November 23, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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SF World AIDS Day event to honor Olympic diver Louganis Washington Blade/Michael Key

by John Ferrannini

Carl Schmid is executive director of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute.

US, SF increase PrEP uptake, but disparities remain by John Ferrannini

little over one-third of people nationwide who could benefit from PrEP were on it in 2022, but there continue to be major disparities among white, Black, and Latino Americans, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Numbers from San Francisco show a much larger proportion of people on PrEP than nationally, and show the same racial and ethnic disparities, but less dramatically so. PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, refers to the use of antiviral drugs to prevent people exposed to HIV from becoming infected. The pill Truvada was first approved for PrEP use in 2012 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; since then the FDA has also approved the pill Descovy for some groups, and the drug Apretude as an injectable treatment. “It is a huge disparity,” Carl Schmid, a gay man who is the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, told the Bay Area Reporter. “I think we need outreach to the community – the Black community, the Latino community, women. I think right now there probably isn’t enough.” The data in the CDC’s “Core Indicators for Monitoring the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative”, show that of the 1.2 million people believed to be eligible for PrEP, the number using it rose from 20% in 2021 to 36% in 2022. The largest uptake occurred among white Americans. In 2021, 78% of those eligible were on PrEP, and in 2022 that rose to 94%. However among eligible Black Americans – only 11% of whom were on PrEP in 2021 – it’s only 13%. Uptake among eligible Latino Americans rose 21% to 24%, and among eligible women from 12% to 15%. These disparities aren’t new, as the B.A.R. has previously reported over the years. In 2021, the CDC reported that HIV infections had declined, but that racial disparities remained among PrEP users. Also that year, the CDC released a report showing that Black and Latino gay and bisexual men were not seeing the same improvements in reducing HIV rates and PrEP use as their white counterparts. See page 10 >>

A Light in the Grove attendee placed a candle in the Circle of Friends at the National AIDS Memorial Grove at last year’s event. Courtesy NAMG

For 1st time, SF public library circulates LGBTQ center books

by Matthew S. Bajko

hen the city debuted the New Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library in 1996, it also christened the opening of the reading room for what was then known as the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center. Yet anyone who wanted to read the books in the third floor space had to do so at the library in the Civic Center near City Hall. None of the LGBTQ titles in the collection of what is now known as the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center could be checked out and taken home. That is, until now. As of November 8 the nearly 1,000 books on the reading room’s shelves are allowed to circulate among the public. “We are hoping that increases the enjoyment and access of the amazing LGBTQ books we have,” said Cristina Mitra, the Hormel Center’s program manager. It is not just library users in San Francisco who can check out a Hormel Center (https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/lgbtqia-center) book or have it be sent to their neighborhood library for them to pick up. Any user of a California or Nevada public or academic library that is part of the free LINK+ (Link Plus) cooperative exchange system can now borrow one of the center’s books. Adding the Hormel Center to the library network has been in the works for a while, Mitra told

Matthew S. Bajko

Cristina Mitra, the Hormel Center’s program manager, stands in its third floor reading room, where the books on the shelves can now be checked out by library patrons.

the Bay Area Reporter during a recent interview at the city library. But its implementation coincides with a recent burst of activity by conservative groups to have LGBTQ books banned at school and public libraries and removed from the shelves. In response to the book banning at libraries, the San Francisco library has been posting to its website a list of those titles that have come under attack in other library systems. In doing so, it is also noting it

has the books for people to borrow. “On a personal level it is heartbreaking,” Mitra said of the LGBTQ book backlash. “Professionally, it is also appalling because so many book bans are at schools; I was a children’s librarian.” In San Diego, during Pride Month in June, two library users had purposefully checked out all of the LGBTQ books at one branch library in the city. See page 11 >>

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he Olympian dubbed the “greatest diver in history” will be recognized at the National AIDS Memorial Grove’s World AIDS Day commemorations, which will also include its Light in the Grove benefit the night before. Louganis, a gay man who has been living with HIV since 1988, will receive the grove’s National Leadership Recognition Award at 1 p.m. Friday, December 1, during the grove’s public observance. Previous recipients of the award have been former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Louganis was the second diver – and only man – in history to sweep the diving events in two consecutive Olympiads, in 1984 in Los Angeles, and in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea, leading him to be dubbed “the greatest diver in history.” He told the Bay Area Reporter that he is honored to be recognized after years of being involved with the grove. See page 10 >>

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<< Election 2024

2 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

EQCA endorses out CA supervisor candidates by Matthew S. Bajko

tatewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California has early endorsed several out supervisor candidates running in races on the March primary ballot. Among them are two out local leaders vying to become the first LGBTQ members of their county board of supervisors. In the Bay Area, EQCA is backing Jennifer Esteen in her Alameda County race. It also threw its support behind Michael Wilson in Solano County. Esteen is running to oust from office longtime Supervisor Nate Miley in order to become the first LGBTQ person to be elected to the East Bay board. While the filing deadline for their March 5 race isn’t until early December, at this point the race is expected to be solely between Esteen and Miley, who is vying for his seventh term. Thus, it is possible one of the two candidates will receive more than 50% of the vote in order to win the race outright in March. If neither does, they will square off again on the November 5 ballot to represent East Oakland, Montclair, Castro Valley, Ashland, Cherryland, Fairview, El Portal Ridge, and Pleasanton. “This race is likely to be a one and done, and the winner takes all in March,” Esteen told the Bay Area Reporter. Not only is she “incredibly thrilled” with having the support of EQCA, Esteen said its doing so builds on the early backing she has already received from the national LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and local queer political groups the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club of San Francisco and the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club of Alameda County. “Having Equality California as a co-

Courtesy the candidate

Alameda County Board of Supervisors candidate Jennifer Esteen has won an early endorsement from Equality California.

Solano County supervisor candidate Michael Wilson was endorsed by Equality California.

partner in this moment feels like kind of a strong showing of support because we have an opportunity to elect a history maker. I will be the first out LGBTQ Black supervisor in California,” noted Esteen, a nurse and former union leader. “It is really impressive each of these LGBTQ organizations agree this is a race to get behind; that I am a candidate that represents our community well.” EQCA had co-endorsed Esteen and gay former Dublin city councilmember Shawn Kumagai in last year’s race for the Assembly District 20 seat. Esteen failed to advance out of the primary, while Kumagai fell short in the general election race. A masculine of center woman, Esteen lives in Ashland, an unincorporated area, with her wife, a marriage and family therapist. They have three adult children. Esteen formerly served as vice presi-

against District 3 Supervisor Dawn Rowe in March. Lesbian Tulare County Supervisor Amy Shuklian is seeking reelection in March to her District 3 seat. First elected in 2016, she represents her hometown of Visalia on the county board. While EQCA has yet to endorse Smith or Shuklian, on Wednesday it did endorse District 3 San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who is nonbinary and pansexual and is running for reelection next year. The Democrat is facing a challenge from Republican former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer. It also endorsed gay Wasco Vice Mayor Alex Garcia in his bid against District 4 Supervisor David Couch to be the first LGBTQ person on the Kern County Board of Supervisors. The first out person to be elected in his Central Valley county, Garcia two years ago was

dent of organizing for Service Employees International Union Local 1021. She now works for San Francisco’s public health department as a psych nurse in the community, having previously been employed as a psychiatric nurse in the San Francisco General Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Room. She is one of a septet of out supervisor candidates on March ballots around the Golden State. In all of the contests, if no candidate secures more than 50% of the ballots cast then the top two vote-getters advance to fall runoff races. Wilson did not respond to the B.A.R.’s interview request prior to publication. He is running to succeed his boss, District 1 Supervisor Erin Hannigan, who opted not to seek reelection. Gay Skyforest resident Graham Smith is aiming to be the first gay supervisor in San Bernardino County. He is one of several candidates running

asked to step down as his town’s mayor following his arrest for driving under the influence. And in Santa Cruz County EQCA endorsed Monica Martinez in the race for the open District 5 seat on the county’s board of supervisors. A queer mom, Martinez is CEO of the county’s largest health and human services nonprofit, Encompass Community Services, and would be the first out person elected to the county board. There are currently eight known LGBTQ county supervisors in California; the other six are all gay men who won their 2022 elections. Martin Huberty serves in Calaveras County; Ken Carlson in Contra Costa County; Yxstian Gutierrez in Riverside County; and Rafael Mandelman, Matt Dorsey, and Joel Engardio all serve in San Francisco County. t

Out candidates run for Congress on West Coast by Matthew S. Bajko

ith the entrance this week of a queer Washington state senator into an open House race in 2024, all three states along the West Coast could see the election of LGBTQ Congress members for the first time next year. To date, only California has sent out members of its congressional delegation to Capitol Hill. After Congressmember Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) announced that he would not seek reelection to Washington state’s 6th Congressional District, attention immediately turned to if queer Latina state Senator Emily Randall (D) would seek to succeed him. Born and raised in the district, she won election last year to a second term in her state Legislature. She made her House candidacy official on November 16. Should she win the seat, Randall would be the first out LGBTQ member of Congress from the Evergreen State. “My story is just like the stories of my neighbors. We’ve all worked hard to cover the rising costs of health care, housing, groceries, and gas. I’m running for Congress because this is the best way I can give back and get results for the community that has given me so much,” stated Randall on her campaign website. As the Bay Area Reporter’s online Political Notes column noted last year in a story about her reelection bid, Randall has strong ties to the Bay Area. She managed institutional partnerships for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 2015 and 2016, and her partner of 18 years, Alison Leahey, has family on the Peninsula whom they will be celebrating Thanksgiving with this year. Another House candidate with Bay Area ties running next year is lesbian former Santa Clara city councilmember Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who is once again seeking Oregon’s 5th Congressional District seat. She would be the Beaver State’s first LGBTQ mem-

Courtesy the candidate

Washington state Senator Emily Randall, announced November 16 that she is running for Congress after the Democratic incumbent said he would not seek reelection.

ber of Congress if she wins her race. After defeating moderate congressmember Kurt Schrader in the Democratic primary last year, McLeod-Skinner lost by roughly 2% to Republican Congressmember Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Happy Valley) in the November general election. This is McLeod-Skinner’s fourth attempt to be elected to Congress. She failed to survive her Democratic primary race in 2020, two years after she had advanced to the November ballot in 2018 but lost to the Republican incumbent. As the B.A.R. noted in July, McLeod-Skinner has drawn significant party support this year. Early endorsing her campaign were the national LGBTQ Victory Fund; Equality PAC, the political action committee for the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus; and LPAC, which works to elect LGBTQ women and nonbinary candidates. “Election Day is just one year away, and our opponent has elected an antiabortion, anti-LGBTQ+ extremist to be the next speaker of the House,” noted McLeod-Skinner in a November 12 emailed fundraising pitch. “There’s no doubt she will continue to follow

Courtesy the candidate

Will Rollins has picked up Democratic support for his 2024 congressional race.

her radical colleagues in Congress as they aim to roll back fundamental rights for working families in Oregon.” Also endorsing McLeod-Skinner when she launched her candidacy in July was gay Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside). He is running for reelection in 2024, as is California’s other gay member of the House, Congressmember Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach.)

Southern California

A number of Southern California LGBTQ leaders are aiming to join them come the 2025 congressional session. Mounting another bid to oust Congressmember Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) from his 34th Congressional District seat is fellow Democrat David Kim. The gay progressive lawyer would be the first out Korean American elected to Congress should he win. Kim lost to Gomez 51% to 49% in their contest last November but significantly narrowed Gomez’s margin of victory from when he lost to him by 6% in their 2020 race. Two other gay Democratic congressional candidates in California are mounting rematches against the Republican congressmembers they lost to in 2022. Progressive activist Derek Marshall is again running

against Congressmember Jay Obernolte (R-Hesperia) in the state’s 23rd Congressional District. Earlier this week Marshall picked up the endorsement of Equality California. The statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization has also endorsed Takano and Garcia in their 2024 races. EQCA has also endorsed gay attorney Will Rollins in his rematch next year against Congressmember Ken Calvert (R-Corona) in the 41st Congressional District that includes the LGBTQ resort and retirement mecca Palm Springs where Rollins now lives. The first-time candidate posted a strong showing in last November’s election and has drawn far more significant support from the Democratic Party for his 2024 candidacy. Several out candidates are vying to succeed Congressmember Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who is favored to survive the March primary for the U.S. Senate seat held until September by the late Dianne Feinstein. Maebe A. Girl, a nonbinary drag queen elected in 2019 as the at-large representative for the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council in Los Angeles, is mounting her third bid for Schiff ’s 30th District seat. Also vying for it is West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne, a former resident of Cupertino in the South Bay who would be the first queer Iranian woman to serve in Congress. Gay Armenian Americans Jirair Ratevosian, Ph.D., and Dr. Alex Balekian, an ICU physician, are also seeking the seat. Ratevosian formerly served as a legislative director for Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who is also seeking Feinstein’s U.S. Senate seat. Black lesbian U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler (D-California), appointed to the vacant seat by Governor Gavin Newsom, opted not to seek a full term. With Lee stepping down from her 12th Congressional District seat centered in Oakland to seek the Senate seat, the race to succeed her in the

House has drawn Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran, Ph.D., a leader within the state’s Vietnamese American community and the partner of Oakland sex shop owner and nightlife venue operator Nenna Joiner, who lost a bid last year for an Oakland City Council seat. Also in the contest are fellow Democrats BART board member Lateefah Simon, a straight ally who has drawn significant party support for her campaign, and business owner Tim Sanchez, a U.S. Navy Reserves veteran who served in Afghanistan. Queer Black woman Dom Jones, who was a former contestant on the reality TV game show “The Amazing Race,” ended her bid for the 47th Congressional District seat in Orange County. She is now running for the state’s Assembly District 72 seat held by Assemblymember Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach). On Monday, November 20, LPAC, the Victory Fund and Equality PAC jointly endorsed Randall’s House candidacy. “LPAC was honored to stand with Emily in her previous campaigns and we are thrilled to put our full support behind her as she embarks upon this historic campaign to become the first out LGBTQ Latina ever elected to Congress,” stated LPAC Executive Director Lisa Turner. “Emily has fought for LGBTQ equality, women’s rights, and social justice throughout her career, even before serving in elected office, and we know that she will continue to be a champion for our community in the halls of Congress.” In addition to Randall and McLeod-Skinner, LPAC has endorsed Shyne and Tran in their respective House races. Other than McLeod-Skinner and Randall, the Victory Fund has so far endorsed only one other West Coast House candidate, Rollins. Meanwhile, Equality PAC has also endorsed Takano, Garcia, and Rollins in addition to Randall and McLeodSkinner. t

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<< Community News

4 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

SFAF to move its downtown offices compiled by Cynthia Laird

he San Francisco AIDS Foundation has announced it will relocate its main office from 1035 Market Street to a single-tenant building at 940 Howard Street, remaining in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. The move, expected to be completed by spring, means that service locations will change for some clients and programs. SFAF’s Strut health center at 470 Castro Street is not moving and will take on some of the programs that operated at the main office, according to foundation officials. The foundation’s Sixth Street Harm Reduction Center, at 117 Sixth Street, will also remain open and operational, according to SFAF. The foundation will begin moving out of the Market Street office December 8. “With our lease expiring at the end of 2023, this was an opportunity for SFAF to reassess the space needs of staff and the communities of people we serve at our main location,” stated Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay Black man living with HIV who is CEO of the foundation. “The downturn in the real estate market in San Francisco and the changing needs of our staff – many who are able to successfully work remotely – have enabled us to make a change that will ultimately result in cost savings for the organization and improved access for our clients.” TerMeer added that while the physical location will change, “our programs and services, and our commitment to the community, remains the same.”

Cynthia Laird

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation will be moving into this building at 940 Howard Street by the spring.

The two-story Howard Street building will house AIDS/LifeCycle, the 545-mile bicycle fundraiser that SFAF operates annually with the Los Angeles LGBT Center; the Stonewall Project substance use treatment program; subsidies and financial benefits; and the administrative offices. Community engagement programs will also be housed in the new building. They are: Black Brothers Esteem, the Elizabeth Taylor 50+ Network, Healing & Uniting Every Sista (HUES), Programa Latino, and TransLife. According to the foundation, during the renovations, the Black Brothers Esteem programs will take place online in December and at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street, in January and February. The Elizabeth Taylor 50+ Network’s Wednesday night check-ins will remain virtual, as they are now. Programa Latino will be virtual in January and February.

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Most of the Stonewall Project programs will move to Strut. Its Art of Harm Reduction group will meet at the Sixth Street Harm Reduction Center. Other virtual programs will continue online. Emily Land, vice president of public affairs for the foundation, declined to provide financial information about the move. She did state that the foundation will be doing “minor renovations” to the Howard Street building “to make it fully accessible to our clients, community members, and staff.” Land stated that the foundation is renting the building with an option to purchase. The lease will be for seven years, she noted. “The new rental price represents a significant cost savings over our existing lease – approximately 40% reduction in rental cost, which will allow SFAF to focus our resources on existing programs and services,” she stated. According to SFAF’s most recent IRS Form 990 for 2021, it spent a total of $4,126,578 on occupancy, which includes rent, utilities, property insurance, and other items. The Howard Street building is located between Fifth and Sixth streets and is about a 10-minute walk from the Powell

Street BART/Muni station. SFAF noted that a smaller location in SOMA will co-locate storage and select staffing for the Pick Up Crew, its mobile harm reduction outreach teams; Syringe Access Services; and supplies for the harm reduction center. For more information about the move and a complete list of programmatic location changes during the renovation period, go to https://tinyurl.com/24x97hfh

Sisters’ Krampus pageant

San Francisco Krampus and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will hold the fifth annual Krampus pageant Saturday, December 2, from 4 to 8 p.m. at El Rio, 3158 Mission Street. The event pays homage to the scary side of Christmas, where the naughty creatures of the city will join a panel of stern judges and compete for a chance to be crowned the Krampus of 2023, a news release stated. Organizers are seeking contestants, who will be judged in three areas: costume, talent, and answering questions from the judges. The winner will receive a special effects makeup package and an array of prizes to “help them through the holidays,” the release noted. The pageant will feature some “very special (and spooky)” drag performances and live music, the release stated. It will benefit Larkin Street Youth Services, which works to end youth homelessness, including among queer youth. A recommended donation of $10$20 at the door is requested, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Those interested in competing can get more information at krampuspageant.info/

Kickstarter launched for gay physique film archive

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched by the Bob Mizer Foundation in San Francisco to digitize Mizer’s color films from the 1970s, with a focus on those films that showed nudity. The Kickstarter campaign’s goal is to raise $30,000 to purchase a stateof-the-art film scanner and supplies. So far, the campaign has raised more than $25,000. It ends November 28. Over the span of his 50-year career, Mizer, who most men knew was gay, created a body of work that both reflected and skewed American ideals of masculinity, ranging from dramatic lit black and white photographs of musclemen to colorfully extreme close-ups of male genitalia, the foundation noted on its website. From his home in Los Angeles, he photographed thousands of men, ranging from Hollywood actors and bodybuilders to hustlers and porn stars. Mizer died in 1992 at the age of 70. The foundation noted that digitizing Mizer’s films will be a lengthy project. He created about 3,000 film titles during his career. Den Bell, founder and CEO of the foundation, estimates that the campaign will initially fund the digitization of 150 of them. To donate, go to https://tinyurl. com/muy8rdfn.For more information on the foundation, go to bobmizer.org. See page 10 >>

Out Oakland school candidate will run in 2024 by Matthew S. Bajko

cknowledging she is facing a likely insurmountable deficit in winning her special election for a vacant Oakland school board seat, queer education advocate Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez announced November 15 that she will seek to be elected to it in 2024. Ritzie-Hernandez remains in second place in the race for the District 5 seat on the governing body for the Oakland Unified School District. She has trailed since election night behind retired educator and principal Jorge Lerma. The Alameda County registrar has yet to update the vote tally in the contest since November 9. At that time, Lerma remained in the lead with 57% and Ritzie-Hernandez was at 42.60% of the vote, though her deficit had declined slightly to 517 votes. Last Friday, Lerma had stated he was “optimistic about the result” in a post on his campaign’s Facebook page. A new vote count posted November 16 didn’t change either candidate’s share of the tally, though Lerma’s lead did shrink to 510 votes. In a November 15 email to her supporters, Ritzie-Hernandez noted she is “facing a 7.4 percent deficit” and indicated the vote tally is unlikely to swing in her favor when the next count is released. “Though the numbers may not be in our favor, I want you to know that your support has meant the world to me, and this journey has been a valuable experience,” wrote RitzieHernandez. She has yet to respond to a request for comment from the B.A.R. about the election results. A resident of the

Courtesy the candidate

Oakland school board candidate Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez, who came up short in last week’s special election, plans to run again for the District 5 seat next year.

city’s Fruitvale district who uses both she and they pronouns, Ritzie-Hernandez coordinates the collaborative initiative called the Bay Area Coalition for Education Justice. She and Lerma had vied to succeed school board member Mike Hutchinson in the District 5 area covering several of Oakland’s eastern neighborhoods. Having been redistricted into the board’s District 4 area, Hutchinson ran for the seat last fall. Due to a mix up by the county registrar, transgender married dad Nick Resnick had been declared the winner and sworn into office in January. But faced with a lawsuit over the results, Resnick resigned from the seat. Hutchinson was then sworn into office earlier this year. He backed Lerma to succeed him in the District 5 seat, while Ritzie-Hernandez had the support of the teachers union and LGBTQ leaders, such as the school board’s sole out member, queer District 6 trustee Valarie Bachelor.

The November 7 race was only to finish out Hutchison’s term through the end of next year. Thus, the winner will need to seek a full four-year term on next November’s ballot. Noting different district boundaries for the school board seat will be in place for the 2024 race because of the latest redistricting process, RitzieHernandez indicated in her email that the new mix of voters could work to her advantage in the contest. (This year’s race used the old district map.) “Looking forward, I hope I can count on your continued support as we aim to win the majority on our school board in 2024,” she wrote. “The 2024 election cycle will bring new boundaries, excluding areas above the 580 highway and both Edna Brewer and Glenview Elementary. “Thank you once again for your steadfast support. Together, we can continue working towards a brighter future for Oakland schools,” RitzieHernandez added. t

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November 23-29, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 5

LGBTQ groups launch new immigrant center by Heather Cassell

wo Bay Area organizations, The LGBT Asylum Project and Parivar Bay Area, have announced the launch of the Center for Immigrant Protection. The groups are calling the new program an “enhanced partnership,” centering their work on uplifting transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex immigrants’ lives through accessible and comprehensive support services. “Now is the time to strengthen our partnership between The LGBT Asylum Project and PBA, under the Center for Immigrant Protection, to ensure that all LGBTQIA+ immigrants in our community have access to life-saving services,” stated Okan Sengun, who was appointed as CIP’s executive director, according to the November 14 news release announcing the organization’s launch. Sengun, a gay Turkish man and attorney, is co-founder and executive director of The LGBT Asylum Project, which provides legal services to asylees. “These services should not be limited to legal assistance but should also address a wide range of needs, particularly those of TGNCI+ immigrants,” Sengun continued. “In order to meet the needs of our clients and all LGBTQIA+ immigrants in our community while they start their new lives, we are proud to officially partner with Parivar Bay Area.” According to the release, The LGBT Asylum Project and Parivar Bay Area have worked closely together and unofficially as CIP since 2019. The asylum project has provided fiscal sponsorship for three years of Parivar’s five years of existence. The two organizations are of-

Courtesy Center for Immigrant Protection

Center for Immigrant Protection co-founders Okan Sengun, left, and Anjali Rimi, announced the new project November 14.

ficially launching the program as its own entity with the asylum project overseeing operations. The LGBT Asylum Project and Parivar will continue their work as individual organizations. According to the center’s website, its mission is to “empower and advocate for LGBTQIA+ immigrants, ensuring their safety, well-being, and celebrating social belonging, while uplifting TGNCI+ identities, to belong in the United States of America, and to build a community of light, love, and unity. We strive to provide comprehensive and accessible support services, including legal assistance and social integration, while promoting awareness, education,

and acceptance.” Anjali Rimi, an Indian pansexual transgender Kinner, co-founded Parivar. She stated she was proud to form the center to serve the “unique and unaddressed needs” of the LGBTQ immigrant community. “We are dedicated to ensuring that TGNCI+ immigrants receive the holistic support they deserve so they are able to thrive in San Francisco and beyond,” Rimi stated. The center is the newest organization focused on helping LGBTQ asylees, refugees, and migrants in the San Francisco Bay Area that the Bay Area Reporter has reported on. Others include the Canadian-based Rainbow Railroad’s Welcome Corps

program and LGBTQ Refugee Services, which is run by Jewish Family and Community Services of the East Bay. There are also the International Rescue Committee and the Organization for Refugee, Asylum, and Migration that serve queer immigrants. Rimi was traveling when the release was issued, but responding to the B.A.R.’s question through CIP’s publicist about how the center’s services will be different from other LGBTQ and ally organizations serving asylees and refugees in the Bay Area, she wrote, “The primary distinction lies in the absence of assistance from the U.S. government.” “Instead, we are focused on directly managing asylum cases, providing grants, and engaging pro bono lawyers,” she continued. “Our approach is trans-centering, emphasizing belonging and inclusivity.” Sengun was unavailable for comment. The LGBT Asylum Project has provided legal assistance specifically for LGBTQ asylum seekers since its 2015 launch, as the B.A.R. previously reported. The project operates on a budget of more than $500,000, according to its 2022 IRS Form 990. According to its website, the project has successfully gained United States citizenship for 116 people since its founding and currently has 198 active cases under the leadership of Sengun and ally Brooke Westling. In 2022, the organization reached out to 712 LGBTQ immigrants through legal consultations and asylum applications. Rimi, who uses she/they pronouns, currently leads Parivar,

which also has a budget of about $500,000, she said. (Parivar means family in English.) The organization creates transgender-centered programs and spaces focused on immigrants from the Global South who are living in the Bay Area, according to its 2022 annual report. Last year, Parivar reported supporting 7,500 clients by creating 72 community spaces and events, 23 transgender entrepreneurship projects, and launching 10 programs. Sengun is overseeing the new center’s 15 staff members, some of whom also work for the asylum project. A separate nine-member board of directors will oversee the center. Rimi is serving as president of the board. The center will operate out of The LGBT Asylum Project’s Castro Street office. Sengun is an experienced LGBTQ advocate for more than 15 years. Since 2012, he’s secured asylum and legal protections for LGBTQ asylees, including a “deep commitment” to serving transgender migrants, according to the release. In July, Sengun was honored with the Vera Haile Champion of Justice Award by the City and County of San Francisco’s Immigrant Rights Commission at its Immigration Leadership Awards ceremony. For more information about the Center for Immigrant Protection, visit https://www. lgbtasylumproject.org/cip.html/. t Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or oitwnews@ gmail.com

<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

Volume 52, Number 22 November 23-29, 2023 www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Michael Flanagan •Jim Gladstone Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Gooch Jose A. Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Rich Stadtmiller Christopher Robledo • Fred Rowe Shot in the City • Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Christine Smith

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Communities should lead fight against HIV/AIDS

he theme for the 35th annual World AIDS Day coming up on December 1 is “Let Communities Lead.” This theme is important for what it represents: the idea that local communities across the world know what works for them. Governments must, of course, continue to provide robust funding, but in a way that really lets communities dictate the goals and outcomes that flow from that funding. Here are some ideas about how that might work.

PrEP

We’ve been reporting for years on what researchers have long seen as major racial and ethnic disparities in PrEP usage. Recently, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new research that – surprise – continues to show such disparities, especially among Black and Latino men who have sex with men. As a result, Black and Latino gay and bisexual men are not seeing the same improvements in reducing HIV rates and increasing PrEP usage as their white counterparts. We know that racism and stigma continue to play a part in this puzzle, but there continues to be the need for more outreach, particularly on social media as that’s where so many younger people get their information. TV commercials for PrEP – featuring people of color in them – have been seen widely in the Bay Area. These, too, need to be expanded to more markets, particularly in rural parts of the country. Tatyana Moaton, Ph.D., the director of strategic innovations and partnerships at the San Francisco Community Health Center, told us that a multifaceted approach is needed and that’s right. Awareness of PrEP needs to be revitalized in minority communities, along with improving access to health care. To this end, federal and state governments must fund programs that can enable local organizations to ramp up their efforts and amplify their impact, as Moaton noted. Brian Ragas, director of Black health at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, pointed to racism and stigma as two major barriers. Carl Schmid, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute,

concurred, and also noted that protecting federal funding for community health centers is critical. House Republicans want to decimate such federal spending, though there is a slight reprieve now as Congress has passed another continuing resolution to keep the government funded. At some point, however, Congress will need to advance the 12 appropriations bills to keep the government funded. Right now, the Republicans’ plan calls for a “laddered” approach whereby four federal agencies are funded through January 19, and eight are funded through February 2. In our article, we report that the San Francisco Department of Public Health has created media campaigns to reach out to the Black and Latino communities. That’s a positive development and one that should continue. These public service announcements need to be seen far and wide – and yes, that will cost money, but it’s crucial that non-white men who have sex with men learn how to avail themselves of PrEP.

Expand harm reduction

The politics in San Francisco right now are such that Mayor London Breed, gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, and others want to return to the bad old days of stigma and the War on Drugs. Breed wants to make public assistance contingent on someone having a clean drug test. Dorsey this summer floated an idea that would see drug users jailed, getting services for their addictions behind bars. To do this, he proposed reallocating the city’s entire budget– $18.9 million over two years – from planned Wellness Hubs to Jail Health Services. That’s not progress; that’s regression. These proposals are being bandied about because the public is fed up with ongoing issues of homelessness and mental health crises suffered by many people on the streets – and Breed faces a tough reelection next year. Meanwhile, the Department of Public Health’s HIV report for 2021 that was issued last year showed, for the first time, that gay and bisexual men who don’t inject drugs accounted for less than half of new HIV cases in San Francisco. According to the report, gay

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

Reducing HIV

San Francisco saw 160 new HIV cases in 2021 (the figures for 2022 are expected in December). That was up from 138 in 2020 and remains too high for a city like San Francisco that pioneered a model of care that has been extremely effective in many ways. The problem now is that there is not enough funding for community HIV/AIDS nonprofits and city health clinics to broaden their services to ease some of these stubborn disparities. We’d add that drug companies, too, bear some of the burden to lower costs so that more people can utilize PrEP in its various forms, including a longer-acting injectable that only needs to be administered every other month that might be a game-changer for those experiencing housing insecurity. As AIDS enters its 43rd year there is still no cure. But there are excellent preventative medications for which access must be expanded to those who for too long have been unable to get them. The disparities in accessing HIV prevention must be addressed, and community groups are in perhaps the best position to do that. What they need is stable funding to be able to do their work.t

homes. You might even discover this as a new passion and decide to pursue a teaching certification after volunteering.

F 44 Gough Street, Suite 302 San Francisco, CA 94103 415.861.5019 • www.ebar.com

and bisexual men who did not inject drugs accounted for 49% of new HIV cases in 2021. That means disparities exist among those who are unhoused and inject drugs. For some of them, harm reduction – where case workers and other staff meet a drug user where they are and try to determine if they are ready to take steps to curb their addiction – is a valid, well-researched intervention that could help them get on treatment if they test positive, or get them on PrEP if they are negative. This is preferable to seeing people further stigmatized by being cut off from public assistance or jailed for using drugs. As for the three Wellness Hubs the city has budgeted for this fiscal year – in the South of Market, Mission, and Tenderloin – they still are not up and running and that’s an indictment on the bureaucratic mess that is San Francisco government. The bottom line, however, is that these centers need to get operational and provide harm reduction services such as clean needles and counseling. Once that happens, city officials can determine if the outcomes are effective and move forward.

5 great ways to create positive change in your community by Ed Carter

Bay Area Reporter

ew things are more rewarding than standing up for a cause you believe in, especially when it is of importance in your local community. Perhaps it’s social justice, assisting senior citizens, feeding hungry families, or supporting health care initiatives. Or maybe you want to help protect the environment, stop animal abuse, or improve the safety of parks in your city. Whatever you believe in, here are a few impactful ways to take action and bring about positive change.

4. Put together fundraising campaigns

1. Launch a nonprofit organization

If you notice a lack of local support for your favorite cause, consider launching a nonprofit to fill the gap. Starting a nonprofit company is a great opportunity to leverage (https://smallbusiness. chron.com/benefits-starting-non-profit-organization-1663.html) your business talent to help others. By registering your business as a nonprofit corporation, it will be easier to apply for grants and obtain public funding. Research what it takes to establish and manage a nonprofit to ensure you’re up for the challenge. For example, you’ll need to create bylaws that detail how your nonprofit operates. These typically include information on voting procedures and rules for resolving conflicts of interest.

2. Give to local charities

Donating your resources to local charities is another great way to give back to your community. Give whatever you can. You could donate money or gift cards, gift gently used items, or even donate your time and skills to offer help with something specific like marketing or graphic design. If you’re on a tight budget, you might want to stick to non-monetary donations. The best thing you can do is contact the charity or nonprofit and ask what type of donation would be the most useful. For example, the Right to Shower (https://www.therighttoshower.com/make-difference/what-do-people-experiencing-homelessness-

Pexels

The holiday season is a great time to give back to the community by volunteering.

need-most-besides-shelter) explains that homeless shelters often need unused socks and underwear, bedding, and hygiene products like toiletries and menstrual products.

3. Volunteer your time

Your time is one of your most valuable resources. By giving some of your time to a local cause, you can make a real difference. Look for volunteer opportunities (https://getzelos.com/ volunteer-opportunities/) with the organizations you want to support. Food kitchens, animal shelters, hospitals, public libraries, community centers, faith organizations, parks, and retirement homes are always happy to receive an extra set of helping hands. Call around and find out how you can help. If you have a specialized skill, offer it to local organizations. Donating time can be a huge benefit to the nonprofits and the people they help. For instance, you can use teaching skills to help disadvantaged kids in afterschool programs or in group

You don’t need to launch a nonprofit company to raise money for a local cause. Consider starting your own fundraiser to raise money to donate to a charity or gift to someone in need. First, Candid Learning explains that you’ll need to establish a method for collecting donations, such as PayPal. Accepting donations online is the easiest way to do this. You’ll also want to write a news release about your campaign so you can ask local media to share your initiative with their audiences. You can also promote the effort on social media.

5. Spread awareness

If you don’t have a lot of time or money to spend on a cause, spreading awareness is one of the easiest ways to offer your support. Use your voice to share the importance of your effort. Besides discussing matters with friends and family, you can leverage social media to reach an even wider audience. Be sure to stress why your issue matters and focus on exactly how people’s donations will be put to use. Sharing numbers and statistics is a great way to get everyone’s attention.

Make a positive impact

Are you looking for ways to give back to your community? Stand up for a local cause! Whether this means launching your own nonprofit organization or spreading awareness on social media, your actions are bound to make a difference in your community. t Ed Carter is a retired financial planner who works with people of all abilities at AbleFutures.org. (https://ablefutures.org/)

Politics >>

November 23-29, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 7

Slain gay leader Milk’s legacy continues to echo

by Matthew S. Bajko

n the third episode of the new television miniseries “Fellow Travelers,” clearly visible on the wall of the San Francisco apartment where one of the main characters, Tim Laughlin, played by out actor Jonathan Bailey, resides is a campaign poster. It declares “Milk for Supervisor.” It is just one example of how the legacy of gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk continues to echo in the culture, 45 years after his life and political career were cut short by an assassin’s bullet. The killings of Milk, the first LGBTQ person elected a San Francisco supervisor, and then-mayor George Moscone by disgruntled former San Francisco supervisor Dan White received prominent attention this fall due to the passing of the late Democratic U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein. Back in 1978 she was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and announced on November 27 to a shocked citizenry the deaths of her political colleagues. Footage from that day was prominently featured in news coverage of Feinstein’s death in September at the age of 90. Milk’s election to his supervisor seat in 1977 was a watershed moment for the city’s LGBTQ community, as well as throughout California. It marked the first time an out candidate had won election in the Golden State. He used the bully pulpit that came with being an elected official to his advantage the following year during the successful campaign to defeat Proposition 6, a statewide ballot initiative on the November 1978 ballot that would have banned LGBTQIA+ people and their supporters from working in California’s public schools. Milk, who had graduated from the New York State College for Teachers in 1951, was a prominent presence in the media countering the homophobia being spewed by the backers of Prop 6. In particular, Milk participated in a televised debate on September 15, 1978 with the initiative’s author, thenstate senator John Briggs. It was held in the gymnasium of Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, California, roughly 30 miles east of San Francisco. To mark their now historic matchup, officials and teachers with the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, which the high school is a part of, unveiled a plaque in October to commemorate what would turn out to be one of Milk’s last public appearances. It features a newspaper photo of Milk at the debate table and recognizes his “courageous leadership.” “I am so proud to be part of a school community that uplifts the experiences and contributions of marginalized groups,” said U.S. history and ethnic studies teacher Meg Honey, who organized the plaque dedication event at the high school. “Harvey Milk helped protect the human rights of school employees, and it is time that his courageous leadership during the debate at Northgate High is honored.” In attendance at the October 16 ceremony was gay Contra Costa County Supervisor Ken Carlson. His election last November to his board’s District 4 seat marked the first time an out candidate had won a supervisor race in the East Bay county. “It is important to celebrate this historic event in our community and ensure that Harvey Milk’s legacy continues to inspire future generations,” noted Carlson. Milk’s life story and lasting legacy elicited a completely opposite reaction earlier in the year from conservative school leaders in a Southern California city. Members of the Temecula Valley Unified School District Board of Education attacked Milk, with board President Joseph Komrosky, Ph.D., calling him a pedophile.

Courtesy Supervisor Carlson’s office

Contra Costa County Supervisor Ken Carlson, left, joined Meg Honey in unveiling a plaque honoring Harvey Milk at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, the site of one of Milk’s last public appearances in September 1978.

A majority on the board voted to ban instructional materials that mentioned Milk, leading Governor Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco supervisor and mayor, to threaten the school district with a $1.5 million fine. It prompted the board to reverse course, and also resulted in the five living gay men who succeeded Milk in representing the Castro at City Hall to condemn the Temecula school leaders in early June during Pride Month. “The most shameful aspect of this vicious attack on Harvey’s memory is the use of children in this assault. Two of us are parents, all of us are uncles, and we can attest to the impact of homophobia and transphobia on the mental health of vulnerable children in California and across the country,” wrote state Senator Scott Wiener, former senator Mark Leno, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and former supervisors Bevan Dufty and Jeff Sheehy in their statement. A former New Yorker who grew up on Long Island, Milk moved to San Francisco in 1972 and opened up a camera store in the Castro district that he would use as his headquarters for his various bids for public office. He became a prominent leader within the burgeoning LGBTQ neighborhood.

Milk echoes in current Middle East strife

Milk was also the first of a long line of gay Jewish male politicians in the city. His religious identity is also echoing today, as it has been invoked amid the debate over Israel’s war with Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza and brutally attacked Israeli towns and military bases last month, killing an estimated 1,200 people. In response, Israel has mounted a counteroffensive against Hamas and has sent troops into the Palestinian territory. It has faced international condemnation for cutting off power and water to Gaza, and for the mounting death toll that has surpassed 11,000 people, according to reports. At an event held in support of Israel, Jewish Community Relations Council Chief Executive Officer Tyler Gregory, a gay man, spoke about Milk, whom he called a personal hero. He noted how Milk today is best known for his gay advocacy. “Yet, what some LGBTQ+ Americans seem to forget was that his fight for LGBTQ+ rights was rooted in his understanding of Jewish liberation and the push to restore Jewish statehood in our indigenous homeland of Israel. In other words, his activism was rooted in Zionism. And so is mine,” said Gregory at the Bay Area United rally held in late October at the Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco. “Harvey Milk, like us, was a Zionist. He understood that Jewish and LGBTQ+ activism and liberation were and remain intersectional. In recent years, we have seen

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• Divorce w/emphasis on LGBTQ+ Americans turn their back Real Estate & Business Divisions on Israel and the Jewish community • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody – and trample on Harvey’s values and • Probate and Wills legacy.” www.SchneiderLawSF.com Calling on rally attendees to educate others about the need to return the hundreds of people taken hostage *Certified by the California State Bar by Hamas, Gregory repurposed Milk’s most famous line. 315 Montgomery St., Ste. 1025, San Francisco, CA 94104 “The weeks and months ahead are going to require all of us,” he said. “So, let’s all channel Harvey as we move forward: ‘We gotta give ‘em hope.’” Meanwhile, the Harvey Milk LGVice President of Advertising BTQ Democratic Club of San Francisco has called on President Joe Biden advertising@ebar.com to press Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “for an immediate ceasefire to end the violence, to send and facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to exercise our country’s diplomatic power to save lives.” The progressive political group issued its statement in early November ahead The of Biden coming to the Bay Area to attend a meeting for leaders of Pacific 44 Gough Street #302, San Francisco, CA 94103 Rim countries. (415) 829-8937 • www.ebar.com “We condemn the Hamas massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7th and the kidnapping of more than 240 hostages. We condemn the Israeli military action in Gaza resulting in staggering numbers of civilians killed, maimed, and injured,” stated the club. “All actions targeting civilians, regardless of their creed or origin, is a violation of international humanitarian law and the mass killing and forced displacement of a captive, stateless population shakes our common humanity.” The club will be hosting the annual Milk-Moscone candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Monday, November 27, at Harvey Milk Plaza above the Castro Muni station at the corner of Castro and Market When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in streets. The San Francisco Gay Men’s advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial Chorus and the Lesbian/Gay Freeand provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead When your celebration lasting dom Band of San Francisco are schedprotectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, When you remembrance plan your celebration and lasting remembrance in allowing themlife to focus on what will matter most at that time—you. uled to perform. in advance, you can design every The event will also commemoadvance, you canofdesign every detail of your ownand unique memorial detail own memorial provide Contact usyour today about theunique beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy rate the anniversary of the Colorado at the San Francisco Columbarium. and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead Springs Club Q shooting that ocprotects your loved onesProudly from unnecessary stressunnecessary and financial burden, curred last November 19-20. Five ahead protects yourserving loved onesCommunity. from the LGBT people were killed, and anotherallowing 19 them focus on whatburden, will matter most them at thattotime—you. stresstoand financial allowing were injured, by the mass shooting at the Colorado LGBTQ nightclub. focus on what will matter most at that time—you. “We encourage all members ofContact the us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy community to join us as we pay homage at the San Contact FranciscousColumbarium. today about the beautiful ways to create to the enduring spirit of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone,” stated a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium. Milk club President Jeffrey Kwong. One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 Proudly serving our Community. “Their advocacy and courage continue SanFranciscoColumbarium.com Proudly serving the LGBT Community. to inspire us in our ongoing pursuit of FD 1306 / COA 660 equality and justice for all.” t

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Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, will return Monday, December 4. Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or email m.bajko@ebar.com.

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<< Health News

8 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

DPH: Most SF mpox cases are among unvaxxed by John Ferrannini

ost new mpox cases in San Francisco are among the unvaccinated, the city’s Department of Public Health told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent interview. Dr. Julia Janssen from SF DPH’s HIV/STI Prevention and Control Section said that as of November 13, 33% of San Francisco’s cases in the past two months were in people who had been fully vaccinated, and 10% were in people who had been partially vaccinated. That means 57% of mpox cases occurred in people who were not vaccinated. In other words, nearly 70% of mpox cases are among those unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. “Most people in San Francisco who are getting mpox are not fully vaccinated,” Janssen said. Janssen said that those who’ve been vaccinated but nonetheless develop an mpox infection generally have better outcomes than those who did not get the Jynneos vaccine. It is given in two doses spaced a month apart. “Receiving the full two-dose series is one of the most effective ways to prevent mpox infection and can reduce illness severity, hospitalization and death,” Janssen said. To that effect, nobody thus far who was vaccinated has been hospitalized in San Francisco, Janssen said. The city has also seen no deaths. As the B.A.R. reportedOctober 31, that month saw the most reported cases in the city since the summer 2022 outbreak. According to DPH’s most recent data, there were 20 cases in September, 22 in October, and five in November thus far. These numbers are nonetheless significantly lower than last summer. For example, on July 31, 2022, the city’s sev-

Rick Gerharter

San Francisco health officials said that most people getting mpox have not been vaccinated.

en-day rolling average of new cases was 20.4 cases per day. A vaccination drive among gay and bisexual men, and others at risk for infection with the mpox virus, is credited for bringing down those numbers – and vaccination is being promoted by DPH as the way to fight the uptick. The virus has largely affected men who have sex with men and their sexual partners since its outbreak in the spring of 2022. While one dose of the Jynneos vaccine offers some protection, health officials said receiving both doses provides the best protection against the disease. According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health in an October statement, “no vaccine is 100% effective and people who have been vaccinated may still get mpox, but vaccination may decrease illness severity and reduce the risk of hospitalization.” Over 50,000 doses of Jynneos were distributed last year in San Francisco, the city’s DPH stated, covering 42% of all people living with HIV in the city and

65% of people who had received PrEP at San Francisco City Clinic prior to June 2022. Still, Dr. Stephanie Cohen, a straight ally who is the section director for HIV/ STI prevention with the health department, previously told the B.A.R. that 40% of those who received the first dose of mpox vaccine didn’t return for a second. A California Department of Public Health news release last month stated that “while anyone can get mpox and preventive measures should be taken by all, vaccines are recommended for those at highest risk,” and urged a number of groups to consider vaccination if they are not vaccinated already. These include people who know or suspect exposure to someone who has had the mpox virus; people whose sexual partners have been diagnosed with mpox in the last two weeks; and people who are gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men. Additionally, transgender, nonbinary,

or gender-diverse people who’ve had a sexually transmitted infection in the last six months are recommended for the vaccine, as are people who, in the last six months, have had sex “at a commercial sex venue” such as a bathhouse, or “sex in connection with a large commercial event or in the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles, where higher transmission is occurring.” The state also encouraged vaccination for those who’ve exchanged sex for “money or other items,” people who have more than one sex partner regardless of sexual orientation, people who have HIV or are otherwise immunosuppressed, people who work in laboratory or other settings where they may be exposed to the mpox virus, people who have a sex partner who is in any of the aforementioned groups or scenarios, and people who “anticipate” being part of any of the aforementioned groups or scenarios. The release stated that other prevention strategies in addition to vaccination include “having open conversations” with sexual partners and health providers about symptoms and possible exposure; and “being aware” of new sores or rashes. Health officials advise people to not share bedding, towels, clothing, utensils or cups with someone who has mpox; nor should they hug, kiss, cuddle, or have sex with people who have mpox or were exposed within the last three weeks. Other guidance includes washing hands frequently with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer; and using a mask, gown, and gloves while caring for people who have mpox.

Where to get mpox shot

Janssen said that the vaccine is “widely available.” “We have many places across the city where people can get vaccinated and

we want to make sure people can go to the place most convenient for them,” she said, adding that there’s a website at myturn.ca.gov where people can make vaccine appointments. Vaccines are also available at San Francisco City Clinic at 356 Seventh Street and at the Magnet clinic at Strut at 470 Castro Street, which is run by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Jorge Roman, MSN, FNP-BC, AAHIVS, is the senior director of clinical services at the AIDS foundation. Roman told the B.A.R. that there’s an abundance of vaccine doses available. “Although current rates of mpox cases are not at the same levels seen last year, there has been a steady increase in cases both in California and around the country,” Roman stated. “We’re continuing to encourage people who may be at risk of mpox to receive both doses of the vaccine in order to prevent infection and serious illness. It is important to receive both doses in the two-dose series in order to be best protected. We have plenty of doses of the Jynneos vaccine on hand for the community, and it’s easy and convenient to get vaccinated.” Symptoms start between three and 21 days after exposure to the mpox virus. They can include flu-like symptoms and/or rashes on the face, body, genitalia, arms and legs. Most reported U.S. cases were in California, New York, Florida, and Texas, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, which showed that there were 38 mpox deaths nationwide between May 2022 and March 2023, during which time there were 30,235 cases. For the 24 decedents who had HIV for whom data was available, all had a CD4 count of less than 50. For information on the mpox vaccine, go to sf.gov/information/mpoxvaccine. t

Florida’s request to enforce anti-drag law scuttled by Lisa Keen

n a surprise move, a 6-3 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Florida’s request for a stay against a lower court decision that would have enabled the state to enforce its new law banning drag shows under certain circumstances. The ruling was issued November 16. The case, Florida v. Hamburger Mary’s, originated with a restaurant in Orlando that showcases numerous drag show events, including Family Nights. That activity was threatened in May when Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a fivebill package of legislation called “Let Kids Be Kids.” Four of the five laws attacked LGBTQ-specific needs. DeSantis signed the package just before he entered the Republican presidential primary race. The package bans gender-affirming medical care for minors, prohibits LGBTQ-related topics in K-8 classrooms, requires bathrooms and locker rooms in educational facilities and other public buildings to be used based on biological sex identified at birth, and bans children from sexually explicit performances. Legislative debate made clear that the latter bill was aimed at drag shows. The package also includes a law that allows private and home-schooled students to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities at public or private schools regardless of ZIP code. The law banning kids from drag shows did not use the term “drag shows” or any LGBTQ-specific term. It defined the target of the legislation to be “adult live performance,” but the bill’s sponsor in the House said its purpose was to target drag shows, including those in various public places, such as “Drag Queen Story Time” at libraries and drag performers at Pride events. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported,

Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a request from Florida officials to enforce an anti-drag law while it is appealed.

Hamburger Mary’s sued the state to protect its own right to conduct “family-friendly” drag shows. On June 23, federal district court Judge Gregory Presnell rejected the state’s request to dismiss the restaurant’s lawsuit. He also granted the business’ request for a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing the law against Hamburger Mary’s. Presnell said the Florida law was so vague it was “dangerously susceptible to standardless, overbroad enforcement which could sweep up substantial protected speech. ...” He also noted that parents are allowed to take children to R-rated movies. And he blocked the state from “any” enforcement of the law against any venue until his court could deliberate on the merits of the lawsuit. In a 2-1 vote on October 11, a threejudge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that temporary injunction, as the B.A.R. reported. Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody immediately filed an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to stay that injunction. Things looked promising for Florida

at first. Justice Clarence Thomas is the justice given responsibility for the 11th Circuit, and he could have granted the request himself. But, instead, he referred the matter to the full court. On November 16, the Supreme Court issued a three-page response, denying Florida’s request for an emergency stay. LGBTQ advocates were pleased with the development. “The Supreme Court did the right thing by leaving the injunction in place, but it’s unnerving that three justices dissented,” said Shannon Minter, a trans man who is legal director for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights. Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, said to win a stay on the lower court’s injunction Florida would have to show “a reasonable probability” that the Supreme Court would eventually grant a request on the question presented by the stay application. “The State has not made that showing here,” wrote Kavanaugh. Joining Kavanaugh in rejecting the request for a stay were Chief Justice John Roberts

and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Voting to grant the injunction were the court’s most reliable right-wing justices: Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. Kavanaugh made clear that the majority, in rejecting the stay, was not making any comment about the district court judge’s statement that the law likely violates the First Amendment. Instead, he wrote, the rejection was based on a more technical question: whether the district court judge had the authority to block enforcement of the law against any venue beyond Hamburger Mary’s.

Tennessee case

Meanwhile, in other recent Supreme Court developments, the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund appealed a case to the high court November 2 that asks the justices to uphold a preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of a Tennessee law. It bans current and future gender-affirming medical

care for young people. In the Tennessee case, the pro-LGBTQ legal team argues that the ban on genderaffirming medical care “likely violates the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the medical care of their children.” In L.W. v. Tennessee, the groups lost their appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and have, thus, brought the appeal to the Supreme Court. Tennessee’s law bans the prescription of gender-affirming medication for gender dysphoria if it is prescribed to enable a person to live as a gender not designated on the person’s original birth certificate. The groups represent three transgender youth and their parents, as well as a physician. The young people all suffered “severe distress from gender dysphoria” and obtained relief through medication, the legal groups stated. “Tennessee and 20 other states have banned these treatments altogether, forcing families to upend their lives and move out of state to ensure that their children get the medical treatment they need,” states the ACLU-Lambda petition. Minter said the Tennessee case and others represent a sharp shift in the legal landscape. “I hope that LGBT people across this country recognize that never in our lifetimes have we been in such danger of losing basic freedoms,” said Minter. “We are fighting in the courts, but we must face up to the stark reality that our nation’s highest court is highly unlikely to be a reliable defender of our rights. Any LGBT person who is not intensely focused on the upcoming elections does not understand the gravity of the situation.”t

Obituaries>>

November 23-29, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 9

Former SF stage manager Milt Commons dies by Cynthia Laird

Commons was a valued participant in several reading groups, and also performed key liturgical and practical duties as a lay member at Old St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, including acting as stage director for the Old Cathedral Players. The son of Milton and Katherine Commons, and brother of Carol, Mr. Commons was born and raised in tiny Macksville, Kansas (current population: 471) on June 17, 1927. Possessing a bright and curious mind, he set out to see the world beyond Kansas, attending UC Santa Barbara, then graduating from Kansas University with a B.S. in English education and an M.A. in drama.

ongtime stage manager and actor Milt Commons made his final exit on November 6 in his longtime home of San Francisco, after an exceptionally long, useful, and colorful life, friends said. He was 96. Mr. Commons, a gay man, moved to San Francisco in 1974, but it was at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles that he began his longest professional association, working with playwright and director Luis Valdez on his groundbreaking play (and subsequent film), “Zoot Suit.” An obituary prepared by friends and family noted that Mr. Commons continued to stage-manage for Valdez’s theater company, El Teatro Campesino, for its annual bilingual Christmas plays in San Juan Bautista, California. He led these immersive performances inside Mission San Juan Bautista for 25 years, finally calling his last show there in 2018. Valdez paid tribute to his longtime friend and colleague, stating, “Milt instilled the highest level of professionalism as a stage manager and esteemed mentor in our company. He made it possible for all of our Chicano theater company to feel like it had a special place in the American Theatre. For this he will always have a special place in our heart.” Throughout those years Mr. Commons also stage-managed at many other professional theaters. When he was in his 80s and found stage management jobs increasingly hard to come by, he pivoted to a new career, studying for, and passing, the test to become a member of the theatrical wardrobe union. Mr. Commons dressed local and touring productions until he was 92, his final show being “A Christmas Carol” at the American Conservatory Theater. He officially retired in 2020

Career started in 1950

when the COVID pandemic closed theaters and there was no more work for him, the obituary noted. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle by theater critic Lily Janiak, Mr. Commons took his enforced retirement in stride, commenting, “You never know when you’ve done your last show, and the reverse of that is that you’ve got to do every show like it’s your last one.”

Never one to sit idle, Mr. Commons loved to travel, collecting thousands of art postcards from museums around the world. In his late 80s he took a pile of books and hopped a tramp steamer to the South Seas, and was planning another voyage right before he was finally sidelined by a stroke at the age of 95, the obituary stated. As a serious and voracious reader, Mr.

His professional career in theater began in 1950 with the Imperial Players, a melodrama company in Cripple Creek, Colorado. From there he traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, working in shows with stars such as Kirk Douglas, Roddy McDowell, Mel Ferrer, and Cesar Romero. He worked his way around the country, from Hollywood to Maine, as both a stage manager and an actor, in summer stock, small regional theaters, off-Broadway and finally Broadway, where he worked with the likes of Charlton Heston, Gene Hackman, Jean Stapleton, and countless others. While in New York, he also acted as a supernumerary for the old Metropolitan Opera, and was featured reading the poems of Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. His skill and professionalism led him to other major stages, including the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, and the aforementioned Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, according to the obituary. Friends noted that Mr. Commons was the consummate theater pro-

parents, Walter and Tina, and is survived by her siblings, Janet, Kenneth, Carol, and Danny, as well as her lifelong friend and former domestic partner, Kecia Leonard. Originally hailing from New York and Long Island, and always proudly keeping that NYC swagger, she called the San Francisco Bay Area home for the last 46 years. Her prime years of youth and vigor were spent immersed in, and embraced by, the

burgeoning LGBTQ community of the 1970s and 1980s. Community members are most likely to recognize her as a longtime bartender and maintenance manager for Amelia’s Bar on Valencia Street. For medical reasons, Vivian retired in the mid-1990s. A fixture at local libraries and fascinated with history and sociology, she loved taking classes at Skyline and Cañada colleges. There she joined the

Gay-Straight Student Alliances to continue her outreach. She courageously lived out and proud, educating by example – using warmth, compassion, faith, and humor – to bring people to understanding and acceptance. She was an exceptional woman who is deeply loved and missed. Your remembrances and photos are most welcome at https://tinyurl.com/ yc5k6yk9.

Tony Gorzycki

Milt Commons held one of his old acting headshots when he celebrated his 90th birthday while working backstage at San Francisco Opera.

fessional. He was also an artist and intellectual, a prolific writer, a rigorous scholar, a witty raconteur and charming bon vivant, and the most faithful and devoted of friends. He mentored generations of theater artists for over seven decades, and was a proud union man, being a 70-plusyear member of Actors’ Equity, as well as SAG-AFTRA and the Theatrical Wardrobe Union. Since a good stage manager is always prepared for whatever may happen, Mr. Commons made sure that his official last words were recorded for posterity weeks before his actual passing, the obituary stated. They were, of course, “Places, please.” Mr. Commons leaves behind a loving family, including his aforementioned sister, Carol (Ray) Ladbury; nephews Ray Ladbury Jr. (Michelle Chesnut), John (Ranelle) Ladbury, and Laurie (Scott) Biethan; grand-nieces and -nephews Sarah (Andy) Robinson, Michael Biethan (Marie Kapelke-Biethan,) Peter Biethan, Colton (Ashlee) Ladbury, Tony Ladbury, and Janelle (Beau) Kelley; and great-grandniece and -nephew Kira Biethan and Leonardo Robinson. In addition to his biological family, Mr. Commons was blessed with the love and respect of his extensive chosen family of friends and colleagues, including legions of theater artists he mentored throughout his legendary career, the obituary stated. Details of services are pending. The obituary noted that to honor Mr. Commons’ life and legacy, people should go see a live theater performance and raise a glass to him. In lieu of flowers, friends and family ask that people support human services for the theater community by donating to the Entertainment Community Fund at entertainmentcommunity.org. t

Obituaries >> Vivian “Drew” Hassele July 31, 1952 – November 2, 2023

Vivian “Drew” Hassele, 71, sister and friend to many, passed away on November 2, 2023. She was preceded in death by her brother Fred and her

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<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

News Briefs

From page 4

Horizons’ State of the Movement program

Horizons Foundation will hold its annual State of the Movement panel discussion Thursday, November 30, online at 5 p.m. Pacific time. The San Francisco-based philanthropic nonprofit noted that this year, the nation “navigates heightened polarization brought on by regressive legislation and deadly rhetoric” that includes

World AIDS Day

From page 1

“I’ve been involved with the memorial and all the things they’ve been doing for many, many years,” Louganis said in a recent phone interview. “I was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1988 – I came out in 1995. There’s been a long-standing connection.” In the late 1980s Louganis was facing several struggles that weren’t being telecast worldwide – not only his own diagnosis but the deaths of friends. “Back in the day we were going to memorials – several in a weekend. People we knew and loved were dying,” he said. “Back when I was diagnosed in 1988, we thought of HIV/AIDS as a death sentence. They said, ‘You have two years to live.’ I thought I’d never see 30. Now I’m 63 and it’s like ‘oh shit – I gotta get a job. I’m going to be here for a while.’ “At that time, there was so much fear surrounding HIV/AIDS,” he added. “People didn’t really know and understand how you get HIV and also how you don’t get HIV. Now, with all of the medicines and treatments, people are living pretty normal lives.” In fact, Louganis hit his head on a diving board in the preliminaries for the Seoul Olympics in 1988. A doctor applied four stitches and Louganis returned to the competition, ultimately winning the gold medal. Seven years later, in an interview with ABC-TV’s Barbara Walters, he revealed that he had been HIV-positive at the time. In the late 1980s, there was much fear and stigma around AIDS, as Louganis acknowledged. He said that he was immediately concerned, telling Walters in 1995 that as soon as he realized he’d struck his head, “I didn’t know if I was cut or not, but I just wanted to hold the blood in and just not [let] anybody touch it.” Today, there remains stigma around HIV/AIDS, though generally not at the level it was decades ago, at least in most parts of the U.S. In recent months, Louganis has decided to pay it forward by helping an AIDS organization in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Olympic trials are held. Louganis decided to auction off three of his medals to raise funds for an LG-

hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills, many of which have been signed into law. Scheduled panelists are Julie Dorf, senior adviser at the Council for Global Equality; Imani RupertGordon, executive director of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights; Rodrigo HengLehtinen, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Center for Transgender Equality; and Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. There is no cost to attend. People can include questions for the panelists

Richard Knapp

Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis will be honored at this year’s National AIDS Memorial Grove’s World AIDS Day observance.

BTQ organization in Indianapolis. The trio of medals could be worth $2.4 million, according to KNBC-TV, which also reported in June his plan to auction them off at Bonhams Auctions in Los Angeles. Bonhams’s website indicates they were part of a September auction. “I don’t know that there’s any controversy – I put them up for auction,” he said. “I was hoping to raise money for the Damian Center, an organization in Indianapolis that provides services for people living with HIV/AIDS. They have a food bank, doctors, dental, psychological, housing – all kinds of care and services.” Louganis will be visiting San Francisco from Topanga, in Los Angeles County, where he currently lives.

Other grove activities

The grove event, which kicks off at noon with a Dance AZTECA performance, is one of a variety of commemorations of the 35th annual World AIDS Day in the Bay Area. Founded by the World Health Organization and the joint United Nations Programme on AIDS, World AIDS Day seeks to call attention to the global epidemic that has killed 36 million people since it was first discovered 40 years ago in 1981. The WHO’s theme this year is “Let communities lead.”

PrEP

From page 1

The CDC’s latest report offers more of the same evidence. Brian Ragas, director of Black health at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told the B.A.R. that the problems regarding PrEP usage are the same things that lead to other racial health care disparities, including discrimination. “We have known for a long time that there are many barriers to PrEP care – and other forms of medical and HIV care – for Black Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) in the U.S.,” Ragas stated. “Racism, stigma, discrimination, and lack of cultural competencies in the medical and health care fields can make PrEP services and care inaccessible to many who may benefit from it. In order to close disparities in HIV prevention and care, it is a priority to reach BIPOC, queer, trans, and Latine communities with culturally relevant and tailored programs and services.” Of the ongoing disparities in usage of PrEP, Schmid said that “it really shows the work we have to do.” “It’s good to have so many white

From LinkedIn

Brian Ragas is the director of Black health at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

people protected from HIV, but we want anyone who needs PrEP to be on it regardless of ethnic or racial background,” Schmid said. Schmid pointed out two things he thinks can be done – first is protecting federal funding for community health centers. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ PrEP program for community health centers currently supports

when they register. To sign up, go to https://tinyurl.com/yc3kevv6.

Spread holiday cheer to seniors

Sonoma County Library has announced its Send Our Seniors Mail program to spread holiday cheer to older adults and volunteers are needed to participate. “Letter writing is a time-honored way of communicating,” stated Ericka Thibault, Sonoma County Library director. “This program is a wonderful way for community members to con-

The grove’s observance will also feature a reading of names, followed by a “light lunch,” according to the release. Louganis will be preceded by a panel discussion featuring Imani RupertGordon, a queer woman who is the executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights; Asmara Gebre, who is on the faculty of the UCSF School of Medicine; Aria Sa’id, the former president of the Transgender District; and Lashanda (Tootie) Salinas, the inaugural recipient of the National AIDS Memorial Hope and Inspiration Award. “We commemorate the 35th anniversary of World AIDS Day by doing what we do best – uplifting the voices that contribute to the broader, intersectional narrative of health and social inequities that defines the AIDS movement,” John Cunningham, a gay man who’s CEO of the National AIDS Memorial Grove, stated in a news release. “Through brave conversations with those on the front lines, we seek to personalize and contextualize where we have been, where we are, and what remains to be done to fight stigma and discrimination and to build a more just, equitable, and healthy future for all people, in every community.” The grove in San Francisco is the only federally designated memorial to the AIDS epidemic. The grove’s dell in Golden Gate Park on November 30, the eve of World AIDS Day, will be the site of its annual fundraiser, Light in the Grove, billed as “a one-of-a-kind evening of remembrance, renewal and action.” The grove receives no public funding, as it notes on its website, and relies on donations and proceeds from Light in the Grove for its operating costs. Tickets for the evening event are $300.

nect to local seniors with a personal touch.” In a news release from the library, senior centers said the program is welcomed. “Sending mail to our local seniors is like sending a piece of your heart through the mailbox, reminding them that they are cherished and never alone,” stated Emily Heinzelman, director of senior services at West County Services. “By participating, you can make a world of difference in their lives, one letter at a time.” Interested people can visit so-

nomalibrary.org/sendmail for a list of participating facilities and addresses. Community members of all ages are invited to send cards, postcards, drawings, and letters. People should make sure their mail is legible, in large print, and handwritten. Messages should be kept positive, kind, and thoughtful. Staff at the facilities then distribute the mail to residents who would benefit from positive outreach. Thibault noted that this is a oneway mail program and senders should not include requests for a response. t

the first phase of the Rainbow Honor Walk recognizing deceased LGBTQ luminaries was being installed in the Castro neighborhood. (The San Francisco Unified School District declined a request to comment for this report, citing the fall break.) “I’ve lost a lot of friends,” Kelly said. “They should have a bronze plaque along the honor walk, but instead we decided to do it in rainbow and chalk. “Fifteen thousand people died of HIV/AIDS in the Castro since 1981 and 25,000 in San Francisco,” he continued. “It’s an honoring of the people who used to work in those bars, who used to dance, who used to shop and work in those businesses. They were there, they were people, they were part of the community. So we are invoking those spirits on World AIDS Day.” The chalk – donated by Crayola and provided through Cliff’s Variety – will be available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at “Hibernia Beach,” as the area near the Bank of America at 18th and Castro streets is often called, Kelly said. “This year George has requested three cases of sidewalk chalk (576 sticks) for a value of about $100,” stated Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is co-owner of Cliff’s and president of the Castro Merchants Association. Kelly said that DJ Michael Chu will be playing the music from the “lost generation” at Hibernia Beach. Chu did not return a request for comment.

The Life of Christ” was his final work before he died of AIDS complications in 1990. It is always on display in the cathedral’s AIDS Interfaith Chapel. East Bay Getting to Zero will be commemorating the day with an event at 665 Bellevue Avenue, near Oakland’s Lake Merritt, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, November 30. Free tickets are available on Eventbrit. The event will feature a fireside chat and an update on the East Bay HIV strategic plan.

Other events

George Kelly, a 63-year-old gay man who lives in the Castro and has been HIV-positive since 1984, has been organizing his own event, Inscribe, for eight years now. It provides an opportunity for people to remember their lost loved ones by writing their names in chalk on the sidewalk. Kelly told the B.A.R. that the project began in conjunction with the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, the public elementary school in the Castro, in 2015 after a teacher died of AIDS complications. This was also around the time that

There will be an exhibit of a panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt at Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street in San Francisco, including a block for Tomm Rudd, a choreographer with the San Francisco Ballet who died of AIDS complications in 1994. (The AIDS grove is now steward of the quilt, which was co-founded by Cleve Jones and Mike Smith, both gay men, and Gert McMullin, a longtime ally.) Rudd choreographed a five-minute dance called “Mobile,” a film of which will also be presented at the cathedral, which will be open for its World AIDS Day observance from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entrance for World AIDS Day is free if the staff is informed that is the reason for the visit. Gay artist Keith Haring’s “Altarpiece:

80,000 people on PrEP at 411 sites. However, as the B.A.R. previously reported, House Republicans want to cut funding for the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative, which had been launched under the administration of Republican then-president Donald Trump. The second step to take, Schmid said, is to ensure providers are better informed. “You need a prescription for PrEP,” Schmid said, referring to most parts of the country but not California. “So we need outreach to providers to make sure they are competent in dealing with and addressing concerns. No stigma, no matter who.” In California, a prescription isn’t needed for a one-month supply of PrEP. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), and gay then-Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) co-authored Senate Bill 157 in 2019 that allows pharmacists to furnish a 30-day supply – and up to a 60-day supply – without a prescription. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill, which went into effect nearly four years ago. (Gloria is now the mayor of San Diego.) However, this year, Newsom vetoed

a bill that would have closed loopholes and strengthened protections in existing law to ensure that California health insurers continue to provide free and complete coverage for preventive services like PrEP. As the B.A.R. reported, Newsom did so over concerns the legislation, AB 1645 authored by gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Santa Monica/West Hollywood), would result in higher premium costs for consumers. Also in the recent legislative session, Wiener had sought to expand that access under SB 339. But he pulled the bill in September after the Assembly Appropriations Committee inserted language into it he considered to be a “poison pill amendment” counter to his legislative aim of expanding access to the HIV prevention medication known as PrEP. As the B.A.R. reported, the bill sought to increase the amount of PrEP that pharmacists are authorized to provide without a doctor’s prescription. Wiener told the B.A.R. on November 20 that “to end HIV infections, everyone at risk needs access to PrEP. We aren’t even close in reaching that goal, and we need to make sure all communities have full access.”

Inscribe in the Castro

Advocate claims victory on HIV funding cuts

Carl Schmid, a gay man who is the executive director of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., is touting a U.S. House of Representatives vote of 109-324 against an amendment to the Labor and Health and Human Services appropriation bill that would have eliminated the HHS Minority HIV/AIDS Fund as a major victory. As the B.A.R. previously reported, the House GOP is seeking heavy cuts to HIV-related funding – including the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative started under Republican former president Donald Trump. “It is time for the House leadership to scrap their divisive plans, which clearly do not enjoy support from a majority of the Congress, and instead focus on appropriation bills that can pass and are in line with the budget agreement, as the Senate has done,” Schmid stated after the vote on November 14. The House also rejected, in a 144-282 vote, an amendment to the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development appropriation bill that would have ended the Housing Opportunity for People with AIDS, or HOPWA, program. Schmid told the B.A.R. that the votes are “a good sign that you can’t do this stuff,” referring to efforts to scuttle various HIV/AIDS programs. “We are at a crossroads right now,” Schmid said. “It’s not that we’ve given up or have been defeated; but we are facing strong headwinds.” t Tickets for Light in the Grove are available at https://tinyurl. com/2ct6rbhd.

Wiener, who has publicly acknowledged he takes PrEP, stated to the B.A.R. that the bill “will move forward early next year.” Other local community health advocates acknowledged the disparities presented in the CDC data while offering ideas to lessen them. Tatyana Moaton, Ph.D., the director of strategic innovations and partnerships at the San Francisco Community Health Center, told the B.A.R. that “these statistics reveal a critical gap in our health care system’s ability to effectively reach and serve diverse populations.” “A multifaceted approach is needed to address this issue,” she stated. “This includes increasing awareness and education about PrEP in minority communities, improving access to health care services, and working closely with community leaders and organizations to build trust and understanding. Additionally, tailoring health care services to meet the unique needs of different communities is crucial.” Moaton called on state and federal governments to fund initiatives to combat HIV and AIDS. See page 11 >>

t <<

Community News>>

November 23-29, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 11

PrEP

From page 10

“San Francisco Community Health is committed to working toward bridging these gaps and ensuring equitable health care for all, particularly in HIV prevention and treatment,” she stated. “We constantly strive to innovate and partner with other organizations to amplify our impact in making health care inclusive and accessible to all.” The CDC currently recommends PrEP be considered for those who are HIV-negative and have had vaginal or rectal intercourse in the past six months and have a sexual partner with HIV (especially if their viral load is unknown or detectable), or have not consistently used condoms, or have been diagnosed with another sexually transmitted disease in the past six months. It is also recommended for people without HIV who inject drugs and have an injection partner with HIV or share needles, syringes or other equipment to inject drugs with any other person. PrEP is recommended for anyone who has been prescribed nonoccupational post-exposure prophylaxis – antiretrovirals taken for a month after sex to prevent HIV infection, also known as PEP – and has continued risky behavior, or who has needed PEP multiple times. PrEP can reduce the risk of sexual HIV transmission by 99%, the CDC states, and can reduce the risk of transmission from injection drug use by 74%.

Courtesy SF Community Health Center

Tatyana Moaton, Ph.D., is the director of strategic innovations and partnerships at the San Francisco Community Health Center.

SF has higher PrEP uptake, less racial disparity

Schmid pointed out that the data were “not consistent around all different states.” For example, California tracked with the national numbers, with an increase in PrEP coverage from 30.5% to 37.4% from 2021-2022. The state-by-state data did not include a racial or ethnic breakdown. Data was also provided for eight California counties, including San Francisco, Alameda, and Los Angeles. San Francisco had 83.9% of the eligible population covered by PrEP, an increase from 75.9% in 2021. It was the only county in California in 2022 to have over 50% of those eligible covered by PrEP: Alameda and Los Angeles counties were at 30.4% and 34.8%, respectively.

Schmid called San Francisco’s percentage “remarkably high” and the result of “good health programs there and leadership promoting PrEP with the health department. We need that elsewhere.” The other counties in the U.S. to also have over 50% of those eligible on PrEP in 2022 are Queens, Kings, and New York counties in New York state (home of the New York City boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, respectively); Miami-Dade County in Florida; Suffolk County (home of Boston) in Massachusetts; Travis County (home of Austin) in Texas; Philadelphia County in Pennsylvania; and King County (home of Seattle) in Washington state. The District of Columbia also had over 50% of those eligible on PrEP. Schmid speculated that “the gay population there [in San Francisco] is more white too, as well. That could be a reason.” To find out, the B.A.R. asked the Department of Public Health for a racial and ethnic breakdown of people who are on PrEP. A spokesperson, who did not provide their name, responded that “there is not a citywide PrEP registry that reports how many eligible San Franciscans are on PrEP,” but did provide data specific to those who are on PrEP among patients at San Francisco City Clinic in the South of Market neighborhood. The most recent statistics, from 2021, show 71% of Asian or Pacific Islander men who have sex with men who are patients at the clinic are on PrEP, followed by 70% of Latino men, 69% of white men and 57% of Black men.

SF public library

From page 1

They told library officials they would not return them until such “inappropriate content” was no longer allowed on the library shelves. Mitra told the B.A.R. she hopes a similar borrower blockade won’t hit the Hormel Center. She hopes people check out the books for more enlightened reasons. “I am curious what we will see from that,” Mitra said of opening up the book collection for circulation. “If they don’t come back, I hope it is because someone loved it so much they can’t send it back, not because they are trying to ban it.” When the Hormel Center opened, its non-circulation policy was instituted as a precaution, noted Mitra. “In 1996, we wanted to safeguard what we had,” she said. Texas Starr, a trans guy who is a video artist and filmmaker, had provided input about the change in the circulation policy as a member of the Hormel Center Advisory Board. He told the B.A.R. he hopes it will have a positive impact going forward. “I think it is really important we make it as accessible as possible, especially now. I do have concerns as there has been vandalism in the past of the library’s queer books,” said Starr, whose artist pseudonym is Texas Tomboy Brands Prod. “I just hope it reaches the right people that need to be enlightened or supported or inspired.” Starr was referring to when in 2000 a vandal targeted more than 600 books that were mostly LGBTQ works held in the collections of both the San Francisco Main Library and its Chinatown branch. Among them were 200 books that were part of the Hormel Center, which is named after the country’s first openly gay ambassador. Hormel, who died in 2021, had donated $500,000 to help launch the collection. It has become one of the country’s premier archives for the LGBTQ community, which is co-maintained by the library’s SF History Center. “Most city libraries don’t have archives. Even more rare is one specifically for the LGBTQ community,” said Mitra. “Usually, LGBTQ archives are found at a

Matthew S. Bajko

Hormel Center program manager Cristina Mitra holds old copies of Gay Areas, known as the first gay phone book.

university or run by a private organization.” The Hormel Center is now home to more than 10,000 books, with more being added each year. However, only those books found in the reading room can be checked out. “What is in the reading room changes all the time,” said Mitra. As for those titles not on the reading room’s shelves, people can read them on site by asking the page desk on the third floor of the Main Library to collect them from the Hormel Center’s vault. It is in an underground area not accessible to library users. “So many titles here are out of print,” noted Mitra as she showed off the stacks in the climate controlled room to the B.A.R. “We also have historical pamphlets from the 1960s and 1970s.” One holding she is particularly fond of is the collection of Gay Areas from the early 1980s. The private telephone directories issued annually were billed as “the world’s first gay telephone directory.” To Mitra, they are “treasure troves” of the Bay Area’s LGBTQ history, with each volume including a map of San Francisco with satirical names for the city’s neighborhoods. For example, Pacific Heights is dubbed Terrific Heights. “It is basically our gay Yellow Pages,” she said. “To think this many businesses chose to be listed here. We are assuming they are gay friendly.”

KEEP UP! EMAIL STRIP.indd 1

A homegrown story

Mitra, 43, is a San Francisco native who came of age during the AIDS crisis of the 1990s. She told the B.A.R. that she also “grew up in the closet” despite the city’s liberal reputation. “People say they come to San Francisco because they couldn’t be queer where they were born. We are from here but still found it hard to be queer,” recalled Mitra of herself and her friends. She now lives in the Outer Sunset with her wife, Aimee Espiritu, an arts education consultant. A trained public librarian, Mitra spent a decade working in the San Francisco Public Library’s programs for youth. For four years she worked at the children’s library at the Bayview branch then became a family engagement coordinator on the central youth services team. Via her role she oversaw the summer reading program for teens and booked performers, from magicians to puppeteers, for events at the branch libraries. In 2012, Mitra and her high school best friend, Natalia M. Vigil, co-founded Still Here San Francisco (https://www. stillheresf.org/) to highlight the voices of LGBTQ Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who were also born in the city. It also had a particular focus on bringing together youth and elders in the community to learn from each other. One memorable event for Mitra was an intergenerational discussion the organi-

The percent for Black San Franciscans went down from 2020, when 62% were on PrEP, though the numbers for all groups are substantially higher than in 2017, when none had a majority on PrEP. However, the disparity was much less then, too – a spread of only 8%. Fortyeight percent of Asian and Pacific Islander men who have sex with men were on PrEP, compared to 40% of Black men who have sex with men on PrEP. The city’s data also showed an age disparity – only 57% of men over 55 who have sex with men were on PrEP compared to 75% of those ages 35-44, the highest uptake group. Even 70% of men aged 18-24 were on PrEP in 2021. “We believe it is important to have a network of sites with low-barrier access to care across San Francisco to ensure people feel empowered and supported to seek sexual health care,” the DPH spokesperson continued, who echoed Schmid’s statements about unfinished work. “The figure shows an increase over time with relatively high uptake across race and ethnicity, but we recognize there is still work to do,” the spokesperson stated. “HIV diagnosis rates in San Francisco are higher among Black/African American and Latinos compared with whites; eliminating these disparities and achieving our HIV Getting to Zero goals for all populations through a collaborative, community-centered approach is a priority. “We know there are many factors and structural barriers that prevent access to sexual health care and services, and we always will act as a safety net and strive

to support those without access to insurance or face barriers to accessing care,” the spokesperson added. San Francisco’s Getting to Zero (https://gettingtozerosf.org/) campaign, which has been underway for several years, aims to reduce HIV transmission and HIV-related deaths by 90% by 2025. In 2021, there were 160 HIV cases in San Francisco, as the B.A.R. reported. That year also marked the first time that gay and bisexual men who don’t inject drugs accounted for less than half of new HIV cases in San Francisco. The health department has created media campaigns to reach out to the Black and Latino communities, the spokesperson continued. “Outside of traditional hospital and clinic settings in the SFDPH Health Network, SFDPH developed a framework called Health Access Points (HAPs) with community partners to address populations experiencing disparities in the rate of HIV infections and care outcomes,” the spokesperson continued. “There are HAPs for seven priority populations, including Black/African Americans and Latinx persons. The goal of the HAPs is to provide equityfocused, stigma-free, and low barrier access to person-centered, comprehensive HIV, HCV, and STI treatment services that include access to PrEP and PrEP navigation or referrals, among other services. We are also working to equitably implement new prevention tools such as injectable PrEP, as an approach to address and eliminate disparities.”t

zation held focused on AIDS. “Our parents weren’t talking to us about it,” said Mitra. She stepped away from her role with Still Here in 2017. But she credits her experience with it for laying the groundwork for her current position. “Because of that I could do this work, bringing people together to talk about queer history,” Mitra said. A queer woman of color who took over oversight of the Hormel Center in October 2021, Mitra is the first person of color to hold the job. “I want to make sure I am reflecting my community. I want them to see me and see us reflected here,” she said. Raising awareness about the Hormel Center, its holdings, and its events is a main priority for Mitra. Even two years after the library reopened to the public following its closure due to the 2020 COVID outbreak, not everyone realizes the center is there for them to utilize. “It surprises me more people still do not know it is here,” said Mitra. “This is their space.” The programming she plans is done purposefully to bring people into the orbit of the Hormel Center, whether it is via author readings in the reading room or larger events in the library’s Koret Auditorium. Not equipped to do simulcasts online, Mitra does record the programs and posts the videos online within a week. “In person attendance we’ve seen be very robust,” Mitra said of the programming she has overseen. She is also mindful of wanting to have intergenerational programs that draw younger and older LGBTQ attendees together. Another aim is to ensure people of color know preserving and celebrating their culture and history are part of the Hormel Center’s mission. Last month, for instance, Mitra co-hosted an event that featured drag performers from the now defunct Mission district nightclub Esta Noche. “I want to make sure these stories are not lost,” said Mitra. One aspect of her job is talking to people about why their private collections are worthy of being preserved and becoming part of an archive, whether at the Hormel Center or another institution. Of particular interest to the library’s

LGBTQ archive are people’s diaries, photos, letters and even flyers for LGBTQ clubs, especially those materials that relate to communities of color and the transgender community. “They don’t think their things are worthy,” Mitra said of the response she most often hears from people. She is also intentional in how she addresses the subject with individuals, not wanting it to appear she is only doing so in order to bolster the Hormel Center’s holdings. Mitra told the B.A.R. it matters less to her where someone’s archival materials end up and more that they know how to protect their personal items. Thus, the Hormel Center will be cohosting a workshop from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. January 27 specifically for LGBTQ Black individuals who want to learn about archival preservation techniques. (Those interested in attending should RSVP online at https://sfpl. org/events/2024/01/27/queer-blackcommunity-archives-project as space is limited.) The event is part of the library’s Queer Black Community Archives Project, and attendees will receive an archival starter kit. It is timed to the library’s annual Black History Month observance, which it kicks off each year around Martin Luther King Jr. Day in mid-January and runs through the end of February. “Unfortunately, this is a community that has so often been told your community doesn’t matter,” said Mitra. Throughout 2024 Mitra is planning to hold additional workshops for other groups in the LGBTQ community whose history has often been overlooked. The purpose isn’t to bolster the Hormel Center’s holdings, she stressed, but to assist and bring together community archivists. “We want to offer basically a skill share. It is not so we can acquire items for us,” said Mitra. “You get to decide if you want to hold on to that, that is your freaking right.” t Next week’s issue of the Bay Area Reporter will have a story about Texas Starr’s digital collection of his work he has donated to the Hormel Center.

Stay up-to-date with late breaking news, online extras and our weekly email recap of the most comprehensive Bay Area, state and national LGBTQ news. Sign up today at ebar.com/SUBSCRIBE 6/19/19 11:29 AM

<<Classifieds

12 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558326 In the matter of the application of CHLOE ELIZABETH WHITEHEAD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner CHLOE ELIZABETH WHITEHEAD is requesting that the name CHLOE ELIZABETH WHITEHEAD be changed to ZYRUS ELIZABETH WHITEHEAD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 30th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558336 In the matter of the application of JOHN YOUNES & ALEXANDRA DE CLERCK, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner JOHN YOUNES & ALEXANDRA DE CLERCK is requesting that the name LEO PAUL DOMINIEK YOUNES be changed to LEO PAUL ALEX YOUNES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 30th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558335

In the matter of the application of CHOON SEON KIM, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner CHOON SEON KIM is requesting that the name CHOON SEON KIM be changed to AMY KYUNG KIM. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 30th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401683

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PAPAYA ISLAND, 501 6TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALBERT H. CHENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/20/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401748

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LIFE’S SEASONS, 2770 PINE ST #202, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DEBORAH L. ESTELL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/27/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401751

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JOP IDEAS AND TECHNOLOGY, 466 GEARY ST #1500, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JULIANO DE OLIVEIRA PORCIUNCULA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401659

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OAK VALLEY CARS, 220 BAYSHORE BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHELLE SHAWNTA TONEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401756

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BUDGET CLEANERS, 536 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YARK HAR LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/29/2009. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401755

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LOVE MY NAILS, 105 WEST PORTAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YEN PHUONG TA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/2016. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401760

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LASHED, 645 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VICTORIA CHAO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/27/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401619

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SIMPLY SF, 1001 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BRANNAN STREET FITNESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/2022. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/12/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401620

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FITNESS SF CASTRO, 2301 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SUPERBLOCK FITNESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/12/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401621

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FITNESS SF SOMA, 1001 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BRANNAN STREET FITNESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/2012. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/12/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401625

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FITNESS SF EMBARCADERO, 2 EMBARCADERO CENTER, LOBBY LEVEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EMBARCADERO FITNESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/03/2016. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/12/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401677

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401796

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401867

The following person(s) is/are doing business as WESTHAUS, 595 PACIFIC AVE, FL 4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AVENUE 8 INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/19/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LANDLINE HOME, 717 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANTHONY J. LEO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GARDEN COURT, 1700 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAMES D. GALLAGHER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401730

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401X

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401879

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401725

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CAPTAIN MOLLY’S SF BOAT COMPANY, 160 CENTRAL AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MOLLY BREIVIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401948

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NEW STAR ELL, 501 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed FIVE ZERO ONE GROCERIES INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as COLIBRI DOULA SERVICES, 1638A BRODERICK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANNHAE HERRERA-WILSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KAMALA BODHI WELLNESS, 109 BARTLETT ST #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAMANTHA HO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/28/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEATER MEDIA, 1638 LARKIN ST #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MIRANDA HEATER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/13/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/20/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401700

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401818

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401856

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401673

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TIM’S SNACKS, 565-B ELLIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TIM’S SNACKS (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/14/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401714

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GOLDEN GATE APA, 3572 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO BILLIARDS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/2023.

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401728

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as D & S JANITORIAL, 237 MORSE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed DAVID OSVALDO ROSALES & SERAFIN CANELO SANCHEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/04/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/2023.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401674

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HERRERA FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC, 1370 VALENCIA ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HERRERA FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/29/2022. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/2023.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401715

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FINANCEPERIOD, 1446A RHODE ISLAND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HAWK ADVISORY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE PARTHENON, 582 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HAVIN INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401570

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401761

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TEACH YOU TO FISH FINANCIAL, 601 VAN NESS AVE SUITE E, PMB 733, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed EAAC LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/25/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/03/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as STRAND PARLOR SF, 2823 18TH ST #105, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JUAN G. CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/20/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/30/2023.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558330

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401774

NOV 02, 09, 16, 23, 2023

In the matter of the application of KELLY MICHELLE HATFIELD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KELLY MICHELLE HATFIELD is requesting that the name KELLY MICHELLE HATFIELD be changed to KELLY MICHELLE HAUNT. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 25th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558331

In the matter of the application of ANTHONY MARK RAUS, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ANTHONY MARK RAUS is requesting that the name ANTHONY MARK RAUS be changed to ANTHONY MARK HAUNT. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 25th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558325

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as J.AEBI COACHING, 2 APPLETON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JESSICA AEBI ENTERPRISES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/2023.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

SUMMONS: NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: MATTHEW FISK, AN INDIVIDUAL; DOES 1-5, INCLUSIVE, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: LENDMARK FINANCIAL SERVICES, LLC, A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY. CASE NUMBER: CGC-22-602924

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401746

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401787

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401660

The following person(s) is/are doing business as V&Z SERVICES, 1384 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YANCY A. CASTRO BALDELOMAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/27/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KIMCAR JANITORIAL SERVICES, 523 NAPLES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAMARIS L. CABRERA LIMA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/2020. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/2023.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401782

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401839

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PERFECT HARDWOOD FLOORS SERVICE, 1130 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DUC NGO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GREEN VALLEY LANDSCAPING SERVICES, 375 GARCES DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALAN J. VARGAS VARGAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/07/2023.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401783

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401866

The following person(s) is/are doing business as COMMON CLOTH, 1250 48TH AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WILLIAM J. MCCARTHY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/2023.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 5200 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AHI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KASA REAL ESTATE GROUP, 595 PACIFIC AVE FL 4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AVENUE 8 INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/10/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401797

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SKYLARK, 3089 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 3089 16TH STREET LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/28/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401838

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SARITA’S GRILL & BEER, 995 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SARITA’S GRILL & BEER, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/07/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/07/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

In the matter of the application of KIDONG KIM, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KIDONG KIM is requesting that the name KIDONG KIM be changed to ERIC KIDONG KIM. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 6th of FEBRUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401900

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401801

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SPIRITUAL PSYCHIC READER, 810 EDDY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARY MARKS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/17/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/17/2023.

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558348

The following person(s) is/are doing business as R&R SMART FIX, 2770 MISSION ST SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAMON MARTINEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/12/2022. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401803

NOV 09, 16, 23, 30, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as C&K BEAUTY SALON, 1551 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRIAN TOAN HUNG CHUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as 500 LEAVENWORTH APARTMENTS, LP, 500 LEAVENWORTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed 500 LEAVENWORTH APARTMENTS, LP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/2009. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAN FRANCISCO ENDODONTICS, 500 SPRUCE ST #204, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118-2048. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RALAN WONG DDS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/2004. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/31/2023.

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courlinfo. ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courlinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case, as the person sued under the fictitious business name of Matthew Fisk. The name and address of the court is: Superior Court of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St. Room 103, San Francisco, CA 94012-4514. The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiffs attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: DONALD DUNNING (SBN 144665); JAMES MACLEOD (SBN 249145), THE DUNNING LAW FIRM APC, 9619 CHESAPEAKE DR. #210, SAN DIEGO, CA 92123; (858) 974-7600.

In the matter of the application of ADON SEBASTIAN GERRARD, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ADON SEBASTIAN GERRARD is requesting that the name ADON SEBASTIAN GERRARD be changed to ADON REYNOLDS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 25th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DUB CITY TOWING, 1155 INDIANA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DUB CITY TOW LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401779

The following person(s) is/are doing business as WAU+LOVE CONSULTING; SF SUNSHINE PAWS DOG WALKING; BLACK SHEEP DESIGN CONSULTING, 1945 CLAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE WAU UNIVERSITY, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/31/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401739

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JENN BAN STUDIO, 266 CARL ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JENN BAN STUDIO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401889

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SUTRO HEIGHTS, CORPORATION, 659 45TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed UPLYFT ASSISTED CARE, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-0400621

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as BUN APPETIT; ME SO HUNGRY; WING MAN; MR CLUCK; SLIDERMEISTER, 320 11TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by GOURMET HUB, LLC (CA). The fictitious business name statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/2023. The abandonment of fictitious business name statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23-558372 In the matter of the application of BATMUNKH GERELMAA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner BATMUNKH GERELMAA is requesting that the name BATMUNKH GERELMAA be changed to BATMUNKH NOMUNKHAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 23th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401883

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NINA MARION, 45 SURREY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NINA YHAP. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401923

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CITY CHIK ENTERPRISES, 751 GRAFTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEANETTE WRIGHT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/14/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401849

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401846

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 728 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ARI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401844

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 320 BAYSHORE BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AAI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401848

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 3116 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ASI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401906

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE UPPER HAND NAIL SPA, 3836 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE UPPER HAND NAIL SPA (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/10/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/10/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401931

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MAGIC PLUMBING HEATING & COOLING, 1455 BANCROFT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MAGIC PLUMBING INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401814

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GREENTREE MAINTENANCE, 1398 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GTM WORKS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401911

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LUNETTE CAMBODIA, 1 FERRY BLDG STE 33/47, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NYUM BAI (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/13/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/13/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

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Gay Pride on Pride Rock ‘The Lion King’ cast member & manager share tales from the road

Matthew Murphy/Disney

Eric Bean Jr.

‘The Lion King’ North American Tour

“S

Courtesy SFMOMA

ometimes you get surprised,” said Eric Bean, Jr. of the 50-odd cities he’s visited as one of the 134 members of “The Lion King” touring company that opens an engagement at the Orpheum Theatre this week. “In Tulsa, Oklahoma, there are four different drag brunches!” Being a gay man whose job relocates every two to nine weeks has both upsides and downsides, says Bermuda-born Bean, 38. “There are a bunch of us who try to get out and explore the scene wherever we’re playing, which is fun,” he said. “We played two months in Toronto, which actually gave us a chance to make friends, develop a bit of a social life be-

yond the company itself and start to feel a little more like locals.” But Bean, who is currently single after the amicable end of a long-term relationship that formed during the decade he lived and worked as a dancer in Philadelphia before joining the tour, says he feels fortunate to have had the experience of building a partnership while rooted in a shared home base. “I can’t imagine how hard it would be to find love on the road,” he said in a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter from Reno, Nevada, the tour’s last stop prior to San Francisco. “People often ask me if I’ve tried to date within the show company, but I feel like you need to have a degree of separation of work life and personal life. I’ve been in this company for six

years. I’m with these people at work every day. We travel together. And we socialize together as friends, but there’s a limit to mixing business with pleasure, especially when you’re moving from city to city in a very sex-positive gay world.” In his physically and mentally demanding position as company Swing, Bean covers for five ensemble dancers as well as the speaking role of Ed the hyena. He says that, once the company returned to the road after an 18-month pandemic hiatus, enhanced sensitivity to members’ physical and mental health has led to his being on stage for more performances than he is off. Bean has focused much of that off-stage time pursuing a recently completed master’s degree in Arts and Cultural Management online supported by Disney Aspire, a program that allows

company employees to pursue fully funded higher education. “Eventually,” he said, “I want to shift my work to behind the scenes.” This is not the first time “The Lion King” has provided a way forward for Bean. “I am a Disney child through and through,” he explained. “I had seen the animated ‘Lion King’ movie, of course. But when I started taking dance classes as a kid in Bermuda, it was just for fun. Then I saw the ‘Lion King’ Tony awards performance on TV. Seeing this huge contingent of people of color singing and dancing was a game changer for me. It was the first time I ever understood that I could possibly pursue this as a career.” See page 14 >>

‘To look without fear’ Wolfgang Tillmans retrospective at SFMOMA

Relentlessly curious

by Robert Brokl

In person, Tillmans comes across as intellectual, sincere, unpretentious, and rueful, reflecting his relentlessly curious and innovative approach to photography. (If he read Peter Schjeldahl’s review in the New Yorker where he’s lauded as a “genius,” he doesn’t let on.) Tillmans likens the freely hanging photographs and serendipitous accidents (like paper emerging crumpled from a copier) to sculpture. He strives for painterly effects with color and layering. He also disrupts the notion of “originals” and the tradition of limited edition signed prints: collectors get an original with a certificate, but Tillmans continues to use and show variations of those same images. Born in 1968 in Remscheid, Germany, Tillmans has lived in London, New York, San Francisco, and now Berlin. Carrying on Keith Haring’s tradition of activist-artist, he’s campaigned against Brexit and the persecution of migrants and made pictures of Black Lives Matter events, anti-Iraq War protests, and queer young Africans fleeing homophobic violence. Tillmans’ range of interests is, literally, cosmic: his earliest images were of heavenly bodies, one being the rare appearance of the black dot of Venus transiting the sun. A youthful self-portrait in red Adidas shorts signals his introspective nature.

Wolfgang Tillmans’ ‘The Cock’ (kiss)

hotographer Wolfgang Tillmans likes to shake up cavernous white cube museum spaces. With his retrospective exhibition, “To look without fear,” he does so at the San Franciscco Museum of Modern Art, personally revising an exhibition that debuted in 2022 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The show, organized by MOMA’s Senior Curator of photography Roxana Marcoci, is supported by a hefty catalog with a useful chronology. Tillmans likes to play with preconceived notions about preciousness and presentation and conventional notions of “originals” and scale. He blows images up to mural size, then juxtaposes them with small photos taped to walls. He uses clips to hang images and eschews conventional installations. He also places the most arresting or provocative images in less-accessible spots. For example, “rat disappearing” (1995), showing a rodent slinking down a sewer grate, appears in a staff entrance vestibule. “Dunst 1” (2004), shot from below, shows a male dancer clad in a skirt sans underwear and hangs some eight feet off the floor; “AA breakfast” (1995) pictures an airplane passenger with an exposed penis. Breakfast rests on a food tray above. You must bend down to see the picture.

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<< Theater

14 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

‘Lion King’

From page 13

Managing on tour

In working to build a backstage career and support healthy relationships on the national touring circuit, Bean could take cues from Company Manager Jose Solivan, who has been with the “Lion King” since just before the start of the pandemic shutdown and traveling with tours since 2001. Coming aboard “The Lion King” for a South Bend, Indiana run that in fact never ran, Solivan, a former performer himself, quickly became skilled at a range of COVID-created new job tasks – testing and distancing protocols, quarantine logistics – in addition to his core competencies managing payroll, housing, and generally maintaining order within what amounts to a transient small town. “I was suddenly wearing a lot of new hats,” he told the Bay Area Reporter, “but everyone does with this show. Dancers have to learn to walk on stilts, musicians have to learn to play new instruments, singers need to practice five different African dialects. This work ethic is something that makes ‘The Lion King’ company particularly strong.” During the tour’s furlough, Solivan met his future husband, Matthew Buckingham, who works in personnel recruiting. He proposed live on a broadcast of ‘Good Morning America’ during Pride Month 2022. Given that the lion’s share of Buckingham’s job can be done remotely, he has been able to travel with Solivan about 75% of the time since touring resumed while also maintaining the couple’s home in Dallas. “I’ve only ever been in long-term relationships,” said Solivan, who was

with one former boyfriend for 11 years. “I actually can’t imagine beginning a relationship on the road. I never really even used dating apps like all the young gay guys in our company are so comfortable with.” “I remember being in a gay bar on tour in Philadelphia before I met Matthew,” he recalled. “This guy kept looking at me across the bar and I was pretty sure that he was flirting with me, but he kept going back to his phone. The friend I was with explained that the guy was looking for me on the apps to send me a text! But I’m not on the apps. And he was too shy to just say hello. It’s so strange how people don’t talk anymore!” That’s very much not the case within “The Lion King” company, for which Solivan serves as a de facto community builder and den mother. “When the guys are going out to bars and clubs while we’re on tour,” he says, “I make sure that they always keep someone in the company informed about where they’re going and who they’re with. It’s incredibly important. Disney also provides us with a security director who travels with us and can help deal with safety getting to and from the theater, over-enthusiastic fans and other issues that could arise.” Solivan, Bean and the rest of the queer members of their roving company look forward to a warm welcome during their weeks in San Francisco. Solivan and Buckingham are planning an anniversary dinner at Foreign Cinema and Bean is on a quest to find the city’s best brunch. In addition to their “Lion King” performances at the Orpheum, Solivan will lead cast members in a onenight benefit performance supporting the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation at Club Fugazi on Monday, Dec. 4. t

MurphyMade

Company Manager Jose Solivan

Jose Solivan/Instagram Eric Bean, Jr

Eric Bean, Jr. in a regal bird costume backstage on tour with Disney’s ‘The Lion King’

Jose Solivan (right) with his husband Matthew Buckingham in December 2022

Tillmans

From page 13

Pointedly, he sidesteps considerations of high and low. Subjects include celebrities like Kate Moss or strangers like the one in “young man, Jeddah” (2012). He ignores distinctions of “appropriate” venues or publications. The orgasmic image of rocker Damon Albarn of the band Blur appeared on the cover of a September 1995 issue of Spex, a German monthly culture magazine. Biography and assertions of gay identity infuse “Look without fear.” Tillmans lived with the painter Jochen Klein, and he featured him in two photos, “Deer Hirsch” (1995), which suggests interspecies connection, and “Jochen taking a bath “(1997). They met in 1995, moved in together in 1996, and were unaware they were both HIV-positive until Klein died suddenly of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1997, three months after the bath portrait. Tillmans’ grief is reflected in the forlorn “o.M” (1997), a self-portrait in the emptied-out London studio they shared. The matter-of-fact evidence of Tillmans’ drug regime – he benefited from the introduction of anti-viral drugs – can be seen in the boxful of pill bottles, shown in “17 year’s supply” (2014).

Controversy

A similarly provocative blurring of human/animal occurs in the arresting “Lutz and Alex sitting in the trees” (1992), originally published in i-D, a British magazine, in a spread titled “like

Left: ‘Lutz and Alex sitting in the trees’ Courtesy SFMOMA, Center: Wolfgang Tillmans’ ‘September Self-portrait, 2022’ courtesy the artist, Right: Wolfgang Tillmans’ ‘Blue Self-Portrait Shadow’ Courtesy SFMOMA

brother like sister,” part of a sexuality issue. The resulting controversy caused stores to remove the magazine. The SFMOMA brochure says, “… (these) two of the artist’s friends…are neither siblings nor lovers, but their androgynous features and partial nudity suggest a form of kinship.” Even with their incongruous raincoats, they resemble monkeys at a zoo, gaping back at visitors. Tillmans explains this image as a reflection of the “utopian positivity” of the times, “genders living in equality,” but he may have been surprised by the contro-

Wolfgang Tillmans’ ‘Deer Hirsch’, Courtesy SFMOMA

versy aroused by the photo “The Cock (kiss)” (2002). The SFMOMA brochure quotes Tillmans: “Questions of taste or beauty have always been politically charged for me. Do you find two men kissing disgusting or beautiful? That is a question of aesthetics but also of politics.” Captured at London’s gay venue, The Cock, in 2002, “The Cock (kiss)” was widely shared on social media in the aftermath of the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida – a defiant response to a statement by the killer’s father that his son had been angered by the sight of two men kissing. Tillmans often represents male and female anatomy as abstract forms, more for playfulness than shock value. Points of comparison: The San Francisco bisexual photographer Ruth Bernhard, with her nude female figures arranged in boxes, or Edward Weston, with his female nudes evoking organic forms like shells and vegetables, both escaped criticism for salaciousness. David Hockney, 30 years Tillmans’ senior, sugarcoated the sexual transgression of his work. But Robert Mapplethorpe delighted in scandal, like the notorious “Man in Polyester Suit” (1980). Nan Goldin shares Tillmans’ preference for depicting intimate situations, and while

both lost lovers to AIDS, her demimonde is markedly darker.

Abstractions and Later Work

More recently, Tillmans, launched a series, “Freischwimmer (Free Swimmer),” of camera-less pictures using light to “draw” on chemically treated paper. The process, which he invented in 2000, evokes a liquid state, and images are often blown up to gargantuan scale, some eight by twenty feet. They tease with their suggestiveness of hair, traces of pigment and movement, but with their pastel colors seem better suited for corporate lobbies. Images from an almost equally abstract series, “paper drop,” begun in 2001, are optically clever and initially mysterious until you realize the tear-shaped forms are really folded prints. Some of these manipulations, such as “I don’t want to get over you” (2000), part of Tillmans’ “Intervention” series, are unarguably beautiful. The expansive image at the show’s entrance combines painterly green streaks in the sky over a low landscape. The roiling black sea shown in “The State We’re In” (2015) is most likely Tillmans’ response to the environmental, political, and social crises threatening the world. A hardy survivor pushing up through bricks in “Weed” (2014) suggests

what may endure. A streetscape from 1995 looks down a stretch of California Street. Though relatively recent, it nevertheless feels historic. Look closely, and you can make out a sign for parking costing $6 an hour and a billboard for the now-defunct San Francisco Bay Guardian. When asked at the press preview why he chose such a prosaic section of the City when other (presumably richer) possibilities were available, Tillman seemed at a loss for words. However, there may be an explanation. After receiving the prestigious Turner Prize in 2000, he followed up with a Tate Britain show in 2001 called “if one thing matters, everything matters,” an expression that summarizes his practice of noticing and recording everything that passes before his vision. t ‘Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear,’ Free-$30. November 11–March 3, 2024, Floor 7, SFMOMA, 151 Third St. www.sfmoma.org www.tillmans.co.uk (Originally published in Square Cylinder.)

Books >>

November 23-29, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 15

DECEMBER 8 & 9

Book ’em page-turning gifts by Gregg Shapiro

ooks really and truly are the gifts that keep on giving. There’s no time like the present (get it) to introduce your loved ones to the extraordinary fiction works of gay writer Andrew Holleran. Fortunately, Holleran’s first three novels – the critically acclaimed “Dancer From The Dance” (1978), “Nights In Aruba” (1983), and “The Beauty of Men” (1996) – have all been reissued in new paperback editions. As a bonus, to mark the 45th anniversary of the publication of “Dancer From The Dance.” the book includes a new introduction by Garth Greenwell. Weighing in at more than 970 pages, with 20 pages of color and black and white photos, “My Name Is Barbra” (Viking, 2023) by Barbra Streisand is the memoir that nearly every LGBTQ person on the planet has been awaiting. Told in her own words, and available as an audiobook read by Streisand (and clocking in at 48 hours!), the grandest diva of all (and mother of gay son Jason Gould) doesn’t hold back (Wait until you read what she has to say about “Funny Lady”), and no one would expect that from her. Bloomsbury and Duke University Press each have a book series about pop music. For Duke’s Singles series (subtitled “One Song, One Book, One of a Kind”) music columnist and podcaster Chris Molanphy delves into “Old Town Road” (Duke, 2023) the mega-selling hit song performed by young, queer superstar Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus. Michael Dango takes an in-depth dive into Madonna’s 1992 album “Erotica” (Bloomsbury, 2023) for the acclaimed and long-running 33 1/3 series (“Erotica” is the 176th book in the series).

t h e at r e r h i noc e ro s p r e s e n t s

One more musically-oriented book worth mentioning is “The Green Witch’s Guide to Magical Plants & Flowers” (Skyhorse Publishing, 2023) by Chris Young and Susan Ottaviano. If Ottaviano’s name sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because she was the female lead vocalist in the popular ’80s synth-pop band Book Of Love (remember “Boy,” “I Touch Roses,” and Modigliani”?). Additionally, Deborah Harry (of Blondie fame) wrote the foreword to this fabulously illustrated book in which two Green Witches “unlock the secrets hiding in your garden” for herbal infusions, sachets, tinctures, and more. The new, 2023 edition of Justine Picardie’s “Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life” (Dey Street, 2010), tells the story of the illustrious fashion designer from her 1883 birth as Gabrielle “in the poorhouse in Saumur, a market town on the River Loire,” to her death at age 87 in January 1971. The book includes an abundance of sketches, as well as photos, including one of Jackie Kennedy in the pink Chanel suit she wore on November 22, 1963. Every bit the labor of love that the Streisand memoir is, “Getting In: NYC Club Flyers from the Gay 1990s” (Daken Press, 2023) by journalist and clubgoer David Kennerley is the must-have coffee table book of the holiday season. Following the foreword by Michael Musto and the introduction by HX Magazine co-founder and club promoter Matthew Bank, we are swept back a couple of decades to the mayhem of the gay club circuit of the 1990s, vividly and colorfully illustrated through flyers used to promote the incredible party scene. Even if you never made it past the bouncer, this book makes you feel like you were there. You can almost smell the hair gel, sweat, and poppers. t

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<< Drag & Film

16 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

San Francisco is a Drag

queens and kings to take over city streets

by David-Elijah Nahmod

an Francisco will become a drag wonderland on Saturday and Sunday, December 2 and 3, when 100 drag queens and drag kings will take to the streets of the city to offer live performances. A collaboration between local drag legends D’Arcy Drollinger, Honey Mahogany, and Juanita MORE!, San Francisco is a Drag will include transgender luminaries, nonbinary trailblazers, and allies of all stripes. The performances will take place between 12pm5pm on various street corners and in front of local businesses. The event is being sponsored by the Civic Joy Fund. Manny Yekutiel, proprietor of Manny’s Cafe in the Mission, spoke to the Bay Area Reporter about what the Civic Joy Fund does. Yekutiel is a co-founder of this new non-profit initiative that came into being after a successful effort to light up a dozen commercial corridors around the city. “I raised about $2.5 million to fund a set of joyful citywide civic projects to help with the economic recovery including the summer of music which brought over one thousand musicians to play on the streets this past summer,” Yekutiel said. The fund also “painted the city,” according to Yekutiel. “We commissioned local artists to turn one hundred utility boxes into pieces of public art, bringing organized events during Halloween back to the Castro and more,” he said.

Gooch

Juanita MORE! and Honey Mahogany at a recent Peoples March

San Francisco is a Drag is in fact Yekutiel’s brainchild. “I came up with the idea one morning while at the gym and immediately texted D’Arcy, Honey and Juanita to get their thoughts and buy in,” he said. “We met that same day. Since that first day, though, those three have been the engines of the project and it would not happen without them. Oasis for the Arts will be running the actual event, which is great.” Oasis Arts, which is partnered with Oasis Nightclub, is an organization that seeks to raise the impact of queer arts both locally and worldwide. Drollinger is the nightclub’s co-founder and owner. Both Yekutiel and Drollinger feel that visibility is particularly important

‘Saltburn’ by Gregg Shapiro

in the current political climate given the anti-drag and anti-trans legislation being introduced in red states. “It is a bit scary at times, but being visible is so important,” said Drollinger, who currently serves as San Francisco’s Drag Laureate, the first such position in the country. “And when you live in one of the most open-minded cities, it’s easier and we should not take that for granted. We should set an example and become a beacon for the rest of the world.” “The way we fight against people trying to silence us is to be as out, loud and proud as we can,” added Yekutiel. “San Francisco is the seat of drag magic and people look to us as a counterweight to all this right wing

Rachel Ziegler

D’Arcy Drollinger at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House in May.

madness. This is one way to show that we deserve that title.” The performances will cover a cross section of neighborhoods. On Saturday the shows will take place in North Beach (12pm), South of Market (1pm), the Fillmore (2pm), Union Square (3pm), and Lower Polk (4pm). Sunday’s performances will be in the Lower Haight (12pm), the Haight (1pm), the Mission (2pm), Hayes Valley (3pm), and, of course, the Castro (4pm). “This will be right on the sidewalk,” said Drollinger. “Drag for the people.” Drollinger added that she would love to see San Francisco is a Drag become an annual tradition.

courtesy: Manny Yekutiel

Manny Yekutiel

“A day of drag,” she said. “It is my belief that at everyone’s core they want to live a more authentic and fabulous life. And by allowing ourselves, as these performers do, to show up as our authentic fabulous selves, it can’t help but inspire others to live the life that they’re only dreaming about. The fact that eighty percent of the world is not able to live their authentic self, we don’t just owe it to ourselves, we owe it to them.” t San Francisco is a Drag, Dec. 2 and 3, 12-5pm at various locales around the city. civicspacefoundation.org/sfdrag

Emerald Fennell’s promising young psychos

here’s little doubt that actress, screenwriter and filmmaker Emerald Fennell established herself

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as an unstoppable force after her 2020 full-length feature debut masterpiece “Promising Young Woman,” especially after she took home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards. So, what did Fennell do for an encore? First, she played Midge in Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed box office smash “Barbie.” Then she released her second full-length feature, “Saltburn” (Amazon/MGM). In some ways, “Saltburn” feels like the troubled kid brother of “Promising Young Woman” (It even features Carey Mulligan in a supporting role), especially in the way it delivers gut-punching twists and turns. Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is an incoming class of 2006 scholarship student at Oxford. As he walks across campus, it’s obvious that he is out of place. But he is an eagle-eyed observer, and he zeroes in on popular and hot student Felix (the stunning Jacob Elordi). Ingratiating himself to Felix, Oliver gains entry into his social circle, which includes his queer cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe), who is wary of Oliver. But Farleigh has his own concerns to keep him occupied. Oliver, whose family mythology involves parents who are substance abusers and abusive towards him, earns himself an invitation to Felix’s family’s palatial estate (the titular “Saltburn”) for the summer. Upon his arrival, after being greeted by severe butler Duncan (Paul Rhys), Oliver, who can’t stop saying “wow,” is given a tour of the house by Felix. Oliver is introduced to Felix’s family – mother Elspeth (Rosamund Pike), father James (Richard E. Grant), and sister Venetia (Alison Oliver) – as well as fellow down-on-her-luck houseguest Pamela (Mulligan). This summer will be one that no one forgets. Queerness blankets the house like a homemade quilt. Oliver’s obsessive attraction to Felix (the bathwater scene!), his garden interaction with Venetia (the menstrual blood scene!), his flirtation with Elspeth, and his late-night visit to Farleigh’s bed, are completely over-the-top. But that’s nothing compared to Felix’s birthday

Chiabella James/Prime Video

Jemima Kirke, Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan in ‘Saltburn’

Courtesy of MGM and Amazon Studios

Barry Keoghan and Archie Madekwe in ‘Saltburn’

surprise for Oliver, which includes a visit to Oliver’s parents’ home and subsequent family reunion. Having exposed Oliver for the master manipulator that he is, Felix has no idea that he has set off a series of events that will result in a tragic body count that will go on for years. To say more would surprise Fennell’s talent for shock and surprise. Fennell deserves praise for the way she continues to incorporate queer characters and storylines into her work. Where “Saltburn” goes slightly

awry is that some scenes, such as the one at the rainy cemetery and Oliver’s naked dance (goes on ad nauseam, but well-worth seeing) feel endless. Every time you think the movie has reached its conclusion, there’s still more to see, which works against it in the long run. Rating: B t ‘Saltburn’ opens at SF’s AMC Kabuki 8 (1881 Post St.) and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (2550 Mission St.) Nov. 21; also streaming on Amazon Prime.

Theater>>

November 23-29, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 17

Kevin Berne/Aurora Theatre Company

Warren David Keith, left, and Joseph Patrick O’Malley in Aurora Theatre Company’s ‘1984’

Doubleplus ‘1984’ by Jim Gladstone

f you’re more interested in holding tight to the things you’re thankful for than in cranking up the amperage of your holiday cheer, the Aurora Theatre’s production of “1984” may be just the ticket for you. Artistic Director Josh Costello has done a daring bit of counterprogramming in staging the dark, tarnished, distinctly tinsel-free vision of George Orwell – as adapted by local playwright Michael Gene Sullivan – at this particular time of year. To lean into unwavering grimness rather than melt away Grinchness is a risky gamble in spend-and-celebrate season. No doubt there is some slim, indignant audience segment that would opt to watch Tiny Tim limp off into the gutter because it’s just more real and righteous than even briefly setting Humbug aside for Ho-Ho-Ho. This show is bleak, dude, even bleaker, perhaps, than its source material. Orwell’s 1949 novel of dystopian society was a warning based on glimpses and inklings, a caution against the advent of constant surveillance, fake news and authoritarian rule. The book’s titular year passed two decades ago, but its warnings still go largely unheeded. In Orwell’s novel, Winston, the protagonist everyman, lives, however meagerly, to greet another dawn. Maybe, somehow, there is more to come for him, and for humanity. Sullivan’s play ends in a blackout of total surrender. Pah rum pah pum pum.

in their delivery, we sense that rather than natural born villains, Winston’s oppressors were once where he is now, and that he’s inexorably headed to join them.

Wrongful confinement

Clever as it is, Sullivan and Damashek’s story theater approach wears thin well before the end of the production’s two-plus hours.

Daniel Duque-Estrada, left, Megan Soledad, Brady Morales-Woolery and David Bryant in Aurora Theatre Company’s ‘1984.’

Aurora Theatre’s stage adaptation of Orwell’s classic Each member of the Party Member ensemble (David Bryant, Daniel Duque-Estrada, Brady MoralesWoolery, Megan Soledad) deftly etches multiple characters, but one wishes they were able to fully embody these roles rather than present them through narration. The play feels locked up. Orwell’s “1984” is foremost a

novel of ideas. Its characters aren’t fully three-dimensional. But they move through a series of adventures in treacherous urban landscapes, from narrow alleyways to vast public squares, encountering lovers, collaborators, rogues and enemies. In the novel’s cinematic sweep, they become more human than they do in this too-prosaic single-celled stage version.

Give the book as a holiday gift, with no pressure to read it until January.t ‘1984,’ through Dec. 10. $20$65. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Conceptual strength

If you set the calendar aside, there are elements to admire in this production. Scenic designer Jeff Rowling’s distressed metal set pieces, all-seeing telescreens, and thick braids of electrical wiring to which Winston (a haunting, gaunt Joseph Patrick O’Malley) is yoked for the bulk of the play suggest a dusty rust-punk futurism in which tomorrow is dead on arrival. Kurt Landisman’s lighting effectively modulates between glare and drear. Matt Stines’ sound design evokes overworked machinery on the verge of breakdown. The cast’s make-up makes spiritual anemia visible. And costume designer Maggie Morgan uses the functional shapes and drab grays of business suiting less to establish individual characters than to wrap the whole ensemble in a collective shroud. This same sense of mass subjugation informs the most creative aspect of Sullivan’s script and Barbara Damashek’s direction. Ensemble members read aloud from Winston’s allegedly traitorous diaries throughout the interrogation and torture sessions that make up to play’s action. Winston has been accused of “thoughtcrime” (i.e. disagreeing with the fascist Big Brother government). But when we hear the accusers recite his journal entries with surprising passion

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<< Comedy

18 • Bay Area Repor ter • November 23-29, 2023

Matt Mathews

TikTok phenom plays the Regency Ballroom

by Jim Gladstone

“I

don’t consider myself a standup comedian at all,” drawled Matt Mathews. “I don’t get on stage and just, like, talk about airplane food. I tell real life stories. It’s more in depth. It’s real. And it’s inspiring. It’s all of the things that I feel are truly me to my core. It’s about feeling good and laughing, but also leaving with something that you didn’t come into the room with.” So, now you know precisely what to expect if you attend the aggressively adorable 29-year-old Alabaman’s nearly sold-out performance at the Regency Ballroom on December 1 (He plays Napa’s Uptown Theatre November 30), a stop on what he’s titled, with similarly descriptive exactitude, his “When That Thang Gets to Thangin’” tour. The blurriness of it all reflects contemporary reality. Matthews is not so much a performer as a personality. In just over a year, he’s gained international fame, attracted more four million followers and made the leap from TikTok to touring on the basis of video clips in which he does farm chores, talks sassy to his animals, acts a teeny bit risqué and cocks his undeniably pretty head like a show chicken. Feel free to scratch your own head in bemusement. But don’t begrudge Mathews this distinctly modern success.

Turns in the road

During a backstage interview with the Bay Area Reporter before a recent appearance at the Paramount Theatre in Denver, Mathews came off as altogether earnest; simultaneously proud of and mystified by his sudden metamorphosis into a touring entertainer.

Amy Weiser

Matt Mathews

A decade ago, at age 20, he was enrolled in a nursing program at Jefferson State Community College. A lifelong amateur photographer, he covered his tuition and expenses by shooting portraits, weddings and family events. Eventually, he left nursing school to focus on photography full time, ultimately building a specialty practice in tastefully intimate boudoir sessions. Mathews had a knack not just for skillful lighting and shooting, but for making women feel comfortable in, and proud of, their bodies. Today, a large majority of his comedy audiences is female. “The two things that bring me the most joy in life,” says Mathews, “Is making people laugh and making people feel good about themselves.” By the time he’d married his husband, Rob Kilgore, in 2016 and moved to their small farm, Mathews had become an in-demand photography instructor and lecturer with engagements across the country.

A contemporary conundrum

“I have no fucking idea exactly why this happened. It’s not fake. You can ask my family and my friends. I was wandering outside in my bathrobe every morning feeding the animals. One day a friend filmed me and put it on TikTok and, boom, it got 13 million views. “I’d always thought I was naturally funny,” he continued. “I was always the class clown. But this just caught on somehow. When people were leaving comments like, ‘You are a light in a dark world’ and ‘I just laughed for the first time in months,’ it made me feel good. So, I was like, how can I take this to a higher level?” This is not the first major trajectory shift in Mathews’ unlikely life.

“I bring my whole self to everything I do,” said Mathews. “It’s not like I’m being distracted by any shiny object that comes along. When I left school for my photography business, I worked my ass off to make it succeed. And when I decided to start performing after my videos took off online, I hired a successful comedian in Birmingham, Eunice Elliot, to help me write and structure my show. “Eunice taught me to find my own voice. Not to try to tell jokes, but to bring my full self to the stage and be honest. There are a lot of parts of my show that aren’t funny. They’re raw and emotional. I grew up very poor and I lost my mother to a long

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Matt Mathews (right) with his husband Rob Killgore (left)

battle with addiction in 2007. Talking about that on stage has been very healing for me. It’s helped me find a way to forgive her.” At Mathews’ Denver gig, it quickly became clear that while his audience expected to see something akin to a comedy act, they were at least as interested in simply sharing space with someone whose good humor, self-motivation and self-assurance they admired. Buying candles and mugs and hoodies at the merch table, they were hoping to take a bit of his gumption home with them. Mathews’ debut tour has been extended through the first few months

of next year. But he’s starting to think about the personality vs. performance conundrum. Is he a showman or an exhibition? And what’s the next show if this one is already 100% himself? “How,” Mathews asks, “does it get better than this?” t Matt Mathews, Dec. 1. $39.50$150. Regency Ballroom, 1300 Van Ness Ave. (888) 929-7849. theregencyballroom.com www.mattmathews.com

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While many of you dear readers may be out of town for Thanksgiving, some of us will enjoy the weekend in the Bay Area, and nightlife offers a fun break from all the turkey and leftovers, like Mother Bar (see photo). We’ve got an extra helping of arts events, too, this week and every week on www.ebar.com.

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t Music>>

November 23-29, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 19

Jeff Harnar by Gregg Shapiro

or openly gay vocalist Jeff Harnar, life truly is a cabaret. Since the late 1980s, Harnar has received multiple accolades for work as a performer, including awards from the Mabel Mercer Foundation, the Chicago Cabaret Professionals, Manhattan Association of Cabaret (MAC), and Broadway Cabaret World, to mention a few. Following a 17-year break from recording, Harnar has released two albums on PS Classics; “I Know Things Now: My Life in Sondheim’s Words” in 2022, and his latest, “A Collective Cy: Jeff Harnar Sings Cy Coleman” in 2023. Gregg Shapiro: Jeff, I’d like to begin by asking you who came up with the witty title for your Cy Coleman celebration act, and subsequent album, “A Collective Cy”? Jeff Harnar: Gregg, you are the very first to ask. When I was starting out in cabaret in the 1980s, a young man named Sebastian Hobart did a Cy Coleman show with this title. Sadly, he was a casualty of the AIDS epidemic. All these years later I have assimilated his witty appellation and have awaited an opportunity to shine the spotlight on his memory and give him the credit he deserves. What’s involved in the process of selecting songs for a cabaret tribute show and album such as “A Collective Cy?” My director Sara Louise Lazarus, my music director Alex Rybeck and I have the gift of a long collaboration. Our first project together was 1989’s “Carried Away: Jeff Harnar Sings Comden & Green.” The process is much the same now as before. We each make a list of songs that might be a good fit for me and then compare notes. As much as I love Cy’s music, I’m always looking at the lyrics first. I need to feel I’m a reliable, believable narrator of the lyrics I sing. This album owes as much to exceptional lyricists Carolyn Leigh, Dorothy Fields, and David Zippel as to Cy Coleman. In the liner notes, you write about when, as a boy, your parents gave you the original Broadway cast recording of “Sweet Charity,” a musical about a taxi dancer. It was a pretty racy musical at the time. Nearly 60 years later, could you ever imagine a parent giving that album to a child in 2023? We were living in the Connecticut suburbs of New York City back then and I had a great aunt who was the fashion editor of Seventeen Magazine. I have to believe she suggested the album to my parents. The show was new on Broadway at the time and my Aunt Fran would’ve seen it. She was my Auntie Mame. The following year she gave me “Man of La Mancha.” That was really a lot for a child to digest!

Jeff Harnar

Cabaret singer’s sweet on Cy and Steve

A couple of other North Shore natives, Ann Hampton Callaway, and her sister Liz Callaway, can be heard performing duets with you on the album on the songs “I’ve Got Your Number” and “Our Private World,” respectively. What does it mean to you to have them on the record? Two highlights of the album were duetting with my New Trier classmates Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway. What a magnificent musical reunion that afternoon in the studio was for me. Ann was “Mame” in our New Trier production - I like to say she was 16 going on 42. Brilliant then, brilliant now. Liz and I costarred in “Kismet.” Check out YouTube

if you want to see ten minutes of 1977 Sound Super-8 proof! Do you think Cy Coleman has received the full recognition that he deserved? Frankly, no. Part of the blame was his own brilliance. With regards to his Broadway scores, Cy was a musical chameleon, writing jazz for “City of Angels,” R&B for “The Life,” and comic operetta for “On the Twentieth Century.” As such, Cy himself disappears. When you hear Sondheim, you pretty much know you’re hearing Sondheim. Cy was much more difficult to button down because his writing styles were always in service to the shows he was writing. Thus, Cy Coleman

never became a household name, though virtually everyone knows his songs such as “Big Spender,” “Hey, Look Me Over!” and “The Best is Yet to Come.” As a member of the LGBTQ community, where do you think the cabaret scene would be without people like us? Let’s think even bigger … Where would the world be without people like us? I can certainly speak to what the world of cabaret has given me. In it I have found a platform for creative self-expression where the only limits are my own. Here I’ve found a cadre of like-minded artists who, like me, do what they do, with people they get to choose to work with, and mostly for the joy of it all. Because cabaret is defined by its intimacy, it’s not where you go to make big money. And to your question, on a very personal level, cabaret gave me the forum to “come out” onstage. It wasn’t until I began singing Sondheim in my 50s that I had the courage to embrace my sexuality

as a performer. Until then I was quite coy about the pronouns in my singing. Somehow Sondheim’s lyrics were the succinct ammunition I needed to authentically express the complexities of my openly gay heart in front of an audience. The opportunities are less apparent in the Cy Coleman piece. Only a few telltale “he’s” as the object of my affection tip my hand. But I certainly haven’t retreated; my truth is fully in these songs. The cabaret scene has given me all that and more. Alex Rybeck and I just celebrated 40 years since our first show together. To have a musical partnership and friendship with that kind of continuity is a dream realized for me. I don’t know where I would be, were it not for how embracing the cabaret scene has been to me. t Read the full interview, with several music clips, on www.ebar.com. www.jeffharnar.com

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