‘Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution Right: Troy Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor in 2022.

Left: Kurt Wagner with his band Lambchop Middle: Father John Misty Right: Marlon Williams

Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s ‘Tell the Rest’ t

by Jim Piechota

For the two enthralling queer protagonists in author Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s just-published novel, they have lived a life scarred by their time in a Christian conversion camp, each bearing the enduring weight of psychological pain and torment. Both Delia Barnes and Ernest Wrangham were gay teenagers when they enacted a daring escape from Celebration Camp, fleeing the mental torture and anguish they were subjected to in exchange for a life of deliverance and freedom.

More than twenty years later, both are thriving in their separate lives, having squelched the trauma of their youth at the Oregon camp, but when life suddenly brings unexpected change, they each turn back to start fresh.

Delia comes back to her hometown of Rockside, Oregon, after her wife leaves her and she loses her job, while Ernest, a Black poet, has returned to take a temporary teaching position at

the local Portland-area college. Serendipitously, both meet up and begin to share notes on the horrors of their youth and how they’ve fared across the ensuing decades.

Delia, saddled with lifelong anger issues, takes on girls’ basketball team

coaching duties at her old high school. But the team’s success becomes more of an aggressive personal goal than one for the good of the sport. Eventually she comes around to the realization that the team needs her more as a role model and compassionate coach

than anything and the hard façade she’s built over time begins to fall away.

A series of flashbacks tells the horrifying story of their ordeal at the camp and how, when one of their fellow campers breaks the rules, he is met with a crushing punishment.

Chapters in Ernest’s voice are sprinkled in, but his journey is not as fully realized as Delia’s, despite both having experienced the same harrowing ordeal. This narrative imbalance is noticeable but doesn’t hobble the story, thankfully; there is plenty of tension and resolution in store for readers.

Redemption and catharsis are the key themes permeating the novel, with each protagonist achieving their version in due time and through their own internal emotional processes. Small-town life is portrayed realistically while the contributory characters (kitties included) all add spice and interest to a story that will touch many readers on several different levels, from internalized trau-

Thomas Mallon’s ‘Up With the Sun’

by Brian Bromberger

I f you don’t know who Dick Kallman was, you aren’t alone. Readers can discover this miniscule neverwere, has-been celebrity in the new novel on his tumultuous life, “Up With the Sun” by Thomas Mallon, perhaps the country’s foremost historical fiction writer.

Mallon has indeed raised Kallman from the dead, yet how he died is tragically his biggest claim to fame. On February 22, 1980, he, alongside his male lover, were brutally murdered in their tony Manhattan townhouse in a robbery gone awry.

Kallman’s career, the events leading up to his sensational murder, and the aftermath including his killer’s trial, form the subject of this part showbusiness history, part crime mystery, part love story saga covering a 30-year gay era extending from pre-Stonewall to the early AIDS pandemic. Gossipy

and entertaining, with appearances from authentic Broadway and Hollywood stars, the novel is a moral dissection on closeted-life and how ambition distorts a psyche.

Early stages

Born in 1934, Kallman’s wealthy father owned The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in New Hampshire and the Savoy-Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. His mother, Zara, had been a minor opera and Broadway actress. She pushed Dick into performing for the older generation show people who populated their hotels. His first success was his supporting performance in the musical “Seventeen” which won him 1951’s Theatre World Award as Most Promising Newcomer.

During this stint, he became infatuated with lead star Kenneth Nelson, even giving him a small diamond jewelry pin (which will pop up during the book’s critical moments and will hold

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the secret to the motive for his eventual murder), which Nelson rebuffed, because he didn’t like Kallman.

A few years later, Kallman was the warm-up act for singer-actress Sophie Tucker in Las Vegas. He became part of Lucille Ball’s comedy troupe workshop in the late 1950s. He toured the country as the lead in the musical “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.” Then he starred in the preposterous television sitcom “Hank,” as an orphan impersonating absent students so he could illegally audit classes in an absurd bid to get a college education. This was the zenith of his acting career.

Career shift

He returned to Broadway taking over the principal role in the musical “Half a Sixpence,” and released a few unsuccessful albums of pop standards. He made appearances on comedy and drama TV series, but by the early 1970s disappointment had morphed into an underlying rage, so he retired from show business. He used his business acumen to design women’s fashions and men’s wear.

In alternating chapters, the firstperson narrator is Matt Liannetto, a pianist accompanist who met Kallman at “Seventeen” and either worked with him or met up with him sporadically for the rest of his life. He’s the sweet-natured foil to Kallman, but who is also trying to understand him, saying, “I’m sorry I can’t write more about Dick. I disliked him for all the obvious reasons that most people did.” He had dinner at Kallman’s apartment the night he and Steve were killed. He later identified through a vocal lineup one of the murder suspects. Through Matt, we get details of the criminal procedural investigation and trial of the three killers, which is only sporadically intriguing. Towards the end of the novel, Matt, in declining health, showed early symptoms of AIDS.

Point of obsession

Yet despite the obnoxious Kallman, Mallon is able to create empathy for him. Mallon is superb at recreating the show biz aura and keen evocation of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the trials and accommodations needed to survive being gay in that milieu. Mallon implies Kallman’s deep need for love contributed to his aggressive ingratiating personality which turned off producers, directors, and co-stars.

Mallon also hints homophobia may have also contributed, as Kall-

ma to queer solidarity to religious emancipation.

Through her characters, Bledsoe, a Lambda Literary and Ferro-Grumley Award finalist, digs down into the deep wounds and enduring trauma of conversion therapy victims and directly addresses issues of spiritual abuse. Never sugarcoating her subject matter, Bledsoe’s novel channels the need for queer people to confront and combat the encroaching influence of the Christian Right in America from every angle possible.t

“Tell the Rest” by Lucy Jane Bledsoe; Akashic Books, $28.95 www.akashicbooks.com www.lucyjanebledsoe.com

Lucy Jane Bledsoe will discuss her new novel with Marvin K. White on Thursday, March 30, at 7pm at Fabulosa Books, 489 Castro Street in San Francisco. www.fabulosabooks.com

Breakfast and Lunch Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 8:00 to 4:00

388 Market Street, San Francisco CA 94111 415-397-0100

On stage, Kallman had a pleasing personality, but in private was driven to the point of obsession, nasty, pushy, obsequious with embarrassingly false flattery that came across as phoniness, brassy, self-serving and a skincrawling scheming social climber who tossed aside friends at the flip of a coin. Kind of in-and-out-of-thecloset, wearing flamboyant clothes, he called other gay men “pansies” to demean them, implying he wasn’t one. Mallon writes that on Kallman, “ambition stuck out like a cowlick or a horn, fatal to an audience’s complete belief in almost any character he was playing,” meaning he was his own worst enemy.

man’s sexuality was an open secret, despite his good looks and desire to play straight roles. Kallman never made peace with being a minor player.

In one insightful incident, when Kallman attended the legendary 1961 Judy Garland concert at Carnegie Hall, Mallon writes about the mostly gay audience:

“Whatever was broken in these guys was reaching toward and sparking whatever was broken in her…in him (Kallman) there had been something broken, but whatever it was had been soldered over, annealed in a way that left it unreaching and unreachable.”

Mallon’s investigation of Kallman reads like an autopsy, even though the reader is warned that his story “is inspired by actual events that have been considerably altered by the author’s imagination.” Yet there’s an authenticity that’s both frightening and compelling.

Mallon has pierced the heart of darkness at the root of Kallman’s soul. Kallman might deserve to be forgotten, but Mallon’s portrait of a thwarted tragic talent as a sour parable on ambition is unforgettable.t

‘Up With the Sun’ by Thomas Mallon, Alfred A. Knopf, $28.00 www.penguinrandomhouse.com www.thomasmallon.com

Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Author Thomas Mallon

Dick Kallman’s short-lived TV series “Hank”

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”

— Pablo Naruda

Wonder Dave’s Safe Words

“I remember growing up with comedy in the household,” said Dave. “My parents were not restrictive about what we were allowed to watch. Rated R? Good enough!”

Through TV and comedy records Dave discovered masters like Richard Pryor and George Carlin. But it was the LGBTQ comics, “like Jim David, Elvira Kurt and of course Sandra Bernhardt,” Dave said, who inspired them most. The early queer Comedy Central specials, something Dave theorizes were designed more to fill programming slots than anything else, were the first time he remembers seeing himself represented in the media.

“I don’t think I saw another queer person on TV until Ellen came out,” he laughed.

New comedy night at the SF Eagle

that’s probably the worst I’ve ever felt after a show.”

Wonder Dave has since performed all over, honing his craft, hustling from show to show to establish themself. But thinking back to the Bernhardt Comedy specials of his youth, the modern day stand-up scene was decidedly less gay than Dave expected.

by Christopher J. Beale

Have you ever seen Shaggy from the old Scooby-Doo cartoons?” said gay standup comedian Wonder Dave, “I look like that.” Wonder Dave is the host of Safe Words Comedy Showcase at San Francisco’s iconic leather bar The Eagle. The standup comedy night was once booked by

straight people, and featured a number of them as well. Then in 2022 Dave and his boyfriend Jonah were offered the chance to take over the showcase.

“If I’m gonna run a showcase at the Eagle, I want it to be a queer showcase,” Dave said. When they took over as host and booker in late 2022, they wanted to create an admittedly rare, queer comedy space.

Asked if being gay makes people funnier, Wonder Dave agreed. “Yes. Gay people are better. That’s what I’m supposed to say,” Dave joked, continuing, “In my experience, where traumatic things happened to me, being funny was a good way to get out of it. And I think that this is true of a lot of comedians, where they had something bad happen to them when they were young and they found out that being funny was a coping mechanism. It’s a way to not get bullied.”

In recalling early efforts, “I think the first time I went up at the San Francisco Punchline,” he said, “I got just one laugh during my set. I think

technical, social and cultural level, he excels.

They say the Devil is in the details, but with Kahinde, the angels reside in the results, the perfect articulation of denim, the drape of the crucifix around the neck and onto the floor, the undone shoelaces on a pair of high top Nikes, and lastly the exquisite, lovingly executed textures of hair.

Kehinde Wiley

From page 15

of the Gay Liberation Movement of the ’70s, the fight for a cure that still continues from the scourge of HIV/ AIDS beginning in the ’80s, up until the recent Black Lives Matter Movement and the new pandemic all serve as a backdrop for Mr. Wiley’s art.

His massive portraits are colordrenched dense worlds of Black people reclining in deep backgrounds lush with leaves, flowers, branches and vines in various degrees of bloom and decay.

The works are elegant reminders of vulnerability, uncertainty and death, with mythological references in the poses and titles. They are a stunning contrast to the way we nor-

mally see people in fine art portraiture, especially young Black people.

Kehinde uses all of the visual signifiers of them in all of their glory, with their penchant of luxury sportswear, statement jewelry, and afrocentric hairstyles. Yet the subjects are posed in stillness instead of the usual manic dynamic performative expressions of the way we normally see them as rappers, athletes, and fashion models.

Wiley’s enhancement and extension of the techniques of the Old Masters of fine art (insert your favorite here) shows a great respect for the history and rigor of fine portraiture and is a great example for all Black creatives in any discipline.

Wiley’s command of technique is also evident in his sculptures. On a

The scale of his work is a joy to behold, simultaneously grand and dark, mysterious and revealing, dramatic but not glaring. Be prepared. Dramatically lit, this exhibit is extremely powerful. For more sensitive attendees, it can be quite overwhelming emotionally, psychologically and thematically. The subtext of mortality, impermanence and death suggested in the exhibit may be triggering. The museum has thoughtfully provided a room for repast and recovery.

What this exhibit ultimately declares is that Kehinde Wiley is in the vanguard of 21st-century artists and personalities. He has created a body of work that is to be witnessed as well as viewed, experienced and rabidly collected, and most importantly seriously studied as a serious critical affirmation of what it means to be Black, as an artist, as a subject, and as a people. t

Kehinde Wiley’s ‘An Archaeology of Silence’ through Oct. 15, 2023 at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park. Tuesday–Sunday 9:30am – 5:15pm, free/$15. Audio tours available. www.famsf.org

“It’s kind of bro-ey,” Dave quipped. “Even now, with as much progress as queer comedians have made, it’s hard to talk about your life without people thinking all of your jokes are about being gay. That’s true of women, and people of color. You’re just talking about your life, and suddenly you are that thing. But people don’t question a straight white guy talking about his life because they are like, on a default setting.”

The decidedly queer Safe Words Comedy Showcase soft-launched at the end of 2022, and had a packed launch event in January 2023. The diverse lineup of comedians that have already graced the Safe Words stage reflect the Bay Area, and perhaps more importantly the queer Bay Area.

“I love having a queer event in a queer

space,” said Dave, and the Eagle has not disappointed. Each month the team has to add chairs, filling the main room and then some. Safe Words plans to expand and grow – think performances on the patio in the summer, and special events at other venues – but relies solely on ticket sales for financial support.

“The funds at this point are going exclusively to the comics and promoting the show,” said Jonah Price, Wonder Dave’s boyfriend and the show’s producer, adding that tickets are pay what you can ($15-25 suggested).

“There’s no limit on how much or how little you can spend.”t

Safe Words Comedy Showcase takes place on the fourth Wednesday of the month. The April 26 lineup features Emily Van Dyke, with special guests Edna Mira Raia, Justin Lucas, and Marcus Williams. 7pm at the SF Eagle, 398 12th St. www.teamwonderdave.com

Hear Wonder Dave and Jonah Price on Christopher J. Beale’s podcast Stereotypes, at www.christopherjbeale.com

Monday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Tuesday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Wednesday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Thursday 8am Open 24 Hours

Proudly

Wonder Dave at the recent Safe Words Comedy night at the SF Eagle.

Christopher J. Beale

Kehinde Wiley’s ‘The Death of Hyacinth (Ndey Buri Mboup),’ 2022, Oil on canvas

Gary Sexton / Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Kehinde Wiley’s ‘Femme piquée par un serpent (Mamadou Gueye),’ 2022, Oil on canvas

Gary Sexton / Courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco