September 29, 2022 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Castro fair set for Sunday

by Cynthia Laird

TheCastro Street Fair will take place as usual Sunday, October 2, and mer chants are glad for the increased foot traffic the event is sure to bring to the LG BTQ neighborhood.

Sidelined in 2020 due to COVID, the street fair returned last year, albeit with a smaller footprint. This year, according to the fair’s website, the 48th annual event will be held at the intersection of Castro and Mar ket streets and the surrounding area.

Entertainment is scheduled throughout the afternoon and includes Auntie Sam and Devereaux, Oscar 5 and Five, Jordee and Day Thief, and Robin Malone Simmons and Elaine Denham.

Palm Springs to honor drag icon José Sarria with a star

by Matthew S. Bajko

The late drag icon José Julio Sarria will be inducted into the Palm Springs Walk of Stars this December. It will be the culmination of a monthslong tribute to the LGBTQ rights pioneer in the South ern California city.

ARTS

Welcome crowds return to Folsom

A fter a two-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, the leather- and kick-themed Folsom Street Fair re turned to San Francisco’s South of Mar ket neighborhood in all its glory Sunday, September 25, as crowds milled about

along Folsom Street. Wrestling was a new attraction this year. Health depart ment officials offered MPX and COVID vaccinations. Check out more photos on the BARtab Facebook page at https://bit. ly/3UPEr5N.

Gwen Araujo remembered 20 years after brutal murder

by John Ferrannini

Sylvia Guerrero, whose transgender daughter was killed 20 years ago Octo ber 4, said, “If I had an LGBTQ child now, I’d still be worried, just as I was for Gwen at the time.”

SF LGBTQ senior housing project plans 185 units

by Matthew S. Bajko

Anew

affordable housing project in San Francisco aimed at LGBTQ se niors will have 185 units in a 15-sto ry building, according to plans submitted to the city this week. It will be the third such development specifically geared for LGBTQ seniors in the city.

The project is to be built at 1939 Market Street and estimated to cost $106,117,600. The city acquired the triangular 7,840 square foot lot at Market and Duboce Avenue in 2020 for $12 million from the Sheet Metal Workers Local 104. The union plans to va cate the property nearer to when construc tion of the new building will begin.

It still needs to be vetted by the city’s plan ning commission and other departments be fore ground can be broken at the site. As it is a completely 100% affordable project for low and very-low income seniors, the city has granted it priority status and has deferred its fees it would normally charge.

Last year, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development chose afford able housing developer Mercy Housing and Openhouse, a nonprofit provider of LGBTQ senior services in San Francisco, for the proj ect. The agencies partnered on the 119-units of LGBTQ-welcoming affordable senior housing split between the buildings at 55 and 95 Laguna Street.

The campus also includes Openhouse’s offices at 65 Laguna and a new community center it built out at 75 Laguna. It is a short walk from the upper Market Street location of the new residential building that will in clude a ground floor commercial space.

According to the plans submitted by Mercy Housing to city planners September 20, the triangularly shaped building will use the state density bonus program in order to provide a mix of 106 studios, 80 one-bed

rooms and one two-bedroom unit. A por tion of the units will be reserved for seniors that have experienced homelessness.

As with the previous two buildings over seen by Mercy and Openhouse, a lottery will be held for the rest of the units at 1939 Market Street. Both straight and LGBTQ seniors will be able to enter it as long as they meet the in come restrictions, expected to range from 15% to 60% of the area median income.

See

lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,

queer

An artist rendering depicts the proposed development aimed at LGBTQ seniors located at 1939 Market Street.

Courtesy SF Planning

Castro Street saw a crowd at last year’s street fair.

Steven Underhill

Looking at downtown housing

Rick Gerharter

Trans teenager Gwen Araujo File photo

José Julio Sarria dressed in full drag as Empress I the Widow Norton in 2011.

Rick Gerharter

AIDS grove releases short doc on Blacks and HIV

compiled by Cynthia Laird

The National AIDS Memo rial Grove has released its lat est mini-documentary, “The Black Community and AIDS,” the sev enth film in its oral history project. It chronicles the personal stories of nearly two-dozen survivors and advocates from across the U.S. who are thriving, and sharing their hopes and struggles about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its disproportionate impact on the Black community, a news release stated.

The film opens with Phill Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute. It also fea tures advocate Tori Cooper; Dázon Dixon Diallo, founder and president of SisterLove, the first women’s HIV sexual reproductive justice organiza tion in the Southern U.S.; advocate Sharron Chatman; and others.

“This mini-documentary speaks to the work of the National AIDS Memorial in addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS in the Black com munity,” stated John Cunningham, CEO of the AIDS grove. “We are so appreciative of the survivors and advocates featured in this film who shared their stories and whose work is helping make a differ ence in changing the statistics and helping to finally curb the disproportionate im pact of this epidemic in the Black community.”

The film was pro duced and directed by Jörg Fockele. The film was shown at Frame line, San Francisco’s LGBTQ film festival, as well as festivals and HIV/AIDS events across the coun try, the release noted. It will also be shown as part of the AIDS grove’s Change the Pattern initiative that started this week and is partnering

Phill Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute, appears in “The Black Community and AIDS,” a mini-documentary from the National AIDS Memorial Grove.

with the Southern AIDS Coalition and Gilead Sciences Inc. to bring panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to the South as a teaching tool.

Previous films in this series include mini-documentaries on substance users, the transgender community, the Asian and Pacific Islander community, women, the national hemophilia community, and the leather community, the re lease stated.

The 17-minute film can be viewed on the AIDS grove’s website https://www.aidsmemorial.org/ and YouTube channel. (https:// www.youtube.com/c/Nation alAIDSMemorial)

Horizons scholarship

opportunity

Horizons Foundation has an nounced a new scholarship op portunity for LGBTQ individuals who are seeking support to further develop the skills necessary to find meaningful employment.

Funded by the Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation, the We Rise LGBTQ Scholarship is a one-time award of $2,500 to support Bay Area LGBTQ students pursuing trade and technical degrees and certifi cates as well as associate and bach elor degrees, according to a news re lease. With a focus on students who share a commitment to advancing LGBTQ rights, the scholarship will make its first awards later this year, the release stated.

Applications for the scholar ship are being accepted through October 26. For more informa tion and to apply, go to https://bit. ly/3SARu9u.

In other Horizons news, its an nual gala takes place Saturday,

October 2, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason Street in San Francisco, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in a recent article about LGBTQ fall benefits. The event will be livestreamed for those joining from home. More informa tion is available at https://www.ho rizonsfoundation.org/

EQCA, Uber to provide free rides for MPX shots

Equality California, the state wide LGBTQ rights organization, announced that it’s partnering with Uber to provide free roundtrip rides (up to $30 each way) to MPX vaccination sites throughout the state.

According to a news release, EQCA and Uber are working to ensure that LGBTQ+ community members and other eligible people have the opportunity to protect themselves and their loved ones from MPX. The outbreak began this spring and, in California, is primarily affecting men who have sex with men.

“As vaccines are becoming in creasingly available across our state, it’s critical to ensure transportation is not neglected,” stated Tony Ho ang, EQCA executive director. “We are immensely grateful for our longstanding partnership with Uber and its commitment to full lived equality for all LGBTQ+ people.”

To claim a code for a ride and more information, go to https:// www.eqca.org/monkeypox/.

SF nonprofits can reserve Castro window

It’s that time of year again. San Francisco LGBTQ nonprofits can now reserve window space at the Castro Walgreens to promote their agencies in 2023.

Gary Poe of OurTownSF is now handling the reservations, which are free. Since 2001 the Walgreens at 18th and Castro streets has gen erously offered its window, which enjoys an abundance of foot traffic on Castro Street, for nonprofits to promote their organizations.

In the past, Poe wrote in a news release, displays with eye-catching artistic creativity attract the most attention of passersby. Groups can promote themselves, services they offer, and their upcoming major events.

Interested organizations should contact Poe at ourtownsfwindow@ gmail.com to be notified of open reservation dates for next year. The

reservation coordinator prioritizes reservations on a first come, first served basis.

OurTownSF (https://www.face book.com/ourtownsf/) is a refer ence guide to over 300 LGBTQ nonprofit service agencies, arts, and athletic groups.

SF police oversight agency releases complainant portal

The San Francisco Department of Police Accountability has released a case-tracking portal that allows complainants to independently look up their case status and submit doc uments for case reviews or investi gative hearing requests online.

Paul Henderson, a gay man who is executive director of DPA, stated in a news release that the goal of the new portal is to increase transpar ency while ensuring confidentiality.

The new portal was made pos sible with the technological prog ress that DPA has had over the last few years, with the capability to integrate a new page for case track ing into its current Salesforce case management system, the release stated. That allows complainants to access information or upload doc uments in a more secure way.

The portal is accessible through DPA’s website at https://bit. ly/3r9bKmR.

Senior agency to hold benefit

Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly, an organization that helps isolated older adults, will hold an in-person fundraiser Saturday, Oc tober 15, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Little Marina Green, 5517 Yacht Road in San Francisco.

The San Francisco-based agency, also known as LBFE, will hold Paws for a Cause, a unique opportunity to celebrate coming together that focuses on humans and their ca nine friends, a news release stated. “It also reunites relationships be tween LBFE’s older adults and our volunteers,” stated Cathy Michalec, executive director.

One highlight of the day will be a Halloween costume contest, judged by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), LBFE older adult Tom Schroeder, and dog be haviorist Beverly Ulbrich, owner of Pooch Coach Dog Training.

People do not have to have a dog to attend, organizers noted. There will be food, games, a photo booth, and much more, the release stated.

Tickets start at $20 and can be purchased at littlebrotherssf.org/.t

SF supervisors confirm gay planning commissioner Braun

by Matthew S. Bajko

Ending a two and half year ab sence of having LGBTQ rep resentation on the San Francisco Planning Commission, the Board of Supervisors has confirmed gay strategic economist Derek Braun to serve on the powerful oversight body.

The supervisors voted 8-3 Sep tember 27 to approve Braun to a term that ends June 30, 2026. May or London Breed appointed him to succeed former planning commis sioner Frank Fung.

Braun is expected to be sworn in as a member of the planning com mission in time to take part in its meeting Thursday.

The supervisors also approved on the same 8-3 vote Tuesday the re appointment of mayoral appointee Rachael A. Tanner, currently presi dent of the planning commission, to a new four-year term. The board’s

rules committee had voted 3-0 Sep tember 19 in support of confirming both Tanner and Braun.

The vote before the full board occurred amid a growing scandal over Breed asking dozens of her commission appointees to sign undated letters of resignation. She ended the practice several days af ter the San Francisco Standard first reported on it last week.

Tuesday afternoon the mayor’s office released copies of the resig nation letters, showing that Braun had signed one of the letters and Tanner did not. Responding to the revelations, a number of supervi sors voiced concerns about voting

Correction

on the planning commissioner ap pointees without being able to fur ther vet them.

The board was under a deadline to take up their nominations Tues day, as it was the last day for the board to cast a vote. Otherwise, the two appointees would have been automatically confirmed to the planning commission.

With the oversight body down in members, and the rules commit tee having already voted to support them, a majority of the supervisors opted to go ahead and vote in sup port of the two appointees. They

The September 22 issue article “San Jose to elect new mayor” should have clarified that Jeremy Avila was vice president of BAYMEC when the South Bay LGBTQ political group endorsed Cindy Chavez’s may oral bid earlier this year. He afterward stepped down from the board position but is still a member of the organization. The online version of the story has been updated.

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B.A.R. picks for SF DA, PD

San Francisco voters have an opportunity to give new District Attorney Brooke Jenkins a chance to see if her policy changes do in deed help with public safety in the city. Jen kins, whom Mayor London Breed appointed in July after the recall of former DA Chesa Boudin, had a bumpy start, especially when it was revealed that she was paid more than $100,000 by a nonprofit linked to the recall campaign. During much of the last year, Jen kins, who resigned from the DA’s office last fall, became the public face of the recall cam paign, for which she said she was a volunteer.

In an editorial board meeting with the Bay Area Reporter, Jenkins said that she should have revealed the payments sooner.

Since taking office, Jenkins fired some as sistant district attorneys, like many of her predecessors have done, and has brought on board a new team that aligns closely with her values. And while she is supportive of crimi nal justice reform, she said that offenders can still be held accountable. “As a Black and La tina woman, I have seen the disproportion ate impacts of our justice system firsthand,” Jenkins wrote in her endorsement question naire. “The inequity in the criminal justice system is not theoretical to me – it is part of my lived experience.” She added that with her vision, the DA’s office will be able to “balance accountability and compassionate reforms in a manner that achieves public safety.”

During our virtual editorial board meeting last week, Jenkins told us that she is commit ted to maintaining the external Innocence Commission that Boudin started, and which facilitated the exoneration of a man earlier this year. On September 26, she announced her new pick for the commission, Julia Cer vantes. (Jenkins had fired the previous DA’s representative to the panel.) Prior to serving as lead attorney of the DA office’s Post-Con viction Review Unit, Cervantes served as a deputy district attorney in San Mateo County and an assistant district attorney in San Fran cisco from 2011-2021. We’re pleased that Jen

kins is keeping this important commission.

We also asked Jenkins about widely re ported instances when she was an assistant district attorney in which she was accused of coaching a child witness and withheld discovery in two separate cases. Jenkins was adamant that she’s never been found to have committed misconduct. She said that the child witness incident resulted from someone from the public defender’s office secretly filming her outside of court talking to the 4-year-old witness, explaining the court process. (The judge found no misconduct and the jury hung in that case.) With the discovery issue, Jenkins acknowledged that “a few items of evidence, nothing exculpatory” weren’t turned over to the de fense, but she said it was not intentional and she was not found to have committed mis conduct. (Prosecutors dismissed the case and restarted the prosecution, according to the San Francisco Standard.)

Jenkins, who has addressed the Castro Merchants Association and toured their businesses during a walk in the LGBTQ neighborhood, said that she hears the is sues of small businesses owners, not just in the Castro but in commercial corridors and residential neighborhoods throughout the city. “Property crimes are no lon ger insignificant,” she said, adding that she has started a major crimes unit out of the office’s general felony unit. She is supportive of the new surveillance policy that the Board of Supervisors has passed, though she said she “completely understands” the concerns of members of the LGBTQ community and others who may be wary of being captured on video. In this age of private security cam eras that proliferate the city, Jenkins said the footage is already subject to all kinds of uses; the new ordinance will allow police easier access to it. There was one case, Jenkins said,

On my knees for SF’s Prop M

by Victor H. Floyd

Thirty years ago, I tested positive for HIV.

Bay

Gough

Francisco,

302

www.ebar.com

I could not imagine a secure future for myself as an out gay man in my hometown of Atlanta. I had to escape. Like so many queer people before me, I fled to find hope in San Francisco. Finding more than survival, I have flourished here. I got a new community – a family of choice – that offered me accessible health care, a loving formerly-unhoused hus band, and a theological education. I could not have realized my religious vocation in Geor gia, but now I offer spiritual care for a historic Christian congregation in Pacific Heights. Making my way wasn’t easy, but for people who come here looking for their American Dream, today it’s nearly impossible. San Francisco’s current queer refugees are more likely to be come homeless and live in encampments than they are to realize the promise of San Francisco.

According to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst office, in 2019 there were 40,458 residential units standing empty in our city. What other cities might call abandoned homes or urban blight, we call speculation. Investors purchase blocks of empty residential units to hold emp ty while they appreciate. Then, empty homes are traded like stock. Global elites use our housing stock as their investment scheme, while the San Francisco Chronicle estimates another 20,000 San Franciscans are headed for encampments within a year.

Proposition M on the November 8 ballot offers a sensible way to break this cycle, some thing that’s worked already in Paris and Van couver. Prop M will tax owners of residential housing that stands empty for six months or more. The taxes collected from Prop M will benefit seniors and low-income families through rent subsidies. In the first year alone, an estimated 4,500 units could come online. Additionally, Prop M will fund the conver sion of empty buildings into affordable hous ing. Single-family homes and duplexes are exempt from Prop M since it applies only to buildings of three or more housing units. It won’t tax homes under repair, new construc tion, or units vacated due to disaster or death. If corporate landlords can afford to let their

buildings stand as monuments to wealth ac cumulation, they can afford to help seniors and low-income families avoid displacement and eviction. The longer investment units stand intentionally empty, the higher the tax. Prop M does not prevent speculation, it transforms it into subsidies.

Prop M is the moral thing to do. It will keep people in their homes. Imagine con verting empty homes into rent for old people. Prop M is endorsed by a wide range of organizations in cluding Faith in Action Bay Area (with which I am involved), the San Francisco Democratic Party, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Demo cratic Club, the League of Pissed Off Voters, and the upwardly-mo bile YIMBY Action. Personally, I know real estate agents and landlords who support Prop M because they are of the mind that homes are meant for people, and people are meant for homes.

The arguments against Prop M are a bit far-fetched. The official “against” arguments from the San Francisco Apartment Associa tion claim Prop M will cause San Franciscans to spy on one another and report vacancies. (Other enforcement is in place.) They call Prop M “feeble” and say that it should go fur ther. (Prop M is a wise, intentionally-crafted measure and will chip away at the injustice that faces us every time we walk through our neighborhoods.) Other arguments against

the measure include the folks at the Housing Action Coalition who claim it will make traf fic worse. (I can’t even with that.)

No one offers evidence to counter the su pervisors’ Budget and Legislative Analyst office. No one can counter the empirical evidence from Paris and Vancouver. Un less you’re an oligarch that keeps apartment buildings empty, it’s hard to find an argument against Prop M.

Let’s keep seniors and low-income house holds together, safe, and sheltered.

Back in 1979, when I was young and reck less, the first person I took for a ride with my new driver’s license was my grandmother. She let me take her on the freeway. Well, I might not have asked, but we went for a ride on the freeway. There was a slower, older driver in the fast lane and I, young and stupid, blew my horn at her to move over. “Don’t blow at her!” my grandmother admonished me. “She might be feeble, but she’s wise! She has experience. She knows what she’s doing. She will get where she’s going in one piece.” Call Prop M weak all you like, but it’s wise. It will help get us where we need to go. Prop M won’t fix everything, but it’s a reasonable step in the right di rection. As my wise white-knuckled grandmother reminded me from the passenger seat of my careening Ford Pinto, “slow and steady wins the race.”

My hope might seem optimis tic, but I believe in a San Fran cisco where you don’t have to be a zillionaire to plan a future. I believe that San Franciscans have hearts big enough to help seniors and low-income neighbors avoid displacement. If that inconveniences the super-rich, I have a Bible full of stories to support my position. Vote for the future of your neighbors like me who don’t belong any where else but here, home in San Francisco.

Vote yes on Prop M.t

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, right, took a walking tour of the Castro on July 19 with Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

Rick Gerharter

The Reverend Victor H. Floyd is an out and ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and former pastor of Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco. He serves Calvary Presbyterian Church (USA) in Pacific Heights and is a leader in Faith in Action Bay Area.

The Reverend Victor H. Floyd holds a newly-baptized baby boy during a church service.

Courtesy Victor H. Floyd; baby photographed with permission

SF supervisor candidates eye downtown offices for housing

by Matthew S. Bajko

With San Francisco required by the state to produce 82,000 units of housing over the next eight years, it remains to be seen how city leaders will be able to meet that obligation. One idea gaining traction is to convert emp ty office buildings downtown to housing developments.

Work-from-home policies and routines brought on by the COVID pandemic have resulted in a hol lowing out of the business sector in the city’s economic core. Some es timates predict that the city’s office vacancy rate is soon to surpass 50% in certain neighborhoods.

In June, the city’s chief econo mist Ted Egan, Ph.D., released a report looking at the economic context for development in the city post-COVID. By 2024 he predicted the office vacancy rate for the Financial District north of Market Street could be 41.4% and south of Market Street it could hit 34.2%.

Union Square could have a vacancy rate of 28.2%, reported Egan. Along the Mid-Market cor ridor, it could rise to 43.4%, ac cording to his report.

Already, more than 25 million square feet of commercial space is available for lease or sublease in the city, which the San Francisco Standard news site earlier this month noted was “the equivalent of about 35 Transamerica Pyra mids sitting empty.”

Thus, talk has increasingly turned to transforming those floors of vacant office cubicles into apartments and condos for new downtown resi dents. A number of can didates running in this year’s supervisor races voiced support for do ing so in Bay Area Re porter editorial board meetings and questionnaires.

As he works to bring in-fill de velopments to his Sunset District, as well as to encourage owners of single-family homes in the city’s western neighborhoods to build additional housing units in their buildings or backyards, District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar told the B.A.R. that converting unused commercial office space down town into housing should be part of the solution toward meeting the city’s housing needs.

“We need to acknowledge that the downtown area will be forever changed by the COVID pandemic and the shift to remote and hybrid work by core office employers who fueled the downtown economy in recent years,” said Mar. “In rei magining our downtown area for the post-pandemic period, I be lieve we have an opportunity to think creatively and boldly. One key idea that I support is repur posing vacant office space and revising new office developments in the pipeline to social uses in cluding market rate and affordable housing, cultural centers and non profit and community spaces.”

Doing so will have a beneficial spillover effect for the restaurants and other service businesses lo cated downtown that are strug gling from the decrease in daytime workers commuting into the city.

“Adding mixed income housing and cultural/community facilities to the downtown area will bring more economically and socially

diverse people back to the area supporting small businesses and other commercial activities,” said Mar.

Joel Engardio, the gay former journalist turned neighborhood organizer running against Mar, agrees that San Francisco “must reimagine” its downtown district. He, too, believes more housing should be built there.

“There is no going back to the 1990s-era version of downtown that existed before the pandemic. The way people work and live has changed and we must use that as an opportunity to reinvent our urban centers,” said En gardio. “We should repurpose office buildings into housing and create experiences that draw people downtown and into the streets beyond a 9-to-5 commute pat tern.”

He also supports closing some downtown streets in order to repur pose them into dining and enter tainment promenades.

“This is the time to encourage innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Engardio. “City Hall must let every idea have a chance to be the one that saves our local economy.”

Gay District 8 Supervisor Ra fael Mandelman, who is running for reelection, told the B.A.R. that the city needs “to support build ing owners in converting build ings that no longer work for office space to other uses or facilitate the upgrading of those buildings to more modern office space.”

Kate Stoia, a lawyer and straight married mother running against Mandelman, expressed support for “the creation of housing and/ or performance spaces for artists in buildings that were formerly of fice space only” as a way to revital ize downtown.

District 6 supervisor candi date Honey Mahogany, formerly chief of staff to Matt Haney when he held the seat, has also voiced support for adding more residen tial units to the city’s downtown core. If elected as the city’s first transgender supervisor, Mahog any would represent the South of Market neighborhood and its East Cut district where numerous office buildings and new housing towers have been built.

“Our downtown has struggled throughout the years and tradi tionally has been a ghost town at night,” said Mahogany.

With San Francisco one of the

slowest cities to recover from the pandemic, Mahogany noted that “the impact of empty offices and slow return of tourism on our city’s economy is going to be dev astating if we don’t get people back to San Francisco. We also have to face the reality that many compa nies have adopted fully remote or hybrid work models and down town won’t be the same as before the pandemic.”

Those trends require “creative solutions,” argued Mahogany, for how to reactivate downtown.

“We also have to look for oppor tunities to build more housing and convert office spaces into hous ing,” she said. “We can build com munities directly in downtown, bringing people and business to not only open, but thrive.”

Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, appointed to fill the va cancy created when Haney de parted in the spring for the state Assembly, also told the B.A.R. “as the future of downtown changes, everything should be on the table.”

Challenges

But Dorsey cautioned that turn ing vacant offices into residential units comes with challenges. In talking to housing advocates and others, Dorsey noted he has been advised there are “obstacles to this in making them residential build ings that are code compliant.”

How feasible a solution it is to convert former office buildings into housing remains up for de bate. Some argue it doesn’t make financial sense, as the build-out for such projects can be more ex pensive than the cost of construct ing a new residential building.

Current economic conditions, from rising interest rates to sup ply issues, are also negatively im pacting construction projects in the city. Egan predicted a coming slowdown in housing construction in his report this summer.

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“Rising interest rates means the housing market may also be reach ing a peak. A further cooling of development can be expected in the months ahead,” he wrote.

The supervisor candidates ac knowledged the expense of office conversion projects could be cost prohibitive to undertake. None theless, they argued such reuse of commercial buildings must be part of the conversations around how to increase the city’s housing stock.

“Some developers may think it is

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Candidates running for San Francisco supervisor want to look at the feasibility of turning some downtown office space into housing.

Matthew S. Bajko

Trans driver setting records at Uber

by David-Elijah Nahmod

Kerry Pryce has been driving for Uber since 2014. In that time she has clocked in more than 24,000 rides. A transgender wom an, she has become a favorite in the Uber office, but Pryce just sees it as living her life.

“With more than 24,000 rides completed Kerry is not only a shin ing example of an outstanding driver, her perspective is essential to helping guide our team’s efforts to build a more inclusive experi ence for all drivers,” said Zahid Arab, Uber’s communications and public affairs manager for the west ern U.S. “No matter what gender identity or expression, we strive to create a platform where driv ers can live authentically and earn independently. We’re committed to building a safe and inclusive platform, and are always listening, learning, and engaging with com munity members so we can better support those using Uber.”

Pryce, 51, has lived an eventful life. During her pre-transition years she served in both the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. She signed up for the Navy in 1991, the day after the first Gulf War started, and served on a carrier for two years. After that she worked as a cryptologist as an expert in the study of codes. This required top-secret clearance. She did this for eight years.

“I was stuck between a rock and a hard place because I had a young family,” Pryce recalled during a recent interview. “I was straight back then. I reenlisted for six more years, which would put me at 16 years, and the wife said to me I’m going to separate from you and so we separated.”

This was followed by her years in the Coast Guard. By then Pryce was living as a gay man and came out

to her superiors. She was removed from the service because of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” a compromise that then-President Bill Clinton signed in 1993. It stated that military per sonnel were not to be asked about their sexual orientation and couldn’t talk about it. But being LGBTQ in the service was still not permitted, and so for coming out Pryce was dis charged. DADT was repealed in De cember 2010 and that formally went into effect in September 2011.

After the discharge Pryce moved with her partner, Michael, to San Francisco because he was from here and his mother wasn’t doing well. November will mark 18 years since she left the service. (Pryce requested that Michael’s last name not be used.)

“I did odd jobs here and there,” she said. “I first worked for a friend of mine in the Castro for a few years as an executive assistant in a tax of fice. But my friend died of cancer, so I did security for awhile. That was

around 2008, when the economy kinda tanked, so I stayed with secu rity for six-and-a-half years or so.”

In 2014 Pryce learned about Uber.

“I realized that it’s easier for me to probably do this because I’m a prior veteran, I live in San Fran cisco, my medical is paid for and I just need a car,” she said. “And so I put those three items together and said, ‘If I qualify for a car, I’m going to do this.’ I got qualified for a car on my own and, before I knew it, I was in business.”

Pryce added that her customer service experience paid off, and that she did very well as an Uber driver. After about 22 days on the job, she had a person from Uber corporate in her car.

“You have a 4.88 rating 22 days in,” said the executive. Pryce said that she replied by bemoaning the fact that her rating wasn’t a five.

“The average is 4.62,” the ex ecutive said, “so keep doing what you’re doing.”

Eight years later Pryce said that her rating was 4.99. She expects her rating to go up to five.

In 2017 Pryce, who continued to do quite well with Uber, realized that she still wasn’t happy. During a visit to her VA doctor for her annu al check-up, she found herself ask ing about the policy on hormones.

“That kinda threw me off,” she

said, “because I heard myself say that.”

The doctor told her that the VA hospital had a “great” policy on hormones and that there was a transgender veteran’s meet-up group that very night, she said.

“And I attended it,” she recalled. “That was a critical part for me be cause I was confused with things in life and I didn’t know why every thing was going on. That helped me understand what was missing the whole time.”

At the age of 46 Pryce underwent a great deal of therapy and also had discussions with people. She real ized that she was transgender. At the age of 47, on her birthday, she began her transition.

“And I have never had any re grets,” she said. “But the difference was that here I am driving for Uber and I thought I’d be discriminated against, and I was not. Because I got to live my true self, finally my rating went up even higher.”

Pryce has since participated in a panel on safety for women Uber drivers.

Pryce’s transition was totally ac cepted by her biological father, but her mom and stepfather weren’t as accepting at first. Fortunately, when her stepfather passed on, their rela tionship was on the mend. She is now very close with her mom and has come out to her children.

“My daughter, who is now 30, she lives in Idaho, same as my son,” she said. “My daughter was pro dad being gay, no problem. So I thought she would be OK with me being transgender. It took a little bit of time, but now she’s fine. But my son, who was raised by his mother, never really accepted it. He said that he’s not thrilled about it but that he can’t deny my hap piness. And so that’s where we’re at with him. When I transitioned, everyone around me transitions. I understand that. I’ve had a lot of support here in the Bay Area.”

Pryce is still with Michael. The couple are now engaged to be mar ried. Michael did want to comment for this story.

“He supported me,” said Pryce. “It’s a companionship, it’s cool. He’s been there the whole time. When I found out about the trans gender meet-up group, he said, ‘Go check it out.’ He supported me through all that. On my 50th birthday I got down on one knee in a dress and make-up and heels and asked him to marry me, and he said, ‘Yes, of course I’ll marry you.’ So he was awesome. We just don’t have a date yet.”

Pryce continues to drive for Uber. She said that what she likes best about it is that she gets to meet people from all over the world.

“I have great conversations with those who want to talk,” she said. “I provide a service. I like to focus on the quality of the ride, not the quantity of the ride.”

Pryce added that she likes the climate of San Francisco, the peo ple, the street fairs – the upcoming Folsom Street Fair is a favorite of hers – and the business that she’s in.

“I feel safer here,” she said.

She offers advice to anyone thinking about transitioning.

“First and foremost, pick out a therapist,” she said. “Because it’s important that it be a therapist that deals with transgender issues. A regular therapist from my limited experience doesn’t work, because they’re not going to understand be cause they haven’t had the training. Get the therapy and get the knowl edge to make certain it works for you. Weigh your options, and then if it’s right to transition, go for it.”t

Newsom vetoes LGBTQ health bill due to its price tag

by Matthew S. Bajko

California

Governor Gavin New som has spiked another bill that LGBTQ advocates had supported this legislative session due to its price tag. This time it was legislation aimed at helping lower-income state residents access treatment for sexu ally transmitted infections.

Newsom on September 25 ve toed Senate Bill 1234, the STI Pre vention & Treatment Fairness Act authored by Senator Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento). It had sought to expand access to services for the prevention and treatment of STIs to income-eligible patients who have confidentiality concerns, in cluding LGBTQ+ patients, through the state’s Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment program.

Such patients of the program, known as Family PACT, would have been reimbursed for the cost of their care, subject to an appro priation by the Legislature and any potential draw down of federal matching funds.

“With STI rates rising for the past seven years, we need to turn

the tide and expand access to con fidential and high quality STI care for LGBTQ+ patients,” the advo cacy group Essential Access Health had tweeted earlier this summer as to why lawmakers needed to pass the legislation.

In a statement to the Bay Area Reporter APLA Health CEO Craig

E. Thompson expressed disap pointment with Newsom’s deci sion. The Los Angeles agency was a main co-sponsor of the legislation.

“We are disappointed with the governor’s decision to veto SB 1234,” stated Thompson. “But, as the latest data from the CDC makes clear, the STD epidemic is only growing worse in California and across the U.S. – with syphilis rates up nearly 28% in the last year alone. APLA Health will continue advocating for forward-thinking policy and funding initiatives to address this crisis, including ensur ing that all LGBTQ+ Californians have access to convenient, low-cost sexual health services regardless of ability to pay.”

In his veto message Newsom didn’t dispute that more needs to be done to address the now de cades-long rise in sexually trans mitted diseases such as syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea. None theless, without dedicated funding for it, Newsom said he couldn’t sign SB 1234 into law.

Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill on lower-income access treatment for STIs due to its cost.

Courtesy AP

Kerry Pryce, sitting behind the steering wheel of her car, has been driving for Uber since 2014.

Rick Gerharter

Colombia offers culture, history for visitors

by Heather Cassell

Colombia is an amazing country rich with art and culture, food, history, outdoor adventures, and beautiful sandy beaches.

I learned this when I traveled to the country as a guest of awardwinning sustainable LGBTQ travel company Out in Colombia and the country’s tourism bureau, ProCo lombia, right before the pandemic shut down most travel.

Colombia has been reopened for tourism since the fall of 2020. As of May 1, travelers ages 18 and older need to provide proof of “com plete vaccination” or a negative COVID-19 antigen test 48 hours in advance of travel, or a negative PCR test 72 hours in advance of travel, according to Colombian and United States government websites.

Colombia is a year-round desti nation, but the best time to experi ence the South American country is December to March and June to September.

JilChristina Vest, founder of the Mini Black Panther Museum and Women of the Black Panther Party Mural in Oakland, vacationed in Colombia a month after the muse um’s opening in June 2021 for her first trip outside of the U.S. since March 2020.

Responding to the Bay Area Re porter’s questions, Vest wrote in an email interview that Colombians were responding to the pandemic life by wearing masks and socially distancing.

Vacationing on a beach in a small town outside of Cartagena with a group of friends, Vest was enjoying playing in the water and soaking up the sun outside of their vacation rental. She boasted about “views to die for,” the fresh seafood, and how “high-end, yet very affordable” Co lombia is for a vacation.

“It is a very friendly and chill vibe here,” Vest wrote. She hadn’t interacted with the local LGBTQ community during her trip like I did, but she had similar observa tions about LGBTQ Colombians’ openness and showing “public af fection with no issue.”

Great strides

Colombia’s LGBTQ movement has made great strides since 1999, according to the Astraea Foun dation’s 2021 report. The South American country’s capital, Bo gotá, became one of the first cities in the world to establish a govern ment office focused on LGBTQ is sues, the Sexual Diversity Depart ment, in 2013. Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2016. This year Colombia’s constitutional court ad vanced gender diversity, reported Human Rights Watch.

Before my trip to Colombia, Bo gotá elected its first openly lesbian mayor, Claudia López Hernández. López Hernández’s swearing-in es tablished her as the first out LGBTQ person to lead a major South Amer ican city. López Hernández married her longtime partner just before she took office in January 2020.

Out in Colombia

It was Colombia’s beauty, people, and progress with LGBTQ rights that made gay American expatriate Sam Castañeda Holdren, 41, fall in love with the country during his first visit in 2013. He traveled to Colom bia on a three-month career break to learn how to speak Spanish fluently.

“I reflected on my time back in Colombia and realized, man, I real ly loved it there,” Castañeda Hold ren said. “There’s just a lot that makes the quality of life pretty amazing.”

In 2014, the Fres no native packed up and moved to Medellín, once the center of Colombia’s drug trafficking run by Pablo Escobar’s infamous drug cartel. It didn’t take long before Castañeda Holdren discovered he loved sharing what he was learning about Colombia and the country’s LGBTQ life with queer people on his blog and with friends in the states.

Gay travelers visiting Colombia found Castañeda Holdren online and asked for help for them to get to know where to go to find Co lombia’s LGBTQ community. He started putting together itineraries.

In 2016, he founded Out in Colombia to continue sharing his love of the country and promote its queer culture and businesses. Out in Colombia offers custom

and packaged tours in English and Spanish. In 2021, he set up a foun dation, Cocora Alliance , where a portion of the proceeds from trav eler’s trips are donated to the local communities.

It was the right time to launch his LGBTQ travel business. Co lombia was only two years into its LGBTQ travel campaign to woo LGBTQ travelers to the diverse South American country.

A lot to offer Colombia is famous for its coffee, beaches, tropical jungles (35% of the Amazon rainforest is within the country’s borders), and, of course, its darker side with the drug trade. The country’s drug lords have been pushed deep into the Amazon on the Brazilian and Colombian border with the U.S.’s help, Sebastian Fernandez Leal, a representa tive with ProColombia who formerly worked at the United Nations in New York City, told me in the car from Cartagena’s airport to our host hotel, Estelar Cartagena de Indias.

The South American country offers a lot to travelers. Colombia is home to more than 25 national parks. It is also the only country in South America to boast of beauti ful beaches on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. Top artists call Co lombia home. The country is a gas tronomic hub. Its LGBTQ commu nity is energetic with creative and culinary endeavors.

The country also boasts of hav ing South America’s destination LGBTQ nightclub in Bogotá. Mega LGBTQ nightclub Theatron fea tures 16 separate but interconnect ed dance clubs, including a concert hall, all in one building that takes up an entire city block.

My journey

My journey through the South American country with Out in Colombia began in Cartagena and took me to Barranquilla, Medel lín, and Bogotá, four of Colombia’s largest cities. I was taken by the country and people. Colombia is a vibrant and welcoming country

with a spirited culture and natural beauty, particularly in Cartagena, Medellín, and Bogotá.

Colombia was discovered in 1499 by Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda. The Spanish started coloniz ing Colombia in 1525. Nearly 300 years later, Colombia was founded in 1810 as a major trading hub for gold and African slaves, and re mained under Spanish rule until it won its independence in 1819. Co lombia once enslaved more than 1 million Africans until the country abolished slavery in 1821.

Today, Colombia is home to the third largest population of Black people outside of Africa, Brazil, and the U.S., according to Travel Noire . The country’s 11 million Af ro-Colombians make up four Black communities: mulattoes, raizales, palenque, and zambos.

Cartagena

In Cartagena, “palenqueras,” the community’s women, stand out in the crowds with their traditional colorful dresses and head wraps balancing bowls of fruit on their heads. They can easily be found in the squares, like San Pedro Claver Square, in Cartagena’s historic walled city. Our group enjoyed tast ing the traditional fruit snacks sold from one of the women’s stands. They also earn money by posing for pictures with tourists.

Belkin Chico, a lesbian tour guide with La Mesa, , which works

with Out in Colombia, guided our group from Castillo San Felipe de Barajas to the walled city, telling us the history. Our evening was spent relaxing on a private sunset catamaran cruise on Cartagena Bay and enjoying a gourmet meal at the stylish Club de Pesca.

Medellín

Cartagena was dazzling and so phisticated. Medellín was bursting with creativity. Our group enjoyed shopping at a local market and cooking and making cocktails in the morning. In the afternoon we went to the notorious Comuna 13, locally known as C13, that was once under the control of the Esco bar drug cartel.

Today, artists have taken over the hilltop neighborhood and have transformed it, noted Cata Gutier rez, our tour guide who grew up during Escobar’s reign of terror in the neighborhood. When she was 8, a gang killed her family in front of her as they were taking her to school. Her uncles took her in. When she was 13 she started earn ing money rapping on the subway while going to school. She later joined Casa Kolacho, an artist col lective where she found commu nity and thrived. Gutierrez had just launched C13 Brewing Company, as a part of the Comuna Project, at the time our group toured C13.

It’s challenging to be LGBTQ in the community, Gutierrez said. Homophobia remains, but two weeks before our visit a stairway was painted in rainbow colors in C13. Gutierrez said no one had de faced the steps. Instead, the com munity was enjoying it.

Bogotá

South America’s fourth largest city, Bogotá has a thriving LGBTQ community, our LGBTQ history tour guide Juan Camilo, an ally, told us as we walked through the city, stopping at historical points. At Café San Alberto, our group enjoyed a coffee and rum tasting that made Irish coffee look boring. On our last night in Colombia, our group enjoyed an elegant evening dining at B.O.G. Hotel and more dancing at Theatron.

Where to stay

I was a guest of Esestelar ho tels in Bogota, Cartagena, and Medellín.t

impossible, while others can make it work,” said Mahogany. “I am ex cited to talk to more people who think more positively about this and may have some solutions we haven’t heard of yet.”

Dorsey also told the B.A.R. it is an idea that shouldn’t be outright discarded.

“There is a model for it,” he said.

“I don’t think we should categori cally say yes or no. It is something we should have on the table.”

Mar acknowledged, “I am not sure about the feasibility. I have also heard it is not easy to do.” But he told the B.A.R., “I think the concept of converting some of the commercial space downtown to housing makes a lot of sense.”t

Web Extra: For more queer politi cal news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings

for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on a Long Island congressional race pitting two out candidates against each other, which is a first for a gen eral election ballot.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

A woman paints a mural in Cartagena’s historic walled city in Colombia.

Heather Cassell

Cata Gutierrez, a hip-hop artist, tour guide, and activist, stands in front of one of the many murals that decorate Comuna 13 in Medellín, Colombia.

Heather Cassell

Gay retired SF postal inspector pens memoir

by Matthew S. Bajko

Some of the stories are literally ripped from the headlines, as a number of cases Marius Greenspan worked on over his three-decade career with the U.S. Postal Inspec tion Service generated newspaper headlines across the country. They ranged from a national scheme that profited from having gay men with HIV obtain multiple life insurance policies to a Cajun chef involved in a Ponzi scheme.

Others are amusing tales such as the time Greenspan busted a Wis consin grandmother selling used stamps or when he recruited his mother to assist in one investiga tion by going undercover. Greens pan has collected 16 of some of his favorite cases into a memoir he self-published this summer.

He modeled it after one of his favorite TV shows, “Perry Mason.” Each chapter could serve as one ep isode of the legal drama that aired on CBS from 1957 to 1966.

The book was borne of his bore dom in retirement. His federal law enforcement career ended in 2016 when he retired that September to care for his ailing mother in Florida.

“I wasn’t planning to publish a book. I was only doing this to pass the time,” said Greenspan, 65, of putting down on paper the stories he had long recounted about the various cases he had worked.

He started sharing the chapters with friends, who encouraged him to compile them into a book. It turned into his 181-page memoir “Tales of a Gay Postal Inspector: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!”

While the cases are all real, Greenspan made the decision to change the names of the people he had a hand in arresting for mail fraud or other federal charges. He also notes in the book’s prologue

that, over the course of his career, he met fewer than six other gay fed eral law enforcement officers.

“I used to tell people that I was not a gay Postal Inspector, but rath er a Postal Inspector who happened to be gay,” Greenspan, who first moved to San Francisco in 1991, notes in the book.

Long career with postal service

Greenspan grew up in Skokie, Il linois and, at the age of 19, landed a job as a postal clerk in 1976. He also focused on earning a college degree at Northwestern University. It was required of anyone wanting to be a postal inspector, which Greenspan won promotion to in 1983 and was sent to Milwaukee.

“It was simply wonderful. I really loved what I did for a living,” said Greenspan during a phone inter view with the Bay Area Reporter. “I was really good at it. I put a lot of bad guys away.”

As it was a potentially danger ous job, Greenspan did carry a gun and worked closely with other law enforcement officers, both at the federal, state, and local levels, when going to apprehend suspects. He recounts in his book the time when he and a colleague happened upon a carjacking outside a county courthouse and were able to inter vene to protect the couple that had been taken hostage.

“Over the course of my career I got into some hairy situations,” said Greenspan, who lives by Mission

Dolores Park on the edge of the city’s LGBTQ Castro district.

The types of crimes postal in spectors work on run the gamut, said Greenspan, from worker com pensation fraud cases and mail theft to the sale of narcotics via the mail service. They also investigate any interstate fraud conducted us ing private shipping companies.

“It doesn’t need to be about things mailed,” he explained.

Most people are unaware of the job a postal inspector does, said Greenspan, whose book pulls back the curtain on the profession for readers. They have long been part of the country’s mail service, with today’s candidates required to com plete a 16-week academy training program in Potomac, Maryland.

“Going back to the Pony Express days there have been postal inspec tors,” said Greenspan.

His career with the agency ended when he transferred to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as SIGTARP, set up during the financial crisis of 2008. Living in Washington, D.C. at the time, and wanting to re turn to the Bay Area, Greenspan ap plied to work for the new agency in its San Francisco office.

He was hired as a special agent for SIGTARP and started there in the fall of 2010. Six years later he retired with a wealth of stories kicking around in his head, so many that he is considering writing a second book.

“I have enough cases,” said Greenspan.

Though it wasn’t his aim, if someone is inspired to become a postal inspector after reading his book, Greenspan hopes they do pursue such a career.

“I didn’t write the book to sud denly publicize postal inspectors and what we do. I wrote it to pass the time and share interesting sto ries,” he said. “If someone reads it and thinks maybe they should ap ply, great!”

Any profits from the book Greenspan is putting toward the Evelyn Greenspan Scholarship Fund he set up in his mother’s hon or at her alma mater, Cornell Uni versity, after she died in 2019 two months shy of turning 99. His book is dedicated to her, a “lovely angel in my life,” writes Greenspan.

His book costs $9.99 and can be purchased online at https://www. amazon.com/t

Fabulosa Books at 489 Castro Street will host a book signing with Greenspan from 7 to 8 p.m. Monday, October 24.

also voiced their concerns about the mayor’s use of the resignation letters.

“I think this is a troubling prac tice not least because it is ineffective and embarrassing for the mayor’s office,” said gay District 8 Supervi sor Rafael Mandelman, who none theless said the two applicants are “good strong applicants” who should be confirmed.

He voted in the majority to seat them both, while Supervisors Aar on Peskin (District 3), Dean Pres ton (District 5) and board Presi dent Shamann Walton (District 10) voted against confirming the pair. Peskin, who chairs the rules com mittee that vets mayoral applicants, had raised the issue of the resigna tion letters at the start of the board’s discussion of the confirmations.

Peskin had called the practice “troubling” and said he was “glad” it had stopped. But he also said it raised serious questions for him, particularly why some commis sioners were asked to sign the let ters and others were not.

There not being any “rhyme or reason to the practice,” he said, was “kind of mindboggling.”

Tom Paulino, a gay man who is Breed’s liaison to the board, told the supervisors he did not know why some appointees had been asked to submit the resignation let ters and others were not. He said the mayor asked for them in case an appointee had a “dereliction of duty” and could no longer serve in their oversight position.

Neither Braun nor Tanner ad dressed the supervisors at the meeting, as it is usual practice for them to speak before the rules committee.

Braun, 39, is employed by

Berkeley-based Strategic Econom ics and has been working with South San Francisco officials to update their city’s affordable hous ing impact fees for new commer cial and industrial development activity. He also worked with Oak land officials on a new plan for the East Bay city’s downtown area in terms of its economic develop ment and housing needs.

“My work really lies at the inter section of market and economic conditions and understanding that to fulfill the goals and visions in the communities I work,” Braun, who is Japanese American, had said at last week’s rules hearing. “I am coming to the planning commis sion because I really want to share this expertise and engage very closely with our local community and local communities.”

The planning body’s last LGBTQ member Dennis Richards, a gay man, resigned in March 2020 after

he sued the city’s building inspec tion department alleging it had retaliated against him for taking critical stances against it. The city and Richards settled the lawsuit in March for $1.8 million.

Braun had told the supervisors panel last week that he would be “very open-minded” as a planning commissioner. Issues he wants to focus on include housing afford ability, protecting current residents and tenants, and cultural displace ment.

A renter who doesn’t own a car, he had been a resident of the Cas tro for 11 years but recently moved. Braun has lived in San Francisco for 13 years.

He graduated from Case West ern Reserve University in Cleve land, Ohio in 2005 with a B.S. in management. Braun then earned his masters in planning from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 2008.

Braun

Retired U.S. postal inspector Marius Greenspan stands outside the Castro district post office.

Rick Gerharter

Derek Braun was approved to a seat on the powerful San Francisco Planning Commission.

Courtesy Strategic Economics

Help Build Meaningful, Compassionate Connections in Your Community

Shanti’s LGBTQ+ Aging & Abilities Support Network (LAASN)

Since 1974, Shanti has trained over 20,000 Bay Area volunteers to offer emotional and practical support to some of our most marginalized neighbors. LAASN offers emotional and practical support to LGBTQ+ older adults and adults with disabilities who face isolation and need greater social support and connection.

Shanti LAASN peer support volunteers:

Go through the internationally recognized training on the Shanti Model of Peer SupportTM

Make a commitment of 2-4 hours a week for a minimum of 6 months

Get matched with one client, for whom they serve as a non-judgmental source of emotional support and reliable practical help

Have one of the most rewarding volunteer experiences of their lives!

To learn more about how you can be a Shanti volunteer, contact Volunteer Services at 415-674-4751 or email acone@shanti.org. For more information about LAASN services, call 415-979-9950 or email djohnson@shanti.org.

The LGBTQ+ Aging & Abilities Support Network is made possible by funding from the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of Disability and Aging Services (DAS) and Metta Fund.

Besties Shopping and Services: Barbershop takes top spot again

compiled by Cynthia Laird

Shopping never really stopped during COVID. After the initial lockdown in 2020, most stores that were not deemed essential pivoted to curbside pick-up and online or dering. The service industry, how ever, was hit hard that first year, but more than two years into the pandemic, people can get a haircut, work out, and enjoy other activi ties. Below are this year’s readers’ poll winners in this category.

Best Barber Shop/Salon Joe’s Barbershop

Runner-up

Castro Barber Lounge

Joe’s Barbershop is a repeat winner in 2022. This popular establishment has been serving the Castro since 2004, when Joe Gallagher decided to open up shop. Gallagher states that he’s “very proud” of the shop, which has seen a relocation and fire, and credits his loyal customers. Stop by for a trim, or make an appointment. He said that the business was hop ping due to the recent Leather Week and Folsom Street Fair.

Joe’s Barbershop, 2150 Market Street, San Francisco. (415) 2559096. www.joesbarbershop.com

Best Auto Dealer Mercedes-Benz of San Francisco

Runner-up

BMW of San Francisco

The salesroom is open and ready for you to peruse the latest luxury offerings. Its website notes that it has upgraded its seven-acre cam

pus in South San Francisco, and of fers all-electric vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz of San Fran cisco, 2233 Gellert Boulevard, South San Francisco. (415) 6732000. www.sfbenz.com

Best Bank or Credit Union San Francisco

Federal Credit Union

Runner-up

Redwood Credit Union

Our readers are sticking with credit unions over banks in this category, and San Francisco Fed eral Credit Union is a new win ner. SF Federal Credit Union offers a full range of financial services, from checking accounts and online banking to vehicle and home loans. When you become a member, you’re a part owner of the credit union, which gives you rights to

elect members of the board. Main branch: 770 Golden Gate Avenue (at Gough) San Francisco. (415) 775-5377. www.sanfranciscofcu.com

Best Bicycle Shop Valencia Cyclery

Runner-up

Mike’s Bikes

Long a favorite of readers, Valen cia Cyclery regains the top spot in this category. Centrally located in San Francisco’s Mission district, the store welcomes all cyclists. “We are proud to be known as the bike shop that gives honest, expert advice to everyone from beginners to ad vanced cyclists,” its website states. The store’s fall sale is going on now.

Valencia Cyclery, Sales Show room, 1077 Valencia Street, San Francisco. (415) 550-6600.

www.valenciacyclery.com

Best Bookstore Fabulosa Books

Runner-up Green Apple Books

Last year, Alvin Orloff, a gay man, bought the former Dog Eared Books in the Castro and rechristened it Fab ulosa Books. Orloff had been a long time manager at Dog Eared, which has another location on Valencia Street. “A Castro Street without a bookstore is like a day without sun shine,” Orloff told the Bay Area Re porter last year. “I can’t even imagine how horrible it would be for Castro Street not to have a bookstore. I love bookstores; I want there to be more of them. It is a calling, say.”

Fabulosa Books, 489 Castro Street, San Francisco. (415) 6587015. www.fabulosabooks.com

Best Cannabis Dispensary

The Apothecarium

Runner-up Flore Dispensary

Long a favorite of readers, the Apothecarium regains its top spot in the poll this year. Its mission is to provide members with quality can nabis in a welcoming environment with empathy, education, and ongo ing support, its website states. “Years ago I was standing in line at a dis pensary, waiting behind a woman my grandmother’s age,” co-founder Ryan Hudson stated. “Like me, she was there for a serious medical is sue. But the people working there were unable to provide her the in formation she needed. That was my ‘light bulb moment’ – when I decid ed to create a dispensary where she could find quality cannabis and also the information and support she needed to use it safely and effective

ly, in a welcoming, non-judgmental environment.”

Today, with recreational use of marijuana legal in California, the Apothecarium continues its service to customers.

The Apothecarium, 2029 Mar ket Street, San Francisco. (415) 500-2620. apothecarium.com

Best Place to Buy Eyeglasses Eye Gotcha

Runner-up

Warby Parker

Located in the heart of the LG BTQ Castro neighborhood, Eye Gotcha Optometric offers a full service experience, from eye ex ams to a great selection of unique eyewear, its website states. It is currently serving customers by ap pointment only.

Eye Gotcha Optometric, 586 Castro Street, San Francisco. (415) 431-2988. www.eyegotchasf.com

Best Place to Buy Furniture Room and Board

Runner-up

Zozi’s Loft

Room and Board sells high qual ity modern furniture. It offers free design service and has competitive pricing. Get started online or visit one of its stores.

Room and Board, 685 Seventh Street, San Francisco. (855) 2460975. www.roomandboard.com

Best Place to Buy Shoes Dr Martens

Runner-up

On The Run

Dr Martens offers shoes for men, women, and kids. It has stores in San Francisco and Walnut Creek, plus online.

Dr Martens, 846 Market Street, San Francisco. (415) 872-9949. www.drmartens.com/us/en/

Best Grocery Store (Chain) Trader Joe’s Runner-up

Safeway

Long a favorite with readers, Trader Joe’s can’t be beat for its se lection of wines, cheeses, and other unique and seasonal items.

Trader Joe’s, 555 Ninth Street, San Francisco, (415) 863-1292. Also various Bay Area locations.

www.traderjoes.com/home

Joe Gallagher, owner of Joe’s Barbershop, cuts the hair of longtime customer Nik Medrano.

Rick Gerharter

Eye Gotcha offers eye exams and stylish eyewear.

Scott Wazlowski

Alvin Orloff points to the name of his new store.

Courtesy Alvin Orloff

Valencia Cyclery regained the top spot as best bicycle shop. Scott Wazlowski

Scott Wazlowski

t

Besties: Hawaii remains on top in travel, wedding catagories

compiled by Matthew S. Bajko

Now that the pandemic is a fact of life, people have resumed leisure travel and are planning inperson weddings. Below are the top choices in this category.

Best domestic getaway destination Hawaii

Runner-up

Monterey, California

The Aloha State continues to capture the hearts of readers look ing to unwind and rest. With its nu merous outdoor adventure options – from snorkeling in reef-ringed coves to hiking waterfall trails – its cachet as a safe vacation choice has skyrocketed since COVID travel restrictions put in place in 2020 were lifted last March.

While Honolulu on the island of Oahu continues to be a nexus for LGBTQ visitors, nightlife op tions abound throughout the archi pelago of eight major islands. The Hawaiian tourism board maintains an updated list of LGBTQ-friendly venues and community events, such as Maui Pride held the sec ond Saturday of October, at www. gohawaii.com/experiences/lgbtq/ lgbtq-nightlife

The Healer Stones of Kapae mahu exhibition on view in Bishop Museum’s Castle Memorial Build ing has been bringing public at tention to the history of the mahu, the term Native Hawaiians used to refer to individuals of a third gen der and today would be known as transgender or nonbinary.

“There is no written documented evidence that mahu was anything but a normal part of society. We have no evidence prior to the com ing of Christian missionaries of

whom took the greatest issue with mahu and living that truth,” cocurator Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu recently told the Honolulu StarAdvertiser newspaper.

The exhibit is set to close Octo ber 16, and a series of special events is planned for that weekend. For more information, visit the mu seum’s website at www.bishopmu seum.org/kapaemahu/

To learn more about Hawaii tourism options, visit www.gohawaii.com or www.hawaiitourismauthority.org

Best local getaway destination Russian River, California

Runner-up Tahoe, California

This Sonoma County vaca tion hotspot has been a mainstay for LGBTQ locals and visitors for decades. At its heart is Guernev ille, with its LGBTQ-owned and LGBTQ-friendly lodging options and a main street revived in recent years by LGBTQ business owners.

The Rainbow Cattle Company has been a major draw for LGBTQ patrons since it first opened its doors in 1979. Across the street is the tasting room for Equality Vines co-founded by gay civil rights ac tivist Jim Obergefell, the lead plain tiff in the federal lawsuit that estab lished marriage equality in the U.S.

Travelers accompanied by their pets can rent a private residence to stay in via a home-sharing rental site or opt for one of the pet-friend ly rooms at the gay-owned The Woods resort in downtown Guern eville. It markets itself as “a Russian River Gay Hotel with ‘Clothing Op tional’ heated pool.”

For more information, visit gayrussianriver.com

Best honeymoon destination Italy

Runner-up Kaua’i, Hawaii

Couples tying the knot appar ently are in the mood for amore Italian style. This European tourist mecca took top honors as the locale best suited to celebrate the start of a (hopefully long) marriage.

While the country itself doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, it does honor civil unions. Attitudes toward LGBTQ couples are over whelmingly positive among Ital ians, according to public opinion polls.

As the gay travel-loving couple

behind the Nomadic Boys website points out, the legalization of civil unions in 2016 has sparked a grow ing interest in Italy as a wedding and honeymoon destination. They put together a list of their top five picks for LGBTQ couples to con sider when planning a celebration of their nuptials in the country.

Best place to buy rings/jewelry

Tiffany & Co.

Runner-up D&H Sustainable Jewelers

A perennial favorite among en gaged couples to find their perfect wedding bands is Tiffany & Co.

Located at 350 Post Street in San

Francisco’s Union Square shopping district, the 184-year-old company is synonymous with luxury and be loved for its finely-crafted jewelry.

It has long embraced same-sex couples. For Valentine’s Day in 2020, roughly a month before it shuttered its stores due to the CO VID pandemic, the San Francisco location posted to its Instagram account a cartoon by New Yorker cartoonist J.A.K. featuring a man on bended knee proposing to his boyfriend. In his hands is a quint essential blue Tiffany’s ring box.

For more information, visit www.tiffany.com/jewelry-stores/ san-francisco/

Hawaii is the top choice of readers looking for a relaxing getaway.

Cynthia Laird

The Russian River is

destination.

Courtesy Sonomacounty.com

Tiffany & Co.’s familiar blue box is a sign of luxury.

Courtesy Tiffany& Co.

Besties: The Sisters are the faces of

LGBTQ community

compiled by Eric Burkett

Now that COVID is kind of not the big deal it was back in 2020, the Bay Area’s LGBTQ nonprofits and other community organizations are feeling free to do the things the community loves best – serving the public, going to games, throwing big par ties, celebrations, and fundrais ers, and providing opportunities to share time together. Here are a few of our readers’ favorites.

Best LGBTQ Event Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Celebration

Runner-up

San Francisco Pride Parade and Celebration

Some cities have sunrise servic es at Easter, San Francisco has the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s annual celebration in Mission Dolores Park, now in its 43rd year. Regularly drawing thousands of spectators – LGBTQ or straight –the daylong event features every thing from innocent kids’ activi ties to the racy Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary contests. Unsurpris ingly, the event once drew a great deal of condemnation from local Catholic authorities but even they have succumbed – a little bit – to the magic of the Sisters. In 2019, a spokesperson for the Archdio cese of San Francisco told the Bay Area Reporter “nobody is actively contentious or opinionated about the Sisters at this end.”

www.thesisters.org

Best LGBTQ Fundraiser AIDS Walk San Francisco

Runner-up

Gary Virginia and Donna Sachet’s Pride Brunch

Following a 6.25-mile-long trail through Golden Gate Park, AIDS Walk San Francisco raises funds for a wide range of nonprofit or ganizations all over the Bay Area.

This year, after two years of virtual events, the walk was back in per son. The top individual participant raised $51,420 while the top team managed to bring in $117,647.

Since its founding in 1987, AIDS Walk San Francisco has raised more than $90 million, according to its website.

sf.aidswalk.net

Best Health-Related Nonprofit Out of the Closet

Runner-up San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team

In a pricey town like San Fran cisco, thrifting is a great, eco logically sound way to get more stuff, and one place to do that is at Out of the Closet. The thrift store raises funds to support Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s HIV prevention and treatment services. The organiza tion claims that 96 cents of every dollar raised goes toward its ser vices.

Out of the Closet, 1295 Folsom Street, San Francisco. (415) 5887176. outofthecloset.org

Best AIDS Nonprofit San Francisco AIDS Foundation

Runner-up AIDS/LifeCycle

Founded in the depths of the AIDS crisis in 1982, the San Fran cisco AIDS Foundation has be come a fixture of LGBTQ city life. The organization “promotes health, wellness, and social justice for com munities most impacted by HIV, through sexual health and sub stance use services, advocacy, and community partnerships,” accord ing to its website. Thanks in part to its ongoing work, the city has seen an overall decline in HIV transmis sion numbers over the past 10 years. The foundation’s Strut clinic in the Castro offers sexual health services. When the MPX outbreak occurred here in the spring, the foundation quickly stepped up with town hall meetings, and CEO Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., was outspoken in pushing for more vaccines as well as working with local and state officials. www.sfaf.org

Best LGBTQ Nonprofit GLBT Historical Society

Runner-up LYRIC Center for LGBTQ Youth

From fun displays of beefcake bar posters from the 1970s to the powerful exhibit of the suit gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk was wearing when he was assassi nated in 1978, replete with the bul let hole that took his life, the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro provides a powerful glimpse into the history of San Francisco’s LGBTQ history. But the society is more than a museum, as it is also home to the Dr. John P. De Cecco Archives and Special Collections, housing one of the world’s largest collections of materials pertaining to LGBTQ people, in over 1,000 collections of personal papers, orga nizational records, periodicals, oral histories, photographs, audiovisual recordings, ephemera, artifacts and works of art. City and state officials have secured a total of $17 million to help find a permanent LGBTQ

museum for the society, ideally in the Castro. The society’s Reunion gala is coming up October 19.

GLBT Historical Society Museum, 4127 18th Street, San Francisco. (415) 777-5455. (Open Wednesday-Sunday.) GLBT Historical Society Archives, 989 Market Street, lower level, San Francisco. (By appointment only.) www.glbthistory.org

Best LGBTQ Sports League SF Gay Softball League

Runner-up

SF Fog Rugby Club

The San Francisco Gay Softball League is a recreational league committed to providing an organi zation for LGBTQ participants to compete in an environment condu cive to the community, according to its website. And enough people love it that it’s taken the top spot in the Besties again, after winning in 2020 and in prior years. The fall softball season is wrapping up, so if you’re interested, check out the league for next spring.

www.sfgsl.org

Best Bay Area Sports Team Golden State Warriors Runner-up

San Francisco Giants

Basketball at Chase Center is the place to be, and the Golden State Warriors have certainly emerged as among the hottest of teams in the NBA. Following their relocation to San Francisco in 2019, the team found a new fanbase in the city but broke the hearts of thousands of Oaklanders. Nonetheless, they’ve come out as the readers’ favorite among the Bay’s professional sports teams. Of course, winning their seventh NBA title in June probably doesn’t hurt, and the city threw a great parade for the champions.

www.nba.com/warriorst

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s Easter celebration in Mission Dolores Park is a readers’ favorite.

Steven Underhill

AIDS Walk San Francisco has raised millions of dollars over the years.

Rick Gerharter

The Netherlands’ Queen Máxima, in pink dress, toured the GLBT Historical Society Museum during her September 6 visit to San Francisco.

Matthew S. Bajko

Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO, speaks during a Board of Supervisors hearing on the MPX outbreak.

Screenshot

Best Independent Grocery Store Rainbow Grocery Runner-up

Bi-Rite Grocery

Rainbow Grocery, a workerowned co-op, is a regular reader favorite, and two years ago during our last Besties, was sort of short changed as we had dropped this category. No more! People love the selection at Rainbow as well as its commitment to social justice, in cluding Black Lives Matter and LG BTQ rights.

Rainbow Grocery, 1475 Fol som Street, San Francisco. (415) 863-0620. rainbow.coop

Best Gym Fitness-SF

Runner-up

Soul Cycle

Fitness-SF in the Castro is a regular winner in this category. The over 16,000 square foot facility of fers two floors of tools and equip ment to keep a person’s workout fresh and challenging, according to its website. From free weights to cardio, the gym has it all. The gym also offers nationally certified per sonal trainers at an additional cost.

<< Besties Weddings

From page

Fitness-SF Castro, 2301 Market Street, San Francisco, (415) 348-6377. fitnesssf.com/ location/castro/

Best Health Care Provider Kaiser Permanente

Runner-up

UCSF

Kaiser is a new winner this year. The health care provider has long supported the LGBTQ community. Its physicians and staff remain on the frontlines during COVID. Kai ser customizes coverage and care for its patients.

Kaiser Permanente. Locations throughout the Bay Area. kp.org

Best Thrift Store

Community Thrift

Runner-up

Out of the Closet

Community Thrift Store is a repeat winner. The store started in 1982 and is a nonprofit orga nization that works with over 200 Bay Area charities. It accepts donations on behalf of its char ity partners, sells the items in its store, and then disburses the pro ceeds. Community Thrift is an

independent and non-discrimi natory establishment, and when you donate you can pick your fa vorite charity to support, accord ing to its website.

Community Thrift Store, 623 Valencia Street, San Francisco. (415) 861-4910. communitythriftsf.org/

Best Variety Store Cliff’s Variety Runner-up

Ace Hardware

What can we say – Cliff’s in the Castro is a neighborhood insti

tution. It stayed open during the pandemic, becoming a lifeline for many. Its ownership is involved in the neighborhood and the store has many unique items.

“We are so grateful and hon ored for the community’s support,” manager Terry Asten Bennett wrote in a Facebook message. “We look forward to continuing keeping it interesting and having what you need.”

Check it out for the holidays – or any day.

Cliff’s Variety, 479 Castro Street, San Francisco. (415) 2128400. cliffsvariety.comt

Runner-up

Raul Salazar

Northern California native Ste ven Underhill took the top spot in this category this year, having come in second place in 2019. He is a staple at LGBTQ events around the city, with his photos published weekly in the print and online edi tions of the Bay Area Reporter.

Underhill has published several books of his photographic works and contributed to the gay youth publication XY magazine. In ad dition to weddings and events, he also can be hired to take headshots and portraits.

For more information, visit www.stevenunderhill.com

Best wedding reception venue Legion of Honor

Runner-up

de Young Museum

This city-owned fine arts mu seum perches atop San Francisco parkland overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the nautical entrance to the bay. As it notes on its website, it “has long been one of San Francis co’s most popular venues for wed dings, receptions, and a variety of private events.”

Couples not only seek it out for its awe-inspiring views of the city’s skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge, they also fall in love with its neoclassical architecture. It pro vides a one-of-a-kind venue to plan the perfect wedding reception.

For more information, visit legionofhonor.famsf.org/about/ rent-legiont

Best wedding photographer Steven Underhill

Photographer Steven Underhill

Steven Underhill

Cliff’s Variety in the Castro is a neighborhood institution.

Scott Wazlowski

Fitness-SF is the top choice for gyms.

Cynthia Laird

Worker-owned cooperative Rainbow Grocery is a favorite of readers.

Scott Wazlowski

by Eric Burkett

Brett Andrews, CEO of PRC and Baker Places, which provides HIV/AIDS services and workforce development as well as rehabilita tion services, has stepped down from the nonprofit where he first began as executive director in 2003.

The decision, which had appar ently been announced to higher level staff only a few hours before the Bay Area Reporter learned of the news September 21, was made “in partnership and support of the board,” Tasha Henneman, PRC chief of policy and government af fairs, stated in an email.

“There is a comprehensive and long term succession plan in de velopment, and it was solely Brett’s decision to retire and not that of our board,” Henneman continued. “Ef fective today, Brett is serving as CEO emeritus and former COO Chuan Teng is serving as interim CEO.”

Teng, who has been with PRC for 10 years, was promoted only earlier this month to her posi tion as COO. According to infor mation from the organization’s website, Teng has “served as the managing legal director of PRC’s Legal Advocacy Program, where she helped launch its health care legal services practice, then as the chief of programs and confidenti ality officer, then as chief of client services and talent.”

Andrews, a gay man, will remain with PRC for “the next several months to ensure a smooth tran sition,” said Henneman. He is not expected to exit the nonprofit be fore the new year. Andrews was not available for comment although Henneman said both he and board President Brian Schneider would be happy to talk with the media “at an appropriate time.”

Recent financial struggles

Andrews leaves an organiza tion that in recent years has been struggling with financial shortfalls. In 2020, according to IRS filings, PRC reported total revenues of $9,715,674, against total expenses of $10,431,124 resulting in a short fall of $715,450. The organization reported another shortfall in 2019, as well, of $384,105. That followed years of positive balances. In 2020, Andrews’ salary and benefits were listed at $293,230. Six other em ployees’ salaries were cited in the document, ranging from $71,570 to $171,282, excluding benefits.

A separate 2020 990 for Baker Places, but using the same address as PRC, lists a budget of about $9 mil lion, with $12 million in liabilities, re

sulting in a deficit of about $2.9 mil lion. The Baker Places 990 lists five people with salaries over $100,000, including positions such as medical director and clinical director.

Baker Places and PRC merged in 2016, though it is apparently not finished, as the B.A.R. reported earlier this year.

In 2019, PRC moved to its new location at 170 Ninth Street, a 25,000 square foot building con structed in 1934, and requiring “a head-to-toe renovation” according to a news release issued in June of that year. The total budget for the new space was $6 million, the B.A.R. previously reported, but the organization said it had, by that time, raised $5 million, and expect ed to raise $2 million more.

In June, the organization ap proached the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with an 11th-hour emergency funding request that angered some members of the board as they had OK’d a $65 mil lion contract extension – double that of previous years – with Baker Places only one month before. There had been no mention of the organization’s financial concerns at that time, several supervisors said.

Administrators for PRC and Baker Places approached the su pervisors at their June 14 meeting to request $3.2 million in emer gency funding to help them meet expenses, including payroll, and in providing behavioral health and detox services for 215 beds. The programs serve more than 2,000

people per year, according to the San Francisco Department of Pub lic Health.

The supervisors ultimately ap proved $1.25 million in emergency funding June 28.

The money was needed desper ately, Dr. Hillary Kunins, director of DPH’s Behavioral Health Services and Mental Health SF program, told the board. The organization, because of that $3.2 million shortfall, was “at risk of insolvency,” Kunins told the board, according to a video of the supervisors’ meeting. Kunins told the board the agency risked closure.

Following the emergency fund ing, DPH reported in a statement that “[t]he city will retain an inde pendent consultant to evaluate the financial conditions, including the reasons for the Baker Places/PRC fi nancial deficit and identify all steps necessary to support Baker Places/ PRC’s long-term financial stability. Receipt of the full amount in the grants is contingent on Baker Plac es/PRC completing a financial and business plan that the city accepts.”

Requests for comments from DPH and Mayor London Breed were not returned. Gay Supervisors Rafael Mandelman (District 8) and Matt Dorsey (District 6) did not respond to text messages seeking comment. PRC’s headquarters is located in Dorsey’s South of Mar ket district.

PRC assisted 4,400 clients in the 2020-2021 calendar year, through a variety of services rang ing from workforce training and development to mental health and substance use programs, accord ing to its Impact Report for that year. The organization distributed $1,190,942 in emergency funds, as well, to clients with HIV to help pay rent, cover medical expenses, and other needs.t

murder of hundreds of people by lending them your voice

You can help prevent the murder of hundreds of people by lending them your voice

#MahsaAmini

who found her Hijab inadequate.

•Nationwide uprising in Iran after the murder of a 22 year old woman while in custody.

•The government in Iran is blocking internet access to crush the protests.

•Be their voice and demand that the regime be held accountable.

•Mahsa Amini was arrested by the Morality Police who found her Hijab inadequate.

•The government in Iran is blocking internet access to crush the protests.

What is happening?

•Be their voice and demand that the regime be held accountable.

What is happening?

What can we do?

What can we do?

The murder of a 22 year old woman by Iran’s Morality Police while in custody has sparked a nationwide anti-government uprising.

What is happening?

The murder of a 22 year old woman by Iran’s Morality Police while in custody has sparked a nationwide anti-government uprising.

The murder of a 22 year old woman by Iran’s Morality Police while in custody has sparked a nationwide anti-government uprising.

The Morality Police arrested Mahsa Amini to enforce compulsory hijab. She was brutally beaten, fell into a coma, and died of brain injury.

The Morality Police arrested Mahsa Amini to enforce compulsory hijab. She was brutally beaten, fell into a coma, and died of brain injury.

The Morality Police arrested Mahsa Amini to enforce compulsory hijab. She was brutally beaten, fell into a coma, and died of brain injury.

Government forces have been violently suppressing the protests from the outset. They have been indiscriminately firing live bullets at unarmed civilians, killing many and injuring hundreds. The Iranian government has blocked internet access in preparation for an even bloodier crackdown – the last time the government blocked the internet, during the 2019 uprising, they massacred over 1,500 people in the ensuing darkness. Brave Iranians are knowingly risking their lives by protesting in the streets chanting "Women, Life, Freedom".

Be their voice. Contact your representatives and demand the Iranian government be held accountable.

What can we do?

Be their voice. Contact your representatives and demand the Iranian government be held accountable.

Your voice can make a difference. This is why the Iranian government is blocking internet access: so they can slaughter the people hidden from the wider world.

Be their voice. Contact your representatives and demand the Iranian government be held accountable.

Your voice can make a difference. This is why the Iranian government is blocking internet access: so they can slaughter the people hidden from the wider world.

Your voice can make a difference. This is why the Iranian government is blocking internet access: so they can slaughter the people hidden from the wider world.

Government forces have been violently suppressing the protests from the outset. They have been indiscriminately firing live bullets at unarmed civilians, killing many and injuring hundreds. The Iranian government has blocked internet access in preparation for an even bloodier crackdown – the last time the government blocked the internet, during the 2019 uprising, they massacred over 1,500 people in the ensuing darkness. Brave Iranians are knowingly risking their lives by protesting in the streets chanting "Women, Life, Freedom".

To show solidarity with Iranian women, many people around the world are cutting their hair.

To show solidarity with Iranian women, many people around the world are cutting their hair.

Government forces have been violently suppressing the protests from the outset. They have been indiscriminately firing live bullets at unarmed civilians, killing many and injuring hundreds. The Iranian government has blocked internet access in preparation for an even bloodier crackdown – the last time the government blocked the internet, during the 2019 uprising, they massacred over 1,500 people in the ensuing darkness. Brave Iranians are knowingly risking their lives by protesting in the streets chanting "Women, Life, Freedom".

Find out more.

Women, Life, Freedom.

To show solidarity with Iranian women, many people around the world are cutting their hair.

Women, Life, Freedom.

Find out more.

Women, Life, Freedom.

#MahsaAmini

•Nationwide uprising in Iran after the murder of a 22 year old woman who found her Hijab inadequate.

•The government in Iran is blocking internet access to crush the protests. •Be their voice and demand that the regime be held accountable.

Find out more.

You can help prevent the murder of hundreds of people by lending them your voice

#MahsaAmini

Jazzman and graphic artist Tim Lewis dies

by Cynthia Laird

Jazz pianist and graphic artist Tim Lewis died September 12 in San Francisco after a lengthy struggle with several debilitating health conditions, friends announced. He was 65.

In an obituary, friends noted that Mr. Lewis, a gay man, had a depth of love for, and knowledge about, jazz artists, and they said they would miss the delightful sardonic humor he shared so readily and consistently.

“His self-effacing quality belied the strength and depth of his musi cal and artistic accomplishments,” the obituary stated. “Tim was an artist who lived following his pas sions for jazz standards and the Great American Songbook, Ameri can musicals, and mid-century art and design.”

Born March 21, 1957 in Palo Alto, Mr. Lewis grew up in Santa Barbara but left home on the day he turned 18 in 1975, moving to San Francisco where he had lived ever since. While at Lone Moun tain College, he began his graph ics career working for the Lone Mountain Gazette and the Haight Ashbury Voice. He later worked as art director of the Berkeley Barb, but when it folded in 1980, was hired as art director of Specta tor magazine, an offshoot of the Barb’s adult and erotic services ad

Street Fair

From page 1

The Sundance Saloon will have space at the fair for the first time since 2019 with country western dancing, its website noted. Accord ing to the dancing group’s website, it will be located in the parking lot behind the Castro Theatre. It will offer quick beginning lessons throughout the afternoon before the popular Barn Dance at 4 p.m.

There is a suggested donation of $10-$20 for the street fair, the web site stated.

As of August 16, eight days after the email was sent, the merchants group has yet to receive even an acknowledgement from any of the recipients except for Mandelman, said Karraker. Mandelman, on va cation in Provincetown, did not re turn a message seeking comment.

The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District is one of the fair’s sponsors.

“We love the Castro Street Fair,”

section. It had a freewheeling and diverse approach to all expressions of consensual sexualities. After leaving the Spectator he was art director of Drummer magazine.

Mr. Lewis was hired by Win ston Leyland of Gay Sunshine Press to design covers for books in the Straight to Hell and Meat men series, as a 2020 profile in the Bay Area Reporter noted. Mr. Lewis’ musical interests intersected with his freelance graphic work in design projects for KCSM-FM, Pomegranate Press, Concord Re cords, and the late, lamented Josie’s

said Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person who manages the cultural district. “It is definitely a legacy event that deserves to con tinue. It really was at risk of being lost due to COVID.”

Aguirre said the cultural district was delighted the fair is continuing and was pleased with the extra sup port from the city for the event.

The Castro Merchants Associa tion will be supplying volunteers for the event, said CMA co-president Terrance Alan, a gay man, as well as helping to promote the fair. The entire neighborhood will “be lit up with art and activity,” he said, with the monthly Art Mart, held the first Sunday of the month, taking place on Noe Street as well as the fair itself.

“I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again, outside enjoying themselves and getting back to our new normal,” said Alan.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health will be on hand of fering MPX vaccinations, as it did

Cabaret and Juice Joint where he produced posters for a wide array of queer performers, the obituary noted. Most recently, he designed the cover for Marc Huestis’ mem oir, “Impresario of Castro Street: An Intimate Showbiz Memoir.”

In a Facebook message, Huestis said he mourned his friend’s pass ing.

“Tim was a consummate jack-ofall-trades, a true talent in design, music, and snark,” Huestis wrote. “Sometimes creating a cover can be a process fraught with conflict, but with Tim it was a joyful fun process, with his enthusiasm for turning out the best possible de sign fueling the final result. He was a special man and will be missed.”

Graphic design allowed Mr. Lew is to indulge his passion for playing music, which never paid the bills. “If you want to be a jazz musician with a million dollars, it’s easy,” he quipped to writer Michael Flanagan in the 2020 B.A.R. profile. “First, start with two million dollars.”

Musical work

Mr. Lewis began playing piano at age 5, the obituary noted. At age 15, his life changed when he acquired a bunch of 78s and sheet music from a store where he worked. As he told Flanagan, “It included Nat King Cole, Billie Holliday, and Dinah Washington. I wouldn’t be playing piano now if I hadn’t gotten it. I

at last weekend’s Folsom Street Fair.

According to a news release, SFDPH administered 1,419 first and second doses of the Jynneos vaccine in just one day at the Folsom Street Fair on September 25 as part of its ongoing efforts to provide thousands of ad ditional MPX vaccine doses to San Franciscans and visitors attending popular community events over the span of several weeks this fall.

The health department had pre viously expanded vaccine eligibility to out-of-town visitors and that re mains in effect through October 2.

“This successful event took ad vantage of a one-time special allot ment of 10,000 doses that SFDPH received as part of the U.S. De partment of Health and Human Services’ ‘Pilot Program for Addi tional Vaccine Allocation to State and Local Health Departments that Host Large LGBTQ+ Community Events,’’ SFDPH stated of the Fol som fair program. “This federal pilot program provides additional

didn’t know about Black music till then. While friends were listening to the Beatles, I was looking for Ella Fitzgerald records.”

Mr. Lewis served as musical di rector and pianist for Mary Media and the Cassettes, a musical perfor mance subset of the Sisters of Per petual Indulgence. He accompa nied Sisters on the main stage at the International Lesbian & Gay Free dom Day Parade, the Miss Haight Ashbury Contest at Great Ameri can Music Hall, the Castro Street Fair, and other venues, frequently garbed as an angelic altar boy.

He began performing as a caba ret musician in 1985 thanks to his friend and mentor Frank Banks at the Mint. After the bar closed, they would hang out playing music and singing with other patrons. When Banks became ill in the early 1990s, Mr. Lewis was one of his care givers (a service he provided for several other friends, as well) and performed at his memorial on Val entine’s Day, 1993, according to the B.A.R. profile.

After playing at the Mint, he accompanied Mitch Bandanza at Buckley’s and then performed with a jazz quartet for many weeks in the late 1980s at the Blue Lamp on Geary Boulevard.

In June 1991, he performed with vocalist Kelly Houston in the revue “Riffin’ with Mr. Cole: A Tribute to Nat King Cole” (an artist about

vaccines to states and cities holding events that convene large groups of LGBTQI+ individuals.”

In addition to the Folsom Street Fair, SFDPH has held vaccine events with the Rafiki Coalition, San Francisco Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Beaux Night club, and others. To date, more than 4,000 doses from the special federal allotment have been administered, the agency stated.

“This federal allotment enhances our efforts to ensure MPX vaccines are distributed quickly and equitably by bringing vaccines directly to where people are,” stated San Francisco Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip. “We encourage eligible people attending these events to take advantage of the MPX vaccine sites being right there and get their first or second doses. Remember, you need a second dose after 28 days to complete the vaccine series and gain maximum protection against the MPX virus.”

whom Mr. Lewis was passionate), later moving it from Charpe’s to Mason Street Wine Bar through September.

In 1993, he returned to Mason Street with another revue, “Love Songs and Other Nonsense.” He also played at the Phone Booth on South Van Ness in the 1990s and, in 1994, played piano for “Late Nite With Joan Jett Blakk” at Josie’s Cabaret. He played show tunes and accompanied Donna Sachet at the Plush Room for her annual “Songs of the Season” in 2000.

Venues where Mr. Lewis played in the early 2000s included a stint for over a year at the original Lush Lounge piano bar on Post Street and at Mayes Oyster House on Polk. Later, he performed two nights a week for three and half years at Caffe Trieste on Market, sometimes accompanied by bass ist Kaeli Earle, and also played with the Donovan Plant Band at Red Devil Lounge on Polk Street.

In recent years, Mr. Lewis’ razor sharp humor, pop culture interests, and encyclopedic musical knowl edge came together on Facebook where he delighted in hosting sev eral pages. “Timmy’s Jazz Heaven” was one, “Mommie’s Memes” de voted to Joan Crawford “Mommie Dearest” memes was another, and there was a “Tim Lewis Design” page, in addition to his “Tee Willik ers” general interest home page.t

The MPX outbreak began in the Bay Area in May and is primarily affecting men who have sex with men. San Francisco has reported 797 cases as of September 25, but it has stayed at that number since September 19. The city is generally seeing between one and four cases every several days, according to the health department’s tracker. The city has not seen more than 10 new cases a day since August 24.

The street fair was started by the gay late supervisor Harvey Milk in 1974. Now a nonprofit organiza tion, funds raised by the fair go to support charitable causes impor tant to the Castro community as well as to pay for maintenance of the rainbow flag that flies over the intersection at Castro and Market streets, the website noted.t

The Castro Street Fair takes place October 2 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit https://castrostreetfair.org/

FIREPLACE

Jazz pianist and graphic artist Tim Lewis

Courtesy ReverbNation

All renderings,

City Ventures.

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walkways, driveways or landscaping. Walls, windows, porches and decks vary per elevation and lot location. In a continuing effort to meet consumer Square footages shown are approximate. *Broker/agent must accompany and register their client(s) with the onsite sales team on their first visit to rights reserved. DRE LIC # 01979736.

“I was hoping the world would be a much better place for the LGBT community but it’s not,” Guerrero told the Bay Area Re porter. “It’s the world we live in, and it starts at home. Everyone de serves equality across the board.”

Guerrero’s daughter, Gwen Araujo, was 17 years old when, in 2002, she went to a house party in the East Bay city of Newark where she was beaten, tortured, and strangled by a group of young men – two of whom she reportedly had sex with – after they discovered she had male anatomy.

Guerrero said that at the time of the murder, “I had everything – a car, family, and 401K – and in one night my world forever changed and never has been the same.”

Beset by financial and health is sues, Guerrero now lives in Tracy with one of her sons. She has a Go FundMe (https://bit.ly/3CgbVmS) to help raise money for her ex penses, saying that at 58 and hav ing been outside of the workforce for so long, prospective employers often don’t get back to her.

“This is not something I had planned for my life,” Guerrero said. “The wound is still fresh in my heart and soul, and it’s never going to heal.”

Defendants Michael Magidson and Jose Merel claimed a “gay pan ic” defense but were convicted of second-degree murder in a retrial in 2005. The first trial in 2004 had ended in a mistrial after the jurors were unable to arrive at a unani mous decision that it’d been firstdegree murder.

Defendant Jason Cazares ne gotiated a plea deal with pros ecutors at the end of his second mistrial and pleaded no contest to manslaughter in late 2005. In January 2006, all three men were sentenced: Magidson and Merel received the mandatory sentences of 15 years-to-life, while Cazares, under his plea agreement, re ceived six years.

A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, pleaded guilty to voluntary man slaughter in 2003 and testified against the other three defendants. He was later sentenced to 11 years.

In 2019, Magidson, the last of Araujo’s killers who is still in prison, was denied parole, as the

B.A.R. reported. Guerrero wrote to the B.A.R. at the time that Magid son for the first time said that he was sorry, though she didn’t be lieve it was sincere. (Guerrero was unable to personally attend the hearing, but her sister did.) Mag idson is expected to have another parole hearing in 2024.

Trials recalled Gwen Smith, a trans woman who writes the Transmissions column for the B.A.R. and is the founder of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, has strong rec ollections of the trials.

“One of the things about work ing in anti-trans violence is that – for better or worse – you be gin to anticipate murders,” Smith stated. “They happen with a very regular frequency and, when you don’t hear about one, you start to get a touch, well, not antsy. It’s not that you want one to happen. It’s that you are on alert, knowing it’s coming.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 50 trans people were killed in 2021, a record num ber. So far this year, the national LGBTQ rights organization states on its website, at least 30 trans people have been killed.

Coverage of Araujo’s murder and the trials highlighted the is sue of transgender crime victims being deadnamed in the media and in court. At the first trial, both defense and prosecuting at torneys referred to Araujo by her birth name instead of her chosen name.

“I recall the fight to get her name recognized. In the earliest days of coverage, most outlets used her birth name, relegating her chosen name to a side note,” Smith stated. “Eventually, some time into the trials, the family went so far as to petition the courts for a post humous name change, just to do their best to let people know that her name was Gwen Amber Rose Araujo – and nothing else.”

An Alameda County court commissioner granted that re quest on June 23, 2004.

Smith recalled that she will never forget the day of Araujo’s funeral, including “the crowd of Newark area locals who came to honor her and hold space in case the Westboro Baptist kept true to their promise to protest.”

Back then, homophobe Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church followers regularly at tended funerals of LGBTQ peo ple, disturbing mourners with their anti-LGBTQ placards.

“They did not show,” Smith continued. “I remember the Angel Action, a group of people dressed in angel costumes, with huge wings to serve as drapes, and pre vent protesters from being seen by the family. Oh, and I remem ber the media, which became a regular participant. I suppose, as a part of the newspaper, that would include me.”

Civic remembrance planned

Guerrero will be appearing at a civic remembrance and call to ac tion at the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library main branch at 100 Larkin Street in the Civic Center on Tuesday, October 4, from 4 to 6 p.m., said gay former District 8 supervisor and current BART board member Bevan Dufty.

Tuesday’s event, Dufty said, will consist of two panels: one will be on transgender rights, which are currently experiencing significant pushback in state legislatures across the country and will be moderated by lesbian B.A.R. news editor Cyn thia Laird. The panel will feature Kris Hayashi, a trans man who is the executive director of the Trans gender Law Center; Asaf Orr, a se nior staff attorney with NCLR and director of its Transgender Youth

Shannon Minter, a trans man who is legal director of NCLR, stated to the B.A.R., “For many transgender advocates, the horror of Gwen’s death and the suffering of her mother, Sylvia Guerrero, have served as constant reminders of the horrific violence directed at transgender women and girls and the urgency of stopping it.”

He added, “Twenty years lat er, the anguish caused by Gwen Araujo’s brutal murder has not di minished. Gwen was an innocent teenager struggling to be herself at a time when transgender youth had virtually no resources or sup port. She was the victim of an un thinkably vicious attack, and no justice in her case was ever done.”

Minter noted that changes have occurred since Araujo’s murder.

“Gwen’s death has spurred many changes, both in California and other states, but we are still far from a world in which trans gender children are safe, loved, supported, and protected,” Minter stated. “It is enraging that we will never know what Gwen might have accomplished in her life, and that she never had a chance to grow up and have a family of her own. She will not be forgotten, and those of us who remember her death will never stop working to create the safety she deserved and never had.”

For one thing, gay/trans panic defenses such as those used by

Araujo’s killers are now illegal in California. A law was passed in 2014 with the help of Guerrero.

The second panel will be moder ated by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Vicky Kolakowski, a trans woman and the wife of Laird, and will feature youth, such as from LYRIC in the Castro and San Francisco public schools, among other partners. Victoria Castro, program manager for El/La Para TransLatinas, will also be on the panel.

This panel will “help young peo ple know Gwen’s story” and will help the older people “hear what will make them [trans youth] feel safe,” Dufty, a parent of a teen him self, explained.

“Vicky was very up for it,” Dufty said. “For young people to see this trailblazing jurist will be great at facilitating discussion.”

Laird and Dufty both mentioned how the B.A.R. shined a spotlight on the brutal murder.

“It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since the brutal killing of Gwen Araujo. Her death, in the East Bay city of Newark, hit close to home for many,” Laird stated in an email. “The Bay Area Reporter covered the two trials and other aspects of the case over the years and yet the violence against trans people, particularly trans women of color, continues. I hope that next week’s panel can look at some of the reasons for this, as well as celebrate the courage that Gwen had as a teen to live authentically.”

Said Dufty: “I think part of the story is the impact of the Bay Area Reporter. I felt the advocacy from B.A.R. pushed this issue, gave it momentum and got the main stream press to carry it.”

‘Heartbreaking’

During Araujo’s life, Guerrero had accepted her daughter’s gen der identity. She said she doesn’t understand parents who won’t ac cept their children.

“It’s heartbreaking to think how you can carry a child for nine months and give birth, then they come to them one day, trusting them, and they throw them out like yesterday’s garbage,” Guerrero said. “It’s sickening.

“This was a baby God has given me. They are only loaned to us from God. … She had nothing but love from me,” added Guerrero.t

From page 1

On October 11, which also hap pens to be National Coming Out Day, the José Sarria Pop-Up Mu seum will open to the public inside Palm Springs’ historic Welwood Murray Memorial Library. It is set to close December 14, three days after a gala 100th Jubilee celebration for Sarria is to be held at the library Sunday, December 11.

The exact timing and date for when Sarria’s star will be unveiled, as well as its location on the walk, have yet to be finalized. Gene Drake, who founded in 2016 the José Sarria Foundation, told the Bay Area Reporter he expects it will be sometime during the second full week of December.

“I knew I wanted to do some thing for José’s 100th birthday, and so it was sort of one of those things where I was walking down the street and saw the star for Marilyn Monroe. I knew José loved Marilyn Monroe, so I said, ‘Hey, I need to get José in this!’” Drake, who chairs the foundation, told the B.A.R.

While the plans for the muse um show and birthday party had been previously announced, this is the first time that Drake has pub licly disclosed that he was able to get Sarria inducted into the Walk of Stars. He had initiated doing so last year and received notice

September 12 that the selection committee had approved the star nomination for Sarria.

“I hope that he would be thrilled because, you know, one of his great est worries was people were going to forget him,” said Drake, 66, who with his husband splits part of the year living in Palm Springs and the rest residing in Spokane, Washing ton. “I made that one of my pri mary goals with the foundation, to make sure people trip over him literally everywhere.”

Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Mid dleton, a transgender woman, in tends to be at the opening of the museum exhibit and hopes to pre side over the star unveiling as may or. Her mayoral term will end on December 15, and she will return to her City Council seat.

“I am absolutely thrilled that we are going to induct José into the Palm Springs Walk of Stars,” Middleton told the B.A.R. “He is a legend across California, if not ev erywhere, but we in Palm Springs adore all of the work he did for our community.”

According to the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce, which oversees the Walk of Stars, at least three other drag queens have been honored with a star. Alan “Alfie” Pettit, who performed as Arial Trampway, received one in 2016.

James Haake, who performs as Gypsy, received one in 2015. Brian

Wanzek, known as Bella da Ball, was honored in 2013.

Sarria, who died in 2013 at the age of 90, was born in San Fran cisco though there is some discrep ancy on his actual birthdate. He used the date December 12, 1922 and that is what is inscribed on his headstone at his burial plot.

But some records indicate Sarria was born on December 13, while several birth certificates that the foundation has in its collection have him being born a year later. The Online Archive of California says Sarria was born December 12, 1923 at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco.

Drake told the B.A.R. he is going by the date used on Sarria’s head stone, as it was what Sarria used on his medical paperwork, for the ba sis of celebrating his 100th birthday this December. Thus, he has been pressing to have the star unveiling ceremony be held on December 12.

Famous for performing in drag

What is without dispute is that Sarria became famous in the 1950s performing in drag at the North Beach gay hangout the Black Cat Cafe. A veteran and prominent Latino leader, he made history in 1961 with his unsuccessful bid for a San Francisco Board of Supervisors seat. It marked the first time an out gay person had sought elected of

fice in the U.S.

In 1965, Sarria founded the Impe rial Court System in San Francisco, having proclaimed himself Em press I of San Francisco. It has since crowned scores of empresses, em perors, and other drag royalty while raising funds for charitable causes.

The court continues to be a major LGBTQ philanthropic group with chapters throughout North America.

For years LGBTQ leaders have called for Sarria to be inducted into the California Hall of Fame and, several years ago, launched an effort to see him featured on a U.S. postal stamp.

Sarria had lived in Cathedral City, another LGBTQ enclave near Palm Springs, from 2000 to 2010, noted Drake. Thus, he is deserving of be ing recognized with a star, Drake told the B.A.R. during a September 26 phone interview as he was driv ing on Interstate 5 near Fresno en route to his home in Palm Springs.

The pop-up museum will feature Sarria’s personal items, costumes, and memorabilia from his super visorial campaign. It will also have a large focus on the imperial court and its history.

“My SUV is full of items,” Drake said, that are to be installed in the coming days as part of the museum exhibit.

It will be accessible for free seven days a week during the library’s normal operating hours. Volun teers should be on hand daily from

1 to 5 p.m., Drake said, to help an swer attendees’ questions.

Three films will also be screened on a rotating basis throughout the duration of the pop-up museum. One is director Jethro Patalinghug’s 2018 documentary “50 Years of Fabulous” about the imperial coun cil’s history.

Another is the 2016 documen tary “Nelly Queen: The Life and Times of José Sarria.” The third is the 2020 documentary “Queen of the Capital,” about a Washington, D.C. drag queen that features Sar ria and the court system.

“I am very excited. If I died on December 16, I would die a hap py man,” joked Drake, who was crowned Founder Emperor 1 of the Imperial Court of the Alamo Em pire in San Antonio, Texas.

The city of Palm Springs is do nating the space for the museum exhibit, while the Sarria foundation needs to raise $25,000 to cover the various expenses related to it and the birthday events planned for December. The International Court Council and St John’s Community Health each donated $5,000, while other donors have contributed smaller amounts so that roughly $15,000 has been raised to date.

For more information about the exhibit, birthday celebration in De cember, and to make a donation, visit https://josesarria.org/josesarria-pop-up-museum/t

Project; and attorney Jennifer Alt man.

José Sarria star

Sylvia Guerrero, the mother of Gwen Araujo, spoke outside Alameda County Superior Court in 2006 following the sentencing of the defendants in the case. Attorney Gloria Allred, who worked with Guerrero, is in the background.

Jane Philomen Cleland

The building will have residen tial interior amenity spaces and a terrace on the second floor. A near ly 1,900 square foot outdoor space would front Duboce Avenue, while the main lobby would be accessed from Market Street.

Mercy will oversee construc tion of the housing units and pro vide property management for the building. Openhouse will provide services and programming to the tenants. Representatives for either agency did not immediately re spond to the B.A.R.’s request for comment Thursday.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Ra

From page 4

in which video footage proved that the suspect did not commit the crime they were accused of com mitting. Generally, it comes down to the DA’s office having evidence necessary to prove a case to a jury, she said. “Human perception isn’t always accurate,” she noted.

On the issue of drug dealing, Jenkins is more interested in pros ecuting drug dealers rather than drug users. “Drug dealers who are repeat offenders/heavily in volved with fentanyl can now be subjected to pre-trial detention to keep them off our streets,” she wrote in her endorsement ques tionnaire. They can also face sen tencing enhancements for dealing within 1,000 feet of a school, and those caught with more than five grams will no longer be redirected to collaborative courts where they can avoid conviction, she stated.

“My office has revoked 30 plea deals given to drug dealers under my predecessor,” she wrote. But Jenkins is also aware of the issues drug addicts face; she said she is supportive of a supervised con

fael Mandelman, who represents the upper Market Street area, worked with Mayor London Breed’s administration on acquir ing the parcel from the union. He told the B.A.R. that the proposed building “is exciting” and its massing and height “appropriate” for the location.

“I think there is a huge need for this kind of housing, as we have seen both of the two prior Open house buildings have had thou sands of applicants for the spots that have opened up there. So I think we need this building and we need 10 more,” he said.

While the public benefits of the proposed building and its units “is clear,” said Mandelman, he ac

sumption pilot program. Gover nor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed such sites in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles, but city officials con tinue to explore options.

In short, Jenkins has pledged to reform some of the policies imple mented by Boudin that many resi dents and small business owners believe have negatively impacted the quality of life in the city. She hopes for a better working relation ship with the San Francisco Police Department – she told us she’s met with Chief William Scott or his command staff several times and has begun visiting neighborhood police stations to meet rank and file officers.

Overall, Jenkins impressed us. Some critics have said she’s a pup pet of the mayor, which Jenkins flatly denies. While the mayor’s of fice did provide a staff member for her first few days, that ended long ago, she said. “I’m always indepen dent,” she said. No one, she said, has tried to dictate to her how she should do her job. After the lengthy effort to recall Boudin (which we didn’t support), we’re endorsing Jenkins for election.

knowledged its size is likely to draw some opposition.

“I think this is a site that can handle some height and can handle density. I think it is appropriate,” said Mandelman. “Maybe there will be some questions about the de sign, which is fine. In terms of the overall size and number of units, I think what the mayor’s office is aiming for here is good, and I have been supportive of it.”

Paulett Taggart Architects is the lead architect for the project and has engaged Y.A. Studio to assist with the designs. The building is slated to be 159-feet tall and have 141,630 total square feet with no parking for cars but space set aside for 23 bicycles.

Mano Raju for public defender

San Francisco Public Defender

Mano Raju is up for reelection, and we endorse him for another term. We think the office under his leadership has continued its often excellent representation of defendants who cannot afford legal counsel.

During a recent Zoom meet ing, Raju talked about one of his big concerns: the way San Fran cisco courts are currently operat ing. While courtrooms are open after having been shut down dur ing the initial COVID pandemic, Raju said the problem is that the master calendar is moved and cli ents don’t know when their trial will start, known as a “hard last day.” Oftentimes, on the eve of a trial, defendants may get a better plea deal from prosecutors, Raju said, but since there isn’t a set date, the public defender’s office can’t leverage that for the benefit of its clients.

Raju said the city’s criminal jus tice system has changed under new DA Jenkins, and from his perspec tive, he sees tougher language com ing out of the DA’s office and hear

Writing about the plans for the SF YIMBY website, Andrew Nelson noted that the proposed building “would stand out in the neighborhood, standing six floors higher than the adjacent 1998 Market Street, built between 2012-2014 with design by Arqui tectonica. The proposal is not shy about its height, with a grid pat tern emphasizing its verticality, culminating with a dramatic flat iron edge.”

Eric D. Shaw, a gay man who is director of the mayoral housing of fice, had told the B.A.R. last year that the city would cover the cost for designing the building and en gaging with the community on the architectural plans, in addition to

providing a development loan be tween $10 and $30 million. A third of the financing would come from investors, said Shaw, while another third would come from the state.

Mandelman told the B.A.R. he has not been apprised of the time line for the project receiving city approvals or when construction would begin. He said once it is ap proved then the project sponsors can seek state funding for it.

“I think that, I hope, this project will be competitive for state fund ing because the need is huge,” he said. “They still need to put the fi nancing together and need to apply for tax credits for this project. That will probably drive the timing more than anything else.”t

Raju’s office is involved with, like his End the Cycle initiative that has case managers meet with clients soon after they are arrested so that they can access appropriate ser vices; the Freedom Project, which challenges excessive sentences and wrongful convictions; and the In tegrity Unit to collect and make ac cessible public records about police officers to help curb police, pros ecutorial, and judicial misconduct.

Raju also talked about the office’s Clean Slate program, which has tripled its capacity and provides a simple and accessible way to “clean up” prior criminal records.

“While I support the author’s ef forts to reduce STDs and reinfec tions in California, SB 1234 would expand Family PACT services beyond the federal definition of family planning thereby creating a state-only program that creates significant ongoing General Fund cost pressure not accounted for in the budget,” wrote Newsom.

An analysis of the proposed bill for state lawmakers noted its cost was unknown but likely would require “possibly tens of millions of dollars for increased utilization of services related to the preven tion and treatment of STDs.” It added that should SB 1234 result in the number of services provid

Legals>>

NOTICE OF CITATION FOR FREEDOM FROM PARENTAL CUSTODY AND CONTROL OF SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO: CASE NUMBER 22AD000410N

In the matter of NEVAEH PRESLEY MCLEMORE, date of birth 10/15/2017, a minor, to STEPHEN KOPERSKI: You are ordered to appear in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, 325 South Melrose Dr., Vista, CA 92081, in Depart ment N-23 on November 17, 2022, at 8:30am, to show cause, why NEVAEH PRESLEY MCLEMORE should not be declared free from parental custody and control for the purpose of placement for adop tion as requested in the petition. This hearing will be conducted by video or telephone through the North County Division 325 S. Melrose Drive Vista. CA 92081. IMPORTANT: STEPHEN KOPERSKI, please call the court promptly for instructions on how to attend this hearing. (760) 201-8720 Monday-Friday 8:30am-11:30am PST. At the hearing, the judge will read the petition and, if requested, will explain the effect of the granting of the petition, any term or allegation contained therein and the nature of the proceeding, its procedures and possible consequences, and may continue the matter for not more than 30 days for the appointment of counsel or to give counsel time to prepare. The court may appoint counsel to represent the minor whether or not the minor is able to afford counsel. If any parent appears and is unable to afford counsel, the court shall appoint counsel to represent each parent who appears unless such representation is knowingly and intelligently waived. Someone over the age of 18not the petitioner - must serve the other party with all the forms and complete a proof of service form, such as Proof of Service (JC Form #FL-330 or JC Form #FL-335), telling when and how the other party was

ed in the Family PACT program increasing by 10% then the cost would increase by approximately $37 million, which would require $28 million in federal funds and $9 million from the state’s general fund.

In a number of his veto mes sages this month, Newsom has re peated his stance that because the Golden State is “facing lower-thanexpected revenues over the first few months of this fiscal year, it is im portant to remain disciplined when it comes to spending, particularly spending that is ongoing.”

Newsom has added that his chief focus is on “existing obliga tions and priorities, including ed ucation, health care, public safety and safety-net programs.”

With bills passed this session

totaling $20 billion in one-time spending commitments and more than $10 billion in ongoing com mitments not accounted for in the state budget, Newsom has argued that “bills with significant fis cal impact, such as this measure, should be considered and ac counted for as part of the annual budget process.”

It was the same reasoning New som used to explain why he vetoed last Monday Assembly Bill 2663 by Assemblymember James C. Ra mos (D-Highland). The bill would have instructed the state Depart ment of Social Services to launch a five-year pilot project called the Youth Acceptance Project in coun ties that volunteered to sign up for it. The state agency would have en tered into a contract with the non

ing talk of adding prior strikes in some cases. But his office has long operated on the principle of “leave no motion unfiled,” he noted, and he has invested in paralegals and other support staff, including social workers and counselors, to achieve better outcomes for his clients.

There are also other efforts that

profit Family Builders by Adop tion to provide therapeutic-style support and intervention services to LGBTQ+ youth who receive, or are at risk of receiving, child wel fare services.

There are nine other LGBTQrelated bills still before Newsom to either sign into law or veto by the deadline to do so this Friday, Sep tember 30. They range from add ing protections for transgender and LGBTQ incarcerated youth to assisting LGBTQ foster families and trans employees and profes sors at the state’s community col leges and public universities.

Newsom in recent weeks has signed two LGBTQ-related bills into law. AB 2873, authored by As semblymember Reggie Jones-Saw yer (D-Los Angeles), requires ap

We asked Raju about staff morale in the office, as that’s an issue his opponent is campaigning on. With 240 people in the public defender’s office, Raju said he has invested in training and in promoting candi dates to management positions. “I’ve never seen morale so good,” he told us.

Overall, Raju has run an effective office that is a critical part of the city’s criminal justice system. He has the experience and enthusiasm we need when it comes to provid ing legal representation for those who cannot afford it.t

plicants of the state’s low-income housing tax credit programs, as well as any of their subsidiaries and affiliates, to annually submit a report to the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee on how they plan to increase procurement from LGBTQ business enterprises and those owned by women, mi norities and disabled veterans.

AB 325, authored by Assembly member Jacqui Irwin (D-Thou sand Oaks), will assist LGBTQ veterans discharged under the military’s homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. It establishes the Veteran’s Military Discharge Upgrade Grant program to help fund service providers that will educate veterans about the dis charge upgrade process and assist eligible veterans to apply.t

FILE A-0398136

served and file that with the court. If you wish to seek the advice of an attorney in this matter, you should do so promptly so that your pleading, if any, may be filed on time. Dated 08/26/2022, Kelly C. Mok, Judge of the Superior Court.

ATTORNEYS: MARK E. GOLDMAN (CA SBN 193207) & AMBER C. CARLSON (CA SBN 323964), 21800 OXNARD ST #790, WOODLAND HILLS, CA 91367; (818) 789-1012; markg@adopthelp.com; amberc@adopthelp.com.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22557390

In the matter of the application of ZAID SULIMAN SAMMOUR TASHMAN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ZAID SULIMAN SAMMOUR TASHMAN is requesting that the name ZAID SULIMAN SAMMOUR TASHMAN be changed to ZAID TASHMAN. 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 27th of OCTOBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-22-557394

In the matter of the application of NICOLE MARLO ROSS-ZEHNDER, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from

said application that petitioner NICOLE MARLO ROSS-ZEHNDER is requesting that the name NICOLE MARLO ROSS-ZEHNDER be changed to NICOLE MARLO RABHAN. 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 18th of OCTOBER 2022 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398121

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OMEGA ELECTRIC GROUP, 1367 THOMAS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RONY JESUS PEREZ VELASQUEZ. 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 08/31/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JOSE’S HAULING & HOME IMPROVEMENT SERVICES, 126 PRENTISS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSE M. DEL CID. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/21/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/19/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0398132

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEALTHY HABESHA PRODUCTS, 696 GUERRERO ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YONAS ANDEMARIAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/24/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/02/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398125

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OPTIMAL HEALTH SAN FRANCISCO, 22 BATTERY ST #918, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHADY F. WONSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/29/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/01/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0398095

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEBI NO AATO, 2338 18TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RACHEL MUQATTASH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/12/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/29/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GOLDEN GATE DONUTS, 6 6TH ST, SAN FRAN CISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VANNARA OUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/02/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/02/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0397959

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BUZZ LANDSCAPE, 601 VAN NESS AVE #702, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID BUZZELL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/15/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/15/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

FILE A-0397941

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GAO VIET KITCHEN & BAR, 1900-1906 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HOME COOKING SM888 INC (CA). The registrant(s) com menced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/10/22. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/11/22.

SEP 08, 15, 22, 29, 2022

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0397976

San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju

Courtesy Mano Raju

by Michael Flanagan

This year the Besties are even more of a celebration than usual, because this year, after our (ahem) unexpected pause, our nightspots gave us the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, and to celebrate a community reborn after far too many remote events. It’s our chance to say, “We’re back and we’re fierce, baby!”

So go revisit your old favorites and say “Con gratulations!” and (hopefully) find some new fa vorites in this astounding list of places where fun is always on the menu. And when you finish with the winners, you can check out the runner-ups and see if you agree with our readers.

Best Nightclub, Best Cabaret Venue, Best Soma Bar Oasis

Runners-up, Best Nightclub: El Rio, 1015 Folsom Runners-up, Best Cabaret Venue: Martuni’s, Asia SF Runners-up, Best SoMa Bar: Powerhouse, Eagle

As it has done in the past Oasis proves its worth again as the winner in multiple categories for the Besties. This year’s triple winner is called the best nightclub, best SoMa bar and best cabaret venue

by our readers. Oasis is an ongoing success story that opened its doors to us this year and made us feel safe and welcome in the “year of reopening.”

When the Cockettes celebrated their 50th-ish celebration of “Eternal Emissions” this year with new and old stars alike, it’s no surprise that the venue that housed the event was the Oasis. It is this sort of dedication to live events that makes

It’s

by Jim Gladstone

time to get back out there and enjoy the communal experience of the arts in person.

There is plenty in the pipeline from our read ers’ local favorites in both the visual and perform ing arts. Check our weekly listings online in the Bay Area Reporter, make your way to the venues our community loves and dive into our impres sive local talent pool.

Best Theatre Company American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.)

Runners up: New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC), Left Coast Theatre

As this newspaper’s theatre critic, I commend our readers for submitting the names of their longtime favorites, only one of which, New Con servatory Theatre Center, has been able to mount even a single full season of shows in the past two years. Please help our local companies get back on their feet and up to full strength. The current productions at A.C.T. and NCTC (“Passengers” and “Aunt Jack”) are both upbeat entertainments that will make you happy to be back in the seats. Left Coast, meanwhile, recently lost its longtime home with the closure of the Exit Theatre and is seeking $5000 in donations to help fund produc tions in the year ahead (www.lctc-sf.org). www. act-sf.com

“Passengers” currently playing at the Toni Rembe Theater (formerly The Geary)

Curtain

arts opening

Kevin Berne

Nikki Jizz (Best Drag Queen), host of Reparations (Best Drag Show), at the multiple Bestie-winning Oasis, in a photo by Gooch (Best Nightlife Photographer).

Besties Nightlife

From page

the venue the go-to place for cabaret in the city.

Programs like Princess, the drag show and dance party, with themed parties on Broadway, Marvel vs. DC and Emo Night have been drawing in the crowds, as have burlesque pro grams like Bizarre Stripper Burlesque and Baloney’s all-male burlesque. And they haven’t left behind those closet performers in the community, either. Sing Out Louise, the piano bar and open mic night, have given those who desire the spotlight their own space on the stage as well.

Add to the mix the fact that in March 2021 it didn’t look good for the club and there was the Oasis tele thon to bring back attention, crowds and money to the bar and you can see what a spectacular success this year has been. Our readers concur: Well done, Oasis! www.sfoasis.com

Best Castro Bar

Best Drag Brunch

Beaux

Runners-up, Best Castro Bar: Twin Peaks, 440 Runners-up, Best Drag Brunch: The Port Bar (Oakland), Jolene’s

Beaux has been packing in our wellsatisfied readers for the past year with events like Shangra-La’s Tea Dance, Panda Black and White Ball, Gaymers Night and Pool Party. Club Papi brings its own brand of sweetness to the bar with Pan Dulce and its gogo boys, drag shows, DJs, music and party atmo sphere. And of special note is Satur day and Sunday’s Drag Brunch, which happens twice each day (at 12:30pm and 2:30pm) and has featured events like Bobby Friday’s Pop-Up Brunch, Mahlae’s Booger Down Jamboree, Bionka’s Brunch, and on second Sun days, Babes who Brunch. Our readers thank you with their votes for keeping the Castro lively. www.beauxsf.com

Best East Bay Bar

White Horse

Runners-up: Que Rico, 1220

The White Horse returns again as our reader’s favorite East Bay bar, and why would it not? A venerable institu tion which has been serving the com munity since well before Stonewall, it has done a wonderful job of keeping it fresh while still staying a cozy spot for the community.

With events like the Triple D Dance Party (with drinks, DJs and dancing) every Saturday night, Ethereal Doll house goth dance party and creep show on fourth Sundays, Karaoke nights weekly and drag events like Dollz hosted by Ava LaShay, the night time is the right time for fun in the East Bay. And if you stop by during the day you can catch a game at the bar or cozy up around the fireplace with friends. I’ve never been there when I didn’t meet friendly people and have fun conversations and our readers agree. www.whitehorsebar.com

Best South Bay Bar Splash

Runners-up: Renegades, Mac’s Club

Splash is the winner of this new cat egory in the Besties. The bar describes itself as the South Bay’s premiere gay nightclub and has two levels for danc ing, a rooftop smoking lounge more than 20 video screens. Clearly our readers feel it is the place to have fun in the South Bay.

The bar features a karaoke night every Tuesday; Wednesday is Latin Night. Splash is the home to Club Papi in San Jose and features the Fridays are a Drag show (on Fridays, duh) and the Wet and Wild Drag Show on Sundays hosted by Aurora Forte. Well done to the first winner of our South Bay Bes tie and welcome. www.splashsj.com

Best Beer Menu Pilsner Inn

Runners-up: Eagle, 440 Pilsner Inn is the winner of the best beer menu again this year. The bar is a repeated winner in this category. When you visit the bar, it’s obvious why. Of the eighteen handles on tap when I visited were many delicious choices, including KSA (a Kölsch from San Francisco’s Fort Point Beer Co.), Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA, Franziskaner Weissbier, Moose Drool (a Brown Ale from Big Sky Brewing), Duchesse de Bourgogne (a Flanders Red Ale with its unique nun-shaped taps – no doubt a favorite of fans of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence!), Cinq Cents from Chimay, Blue Moon Belgian White as well as standards like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Guinness. Clearly our readers know their beers. I tried the Coconut Hiwa Porter, and I can testify that it was delicious.

One of the things that draws in our readers to the Pilsner (aside from the beer) is the warm neighborhood feel of the bar with its large outdoor pa tio area with its beautiful plants. And there is an active pool game there whenever I’ve visited. It’s a warm, friendly neighborhood bar. Well done again, Pilsner. www.pilsnerinn.com

Best Cocktail Menu Martuni’s

Runners-up: Blackbird, Last Call

Martuni’s is back on top of its cock tail game, regaining the crown from last time’s winner Port Bar. Martuni’s has been the go-to spot in the Hayes Valley neighborhood for cocktails for years. It’s great to see them again get the recognition they well deserve. While the shutdown was happening, I admit to stopping by their to-go shop at the door and getting a hot toddy or two, so they were truly missed.

Martuni’s is, of course, well known for their martinis (make mine dirty), but they also feature sidecars, met ropolitans and Blue Hawaiians. The have wonderful lemon drops (world famous, according to the menu) and feature a Cosmopolitan collection (name your fruit-flavored poison). For those with a sweet tooth, they have watermelon martinis, sour apple mar

tini, peach fuzz (with peach vodka), cherry blossom (black cherry rum) and a Creamcicle. www.facebook. com/martunissf

Best Drag Show Reparations @ Oasis

Runners-up: Princess at Oasis, Beaux

Reparations! an All-Black Drag Show began on Juneteenth 2020 in re sponse to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the subse quent up swelling of uprisings around

the country to protest the continued loss of life of Black people at the hands of police. For the first year and a half of Reparations’ existence it was an internet phenomenon on the Stud’s Twitch channel and drew audiences from around the world. Beginning in July 2021 the show moved to Oasis, where it has been wowing audiences ever since.

Reflecting both the political and entertainment of the project Nicki Jizz told KQED in June 2021, “This is not just a fad. This is not just a sum mer thing. This is a forever thing. We need to support Black arts every day,”

and “I’m excited for the future of Black queer nightlife. I’m excited to bring performers from out of town and cele brate ones from the Bay Area and give them a place to shine that isn’t just a Beyoncé or Nicki Minaj night at other clubs.” www.sfoasis.com/reparations

Best Drag Queen Nicki Jizz

Runners-up:

Frida, Juanita MORE!

Between hosting Janelle Monáe tribute nights at Oasis, appearing as a manifestation of Harriet Tubman in the video “You Good? Black Mental Health in the Age of COVID” and be ing the moving force behind Repara tions, it’s just astounding that Nicki Jizz has time to breath, let alone look as fabulous as she does!

But along with being a drag god dess and a prime mover in the com munity, she has also managed to carve out an amazing career along the way and impress the hell out of everyone, including our voters. In 2020, Oasis owner D’Arcy Drollinger told the SF Examiner, “She’s powerful, outspo ken and hilarious. You literally never know what’s going to happen next.” www.facebook.com/nickijizz

Best Drag King Madd Dogg 20/20

Runners-up

Papi Churo, Leigh Crow

Madd Dogg 20/20 has been per forming since 2006 and has amassed many titles along the way. He was a Sacramento Drag King winner in 2014 and San Jose’s Switch-hitter Drag King winner the same year. He has per formed at SF Pride, Mother, SF Bootie, The Monster Show and Pride Night at Great America. He was one of the per formers who stepped up for the Oasis Telethon in 2021. He ruled the Ducal Court of the Golden Beaver with his Grand Duchess Miss Shugana. He re cently appeared at the SF Drag King Contest at the Oasis and at Repara tions, An All- Black Drag Show.

In the last Besties (in 2020) Madd Dogg 20/20 was a runner up for the Best Drag King and now he has ascended to claim the scepter as the rightful Bestie Drag King of the year. The Besties 2022 say, “all hail Drag King Madd Dogg 20/20.” facebook.com/MadddDogg2020

Best Happy Hour 440

Runners-up: Eagle, Toad Hall

An old saying tells us “Don’t take any wooden nickels,” but our readers say, on the contrary, that you should take be happy to take them, particu larly during happy hours at 440 Cas tro. On Woody Wednesday and the Friday, a Weekend Warm-Up Wooden Nickel you can buy one drink and get a wooden nickel good for a second drink. Tuesdays feature all day and all night $3 beers. Our readers suggest that you bring the hours and 440 Cas tro will supply the happy. What a deal!

www.the440.com

Left: Detox at Beaux’s Drag Brunch Middle: The White Horse Bar Right: Happy patrons at Splash Bar

Gooch

Upper Left: Pilsner Inn bartender Chuey Cibrian serves it up. Upper Right: Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and Matthew Martin at Martuni’s Middle: Madd Dogg 20/20 Lower Left/Right: Cute 440 staff and wooden nickels

Best Wine Bar Blush

Runners-up

Swirl, Scopio Divino

Blush regains the crown as the Bes ties’ best wine bar this year. Inspired by European wine bars, owner Jef Pauly is proud to make a home for live music on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tarot readings on Wednesdays and Sun days, and Queer Comedy Night on the first Wednesday of the month.

And as wonderful as all that is, then you have the wines. Selections in clude examples like a Prosecco Brut, Fantinel “One and Only” from Vene to, Italy as one of the bubbles they of fer; for whites a Chenin Blanc from Lubanzi Winery in Swartland, South Africa vintage 2021. And for a red, the Merlot “Pot de Vin” from Château Guilhem in Pays Doc, France vintage 2020. But these, of course, as merely examples. You could spend hours studying (and drinking) the menu. So stop by, relax and enjoy the wine bar that takes this year’s Bestie. www. blushwinebar.com

Best Comic Shea Suga

Runners-up: Lisa Geduldig, Marilyn Pittman

Richmond’s own Shea Suga, who has performed at Freight & Salvage with “The Daily Show” correspon dent Gina Yashere and will appear at Tommy T’s Comedy Club in Pleasan ton in a benefit for Hers Breast Cancer Foundation on October 9, is a truly hi larious comedian. Her character Ger tha Mae Valentine can be seen giving advice to Will Smith and Chris Rock after ‘the slap,’ and getting Kanye West to take the Greyhound to Oakland, to discussing the afterlife of the Queen with Aretha Franklin in online videos.

Originally a hair and makeup artist, she was tricked into doing stand-up by a friend at an open mic in 2005 and the rest, as they say, is history. Some 17 years on in the funny business, she is still as fresh and funny as ever. www. facebook.com/ComedianSheaSuga

Best Bartender Icarus Ferreira, Oasis

Runners-up: Gage Fisher, SF Eagle and Roberto Ramirez, Que Rico

In further evidence that Oasis is on fire these days, the hottest bartender in town is their own Icarus Ferreira, and this time it’s not because Icarus flew too close to the sun. I asked Ferreira what it has been like being a bartender during the comeback from COVID and what he most appreciated about being a bar tender at Oasis and he told me:

“It’s been great to come back and experience nightlife the way we did before the pandemic. I’m grateful to D’Arcy Drollinger who had so many great ideas to keep things going dur ing the pandemic, such as the de livery service Meals on Heels, Oasis TV, and the telethon – and the team’s execution of them. Now it’s great to see our friends and clientele again.” www.facebook.com/ickvf

Best Nightlife Photographer Gooch

Runners-up: Sloane Kantor, Steven Underhill

Originally hailing from the UK, Gooch is the official photographer for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and Folsom Street Events. His photog raphy frequently appears in the pages of the Bay Area Reporter and he has previously won Besties as Best Wed ding Photographer in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He can often be seen in action taking photos at Big Top Sundays at Beaux and Go Bang! Congratulations on this year’s Best Nightlife Photogra pher Bestie; an award well deserved. www.photosbygooch.com

Best DJ Bus Station John

Runners-up: DJ Jaffeth, Taj Called “perhaps the most important DJ in the San Francisco gay scene in the past decade” by no less than the De Young Museum, DJ Bus Station John is well known for his Tubesteak Connec tion at Aunt Charlie’s and Disco Daddy at the SF Eagle. The Bay Area Reporter’s own Ronn Vigh said in 2011, “When it comes to discussing music, DJ Bus Station John approaches the subject with the passion and spirit of a Sunday morning preacher.” Though much has changed in the world in the last de cade Bus Station John’s fervor has not.

Congratulations on recognition well deserved – let the music play.

Best Leather-Kink Event Folsom Street Fair

Runners-up: Up Your Alley Fair, Code @ The Edge

For some 37 years now the Fol som Street Fair has been enticing and encouraging both participants and looky-loos alike. It is the largest event of leather-oriented sexuality in the world. It is iconic enough that when the 2007 Folsom Street Fair’s official poster referenced “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, there was a huge uproar which reached such a level that San Francisco Representa tive and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was quoted as saying: “I’m a big believer in the First Amendment. I do not believe Christianity has been harmed by the Folsom Street Fair.”

As imitation is the highest form of flattery, it should be noted that events using the moniker “Folsom” have ap peared elsewhere in North America and Europe. Our readers thank you for keeping it real for so long. www.folsomstreet.org

Best Sex Club Steamworks

Runners-up: Eros, Catalyst

Steamworks, which along with its Berkeley location has bath houses in Vancouver and Chicago, initially opened its first location in Berkeley in 1976. The website Preserving LGBT Historic Sites in California notes that in the 1990s, Steamworks provided condoms, employed a health educa tor and tested for sexually-transmitted diseases.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. In July of this year the city of Berkeley partnered with Steamworks to provide the MPox vac cine to the public. It’s that kind of care for its patrons that gives Steamworks a special place in the hearts of our read ers. In a time when rights are being rolled back and censorship is raising its ugly head around the nation, we

need institutions like Steamworks more than ever. www.steamworks baths.com

Best Sex Shop

Mister S

Runners-up: Does Your Mother Know, Rock Hard

Mister S leather was founded in San Francisco in 1979. They’ve been with us a very long time and there’s a good reason for that – they know what they’re doing. It is, according to the Leather Archives & Museum site, the largest leather and fetish retailer in San Francisco. Its founder Alan Selby is a noted enough individual that the GLBT Historical Society mounted an installation ‘The Mayor of Folsom Street: The Life and Legacy of Alan Selby, aka Mr. S’ at their mu seum. In the past few decades, with

the availability of sales on the internet, their influence has only increased. Congratulations on a job well done. www.mr-s-leather.com

Editor’s Choice: Most Hilarious Pro Wrestling & Drag Event: Underground Wrestling Alliance

Just one more: we have a special place in our heart for the combina tion of pro wrestling, LGBT charac ters and drag queens (the indefati gable Pollo Del Mar), plus beer. The Underground Wrestling Alliance’s slam-bang beefcake and beauties show, held at Emporium Arcade Bar in July 2022, served up all that and more in a rollicking night. If you miss their shows, watch them on YouTube.

www.facebook.com/HAILUGWAt

Steven Underhill

Steven Underhill

The cast of A Christmas Carol 2018.

Photo by Kevin Berne.

by Charles Dickens Adapted by Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh Music by Karl Lundeberg Choreography by Val Caniparoli Directed by Peter J. Kuo Based on the original direction by Carey Perloff

Best Contemporary Dance Company

ODC Dance

Runners up: Alonzo King Lines

Ballet, AXIS Dance Company

A wonderful introduction to dance for youngsters (and youngsters at heart), ODC will bring its 36th annual holiday production of “The Velveteen Rabbit” to the Blue Shield of Califor nia Theater at YBCA for three week ends beginning just after Thanksgiv ing. Lines’ fall programs celebrate more than 25 years of collaboration between choreographer King and Grammy-winning table player Zakir Hussain. Berkeley-based AXIS, which works at the intersection of “dance and disability” hosts a master class

at ODC’s home theater next week.

www.odc.dance

Best Classical Dance Company San Francisco Ballet

Runners up: Smuin Ballet, Oakland Ballet

Following annual performances of “The Nutcracker” in December, the company’s 2023 season gets underway in January, celebrating its 90th anni versary with a festival of nine world premiere ballets by nine internation ally acclaimed choreographers.

In Oakland, “The Nutcracker” is preceded by an October run of “Luna Mexicana” in celebration of the Day of the Dead. Smuin’s holiday offering is a compendium of short, whimsical works currently touring the Bay Area.

www.sfballet.org

Best Large Concert Venue The Fillmore

Runners up: Davies Symphony Hall, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

Many patrons of live performing arts in the city seem perpetually per plexed about the relative sizes of the venues they attend. Even among big venues, there are big differences. Take this year’s winners: The Fillmore has a capacity of 1315, Davies seats 2743, and Bill Graham sells out at 8500. It seems like what folks like most about a large venue is how small it is! You’re welcome.

Highlights at the Fillmore in the coming months include lesbian sister duo Tegan & Sara and gay club faves Junior Boys. Davies, of course, is SF Symphony central, where this fall’s featured repertory includes Stravin sky’s “Firebird” and a live performance of “The Godfather” score accompa nying a screening of the film. The Bill Graham’s highlight of the sea son is a sold out show by Lil Nas X. www.livenation.com

Best Small Concert Venue Bimbo’s 365

Runners up: The Independent, Roccapulco

Bimbo’s (capacity 685), located on Columbus Avenue in North Beach since 1951, has a distinctly San Fran ciscan old school supper club vibe that’s well worth checking out just to experience the venue. So keep an eye on its eclectic upcoming rental book ings, the most exciting of which is singer-songwriter Beth Orton, whose first album in six years is winning rave reviews.

The Independent (500) will host comedian Melissa Villasenor of “Sat urday Night Live” fame, gay singersongwriter Greyson Chance, and drag diva Alaska before year’s end. And Mission Street’s Roccapulco (ap proximately 500), which specializes in Latin music, has Colombian cumbia cutie Silvestre Dagond in the wings. www.bimbos365club.com

Best Classical Music Venue Davies Symphony Hall

Runners up: SF Jazz, SF Conservatory of Music

Apparently jazz is the new classical, although classical is still the old classi

cal. But don’t forget the Herbst Theater, home of the wonderfully varied SF Performances series. And take special note of our second runner up, where in-the-know afficionadoes can attend several free concerts and recitals by students and faculty every month; its one of the classiest cheap dates in town. www.daviessymphonyhall.org

Best Local Music Act Kitten on the Keys

Runners up: Velvetta, Commando

The stage persona of East Bay na tive Suzanne Ramsey, Kitten on the Keys is kitchsy-kitchsy-cool, crack ing wise and singing along to her own accompaniment on piano and accordion at venues including Bar Fluxus, Madrone Art Bar and tour ing with burlesque revues from New Orleans to Europe. Runner up Vel vetta is a verging-on-sincere country band led by front-person Leigh Crow (Captain Kirk in Oasis’ “Star Trek” spoofs; erstwhile Elvis Herselvis); catch them at the Riptide on October 23 and November 27. And queer nu metal collective Commando, led by

Juba Kalamka and featuring Honey Mahogany and Lynee Breedlove, re leased its debut CD in March; cuts include somewhat cryptic tributes to Essex Hemphill, George Michael and Prince. www.facebook.com/ kittenonthekeys

Best Chorus San Francisco

Gay Men’s Chorus

Runners up: Queer Chorus of San Francisco, Chanticleer

The SF Gay Men’s Chorus begins a new chapter with this season’s Christ mas show, singing under the baton of new conductor/artistic director Jacob Stensberg. Previously on the faculty of Purdue University’s vocal music department, Stensberg will oversee a season stacked with surefire crowdpleasers. The chorus’ annual holiday concerts will be followed by a unique program of songs from Disney films and a combined “Yellow Brick Road” salute to both Elton John and “The Wizard of Oz.”

Andrew Weeks Hiromi Yoshida

Stefan Cohen

Meet thousands of creatures under one living roof, and you’ll help us make ecosystems more resilient across the planet. Because every visit supports our mission to regenerate the natural world. Make a reservation at calacademy.org

Wander Woods

An Outdoor Playscape Now Open Explore and play your way through a wonderland of discovery.

The Queer Chorus (formerly the Les bian/Gay Chorus) has shows planned for Nov. 11-13. In December, Chanti cleer will tour the Bay Area and beyond, presenting seven performances of its

Best Art Gallery Minnesota Street Art Project

Runners up: Moth Belly, Palette Gallery

Visiting the fifteen independentlyowned contemporary galleries that of Sciences

Runners up: Exploratorium, Chabot Space and Science Center

All three of these first-rate facilities are enormously popular for school field trips. Which is why it’s especially

Left: Lyndi Sales’ “(Un)Known Realms” at the Minnesota Street Art Project’s Nancy Toomey Fine Art Above: Diego Rivera’s ‘Still Life and Blossoming Almond Trees’ at SFMOMA

Courtesy SFMOMA

Steven Underhill

by Jim Gladstone

Wait! A plate? After a prolonged period of eating from card board delivery containers, refilling our own water glasses, and not flirting with servers, dining in restaurants can feel quite special. But with noticeable price increases nearly everywhere, you’ll want to choose carefully. Follow your fellow readers to their favorites.

Best Overall Restaurant, Best Castro Restaurant Vico Cavone

Runners up: Poesia, Canela Runners up: Blind Butcher, Harvey’s OshKosh, let’s nosh! What a plea sure it is to announce that the winner in this new category is a new restau rant. Going against the COVID tides, a native Neopolitan and former server at runner-up Poesia, Alessandro Rai mondi opened his southern Italian sensation in the former Firewood

space on 18th Street. Instead of roast ing chickens –that Firewood hand somely displayed beneath a cleverly designed front counter– is used to fuel a tomato red pizza oven.

But don’t overlook the shareable pizza fritta, Naples’ original pie, which is folded and fried, for a cal zone shape and a crisp-then-creamy donut-like crust. Other menu high lights include a frequent special of bechamel-enriched white lasagna and pasta e patate a distinctive potato ragú served from a hollowed wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano. There’s a full bar, too, along with a Raimondi’s handpicked selection of Italian wines. www.vicocavone.com

Best Brunch 620 Jones Runners up: Starbelly, Café Mystique

The “rooftop” patio at this Sunday go-to is actually just one floor above

the hustle of Geary Street, but it feels a world away. Its classy but casual atmosphere encourages lazy loung ing over day-drinkers’ delights, like their signature vodka-spiked iced Mint Mocha and St. Germain Rosé Spritz. The brunch menu includes chicken and waffles, eggs Benedict and the inevitable avocado toast all served with a side of drag. A wellcurated crew of queens entertains sporadically between 12:30 and 3:30. www.620-Jones.com

Best Coffee Shop Peet’s

Runners up: Church Street Café, Wicked Grounds.

Peet’s may be a chain, but its 2257 Market Street outpost is without question a part of our community. Friendly, familiar baristas and an ir resistibly aromatic atmosphere make it a stalwart spot for quick cups to go or lazy mornings with the newspaper. If you’re looking for a first-rate nibble with your java, be sure to check out nearby 17th Street’s Café de Casa for authentic sweet and savory Brazilian pastries. www.peets.com

Best Late Night Restaurant Orphan Andy’s

Runners up: Grubstake, La Frontera

After a brief pandemic closure, the close confines of Orphan Andy’s are open once again, a welcome sign that the Castro is returning to its normal abnormality. With the shuttering of It’s Tops down the road, Andy’s is now the neighborhood’s one and only all-night diner, its overflowing omelets and piled-high pancakes among our most essential hangover prophylactics.

And what is La Frontera, you ask? Go east young man, to Oakland, where gay nightlife impresario Valen tino Carrillo dishes up cheesy ques abirria tacos until 2am on weekends at 4481 International Boulevard and at his club, Que Rico, on 15th Street downtown.www.facebook.com/pag es/Orphan-Andys-Restaurant

Best Upscale Restaurant Spruce

Runners up: State Bird Provisions, Frances

Michelin-starred Spruce, well known in fine-dining circles, is a firsttime Besties winner, no doubt due to an outdoor dining area created during the pandemic that’s as attractive and wellserviced as its indoor space. Of par ticular note is the $54 prix fixe lunch, which makes for a lovely special occa sion splurge that won’t break the bank.

Meanwhile, Castro favorite Frances has reopened with a new family style format featuring a set four-course dinner menu that changes each week, priced at $86. www.sprucesf.com

Best Asian Restaurant

Le Colonial

Runners up: AsiaSF, La Toyose

Well, our readers have spoken, and we won’t say much more about their choices than: “Geez, you picked one white-owned place that celebrates co lonialism in its name, another known more for its entertainment than its cuisine, and a gotta-try-it-once (but only once) labyrinth in a converted garage? In San Francisco, where there’s so much delicious, authentic Asian food at every imaginable price point?”

And also, this: “Palette Tea House, Mandalay, Nari, Rooh, San Ho Wan, T.C. Pastry, PPQ Dungeness Island, the whole darn Richmond District.”

Last year’s winner was Mister Jiu’s. www.lecolonialsf.com

Best Soul Food Restaurant

Brenda’s Oakland

Runners up: Everett & Jones BBQ, Sol Food

Beloved Bay Area restaurateur and Louisiana native Brenda Buenviajé, along with her wife Libby Truesdell, are serving up three meals a day at their Oakland outpost, from crawfish beignets at breakfast to overstuffed po’ boy lunches to dinners of shrimp and grits or jambalaya. Almost all of the lunch and dinner mains are under $20

and overwhelmingly delicious. Sol Food features Puerto Rican cuisine, a rare Marin County Bestie winner that recently served Bad Bunny and his touring entourage. www.brendasoak land.com

Best Italian Restaurant Il Casaro

Runners up: Vico Cavone, Poesia

With Vico Cavone taking best overall restaurant, Il Casaro slides into the number one spot for Italian. This second location of a North Beach favorite has a pizza oven that takes all of 90 seconds to cook a perfect pie and is one of the only places in town that offers the fantastic but unfamil iar-to-Americans topping combo of mortadella, mozzarella and pistachios (Subtle, creamy, crunchy). A wide se lection of pastas and homemade an tipasti (try the green beans with chile and lemon) rounds out the menu. www.ilcasaropizzeria.com

Best Mexican Restaurant Papito

Runners up: Bonita, Don Pistos

With its upscale spin on traditional taqueria cuisine, signature spooky

Left: Vico Cavone Middle Left: 620 Jones Middle Right: Peet’s Right: Orphan Andy’s

girl mural and a prime Hayes Valley location close to major arts venues and popular shopping areas, Papito wins the hearts and taste buds of our readers. Much appreciated special touches include hot homemade tor tilla chips which are regularly refilled for free, a delightful mango salsa and unexpected little twists like chilaqui les with duck, and fried chicken tacos.

www.papitohayessf.com

Best Middle Eastern Restaurant Beit Reima

Runners up: Old Jerusalem, La Mediteranee

Samir Mogannam has overseen one of the most inspiring restaurant rebirths in the Bay Area, transform ing the Castro and Cole Valley lo cations of Burgermeister –which helped his father make one gen eration’s American dream come true– into the purveyors of “Arabic comfort food” that reflect his fam ily’s heritage. From the smashed fava bean dip called ful, to homemade pita seasoned with zaa’tar and sumac, to familiar falafel and kabobs, and a delicious braised lamb shank that’s a surprise in such casual quarters, everything on the menu is fresh and zesty.

www.beitreimasf.com

While the likes of Mr. Holmes’ cruffins, B. Patisserie’s kouign-am man and Breadbelly’s kaya toast spark trendy surges in local carbohydrate consumption, it’s good to know that our readers appreciate a quiet, reli able standby for both classic and cre ative pastry. French-born proprietor Michel Suas’ perfect loaves, pains aux chocolat and butter croissants are as good as you’ll find anywhere in town. His seasonal bread puddings are sensational, and his savory scones and cheesy cloud-like gougéres can transform a harried lunch on the run into a delicious moment of self-care.

www.thoroughbread.com

Best Desserts

AL’s Place [closed]

Runners up: Stella Pastry, Milkbomb Ice Cream

R.I.P. to Aaron London’s esoteric tapioca with blueberries, pineapple and sesame. Our Michelin-starred winner succumbed to the pan demic after votes were cast. More traditional, but nearly as appeal ing to sweet-toothed readers, was old-school Stella Pastry in North Beach, where the cannoli are filled to order, and the mixed Italian cook ies are a throwback thrill. Berke ley-based Milkbomb has recently arrived in the Castro with its signa ture donut ice cream sandwiches.

www.facebook.com/stellapastry

www.milkbombicecream.com t

BY PAULA VOGEL

BY CLAUDE JACKSON,

BY SANDY RUSTIN

BY DAVID HENRY HWANG

Runners up: Devil’s Teeth Bak ing Company, Boichik Bagels

Honoring Jewlia Eisenberg at the CJM

Maarten van Dijk

by David-Elijah Nahmod

During her short life, Jewlia Eisen berg accomplished quite a lot. She was a singer, songwriter, musician, and an activist of renown. Her activ ism often found its way into her mu sic, such as when she touched upon

Bosnian genocide in “Sarajevo Blues.” She was very connected to her Jew ish heritage, as the spelling of her first name reveals.

Eisenberg passed on March 11, 2021 of a lingering illness she had lived with for years. On Sunday Oc tober 2, the Contemporary Jewish

Museum will pay homage to her life and legacy with a two-part event titled “Fierce as Death: Queer as The Song of Songs.”

The afternoon will first offer an in door experience as artist Seth Eisen presents immersive ritual installa tions inspired by Eisenberg’s connec

tion to faith, roots, power and deep, soul-filling beauty. The installations will be on display from 12pm to 2pm. This will be followed by an outdoor concert from 2:30pm to 4:30pm in Jesse Square Plaza in front of the CJM. Co-produced by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the concert will fea ture musicians from across the U.S. performing Eisenberg’s music.

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Eisen referred to Eisenberg as “a dear friend and collaborator.” Eisenberg had composed music for two of Eisen’s shows. “Homo File” was a work about Samuel Steward, the au thor, tattoo artist and ‘sexual outlaw.’ Eisenberg also composed music for Eisen’s “Out of Site: SoMa,” a dramatic walking tour of the South of Market neighborhood.

According to Eisen, Eisenberg grew up in Brooklyn, New York in a radical activist environment in which social justice was a central tenet.

“The Jewish thing came later,” Eisen said. “It was a discovery she made on her own in wanting to con nect with her ancestors. She was a music lover, a musicologist. She did a lot of study of music of the world and through her studies she came back to her own roots. Being out as a queer person and being out as a Jew was a radical act for her.”

Ankush Kumar Bahl,

Demarre McGill, flute

CARLOS SIMON: Fate

CHEN YI: The Golden Flute

HECTOR BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique

A spectacular showpiece. A fantastic symphony. Experience the hallucination of Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.” A story in a symphony, as the composer drops opium, and dreams a nightmare.

Demarre McGill, Seattle Symphony’s Principal Flute, has coached and concertized across the U.S., South Africa, and the Far East. He performs the concerto of Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese-American composer, Chen Yi, music that breathes the sounds of Chinese wind instruments.

Radical out dyke Eisenberg often aligned herself with radical causes. She was an ac tivist for Palestinian rights, for Black Lives Matter, and for labor. Labor and union songs became part of her canon throughout her career, accord ing to Eisen.

“She was very involved in being a radical out dyke and was often seen in the Dykes on Bikes march, some times leading,” he said. “So she was pretty radical and out there. When the Occupy movement was happen ing, she was front and center. She was very loud and outspoken about jus tice for all people.”

According to Eisen, Eisenberg suf fered from a rare genetic disease that plagued her for around fifteen years.

“She was not a ‘poor me’ type of person,” Eisen said. “She had a sense that she may not live, and she really made the most of it. In her final year, she was working on an album even after a month-long coma at UCSF where her immune system shut down and her lungs were not oper ating without support. When she re covered from that, she recorded her posthumous album, ‘The Ginzburg Geography.’”

Eisen describes Eisenberg’s work as experimental and radical.

“In addition to her songs about labor, she performed songs about freedom and justice,” he said. “Her last album is about the Ginzburgs, a couple who were separated during the Holocaust. They wrote these love letters to each other, so she’s basically giving voice to some of that.”

Eisenberg was also very interested in seeking and finding the women’s voices that were missing from Jewish history, and would often do research to find their writings or recordings. She would even search for ancient music.

“She was well known for being a researcher in rare music, especially in music of women of the Jewish Dias pora who were not well recognized,” Eisen said.

Eisen promises that the four in stallations he created will be a lot more than just pictures on a wall. There will be videos that have been created and are inspired by Eisen berg’s life and work, as well as vid eos inspired by the ancient Hebrew poem, “The Song of Songs,” and her queer take on it. A dance piece cho reographed to Eisenberg’s music that was commissioned for the museum when it first opened. Attendees will also have a chance to look through Eisenberg’s archives.

“The experience that people will have as you go into the museum be tween noon and 2pm; you’ll be able to go into these different rooms that will give you a flavor of Jewlia’s life and work through her archives, and then through projects that I’ve insti gated related to both ‘The Song of Songs’ and her legacy,” said Eisen. The concert will follow at 2:30. The music is being produced by Marika Hughes and will feature musical di rection by Dan Cantrell.

“Jewlia was a master of recon structing, reshaping and reconnect ing cosmopolitan past to the contem porary,” Eisen said, “kind of gaining a more inclusive perspective of where women and queer people and people who are outsiders are centered. So I think that her legacy was very much about her work in giving voice to the voiceless; people whose histories were made obscure or invisible or forgotten.”t

‘Fierce as Death: Queer as The Song of Songs,’ Sunday October 2, 12pm-4:30pm at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St. https://www.thecjm.org

Jewlia Eisenberg

Seth Eisen

‘Juanita: 30 Years of MORE!’

exhibit celebrates the drag icon

by David-Elijah Nahmod

There’s no doubting the status of Juanita MORE! as a drag icon. For the past three decades MORE! has been a fashionista, an activist and a denizen of San Francisco gay night life. Her annual Pride party has not only become popular, but legendary. MORE! has been a drag mother to many young queens.

From September 30 through No vember 12, the San Francisco Arts Commission will celebrate thirty years of Juanita MORE! at their main gallery in the War Memorial Veter ans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue. The exhibition will feature a curated selection of photographs, post ers, more than forty commissioned works of art, and dresses that offer a rare glimpse inside the glorious and fabulous life of MORE! The exhibi tion will be on display Wednesdays through Saturdays from 12pm to 5pm. Admission is free.

Juanita MORE!’s drag persona was created in 1992 on Halloween when famed New York City drag queen Glamamore, also known as Mr. Da vid, put MORE! in drag for the first time. Before painting her face he said, “You’re going to be hideous!”

When MORE! recounts this story, she always said, “Well, I wasn’t and I’m not. I have loved it all and I haven’t stopped since.”

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, MORE! recalled how Gla mamore first came into her life.

“When I was living in New York in 1987 I went to the club BoyBar to see a

drag show,” she recalled. “I remember walking my way through the crowd towards the front of the stage. I looked up and I saw a queen demanding ev ery bit of my attention. She captivated me in a way that no other queen had. For a moment I felt as though I had never seen drag before.”

MORE! immediately knew that someday she’d be friends with the per son onstage.

“The MC asked us to give her a big round of applause and introduced her as The Hog Queen of Lip-Sync, Glama more,” she said. “We officially met a year later and have been friends ever since.”

MORE! came up with her drag name when she and Glamamore were having dinner at a restaurant. They had already decided that she would take the last part of Mr. David’s name, More. While dining they noticed that they were sitting underneath a poster of the 1959 film “Imitation of Life” and read the name Juanita Moore, one of the film’s stars.

“And we said, Bingo!” MORE! said, also taking a moment to explain why her last name is always capitalized with an exclamation point.

“It was always about giving and hav ing MORE!,” she said.

MORE! is rightfully proud of her achievements.

“There are a lot of things I’m proud of these days,” she said. “One is Juan ita’s List on Facebook, which is an inclusive forum for all members and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community to offer and seek rental housing op portunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. The group now has over 10,000

members. Yesterday someone intro duced themselves to me and said they found affordable housing through my list. It made my day.”

“Juanita: 30 Years of MORE!” is curated by Oakland-based trans con temporary artist Marcel Pardo Ariza.

“Juanita’s practice embodies so many things we need more of right now,” Pardo Ariza said in a statement. “Collective care, bringing people to gether, valuing and uplifting artists’ work, centering pleasure, friendship and collaboration. She’s a fierce advo cate for queer and trans rights, a true San Francisco icon, and a deeply loved

member of the LGBTQIA+ commu nity. Curating this exhibition has been an absolute honor.”

“In this exhibit, I share my gratitude and appreciation to everyone who contributed to the formation of all things Juanita MORE!,” MORE! said.

“Over the years, brilliant collaborators have paved the way for many iconic moments in our artistic community that has continued shaping my cre ativity. As a result, the work exhibited at the San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery will have something from every part of the last thirty years.”

MORE! has nothing but love for

her many admirers.

“I’ve never claimed ownership of Juanita’s creation,” she said. “Instead, I’ve been the vehicle that brought her to life through the work of many tal ented artists. And this exhibit is my loads of love letters to all of them.”t

‘Juanita: 30 Years of MORE!’ at the San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery, 401 Van Ness Ave. September 30 opening reception, 6pm, through November 12, Wed.-Sat., 12pm-5pm. www.sfartscommission.org www.juanitamore.com

Left: Juanita MORE! portrait by John Vochatzer Middle: Juanita MORE! portrait by Doug Sandlin Right: Juanita MORE! portrait by Dan Nicoletta

Lars Horn’s ‘Voice of the Fish’ Exploring the trans experience

by Tim Pfaff

One indication that good writing is afoot is when friends send you links to it in emails that say, in one way or another, “Get a load of this!” Before I had Lars Horn’s “Voice of the Fish” (Graywolf Press) in hand, I had read two pre-publication excerpts sent to me just this way, leaving me eager for more.

The book did not disappoint de spite its quizzical form. A collage of essay, travelogue, history, meditation, and aphorism, it’s packaged –as is so much writing now– as a memoir. And so it begins, with “In Water Disjointed from Me,” a look back at two traumas that made Horn the writer we read.

A once-upona-time-boy’s story

With a disarming lack of self-pity, he writes of his mother, a would-be artistic photographer who devised endless ways of depicting Lars dead, the way she preferred family portraits. Two extreme examples were shooting him in a bathtub full of dead squid and putting him needlessly in a wholebody cast as a pose.

One can imagine any number of takeaways from such “formative” ex periences, but Horn’s is this: “The body was not to be looked at. Except when that looking made it strange. When the stilling of body undid it. Lent an enduring instability. I experience my body as an interiority that radiates.”

She was, in her own words, Horn says, “never meant to be a mother, be cause she was queer” and the resources available to her in the UK of that time could not support her. Is there ever a writer not birthed in more than one way by their mother? As if foretelling the future, Horn’s wanted them to con centrate on their homework.

In that same opening chapter, Horn recounts having torn the muscles from their right shoulder to their

lower back in a weight-lifting mishap in 2014.What ensued were months of unproductive hospitalization followed by confinement to bed. “Around the same time,” Horn writes, “I lost the ability to speak, read, or write.”

The outcome? “I quit academia, re search, a translation career. I started over.”

Starting over “Nonbinary, transmasculine – my gender exists for the most part as un seen, unworded, unintelligible,” they write on the third page, both posing and dispelling the fundamental is sues. “I regularly find myself trying to explain my gender in terms that will make it intelligible to another.”

It’s a self-appointed task the author takes up with an astonishing blend of frankness and imagination. “Since falling ill, I believe writing to be a vi tal act. All the more so when it comes

from bodies so often marginalized or written over.”

An ever-burgeoning literature about transexuality has appeared in our time. The books that are not “stud ies” –what Horn might group as the “I” books, and therefore more personal–tend to fall into two completely un derstandable categories, the trans ver sions of What I Did on the Weekend. (Horn’s first venture into the topic was a school paper that declared, “I buried a cat.”)

But, in a crude categorization, the trans “I” books have been either What Happens/Has Happened to Me as a Transperson or, somewhat less often, What It Is Like/Feels Like to Be Trans. Horn’s is decidedly of the second type, and as individual as writing can be.

Something fishy

The title is not a ruse. Horn identi fies with fishes, creatures of the water

fluid like them, and many of their re flections are literally about fishes, their types and habits, their importance in literature and mythology, their place in religions. Rather than reading over these sections, as one is tempted to do in the more cetological chapters of “Moby-Dick,” the reader soon begins to look forward to them, sheerly be cause they’re so fascinating.

Not exclusively but frequently, Horn’s thoughts are about aquaria –fishes in bondage, if you will. It’s hardly surprising given that childhood bath with squids, from which their mother refused to set them free.

“Last Night, the Sea Spat My Body” re-mythologizes the real-life experi ence of Jeanne Villepreus-Power, a pi oneer of marine biology. “Last Night, Eels Crashed from the Faucet,” the last chapter, revisits the childhood bath experience and not only makes some sense of it but gives it meaning.

But the fishes that swim through these pages are largely benign and even transcendental in the meaning they give their author. Tilapia, stur geon, salmon, and shark are spoken of with equal parts science and rev erence.

Foreign travels

The longest, most down-to-earth segment of the memoir is “The Georgian Military Road.” In it Horn recounts a sojourn in LGBTQunfriendly Russia. There are no fish in this tale, unless they slipped my grip, but Horn, who once translated Russian, gives the reader a panoply of Russian gay people, some out but mostly not. Each paragraph begins with an incantatory “The last time I spoke Russian….”

“The last time I spoke Russian I shared dinner with a closeted gay man who, at forty-nine, slept with a gun at his bedside.” The final entry on the catalog is personal, revealing, and emotionally naked:

“The last time I spoke Russian I was in a relationship with a man. I presented as female, passed for cis gendered and heterosexual. In one of the world’s most homophobic coun tries, my sexuality, always snarling to the side of me, finally caught up. Bit into this body until it showed itself, raw, bloodied. I left single.”

There’s not a forgettable page in this crazy quilt of prose and prose poems. But in the end it’s not the ich thyology, starting and splendid as it is, that lingers in the memory. Giving the fishes voice, Horn finds a voice of their own, all their own, and it’s an in teriority that radiates. It leaves us all single.t

Folsom Street Fair

‘Voice of the Fish’ by Lars Horn, Graywolf Press, 233 pp., $16. www.graywolfpress.org www.larshorn.com

photo by Steven Underhill

Author Lars Horn

by Laura Moreno

Having matured musically since her hit single “Luka” in 1987, Su zanne Vega’s new album, “An Evening of New York Songs & Stories” includes re-recorded old songs as well as new ones.

This is the seventh album she has put out since 2010 when she started her own music label, Amanuensis. The albums are categorized by sub ject matter (such as “States of Being” and “Songs of Family”), rather than chronologically.

Blessed with an ethereal singing voice and a style all her own, after 40 years in the spotlight, her voice hasn’t changed a bit. Her voice is still youthful, silky, even angelic.

In marked contrast, she first took center stage sporting a bold androgynous image, like David Bowie. Eschewing the flashy styles of the 1980s, she donned huge burlap baggy pants and men’s leather suspenders and “sensible jackets” instead.

Ms. Vega is very open about having gone through a period of not wanting to be female. The period started in her teen years and ended abruptly with the birth of her daughter Ruby in 1994.

She didn’t necessarily want to be male. More precisely, she would have liked to be “like a plant” if it were possible. Many of her songs, however, are femalecentric, like “Stockings,” “Caramel,” “Ironbound/Fancy Poultry,” and even “Tom’s Diner,” expressing longing.... Even when she sings about men, the approach is often equally soft, as with the “sweetest, softest hands” in her much-loved country song “Gypsy.”

Print, radio, theater, film & book

Although it’s not well known, Ms. Vega has written a number of pieces for The New York Times and won a

Peabody Award for her 2003 PRI ra dio show on music, “American Mav ericks.”

For her undergraduate thesis as an English major at Barnard College, she used several short stories by the bisex ual, Southern author Carson McCull ers as the inspiration for a series of songs around which she later wrote a one-act play that has been performed off-Broadway. Now it’s been made into a film, “Lover, Beloved” about Carson McCullers (played by Suzanne Vega), directed by Michael Tully. Ms. Mc Cullers, like Ms. Vega, was a talented musician and worked odd jobs while studying the arts at NYU. She looks a lot like her too.

“He said, ‘I see you now, and you are so very young But I’ve seen more battles lost than I have battles won And I’ve got this intuition, says it’s all for your fun And now will you tell me why?’

The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye She said, ‘You won’t understand, and you may as well not try.’ But her face was a child’s, and he thought she would cry But she closed herself up like a fan.”

With neither political nor military experience, she presents the deep truth of the treachery of our human history up to now. There is no real transparency in matters of war be yond leaders simply trying to make it look transparent; we are all being played for their profit.

A Place in the Pantheon

It’s nothing short of astounding that Suzanne Vega performed her biggest hit “Luka” at the 1987 Gram my Awards, in the age of Cyndi Lau per and Madonna, alone on an emp ty stage with her guitar. And even more astoundingly, the performance holds up against the competition.

She still considers herself a folk singer, not really a composer. None theless, the music she’s written (not just the lyrics) is sheer genius. In my view, she’s one of the great songwrit ers and lyricists of our time.

To be specific, the music itself as well as the lyrics of “Ironbound/ Fancy Poultry” (from the “Solitude Standing” album) express a wistful lusciousness:

“The morning so slow a s the wires cut through the sky. She stops at the stall, fingers the ring, opens her purse, feels the longing away from the ironbound border.”

Toward the end, the music stops and then culminates in a repeated verse that is twice as fast and mim ics the cry of a barker standing on a sidewalk. She achieves this by switching to an unexpected major chord (the song up until now has been in a minor key) set against an unexpected rhythm of triplets played by the guitar. The tune then alternates between major and minor keys. And by simply inserting an in genious half-beat of silence before the word ‘hearts,’ she gets us to think about the double meaning here. Then, she produces her own musical onomatopoeia by hitting the expected note in the melody and then going up half a step on the word ‘free’ to create the sensation of flying:

“Fancy poultry parts sold here. Breasts and thighs and hearts. Backs are cheap and wings are nearly free, nearly free.”

In addition, Ms. Vega became an author in 2001 with the publication of her book, “The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings of Suzanne Vega.” It’s mostly a collection of her lyrics and other poems.

Her lyrics are at times so aston ishingly insightful that they seem to have been pulled whole straight from the ether, as with “The Soldier & The Queen” (from her “Solitude Standing” album). It begs the question, how did a girl in her 20s living in New York City write a song like this?

Like Truman Capote, Su zanne Vega’s words cut straight to the heart of enduring hu man truths. And like Capote, she found success using the Spanish surname of a stepfa ther. Born Suzanne Nadine Peck, Ms. Vega grew up believ ing herself to half Puerto Rican until age 9 when her identity was shaken by the discovery that she was “white,” despite speaking Spanish and growing up culturally Puerto Rican in Spanish Harlem.

It may’ve helped to know that in fact, Puerto Ricans are descended from Europeans of all stripes, includ ing England, Austria and Germany.

Fortunately for us, music be came her way of bridging the disconnection.t

Suzanne Vega