May 2, 2024 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Honey Mahogany is the new executive director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives.

Mahogany tapped to lead SF trans initiatives office

by John Ferrannini

Atrans person who was once passed over by Mayor London Breed for an open supervisor seat will now join her administration as leader of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives. The office is also being brought under the auspices of the city’s department in charge of human rights issues.

Breed announced Thursday she’s appointing

See page 10 >>

A rendering of a remodeled Harvey Milk Plaza shows a rose-colored canopy above the escalator and stairs leading to the Muni subway.

Breed’s bond measure includes $25M for Milk plaza

by Matthew S. Bajko

As part of a $360 million bond measure she wants to put before voters in November, San Francisco Mayor London Breed is carving out $25 million for the project to reimagine Harvey Milk Plaza in the city’s Castro district. If passed, it will move the project significantly closer to the $35 million proponents need to raise before construction on it can begin.

See page 2 >>

CUAV helps LGBTQ survivors work through tough times

by John Ferrannini

When Alex’s 12-year-old child came to them and said they’d discovered child pornography on their soon-to-be-exhusband’s electronic device, the trans and queer parent didn’t know where to turn.

“I had him out the next day, because I’m a strong and determined person,” Alex, who asked that that name be used and declined to give their last name, told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview.

“Trying to find anti-violence services – nobody had been physically hurt – there were not a lot of services available,” said Alex, who lives in San Francisco. “He [the ex-partner] is a child sexual assault survivor himself, and while I had to get him out and get my child safe, I still had a lot of empathy for him. CUAV was a place I could come to talk to about this.”

CUAV, or Community United Against Violence, is a Mission neighborhood-based nonprofit that addresses homophobic and transphobic violence. Alex showed up at a support group held on Tuesdays.

“I don’t remember how I found them – it was days of calling, going in circles and trying to find someone who could help,” Alex said of discovering the organization. “I just knew if I could find someone to help me, I could find a way to help [their child] as well.”

Showing up at Take Care Tuesdays “was an outof-body experience,” Alex said.

“I was so confused,” Alex added. “I couldn’t relate to people laughing and smiling around me.”

But as time went on, it became clear to Alex that some things just didn’t have adequate answers.

CUAV is hoping to bring on more staff now that it has been a recipient of state and local grants. As the B.A.R. previously reported, these include $750,000 that came from the Stop the Hate campaign of the California Department of Social Services, and a three-year, $420,000 grant to provide trauma-informed services to victims and witnesses of crime from the San Francisco District Attorney’s office.

“We’re hoping to hire maybe one to two more people,” Pablo Espinoza, a trans man who is the executive director of CUAV, said in a recent interview. “These grants are cyclical, so we are hoping for a renewed cycle of the grants. We’ll definitely be doing work with the grants in the next couple years – more courses, support groups, and trainings – and when the time comes to reapply for the money, we’ll hopefully be first in line.”

But as the session continued, Alex realized it was structured so that people’s traumas could come out “in a more measured way.” At one point, they were flummoxed by the book title “Rest is Resistance.”

“Are you kidding me?” Alex said. “All I could do was worry about this.”

by John Ferrannini

LCUAV has already recently hired a new peer advocate and outreach coordinator, bringing its permanent staff to five. Another position opening up is to be a co-executive director alongside Espinoza, he confirmed.

See page 10 >>

LGBTQ nonprofits make the case for Give OUT Day generosity

2017 Media Kit 0 a

GBTQ community nonprofits are making the case for why they are worthy recipients of donations through Horizons Foundation’s Give OUT Day, which started May 1 and wraps up May 30. Last year, some $1.2 million was raised, according to the foundation.

Give OUT Day started in 2013 and was run for several years by Bolder Giving. Horizons took over the event in 2016 and later expanded it from its initial 24-hour cycle to a month as a way to increase giving to nonprofits. While Horizons is based in San Francisco, Give OUT Day has always been a national endeavor and remains so. It includes participating nonprofits from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

This year, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, it was decided to move Give OUT Day to May rather than hold it during Pride Month in June. Horizons officials noted in a statement earlier this year that many organizations have fundraising campaigns of their own in June and the back-to-back events limited creativity and flexibility. Most of those who responded to a survey expressed a preference for May, Horizons’ statement read.

“The organizations that participate in Give

Horizons’ website hosts a list of 385 participating nonprofits.

The site allows one-time or monthly donations for each.

Mission Statement

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OUT Day are the backbone of our communities,” Roger Doughty, a gay man who is the president of Horizons, told the B.A.R. in a phone interview. “They’re often the organizations that are closest to the ground, that do the work to take care of and advocate for our community every day, and this year in particular, with the stakes as high as we all know, giving through this unique national day for LGBTQ giving is more important than ever.”

Amor Para Todos , which means “Love for all,” is based in Petaluma and is participating in the fundraiser. Founded in 2019 by Renee Ho, a straight ally, the organization seeks to serve LGBTQIA+ youth in Sonoma County.

“If folks need any motivation to donate, it’s because our work is life-saving,” Ho said in a phone interview with the B.A.R. “We do an inclusive gender curriculum for schools, elementary-based. We advocate for inclusive sex education. We also have Amor Para Todos student clubs. We have 20 now and the majority of those are for elementary schools. We’ve also designed gender restroom signage that’s intersectional and not binary.”

Ho said that Amor Para Todos hosts a Rainbow Awareness Art Project to highlight the need for representation.

“It’s important for one to see themselves,” Ho said. “We use art, imagery, and books. We have a raise-to-save campaign, so we’ve purchased hundreds of Pride flags for different school districts, businesses, and we’ve helped advance and broaden Pride flag resolutions in school districts. ... We advocated and funded the first

See page 8 >>

Friends remember Banko Brown

Takano bullish on House races

Pablo Espinoza, the executive director of Community Against Violence, is working to add capacity to the longtime San Francisco nonprofit.

John Ferrannini

Renee Ho, founder of Amor Para Todos in Petaluma, spoke at last year’s Give OUT Day finale event.

Courtesy Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza

Courtesy Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza

Courtesy Renee Ho

City Clinic relocation funds omitted from bond

by Matthew S. Bajko

LGBTQ advocates are criticizing the omission in a proposed San Francisco bond measure funds to relocate a public health clinic that has long played a central role in the city’s provision of care for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

The Department of Public Health’s City Clinic is currently housed in a two-story industrial building in the South of Market neighborhood at 356 Seventh Street. It sees roughly 85 patients per day and accounts for more than 18,000 visits annually.

The site includes clinical laboratory facilities and medication storage in addition to the rooms to treat patients and office areas for staff. Built in 1912, it was originally a fire station.

As the Bay Area Reporter covered in 2019, the clinic received a $500,000 renovation to its waiting area and seven exam rooms. The location is City Clinic’s fourth since its founding in 1911.

Yet, the city considers the building to be “functionally obsolete” and for years has eyed relocating the STI clinic a fifth time. Estimated to cost $28.5 million to do so, moving City Clinic was included in the “City and County of San Francisco Capital Plan Fiscal Years 2024-2033” that was adopted last May 9.

“The current location is in poor condition, and a relocation would allow the department to modernize and streamline the operations of this vital service. The project budget is estimated at $28.5 million, planned to be funded by the 2024 Public Health G.O. Bond, pending voter approval,” states the document.

Thus, LGBTQ advocates were dismayed to learn Monday that the funding for the clinic’s planned move was not included in the $360 million bond measure that Mayor London Breed announced she wants to place before voters in November. As the B.A.R. first reported online, it did set aside $25 million for the project to reimagine Harvey Milk Plaza in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district.

The bond document released in 2023 refers to the Milk plaza redo among several “emerging projects.” It noted, “private fundraising and grants are expected to provide the majority of funding for this project,” which is estimated to cost a total of $35 million.

<< Milk plaza

From page 1

Along with the Milk plaza project money, the bond would fund $167 million in public health infrastructure, including renovating and expanding the Chinatown Health Clinic, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, and Laguna Honda Hospital. The city’s Homelessness Response System would receive $50 million to increase its capacity to house homeless families.

Another $70 million would go toward street safety projects and road repaving. Money would also be allocated toward improving Hallidie Plaza and repairing the elevator at the entrance into the Powell Street subway station.

“Harvey Milk Plaza should be an iconic location that serves the community not just as a connection to transit, but as a reminder of Harvey Milk’s life and legacy. By investing in this plaza, we can make it more accessible for all, benefit the Castro community and create a new and even greater gathering space,” Breed stated to the Bay Area Reporter.

The city’s Capital Planning Committee (https://www.onesanfrancisco.org/ about-cpc) took up the bond measure at its meeting Monday afternoon and is set to vote on approving it at its May 6 meeting. It must then secure eight votes from the Board of Supervisors to be added to the November 5 ballot. It will need a two-thirds approval from voters in order to pass.

“It’s amazing news! The Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza and city staff have done great work to get us a shovel-ready project, and if we can get this bond

Staff from City Clinic, muralists, and others from the Department of Public Health celebrated the dedication of a new mural, “Sanctuary for Health,” on the facade of the clinic’s building in November 2022. The clinic is considered dilapidated by city officials, who want to relocate it, but money to do so is not currently in a bond proposal released Monday by Mayor London Breed.

The bond would also fund $167 million in public health infrastructure, including renovating and expanding the Chinatown Health Clinic, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, and Laguna Honda Hospital. The city’s Homelessness Response System would receive $50 million to increase its capacity to house homeless families.

Another $70 million would go toward street safety projects and road repaving. Money would also be allocated toward improving Hallidie Plaza and repairing the elevator at the entrance into the Powell Street subway station.

“Never once before was Harvey Milk Plaza or Great Highway or $70 million for downtown renovations or Hallidie Plaza mentioned for the bond measure –that’s not how capital projects and general obligation bonds work,” Jeffrey Kwong, a gay man who is president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, told the B.A.R. “I 100% support Harvey Milk Plaza but that’s no excuse for cutting the $29 million planned for critical capital improvements at the City Clinic – which has been in the plans for years.”

He described City Clinic’s building as “dilapidated,” adding that he and others “were not happy” to see it missing from the list of projects the bond would fund that Breed announced.

“It is not acceptable to all of us to have the building get dilapidated but

passed, we will finally have a clear path to giving the Castro the iconic public space Harvey deserves,” gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro, told the B.A.R. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco), had secured $2.5 million in state funding toward the Milk plaza project. He said passage of the bond would be “a game changer” for the fundraising campaign to secure the rest of the money the project proponents need to raise before construction can begin.

“I am over the moon,” said Wiener.

“This is such an important project for the neighborhood and for the community. Harvey Milk Plaza right now is not up to par in terms of Harvey’s legacy and what Harvey means for our community.”

It will be a transformative change for the Castro district once complete, added Wiener.

“People all over the world come to visit the Castro. We have a huge opportunity to educate people about our community and about our neighborhood’s history,” said Wiener, who lives not far from the plaza site.

Located above the Castro Muni station, the public parklet is considered the front door to the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood. Its main entrance fronts Castro Street, with the plaza extending along Market Street to Collingwood Street.

At the moment much of the back half of the space is behind construction fencing due to a city-funded project to add a second elevator for the subway station. It should be completed by early 2026 at a cost of upward of $30 million.

When the elevator was first proposed back in 2016, neighborhood leaders had brought up also redesigning the plaza. It kicked off a lengthy process to come up

bond measure or if there are safety concerns with its current location. An emailed reply from an unnamed department spokesperson, sent after the B.A.R.’s article had been posted online Tuesday, didn’t once mention City Clinic.

“SFDPH operates a robust health care system and continually addresses ongoing infrastructure and capital needs. The Department will continue to thoughtfully and proactively improve its infrastructure, so that we can methodically meet the healthcare needs in our system,” according to the statement.

Breed spokesperson Jeff Cretan told the B.A.R. that her administration is looking for other ways to fund City Clinic’s relocation. He stressed there are no plans to shutter the public health amenity.

continually be on the front line of serving the queer community. It is one of the places that offered the monkeypox vaccine,” said Kwong, referring to the disease that broke out among gay and bi men in the spring of 2022.

Speaking at the April 29 meeting of the city’s Capital Planning Committee, Kwong called on it to include the funds for the health clinic. Vince Crisostomo, a queer Chamorro man who’s the director of aging services at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, also showed up to speak after receiving worrying texts from people afraid the city was “cutting” the public health clinic.

“For people of my generation, I am 63 years old, City Clinic has been a huge part of our history. It is a big part of why most of us have healthy lives today,” said Crisostomo, who serves on the LGBTQ advisory body for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. “The idea it is on the chopping block is really appalling.”

With the rise in various STDs, from mpox to syphilis, City Clinic is needed “more than ever,” he told the committee members.

“I do think the people of my generation, if they had to choose between their sexual health and making the plaza pretty, they would choose their sexual health,” said Crisostomo.

The health department has not responded to the B.A.R.’s questions about the omission of City Clinic from the

with a new design for the area amid opposition from those who fought to preserve the plaza’s current configuration, as the B.A.R. has extensively reported on over the years.

The project aims to reconfigure the public parklet to make it more accessible and better honor its namesake, who was the city’s first openly gay elected official when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk took office in January 1978 but was assassinated, along with then-mayor George Moscone, 11 months later by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White.

While in office, Milk was a big supporter of public transit. The plaza was named in his honor in 1985.

“As a worldwide ambassador for San Francisco and our values, Harvey is the ideal person to be celebrated by our city, and in our city,” stated Cleve Jones, a gay civil rights and union leader, in a news release Breed’s office shared with the B.A.R. ahead of the April 29 committee meeting.

Jones, who used to live in the Castro, was a close confidante to Milk and has been a vocal supporter of the plaza project.

“This bond measure will make possible the Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza, so that it can be a beacon to others all over the world; its very existence will give hope to people who need it,” stated Jones. “And it is my hope that it inspires others all across the world to become a hero in their own communities, because the world needs a lot more people like my friend, Harvey Milk.”

As part of the approved plans for the plaza, a new spiral podium feature is to be built at the entrance by the intersection of Castro and Market streets in a

the proposal in May.

Peskin told the B.A.R. he “100%” expects to see the funding for City Clinic to be added to the bond measure by the supervisors. Ensuring the longevity of the public health resource should take priority over streetscape improvements, he argued.

“The City Clinic is an important public health resource and we are exploring options for the future of the clinic. Some have said the clinic is being closed or shut down, which is not true,” Cretan told the B.A.R. “It will continue to operate and we will continue to work with DPH on investments to improve the patient experience.”

In terms of the bond measure, Cretan said there are no guarantees that funding priorities listed in the capital plan will be part of a final bond measure.

“We often make adjustments when it becomes time to move a bond forward,” stated Cretan. “We are exploring options for the future of City Clinic. But it does remain open and operating while we look at different options.”

Peskin speaks out

The bond oversight committee includes various city department heads and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3 and is challenging Breed for mayor this year. It will vote on the bond measure at its meeting Monday, May 6. It must then secure eight votes from the Board of Supervisors by July 26 to be added to the November 5 ballot. It will then need two-thirds approval from voters in order to pass.

The supervisors can make adjustments to what is included in the bond measure but must stay within the $360 million figure so as not to increase property owners’ tax bills. The board’s budget and finance committee will first take up

nod to its history as a gathering place for protests and rallies. A smaller stairway leading to the underground subway station would be constructed, replacing the wider one there today that undulates downward across most of the space.

A rose-colored, transparent overhang above the stairs and escalator that go to the Muni station would be used to protect them from rainwater. The color scheme is derived from that of the redand-white bullhorn the plaza’s namesake famously used to rally residents of the neighborhood and the city’s larger LGBTQ community during protests held at the site and during marches that kicked off from it.

Brian Springfield, a gay man who’s executive director of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza, had announced last year that the project was “shovel ready” and a capital campaign had begun to raise the required funding to pay for it. Earlier this year he had told the B.A.R. about $1 million in private funds and $3.3 million in public funding had been secured.

Monday, Springfield told the B.A.R. he was “thrilled to see” the mayor had included the plaza funds in the bond measure. Ideas for updating the open space have been floated for two decades, he noted, with the current plans being able to progress the farthest to being realized.

“This funding would make the project possible and help the community realize their vision for Harvey Milk plaza,” he said.

In March, at the request of Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 included $500,000 for the Milk plaza project. She was unable to secure the full $5 million she initially had sought last year.

“The bottom line is that San Francisco’s capital plan has been very well thought out and has been the subject of years of policy discussions, and there’s a reason that the most important projects have risen to the top of the list for funding like City Clinic,” said Peskin. “To, at the last minute, start rearranging the capital plan for other nice ... don’t get me wrong, Harvey Milk Plaza is a nice amenity and, by the way, it is not just Harvey Milk Plaza, there is $15 million in there basically for a new entryway to the San Francisco Zoo to get it all ready for pandas.

“If I have to pick between people and a plaza, or people and pandas, I am going to pick people every time. It is just that simple,” added Peskin, referring to Breed’s sealing a deal for the city zoological park to receive two pandas during her recent visit to China.

Cleve Jones, a close confidante to Milk who has been a vocal supporter of the plaza project, was quoted in support of the bond measure funding for it in a news release Breed’s office sent to media outlets April 29. Tuesday, he told the B.A.R. that he and other proponents of the plaza redo were not aware funding it in the bond would impact City Clinic.

“We did not ask for this. We did not lobby for it. We, frankly, didn’t know anything about it,” said Jones, a gay civil rights and union leader, who added he was first contacted by the mayor’s office April 26 regarding the bond measure. “We were told the mayor was adding this money to the bond and we were, of course, delighted. Monday we found out these were, clearly, funds designated for other agencies.”

He stressed that no one with the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza group had advocated that funds designated for another project, such as City Clinic, be redirected to the public parklet redo.

“No one involved in Harvey Milk Plaza would ever engage in any effort to take funding away from another agency and, particularly, City Clinic for goodness sake,” said Jones. t

With Breed now seeking $25 million for the project as part of the infrastructure bond, Springfield said Monday he is confident the full amount can be raised should voters pass the measure. He said discussions with private funders are underway; roughly $7 million is needed to pay for the commemorative elements of the project.

“I can share with you we are absolutely working on that. I hope to have good news to share soon,” he said.

Wiener told the B.A.R. the bond measure is a similar approach city officials took to raise the $10 million needed to widen the sidewalks along the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street, which was completed in 2014. When he became the District 8 supervisor in 2011, Wiener had championed the project and led the campaign to pass the bond measure that fall.

“It has been a huge benefit for the neighborhood,” said Wiener, noting that the sidewalks used to be “half the width they are today. It was a game changer for Castro Street.”

He said he will help with the campaign for this year’s bond measure should it make it to the ballot as expected.

“I think for a lot of people who look at this project, they may think it is a great idea but question if it is actually going to be funded,” said Wiener. “With this commitment, if voters pass the bond of course, and I think many of us will make sure it passes, this funding sends a powerful message to funders that the city of San Francisco is committed to the Castro, committed to Harvey Milk Plaza and committed to the LGBTQplus community.” t

Rick Gerharter

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Volume 54, Number 18 May 2-8, 2024 www.ebar.com

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Mental health care needed for LGBTQ youth

The Trevor Project released its 2024 National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People this week, and it should come as no surprise that queer youth continue to report high rates of mental health challenges, suicide risk, and associated experiences of anti-LGBTQ+ victimization such as bullying, discrimination, threats of physical violence, and conversion therapy, a news release from the West Hollywood-based nonprofit stated.

This is the sixth national queer youth survey The Trevor Project has undertaken. According to the report, a quantitative cross-sectional design was used to collect data through an online survey platform between September 13 and December 16, 2023. A sample of individuals aged 13 to 24 who resided in the United States, including its territories, was recruited via targeted ads on social media. No recruitment was conducted via The Trevor Project’s website or social media channels, the report stated. Out of an initial number of 72,424 individuals who began the survey, many were deemed ineligible or did not provide consent, among other reasons. This resulted in a final analytic sample of 18,663 LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24 in the U.S., according to the report.

The survey is one of the largest and most diverse of its kind and, because of that, offers some unique insights, though the findings are in line with previous surveys. Overall, 39% of LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year – including 49% of transgender and nonbinary young people, and more that one in 10 (12%) of all LGBTQ+ youth attempted suicide in the past year, according to the report. Queer youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers, “Yet despite these mental health challenges, 50% of LGBTQ+ young people who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it,” an accompanying news release stated.

A graph shows rates of LGBTQ+ young people who have felt discriminated against in the past year by race/ethnicity.

by Gallup and West Health, was based on a Gallup panel of about 100,000 people who are selected randomly.) And while the survey focused on adults, it’s clear from the Trevor report that young people share similar views. It points to the need in this country to increase mental health services for everyone.

This, of course, is not limited to queer youth. Gallup released a survey this week showing that three-quarters of Americans think mental health issues are identified and treated worse than physical health issues in the U.S. (The survey, conducted

The Trevor Project pointed out that as in previous surveys, anti-LGBTQ+ victimization was strongly associated with suicide risk – adding to the long-established reality that queer youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk, but rather, placed at a higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized by others. This is demonstrated in that 90% of LGBTQ+ young people who said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics, the report noted.

Nearly half, 45%, of trans and nonbinary young people reported that they or their family have considered moving to a different state because of LGBTQ+-related politics and laws. California, of course, is a refuge for trans kids and their families, thanks to a bill authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) a few years ago.

The law contains three main components. It

prohibits California law enforcement from cooperating with other states in enforcing laws that authorize agencies of those states to remove a child from their parent or guardian based on the parent or guardian authorizing gender-affirming care for the youth.

It also prohibits compliance with any out-of-state subpoenas seeking health or other related information about people who come to California seeking gender-affirming care, if the subpoena relates to efforts to remove trans children from their parents. Lastly, it restricts law enforcement from arresting or extraditing individuals to other states for receiving or providing gender-affirming care where that conduct is lawful in California.

A federal judge last month tossed a lawsuit filed by a conservative organization that alleged the law violated parental rights. The organization, Our Watch with Tim Thompson, claimed it was forced to spend more of its resources to “counteract the harms” of the bill. But a judge disagreed and said the organization’s decision on where to spend its resources is voluntary.

Join me to Drag Out The Vote

by Afrika America

How did I sashay into this thing called voter advocacy? I’m lucky and proud to say that I have cast a ballot in almost every election I’ve been eligible to vote in since I turned 18. Growing up a closeted young queer performing arts kid here in San Francisco, my parents instilled in me the ethic to make a plan and execute the why and how I was gonna vote. In high school (I’m a Washington alum – go Eagles!) we had a robust civics program, which not only taught you governmental affairs, but also instilled in you a duty to vote.

Fast forward to 2020! “Producer” and “performer” were a couple of the descriptors that characterized the persona known as Afrika America. I was working my job in aviation by day and brunch/dinners by night/weekends. And then, the COVID pandemic and the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd happened. For me, the world stopped. Many of us took to the streets and rallied against injustice and realized we could make a difference at the ballot box.

Unfortunately, America has short-term memory loss. Post-2016 showed us that one out of five LGBTQ+ folks were not registered to vote, and nearly 100 million voters did not vote. That changed in 2020, but then we saw the cost of being complacent in 2022 when Roe v. Wade was reversed. Now, here in 2024, the die is cast, and we are using our voices to stave off anti-drag, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, and to fight against the further erosion of reproductive rights and women’s bodily autonomy.

I became a Drag Out The Vote drag ambassador because I realized I could use my platform in the community to engage with audiences in fun ways about serious topics, social justice, and the importance and the impact of voting. Drag Out The Vote is a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization that works with drag performers to promote participation in democracy. Conceived in 2017, drag artists educate and register voters at drag

events online and in person by organizing local and national voter activations. Led by fierce drag artists across the nation, we advocate for increased voter access and engagement. We’re lucky we live here in the LGBTQ bubble, but not too far away, even here in the state of California, we see book bans that erase Black, Brown, and Indigenous history, plus censure the LGBTQ+ experience. We see successful attempts to create unrealistic and unreasonable timelines and policies that affect a woman’s right to choose or create an undue burden on the victims of rape and incest. Being civically minded and attentive is not only necessary; it’s the right we have enshrined in our Constitution.

So I’m here to ask you for four things ahead of the November general election. 1. Go to dragoutthevote.org/sashay-to-the-polls to register to vote or check your voter registration; 2. Take Drag Out The Vote’s 2024 Voter Pledge, and

sign up for election reminders; 3. Ta lk or text your friends and family about making a plan for them to vote; and 4. VOTE. In person. By mail. By absentee ballot.

Sashay to the polls!

Henny, my mother used to say, “Rosa didn’t sit on the back of that bus so you couldn’t vote! Don’t waste it!” t

Afrika America is a social justice activist, producer, performer, and a West Coast Drag Out The Vote drag ambassador. She produces and performs in multiple shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and around the country. She was the chairman for the Bay Area Queer Nightlife Coalition that pushed for diversity, equity, and inclusion in all queer spaces and has performed all over the world from Singapore to Cologne, Germany to Sydney, Australia and on “America’s Got Talent.”

Afrika America is a San Francisco-based drag ambassador for Drag Out The Vote.

Courtesy Drag Out The Vote

Courtesy The Trevor Project

Takano predicts doubling of LGBTQ caucus in Congress

by Matthew S. Bajko

At the moment there are nine LGBTQ members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Come 2025, gay Congressmember Mark Takano (DRiverside) expects to see a doubling of out representation in the chamber and Sarah McBride, a Democratic Delaware state senator, its first transgender member.

Due to the number of out congressional candidates running this year, Takano also expects to see all three West Coast states elect out House members following the results of the November 5 election. In California, he predicts the out members of the Golden State’s congressional delegation will double from its current two.

“We are going to be an even more diverse LGBT Equality Caucus in the House,” predicted Takano, who became the first openly gay person of color to be elected to Congress in 2012.

In the Bay Area, Takano sees gay state Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino) becoming the first out House member from the nine-county region. As of Wednesday morning, Low was awaiting word if a recount in his House race would send him on to the general election ballot.

“I do believe Evan will be the next LGBT representative from California come November ... and second gaysian,” Takano told the Bay Area Reporter during an April 29 phone interview.

The B.A.R. spoke to Takano ahead of his keynoting this year’s GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance 2024 Anniversary Banquet May 18. GAPA’s gala event, with a theme of “VANGUARD: Standing for QTAPI Inclusion, Awareness & Community,” will be held at the Marines’ Memorial Club in San Francisco.

“With all his accomplishments, Mark is truly a vanguard in queer and trans Asian and Pacific Islander (QTAPI) visibility and achievement,” stated GAPA Chair Justin Sha

Takano is the current co-chair of the Equality PAC (https://lgbtequalitypac. org/), the political action committee of the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus. Along with all nine incumbent House members up for reelection this year, the PAC has endorsed nine out candi dates seeking to join them in the House.

“I think we are going to run the tables,” boasted Takano, who is confident of seeing all 18 win their races.

Congressmember Mark Takano will deliver the keynote address at GAPA’s gala May 18.

rona), who received 53% of the primary vote. Takano was dismissive of recent reports that because Rollins received less than 50% of the primary vote, he is unlikely to win his race in November.

“I find a lot of fault with that,” said Takano, noting the primary was a “low turnout” election that leaned conservative.

The two Democrats who ran garnered a combined 47% of the vote, with Rollins receiving 38.4% and Anna Nevenic, a nurse, netting 8.6%. It is not impossible to conceive Rollins being able to defeat Calvert in November if more Democrats and left-leaning independents come out to vote, argued Takano.

“The fact the combined Democratic vote was close to 50% bodes very well for him,” said Takano. “I read the primary results opposite of the so-called prognosticators.”

More Latino voters coming out to the ballot box in the fall could also bolster Rollins’ chances of victory, argued Takano. He had lost to Calvert in 1994 in a campaign that saw Takano be outed in mailers sent to voters. Over the decades Calvert’s district has been redrawn several times, with it now including the gay resort and retirement mecca of Palm Springs.

Doing so will represent “a huge pushback on the culture wars that Republicans have been pursuing,” said Takano. “To elect double the size of our presence in Congress, and also the first trans representative this election cycle, is a huge repudiation and a huge revocation of the reprehensible culture war extreme MAGA conservatives have pursued to scapegoat and stigmatize and change the subject of politics.”

There are also three out Democratic women in the U.S. Senate, with lesbian Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin seeking reelection this year. Lesbian Senator Laphonza Butler of California and bisexual Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona both opted not to run and will be departing Congress.

Takano and gay Congressmember Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), the first out gay Latino in the House from California, are expected to easily win their reelection races this fall. Takano also expects to see gay former federal prosecutor Will Rollins, a Democrat, win in his second bid for a Southern California House seat this year.

“My words to everybody is Will Rollins is very much in this race,” said Takano.

Rollins is trying to oust from his 41st Congressional District seat conservative Congressmember Ken Calvert (R-Co-

County’s final recount results. We now await a final decision on the remaining challenged ballots in San Mateo County in determining the ultimate outcome,” Low campaign spokesperson Clay Volino told the B.A.R. April 30. “We would like to thank the elections officials and their staff for their hard work during this process.”

Takano told the B.A.R. he had reached out to Low in recent days to offer him the PAC’s support during the recount and moving forward to the general election race. He said it is clear Liccardo’s supporters are attempting to keep Low off the November ballot, contrary to the recount requester’s contention he sought it in support of Low.

“I did connect with Evan Low recently, mostly to try to help him in any way I could and to be supportive,” said Takano, who added that he believes a more liberal electorate in November will favor Low in the race. “We are going to have a California delegation of four; four gays.”

Oregon, Washington

The Equality PAC is also supporting three West Coast out congressional candidates who have yet to have their primary races. Oregon will hold its partybased primaries Tuesday, May 21.

Lesbian former Santa Clara city councilmember Jamie McLeod-Skinner is running again for Oregon’s District 5 House seat after falling short in 2022. She aims to take on a second time Republican Congressmember Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Happy Valley.

A progressive, McLeod-Skinner has faced questions on whether she can defeat the GOP incumbent in November. Myriad Democratic leaders and groups are backing her primary opponent, state Representative Janelle Bynum

More Democratic support has come to Rollins early on in his current campaign, with the Equality PAC one of many liberal-leaning groups to endorse him ahead of the primary. When he ran in 2022, it wasn’t until Rollins survived that year’s primary that he began to receive more support from the party and groups allied with it.

Unlike two years ago, noted Takano, Rollins didn’t need to spend much money on his primary race in March since it was clear he would advance out of it.

“We knew he was going to win, and he knew he would do well. It would have been a ridiculous expenditure of money to put into that race,” said Takano. “Everyone second-guessing or out there nattering about this race, they are idiots.”

South Bay race

The LGBT caucus’s PAC had also endorsed Low in his March 5 primary contest for the South Bay’s open House District 16 seat. Congressmember Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) decided to retire when her term ends.

Sam Liccardo, the Democratic former mayor of San Jose, took first place. With Low tied for second with Democratic Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, all three were set to advance to the November ballot under the state’s top-two voting system.

But a former Liccardo aide requested a recount, and as of Tuesday, Low was leading Simitian by four votes. While Santa Clara County elections officials have now finished their recount, their counterparts in San Mateo County were reviewing 16 ballots received by mail to see if they should be counted.

“Our team has reviewed Santa Clara

In Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District queer Grisham City Councilmember Eddy Morales aims to succeed Congressmember Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland), who opted not to run for reelection this year. Two high-profile progressives are also in the Democratic primary with Morales, and due to the makeup of the district, the winner is expected to easily defeat their GOP opponent in November.

Meanwhile, in Washington, queer Democratic state Senator Emily Randall aims to succeed Congressmember Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) in the 6th District House seat covering the Puget Sound region. The Evergreen State holds its primary August 6, and like California, it selects congressional candidates based on a top-two system.

Randall, a former Bay Area resident, is facing a tough campaign as Kilmer endorsed Washington Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz to succeed him. GOP state Senator Drew MacEwen is also running for the House seat.

In recent weeks Randall has secured endorsements from tribal officials and Democratic leaders, such as her state’s senior U.S. Senator, Patty Murray. Tuesday her campaign touted favorable polling results that give her a leg up once voters learn more about her and the other two candidates.

Takano noted that Randall will be the first out Latina to serve in Congress, and Morales would bring the number of gay Latinos to three. His co-chair of the caucus, Congressmember Ritchie Torres (D-New York), is Afro Latino.

The out Democrats running against GOP opponents in November will have an advantage, argued Takano, due to the Republican Party’s lack of an agenda to lift up Americans. The GOP’s incessant attacks on the rights of LGBTQ people will also hurt the party’s candidates in the fall, contended Takano.

PLACE: Call 415-829-8937 or email advertising@ebar.com

Friends recall Banko Brown 1 year after killing

by John Ferrannini

Colleagues and family are remembering Banko Brown on the oneyear anniversary of his death. The 24-year-old unarmed and unhoused Black trans man was shot dead last April 27 by a security guard at a Market Street Walgreens.

In perhaps the most controversial decision of her tenure so far, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins opted not to pursue criminal charges against Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, the security guard employed by Kingdom Group Protective Services who worked at the downtown drugstore. He was initially arrested by San Francisco Police Department officers on suspicion of homicide but was released.

Since last year, California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has been conducting an inquiry about Jenkins’ decision. A spokesperson did not return a request for comment from the Bay Area Reporter on April 30.

In mid-December a spokesperson for Bonta had stated that “the review remains ongoing and we have no updates to share at this point.” When asked by the B.A.R. at that time when the report might be finished, the spokesperson stated, “that’s all the information that we can provide at this time, but happy to keep you in the loop should updates become available.”

The DA’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Brown had worked as an organizer at the Young Women’s Freedom Center. Julia Arroyo, the executive director of the center, remembered Brown in an April 29 press statement.

“At Young Women’s Freedom Center, we remember Banko often. His picture is on our five altars across the state and we gather regularly to share sweet memories. On every one of those occasions, we are left feeling angry and frustrated that very little has been done to prevent more senseless deaths of young trans people,” Arroyo stated.

“Banko’s life was worth so much more

Banko Brown was remembered by his former colleagues at Young Women’s Freedom Center on the one-year anniversary of his shooting.

than what it was taken for. In the face of adversity, he was resilient and courageous,” Arroyo added. “He fearlessly fought for the rights and dignity of trans people, and left an everlasting mark on YWFC and the movement as a whole. He deserved a world more than what was stolen from him.”

Brown was shot at the Walgreens located at 825 Market Street around 6:30 p.m. April 27, 2023 after allegedly attempting to shoplift $15 worth of candy. Anthony, the security guard, was contracted by the retailer through Kingdom Group.

A 5-minute, 58-second store surveillance video released by the DA’s office, taken from an overhead camera, shows that Brown, trying to leave the store, was pushed by Anthony, who punched Brown and subdued him as Brown tried to get away.

Other people can be seen nonchalantly going about their shopping.

Brown was subdued for about 50 seconds, at which time Anthony let him go. Then Brown grabbed his bag and left, backing out of the store and pointing at Anthony. Brown then put his arms to his side and moved slightly, at which point Anthony shot him.

The video was released following the public outcry after Jenkins declined to charge Anthony.

Announcing her decision in a May 1, 2023 statement, Jenkins explained that the evidence in the case at that time did “not meet the people’s burden to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that the suspect is guilty of a crime. The evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense.”

Arroyo wrote about the toll Brown’s death has taken.

“Every parent and community member in California has to live with the chilling knowledge that he was shot and killed by a security guard at Walgreens for allegedly stealing $14 worth of candy,” Arroyo stated. “And those who think this could never happen to their kids or their neighbors’ have to know that they are wrong.”

Following Brown’s death, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution asking the federal justice department and Bonta’s office to determine whether to press charges against Anthony. The feds demurred to Bonta’s office, as the B.A.R. reported last July.

Lawsuit filed

The Brown family filed a $25 million wrongful death suit against Walgreens, Kingdom Group, and Anthony in San Francisco Superior Court. They are being represented by longtime civil rights attorney John Burris.

Burris told the B.A.R. that the litigation is moving forward.

“It’s been a year and it’s been very difficult for the family to adjust to his passing and the circumstances of his passing, and we are moving full speed ahead on the litigation,” Burris said in a phone interview. “We’ve identified all the parties involved and we hold one lasting ramification is we bring about positive change, positive reforms, as it relates to Walgreens and the security company, that they institute better training and that those who carry guns are trained on how to de-escalate. It’s still a tragedy Banko Brown lost his life in the manner in which he did.”

Brown’s father, Terry, referred the

B.A.R. to stepmother Barbara Brown for a comment on behalf of the family. In a brief phone interview she said, “We will not stop until justice is found for Banko Brown.”

The events of the past year have been difficult for the family to process, she said.

“You know how you start to process something and come to the realization something did occur and you have to reprocess? It’s a recurring emotion that’s being felt. Terry mentioned ‘Today Banko was here, and tomorrow she’s gone,” Barbara Brown said, referring to Banko with female pronouns and saying he was Banko “to the world.”

“If you look at it, that is what it was,” Brown continued. “It’s a never-healing process because it’s always going to come up. Her spirit is very strong. She is dearly missed for sure.”

Brown said that “it just feels so unfair she is in heaven, not present with us, but her killer is roaming the streets, walking around like everything is normal, but nothing happened to him.

“Just the other day another news reporter came out with something, that [security camera] video, and it doesn’t show he was in fear,” Brown continued.

“It’s just a lot, the emotions are really, really, really deep and the feelings are very concerning. There are things being done but maybe it’s not fast enough. You start to process and have to reprocess again. It’s a never-ending cycle of healing and processing. You’ll never get used to it, you’ll just have to bear it. We miss her a lot. Life is gone too soon.”

In October, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance limiting security personnel from drawing their weapons.

District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, a straight ally, cited Brown’s killing as the basis to amend the police code to prohibit armed security guards from drawing or exhibiting firearms to protect property. The weapons may be in a holster.

Continuing her statement, Arroyo said Brown’s death is an indictment: of Walgreens, and of San Francisco.

“We all have to be deeply concerned

about the killing of Banko Brown,” Arroyo stated. “We have to think about it as a testament to where we are as a country and as a state. We have to know this is what San Francisco is like. It is what Walgreens is like. I hope as you take a moment to remember Banko, you feel angry about this. And take what actions you can to protect poor and Black trans youth.”

Arroyo also took the opportunity to express disagreement with efforts to repeal or make substantial changes to Proposition 47. Dubbed by its supporters the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, Prop 47 was passed by California voters in the November 2014 election by a margin of 60% to 40%, and recategorized certain nonviolent offenses, including some property crimes, as misdemeanors.

“In fact, right now in California, legislators are working hard to repeal Prop 47, a law that protects people struggling for survival from disproportionate punishment over survival crimes,” Arroyo stated. “This hyphenates a nationwide fixation with tougher-on-crime responses instead of addressing the real reasons young people have to meet their needs in these ways.”

As the B.A.R. previously reported, there’s been an increased willingness to make changes to Prop 47 to combat retail theft. At a Noe Valley town hall in February, Jenkins said, “I think we started to erode the tools that law enforcement had, as a state, to be able to prosecute theft crimes effectively. One of the mechanisms that caused that was Prop 47, and we have to acknowledge that, and I’m not saying that I disagree with the spirit of what Prop 47 was intending to do ... but what it did was, when it raised the threshold [for felony larceny] from $450 to $950, it created far more misdemeanor crimes at the same time the Legislature was watering down the penalties for misdemeanor crimes.”

Walgreens cut ties with Kingdom Group in the weeks after the shooting. Neither returned requests for comment. t

Group warns of anti-LGBTQ ‘Project 2025’

by J.L. Odom

If former President Donald Trump is again elected president in November, far-right extremist groups led by the Heritage Foundation have a transition plan already outlined that critics say will strip rights from people. The plan could also be put to use by conservative political leaders even if Trump falls short at the ballot box.

The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism held a briefing call with reporters April 30 to discuss what it sees as dangers of the plan and how it could affect people if it’s implemented. It has been warning about the anti-LGBTQ federal directives being planned by conservative leaders since last fall.

“We have deep concerns about this plan because of the effects it will have on civil rights and democracy,” said GPAHE co-founder Heidi Beirich, Ph.D., during the call.

The plan she was referring to is Project 2025, also known as the “Presidential Transition Project.” It promotes a conservative administration and impacts the rights of marginalized groups such as women, people of color, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community.

For example, Project 2025 states, “The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment

rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.

“Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare,” Project 2025 continues. “It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread

should be shuttered.”

Beirich is the chief strategy officer of GPAHE, a nonprofit she and co-founder Wendy Via launched in 2020 that confronts transnational hate and far-right extremism movements, such as those directed toward LGBTQ+ individuals.

“Our goal is to push back far-right movements because we view them as a dire threat to civil rights, human rights [and] multiracial democracies, and we see these movements as inherently antirights and preferencing authoritarian ideas,” Beirich said. “That’s why we’re so concerned about them. The policy preferences you’ll find in Project 2025 are generally of that ilk.”

In the press briefing, Beirich and Via, who described themselves as “committed [LGBTQ+] allies,” provided an overview of Project 2025 based on their reading of the 900-plus-page plan – of-

fering insight into who’s involved, the groups it’s directed toward, its funding and its implications.

“Every single section of [Project 2025] somehow conveys the idea that the left is subversive and deviant and threatens the real America. So everything has to be viewed through that lens,” said Via, who’s also GPAHE’s president.

Notably, the project is backed by some 100 advisory organizations and approximately 300 individuals from farright groups, with the Heritage Foundation overseeing its aims.

Beirich explained, “The Heritage Foundation is a very different organization today than it was in the 1980s in the [Ronald] Reagan era when he was focused on things like taxes and budgets. Now the group is largely about stripping rights from particular communities.”

National organizations supporting Project 2025 include America First Legal, Moms for Liberty, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, and others with a history of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policybacking, according to the website.

“Many of the organizations involved in this effort are openly hateful toward certain populations, particularly immigrants and LGBTQ+ people,” noted Beirich. “In the past, it used to be the case that a lot of these organizations were sidelined by mainstream Republicans for being too extreme, but that’s no longer the case. They’re embraced by the conservative movement.”

The official Project 2025 website describes the plan’s purpose as “pav[ing] the way for an effective conservative Administration based on four pillars: a policy agenda, Presidential Personnel

Database, Presidential Administration Academy, and playbook for the first 180 days of the next Administration.”

The project is against a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded the definition of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity in employment.

“The Biden Administration, LGBT advocates, and some federal courts have attempted to expand the scope and definition of sex discrimination, based in part on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County,” Project 2025 states. “Bostock held that ‘an employer who fires someone simply for being homosexual or transgender’ violates Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination. The Court explicitly limited its holding to the hiring/ firing context in Title VII and did not purport to address other Title VII issues, such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes, or other laws prohibiting sex discrimination.

“The new Administration should restrict Bostock’s application of sex discrimination protections to sexual orientation and transgender status in the context of hiring and firing. The President should direct agencies to withdraw unlawful ‘notices’ and ‘guidances’ purporting to apply Bostock’s reasoning broadly outside hiring and firing. … The President should direct agencies to focus their enforcement of sex discrimination laws on the biological binary meaning of ‘sex,’” the document reads.

Via and Beirich emphasized that the project has already taken shape and will continue to do so, no matter the outcome of this year’s U.S. presidential election.

Heidi Beirich, Ph.D., left, and Wendy Via founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Courtesy GPAHE

Groups launch downtown SF street parties Community News>>

compiled by Cynthia Laird

Acoalition of organizations is launch-

ing Downtown First Thursdays, a free all-ages street party that will take place the first Thursdays of the month from 5 to 10 p.m. It starts May 2 and runs through April 2025, a news release stated.

San Francisco drag laureate and Oasis LGBTQ nightclub owner D’Arcy Drollinger is one of the organizers.

“Oasis is excited to be partnering with Downtown First Thursdays,” Drollinger stated. “It is our continued goal to elevate and celebrate the art of drag. And what better way than bringing this fabulous art form out of the clubs and into the streets as part of this celebration that highlights the vibrant and inclusive spirit of our city?”

Downtown First Thursdays will take place in the street and neighboring businesses on Second Street, from Market to Folsom streets, and the alleys on Jessie, Minna, and Natoma streets, the release noted.

The creative undertaking will see hundreds of artists, musicians, performers, culture makers, and food and retail vendors on the streets with the goal of bringing thousands of people downtown every month, kicking off a new San Francisco tradition, and igniting a new era of civic pride downtown, the release stated.

Special guest Aluna will perform for opening night. Attendees will enjoy disco in the streets, DJs, live music, drag, martial arts, fashion, and street performances, according to the release.

Into the Streets, the partnership behind Downtown First Thursdays, includes the Civic Joy Fund, East Cut Community Benefit District, Yerba Buena Community Benefit District, Natoma Cabana, and 111 Minna Gallery. In addition to Oasis, creative partners include The Midway, Another Planet Entertainment, Noise Pop, KALW, Grace Towers, A Little x, and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the release stated.

Some of the events include an outdoor beer garden and programming by KALW at 111 Minna Gallery, located at 111 Minna Street. Natoma Cabana, at 90 Natoma Street, will hold an outdoor dance hall and an outdoor bar for those aged 21 and over.

Organizers noted the importance of efforts to revitalize downtown in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.

“What I love most about this work and creating DFT is getting to see everyone – neighborhood groups, residents, creative partners, small businesses, major employers, city partners, electeds, and funders – answer the call to be their best selves and show up for each other and our city when we need each other the most,” stated Katy Birnbaum, Into the Streets founder. “Rebuilding downtown and our economy is huge and can feel daunting, but everyone can be part of the solution with a first, simple step.”

The event is funded by Bob and Randi Fisher and Levi Strauss & Co. via the Civic Joy Fund, the release noted.

Downtown First Thursdays is the latest in a surge of night markets and street activations across San Francisco. Gay District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio launched a night market in the Sunset district last fall that proved popular with more expected later this year. Chinatown has a night market that takes place the second Friday of the month through November.

For more information on Downtown First Thursdays and a link to secure tickets, go to www.dftsf.com.

Benefit for Oakland

LGBTQ cultural district

The Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District in Oakland is holding a fundraiser, Drag Around the Rink, Wednesday, May 8, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, 10 10th Street in downtown Oakland.

A news release stated that in addition to skating there will also be dancing. Bay Area DJ Christie James will host. James, who identifies as pansexual and

bisexual, has been involved in Oakland Pride events in previous years and is a resident of the city, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in a 2022 profile.

Host emcee will be Yb Babie.

There will be a concession stand on hand where families can enjoy refreshments, the release stated.

Funds raised will go toward essential

and encompasses parts of the Lakeshore and Grand neighborhoods. The City Council approved the district last fall.

Cultural district representatives were excited about the upcoming fundraiser.

“We are thrilled to invite the community to Drag Around the Rink,” stated Jeff Myers, a co-founder of the community center and board president of the cultural district. “This event embodies the spirit of unity and support that defines our district, and we’re excited to see everyone come together to celebrate and contribute to our shared goals.”

In addition to the community center, event sponsors include the Oakland Roots Sports Club, Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, Turn Out, Oakland Pride, and Children’s Fairyland.

Jewish memorial event to commemorate Yom Ha’Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). Clergy from Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, the predominantly LGBTQ synagogue near the Castro, will lead the outdoor service.

Pink Triangle Park is located at the intersection of 17th and Market streets.

Queer documentary projects receive grants

At least two documentary projects related to the LGBTQ community have received funding from California Humanities. The organization announced the recipients of the 2024 California Documentary Project April 29.

community projects, including the installation and maintenance of a rainbow crosswalk in the district, banners promoting the district, and ambassadors, the release stated.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, the Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District is anchored by the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center on Lakeshore Avenue,

Tickets are $25 general ad mission; $20 for students and seniors; and $15 for kids 11 years of age and under. To purchase tickets, go to https://tinyurl.com/5a9ahbp8.

Holocaust remembrance at Pink Triangle Park

The Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association will hold a Holocaust memorial event at Pink Triangle Park Monday, May 7, at 6 p.m. This is the organization’s third annual intersectional queer and

A total of $400,000 will be distributed among 13 new film, audio, and interactive media productions in different categories that document the Golden State in all its complexity, according to a news release.

Kartemquin Educational Films’ “Barbara Hammer Project” received a production grant of up to $50,000. The project director is Brydie O’Conner. The documentary portrait explores the films, archives, and ongoing cultural impact of filmmaker Hammer, and her careerlong effort to create and record lesbian histories, according to the release.

Jane Philomen Cleland

rainbow crosswalk in Petaluma, and worked with several elementary schools in Sonoma County and funded inclusive mural projects. We bring representation wherever we can.”

The B.A.R. reported on the crosswalk last June. Amor Para Todos used private funds to paint it on Kentucky Street between Western Avenue and Washington Street.

Amor Para Todos is planning an event for Give OUT Day later this month, Ho said, on Thursday, May 30, from 2 to 9 p.m. at The Block Petaluma at 20 Grey Street. This is Amor Para Todos’ fifth annual event.

“Even though Give Out Day is virtual, on the culminating day we want to bring it to life,” Ho said, referring to the last day of the campaign. “I think all the organizations on that list – we all have a reason and a motivation to do the work we do. It’s so important to support.”

Doughty said that Horizons has been “proud to support Amor Para Todos, both through direct grantmaking and through Give Out Day ever since its founding, and we continue to believe the work that they’re doing is making tremendous differences in the lives of young queer people and their families and, again, given the atmosphere nationally created by all of the anti-trans legislation and all of the rhetoric we’re hearing the challenges for young people, especially young trans people, are again greater than ever.”

Donors are important

Individual donors are an important pool for LGBTQ nonprofits. As the B.A.R. reported in its April 25 issue, support for LGBTQ causes by foundations continues to lag behind the needs of the organizations. In 2021, for instance, just 10 foundations accounted for 60% of the $251 million awarded by major philanthropic foundations to LGBTQ groups.

The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s Equitable Giving Lab released new research April 30 highlighting the need for LGBTQ philanthropy. Its report found that charitable giving to LGBTQ+ organizations totaled $823 million in 2021.

While such donations more than doubled from 2012-2021, still less than $1 out of every $500 donated went to support LGBTQ organizations. Certain sectors, such as education-focused groups, grew more (a 254% increase in that time frame) than others, such as HIV/AIDSrelated groups (which saw only a 7% increase).

Last May, using funding from Google.org as part of the Equitable Giving Lab, the school debuted its LGBTQ+ Index to better track charitable giving in the U.S. to LGBTQ organizations. It includes a searchable database with information on hundreds of LGBTQ agencies from across the country.

Una Osili, Ph.D., associate dean for research and international programs for the school, stated, “The LGBTQ+ Index is a valuable resource that both illustrates the resiliency and impact of LGBTQ+ organizations, and also

offers an opportunity to better understand the nuanced landscape of giving—ultimately helping advance equity in philanthropy.”

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is also taking part in Give OUT Day and asking people to consider donating to make a difference for communities affected by HIV.

“Your generous gift will be put to immediate use to support our community members with our programs and services providing stigma-free health care and support services,” a spokesperson for the foundation stated to the B.A.R. “Your donation supports the organization’s innovative programs and partnerships that provide housing assistance, counseling, syringe access services, HIV testing and more – all free to those who need them and all shown to help prevent HIV transmission.”

Gary McCoy, a gay man who’s vice president of policy and public affairs for HealthRight 360, which provides health care and social services, told the B.A.R. that its work has a disproportionate impact in the LGBTQ community. It’s also participating in Give OUT Day. Over 7,000 people accessed HealthRIGHT’s substance abuse disorder programs in San Francisco, McCoy stated.

“According to SAMHSA’s 2021 and 2022 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health – the results of which were released last June – about onethird of bisexual females, bisexual males, and gay males had a substance use disorder in the past year, and about one-fourth of lesbian females had a substance use disorder in the past year,” McCoy said, referring to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“HealthRIGHT 360 provides a full continuum of health care and drug treatment services, regardless of one’s ability to pay, inspired by our belief that health care is a right, not a privilege.”

Dani Siragusa, the director of development and communications at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, stated to the B.A.R. that Give OUT Day has helped it in the past.

Located at 1800 Market Street, the center provides employment, financial, and youth services, and is again taking part in the monthlong fundraising event.

“Give Out Day is the only national giving event for the LGBTQ community, and since 2013, it has helped hundreds of LGBTQ nonprofits, including the SF LGBT center, raise

“They cannot win on the issues. They don’t really have a platform; their platform is really all about tax cuts for the wealthy and making corporations more concentrated and more powerful,” said Takano. “For all their talk about freedom, you know their agenda is really not about freedom. It is about enslaving and subjecting ordinary citizens to extraordinary market power.”

What is needed, said Takano, is more of a balanced approach to governing.

“I am concerned about government

freedom from an overly-intrusive government,” said Takano. “We in the LGBT community understand about having a government that intrudes upon our lives and dictates our lives. We understand the power of an overly powerful government.”

As for his upcoming visit to San Francisco, Takano told the B.A.R. he has worked with GAPA on and off over the last decade. He was last in town a year ago visiting friends. “I am delighted beyond all belief. I am just very delighted to receive this honor and to connect with the community,” said Takano of being asked to deliver the keynote address at the banquet.

critical funds for our transformative programs and services,” Siragusa stated. “We encourage folks to pledge their support for so many incredible LGBTQ+ nonprofits, through Give OUT Day’s impactful platform.”

Allegra Madsen, a lesbian, became the permanent executive director of Frameline, which produces San Francisco’s annual LGBTQ film festival, earlier this year, as the B.A.R. reported.

It will also seek donations through Give OUT Day.

“In this climate supporting queer joy, community, and visibility affects cultural change,” Madsen said. “This begins with art and storytelling. To that end participating in the festival and supporting the festival promotes our communities and the change we want to see.”

Frameline will be hosting the first-ever Castro neighborhood commemoration of Juneteenth on Wednesday, June 19, with an outdoor event featuring music and a screening of “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero.”

Frameline’s full slate of events for this year’s film festival will be announced May 21. Because of the closure of the Castro Theatre due to the ongoing renovation and restoration project, film screenings this year will be held at the Roxie Theater, the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, the Herbst Theatre, the Vogue Theater, and the New Parkway Theater in Oakland.

Elizabeth Lanyon, associate director of philanthropy for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, told the B.A.R. that Give OUT Day is “a rally cry for everyone to serve as allies and advocates for LGTBQ people and organizations, such as NCLR.”

“We are proud to have participated in Give OUT Day for several years alongside many other organizations who rely on the commitment of individuals to move our missions forward,” Lanyon stated. “NCLR continues to lead national efforts fighting for our community, and when you give to NCLR on Give OUT Day – or anytime really – you are bolstering our work while making it known that you, too, believe in our values of justice and equity.”

Andrew Shaffer, a gay man who is director of development and communications for the GLBT Historical Society, which runs the GLBT Historical Society Museum at 4127 18th Street in the Castro neighborhood, stated that Give OUT Day is an opportunity to stand up for organiza-

He hadn’t heard that his colleague Congressmember Adam Schiff (DBurbank) gave a speech sans coat and tie last week at a San Francisco event because his luggage was stolen from his car. Takano endorsed Schiff in his primary race to succeed Butler in the Senate seat she was appointed to last fall following the death of longtime senator Dianne Feinstein.

“Adam, as a former prosecutor and former Trump impeachment manager, he has all the air of a starchy prosecutor. He has got a formal, dry sense of humor,” said Takano. “He can be very dry. Good for him that he showed up in San Fran-

tions on the front lines of defending LGBTQ rights.

“Anti-LGBTQ crusaders are working hard at every level to push us back into the closets and strip away hardwon rights,” Shaffer stated. “As a global day of LGBTQ generosity, Give OUT Day is an important way we can resist these movements and show up for each other, by supporting the organizations working to keep our communities and culture safe.”

Dolores Street Community Services oversees Jazzie’s Place, a homeless shelter for LGBTQ adults. As the B.A.R. recently reported, it once again reached its full pre-COVID capacity in December post-reopening.

“Give OUT Day presents a vital opportunity to support DSCS and its transformative programs,” spokesperson Jackeline Rodriguez stated. “Every donation contributes to their mission of empowerment, advocacy, and social justice.”

Give OUT Day covers the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ community.

Another organization participating is San Francisco’s Transgender District, the world’s first legally recognized district for transgender people.

Carlo Gomez Arteaga, a trans man, is leading the district alongside Breonna McCree, a woman of trans experience. They issued a joint statement touching on how Give OUT Day “enables the Transgender District to amplify awareness of our crucial mission, vision, programs, and initiatives within the transgender and nonbinary communities and beyond.”

“Give OUT Day also serves as a dedicated and essential fundraising avenue specifically tailored for organizations like ours, which serve the transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) community,” they stated. “The Transgender District heavily relies on donations to sustain our operations, bolster community projects, and deliver crucial services to individuals within our Tenderloin district and further. Our involvement in Give OUT Day facilitates the generation of funds that are indispensable for the district’s ongoing expansion and ever-growing impact.”

Help nonprofits outside big cities

Will McGarvey, the every-gender-loving executive director of the Solano Pride Center in Fairfield, said that donations can help bring further acceptance and equality outside the big cities.

cisco without a suit. Probably some fate working there in his favor.”

“Give OUT Day is a huge opportunity for LGBTQ centers in counties like ours that serve as bedroom communities, even while folks may spend a lot of their working hours in different counties,” McGarvey said. “If they want to come back here and make change in the culture of this county they’re living in, we definitely need more funds to be able to make that kind of systemic cultural change.”

Doughty said that supporting more suburban and rural communities is a big part of Give OUT Day’s mission.

“I absolutely agree with that, and one of the things we’ve been proudest of in running Give OUT Day these past nine years has been the reach of the program into rural parts of the country, as well as cities, and that is something that is a significant challenge, the fundraising for organizations in less populated areas,” he said. “One of the things we hope Give OUT Day has accomplished has been to help organizations to develop stronger fundraising that can continue beyond Give OUT Day itself.”

The fundraiser also isn’t just limited to the Bay Area. Marianne Duddy-Burke, a cisgender married lesbian Catholic mom who is executive director of DignityUSA – a national LGBTQ Catholic group barred from meeting on church property in some dioceses, such as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco – stated that “while a large proportion of charitable donations are to religious groups, organizations like DignityUSA that serve and advocate for LGBTQ+ people are not publicized by denominational religious guides.

“So members of our community and our supporters may be unwittingly giving to groups that are working to limit our rights,” DuddyBurke continued. “Give OUT Day has given us the chance to reach new donors, and to obtain contributions from people who want to be part of a movement funding LGBTQ+ advancement.”

The program, she added, “has put the generosity of LGBTQ+ donors and allies in the spotlight, and has helped lots of smaller groups doing extraordinary work.”

Nonprofits that want to register to participate can begin the process on Horizons’ website.

Registration is open till May 20. t

With Schiff telling the B.A.R. he wants to be the first U.S. senator to complete the AIDS/LifeCycle bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Takano was asked if he would consider joining him in the seven-day fundraiser for the Los Angeles LGBT Center and San Francisco AIDS Foundation held annually in early June. While Takano has never rode in it, he is friends with Dan Pallotta, who initially conceived of the event then known as the AIDS Ride but later faced questions about how much money was given to the beneficiaries, which ended up producing it themselves.

When Takano graduated college, he biked across the country from Seattle to Boston in a fundraiser Pallotta had organized to raise money for a hunger relief agency. He didn’t rule out participating in the AIDS fundraiser alongside Schiff.

“I would consider it if I have time, and my knee and hip are not in the way,” Takano, 63, told the B.A.R. “I hope bike riding won’t worsen what’s recently arisen as a result of advancing age.” Doors for GAPA’s banquet open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets cost $100 per person and can be purchased online at www.bit. ly/GAPA2024VANGUARD t

Gary McCoy of HealthRIGHT 360 said the organization is taking part in Give OUT Day.

Sari Staver

Allegra Madsen, executive director of Frameline, said Give OUT Day is important for nonprofits.

Courtesy Frameline

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

You really do not need me to tell you how bleak things are right now for the trans community. Whether it is yet another round of anti-trans bathroom bills, laws to make it a felony to provide us care, or more sports bans, legislators are doing their best to make our lives miserable. The mainstream media –when it isn’t airing anti-trans comedy specials – is busy elevating transphobes in the pages of the country’s biggest news outlets. Our country has become a patchwork of locations where we can – and more often, cannot – set foot in.

Meanwhile, our nation is sleepwalking toward a November election with potentially disastrous consequences, as we see a weak Biden administration take on the corrupt second coming of former President Donald J. Trump. Hand-in-hand with our own struggles, a litany of racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, and every other -ism you can imagine is making a resurgence, as well as major fights for abortion rights.

Heck, we even have one Republican vice presidential hopeful, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, openly discussing her prowess in killing her pet dog.

Somewhere along the way, everything just became awful and, let’s be honest here, the issue of trans existence is at the center of a lot of it. Our very ability just to be is under perilous threat.

We need time to breathe. We need time for our joy.

Now, I am not suggesting that we need to cast our fears by the wayside like some trans Scarlett O’Hara, and ignore the very real, very dangerous state of the world. For one thing, I don’t think that’s actually possible.

What I am telling you is not to despair, even while everything else is pushing us to the brink.

For those who want to see us wiped off the face of this planet, our distress serves their will. Their joy is in our sorrows, and if we push ourselves to the margins, then we have done their work for them.

Every bill a lawmaker puts forward against trans lives is seeking to rob us of our autonomy, and to prevent us from leading full and happy lives. Many commentators – and let’s include the author of a certain magical wizard book series among this crew – want to see us in misery, unable to function, and gone from this world.

It is incumbent on us not to let them win.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I don’t deal with anguish myself. In my darker moments, I worry that I haven’t done enough or, perhaps, if all the things I have done have only accelerated our demise. I fret that maybe it is already too late, and there’s nothing that can be done to stop certain doom.

Yet, I also know that the only way to ensure failure is to give up. Even if there are the most minuscule chances of survival, that remains a possibility. As long as there is the faintest glimmer of hope, it is worth holding onto it.

Again, we need time to breathe. We need time for our joy.

There is another thing about these times: it is easier than ever to access others who are trans. We can be found, with some ease, on the social media platforms of our choice. We create art, music, and visual programs on the web and elsewhere. We create beauty that elevates our souls. Seek it out, and embrace what calls to you. In the face of such utter contempt for trans lives, simply continuing to exist is a radical act. Make them have to suffer your red-hot, trans existence. Make them have to feel their animus and discomfort.

More than this, don’t just survive, but do what you can to thrive. Make your art, find your joy, and do what you can – no matter how small – to find something that makes this world better for you. It is your well-being that matters here.

Of course, you may have a hard time feeling like prioritizing yourself. You may be so beaten down that you cannot hold your head up. Trust me, I feel this. There is still something you can do: help one another.

Every trans person is in the same boat

right now. Reach out. Be a shoulder that someone can cry on, or be an ear for someone who just wants to be heard. Help out, whether it is supporting a local trans program, or just being there for another trans sibling.

As I write this, Pride celebrations are quickly approaching, as June is Pride Month. It may be hard to feel like celebrating right now, with so much going on. Yet, I will counter that this is what we need. If not a party full of fun and laughter, then remember that Pride started as a riot, where we came together

more than 50 years ago at the Stonewall Inn, an LGBTQ bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. We under stood that we were not going to be oppressed one more time. Today, be radical. Embrace the whole of your community and don’t hold back. If others are busy standing against us, then now is the time to stand up for each other. Let your freak flag fly and elevate the flags of those around you, too.

There are, as you are well aware, multitudes of people who have found some sick desire in standing against our community, and who feel that they wish to make it their calling to tear us down. Yet again, we need time to breathe. We need time for our joy. We cannot, will not, let them stand in our way. t

Gwen Smith offers you her hand. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com

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People interested in job opportunities should check out CUAV’s website Espinoza said. The group’s budget is currently “hovering around $690,000,” he added.

Organization has downsized

The nonprofit has downsized from decades past. It was first founded in 1979, as the LGBTQ community was first becoming more visible in San Francisco and was dealing with homophobic street violence. Espinoza has been involved with the organization since the winter of 1997.

“I started out as a volunteer and then temporary staff and then hired permanent staff starting in 2000,” Espinoza recalled.

The Great Recession in 2008 caused CUAV to lose half its funding and half its staff, he explained.

“We were a staff of 15,” he said.

As the B.A.R. reported, the organization moved to more of a shared leadership model in 2009. Two years later, it moved from a larger, two-story office to its current space inside a former artist’s house at 427 South Van Ness Avenue.

The district attorney’s office touted CUAV as a proud partner in a statement to the B.A.R.

“The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office Victim Services Division is proud to partner with Communities United Against Violence (CUAV) to provide innovative, culturally responsive services to members of the LGBTQ+ community who have been impacted by crime,” Randy Quezada, a spokesperson for the office, stated.

FJC, a foundation of donor advised

Editorial From page 4

Yet, even with strong protections in place, there are places in the Golden State where it’s hard for trans and nonbinary youth to live authentically. Conservative school boards have adopted forced outing policies, and local political leaders are clinging to the false “antiwoke” narratives with decisions to ban Pride flags and other symbolic signs of the LGBTQ community that let queer youth know they have support.

So, these things are all related, as the report makes clear. “Much of our efforts to address the public health crisis of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people are made that much harder by the ongoing

ʻProject 2025’

From page 6

“[It] lays out a vision for the country that’s going to guide this movement, regardless of what happens in November. A lot of aspects of Project 2025 are already being enacted at the state level,” Beirich said, citing Alabama and Texas as “proving grounds” for certain measures.

Texas has enacted stringent laws against migrants and one of its immigration laws is being challenged

Mahogany From page 1

Honey Mahogany as executive director of the trans initiatives office. It marks a turnaround from two years ago when Mahogany sought to be appointed District 6 supervisor but the mayor instead named to the post gay public relations specialist Matt Dorsey, at the time a chief spokesperson for San Francisco Police Chief William Scott. Mahogany will start Monday, May 6, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.

“Right now, across the country, our transgender and LGBTQ+ culture and

a former artist’s residence in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood.

“CUAV has been a trusted partner to the SFDA Victim Services Division for over a decade, coordinating impactful initiatives to better serve LGBTQ+ victims of crime through trauma-informed counseling, crisis response, healing justice activities, self-defense, and peer support groups,” he added.

“In order to further the work that CUAV leads, SFDA has awarded it a three-year grant of $420,000,” Quezada added.

So, too, did the California Department of Social Services.

Theresa Mier, a spokesperson for the department, stated that among the goals of the Stop the Hate program are “to help victims of bias and hate through community-based culturally responsive services that promote healing for victims and their families, and to prevent future hate incidents.”

funds, received a research and development grant of up to $15,000 for its podcast project, “When We All Get to Heaven.” This audio documentary uses archival recordings to tell the story of

wave of anti-LGBTQ+ policies pushed by extremist lawmakers across the country,” stated Janson Wu, senior director of state advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project. He added, “With such striking numbers and families literally wanting to uproot their homes to seek safety, lawmakers must seriously reconsider the real and damaging impact that their anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric create.”

What’s also striking – and predictable – is that LGBTQ youth fare better when they live in supportive environments, the report stated. Having access to such living situations “was associated with lower odds of suicide risk,” the report stated. “Further, transgender and nonbinary people who had access to gender-affirming clothing, gender-neu-

in court, as NPR reported last month.

Earlier this year the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF should be considered children.

Via noted that Project 2025-related reforms are directed toward the federal level. There’s the proposed “Schedule F,” for instance, where civil servants involved in policymaking or implementation would have their status changed to Schedule F employees, ultimately lessen-

community is under attack, but in San Francisco we continue to embrace and celebrate the amazing individuals and organizations who through their advocacy and art have contributed to our history around social justice and equity,” Breed stated in the release. “Honey Mahogany is a proven champion and in her new role will work to advance San Francisco’s values of inclusion that will inspire communities.”

Mahogany, a 40-year-old Black queer trans person, comes to the job just weeks after the end of her time as the first transgender and first Black and trans chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, a role she took on in 2021. The post made

had a long working relationship with CUAV, we have shared participants over the years and we also refer to them when there is a need of peer counseling when our resource navigators identify the need with a survivor of any kind of violence.

“We also seek CUAV’s trainings to help our participants and staff members to grow in understanding trauma and violence in the LGBTQI+ community,” Santamaria continued.

“El/La stands alongside CUAV in our values and in our approach of traumainformed services providing services with dignity for those who have been marginalized and excluded as the TransLatinx community and promoting self determination to our participants to move towards healing, collective liberation and Black and Brown unity,” Santamaria added.

“Community United Against Violence is one of many nonprofit organizations that were awarded grants to provide direct, prevention, and intervention services and supports to victims and survivors of hate crimes and hate incidents,” Mier stated. “Community United Against Violence was awarded to provide direct, prevention, and intervention services based on their demonstrated experience serving victims and survivors of violence in their community.”

People who could benefit from CUAV services are often referred through partner organizations.

“There’s people who seek us out, find us when they get referred by an organization or they may get referred from the DA’s office,” Espinoza said.

One such partner organization is El/ La Para TransLatinas. Executive Director Nicole Santamaria stated to the B.A.R., “El/La Para TransLatinas has

how a San Francisco church serving an LGBTQ+ congregation faced the spiritual, social, and political trials of the AIDS epidemic in the years before treatment, the release stated.

tral bathrooms at school, and had their pronouns respected by the people they live with had lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not.”

And yet, in many parts of the country, we still see people disrespect trans and nonbinary youth (and adults), both on social media and in person. The whole ugly online meme of “My pronouns are ...” followed by an object or some snarky rejoinder, serves as a reminder that society still has a long way to go. And while most adults can handle the cesspool that is much of social media, young people can often be blindsided. The same is true when adults or fellow youth misgender LGBTQ young people at school or school-related functions.

We need look no further than the horrible case of Nex Benedict, the young

ing their protections and easing the ability to terminate them.

As Via said of those backing Project 2025 and Schedule F, “These folks, these organizations, believe that our government employees are too ‘woke’ – that they are there or they are employed to actively obstruct a conservative agenda.

And the reason that they know that they’re too woke is because they were hired under all these programs that promote racial equity, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and so on.”

her one of the highest ranking out Black LGBTQ Democratic Party leaders in California, as the Bay Area Reporter noted at the time.

“It’s an honor to be appointed director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives,” Mahogany stated. “I am grateful to Mayor Breed for the opportunity to take on this role in this first of its kind office, and to fight for my community at this pivotal time in our nation’s history. After two decades of community-based work and legislative experience, I look forward to leveraging all I have learned over the years in service of this office and the entire transgender, gender nonconforming, intersex, and Two-Spirit

Lara has been working for CUAV for almost two years.

“I love it,” Lara said. “I wanted to work with a team specifically LGBT, and it’s been a wonderful experience to not have to educate folks on how to work with someone who is LGBT, to not have to be isolated or discriminated against.”

One of the 14 participants in that SAF-T course is Alex.

“The kind of materials we studied in this six-week course – it’s a shortterm thing, a 40-hour training – but this is the kind of stuff in college courses I took or wanted to take, and they are making this kind of material available to people who don’t have access to it,” Alex said. “It’s a healing experience. They have helped me through one of the hardest times in my life.” t

Another partner is the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. A spokesperson stated to the B.A.R. that “we are grateful for our ongoing partnership with CUAV in supporting impacted LGBTQ+ community members in building pathways to thrive.”

Espinoza told the B.A.R. that CUAV is currently wrapping up a program called SAF-T, a 40-hour course where people who have received services can learn more about how to take on leadership roles in their communities.

Moises Lara, who identifies as TwoSpirit, is the program manager for SAFT, which stands for Survivors Advocate for Freedom Today.

“We work with them [participants] on life skills, political education, and organizing in the community,” Lara told the B.A.R.

Other funded projects are about the culture and diversity of Siskiyou County in Northern California; a Fresno-based Harriet Tubman Civil War reenactor; and the aftermath and legacy of a 1989

nonbinary person who ultimately died by suicide, according to authorities, shortly after a physical altercation in a girls’ restroom at his Oklahoma high school. National organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign have kept up the pressure on Oklahoma state Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who even as he says that he’s an opponent of bullying has misgendered and insulted Benedict, according to HRC President Kelley Robinson. One obvious change that would help LGBTQ youth is for educators to provide a more welcoming environment at school. We realize this is not always possible, given the policies some conservative school boards have adopted. But supportive parents of queer youth can and should speak up at those school

This month, President Joe Biden and the Office of Personnel Management issued a rule to prevent the enactment of Schedule F. However, Project 2025, and a conservative administration, could reverse that ruling down the road.

“The thing that is extremely important to remember is that this plan is not just about Trump. … We don’t want to make the mistake of thinking that if Trump is not elected in November, that this plan goes away, because it doesn’t,” said Via.

(TGNCI2S) community.”

Mahogany added, “I’m especially excited to be leading an extraordinary team of trans staff at the Office of Transgender Initiatives (OTI), and to work alongside longtime community leaders to continue our fight for equity and to ensure that San Francisco continues to be a sanctuary city for the trans community.”

In her new position, Mahogany succeeds Pau Crego, a trans and nonbinary Spanish immigrant who departed in December after a 20-month stint as the center’s executive director.  Crego succeeded Clair Farley, a trans woman who had headed the city office since 2017, the year the office was

Take Care Tuesdays, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., is virtual the first Tuesday of the month and in person the third Tuesday of the month. For more information about CUAV, go to cuav.org.

The State of California offers help for victims or witnesses to a hate crime or hate incident. This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to cavshate.org.

school shooting on Stockton’s Cambodian community.

For a full list of the grant recipients, go to https://tinyurl.com/36skdyck. t

board meetings. The Trevor Project survey noted that most LGBTQ young people who attend school – 78% – reported having at least one adult at school who was supportive and affirming of their LGBTQ+ identity. In terms of actions others can take to support them, the biggest response of those surveyed, at 88%, was “trusting that I know who I am.” That was followed by “standing up for me” at 81%.

We stand with LGBTQ youth as they continue to navigate a minefield of hostility. There are resources like The Trevor Project available, but policymakers and political leaders – LGBTQ and straight – need to focus on developing, funding, and implementing changes that will benefit this vulnerable population. t

The Heritage Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. t

GPAHE’s analysis of Project 2025 is available at https://tinyurl.com/ fstzzsbd.

GPAHE will also be posting Project 2025 updates on its website. The most recent post about Project 2025 is available at https:// tinyurl.com/35bt6jt5.

established. In 2016, before the office was formally created, Theresa Sparks, a trans woman, was named as thenmayor Ed Lee’s senior adviser for transgender initiatives, the first municipal position of its kind.

The office, which for years has leased a ground floor space with its own entrance at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, was initially overseen by the City Administrator’s Office. As of this summer, however, it will transition into being a part of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, which also has an LGBTQ advisory body. (The of-

page 11 >>

Community United Against Violence, or CUAV, now operates out of

John Ferrannini

by Victoria A. Brownworth

In the latest iteration of the beloved “Doctor

Who” series, the doctor is here and queer.

Ncuti Gatwa will be the first Black and gay Doctor Who. Plus the phenomenal Russell T. Davies is back, baby, as showrunner and director and writer. Plus the new Disney+ deal could, industry heads say, revolutionize the franchise.

When the TARDIS (a time-traveling ship shaped like a police box) flies in, Gatwa opens the door and says, “Give me the loving!” and we are so ready. Fans of “Sex Education” are already devotees of Gatwa, who played Eric Effiong. Gatwa was also “artist Ken” in Greta Gerwig’s phenom, “Barbie.”

Gatwa, who was born in Rwanda and raised in Scotland, told Variety of his casting, “Do you know what? It makes perfect sense to me. I feel like anyone that has a problem with someone who’s not a straight white man playing this character, you’re not really, truly a fan of the show. You’ve not been watching! Because the show is about regeneration, and the Doctor is an alien. Why would they only choose to be this sort of person?”

The upcoming season follows the Doctor and his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) as they travel across time and space, with adventures all the way from the Regency era in England, to war-torn future worlds. Throughout their adventures in the TARDIS they encounter incredible friends and dangerous foes, including a terrifying bogeyman, and the Doctor’s most powerful enemy yet.

Doctor, dinner, detainee

The Lavender Tube on the new ‘Who,’ political joke night, and a freed Brittney

Presidents & puns

“Doctor Who” begins streaming Friday, May 10 at 4pm PT, 7pm ET on Disney+.

The annual White House Correspondents Dinner, held on April 27 at the Washington Hilton, was funny, sobering, scary and very of this moment. Billed as the last such event should Donald Trump regain the White House come November, the dinner celebrates the work journalists do covering the presidency and other events. Several journalists received awards. The event, sponsored by the White House Correspondents Association, also grants scholarships to journalists. Outgoing president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, NBC News senior White House Kelly O’Donnell, presided over the dinner, calling attention to journalists held in detention in various countries

including Russia and Iran, and the over 100 journalists killed in just the past six months in Gaza.

President Joe Biden was the object of the night’s roasting. The comedian du jour was “SNL” writer and “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost and MSNBC, which aired the night live, presented a compendium of his work at “SNL.”

Jost, who is reliably funny, was obviously nervous and a bit shaky at the start, but warmed up well. Some memorable lines that had us and a friend laughing included his opening shade at Donald Trump when he said, “Can we just acknowledge how refreshing it is to see a President of the United States at an event that doesn’t begin with a bailiff saying, ‘All rise?’”

Jost skewered Trump, Biden and the media, notably Fox News, which brought laughs, and the New York Times, which brought total silence.

by Brian Bromberger

In what has become known as his Desire Trilogy – “I Am Love,” “A Bigger Splash,” and “Call Me By Your Name”– gay Italian film director Luca Guadagnino has focused on passion as an all-consuming force, a theme he continues in his new movie, “Challengers,” which explores a love

triangle dissected through a crucial tennis match. Tennis here isn’t a metaphor for sex and power but rather sex and power are metaphors for tennis. And in both “matches,” competing to be on top, to win, is everything. Their intensity, in how they play tennis, acts as an aphrodisiac in their personal desires.

“Challengers” moves from 2006 to 2019. Two eighteen-year-old best friends, Patrick Zweig

(Josh O’Connor, “The Crown,” “God’s Country”) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist, “West Side Story”), ace players/roommates (nicknamed Fire and Ice) at a tennis academy boarding school, are competing when they watch Tashi Duncan (Zendaya, “Dune,” “Euphoria”) in action, dazzled by her artistry as a tennis prodigy (ala Serena Williams) as well as her beauty. Both become obsessed with her, each trying to gain her affections.

“Some incredible news organizations here,” began one of his harsher jokes, “Also, some credible ones.”

For his part, Biden was funny, self-deprecating and serious. “The 2024 election is in full swing. And yes, age is an issue,” Biden said early on. “I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old.”

Biden also noted, “Age is the only thing we have in common. My vice president actually endorses me.” He also thanked the free press and mentioned the vitality of journalism and the importance of maintaining democracy.

Some notable queer moments in the night included a brief speech from incoming WHCA president Eugene Daniels, who will be the first openly gay person to lead the organization.

Love third-y

She visits their motel room, making out with both men simultaneously to the point when Patrick and Art start kissing and making out with each other, with Tashi watching gleefully in full control mode. She makes them aware of emotions and an attraction they either never noticed or acknowledged. As she leaves, she declares whichever guy wins tomorrow’s game against each other will get her phone number. Great tennis becomes the equivalent of great sex.

Tashi starts dating Patrick, but they split. She pursues Art, years later marrying him, and they have a daughter. She attends Stanford but has a devastating knee injury that ends her career as a tennis player. Meanwhile, Art becomes a star, winning everything except the U.S. Open, with Tashi as his manager.

By 2019, with Art in a losing slump partially related to a shoulder injury, in his mid-30s he’s lost his desire to compete and is thinking about retirement, much to Tashi’s consternation. By entering Art into a low-level championship match in New Rochelle, she hopes it will inspire him to regain his confidence.

But Patrick has entered the tournament and will face Art as a competitor. After a decade of partying, he’s also, despite his self-confidence, in a downward spiral, sleeping in his car. His reappearance shakes Art, but excites Tashi. What will happen professionally and in their sexual rivalry may depend on the winner of that final game, with victory the ultimate bearer of ecstasy.

Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson in ‘Doctor Who’

t << Music & Film

Vladimir Kornéev

by Jim Gladstone

Over the past 10 years, Berlinbased singer Vladmir Kornéev has recorded five critically acclaimed albums, toured Europe, played with symphony orchestras in Germany and Montreal, and smoldered on the small screen in Netflix’s “The Empress,” winner of last year’s Emmy Award for best international series.

On May 19, Kornéev, will be in the Bay Area to make his United States concert debut. The auspicious event – already close to sold out – will take place not at Davies Symphony Hall, Berkeley’s Zellerbach Theater, or the Herbst, but in a 160-seat auditorium at the Orinda Theatre, which the following day will return to its usual function as a movie screening room.

The little concerts that could

This booking coup is a well-deserved feather in the cap of producer Michael Williams who raised eyebrows when he co-founded “Live at Orinda” in 2018.

“Of course there was some risk,” recalled Williams during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

“But I had a strong feeling that there was an audience for Great American Songbook and cabaret-style music that didn’t necessarily want to go into the city from the East Bay.”

That audience proved more than hungry. By the series’ second season, more than 25% of the available tickets had been sold to full-season subscribers. Today it’s closer to 50%, and includes patrons from San Francisco drawn over the bridge by the series’ intimate setting and sometimes adventurous programming.

Williams, who was previously affiliated with Bay Area Cabaret, which produces shows at the Fairmont Hotel’s Venetian Room, has been pleased to discover that his patrons are musically open-minded and willing to trust his curatorial taste.

Along with enjoying well-known American cabaret performers who also appear at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, Orinda audiences have welcomed major talents from abroad; both familiar, like Ute Lemper, and on the cusp of likely U.S. stardom, like Kornéev.

Between his series’ track record of sold-out shows and his longtime friendship with Kornéev’s manager, Williams was able to land the na-

International singing star to make U.S. debut in Orinda

Escape into music

“I saw a lot of violence in my childhood,” recalled Kornéev, 37, a native what is now the country of Georgia, in a video interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

“My father was fighting in the civil war against Russia, and there were many times when I was very afraid. I developed a severe stutter, which embarrassed me.”

The physical danger and psychological toll of the war ultimately led Kornéev’s father and mother, a teacher, to have the family flee the country in 1991. After spending time in a refugee camp in Germany, they settled in the small Bavarian city of Augsburg.

Over dinner at the apartment of another refugee, a woman from Ukraine, seven-year-old Kornéev was mesmerized when their host played Beethoven on a weatherbeaten used piano.

“She realized how hypnotized I was,” recalled Kornéev, an only child.

“She told my mother, ‘I think your son wants to play piano.’ My mother explained that we didn’t have the money, and she said, ‘I will teach him, and you pay me when you can.’”

“It’s difficult to get work as a refugee, and my father worked several jobs,” Kornéev continued. “But I had

allowed me to study the piano, and this is where my involvement with music began.

“I developed a determination to be the top pianist and practiced for very long periods, five hours or more a day. By the time I was 14, I was winning competitions and I had my first solo recital when I was 15.”

Transcending trauma

At the Augsburg high school for the arts where Kornéev continued his piano studies, all students were required to sing in the school choir.

“I hadn’t realized, but something happens in the brain of a stutterer that allows you to sing without a problem,” he recalled. “I loved this. Singing became a way of feeling free in my body and expressing myself that I’d never had during my childhood. So I always sang very dramatically. I wanted to be a little louder and with a little different timing than my schoolmates, so I could stand out.”

Kornéev’s love of drama intensified when, at 15, he went to the theater for the very first time on a school trip.

“It was Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ I was in shock, in a positive way, pure shock. The costumes and the magical setting, I just couldn’t believe it. Immediately I wanted to be Puck. I told my parents I wanted to join the school theater club

and this time they wouldn’t allow it. They said my grades in academic subjects needed to get better.

“I was really angry, and ended up joining secretly, without telling them. And the other students were laughing at me, because how could a stutterer be in a theater group? But again I had a very supportive teacher, who was so kind. My teachers are the great blessing of my life. He could see I was fighting with my stuttering and told me not to worry. We did a lot of body work in preparing. It was like Stanislavski, which, of course, I hadn’t heard of then.

“He gave me the lead role and I built a biography for the character, studying it meticulously. And when we began to rehearse, for the first time in my life, there was no stuttering, because I had completely projected myself into this other person.

“My parents had sent me to speech therapy and to therapy to deal with the war trauma from my early childhood, but nothing had worked. Eventually, I told my parents I’d joined the theater club and they came to the performance. I didn’t stutter even once. They were stunned. I was stunned. I can remember during the applause at the end how my whole body was shaking and I was crying.”

From the age of 17, Kornéev was no longer a stutterer.

Dreams of utopia

Kornéev left Augsburg to continue his education at the prestigious August Everding Theatre Academy in Munich. While professors encouraged him to pursue a career as an opera singer, Kornéev was intensely drawn

<< Challengers

From page 13

Court and sparks

The film itself and its hype-marketing makes you think you will be viewing a steamy sex romp, but aside from some locker room nudity, the sex is more implied than seen. The chemistry between Tashi and Art seems almost nonexistent and while hotter with Patrick, there aren’t many fireworks being set off there either.

The real sparks fly in the homoerotic antics between Patrick (more open and nonthreatened by his possible bisexuality) and Art. In addition to their raunchy French kissing, there’s a steam room sauna scene with a flirty drop of a towel, not to mention erotic churroeating in another episode, suggesting swinging in all senses of the word. However, that’s as far as it goes, with Patrick and Art never actually going to bed with each other.

None of the characters are likeable. Tashi is cold-blooded and manipulative. Patrick is a conniving narcissist and Art is boring and mischievously calculating. Also, we simply don’t get to know them outside of a tennis court or the reasons behind some of

to the psychologically intricate interweaving of singing and acting found in Russian art songs, French chanson and German lieder

“The first CD my parents ever bought for us was Piaf,” he recalled. “My mother loved her. I grew up listening to that sort of music as well as classical. Of course, as a teenager, I was influenced by the American culture that made its way to Europe; the Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera. I love Lady Gaga.”

Still, while Kornéev frequently slips a pop cover or two into his encores, he had made his name as a premiere interpreter of classic European 20thcentury story songs, winning the German National Singing Competition for three consecutive years. In recent years, he has done a deep dive into the music of Kurt Weill, which will be the focus of his show in Orinda.

“I was asked to be the resident artist at the Weill Festival in Dessau in 2020,” he said. “I honestly wasn’t sure, because though I knew Weill, I hadn’t been listening to him much in the past few years. So before deciding, I dove into studying all his music. But when I came across the song, ‘Youkali,’ I was moved in my bones and sent back to my childhood.”

The lyrics to this bittersweet tango, which was adopted as a hymn by the French resistance during WWII, describe a lonely voyager, sailing through vast uncharted waters in search of a legendary island.

“The song connects in my mind to this little framed painting of a boat that, along with a pair of candlesticks my father gave her on their wedding day, is the only thing other than our clothing that my mother brought with her when we left Georgia.”

Kornév continued, “I remember when we were sleeping on mats in the refugee camp, she leaned it up against the wall beside us. Then, when we had our first flat in Augsburg, it hung in the kitchen. I remember sitting beside her as she cooked dumplings and imagining being on the boat and sailing away from all the terrible things I saw in my childhood. Today, it is hanging in my flat here in Berlin.”

The song’s island, Kornéev explained, is a utopia.

“It’s a place where everyone is welcome and everyone is safe. There is no violence or war, and we respect one another’s wishes for the best in life.”t

Vladimir Kornéev, May 19. Orinda Theatre, 2 Orinda Theatre Sq., Orinda. (925) 254-9060 www.orindamovies.com www.vladimirkorneev.com

their actions. Why did Patrick and Tashi stop dating? When and why did Art and Patrick have a fallingout? Which guy does Tashi really prefer and does she love Art or just the idea of winning?

The early history between the three characters is told via flashbacks, which are presented at a dizzying speed probably meant to mimic the quick volleying of a tennis ball (and in the final match, the camera follows the ball’s path, almost becoming a character in its own right).

Time warp

There are so many time jumps (and jumps within jumps) and parallel timelines occurring – and because the same actors are in these scenes and don’t look that different in each era –it becomes confusing, so it’s hard to place which chronology or where one is in the story.

The three actors look fabulous and titillating with the camera following their sculptured physiques in motion,

Mike Faist and Zendaya in ‘Challengers’

Vladimir Kornéev

Elena Zaucke

Vladimir Kornéev in concert at Montreal’s Théâtre St-Denis in January

Instagram

‘Housekeeping for Beginners’

by Gregg Shapiro

The year 2023 was an exceptional one for gay filmmakers. Ira Sachs’ “Passengers” and Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” were well-received by audiences and critics alike and could also be found on numerous end-ofthe-year “best of” lists.

With “Housekeeping for Beginners” (Focus), gay filmmaker Goran Stolevski didn’t keep us waiting long for the follow-up to his brilliant “Of an Age,” which opened domestically in early 2023. In the same way Stolevski made us laugh and cry (sometimes simultaneously) in “Of an Age,” he achieves the same emotional tug-ofwar in “Housekeeping for Beginners.”

Suada (Alina Serban), a mother of two daughters – Vanesa (Mia Mustafi) and Mia (Dzada Selim) – by different, absent fathers, is in end-stage pancreatic cancer.

Her partner Dita (Anamaria Marinca), the more responsible one in the relationship is suddenly faced with the task of raising a teenager and a kindergartener. Add to that the fact that Dita’s house has become something of a crash pad for outcasts, as well as her gay male housemate Toni (Vladimir Tintor), and his younger lover Ali (Samson Selim), and you can feel the powder keg of her life getting ready to blow.

“Housekeeping for Beginners” is an amazing achievement, and it’s all due to Stolevski’s talents as a writer/director.

Gregg Shapiro: What was the inspiration for your “Housekeeping for Beginners” screenplay?

Goran Stolevski: The first moment the idea came to me is when I saw a photograph a friend had posted online from his life, from when he first moved to Melbourne with his boyfriend in the 1970s. They moved into a house with eight gay women. It was just a random snapshot from their day-to-day life at the time. I remember seeing it and going, “I love this energy, this context.” A kind of cocoon of queerness.

I wanted to live within it, essentially, come up with a story that takes me there. I wanted it to be present tense. That story doesn’t quite make sense in Australia anymore. But most of the world isn’t like Australia or like America or like the developed west. As much as Macedonia might seem exotic onscreen, in this context this is closer to what day-to-day life feels like for queer people in most of the world. I feel like a lot of these stories don’t get documented.

One of the things that stands out about “Housekeeping for Be-

ginners” is the way that dialogue and the absence of dialogue have equal weight. Emotions and responses are communicated without dialogue.

It’s also in my older work, and I realized that it didn’t happen by design. It just happened organically in “You Won’t Be Alone” and especially in “Of an Age.” Dialogue is very important to me. I grew up on a lot of 1930s and ’40s Hollywood screwball comedies. The dialogue used to be so snappy and perfect.

I think that’s difficult to find these days. I think it’s important to aim for the highest that you possibly can. I do love dialogue. But what I realized in making these films is that quite often, the most important lines of dialogue are entirely unspoken. They happen in the eyes. The actors and characters speak to each other silently; I look for those moments.

What was the experience of working with Dzada Selim, who played Mia, like for you?

Challengers

page 14

especially as they play tennis which has an inherent eroticism to it.

Honestly, I’ve never been that enchanted previously with Zendaya (she’s also a producer) but she skillfully conveys the formidability and determination of Tashi while hinting at her fragility.

As Art, Faist has the hardest task because the character is vague and repressed, tricky to convey without appearing dull, yet he portrays well his vulnerability and indecisiveness. It

can be argued his best scenes are with O’Connor rather than with Zendaya. O’Connor conveys smirky swagger as well as a dangerous instability.

You’re never sure how Patrick will respond or act in a given situation. He’s a screwed-up, sultry antihero jerk who’s aware and comfortable with his sexual predilections. O’Connor brilliantly is both off-putting and charming, so he walks away with this picture.

Guadagnino and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom are to be congratulated for the breakneck, hyperkinetic movement and split-second editing throughout the film, so even at

The little girl, the five-year-old. I remember we set up a quick shoot of what turned out to be the opening scene of the film, in the end, just as practice, with a crew, to get used to my methods of working on set, for like an hour, before we started shooting the film properly.

The three people on-screen in that scene had never been on set before, and I wanted to introduce them gradually, with no sense of pressure. We had to do things in a correct way. It was about us adjusting to their comfort, and also for me to try to figure out how the hell does one direct a five-year-old.

The lesson was that one doesn’t direct her, she gets to direct you, and you should be grateful and shut up [laughs]. Especially because Dzada speaks two languages fluently, and a little bit of English on top of that. And she’s five! She’s not a kid from a privileged background, so this is a brain that has caught on to so much.

The other thing is, you don’t want to manipulate a child and don’t get a chance to with Dzada. She’s in charge. She’s too smart. She’s on to you at every point. Every single day we had to create this environment on-set where she was going to enjoy whatever she was doing. There aren’t actually child labor laws in Macedonia, which is problematic on many levels.

What do you think the denizens of Shutka would think of the way it is portrayed in “Housekeeping for Beginners”?

Obviously, they need to answer that more than I do. But I think they’re happy with it because there’s a range of people and experiences. I teared up in Venice (at the Venice International Film Festival in 2023). When we first enter Shutka itself, onscreen, a lot of the actors in the film live there, and

a too-long 131 minutes, the viewer is never bored. Also, in that final match the camera is placed under the court’s surface so it’s as if we’re following the POV of the tennis ball as it volleys viciously between Patrick and Art.

This motion creates an aura of suspense with the hitting sound of the ball resembling a gunshot (aided by Reznor’s and Ross’s pounding techno score). You don’t have to be a tennis fan to appreciate the movie, but addicts of the game will be enthralled. With its numerous flaws, the film has its exhilarating moments and has the earmarks of a crowd-pleaser, though its emotional brutality and ambiguous ending will be debated by audiences. The payoff doesn’t quite match the teasing build-up.

Still, this pulpy sports melodrama never pretends to be more than it is, which is entertaining and cunningly pleasing. If you don’t expect anything challenging from “Challengers,” you will probably enjoy the film, seduced by its exciting, sexy competitive hijinks on the court and behind closed doors.t

‘Challengers’ currently screens at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema and AMC Kabuki 8. mgm.com

they were there, watching the film. The look and the gasps that came from them when they saw it was just so profoundly moving.

Shutka’s been depicted in little documentaries and other films within the region, before. A lot of the time it’s very exoticized and it doesn’t feel like real life. Whereas I wanted it to feel like what everyday life feels like. And in a lot of the locations we shot in, we were vaguely controlling traffic, but it’s impossible to do in that place. It’s

just real life going on around it. It’s a gift to me, as a filmmaker, that I get to capture this, and that I had actors who were happy to work in this kind of way that isn’t very controlled, that is like an unfolding situation in real-time. I hope the reactions continue to be as they’ve been so far.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.

www.focusfeatures.com

Mike Faist and Josh O’Conner in ‘Challengers’

MGM

Filmmaker Goran Stolevski

Left: (Left to Right) Samson Selim, Vladimir Tintor, Anamaria Marinca, and Sara Klimoska in ‘Housekeeping for Beginners’ Right: Dzada Selim and Anamaria Marinca in ‘Housekeeping for Beginners’

Both photos: Viktor Irvin Ivanov/Focus Features

‘With Love, Mommie Dearest’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

May 7 will see the publication of “With Love, Mommie Dearest: The Making of an Unintentional Camp Classic,” a new book that tells the story of the making of, and the aftermath of the now legendary biopic in which movie queen Faye Dunaway played movie queen Joan Crawford. Author A. Ashley Hoff will appear at Fabulosa Books on Castro Street on publication day, where he will talk about the book with drag star Peaches Christ.

When Crawford died in 1977, she was considered an icon, Hollywood royalty. But the following year Crawford’s legacy was forever tarnished when daughter Christina published “Mommie Dearest,” a scathing memoir in which she chronicled the turbulent, abusive relationship she had with her adoptive mother.

The public was shocked, with some calling Christina an ungrateful child of privilege, while others stood behind Christina and supported her. The book captured the public’s imagination and was a bestseller. A movie was inevitable.

Camp classic

“Mommie Dearest” the 1981 film, while a commercial success, was a critical bomb, with many in the audience laughing for all the wrong reasons. Christina, who had hoped the book and film would open the door to serious discussions about child abuse, found that she had created a camp classic, which, more than forty years later, retains a huge following among gay men.

In “With Love, Mommie Dearest,” Hoff goes into great detail about the making of the film, and also delves into Joan and Christina’s backstories. An obvious question might be, why is the film considered campy? Isn’t the infamous wire hanger scene, in which Joan beats the young Christina with a hanger, really a disturbing portrait of a little girl being abused?

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Hoff recalled first seeing the film on cable TV.

“What I saw on the small screen,

with most of the campy moments edited out, looked more like a horror movie,” Hoff said. “So I was always aware of the real issues at the heart of the story, child abuse and how to survive it.”

Eventually Hoff got to see “Mommie Dearest” on the big screen, where he found it to be a decidedly different viewing experience.

“The small screen tends to camouflage the flaws,” he said. “But on the big screen you can see every ludicrous detail of the shot of Faye-as-Joan holding the baby Christina and carrying her

up the staircase, then turning at the landing towards the camera, and posing en tableau like a religious statue. It would be a fantastic image for the movie poster or a magazine pictorial, but on screen it just looks silly.”

Cathartic cinema

Hoff explained why gay men are such a big part of the “Mommie Dearest” phenomenon. The gay male community loves old-time Hollywood glamour, and the film is quite lavishly produced. Aesthetically, what with

Freed Brittney

On Wednesday May 1, ABC airs a one-hour primetime “20/20” special, “Prisoner in Russia: The Brittney Griner Interview” at 10pm (next day on Hulu). “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts sat with two-time Olympic gold medalist and nine-time WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner for an

t << Books & TV

New book examines the cultural phenomenon of the classic film

the sumptuous ice palace that Joan and Christina lived in, along with the other period Hollywood settings, “Mommie Dearest” was produced on a grand scale in the old school Hollywood tradition. Today, everything would just get green-screened in. But there’s another reason why the film continues to resonate with the community, according to Hoff.

“In a gross generalization, I would say that many LGBTQ people have experienced bullying or abuse in one form or another, so watching the movie becomes a therapeutic or cathartic exercise,” he said.

The book includes quotes from a number of people who worked on the film. Interviewees include Christina, various executives at Paramount Pictures, Mara Hobel, who played Christina as a child in the film, and Belita Moreno, who played Belinda Rosenberg, producer of an unnamed (in the film) soap opera on which Joan subbed for Christina in 1968. This is one of the more notorious incidents in Joan’s later career, as the star was in her 60s, playing Christina’s 28-yearold character. That soap, “The Secret Storm,” is named in the book.

There are numerous quotes from Dunaway in the book, whom Hoff admitted that he never spoke to.

“Faye does not like discussing the movie, and it’s easy to see why,” he said. “As a method-trained actress, she put her all into the role as well as months of preparation, all to see it made into a big joke. She was very hurt by that, and understandably so.”

Hoff’s quotes from Dunaway come largely from interviews she gave upon the film’s initial release, and from her 1995 memoir, “Looking for Gatsby.” Hoff added that when he was in touch with Christina, she reiterated her disappointment about the way the movie turned out. She felt that it could have been a serious exploration of the relationship between mother and child but instead turned into a melodrama that trivialized the subject.

“While I sent a copy of the unedited manuscript to Christina, I don’t know if she read it,” Hoff said. “But I’m also sending her a copy of the finished book, as a courtesy.”t

‘With Love, Mommie Dearest: the Making of an Unintentional Camp Classic,’ Chicago Review Press, paperback $19.95, Kindle $9.99, Audiobook $15.30 www.chicagoreviewpress.com

Author A. Ashley Hoff in conversation with Peaches Christ. May 7, 7pm, Fabulosa Books, 489 Castro St. www.fabulosabooks.com

exclusive primetime interview, Griner’s first since returning to the U.S. after being wrongfully detained in Russia as a political prisoner of Vladimir Putin, which we covered throughout Griner’s 10-month incarceration. Our coverage won us the Memorial Sarah Petit Journalist of the Year Award from NLGJA and the Curve Award for Excellence in Lesbian Journalism.

In the wide-ranging interview, Griner talks candidly for the first time

about her harrowing arrest and time in prison, where she describes feeling “less than human” and the suicidal thoughts she had while being detained. She also talks about navigating the Russian penal system and the anguish she experienced being what she calls a political prisoner. The special reveals new details about the negotiations behind the prisoner swap that led to Griner’s release and goes home with her as she unzips her duffle bag from Russia, sharing a few personal possessions she says got her through the ordeal.

In addition to this special, Griner has partnered exclusively with ESPN and Disney Entertainment Television to share her story through various projects on their platforms. A documentary feature from ESPN Films and scripted series development with ABC Signature are in the works.

Bloody good

“Interview with the Vampire,” based on Anne Rice’s iconic novel, is back for

a second season on AMC and AMC+.

The steamy, highly homoerotic horror thriller series looks to be even more fabulous and queer and hot in its latest iteration and is unquestionably one of the gayest series on TV.

“Interview with the Vampire” centers on the life story of vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, as told to veteran journalist Daniel Molloy, who has Parkinson’s, to whom Louis previously gave an unpublished interview in 1973. An affluent Black man in 1910s New Orleans, Louis is romanced and later made a vampire by the charismatic and oh-so-hot Lestat de Lioncourt.

But Louis struggles with his humanity and still loves humans. The introduction of Lestat’s newest fledgling, the teenage vampire Claudia, only strains their relationship further.

As the first season draws to a climactic close, Daniel begins to doubt the veracity of Louis’ story, noting differences from the earlier version.

Season two picks up from the bloody events in New Orleans in 1940 when Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) conspired to kill Lestat (Sam Reid). Louis tells of his adventures in Europe, a quest to discover Old World Vampires and the Theatre Des Vampires in Paris where a new character, Santiago (Ben Daniels) has suspicions about Louis and Claudia.

It is in Paris that Louis first meets the Vampire Armand (Assad Zaman). Their courtship and love affair will prove to have devastating consequences both in the past and in the future. Molloy (Eric Bogosian), who is chronicling all of this, will probe to get to the truths buried within the memories.

Catch up with season one on AMC+ or Hulu. It’s a wild and fabulous ride, starting May 12.

So, for the homoerotic highs and the political lows, you know you really must stay tuned t

Lavender Tube

Author A. Ashley Hoff Instagram

Left: Mara Hobel, Jeremy Scott Reinbolt and Faye Dunaway in a press still from the film ‘Mommy Dearest’ Right: Faye Dunaway and director Frank Perry in a press still from the film ‘Mommy Dearest’

Both photos: Paramount Pictures

Left: Colin Jost and President Joe Biden at the White House Correspondents Dinner Middle: Brittney Griner on ‘20/20’ Right: Jacob Anderson and Delainey Hayles in ‘Interview with the Vampire

News

Horricks/AMC

Words: savoring Saints & Sinners t Southern Eloquence>>

by Michele Karlsberg

At the 2024 Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans, writer Gerard Cabrera had the opportunity to immerse himself in a vibrant and diverse community of writers and readers. The festival, which celebrates LGBTQ literature and culture, brought together writers, publishers, literary agents, publicists, booksellers, journalists from around the country to discuss their work, share their experiences, and connect with fellow lovers of queer literature.

Here is Cabrera’s write-up of the events.

Arrival

Gerard Cabrera: When I left New York City for the 21st Saints & Sinners Literary Festival, it was dark and cold and I wore my heavy raincoat, the one that makes me look like a 1950s flasher or a secret agent.

After I checked into the Hotel Monteleone, and looked out onto Royal Street from my room while I was getting ready for my first outing of the weekend – for a po-boy sandwich, naturally – I thought to myself, Oh, well. Rain is messy, but a sign of renewal. It’s a sort of paradox, like the title for the festival.

And our community is full of paradoxes, which is why Saints & Sinners is such an important coming together for the writers, presenters and audience members And it did not disappoint. With dozens of panels, readings and special events, there was something for everyone in our rich tapestry of community.

Good yarns

Friday morning began with what has become a tradition, breakfast out with my friends from Rattling Good Yarns Press, the publisher of my novel, “Homo Novus.” We had the same server from the year before, and she remembered us, which is not a surprise given the star power in our little group: Ian Henzel, St. Sukie DeLaCroix led the early morning reunion.

Also present were Gregg Shapiro, Rick Karlin, Jerry Wheeler and a new addition, Elisabeth Nonas, whose fourth novel, “Grace Period,” was just published, and whose wife Nancy K. Bereano, founder of Firebrand Books, was scheduled to be inducted into the

Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame at the end of the conference.

The conference day of workshops began. I had the opportunity to participate in Trebor Healey’s Writer’s Craft session, ‘Short Stories, Novellas, Novels.’ To a full room, Trebor led us in a conversation about the differences between these forms and how to match them to our ideas for stories.

Out & about

A field trip was in order. With Tom Cardamone, Leo Lai, and Sven Davisson, publisher of Rebel Satori Press,

we rode in style to the New Orleans Museum of Art. After a delicious lunch, we toured the museum exhibits, and meandered back to the French Quarter, but not without a stop at my favorite bar, Crossings, where it seems to be Mardi Gras every day.

The afternoon’s literary highlight was the discussion between Michael Cunningham and Justin Torres, facilitated by Maureen Corrigan of NPR. Later on in the weekend, I sat in to listen to her conversation with Colm Toibin, whose novel “Long Island,” a follow up to his novel, “Brooklyn,” is coming out in May. Both writers were inspirational and I came away feeling motivated to get back to my own writing work.

Saturday I sat rapt as I listened to readings by so many great writers and poets, such as Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano, Gary Zebrun, Cynthia Carr, Brad Gooch, and SJ Sindu. At one poetry panel, I heard Jubi ArriolaHeadley, Chen Chen, Erin Hoover, Stephanie Burt, and Ed Madden, wonderfully facilitated by Brad Richard.

Lived experiences

I always find poetry readings very stimulating and generative for my own writing. Working in the legal system, I see how official language is always a few steps behind lived experience. This is why I found the poets panel and the panel about non-binary writers so compelling. Each panelist – Ching-In Chen, Wes Jamison, Miah Jeffra, C.A. Munn – and fiction contest winner Charlie J. Stephens, spoke about their own writerly experiences in such a generous way I felt quite moved by the work we all do to improve social conditions through language activism.

On Sunday, the last day of the conference, I was ready to facilitate my own panels. The first panel was about AIDS writing. The panel is sponsored by the Bruce J. Heim Foundation. Bruce J. Heim died of AIDS in the early days of the pandemic, and his sister was present to remember him and to remind us all to never forget the fight against bigotry, especially in the current political climate.

It was only possible to touch on a few points in an hour, this group of panelists, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Casey Hamilton, Andrew Holleran, and Steven Reigns provided a muchneeded intergenerational perspective and engaged each other and the audience so much that we ran out of time.

Publishing tips

The second panel I facilitated was about BIPOC writers and publishing. This lively discussion with Jewelle Gomez, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Daniel WK Lee, Justin Torres, and David Santos Donaldson got another roomful together to talk about their own histories and experiences with both big publishers and independent presses.

After sharing our personal and political motivations, we traded tips and

war stories, talking about “niche marketing” constraints, how mentorship works, the roles of prizes, grants and writing residencies, and the effects of the shifting economic landscape.

The festival closed out with the traditional readings from the fiction, poetry, and emerging writer awards, and the induction into the Hall of Fame of Nancy K. Bereano, David Bergman,

Lawrence Henry Gobble, Jay Murphy, and Justin Torres. What a great whirlwind of a weekend, despite the rain. I boarded my plane the next morning, and can’t wait until next year.

The next Saints & Sinners Literary Festival is March 28-30, 2025 www.gerardcabrera.com www.sasfest.org

Above: Ride Hamilton Below: Tubby & Coo’s Mid-City Book Shop

Left: Writer Elisabeth Nonas (right) accepts Firebrand Books publisher Nancy K. Bereano’s induction into the Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame. Jewelle Gomez (left) presented the award.

Right: Gerard Cabrera, Steven Reigns, Andrew Holleran, Casey Hamilton, Tom Cardamone and Charles Rice-Gonzalez on the ‘Writing About, With, and Through HIV & AIDS’ panel.

Both photos: Ride Hamilton

Author Gerard Cabrera

<< Fine Arts

Artist grant recipients announced; film fests submissions open

by Laura Moreno

The winners of La Asamblea’s Pa’lante Artist Grant Program have been announced by Kimzin Creative, an arts and equity consulting group and On the Margins, a group of bilingual and multicultural health professionals.

The winners are Hannah Mayree, Rocio Gonzalez, Kelly Autum, Briona Hendren and Stefan Perez. Each of the five artists will receive an unrestricted grant of $30,000. La Asamblea is a new Sonoma County BIPOC and queer artist collective that organized the community-led grant program.

The grant program is unique in that it was established by and for local arts and culture workers representative of underinvested communities that determine grants. The Bay Area Reporter spoke with three of the winners.

Recalibrating

“Being one of the chosen grant recipients is meaningful in ways I cannot fully express,” said visual artist Kelly Autumn, who’s based in Sonoma. “I’ve been juggling multiple jobs the last few years to make ends meet and my art practice has fallen out of balance. I feel that I’ve now been given permission to slow down, create and recalibrate. I can now afford to purchase new tools and supplies, and explore the possibility of attending my next artist residency. I hope to have my first solo show, and maybe even take a research trip.”

Briona Hendren, a sculptor in Santa Rosa, said, “I have many projects I wish to use this grant towards. My first main focus with receiving this grant is to build a ‘traveling foundry’ to not only dive back into my favorite medium to work in bronze, but also to teach classes and demonstrations to those who would not otherwise have access to bronze casting or foundry work. My goal is to inspire the next generation of industrial artists.”

Stefan Perez, based in Petaluma, is focusing on cinema.

“The grant will go towards creating a short film called ‘Red Handed,’ a Native American noir comedy I’ve been working on,” said Perez. “I’m super proud of the script I have and can’t wait to begin. Receiving the grant has already changed my life by giving me the validation I need as an artist. It says that others see the potential in what I can create, and it isn’t just my mom.”

Asked what advice she wishes someone had given when she first became an artist, Hendren replied, “Do

not allow the preconceived limitations of yourself to get in the way of what you want to accomplish. You can learn everything you need to learn on the fly to get the job done. Dream big. Just keep going!”

Autumn offered advice as well, saying, “Find a community you can trust. Don’t be a hostage to your work. It’s important to commit to a studio practice, show up, and stay grounded. I think it’s important to stay flexible and grant yourself permission to play without the pressure of perfection. I cannot dwell on when I don’t feel inspired, but instead recognize what needs aren’t being met and try to flex my muscles in the right direction for it to flow again.”

Inspiration

Asked if any aspect of spirituality plays a role in their creation of art, Perez said, “It’s not ancestor worship, but there is a sense of duty to make my ancestors proud. They had to endure a lot for me to be alive today and receive these opportunities. I must be grateful for what we have and keep it going for the next generation.”

“Art is a vessel that has the power to heal and manifest in so many different ways,” said Autumn. “It is honest and comes from within. The flow of inspiration is often not something I understand or am in control of, but it’s important to try and seize the moment, quiet down and work when it is there.

“In my artistic focus, I often pay homage to my heritage and there is an important conversation there with my ancestors. The act of creating can take me to a place of happiness and purpose that feels otherworldly at times. When I feel disappointed or sad, I remind myself that my art practice is always

there waiting for me, like an old friend.”

Hendren offers a meditative aspect to a recent project.

“Last year I was invited to install a few sculptures in the sculpture garden at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa,” she said. “I knew I wanted to share the medicine I have found in meditation with the public. So I created ‘Rum,’ short for rumination, which is intended to be a meditation platform. It’s an opportunity for the viewer to sit quietly with their thoughts. It offers a pause for deep introspection about a moment in time or a practice of letting go of the thoughts that bubble up to the surface and allowing them to slowly fade away.”

www.kimzincreative.com/pa-lante

San Francisco Transgender Film Festival

The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival seeks entries for its 2024 Festival. The SFTFF accepts narrative, documentary, experimental, animated films and music videos. All work should be created by transgender/ genderqueer people. While prioritizing short films up to 20 minutes, all screening lengths will be considered. The regular deadline is June 4 ($15), with a late deadline on June 25 ($20).

Founded in 1997, the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival is North America’s first transgender film festival, and exhibits groundbreaking, provocative, outrageous, courageous, moving and innovative works that

show the complexity of lives lived on the transgender spectrum.

The festival will take place November 13-24 at Roxie Theater in San Francisco, as well as online via Eventive. Visit the website starting October 1, 2024.

www.sftff.org

Coming Out Film Festival

In other arts news, two film festivals and a theater company are accepting submissions. The LGBT National Help Center proudly announces the first-ever LGBT Online Coming Out Film Festival. Film submissions are being accepted until August 1st. This is the first gay film festival ever to focus solely on the coming-out process.

The film festival launches online October 11, 2024, National Coming Out Day.  Films will be viewable for at least six months. And creators are free to submit and showcase their films elsewhere during the run of the Film Festival. The LGBT National Coming Out Support Hotline is just one program offered by the LGBT National Help Center.  Coming out to ourselves is a huge step. The LGBTQ Online Coming Out Film Festival offers filmmakers the chance to share their vision of what coming out is, or what coming out could be.

www.comingoutfilmfest.org

The Future is Queer

In other arts submission news, Left Coast Theatre Company is accepting scripts for short plays under 15 minutes for its upcoming theater festival, The Future is Queer. Multiple scripts can be sent, but they should focus on a theme with LGBT characters. Scripts can be submitted from April 28 through June 2. Selected scripts will be performed as stage readings in August 2024.

www.lctc-sf.orgt

Alex Solca

‘-7’ from the 2022 San Francisco Transgender Film Festival

La Asamblea’s Pa’lante Artist Grant Program recipients Briona Hendren, Stefan Perez and Kelly Autumn

Q-Music: More pre-Pride tunes

by Gregg Shapiro

If you’ve been listening to the satellite radio station SiriusXMU (Channel 35, “Indie & Beyond”) lately, chances are good you’ve heard the title track from “Eye on The Bat” (Polyvinyl), the new album by Palehound led by queer singer/songwriter El Kempner.

“Eye on the Bat” has been in serious rotation since the beginning of 2024, and it’s nice to hear a queer artist over the airwaves. Over the course of Palehound’s four albums, Kempner has honed their skill of giving the songs a conversational tone, while enveloping them in an indie rock setting that feels both modern and timeless. Palehound hits it out of the park on “The Clutch,” “Good Sex,” “I Want It U Got It,” “Head Like Soup,” “Route 22,” and “Right About You.” www.palehound.com

Does anyone out there remember the electro-pop band Elkland? It put out one major-label album in the early 2000s and opened for Erasure on its 2005 North American tour. Elkland broke up in ’06, and gay frontman Jonny Pierce went on to form the band

The Drums

Since 2010, The Drums have released six full-length albums including the newest one “Jonny” (Anti-). The title tune, about still waiting for words of kindness from an elder, and the heartbreaking “Be Gentle,” with the lines “Why the fuck am I so sensitive? Will I be this way my whole life?”, offer listeners an idea of the album’s themes. However, for fans of The Drums’ electro-driven dance style, the album offers “I’m Still Around,” “The Flowers,” “Obvious,” “Isolette,” and “Better.” www.thedrums.com

Listening to the 21st-century folk sound of “Avalanche” (Yep Roc), the new album by queer singer/songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs, it’s hard to believe she’s not better known than she is. With just a few full-length albums to her name, released over almost 20 years, Youngs took close to a dozen years between the release of her previous album and “Avalanche.”

Well worth the wait, Youngs doesn’t disappoint on “Knife Went In,” “Everglades” (co-written with Christian Lee Hutson, who also collaborated with queer singer/songwriter Katy Kirby on her recent album), “Next Time Around,” “It’s Later Than You Think,” the gorgeous “Now Comes The Mystery,” and the title cut (co-written with Madi Diaz). www.jennyowenyoungs.com

Dig Sam Smith? Not sure when their next new album is scheduled to be released? Looking for something to listen to in the interim? Check out the second full-length studio album by queer singer/songwriter Wrabel, “Based on a True Story” (Nettwerk).

Wrabel, who has co-written songs for P!nk, Idina Menzel, Kesha, Ben Platt, Years & Years, Lea Michelle and others, is more than capable of performing his own compositions. Sounding like an American version of Sam Smith, Wrabel is as comfortable and confident belting out emotional ballads (“Another Song About Love,” “Beautiful Day,” “Lost Cause,” and “Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself”) as he is performing catchy and rhythmic pop numbers (“Feel It Now,” “Abstract Art,” and “Just Like You”). www.wrabelmusic.com

How many versions of the cast recording of “Sweeney Todd” do you have in your music collection? Chances are almost every queer person (of a certain age, at least) has the one from 1979, starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou.

Following the 1989 first Broadway revival, the next stage production that earned a cast recording was the one in 2005, starring Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris. A couple years later there was the original soundtrack to the Oscar-winning Tim Burtondirected movie version with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham.

The latest addition is “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2023 Broadway Cast Recording)” (Warner/Reprise) starring

Josh Groban in the title role and Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett, and the production is still running as of this writing.

Co-written by the late musical genius Stephen Sondheim, and Hugh Wheeler (with whom Sondheim also

collaborated on “A Little Night Music” and “Pacific Overtures”), “Sweeney Todd” tells the story of the vengeful “demon barber” Todd and his meat pie-making accomplice Lovett. Groban and Ashford, both of whom received Tony nominations for their performances, make this version of the cast recording, featuring beloved numbers including “Not While I’m Around,” “Johanna,” “Pretty Women,” and “A Little Priest,” a worthy addition to your library. sweeneytoddbroadway.comt

“I hate that word. Straight. At the very least, those of us who are non-straight should get called curvy. Or scenic. Actually, I like that: ‘Do you think she’s straight?’ ‘Oh no. She’s scenic.’”

— Nina LaCour, “You Know Me Well”

narrated by Diego Luna