San Francisco Bay Times - December 17, 2020 by San Francisco Bay Times

BAY TIMES S

LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area

CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES (1978–2021) December 17, 2020–January 13, 2021 http://sfbaytimes.com

BAY TIMES S

HONEY BEARS

LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES (1978–2020)

Photos by Mark Rhoades

Cecilia Chung, Transgender Activist

Pernella Sommerville, Public Relations Specialist

About Our Cover The artist fnnch believes art is for everyone. He notes that, even outside of a pandemic year, only about five percent of a city’s residents and visitors tour its art museums. Street art and murals are for the other 95 percent, inspiring and engaging them with the arts. The San Francisco Bay Times can, at least at times, be viewed as a form of street art, given that the print publication is free and often features artist-designed covers. Professional artist and San Francisco Arts Commissioner Debra Walker, for example, has designed numerous covers for us over the years, such as our recent one celebrating the election victory of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Now we are proud to present a keepsake cover designed by fnnch himself for this last issue of 2020, which extends into the early part of 2021. We thank LGBT community leader and visionary Mark Rhoades for his help in making this possible. Dan Bernal, Chief of Staff/San Francisco, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Joey Cain, Activist

As we share in the monthly column concerning the honey bear mural at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Rhoades came up with the idea for the Center’s colorful mural, which fnnch brought to vivid fruition—donating his time, resources, and daily upkeep as a gift to the Center. As these pages show, numerous LGBT leaders, other artists, and more have had their photo taken in front of the mural as a show of support for the Center. If you take your own selfie there, perhaps you can now hold up this issue of the San Francisco Bay Times for a triple dose of fnnch (mural, cover, and cover within a cover) and a bear infinity effect! During these difficult months of the pandemic, and now as rains finally come to the city, our days are brightened by the mural and other images of the honey bear throughout San Francisco. As for how fnnch creates these and other murals, he uses multi-layered stencils and spray paint. He calls his work “contemporary pop art,” depicting objects from both nature and everyday life. Over time his work has gained a strong following on social media and has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and now the cover of the San Francisco Bay Times. His art can be found not only in our city by the Bay, but also in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago, St. Louis, Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong. For More Information

Sarah Bush, Dancer 2

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Mark Rhoades PR https://www.markrhoadespr.com/ fnnch https://fnnch.com/ SF LGBT Center https://www.sfcenter.org/

With Hope for the NEW YEAR! Supervisor Rafael Mandelman Looks Back on 2020 and Shares Plans for Future PHOTOS BY KYLE SMEALLIE

By Supervisor Rafael Mandelman (Editor’s Note: With this piece we welcome back the voice of Rafael Mandelman, who for several years was a popular San Francisco Bay Times columnist. While he stepped back from the column and other projects to assume his present role as Supervisor of District 8, we always welcome his words in the paper. Thanks to his team, especially Legislative Aide Tom Temprano, for making letters like this possible.) Hello, San Francisco Bay Times Readers, 2020 is nearly over, and I am sure that all of us are happy to see it go. We have grappled with a global pandemic, unprecedented wildfires up and down the West Coast, orange skies in San Francisco, a national uprising against systemic racism and police violence, and the most consequential election of our lifetimes— and there are still a couple of weeks left in the year. As I write this, we are rapidly approaching 300,000 COVID19 deaths in the United States, and California and San Francisco are experiencing a surge of the virus. San Franciscans can be proud of our relative success in containing COVID and, thus far, avoiding the sort of mass casualties seen elsewhere. Sadly, the same public health orders that have saved so many hundreds of lives have wrought devasta-

tion on our already challenged small business community. The Castro has seen a number of beloved neighborhood businesses close during the pandemic, and more such closures seem inevitable. But there were some bright spots in 2020 and I want to share some highlights that my office worked on that I think will be of interest to Bay Times readers: • After seeing some of the highest levels of displacement of LGBTQ seniors and long-time residents from District 8, the City acquired 1939 Market Street to pave the way for the creation of LGBTQwelcoming senior housing so that queer seniors at high risk of eviction can remain in the neighborhood. • To tackle our climate crisis, I passed legislation to ban natural gas—which accounts for 40% of San Francisco’s greenhouse gas emissions—in new construction. • Nearly four decades after San Francisco closed the bathhouses, I passed legislation to undo the ban; I also authored and passed a resolution calling on the FDA to end the Federal ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. • To address the crisis on our streets I introduced legislation to require the Department

of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to open a network of temporary safe sleeping sites, with enough capacity to ensure that, on any given night, any unhoused person who is unable to access a shelter bed, housing unit, or hotel room can at least be offered a stay at such a site. I am proud of the work my office has done this year, and, looking forward to 2021, it is clear we have quite a bit of work ahead of us. San Francisco will remain at the forefront of the public health response to the pandemic as we push to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible in the new year. We must also help those hardest hit by the pandemic, including finding ways to provide additional tax and fee relief to the small businesses that will drive our economic recovery. In the Castro, I am hopeful that the recently passed Proposition H, which removes cumbersome Planning requirements for many new businesses, combined with our investment in a Castro Corridor Manager and new funding to support our Shared Spaces program, will help accelerate the revival of the neighborhood. Conversations with the Castro Cultural District and Castro Merchants about how we can make the neighborhood a more welcoming place for people of color and trans

people—including increasing opportunities for entrepreneurship and supporting events centering these communities—give me hope that we may even end up with a more diverse and vibrant neighborhood than prior to the pandemic. I will also be working to ensure that some of the mental health investments that I have championed over the last couple years, including Street Crisis Response Teams, meth sobering centers and drug and behavioral health treatment beds, come online in the coming year to provide care for those suffering on our streets and relief for neighbors and businesses. Here’s to hoping that everyone has a safe and healthy holiday season and that we can all see each other in person in 2021! Rafael Mandelman serves on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 8.

Supervisor Mandelman and his staff visited Sutro Tower at Twin Peaks in early 2019.

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With Hope for the NEW YEAR! 202Q: Two Moons Over America?

6/26 and Beyond John Lewis On an early September evening several months ago, I opened my eyes from meditation and gazed out our back window at a hauntingly beautiful half-moon, glowing orange in the night sky. As the moon’s sumptuous color captivated me, I also realized it meant that the atmosphere that night was particularly filled with smoke from the wildfires that had been burning for weeks across Northern California. When I awakened the next morning and glanced at my clock, I was surprised to see that I had slept well into the morning. When I glanced blearyeyed out the back window, things got stranger. I saw not only that the cars still had their headlights on, but also a shimmering pink orb now hung against a blue grey sky exactly

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Before going to sleep the night before, I had been reading Haruki Murakami’s dystopian masterpiece 1Q84, in which Murakami reimagines the George Orwell classic, setting it in 1984 Japan. In the book, the main characters see not one but two moons in the sky as they step out of the ordinary way of experiencing the world into a psychologically and spiritually dystopian one. Were there now two moons over San Francisco? Were we now living in the year 202Q? A couple hours later, Stuart and I ventured out for a short walk up to McLaren Park. A nearby meadow shone a luminescent green. Redwoods and cypress stood silhouetted against the now orangegrey sky. An eerie stillness and silence pervaded, punctuated only by a few birds chirping. On our way home in the muted darkness, we saw our neighbors’ faces illuminated by the light of their computer screens through their windows as they worked busily on a workday. We would soon return ourselves to the separateness of our own computers and go through the motions

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of our regular daily routines, even though the day was anything but normal. Now at years end, the altered reality of that September day seems like a metaphor for all of 2020 or 202Q. In March, we awakened to another other-worldly experience—an order to “shelter in place,” a term prior to that I had associated with an urgent need to protect oneself when an active shooter was in the immediate surroundings. Looking out our same back window last March, nothing seemed different; yet a global pandemic with potentially catastrophic consequences had begun. Assessing how long one’s toilet paper (and hand sanitizer) supply would last, and strategizing how to get more—things that would have seemed crazy just days before—suddenly seemed reasonable. For those of us who lived through the worst of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic, overnight feelings of vulnerability and fear of loss were disturbingly familiar. In July, we encountered something else previously unimaginable: experiencing from our living room the death of Stuart’s dad in a hospital ICU via Zoom. It felt oddly intimate, in some ways creating the ultimately false impression that we were there in person. But we were present in a different way. We simultaneously felt both deeply con-

nected and separate. And after such an experience, do you just go back to work in your living room? The other loved ones we wanted to hug, something not even safe to do in the pandemic, were many miles away.

PHOTO BY RINK

where the luminous half-moon had been the night before. I immediately wondered: How in the world did the moon grow from half to full overnight? And, for that matter, how could it be rising again just 12 hours later?

Meanwhile, Donald The "orange sky" as seen from Harvey Milk Plaza on September 9, 2020 Trump created a reality-denying belief in his classes live. Persistent segregation followers that there was nothing to and income inequality give rise to worry about. He declared that 99% very different perceptions of the of COVID-19 cases were “totally world to the detriment of those who harmless” and that the pandemic are disadvantaged. Far too many would soon “disappear ... like a Americans look up at the same miracle.” Last month, an incredumoon in the night sky from very lous Wisconsin physician reported different perspectives. that one of her patients refused to During the height of the September believe COVID-19 was a serious wildfires, a Mendocino resident concern even as the disease killed reported that his roosters crowed her. And, according to a recent all day long. Were they trying to poll, some 88 percent of Trump’s alert us to wake up? supporters live in the delusion that the 2020 election was stolen from In 1Q84, a random taxi driver cauhim. tioned the protagonist that “there’s At the same time, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery exposed the reality of racism in 202Q America, making it even more difficult for people to look the other way. These horrific killings laid bare not only racial bias in law enforcement and the judicial system, but also how differently and separately many Americans of different races and

always only one reality.” Even as we contend with competing perceptions of reality, many of which are patently false and cause great suffering, we retain a great deal of control over how we perceive the world and whether we live with intention and integrity. Compassion, connection, and capacity for circumspection are all real. (continued on page 28)

With Hope for the NEW YEAR! 2020 Year in Review News Quiz As usual, we end the year with a final news quiz, checking to see how attentive San Francisco Bay Times readers have been to the important ups and downs of our vibrant GLBT world in 2020. Who could forget the excitement of our victory in Bostock v Clayton County last June? Who among us are not still shaking our heads at the nerve of former Congressman Aaron Schock posing for a beach selfie with his quarantine pals at Cabo? How many of us are still having Zoom arguments about whether “pony play” people should get their own version of the rainbow flag? (I say, “Neiiiighhhhhh!”) And what of this year’s many other fond memories? But before we start, you should know that the Supreme Court just turned down two cases that left GLBT victories in place. First, on December 7, they declined review of a transgender rights ruling out of the Ninth Circuit that went against some anti-trans parents who were fighting a school district in Oregon. Then on December 14, the justices declined to hear the appeal from the state of Indiana contesting the Seventh Circuit’s ruling in favor of married gay women. That was the case about issuing birth certificates listing two mothers when a woman who gives birth is married to another woman. I’m kind of excited.

It takes four justices to agree to hear a case, so this means that, whatever their predispositions, we are not completely despised by four members of the conservative majority. Hurray! Now let the fun begin. 1. What was the vote count in our Title VII Supreme Court victory, and who wrote the opinion? a) 5–4 John Roberts, extrapolating from precedent; b) 6–3 Neil Gorsuch, arguing for adherence to the text of the law; c) 5–4 Anthony Kennedy, in his final gay rights opinion; d) 6–3 Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in another expansive statement on our civil rights. 2. Which of these activists did not die in 2020? a) Larry Kramer; b) Monica Roberts; c) Del Martin; d) John Lewis. 3. One Million Moms called a Burger King ad “extremely destructive and damaging to impressionable children viewing the commercial” because a) It contained the line, “Damn that’s good!” b) It showed a young gay man buying a burger for his boyfriend;

By Ann Rostow

c) It featured a girl in a bikini; d) It included a one-second background shot of what could be two mothers and their daughter. 4. Magawa, who made headlines this year, was: a) An Instagram influencer in Morocco who incited attacks on closeted gay men; b) A hero rat who helped discover land mines in Cambodia; c) A therapy llama who brought comfort to BLM protesters in Portland; d) A Polish transgender activist who draped statutes in rainbow flags to protest the far-right regime of Andrzej Duda. 5. Houston doctor Stella Immanuel, part of a White Coat Summit on the virus last summer, earned controversy for asserting that: a) The U.S. government is run by aliens and reptiles; b) Scientists are creating a vaccine that will destroy religious faith; c) Gynecological problems are caused by spirits that have sex with women in their dreams; d) COVID-19 can be cured by total immersion in a bath of 150 proof rum; e) The Magic Eight Ball is a demonic oracle; f) All of the above.

6. In Fulton v City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court reviewed whether or not Philadelphia could drop a Catholic agency from its foster care program based on antigay discrimination rules. The Court decided: a) Yes, because civil rights laws are generally applicable and do not target a particular faith. b) No, because religious freedom, mandated by the First Amendment, trumps a state or local ordinance. c) Who knows? Because they haven’t ruled. d) Yes, because the City was acting as a market participant and has control over its business dealings in that context. 7. Yarislav Suris sued Pornhub because: a) He is deaf and wanted captions on their porn films based on the Americans with Disabilities Act. b) He objected on First Amendment grounds to a video that involved Jesus and his boyfriend, “Orlando.” c) They infringed his patent rights on the “bonerless bathing suit,” a bathing suit developed by Pornhub that hides erections. d) They abused animals in the short clip: “Bah, Bah, Black Sheep; Randy Farmer Gets Caught In Neighbor’s Flock.”

8. Trump appointee Merritt Corrigan made news when she: a) Attacked a female Mount Holyoke professor with a fire poker, a rock, and some garden shears, leaving her hospitalized, because the professor rejected her advances. b) Helped create a vaccine for chlamydia in koala bears. c) Complained that the media challenged her Christian beliefs, tweeting: “Let me be clear: Gay marriage isn’t marriage. Men aren’t women. U.S.-funded Tunisian LGBT soap operas aren’t America First.” d) Expressed outrage over Hasbro trolls that made orgasmic noises when you pressed a button between their legs. 9. True or False— In 2020: a) State Senator Sylvia Allen of Arizona proposed a bill to remove the word “homosexual” from public school curricula, ban sex ed for anyone under 12, and deem any discussion of sex between minors as harmful. b) Gay wolves were removed from the endangered species list. c) Scientists said homosexuality was linked to reduced levels of beta amyloid, the bad stuff that causes Alzheimer’s disease. d) In Croatia, the town fathers of Imotski burned a carnival float doll

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(continued on page 28)

DEC EM BER 17, 2020

With Hope for the NEW YEAR! ‘This ... Is 20/20’

TLC: Tears, Laughs and Conversation Dr. Tim Seelig Since 1978, the words “this is 20/20” have been repeated weekly by a host of trusted household names: Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, Charles Gibson, Sam Donaldson, Connie Chung, John Stossel, Elizabeth Vargas, and Chris Cuomo. That is quite a list. They are the news anchors people completely trusted when they reported worldwide happenings.

That’s certainly television of the past. It appeared on one of the three major networks. What? Three? Not on Netflix? Forget it! Many have. But many of us haven’t. Not only are the three big networks struggling to compete against too many options, but there has been a war on news in general. Once upon a time, in a land very far away, we believed what a news anchor said. They actually said exactly the same thing on all three channels. That confirmed it to be the truth. We trusted Hugh and Barbara and the others. Now, if you don’t like what you hear, you can switch channels and hear the exact opposite “news” coming from the anchors. News is most definitely no longer news. Leading up to New Year’s at the dawning of 2019, I wrote an article for the San Francisco Bay Times. Oh, my. And I quote: We have now “turned the page” on 2018. For many, it was with great relief and couldn’t come soon enough. I’m in that camp. For some, the year’s page was turned with happiness, closing a chapter on a stellar year. Some hesitantly turned the page with trepidation of the unknown. Regardless, time is something we cannot control. We aren’t given the option of, “No, thanks, I’ll just stay in 2018 a little longer.” 2019 is here! Father Time continued his steady march throughout the last year. He’s not a pretty vision with his long beard, crumpled robe and carrying an hourglass representing time’s constant one-way movement. It’s a bit frightening when he grabs his scythe to kill off the last year! In his final act, he hands the new year over to a bouncing baby, who doesn’t have a clue what to do with the year ahead.

VINTAGE POSTCARDS

Shut the front door! What? Father Time has the scythe to kill off a year? Any nominations from the floor on what year to sacrifice to the old fella? I hear 2020. Are there any other nominations? Crickets. Hearing none, all in favor of leading 2020 up the steps to the gallows, say “Aye.” Hearing no objections, the motion passes. Bye, Felicia, 2020! Ah, were it that easy ... . Let’s be honest. Hindsight is 20/20 and the view from the rearview mirror just sucks. We can no longer take our minds off the tragic circumstances in our usual way: concerts, shows, movie theaters, ballet, social gathering places. And we have Zoom fatigue. What’s one to do? Here’s an idea: grab a book!! Take refuge in the printed word. Lose yourself in its pages. Allow it to take you on a journey—inside or out. What’s your very favorite kind of book? Action and adventure? Or maybe Classics, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, or Comics? Oh, so many choices. What if 2020 were actually a book? It would be a very long book. In what genre would you place it? OK, everyone cannot choose Horror. There are already countless books being written about 2020. Avoid them like the plague! Ouch, that’s a phrase no longer appropriate! Too soon. If life is truly just a book, thank you, Jesus, that we’ve started “2021, The Book.” It was a real page-turner/barnburner. Back to “2020, The Book,” what a book it was! It will never ever be compared to the Good Book. Except for the special treats God apparently had up his sleeve for the pinnacle of his creation— us! You know, water turned into blood (where was that water into wine story?), frogs, lice, gnats, and locusts (sounds like the boy scout summer camp I refused to attend), boils (gross), and pestilence. Yup. There it is! “A fatal epidemic disease.” Do I think God sent COVID because of the bad thing the gays keep doing, like getting married? Uh, no. We may have been bad (electing Donald Trump), but not that bad. Surely. Back to books. If we’d been able to read the back-cover synopsis, we would have never bought the book. But it doesn’t work that way. In fact, we have to not just read the book but live it before the synopsis

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can be written. It used to be so fun, when we read books with spines and paper. There was a comforting smell to reading older books. And a different smell to brand new books. Now, for the most part, it’s just swipe or tap. It’s just not the same. I have turned to reading on a screen rather than a book made of natural resources. I swear the fonts in books are getting smaller— probably to save paper. No matter how hard I pinched and spread two fingers trying to zoom in on my paper books, the font didn’t get bigger! So, the printing industry forced me to switch due to the costcutting. Have you ever just stopped a few chapters in—or maybe 1/3—and, instead of turning the page, just turned it in to the half-price bookstore to see if it might be someone else’s cup of tea? Or, in the old days, for fire starter, lining a bird cage, or training a puppy? Well, this last chapter would have been better off with any of those three. There were lots of chapters. There were some big sub-sections. Three come to mind: Trump; COVID19, and Black Lives Matter. There were many, many chapters under each sub-heading. Books in and of themselves. Of course, we all love journals. Empty books where we get to write our own story or stories. Sadly enough, most of our journals couldn’t avoid the three aforementioned chapters. You know those trick candles that, when you blow, they won’t blow out? The chapter titled “Donald” is like that. In November, we thought we had finished that chapter. We put that book aside in November. Surprise. Lo and behold it opens itself like some spell on Bewitched. Some of us actually threw the book away and, like a scene from It, the book rose from the trash, or gutter, with a scary clown face (Donald’s) and hunted us down crying, “You’re not done with me! I’ll show you and your little dog, too!” I have lived the ups and downs of life always with humor, most of the time putting things in their proper perspective and moving forward. And, I’ve always had live music to create with choirs all over the place—in addition to my “family,” SFGMC. Singing is healing. Singing with others is the thing of legend. It breaks down all the bar-

riers and allows one to completely immerse one’s self into the beautiful river of sound, adding your part to the whole. That’s gone for now. It is one of the hardest things about this pandemic. Why couldn’t we have had locusts? Here we are, 2021. Everyone or almost everyone is more than ready to write a new book and put the old one to bed in one of the methods described above—kindling, bird cage, puppy pad. Here is my New Year’s wish. I hope we can shed the hurt. I hope we can find forgiveness in our hearts. And, I hope we will be singing together long before “2022, The Book” begins to be written. Find a book you love. Write one yourself. Find a song you love. Sing along. Find someone you love and randomly Zoom them to tell them! Happy 2021! P.S. Back in 2018, I quoted a song lyric by Bay Area Troubadour, Bobby Jo Valentine. It is even more poignant two years later. Here is a brief excerpt: Something You Happen To december 31st, pull up the shiny hearse put in the old year, break the reverse gear the past pulls out your driveway, forever out of reach the future is a highway growing beneath our feet forever incomplete always awakening so, let the new year grow, take it sure and slow never look back except to learn or laugh wounds are our greatest teachers, scars are our strangest strength hold your hurt hand high, wave a good goodbye the dawn only breaks after the old day dies time moves us ever forward into the mystery and every moment changes based on the way we move, life isn’t just what happens ... it’s something you happen to Dr. Tim Seelig is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

With Hope for the NEW YEAR! Goodbye and Good Riddance 2020 Sister Roma, The Most Photographed Nun in the World “2020 to me was unprecedented. Ugh. I’m so tired of this word. I’m even more tired of shocking behavior and circumstances that warrant its use. Enough already!” Sister Roma hugs a friend.

Liam P. Mayclem 2020 was our “annus horribilis” (horrible year), to paraphrase Queen Elizabeth II. For most, 2021 cannot come soon enough, and this next year I hope will be our “annus mirabilis”—a wonderful year. Everyone everywhere, from world leaders and royalty to prison inmates and the homeless, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic that defined much of 2020. The virus came close to home for me when both sides of my family were hit by the virus here in the U.S. and back home in the U.K. Joyfully, everyone in my family pulled through, but that was not the case for all, and my heart is with all those we lost; too many, taken too soon. 2020 for me was also a year of complete upheaval, filled with anxiety and dread coupled with a wave of hope and appreciation of our true wealth—our good health, family, and friends. I hope 2021 will allow us all to get back to a sense of normalcy, with bars & restaurants surviving and thriving once again, events happening, hugging allowed, and COVID-19 in the rear-view mirror.

“My hopes for 2021 are that we will see an end to the virus and a year of good health, equity, opportunity, and happiness for everyone.” Juanita MORE! Drag Superstar & Fashion Icon “2020 has been a s--t show. As it ends, I plan on wrapping up the year lip-syncDan Kerman, KRON4, with partner Mike & Pebbles ing to the Steven Sondheim song “I’m Still Here” from the Broadway musical Follies. ‘Good times and bum times, I’ve seen them all, and my dear, I’m still here.’”

“My hopes for 2021 are to return to precedent, a reset, a renewed balance, and harmony for all.” Chef Mat Schuster, Canela Restaurant “2020 to me was ... a marathon every day.” “My hopes for 2021 are: a new president, a healthy year for the world, and some time to relax!”

“My hope for 2021 is that we continue to move courageously forward in our fight for racial equality, find beauty in each other’s differences, have faith in our future on this planet, and share loads and loads of love.”

Cliff Baker, Photographer

Chef Preeti Mistry “2020 to me was a time for the world to pause, for the curtain to be pulled back from our leaders’ charades (in all industries) and for so many to connect with the power of community action and aid.” “My hopes for 2021 are we build back all the damage that has been done this year in a way that benefits all and not just those at the top.”

Happy Holidays and keep hope in your heart for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2021. Jan Wahl, Empress of Entertainment

Liam Mayclem: How has food been a part of this time on a personal or professional level?

Photographer Clifford Baker (center) with Liam (left) and his partner Rick

Jen Biesty, Shakewell Bar & Restaurant: “Food, drink, and hospitality are our life, our craft. We will keep being the best Shakewell we can be, and we will stay healthy.”

BeBe Sweetwater, Activist/Drag Artist/ Performer “2020 to me was a time to take personal inventory of who I am and who I need to be to better myself and my community.”

PHOTO BY KRISTEN LOKEN

“2021: I hope for a less partisan and divisive future that will lead to a restoration of civility and mutual respect in our political discourse as well as a pandemic brought under control, children back in school, restaurants and theaters re-opened, travel restrictions lifted, the economy revived for everyone’s benefit, and peaceful nights of sleep taken for granted once again.”

“We are trying to keep our customers happy and healthy, and we are trying to keep our farmers, fishmongers, and producers all connected and supported by our customers—this is the name of the game. We will get through this together. Chicken and Churros for Everyone!!!!”

Chef Jen Biesty

Alice Waters, Chez Panisse:

“My hopes for 2021 reveal smiles of joy, riding, great wine, and gym moments that include others than myself.”

“I hope 2021 will be a way to bring the joy of show business to people’s hearts.”

“Hearing Janet Napolitano speak the words 'regenerative' and 'organic'—that was a real joy!” “I can find hapChef Sarah Kirnon piness having my daughter here: our closeness, our love of cooking together, our love of nature, just seeing the rose come out every day, watching it and then all of a sudden, it bursts forth. I’ve never had the time to experience that. I’ve always had solace in nature. I’m really seeing the victory garden, growing food. If there’s lettuce outside, you can always make yourself a salad!” Food People (Are the Best People) is published by Acorn Press with a portion of the profits going to the nonprofit No Kid Hungry, a movement of teachers, chefs, community leaders, parents, lawmakers, and CEOs with a shared belief: no kid in America should go hungry. To learn more and to purchase the book: https://www.foodpeoplebook.com/

PHOTO BY KRISTEN LOKEN

PHOTO BY RINK

“2020 was a year of Revaluations. I never knew I could have such a deep level of anger toward a political figure and at the same time be praying so hard for change.”

Eric LaSalle, U.S. Park Ranger “2020 to me was filled with non-normal days of patrol; smoke-filled air and a deadly virus plaguing the world.”

Chef Sarah Kirnon: “The fact that food is a basic human right, and that so many people don’t have access to three meals a day—let alone healthy food. The industry that I have known all my life has contributed to that, by creating divide in how we eat, and who we serve."

Liam Mayclem: Where do you find joy now?

“My hopes for 2021 are that we as a community of humans will reflect on 2020 as a wakeup call on how poorly we value each other BeBe Sweetwater, Activist & Drag Star as fellow human beings, and will take steps in our individual lives to do better toward our neighbors.”

Jan Wahl with Liam Mayclem

Juanita MORE! Drag Superstar & Fashion Icon

Three other friends thoughtfully answered some additional questions.

“2020 was a year of growing anxiety about the direction in which this country appeared to be heading. Although I have often been critical of our political system, never before have I seen democracy itself imperiled by a leader who demonstrated so little respect for the rule of law or the precedents that had seemingly been well established by prior administrations.”

I asked some friends in our LGBTQI+ community what 2020 was about for them and what their hopes are for 2021. I also included some photos and comments from a brilliant book, Food People (Are the Best People), produced during the pandemic by Bay Area photographer Kristen Loken: https://tinyurl.com/y9t7t7rc

“2020 was a year filled with frustration, fear, anxiety, and ultimately hope, as well as a greater appreciation for the ones near and dear to me.”

PHOTO BY KRISTEN LOKEN

Liam’s LGBTQI List

Dan Kerman, KRON4 News Reporter

Alice Waters, Food Pioneer

Emmy Award-winning radio and television personality Liam Mayclem is regularly featured on KPIX as well as KCBS, where he is the popular Foodie Chap. Born in London, Mayclem is now at home in the Bay Area, where he lives with his husband, photographer Rick Camargo. For more information: https://www.bookliam.com/

Eric La Salle, U.S. Park Ranger S AN F R ANC IS C O BAY T IM ES

DEC EM BER 17, 2020

Roland Schembari and Bill Hartman, Co-Founders Randy Alfred, Founding News Editor 1978

Study Shows Cognitive Health Disparities Between LGB and Heterosexual Older Adults

Kim Corsaro Publisher 1981-2011

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Aging in Community Dr. Marcy Adelman Dr. Ning Hsieh, a Michigan State University sociologist, is the lead author of a groundbreaking first study to assess cognitive health disparities between lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual older adults using a national sample and validated screening tool. Her study, Elevated Risk of Cognitive Impairment Among Older Sexual Minorities, found that LGB older adults are more likely to experience mild cognitive impairment or early dementia compared to heterosexual older adults. Although the study looked at several known health factors, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, only one, depression, was a significant contributing factor. In an interview with me for the San Francisco Bay Times, Dr. Hsieh

factors and cognitive impairment among sexual minorities.”

explained: “The study’s sample of 3567 participants included 81 racially diverse self-identified LGB older adults. It was initially collected by NORC’s (National Opinion Research Center) National Social Life, Health and Aging Project over 2015–16. The survey adapted the Montreal Cognitive Assessment or MoCA to measure cognitive health disparities between LGB and heterosexual older adults. The MoCA is a performance-based measure and, as such, is a more accurate measure of cognitive decline than self-reported symptoms of cognitive decline.” She continued, “We looked at three potential factors impacted by minority stress: health conditions, health behaviors, and social connections that might link sexual orientation to cognitive health. Depressive symptoms were the only explaining factor of LGB people’s poorer cognitive health in our study. Previous research has shown that sexual minority youth and adults experience higher levels of mental illness, such as depressive disorders, than their heterosexual peers, and that depression is a risk factor for dementia.” I asked Dr. Hsieh to say more about the impact of minority stress. “Minority stress is a broad term,” she replied. “It can include many stressors, for example, stigma, social isolation such as separation from family and difficulty finding friends or com-

I hope those resources are made available to Dr. Hsieh and thank her for taking us one important step closer to understanding the risk factors and cognitive impairment in the LGB communities. We have known that LGB seniors are more likely to suffer from depression as a result of a homophobic world. With this study, we now understand the profound impact of depression and its relationship to increased likelihood of dementia. Dr. Ning Hsieh

munity, harassment and discrimination at work or school, being the recipient of violent attacks, and struggling with internal homophobia. Understanding the historical experiences of sexual minorities is important for understanding their health. As an immigrant and a member of the Queer community, I understand these difficulties we face.” She added, “If I had the resources, I would like to collect a larger data set. We need a lot more research before we can really understand the risk

Dr. Marcy Adelman, a psychologist and LGBTQ+ longevity advocate and policy adviser, oversees the Aging in Community column. She serves on the California Commission on Aging, the Governor’s Alzheimer’s Prevention and Preparedness Task Force, the Board of the Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California, and the San Francisco Dignity Fund Oversight and Advisory Committee. She is the Co-Founder of Openhouse, the only San Francisco nonprofit exclusively focused on the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ older adults.

Alegre Home Care is proud to support Dr. Marcy Adelman’s Aging in Community column in the San Francisco Bay Times.

CONTRIBUTORS Writers Rink, Sister Dana Van Iquity, Ann Rostow, Patrick Carney, Kate Kendell, Alex Randolph, Heidi Beeler, Gary M. Kramer, Jennifer Kroot, Robert Holgate, Dennis McMillan, Tom Moon, Tim Seelig, Cinder Ernst, John Chen Rafael Mandelman, Jewelle Gomez, Phil Ting, Rebecca Kaplan, Kin Folkz, Leslie Katz, Philip Ruth, Peter Gallotta, Bill Lipsky, Elisa Quinzi, Liam Mayclem, Karen Williams, Donna Sachet, Gary Virginia, Zoe Dunning, Derek Barnes, Marcy Adelman, Stuart Gaffney & John Lewis Brandon Miller, Jamie Leno Zimron Michele Karlsberg Lyndsey Schlax, Randy Coleman, Debra Walker, Howard Steiermann, Andrea Shorter, Lou Fischer, Karin Jaffie, Brett Andrews, Karen E. Bardsley, David Landis, Jan Wahl

San Francisco Bay Times Wishes You & Yours A Happy and Safe Holiday Season

Photographers Rink, Phyllis Costa, Jane Higgins Paul Margolis, Chloe Jackman, Bill Wilson, Jo-Lynn Otto, Sandy Morris, Abby Zimberg, Deborah Svoboda, Devlin Shand, Kristopher Acevedo, Morgan Shidler, JP Lor ADVERTISING Display Advertising Standard Rate Cards http://sfbaytimes.com/ or 415-503-1375 Custom ad sizes are available. Ads are reviewed by the publishers. National Advertising: Contact Bay Times / San Francisco. Represented by Rivendell Media: 908-232-2021 Circulation is verified by an independent agency Reprints by permission only. CALENDAR Submit events for consideration by e-mail to: calendar@sfbaytimes.com © 2021 Bay Times Media Company Co-owned by Betty L. Sullivan & Jennifer L. Viegas

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Supporting Small Businesses in the Castro & Beyond

BAY TIMES S

LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area

CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES (1978–2020)

The Mask Shop & Stitchery 4 pm–8 pm Tuesday–Thursday; 2 pm–8 pm Friday, Saturday, & Sunday; Closed Mondays 4072 18th Street Contact: Michael Petri, John Goldsmith and Jorge Gonzalez 415-939-5678 mikejstitching@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/mikemask61/ Before the pandemic hit the Bay Area, few of us had a face mask for health purposes, much less health-related coverings that are often as stylish and fun as they are functional. To the rescue has come The Mask Shop & Stitchery, specializing in custom-made masks, other stitched items, and more right in the Castro. San Francisco Bay Times photographer Rink has stopped by numerous times and kept us up-to-date on the latest antics there of our friend Deana Dawn and her colleagues at the shop. Be sure to stop by and tell them, “Hello!” and check out the Christmas trees on sale there, too.

Photo courtesy of The Mask Shop

Photos by Juan R. Davila

Socially distanced, contactless shopping is required in the frequently-cleaned shop, and specially designed “try on” masks are used for fitting. President-elect Joe Biden says that all Americans will be asked to wear face masks for at least the first 100 days of his presidency, providing yet another reason to stop at this creative shop and to gear up for your and the public’s own collective good.

TIN Rx Pharmacy 9 am–6 pm Monday–Friday 2175 Market Street Contact: PJ Nachman 628-895-9508 TINrx803@TINrx.com http://www.TINrx.com One of the blessings of 2020 is a new, independent, and “stigma-free pharmacy.” TIN Rx’s goal is to provide customers culturally competent and inclusive care in a safe, chic, and supportive environment. The staff has a deep understanding of the challenges of healthcare and the specific needs that arise within the LGBTQ community. “We are a pharmacy for everyone. We offer all medications and take all insurance,” co-founder Patricia J. (PJ) Nachman explained. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, TIN Rx continues its core business practice of helping to make clients’ lives easier when it comes to getting their medications. The business offers local courier service and shipping or mailing free of charge. Founded by life and business partners Nachman and Dr. Christina Garcia, TIN Rx is the first independent pharmacy in California to offer the convenience of an Automatic Drug Dispensing Machine (ADDS Machine) and to offer customers the option of a customized packaged, monthly subscription box called “Daily” to receive their prescriptions. Garcia and Nachman bring their combined experience in business and pharmaceuticals along with their passion for LGBTQ community support and equality to create a unique experience for all. For new as well as existing patients, TIN Rx will personalize and package vitamins (up to 8 per month) with your medication for only $14.00/ month.

Castro Smoke Shop 10:30 am–10 pm Daily 409 Castro Street Contact: Deeno Zaid 415-552-7411 castrosmoke409@gmail.com http://www.castrosmokehouse.com Castro Smoke Shop specializes in offering a large selection of cigars, including Flor de Antillas, Hampton Court, Cohiba Robusto, and many more. Also offered for sale are a variety of bongs, pipes, vapes, cigarettes, kratom, and CBD. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the store limits the number of people who can be inside to two at once. Hand sanitizer is available at all times, and the store is disinfected regularly. San Francisco Bay Times readers may request a special 15% discount. Castro Smoke Shop has been a supporter of the Castro Street Cam service since its debut in November of 2017.

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Photos courtesy of TIN Rx Pharmacy

Happy Chanukah Women’s Virtual Celebration of Chanukah 2020 Hosted by Rachel Ginsburg, Suzanne Falter, and Sandy Morris, a Women’s Virtual Celebration of Chanukah took place on Sunday, December 13. The theme for the evening was “Those Were The Days, My Friend.” San Francisco Bay Times team members attended prior such celebrations for many years when they were in person, and have a special affinity for the event and this close-knit group of women. We are grateful that they continue to keep the tradition alive—this year even with the challenges created by the pandemic.

Photos courtesy of Sandy Morris

Participants for 2020 joined in remembering times past as they looked at Morris’ photos from Chanukah parties of long ago, lit Chanukah candles with prayers led by Revital, sang favorite songs, grieved for sisters who are no longer with us, and celebrated women’s culture. Some participants made latkes and other traditional goodies to enjoy in their individual homes. Let there be light, and a continuation of this warm and festive Chanukah event tradition in December 2021!

Past years...

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DEC EM BER 17, 2020

COVID-19 Affecting Our Families

More Than a Number: Losing Our Greatest Generation During COVID-19 indulgence concerning aging, and just get on with it and have faith, everything was going to be alright. A few weeks ago, unexpectedly, my grandmother fell ill with what would turn out to be coronavirus. She was hospitalized on a Monday. On the following Saturday evening, December 5, she would become one of the reported 2,190 lives in the U.S. taken away that day by coronavirus.

Cross Currents Andrea Shorter A few days from today, my maternal grandmother would have been 95 years old. She was not one for celebrating birthdays, but every year, her mindset about living in the present and aging was summed up in her often imparted cheery, wise quip: “Age is nothing but a number.” I am now 55, and I believe the first time she told me this was around my 25th birthday, when I was probably having some cringe-worthy, mild anxiety attack, aka whining about getting older. Looking back, I don’t remember anything so bad about my life and times at the ripe old age of 25. In fact, other than my grandmother setting my mind right about aging, I don’t remember much about it all. Apparently, whatever my worries were at the time, my grandmother was as always right, that once I let go of my self-

My grandmother was born in 1925, and lived her entire life in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was the daughter of a domestic worker and a janitor at Eli Lily, both up from the South. As a child, she described herself as a “little red-headed one,” a bit of a daddy’s girl as the youngest daughter of 5 children. She would graduate from the best known segregated high school in the city, and hold, from all accounts, one job in her life, as an elevator operator. She married my grandfather shortly after his discharge from the Navy after World War II, including service on Treasure Island, way, way out in California somewhere. From my grandfather’s GI benefits, they were eligible to build their own house in a project that built a middle-class neighborhood of other post-WWII African American veterans and their families. Many of the neighborhood dads worked as civil servants, in the auto industry, for the universities, or for big pharmaceutical companies. My grandfather became a firefighter for 30 years, and they raised their eight children together.

Obviously at aged 94, my grandmother was of the Greatest Generation, living through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and all wars and conflicts since. She lived through being formally referred to as Negro, Colored, Black, and eventually as African American throughout all manifests of anti-black racial segregation and strife, including the recently declared reckonings with race in America of 2020. My grandmother had style, grace, and a great sense of humor. She was quite the homemaker, a conservative and frugal child of the depression, but not cheap. She was always the first to get the new appliances and gadgets, and upgrade to the next when needed. She taught me how to use a good old fashioned pressure cooker—still my favorite cookware item!—and would gladly help me by phone when I wasn’t sure how to cook up the perfect corned beef and cabbage, or stew. She became unusually adept at computers in her 60s. If my technology professional brother was not available to rescue me from a computer meltdown of some sort, I’d call her. She’d know what to do. Above all, my grandmother was a woman grounded by and in her faith. She believed in a God greater than and beyond our mortal comprehension. She believed in kindness, fairness, and the golden rule. All of her life, she played by the rules. I sincerely doubt my grandmother even so much as got a parking ticket. If she

ever did, I can only imagine it was just once. Now, instead of living out her last days, moments, and breaths in the comfort of the home she built with my grandfather and raised her family, as any good woman nearing 95 years old should have, she was taken away by a pandemic that was avoidable but for arrogance, dereliction, and hubris. Now, as of this writing, I am awaiting arrangements for a eulogy and celebration of my grandmother from afar, by remote video. This is not at all how anyone would have imagined we would come to gather at the end of my grandmother’s well-lived life. As much as I work to accept her passing with the peace, understanding, and grace that she would have expected of me, my anger and outrage are undeniable, ever-present. It didn’t have to be this way, but it is. It is the reality of nearly 300,000 American families, and friends who have lost and continue to lose loved ones to what was clearly avoidable, unnecessary. Age might very well be just a number, but like the many other family members and friends, I know that my loved one’s life counted for far more than being just another number of the daily death tolls at the top of the hourly newscast. And, just like the many other family members and friends, I am glad and relieved at the news that a viable vaccine will soon be available to hopefully prevent more deaths. It goes without say-

ing that I desperately wish a vaccine could have been available sooner, in time to protect my aged grandmother. My grandmother’s memory and legacy will live on with me, my family, and the legions of her friends and fans. It will. I am working to let her light shine through my heart, and not be clouded by the hurt and anger and pain roiling in me about how or why she left this Earth. I will do my best to honor her life lived in and by faith. My faith is shaken, but not broken. Should I live to be 94, I will keep faith (and works) with our generation to do all in our power to never allow such horrific, preventable misery from happening again. Keeping the White House Trump-free is an encouraging start. Eighty million votes is a number we can build on. Andrea Shorter is a Commissioner and the former President of the historic San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women. She is a longtime advocate for criminal and juvenile justice reform, voter rights and marriage equality. A Co-Founder of the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition, she was a 2009 David Bohnett LGBT Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Honoring Our Relative Lost to COVID-19, Robert L. Meyers (1936–2020) ing the news, playing cards, poking around on his iPad, and reciting poetry from memory to family members and the myriad of health and domestic helpers who assisted him and Amy’s mother, Libby—all of whom tested negative after Bob’s diagnosis, so none of them was the vector.

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History Louise “Lou” Fischer On July 11, 2020, my partner Amy Meyers—also a contributor and friend to the San Francisco Bay Times—and I got the dreaded phone call that we knew was a possibility but hadn’t expected. As I watched Amy’s knees buckle and heard the plaintive wail that preceded the torrent of tears, my heart sank with sadness, anger, and a feeling of “this s--t just got real.” A few days earlier, her father, Bob, had been admitted to a Dallas hospital for treatment of pneumonia caused by a mysteriously acquired case of COVID-19. How he ever came in contact with the virus is a mystery to this day. As an elderly man with limited mobility (he could walk, but the backyard snails under the noontime sun of a Dallas summer moved faster), he rarely left the house since the onset of the pandemic. As he was deprived of his much-loved gatherings with his gang of retired Dallas lawyers, the “1970s Dallas Masters of the Universe,” (yes, he even had a Porsche back in the day!), he spent his time at home, watch12

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Once Bob was diagnosed and admitted to the hospi- Photos courtesy of Louise Fischer tal, everyone in Bob’s immelences to my “other family”: diate world went into “COVID Bob’s wife of 59 years, Libby; mode,” a mix of fear, worry, and daughter Lucy; her husband sleuthing. Fear manifested as: “Holy Ken; and Bob’s “light of his crap, I was exposed. “Am I going life,” granddaughter Madeline; to get sick?” “Where can I get a and, of course, Amy, who never test in Dallas?” If you are an uningot the chance to see him before sured essential worker, the answer is nowhere, unless your kind and gener- he passed. ous employer (Amy’s Mom) pays the We were all deprived of a few $250 herself for your test. more years of enjoying his Worry presented as, “Oh no, Bob is 83. Is he going to be OK?” And, “Activate the prayer circles, we’re at DEFCON 1, all hands on deck; bring in the atheists if you have to!” Sleuthing turned out to be a wasted effort, since there’s no contact tracing in Texas and investigations by the family provided no clues. Worry morphed into a very brief period of hope followed by crushing despair. After a few days in the hospital, Bob’s pneumonia cleared, his fever came down, and the doctor informed the family that they were discharging him the following day. That morning, in his last conversation with Amy, he remarked that he was “happy as a clam” about going home. Sadly, he had a fatal cardiac arrest because COVID-19 doesn’t give up that easily. Just like that, a family lost a patriarch and this dreaded pandemic claimed another victim. My deepest condoDE C E MB E R 1 7 , 2 0 2 0

good cheer, infectious laugh, off-key singing, and recitation of Robert Frost poetry. Bob/ Dad, I know you’re probably in heaven playing your favorite Eagles’ tape while driving your convertible Porsche, but we miss you down here on Earth. Stay safe, people. COVID-19 plays dirty.

Louise (Lou) Fischer is a Former Co-chair of the Board of Directors of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and has served as an appointed and elected Delegate for the State Democratic Party. She is a proud graduate of the Emerge California Women’s Democratic Leadership program, was a San Francisco Commissioner, and has served in leadership positions in multiple nonprofit and community-based organizations.

LGBTQ Individuals Participate in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials As the first rounds of COVID-19 vaccinations take place across the Bay Area among physicians and other health care professionals, certain vaccine trials are still underway. Social media posts reveal that many participants in these trials are members of our local LGBTQ community, including San Francisco Bay Times readers and supporters. Thank you to them, and to all who are striving to end the pandemic. The American Medical Association (AMA) has been working with the COVID-19 Prevention Network, a project of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to promote diversity in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials, especially given that the virus has greatly impacted seniors and members of Black, Latinx, and Native American communities. As the AMA communicated in a release, “The vaccines must be tested in a diverse group that is representative of the general public and that means people of all genders and races.” Various drug companies are still seeking vaccine trial participants. Pfizer, for example, has two trials underway now in the Bay Area. For more information: https://www.pfizer.com/science/find-a-trial For a more complete listing, go to: https://clinicaltrials.gov/

Schools Must Reopen

It Is Time to Clear Up Political Mail worker protections. Voters' mailboxes were flooded with mail full of misinformation. The voters in Oakland saw through it, but the massive use of corporate money— often in deceptive ways—had harmful impacts statewide, and it is a threat that undermines our democracy.

format that uses a combination of in-person and remote learning. Schools in other states and countries have prioritized reopening and have shown it can be done safely without major coronavirus outbreaks. California must take the same path. Renowned expert, Dr. Robert Wachter, Chair of Medicine at UCSF, has said schools are much safer than expected, particularly for young kids ages 5–12 who don’t spread or carry the virus as much as adults.

Assemblymember Phil Ting As a parent of two daughters, I’m worried about the effects distance learning is having on our children during the pandemic. They’re falling further behind in their studies, jeopardizing their potential, as long as we solely rely on remote classes. On top of that, the longer they don’t see their friends and teachers in person, the more their social development and emotional intelligence could be impacted. These concerns spurred me to introduce AB 10 on the first day of our legislative session, requiring school districts to have a reopening plan in place by March 1, 2021. When a school’s county enters the Red, Orange, or Yellow tiers, signaling less widespread risk of COVID-19, my bill mandates the reopening plan to be implemented within two weeks. This road map sets a clear threshold of when in-person instruction resumes, while also taking into account public health parameters. Local school districts can still decide for themselves which in-person model best fits their student and workforce needs, including a hybrid

At the same time, a recent American Medical Association study found learning loss experienced by elementary students in the first three months of the pandemic could shorten their life span, collectively resulting in more than five million fewer years of life. We can’t let that happen and must intervene. AB 10 comes after I and other members of the San Francisco delegation sent letters earlier this month to five superintendents in our districts, urging them to prioritize reopening schools. There are resources already allocated in the state budget to help them do so safely. Most public schools throughout the state haven’t adopted the guidance the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has already issued on how to get students and teachers back in the classroom with safety protocols in place. It’s based on the color-coded system that tracks the number and percentage of COVID-19 cases daily: Purple: No public or private school can reopen, but those teaching grades K–6 or providing instruction to a small “cohort” group can get a waiver. Red: Reopening will be possible once the county has remained in this tier for 14 days. Orange/Yellow: May reopen immediately, unless the county has stricter rules. The few schools that have reopened using these guidelines have primarily been private institutions, disproportionately affecting low-income students and worsening achievement gaps. After years of progress improving the quality of public education for all students, I can’t let our work take a step backwards when there are proven ways to safely bring back (continued on page 28)

Some of these deceptive tactics included creating fraudulent “slate” mailers, which pretended to represent legitimate community advocacy groups, but actually were simply methods for wealthy corporations to send mail pieces to advocate for their positions while hiding the source of funds.

Out of the Closet and into City Hall Oakland City Councilmember At-Large, Rebecca Kaplan The November 2020 Elections were pretty rough—and involved massive expenditures by wealthy corporations trying to buy their way, who sought special loopholes for themselves from laws everyone else has to follow. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Citizens United case in favor of money and corporate influence in political campaigns, we knew that the scales were going to tip in favor of well-funded deception and political dirty tricks. I know first-hand how far corporations will go to defeat a candidate who calls for fairness. Big companies like Uber and Lyft spent over $200 million in California to buy special rights for themselves. Lyft spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a local city council race, in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat me in my race for re-election to the Oakland City Council. They were spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fight for Prop 22, to strip gig-workers of basic

Oakland law requires that major funders be listed directly on the mail piece itself, and our campaign finance laws generally recognize that voters should have a right to know who funds various attack ads and election mail, to better understand the motivation and intentions of the people funding those efforts. The mail that was sent and funded by these large corporations, however, did not provide the disclosure of the source of funds. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez sees the problem of deceptive slate mailers, and seeks to better deal with the effects of corporate influence and anti-democratic secretive political money in our politics. On December 7, Assemblywoman Gonzalez introduced a bill to deal with these issues: AB40. A slate mailer is a piece of mass mail that lists support or opposition for four or more candidates or ballot measures. “Slate mailers are consistently used to try to deceive voters in our state, more so in this past election than ever before,” Assemblywoman Gonzalez said. “This bill provides transparency to help voters make better informed decisions at the ballot box.” AB40 would require that additional disclosures be included on each slate mailer. There would be no more front names to hide behind. AB40 requires the organization or committee listed as sending out the slate mail to disclose the number of people who are actually members of the committee. Also, AB40 requires each candidate or ballot measure that paid to appear on the mailer to have the total amount paid listed underneath their name where they are listed as “endorsed.”

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DEC EM BER 17, 2020

Songs of the Season Virtual Event with Brian Kent Photos by Paul Margolis

You may have heard it said that “the holidays have not started until you’ve seen Songs of the Season!” Well, it continues to be true, even in 2020. Now in its 28th year, Songs of the Season this month presented an amazing cabaret show with star-studded talent, curated and hosted by Billboard recording artist Brian Kent. San Francisco Bay Times columnist Donna Sachet, who founded Songs of the Season, performed along with community favorites Sister Roma, Kippy Marks, Breanna Sinclairé, Leannne Borghesi, Dan O’Leary, Kenny Nelson, and Paul Saccone. Also appearing were American Idol star contestants Frenchie Davis and Effie Passero. The event is a fundraiser for PRC, which is a longstanding service organization helping those affected by HIV/AIDS, substance use, or mental health issues. Services include emergency financial assistance, legal representation, supportive housing, employment training, and more. You can contribute to support PRC at http://www.prc/songs And, if you would like to view or re-watch the entire show, you can do so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP6yX56naEw&feature=youtu.be

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Donna’s Chronicles

By Donna Sachet

ike it or not, the world has changed significantly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the many restrictions its contagion has wrought upon every one of us. While many may be happy to see 2020 fade into memory and enter 2021 with high hopes of a return to normalcy, we are convinced that many of these changes will be permanent or at least they will be woven into our social activities in a monumental way. Rather than clinging to long practiced social conventions and pining for their wholesale return, some in our community are seeking viable alternatives, constantly adjusting to the changing face of the pandemic and the public’s willingness to alter their behavior. Faced with the economic, social, and political ramifications of this devastating virus, we must find new and creative ways to address human nature and our deeply felt need for companionship. Longing for a return to the days of grand galas in palatial ballrooms with hundreds of guests or boisterous sports events in cavernous arenas packed with spectators is like hoping for a return to long phone conversations instead of abbreviated text messages or leisurely research in stately libraries rather than instantaneous Google searches. Social reality is changing just as sure as telegrams, fax machines, and cassette players have been replaced by email, computers, and Spotify. Are we going to become the next generation of grumps, wishing for the old days, or are we going to become part of the new social order, finding new ways to connect, stay in touch, and share experiences? The Rainbow Honor Walk recently hosted a group screening of I Am Divine, an appealing documentary of the life and career of drag star Divine. This is the organization responsible for the bronze plaques in the sidewalks of the Castro neighborhood honoring LGBTQ individuals for their unique contributions. Honorees range from writers and entertainers to political figures and sports icons and these plaques are a very visible reminder of the importance of our own LGBTQ history. In addition to the over 40 plaques already in place, another eight are scheduled for installation over the next few months, honoring Sylvia Rivera, Leonard Matlovich, Audre Lorde, Gladys Bentley, Maurice Sendak, Quentin Crisp, Vito Russo, and Divine. The movie screening via Zoom was designed to increase understanding of the life of one honoree while joining a group of like-minded people in a common experience. Nearly every participant learned something new about Divine, many of them gaining greater appreciation for the journey of his life. The event also served as a low-key fundraiser, free to attend, but with donations to the cause encouraged; they exceeded their modest financial goal, encouraging their ongoing project. Watch for upcoming additional events of this kind, when the Rainbow Honor Walk will focus on different honorees in a series of film screenings, panel discussions, and other formats. This is our history; if we don’t get it right, who will? The Imperial Court honored their Founder, the late José Sarria, on his birthday last Saturday that he happens to share with the Reigning Emperor William Bulkley. Starry Night was filled with historic information about José Sarria, a true civil rights pioneer and the first openly Gay person to run for political office in the United States. Tying into his popularity as a singer, the Emperor and Reigning Empress Mimi Osa invited live singers to send in video performances, demonstrating a wide variety of true talent, musical styles, and videographic techniques. The mix of seasoned performers and newer title holders co-hosted by Mr. Golden Gate Ashle Blow and Ms. Golden Gate Bernadette Bohan made for a delightful afternoon. Donations during the event and bids on a tempting silent auction supported the Monarchs’ Charity Fund. Up next was the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band’s annual Dance Along Nutcracker, this year entitled The Nutcracker Express, offering a virtual train ride to past performances, beautifully performed music from the band, guest performances by CHEER SF and the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and several celebrity cameos, including a chorus of staff, columnists, and friends of the San Francisco Bay Times singing "Jingle Bells." Flynn De Marco played the part of the train conductor ushering us to different places and times, stirring up lovely memories of past Nutcrackers and keeping this annual tradition alive in the comfort and safety of your home. The design and visual presentation were colorful, fast paced, and appealing. We could picture loyal audience members dancing to the music in their bedrooms and living rooms, dressed exactly as they desired. This Nutcracker was free of charge, but online comments indicated generous donations were flowing in throughout the show. The late Lisa Canjura-Clayton, long-time band member, was remembered in a lovely video tribute. Rather than miss their annual holiday show, the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation chose to assemble a lively presentation of highlights from 18 previous shows. REAF’s entire structure depends on performances of the highest quality by top entertainers in order to raise money for a variety of charitable causes, so this pandemic has decimated their operations. Nevertheless, Help is on the Way for the Holidays XIX: Virtual Holiday Gala & Concert showcased performances by Carol Channing, Sharon McNight, Latoya London, Sally Struthers, Karen Mason, Lisa Viggiano, Adam Lambert, Mary Wilson, Susan Anton, Shawn Ryan, Nancy Sinatra, Leslie Jordan, and others. Oh, the memories that welled up from

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.” –Karen Kaiser Clark

Calendar

a/la Sachet Thursday–Sunday, December 17–20 The Golden Girls LIVE!: The Christmas Episodes Featuring Heklina, Matthew Martin, D’Arcy Drollinger, Holotta Tymes Virtual show with new episodes $30 & up www.stellartickets.com Thursday, December 24 (At) Home for the Holidays, SF Gay Men’s Chorus Legendary Xmas Eve concert goes virtual 5 pm Details coming soon www.sfgmc.org Wednesday, January 20, 2021 Inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th U.S. President, And Kamala Harris as Vice President! Announced theme: “Our Determined Democracy: Forging a More Perfect Union” Details TBA

so many years of not just performances, but also lavish receptions, meeting stars in person, and watching the dream of two mothers who had lost their sons to AIDS grow successfully. The arts in San Francisco and all those associated with performances, e.g. costumers, set creators, musicians, stage hands, etc., are hurting like never before. For all the beauty they give us, let’s keep their struggle in our minds and donate to local organizations like the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation. And finally, too late to recount in this column, is Songs of the Season hosted by Brian Kent and benefiting PRC. We produced this annual holiday cabaret for 25 years before Brian took it on, adding new talent, fresh energy, and professional experience. Faced with the impossibility of staging a regular production, Brian invited select performers to submit video presentations that he then edited into a new show. Loyal sponsors again offered their support, people like Lu Conrad & Jeff Stone and Mark Leno. We hope many of you tuned in, enjoyed the event, and made generous contributions to PRC. Our complete recap will appear in our next column. Several friends have commented recently that they just don’t enjoy the virtual events they have watched, missing the in-person experience, the spontaneity, the camaraderie. We certainly understand, but please, keep watching, keep donating, and keep engaging. We have so many wonderful organizations doing incredible work in this town. Their needs remain and perhaps have grown, but they are struggling for ways to keep their supporters’ loyalty. They need your support. The world is not what it was and may never fully be again, but don’t give up! Stay calm, stay safe, and stay optimistic! Better days lie ahead. Donna Sachet is a celebrated performer, fundraiser, activist and philanthropist who has dedicated over two decades to the LGBTQ Community in San Francisco. Contact her at empsachet@gmail.com

PHOTO BY SHAWN NORTHCUTT

S AN F R ANC IS C O BAY T IM ES

DEC EM BER 17, 2020

Dance-Along N The Nutcrac

Photos by Paul Margol Dance-Along Nutcracker went virtual for 2020 with Clara and Fritz joining their favorite uncle aboard a train for visits to Hawaii, San Francisco during the Summer of Love, outer space (!) and more. Described as “part comedy musical, part dance-it-yourself ballet and part symphonic concert," Dance-Along Nutcracker is the San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Freedom’s Band (SFLGFB) signature holiday show held annually since 1985. By all accounts, the SFLGFB production staff, along with the cast and the Band’s talented musicians, deserve big kudos for this year’s show that attracted an impressive online audience and featured, in addition to content specific to 2020, a series of segments from previous year’s Nutcracker performances.

Special thanks to SFLGFB's Scott Shelp for his assistance to the San Francisco Bay Times team.

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Nutcracker 2020: cker Express

lis and Elizabeth Herren Remembering a cherished member lost during the year, SFLGFB included in the show these words: "To Lisa CanjuraClayton (6/19/62–5/31/20), we dedicate the 2020 DanceAlong-Nutcracker to you. We love you and miss you." The San Francisco Bay Times is proud to have been invited to contribute a “Jingle Bells” sing-along segment, hosted by columnist Donna Sachet. Representing the Bay Times were columnists Dr. Tim Seelig; David Landis; Lou Fischer appearing with her partner, performing artist Amy Myers; and Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis. Also included were singer Jason Brock, super volunteer Juan Davila, and co-publishers Betty Sullivan and Jennifer Viegas. Thanks to all in our team and special kudos to Betty’s granddaughter Callie who performed from her home in Orlando, Florida.

Alix Feinsod as Clara

Nick Setnik as Fritz

Flynn De Marco as Uncle Drosselmeyer & Train Conductor

Lisa Canjura-Clayton (6/19/62 – 5/31/20)

S AN F R ANC IS C O BAY T IM ES

DEC EM BER 17, 2020

Coming Out Stories Photos courtesy of Honey Mahogany

A Desire to Marry the Prince, Not the Princess By Honey Mahogany

I remember the very first time I actually vocalized my queerness. I was very young, just barely in preschool. I remember that I was sitting with friends looking through one of my favorite picture books, a ballet interpretation of the story of Cinderella. As we flipped through the pages, we finally landed on the ballroom scene. The other boys quickly began pointing out the ballerinas whom they wanted to marry, eager to stake their claim: that one in the blue dress, the one with the blonde hair ... . Anxious someone else might beat me to it, and without thinking about what I was saying, I quickly blurted out, “I want to marry the prince!” As soon as the words left my mouth, I wished I could take them back. I remember how quickly my cheeks got hot, even before I looked up to see the look of shock and disgust on the other boys’ faces. “Eew, that’s gross!” they said. “You’re not supposed to marry the boys; you’re supposed to want to marry the girls.” Yes, even at that young age, I knew that is how I was supposed to feel, but I didn’t feel that way. Needless to say, I didn’t make a mistake like that again. I kept my queerness hidden as much as I possibly could, though, admittedly, I wasn’t very good at it. I remember how often I was told as a child to try and play more with the boys. I remember my father, in particular, being upset by this, and getting more and more angry with me, especially as I started to hit puberty. Looking back, I know now that he must have been scared for me. He must have been terrified by what it might mean to have a boy who didn’t like to play with other boys, but all I knew at the time was that my father was unreasonably short-tempered and that it caused me to pull away from him. In the 8th grade our class was part of a district-wide story contest. The story we had to write was one where we found ourselves waking up in the body of the opposite gender. To say that I was excited about this assignment was an understatement. I mean, I had basically been dreaming this story every night since I was in preschool, and now, I had the opportunity to, if not make it real, then make it at least come to life by sharing it. As excited as I was, I was also paralyzed with the fear that I might reveal too much. But in the end, it was an assignment that I had to complete, so I set aside my fear and wrote the story. My friend Ann and I were chosen as having the top two stories of our grade. I remember my teacher gave me a knowing look after she said my name, as if she knew my story was a little too real, a little too earnest.

coming out could possibly cause my family pain and even cause them to reject me was absolutely terrifying. Going to college provided me with the opportunity to create some distance between myself and my family and that, in turn, allowed me the space I needed to explore my identity without fear of being found out or outed (this was before Instagram and Facebook after all). I ended up coming out to my close friends before my first semester was over, and before long, I got involved with the queer student association, the GLBTA, and began volunteering with the LGBT Center. In my sophomore year, I got in drag for the first time for one of my best friend’s student films. He approached me about playing the role because he said that I was the only guy he knew would also look good as a girl. By my junior year, in addition to being an executive board member of the GLBTA, paid staff at the LGBT Center, and my burgeoning career as a drag queen, I also became the resident advisor for the Rainbow Floor, one of just a few LGBT-themed dorms in the country. And when I graduated, I received an award for outstanding service to the school and to the LGBT community, and yet I still had not come out to my family. The summer after I graduated from college, I was working while traveling across the country as part of the National Student Leadership Conference. I would call home periodically to check in on my family, but (continued on page 28)

Even though I grew up in San Francisco, I was pretty sheltered. My closest friends and playmates were my cousins and second cousins whose parents had all moved to the Bay Area around the same time mine did. We spent every weekend at each other’s houses and many weekdays after school together. There was a very intimate and connected sense of kinship and love that I feel privileged to have experienced with my family. That closeness and sense of belonging was something that I treasured, and the idea that my 18

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PHOTO BY RINK

I didn’t end up actually coming out until I was well into my first year of college. Unlike the youth of today, when I was growing up it was still rare for people to come out while they were in high school. For me, there was also the added pressure of growing up the child of immigrants who came here from Ethiopia, a country that has been predominantly Christian since the 4th century, with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church being one of the oldest Christian churches in the world.

Honey Mahogany with Donna Sachet at the new Eagle Plaza Leather Flag Pole Dedication ceremony in September, 2019.

BAY TIMES S

Home for the Holidays (Literally)

3. For the pie lover: Canela’s homemade pies: Available in Emile Henry pie dishes. Check out all their holiday gear, too. https://canelasf.square.site/holiday

The Gay Gourmet

2020 will go down in history as the year of the homebody—literally. I was getting ready to write my December column (stay tuned for the Old Skool Café next year) when our Governor rightfully declared the need to stem the tide of COVID spread. So, we’ll resume restaurant dining in 2021. Hopefully then there will be a clear path to the light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel. In the meantime, I’m offering up my homage to that old Christmas carol chestnut with 12 great foodie stocking stuffers that are easy to buy and send while you’re still at home. And a few ideas to ring in the New Year, to boot.

4. For pals in the South Bay: Gourmet to-go holiday meals from Michelin-starred Baume in Palo Alto, including a $98 four-course seasonal menu, a $198 eight-course prestige holiday tasting menu, and a $298 nine-course Grand Prestige Holiday Tasting Menu (for Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s). https://www.maisonbaume.com/ 5. Sweets for your sweetie: Hand-crafted treats from Proper Hotel’s Villon, including DIY holiday cookie sets and hot cocoa bombs, all created by pastry chef Sohrob Esmaili, who won the 2020 Food Network spring baking competition. https://tinyurl.com/yyqhla58

6. Got the post-Hanukkah blues? One Market’s great new Jewish deli, Mark ‘n Mike’s, has a full menu available for orders the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s. The Gay Gourmet loves loves loves their pastrami. It’s meaty and tender, with just the right amount of spice: as good as Nate & Al’s in Beverly Hills and even better than my childhood favorite, Seltzer’s deli in Highland Park. https://onemarket.com/

10. A gift that keeps on giving for your favorite oenophile: Arlequin Wine Merchant in Hayes Valley sells wine club memberships with either one-bottle, three-bottle, or six-bottle a month deliveries, including additional benefits. https://bit.ly/3oVTQB0

7. Buy local for your favorite vegan: From Oakland-based

Always a good choice Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is consistently high quality from one of the world’s largest champagne houses. It always makes a great statement. https://www.veuveclicquot.com/en-us

Best bet for the money Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut Sparkling Wine from Sonoma is local and the Today Show called it one of America’s best. https://www.gloriaferrer.com/

12. Buy Right from Bi-Rite: One of our favorite local stores, Bi-Rite Market, has a whole online holiday gift emporium. Pick from such great holiday gifts as “Best of the Bay,” “Sam’s EatGoodFood Favorites,” or the “Bi-Rite PickOfTheSeason Fruit Box.” https://store.biritemarket.com/ To ring in the New Year—a few bubbles and maybe some caviar?

9. Desserts, anyone? Can you say, “Parlez-vous Francais?”: Le Marais Bakery has a new master boulanger and the galette des rois, viennoiseries, brioches, and Parisian vanilla flan are the proof in the pudding. This Frenchinspired bakery also is offering up a holiday tasting box with a variety of sweet things. Locations include the Castro, the Marina, Sutter St., and soon to open in Mill Valley. https://www.lemaraisbakery.com/

1. For the chocoholic: TCHO Chocolates: Free shipping and $25 off select orders of the gourmet chocolatier’s holiday gift packs, including seasonal flavors like Eggnog, Peppermint Mocha, and Rum Raisin. www.tcho.com

2. For the wine lover: Rhinefarm Detour: An hourlong virtual adventure through

8. We get a kick from champagne: Rialto Glass Coupe in a perfect salmon color, designed as an homage to Venice’s iconic Rialto Bridge. Just right to complement that Billecart-Salmon rosé champagne your uncle gave you for the holidays. Also from Nathan & Co. https://bit.ly/3mmMQeJ

LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area

retailer Nathan & Co., the AfroVegan cookbook by renowned chef and food justice activist Bryan Terry. He remixes favorite classic dishes of the African Diaspora with more than 100 culinary combinations. https://bit.ly/3abYnLv

David Landis

CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES (1978–2020)

11. Gifts that give back: For the quarantine cook, Family Meal: Recipes from Our Community is a digital cookbook featuring recipes from top chefs throughout America. Proceeds benefit the Restaurant Workers’ COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. https://tinyurl.com/yyb3zw5z

Sonoma history, wine + viticulture, including 3 Gundlach Bundschu estate wines, along with glassware, corkscrews, and accoutrements. https://bit.ly/3nnMF4f

Those that know the Gay Gourmet can attest to his love of champagne or any (good) sparkling wine. Here are some of my favorites:

To top it off To make that New Year’s celebration special, order the California white sturgeon caviar from San Francisco’s The Caviar Company on Union Street. They even have a gift set with French blinis, mother of pearl spoons, and crème fraiche. https://bit.ly/38bOGd4

Top of the heap Billecart-Salmon Rose, a champagne with a blend of chardonnay, pinot meunier, and pinot noir grapes. Just the right amount of bubbles, amazing finesse, and fervent intensity. https://bit.ly/37kuxCu

Way to impress your friends Roederer Estate Brut Rose champagne is a fragrant blend of pinot noir and chardonnay. This vintage is flavorful and less than half the price of Billecart-Salmon. https://bit.ly/2KujTAn

There you have it: 12 holiday gift ideas to wrap a cloistered year— and some great bubbly choices to welcome the New Year. Don’t forget the partridge in a pear tree. See you in 2021! David Landis, aka “The Gay Gourmet,” is a foodie, a freelance writer, and a PR executive. Follow him on Instagram @ GayGourmetSF, on Twitter @ david_landis, email him at: david@landispr.com or visit him online at: www.gaygourmetsf.com

Mollie Stone’s Markets Donate to Healthcare Workers, Matching Customer Donations

The amount raised at the grocery chain’s nine stores by customers was half, with Mollie Stone’s matching it. “As we all do our best to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to make sure our local hospitals have the support they need to continue to fight and help our community navigate this unprecedented time.” explained Mike Stone, CEO of Mollie Stone’s Markets. “We are 20

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proud to support our community and these heroes during this crisis.” He added, “I would also like to thank our wonderful employees who played a significant role in getting contributions at the store.” He and his team would also like to thank their customers for their support and generosity towards making this matched drive a success. Every donation at checkout will make an impact and difference. Mollie Stone’s Markets is family owned and has operated locally since 1986. Along with organic and natural food, Mollie’s carries a complete selection of national brands, special dietary foods, hard to find products, hand-picked premium produce, DE C E MB E R 1 7 , 2 0 2 0

and high-quality perishable Deli, Bakery, Cheese, Meat, and Seafood Departments. They have been making significant contributions to the economic vitality of the communities it operates in, while at the same time demonstrating corporate responsibility in terms of sustainability, generosity, and a progressive work environment. Mollie Stone’s offers delivery, take away catering, virtual tastings, and other services that are particularly appreciated during this pandemic time. Grocery workers are among those on the frontlines, contributing to the public’s health and welfare. The San Francisco Bay Times wishes to thank them, SF General, and healthcare

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOLLIE STONE’S

On Giving Tuesday, December 1, Mollie Stone’s Markets announced that they have donated $117,516.12 to San Francisco General Hospital as part of a matched drive launched on April 17, 2020. SF General has been inundated with COVID-19 patients and remains at the forefront of the pandemic.

Mollie Stone’s Castro staff presented a check to representatives of the San Francisco General Hospital

workers for their efforts that continue to go above and beyond the call of duty as we wrap up 2020 and begin the new year.

Help Save the Iconic Cliff House, A San Francisco and LGBTQ Community Treasure

San Francisco’s iconic Cliff House is so much more than the sum of its tangible parts. Like Lotta’s Fountain, the golden fire hydrant on 20th Street, and the rainbow flag in the Castro, it represents survival in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Defiantly it stands perched atop the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean, overlooking the rocky coastline that led to the deaths of countless sailors. Consider its history: • Parts of the Cliff House blew to smithereens in 1887, after a schooner loaded with dynamite ran aground at Land’s End. • In 1894, the patched-up Cliff House burned down as a result of a kitchen fire. It was rebuilt. • After surviving the great earthquake of 1906, the Cliff House burned to the ground again in 1907. • Rebuilt once more, the Cliff House in 1918 was shut down due to military orders that held “all establishments within a half mile of military installations are to halt the sale of liquor.” • December 13, 2020: The National Park Service (NPS), which owns the property, refused to agree to a 3–5-year contract with the long-term proprietors and it is announced that the Cliff House will close its doors permanently. • December 14, 2020: The San Francisco Bay Times is informed by a Cliff House spokesperson that the NPS may not reopen the landmark as a restaurant. If the recent news could have a soundtrack, it would be Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” being ripped off a turntable with an earpiercing needle scratch. Surely the Cliff House deserves a better fate. It not only represents survival in San Francisco, but its walls also echo with the memories of countless weddings, first dates, anniversaries, engagements, family brunches, holiday celebrations, and even simpler pleasures such as enjoying a relaxing drink after work at one of the bars, or a lunch on a budget but with a million-dollar view. Not Just ‘For’ but ‘Of’ the LGBTQ Community From its earliest days, the Cliff House embraced LGBTQ culture. Handsome silent film star Rudolph Valentino—outed by numerous biographies—literally danced his way through its rooms in 1917, hired to give dancing lessons to diners.

José Sarria, the first openly gay candidate for public office in the U.S., chose the Cliff House as the first establishment to visit—in full drag— outside of known queer establishments. Don Berger, who owns a limousine service and drove Sarria to the site, recalls: “The entire room went quiet when Sarria made his entrance. After silence, they erupted into applause.” LGBTQ commitment ceremonies took place at the Cliff House for decades, followed by some of the first same-sex wedding celebrations. Members of our San Francisco Bay Times team chose to wed there, as well as to hold their engagement parties at the meaningful venue. Executive Chef Kevin Weber, Director of Food Operations; Procurement Manager Arthur Bradley; and so many others on the team are out and proud members of our community. Prior to the pandemic, they informed us that up to 30 percent of all events held at the Cliff House were for LGBT individuals, couples, and families. The Current Dire Situation Dan and Mary Hountalas, the proprietors of the Cliff House since 1973, issued a statement on December 13. We present it here in its entirety: It is with deep regret and heartbreak that we must inform you that The Cliff House will close permanently on December 31, 2020. Our 20-year concession contract expired on June 30, 2018; by that time, the National Park Service (NPS) should have selected an operator on a longterm basis to ensure the continued operation of this national treasure. Since then, the NPS has issued us one six-month and then two consecutive one-year concession contract extensions rather than proceed in a timely fashion with their responsibility to execute a new long-term contract or lease. The first step in this process was to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ ), which they did not do until August 13, 2019, more than a year and a half after this process should have begun. Since 2018 we have negotiated in good faith with the NPS to continue our long stewardship of this iconic San Francisco Landmark including our teaming with another operator which submitted a response to the requested RFQ. Our last extension was executed on January 1, 2020, and expires on December 31, 2020. As we all know the unprecedented situation brought on by the COVID-

Former San Francisco Bay Times contributors Thom Watson and Jeff Tabaco celebrated their marriage in September, 2013, with a reception for family and friends held at the Cliff House’s Terrace Level.

CREDIT: SUZIE BIEHLER

“Change can be so constant you don’t even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don’t even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away, make you something different in an instant.” —George Monroe in the film Life As a House

Photos courtesy of the Cliff House

Lawrence Kumar and Harry Vanderlooi married at the Cliff House May 13, 2017

19 pandemic has decimated the restaurant industry. We have continued to uphold our responsibility throughout 2020 even though we have been unable to operate since March 17th. We did attempt to institute takeout service in early June but after 10 weeks could not continue to sustain the unbearable losses associated with takeout. It costs tens of thousands of dollars every month to maintain and guard the massive Cliff House building. There really is no excuse to be in this situation. There was no COVID-19 in 2018; one or more upper echelon leaders within the NPS obviously did not do their jobs, resulting in this sad situation. The NPS offered us a fourth oneyear extension to continue guarding and maintaining their building with all costs to be paid for by us without any compensation whatsoever from the NPS. Unlike the government, which is not held accountable for profits and losses, we could not accept the additional extension as there is no possibility of doing a sustainable level of business for the foreseeable future. We attempted to work with them to find a way to move forward given the challenges everyone continues to face during the pandemic. We waited patiently for a response from the NPS to our inquiries regarding the fate of The Cliff House. We finally received an answer at the late date of December 7, 2020. The decision they provided is as follows: • The first RFQ has expired and will need to be completely redone causing a further delay of what could be years. Given how that went in more normal times we do not expect this to be done in a timely manner. • There will not be an interim successor/partner so the building will be left unoccupied and watched over by the NPS at taxpayers’ expense. • We must remove all personal property in the building including all memorabilia as opposed to being paid for our property by the ultimate successor operator as provided in our contract. • There will be no effort to speed up the process for successorship. We have been the proprietors of the Cliff House for 47 1/2 years and are probably the longest tenured in the 157- year history. We were, in fact, operating the Cliff House four years before it became part of the National Park System. We leased the Cliff House from George Whitney, Jr. in 1973 and the NPS did not purchase it until 1977.

Cliff House’s Chef Ralph Burgin (left) shares culinary tips with San Francisco Bay Times columnist David Landis as they discussed plans for the Cliff House’s special menu for Valentine’s Day diners in 2019.

This is certainly not the way to thank us, a local small business owned and operated by native San Franciscans, for taking care of this San The Cliff House location is part of the Golden Gate National RecreFrancisco treasure this ation Area under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. past year at a significant financial loss. during this pandemic time, and there Again, this all could have been preis still uncertainty about operations vented by the award of a long-term in 2021 for all city restaurants and contract two and half years ago. related venues. It is obvious that the NPS has failed After decades of successful stewardin its stated mission to safeguard natship, the Hountalas family should be ural and cultural resources: granted a 3–5-year contract (lease As a result, The Cliff House will be renewal) to ensure the immediate boarded up and fenced in for several future of the Cliff House and its abilyears as they once again try to impleity to continue once the pandemic ment their own processes. threat subsides. Realistically we are looking at two to You can also contact the NPS to three years of a closed facility. And express such concerns. See the below if there is insufficient maintenance links, and consider contacting any done to keep it up, re-opening costs other officials whom you believe will be tremendous. How will The might be able to help. Cliff House look/feel when it eventually re-opens? Will there be some eleVice President-elect Kamala Harris ment of local ownership? Will it even https://www.harris.senate.gov/contact be The Cliff House? All of us here at The Cliff House are outraged at the failure of the NPS to select a new long-term operator in 2018, thereby avoiding all this unnecessary hardship and heartache. In the meantime, a lot of priceless memorabilia will be auctioned off and be gone with the wind. Lost forever and with it an important part of San Francisco history. We are seeking help in holding the NPS publicly responsible for their failures resulting in the loss of the livelihood of 180 employees and their families, as well as the loss of one of San Francisco’s treasured landmarks and the financial loss suffered by those of us local folks who did our best to stay true to this legacy. What You Can Do Contact federal leaders with local ties and urge them to step in, mediate contract negotiations, and assure the public that the Cliff House and its rich, irreplaceable history will not be lost. A contract renewal of a year or less does not make sense when monthly expenses continue to mount

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi https://pelosi.house.gov/contact-me Laura Joss, NPS goga_superintendent@nps.gov Time Is Needed Cutbacks to the NPS and other changes enacted by the Trump administration have contributed to the Cliff House challenges. In 2016, during the centennial year of the NPS, then President Obama kicked off a second century of stewardship of America’s national treasures. The Cliff House, a jewel of the San Francisco Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is one of these treasures. A Biden administration hopefully will again value the NPS, along with the Cliff House—if it is still the Cliff House that we know and love. We at least hope that appropriate leadership can step in and prevent the destruction of the Cliff House, preserving this beautiful, magical place and all that it represents for generations to come.

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DEC EM BER 17, 2020

BAY TIMES S

LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES (1978–2020)

A Look Back on the Year 2020 in Queer Cinema

Film Gary M. Kramer 2020 was unlike any other year for moviegoing as most of it was done at home. But that doesn’t mean there were not great films. Looking back at the year in queer cinema, here are ten highlights—all available for home viewing. Out gay writer/director Levan Akin’s tender romantic drama And Then We Danced was the first queer feature from Georgia. Merab (Levan Galbakhiani) is a closeted dancer in the Georgian National dance company who falls for Irakli (Bachi Valishvili). They soon initiate a clandestine affair, however, the lovers also become rivals for a position in the main ensemble. How things play out, in both love and dance, form the emotional cores of this compelling film. Out gay actor Enrique Salanic made an indelible screen debut as the title character in director Li Cheng’s excellent romantic drama José. When gay teenager José has a tryst with Luis (Manolo Herrera), he falls in love, but he worries about leaving his hardworking mother. Salanic gives a remarkable performance, expressing José’s tenderness with Luis—kissing him in bed, or being affectionate during a motorcycle ride—as well as his emotions and longing in reflective scenes of him alone. Out lesbian director Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire was an exquisite, exceptional romantic drama. Set in the 1700s, the film opens with Marianne (Noémie Merlant), who is commissioned to paint Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). This slowburn drama creates tremendous emotions as it depicts the relationship that develops between these two women. Out queer writer/director James Sweeney’s Straight Up was a terrific rom-com with a twist. Todd (Sweeney) drops a bombshell on his friends when he tells them, “I think I’m not gay.” And when he meets Rory (Katie Findlay), a budding actress, they couple up in comfortable domesticity. But can it last? Sweeney infuses his film with poignant moments as well as perceptive insights about love and relationships. In addition, the filmmaker employs inventive visuals that add to the fun.

Another fabulous rom-com this year was The Half of It, by out lesbian filmmaker Alice Wu. Set in a rural high school, this film is as charming as it is thoughtful and heartfelt. When Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) hires overachiever Ellie (Leah Lewis) to pen a love letter to Aster (Alexxis Lemire), she reluctantly agrees. However, Ellie is secretly crushed on Aster, and as she gets to know the object of Paul’s affection better, she comes to understand herself more. The Half of It may be steeped in a Cyrano-esque trope for the texting generation, but it shows how Ellie’s friendship with Paul improves both of their lives. It also illustrates how her unlikely connection with Aster sparks a sense of independence for each of the young women.

The Old Guard

And Then We Danced

The Old Guard was a kickass, globetrotting piece of escapism. Adapted from the comic book by Leandro Fernandez and Greg Rucka—the latter penned the film’s screenplay—the story concerns Andromache of Scythia, aka “Andy” (Charlize Theron), and her ruthlessly efficient team of mercenaries, which includes a gay couple: Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli). Theron swaggers and fights her way through the film with panache. But this entertaining action-fantasy, nimbly directed by Gina PrinceBythewood, has a moral center. Moreover, there is a lovely speech by Joe when he is teased by a soldier about Nicky, his boyfriend of 900 years. One of the year’s best documentaries was Disclosure by out trans director Sam Feder. This engaging, affirming film evaluates how transgender characters are presented and consumed by both trans and cisgender viewers. Laverne Cox, Jen Richards, and dozens of other trans actors, filmmakers, and writers, discuss representation on screen. Often trans characters are the butt of jokes, psychopaths, or playing victims and/or sex workers in ratings-grabbing police and medical shows on TV. They were also exploited on talk shows where they were meant to educate audiences. Yet Feder validates the strides being made. Disclosure provides a critical awareness about how we are defined by what we watch. Likewise, out gay director David France’s Welcome to Chechnya was a devastating documentary that shone a critical light on the antigay purges in Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechnya. But this film also chronicles the courageous efforts of activists David Isteev and Olga Baranova, who help members of the LGBTQ+ community by finding them safe houses and arranging their escape. Out gay writer/director Alan Ball’s engaging, poignant drama Uncle Frank has Beth (Sophia Lillis), a teenager chatting with her uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) in 1969 Creeksville, SC. Four years later, she becomes a freshman at NYU, where Frank teaches, and learns that Frank is gay. When his father dies, Frank and Beth take

KIT’N KITTY’S

QUEER POP QUIZ

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

a road trip to the funeral, prompting Frank to perhaps come out to his family and grapple with some serious emotional demons. The film is elevated by Bettany’s strong performance that shifts from inspiring uncle to anxious and scared son. Lastly, Aviva was writer/director Boaz Yakin’s wildly original dance drama. The film’s bold, gender-bendThe Half of It ing conceit is that the lovers, Aviva and Eden, are each played by both a man and woman. As such, over the course of the story, all four actors end up in same-sex situations. The dancing is sensational, and the gorgeous performers all look good naked. Happy Viewing and Happy New Year! © 2021 Gary M. Kramer Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” Follow him on Twitter @garymkramer

PIONEERING TRANSGENDER NEWSCASTER In 2020, Diana Zurco made history by becoming this country’s first openly transgender newscaster.

A) Canada B) Brazil C) Argentina D) Dominican Republic

ANSWER ON PAGE 29

Karin Jaffie, aka Kit/Kitty Tapata, won the title of Mr. Gay San Francisco in 2011 and has earned many other honors since. Connect with Jaffie via Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ktapata

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24th Annual

Photos by Paul Margolis Black Brothers Esteem and TransLife hosted the Kwanzaa Celebration and Awards Ceremony as a virtual event on Friday, December 11. The goal of the annual celebration is to enrich connection to African cultural identify through the seven principles of Kwanzaa. The Kwanzaa Celebration each year includes the Kinara lighting, awards presentations, and live performances. San Francisco AIDS Foundation is the co-sponsor. Connect with Black Brothers Esteem at https://www.sfaf.org/programs/bbe-black-brothers-esteem/ To learn more about Kwanzaa celebrations in San Francisco taking place December 26 through January 1, visit: https://www.thevillageprojectsf.org/vp/field-trips-events/senior-moment/

SF Sketch Randy Coleman Randy Coleman hails from New York, but has lived in San Francisco since 1975. Coleman shares that before moving to the Bay Area, he studied Art History and Architecture at Boston University while working as a resident artist for architectural rendering at a Massachusetts historical society. “All of my life I’ve been an artist,” Coleman says. “To know me is to know that I have a passion for art and architecture. I love this project for the San Francisco Bay Times, and hope that you enjoy my sketches.” © Randy Coleman, 2021

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LGBTQ News & Calendar for the Bay Area CELEBRATING FOUR DECADES (1978–2020)

Remembering and Celebrating a Few Greats Brian Dennehy

Alex Trebeck

Buck Henry

Off the Wahl Jan Wahl From Ruth Bader Ginsburg to John Lewis, Max von Sydow to Kobe Bryant, 2020 has been a challenging year of loss. I am usually optimistic, but this year has been one to deeply challenge all of us. We had to reach down and find our forgiveness, humor, and any thoughts we can dig up. Here are a few I personally like to remember and celebrate. Terrence McNally was a playwright, librettist, and screenwriter who has been referred to as The American Bard. Over six decades, his work has elevated theatre, musicals, operas, and movies. When I was young, I saw his Love! Valor! Compassion! and walked out of the theatre transformed. The relationships of eight gay men were told in humor, empathy, and biting wit. Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, Master Class, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (he also wrote the screenplay for the film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer), and Broadway’s The Full Monty were other McNally memorable films, to name a few. His work with HIV/AIDS subjects in his art and in life helped to shed light in the darkness. When McNally was given the Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2019, he began his acceptance speech with: “Lifetime achievement. Not a moment too soon.” Kirk Douglas will remain one of our most important actors and producers. He appeared in many great films, but when I interviewed him, I narrowed it down to my favorite: Ace in the Hole. He was proud to bring that disturbing story of a ruthless journalist to life (with help from Billy Wilder!) and launched into tales of political relevance in his movies. He kept reminding me of June Carter Cash’s quote: “I’m just trying to matter.” We saluted Spartacus, where offscreen he fought to reinstate blacklisted Dalton Trumbo as the screenwriter. Give yourself a Douglas Film Festival: Paths of Glory, The Bad and the Beautiful, Lust for Life, and Seven Days in May, to name a few. Douglas was a true progressive. He was also determined to live a full life, learning to speak again after a debilitating stroke, had a Bar Mitzvah late in life to reaffirm his love of Judaism, and wrote one of the best autobiographies, Ragman’s Son. Laughter is essential, and 2020 gave us thousands of reasons to need it! Carl Reiner provided moments of warm humor and out loud guffaws. Writing for Your Show of Shows and the Sid Caesar Hour, Reiner created the classic 2000-YearOld Man sketch with collaborator and lifelong friend Mel Brooks. After creating The Dick Van Dyke Show, Reiner took to film directing with hits like the under-rated All of Me, Where’s Papa?, The Jerk, and Oh, God! In my favorite, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, he pays homage to film noir when modern day detective Steve Martin inter-

Carl Reiner

Little Richard

Kirk Douglas

Olivia de Havilland

Terrence McNally

acts with Bogart, Mitchum, Gardner, and Bacall. Carl Reiner was an author, actor, director, comedian, and screenwriter, and he did it all very well. The Snake Pit terrorized us, while many loved kind-hearted Melanie in Gone with the Wind. Then there was holding her own with Errol Flynn and protecting her daughter as the fierce mother in The Light in the Piazza. I am, of course, referring to Olivia de

Rhonda Fleming

Sean Connery

Havilland, who gave us performances to connect with and believe in. My favorite is a little known of her many movies: The Strawberry Blonde. She portrays an early suffragist with wit and wisdom. She made it all look easy, but that’s the key to the greats. Famed composer Ennio Morricone, Little Richard, Buck Henry, Fred Willard, Alex Trebeck, Brian Dennehy, Rhonda Fleming, and Terry Jones are a few more lost but never forgotten. We’ll close with Sean Connery, 007, who was determined to break out of James Bond and give us powerful characters in The Man Who Would be King, The Hunt for Red October, Robin and Marion, The Name of the Rose, and Finding Forrester, among others. Spending time with him on The Rock will remain a highlight of my life, discovering a funny, sensitive man under the gruff image. He said that Robin and Marion remained a favorite, though all of us have our own! Hats off to all of these and the others. They left us with their gifts to enjoy forever. Jan Wahl is a Hollywood historian, film critic on various broadcast outlets, and has her own YouTube channel series, “Jan Wahl Showbiz.” She has two Emmys and many awards for her longtime work on behalf of film buffs and the LGBTQ community. Learn more at www.janwahl.com S AN F R ANC IS C O BAY T IM ES

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Interracial LGBTQ Holiday-Themed Children’s Book Receives Disturbing Backlash

Words Michele Karlsberg True Colors Lab has released this year’s most anticipated children’s book, Two Dads Under the Christmas Tree, by Tobias Miles and illustrated by Milan Samadder. The backlash to this LGBTQ-themed sweet tale, however, has led to multiple challenges. When the publisher Claudio Ferri reached out to me in October, he was quite frazzled, to say the least. He was beside himself after he had placed advertisements for this title and received negative reactions not having anything to do with the quality of the book. Sadly, for example, he encountered a local librarian who accused him of adopting two Black children

so that they could grow up to become his slaves. Needless to say, I found this very disturbing and I felt it was even more important to get the word out about the book and related series. The series’ history goes back to the summer of 2018 when, during a business trip to Venice, Italy, Mile was looking for a new idea for his next book. Destiny introduced him

to a unique Italian family. Upon learning their incredible story, he was inspired to create something special featuring their adorable adopted son, Jayden. Soon after, True Colors Lab made plans for a series of funny stories about adoption, human rights, solidarity, and respect for diversity, as told by this smart child in unusual language. It was titled Jayden’s Funny Tales. In this loving tale, Jayden tells the story of love and inclusion and how he sees it from his own perspective. This spectacular children’s book that is beautifully illustrated stresses the most important lesson of acceptance. For True Colors Lab, Two Dads Under the Christmas Tree (Jayden’s

Funny Tales) has been met with resistance beyond even what Ferri conveyed. Whether it is the constant bullying, harassment, or calling the publisher a pedophile, it has been terrifying and unacceptable. Books about LGBTQ issues are increasingly becoming the targets of challenges and bans around the world. True Colors Lab has vowed that, no matter what, they will continue to publish all of the planned books in the Jayden’s Funny Tales series, including this first one. The reactions are all the more concerning given the overall challenges facing youths, and particularly those who are LGBTQ. Every day, an estimated 5,700 children become orphans. In the United States, alone, 437,000 children are in foster care and over 10 million children around the world are in institutions. LGBTQ adoptions are not included in these numbers. Currently, only 17 percent of countries in the world allow adoption for same-sex couples. Two Dads Under the Christmas Tree (Jayden’s Funny Tales) counters these dire statistics by highlighting touching moments, and a deep sense of humanity as readers experience Jayden’s first year with his two dads.

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In an effort to raise awareness about adoption throughout the world, editions are available in both Italian and Spanish. These editions will help reach countries where same-sex couples and single individuals who wish to adopt are discouraged or even denied. For more information: https://www.truecolorslab.com Tobias Mile, a lover of beauty, created “Jayden’s Funny Tales.” This is his first children’s book and it will soon be followed by “How to Survive This Spirited Sister!” and “Charcoalyn, the Coolest Princess.” Milan Samadder is an India-based illustrator. He earned his BFA in Visual Arts at Rabindra Bharati University in 2009, and obtained certification as a Professional Graphic Designer with the AAG (Academy of Arts and Gaming) in 2010. Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management specializes in publicity for the LGBTQ+ community. This year, Karlsberg celebrates 33 years of successful book campaigns. For more information: https://www.michelekarlsberg.com

Sister Dana Sez: Words of Wisdumb from a Fun Nun Sister Dana sez, "Zoom is a tremendous help while alone and sheltering in place. But I realize that lately all my friends are only in rectangles!"

The need to bring joy to Castro residents, businesses, shoppers, and tourists is stronger this year than ever before. CASTRO MERCHANTS have displayed a glorious Christmas tree with all the rainbow trimmings at Bank of America plaza. Fellow San Francisco Bay Times columnist Donna Sachet was among those who helped to light the tree. https://www.castromerchants.com/ Sister Dana sez, "As the carol goes: �make your yuletide GAY’!" Senator Scott Wiener was sworn in for his second term in the CALIFORNIA SENATE representing Senate District 11, which includes all of San Francisco, Broadmoor, Colma, and Daly City, as well as portions of South San Francisco. He said, “Our priority needs to be helping struggling Californians, including working families, those without stable housing or at risk of losing their housing, and people struggling with food security, mental health, addiction, and other severe challenges.”

Clara (Alix Feinsod), Fritz (Nick Setnik), and Uncle Drosselmeyer (Flynn De Marco) welcomed us aboard THE NUTCRACKER EXPRESS for THE DANCE-ALONG NUTCRACKER that went virtual on December 12 to benefit the SF LESBIAN/GAY FREEDOM BAND conducted by Artistic Director Pete Nowlen in his pajamas. We at home felt part of the show by dressing up in jammies or costumes for the scheduled train stops by our conductor (De Marco) to past places including Hawaii, 1960s Summer of Love, a royal ball (with Empress Mimi Osa), and outer space—all via former annual “Dance-Along” clips. We were quickly ushered “home” with our Freedom Band, playing just 8 bars of every imaginable holiday carol. Included in the show were the SF LESBIAN/GAY CHORUS, GAY FREEDOM BAND OF LOS ANGELES, and CHEER SF. Prima ballerina Sister Dana pirouetted privately in place in proper rainbow tutu. But the damndemic did not permit the usual joyful people-to-people experience. Humbug!

Jason Brock penned a perfect parody about Mister Trump’s reaction to the landslide election results based on Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.” https://tinyurl.com/y485w7ma Sister Dana sez, "Before C-19, I used to go out nightly to live entertainment or some fun party or special event. I was a social butterfly. But now my wings have been clipped. Worse than that, I have reverted into a caterpillar! The Supreme Court has declined to take up a case brought by Oregon parents who want to exclude transgender students from school locker rooms and restrooms. The parents had demanded that trans students only use facilities that correspond with their sex at birth and not the gender with which they identify. Similar lawsuits have been dismissed by lower courts across the country. The decision to decline the case is a big win for transgender students.

PHOTO BY RINK

It was NAKEDSWORD’s 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, hosted by Tim Valenti & Sister Roma, for a virtual show jam-packed with celebrity guests, hilarious clips, and stunning performances. There were favorite moments from the “Tim & Roma Show.” Tim was surprised with a sainting by us Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. California State Senator Scott Wiener made an appearance; he had been portrayed as Supervisor Scott Cox in a video, “The Cover Up,” during the SF nudity ban. Also appearing were DQs Jackie Beat, Coco Peru, and Shangela, director Mr. Pam, Hollywood’s Bruce Vilanch, Margaret Cho, Jake Sheers, Kathy Griffin, and many more. DJ sets were by superstar producer Chi Chi LaRue & Alam Wernik. An added attraction was a special performance by Miss Pineapple 2020 winner Gemini Dai as Britney S lip-synching a sweet medley of Spears songs. https://nakedsword.com/

Sister Dana sez, "Polite people say, �Pardon me.’ But apparently so do White House criminals!"

A redux from our previous issue, this photo shows Sister Dana (third from left) with other Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and emcee Honey Mahogany (speaking) as they “sainted” Rainbow World Fund executive director Jeff Cotter. The occasion was the lighting of the World Tree of Hope at Grace Cathedral on December 10, 2019. Be sure to read Honey Mahogany's Coming Out Story on Page 18.

HELP IS ON THE WAY FOR THE HOLIDAYS XIX was online on December 13, presented by RICHMOND/ERMET AID FOUNDATION (REAF). This 19th annual holiday gala benefited Raphael House and REAF. Producers Ken Henderson & Joe Seiler opened. The gala featured past performance clips over 18 years by such stars as Susan Anton, Adam Lambert & Catte Adams, Carol Channing, La Toya London, Leslie Jordan, Justin Guarini, Mary Wilson, Sally Struthers, Shawn Ryan, Nancy Sinatra, Sharon McNight, Jason Brock, cast members from Book of Mormon, Phantom’s Leading Ladies, and way more. https://www.reaf-sf.org/home.html Sister Dana sez, "Since all 50 states have certified the election results, and even SCOTUS has ruled against T-rump, can we PLEASE stop

PHOTO BY RINK

“Sister Dana sez, "The mean old Republican GRINCHES in Congress have refused to pass a relief bill for their citizens below. Their hearts are two sizes too small!"

Founded in 2017, THE ACADEMY is an LGBTQ+ social club open to all in San Francisco’s Castro District, focused on promoting genuine social interactions while offering engaging programming in collaboration with nonprofit organizations, local businesses, and leading community members. Located at 2166 Market Street, The Academy inducted the incomparable Juanita MORE! into THE ACADEMY LEGENDS ARCHIVE on December 4 via YouTube and Facebook streaming. Juanita has been a force of nature in San Francisco, reshaping nightlife, adding flavor to the food scene, and is a fashion icon all her own. “Loads of Love" to you, Juanita! Musical guest was Andrew Bundy, who premiered his newest piece, “Shame.” Donna Sachet and Liam Mayclem hosted this year’s ceremonies honoring the people who have made this incredible City LEGENDARY! “Architect Award” honors someone who has improved the community by creating a new institution or by vastly improving a community institution that already exists. Accepting was Manny Yekutiel. “Exemplar Award” honors those who set a good example for others in the community and embody values that we can all be inspired by. Accepting was Honey Mahogany. “Solidarity Award” was created this year to honor someone able to see beyond themselves and embrace the common humanity of others who might be part of a different group, who sees the ties that bind us together, strengthens those ties, and reminds us of our common purpose. Accepting were Shannon Amitin & Suzie Jennings for art in the Castro. https://academy-sf.com/

PHOTO BY RINK

By Sister Dana Van Iquity

The SF TRANSGENDER DISTRICT (first of its kind in the world) & HOUSE OF TULIP (Trans United Leading Intersectional, located in New Orleans) are two Black transgender-led and founded nonprofit organizations that work towards ending poverty in their local transgender communities and addressing homelessness. They held the “VIRTUAL WINTER GALA” on December 11. The theme: “House Keys not Handcuffs!” The festivities were flawlessly hosted by hilarious Diamond Stylz & Ts Madison Hinton (lovingly calling herself a “homosexual transsexual”). There were political celebrity special guest appearances such as Assemblymember David Chiu, Senator Scott Wiener, Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Matt Haney, and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. Transgender District Co-founder Aria Sa’id spoke passionately of the mission. As did SFTD Co-founder Honey Mahagony. Live music performances ranged from The Voice’s Tonya Boyd-Cannon to Wazi to Dawn Richard. Actors Indya Moore from Pose and Transparent’s Ian Harvie appeared. And so many many more. Check out https://bit.ly/2K24uaB

Dennis Ziebell, Bill Pung, and the entire team at Orphan Andy's created a surprising array of holiday decorations once again this year. We are fortunate to have these images taken before the second round of restrictions began in response to the record number of pandemic cases the Bay Area is now struggling to overcome.

having these costly, futile, irrational lawsuits?!" Now in its 28th year, “SONGS OF THE SEASON”—a benefit supporting PRC—returned virtually with star-studded talent, curated and hosted by Billboard recording artist Brian Kent. Beloved performers included habitual hostess/songstress Donna Sachet; Frenchie Davis (American Idol); Leanne Borghesi (NY/SF theater & cabaret artist); opera singer Breanna Sinclairé; singer/songwriter Kenny Nelson; electric violinist Kippy Marks; and vocalist/actor Dan O’Leary—all giving us holiday cheer. Sensational show!

Sister Dana sez, "I worry that only the extremely wealthy and 'connected' will receive the very best $100,000 treatment for COVID-19. Alas, classism rules!” Drag performer GottMik will be the first transmasculine contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. LA-based makeup artist Kade Gottlieb remarked, “It means so much for me to be on the show right now, especially being a trans guy going in. A feminine perspective of a trans guy.” Bianca Del Rio and Peaches Christ will screen WHATEVER

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TING (continued from page 13)

LEWIS (continued from page 4)

in-person learning. President-elect Joe Biden has also vowed to reopen most schools within his first 100 days.

As we transition from 2020 to 2021, will we personally and as a society make the coming year another 202Q or something different? The choice is ours.

Public hearings for AB 10 may begin as early as next month. You can help by calling or emailing your state representative in Sacramento, voicing your support. When we emerge from the Purple tier and regional stay-at-home orders are lifted, we must ensure our kids can go back to school and grow up in a post-pandemic world having successfully navigated their formative years under extraordinary circumstances.

Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis, together for over three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. Their leadership in the grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA contributed in 2015 to making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.

Phil Ting represents the 19th Assembly District, which includes the Westside of San Francisco along with the communities of Broadmoor, Colma, and Daly City.

SISTER DANA (continued from page 27)

KAPLAN (continued from page 13) Until Citizens United is overturned, we must do everything we can to reintroduce transparency back into campaigns and campaign financing. AB40 is an excellent step in the right direction. Councilmember At-Large and Council President Rebecca Kaplan was elected in 2008 to serve as Oakland’s citywide Councilmember; she was re-elected in 2016 and 2020. She also serves on the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC). Follow Councilmember Kaplan on Twitter @Kaplan4Oakland ( https://twitter.com/Kaplan4Oakland ) and Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/Kaplan4Oakland/ ). ROSTOW (continued from page 5) that was supposed to represent two gay men and a child. e) József Szájer, an archconservative Hungarian member of the European Parliament, was caught fleeing from a 25-man gay orgy. f) A 2–1 Trump majority panel of the Eleventh Circuit ruled in favor of conversion therapy, recommending an injunction against two Florida counties that tried to ban the practice. g) Tampa area police charged four women with misdemeanors for agreeing to sexual activity with undercover officers at a public park. 10. In 2021, would you rather: a) Find out the details of Trump’s weird medical emergency or learn who owns his $400 million debt? b) Get COVID-19 and recover quickly or get the vaccine? c) Pass the Equality Act or make the District of Columbia a state? d) Win the Senate, or win ten thousand dollars? e) See scientists discover evidence of intelligent alien life or learn the nature of dark matter? f) Get married, stay married, or get divorced? g) See Trump fade off the headlines, or see Trump split the GOP party into two factions through distracting rallies? h) See a 5% rise in annual GDP, or pass a comprehensive immigration bill? See you in 2021. Answers 1: b) Gorsuch and Roberts joined the four liberal justices. Kennedy was not on the Court. We tricked you on that last year too! Ginsburg never wrote a major gay rights opinion, but she always voted for us and she was the architect of the legal infrastructure for sex discrimination on which we rely. 2: c) Del Martin died in 2008. It was her wife, Phyllis Lyon, who died in 2020, along with AIDS activist and playwright Kramer, trans activist Roberts, and the famed Congressman, John Lewis.

3: a) These people are on a hair trigger. They also objected to an Oreo commercial that featured a lesbian bringing her girlfriend home for an uncertain visit. Spoiler alert! It had a happy ending, ergo we were told to boycott the parent company’s entire product list, including Triscuits, Ritz, Wheat Thins, Cadbury, and Chips Ahoy. 4: b) He was given a medal. For the record, the six-year-old Argentinian therapy llama was named Caesar McCool. 5: a) b) c) e) are true, but she never made that absurd statement about COVID-19. 6: c) The case was argued November 4 to all nine justices including Amy Coney Barrett, who is thought to lean in favor of Catholic Social Services. Most analysts think the result could be a win for religious freedom and a loss for same-sex couples. 7: a) He wanted punitive damages for missing the dialogue in: “Hot Step Aunt Babysits Disobedient Nephew,” “Sexy Cop Gets Witness to Talk,” and “Daddy 4K—Allison Comes to Talk About Money to Her Boys’ Naughty Father.” 8: c) She lost her position as White House liaison to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Dr. Peter Timms developed the koala vaccine and 48-year-old art professor, Rie Hachiyanagi, was charged with the Mt. Holyoke assault. 9: a) T, b) F (it was gray wolves, not gay wolves), c) F (consuming 13 alcoholic drinks a week was linked to the lower Alzheimer’s risk), d) T (in their defense, the float was ugly), e) T (the question is unfair because we didn’t cover this since it just happened the other day), f) T, g) F (they charged 11 men). 10: As for me, I’d take learning about the medical crisis, getting the vaccine, making D.C. a state, winning the Senate, learning about dark matter, staying married, seeing Trump fade, and passing immigration. That would make for quite an interesting year— particularly the discovery of the nature of the universe. arostow@aol.com

HAPPENED TO BIANCA DEL RIO? Find out what happens when two aging drag sisters live out their twilight years together in a hag-arrific house of horrors. “It’s one of my favorite movies ever,” Bianca Del Rio says. “There’s no modern equivalent of two actresses who hate each other as much as these two did.” Saturday, December 19, 6 pm and Sunday, December 20, 1 pm. https://peacheschrist.live/ Sister Dana sez, "Repugnicans who refuse to mask-up and cry ‘FASCISM,’ should take a long look in their mirrors and see the true fascist right in front of them!” SAN FRANCISCO GAY MEN’S CHORUS (SFGMC) presents the all-virtual holiday extravaganza, (AT) HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, on December 24, 5 pm, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the annual concert of joyous music—including world premiere of “Merry Everything”—as well as heartwarming videos, and a few surprises. Joining the Chorus are special guests including Tony Award winner Laura Benanti, RuPaul’s Drag Race champion Bianca Del Rio, the San Francisco Philharmonic, and more. https://www.sfgmc.org/ Answering the age-old question: “What are Jews supposed to do on Christmas?” is the solution: THE 28TH ANNUAL KUNG PAO KOSHER COMEDY ( Jewish comedy on Christmas in a now virtual Chinese Restaurant). The laughs are on December 24 through 26. Well-loved comedians are Judy Gold, Alex Edelman, and Lisa Geduldig. Beneficiaries are SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER’s “Teaching Tolerance” and The Helen and Joe Farkas Center for the Study of the Holocaust. https://www.koshercomedy.com/ Sister Dana sez, "May I be the first to wish y’all a Very Happy QUEER NEW YEAR!” COMING OUT (continued from page 18) after a while I felt that something was wrong. The phone calls became a bit strained for reasons I couldn’t quite figure out. I started getting a knot in the pit of my stomach thinking that somehow, they must know. When I returned home from my summer job, my father picked me up from the airport. He seemed terse and distant, but that wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary for him. When I finally arrived at home, it was quite late at night, and I was surprised to find my mother was still awake and that she said she wanted to talk to me. My parents sat me down at the kitchen table and explained to me that one of my cousins had found pictures of me dressed as a woman on my Flickr account. He had found them when I shared another folder of pictures from my trip that summer and shared them with his mother who shared them with all our other family members before finally telling my parents. So, there it was, my opportunity to come clean. Most of what was said that night is a bit of a blur. I remember fragments, bits, and pieces—that my mother was steely cool, my father was angry, and I was sobbing as I imparted all the things that I had thought and done that I wished I could have shared with them, that I was afraid of disappointing them. Over the next few weeks family members came to visit my parents to hear their grief and to talk to them about what to do. There were a few dramatic moments—my father at one point threatened to kill himself from the shame—but aside from that, the general mood was somber, and careful. I was spoken to by cousins who were supportive of me and wanted to let me know that they were there, and well-meaning uncles who wanted to share their views on sexuality and asked me how I knew I wasn’t interested in women unless I gave it a try. A few days after I returned, my mother drove me to Ocean Beach to have a talk. She imparted on me how shocked she was; how when I was born, she examined me and watched me grow and how I was her perfect, sensitive, and kind son, and that didn’t mean I had to be gay. She said that she loved me regardless, and that she would always love me, but that she wanted me to at least try to change. At that point, my strong, steadfast, calm mother broke down into tears, and my heart broke along with hers. My mother asked me to do her a favor and take some time away from the city and to go back home in Ethiopia. In her mind, I was surrounded by negative corrupting forces that I had to get away from, and she wanted me in an environment where she knew I would be surrounded by people she trusted. Unable to say no to my mother in that moment, I agreed. I did warn her that I didn’t believe

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it would change anything, but for her sake, I would go and give it some time. My outing undoubtedly changed the course of my life. After my summer job, I had planned to return to Los Angeles where I had both a musical theater intensive and a research job waiting for me. I had been excited to start life as a fully-fledged adult with a job, my own place, and unburdened by school. I was still considering continuing on to grad school, but I wanted to take a year off to figure out exactly what I wanted to do, and like most young people in Los Angeles, I also intended on taking a swing at a career in entertainment. But now, all of that was gone. Even though my trip to Ethiopia wasn’t what I had planned to do, I think it was the best thing that could have happened to me. While I was there, I was able to connect more deeply with my family and had the opportunity not just to learn or hear about the country of my forebears, but live there and experience it first-hand. I felt at home in a way I never had before in a sea of beautiful brown, caramel, and mahogany faces who all made me feel like I belonged. After I returned from Ethiopia to go to grad school, my parents and I didn’t talk about the reason why I left. Things sort of very slowly started going back to normal. My dad never engaged me in a direct conversation around any of it, but occasionally he would mention that he saw a drag queen or something gay as a way of letting me know he was ok with it. After a few years I was able to have more conversations with my mother, in particular, about my queerness and eventually my gender identity. It took a while for her to fully come around, but we are now at a point where she fully accepts my partner and asks about him whenever we talk. Looking back at this whole process, I wish I could have told my younger self that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. That yes, it will be scary, and there are definitely some rough patches, but that in the end you’ll survive, and your relationship with your family will be stronger for it ... but in the end, I suppose I got through it all just the same. Honey Mahogany, a Legislative Aide to Supervisor Matt Haney, is also an LGBTQ activist, performer, and singer. As a performer, Mahogany was featured in the fifth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” becoming the first contestant from San Francisco. In 2018, Mahogany achieved another first as the first trans person to serve as co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.

Take Me Home with You! Larkspur

“My name is Larkspur, and I’m a 5-month-old bundle of kitten joy! I love to make new friends and I might crawl right into your lap when we meet. My ideal adopter would be someone who loves playtime as much as I do, and who can commit to regular play sessions. I’m hoping my holiday wish comes true and I can celebrate this special season in my new forever home!” Larkspur is presented to San Francisco Bay Times readers by Dr. Jennifer Scarlett, the SF SPCA’s Co-President. Our thanks also go to Krista Maloney for helping to get the word out about lovable pets like Larkspur. To apply to meet Larkspur, visit https://www.sfspca.org/adoptions/

Dr. Jennifer Scarlett and Pup

KIT’N KITTY’S QUEER POP QUIZ ANSWER (Question on pg 23) C) Argentina In March 2020, Diana Zurco became Argentina’s first openly transgender newscaster when she began her job as co-anchor of the nation’s public television prime-time evening news program. “It is an invitation to society that says, ‘This is me; behind me there are more people like me who want to express themselves,’” Zurco told the Associated Press. “We are capable, we can study, we can train ourselves, we can communicate to you what is happening in our country.”

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As Heard on the Street . . . What are your plans or recommendations for 2021?

Raoul Thomas

Jen Chan

Jokie X. Wilson

I plan to stay safe and healthy until I get a vaccine, continue my isolation project, and stay connected with friends and family online.

Embracing transformation and blossoming into a new era

In 2021 we all need to work together to create joy!

compiled by Rink

San Francisco Bay Times photographer/contributor S AN F R ANC IS C O BAY T IM ES

DEC EM BER 17, 2020

Round About - Welcoming A New Year! Photos by Rink

A mechanical Santa is recording the names of who is naughty and who is nice in the display window at One Half Store on Polk Street.

Copies of the San Francisco Bay Times are available for pick-up at the Cove on Castro restaurant at 434 Castro Street.

Each of the front windows at the Castro Wine Company has its own tree.

Holiday decorations at the Embarcadero Four

A holiday window at Frame-O-Rama on Polk Street

Holiday decorations at the Heath Ceramics store in the Ferry Building

Pattie McGroin and Kylie Minono displayed their photos in the latest Drag Calendar.

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DE C E MB E R 1 7 , 2 0 2 0

A holiday tree in the front window at Davies Symphony Hall

The holiday tree display at Opera Plaza on Van Ness Avenue

Gifts on display at the One Half Store on Polk Street

Server Lily stuffed a large scoop of ice cream into a small cup at the Double Rainbow ice cream shop on Castro Street.

Joshua Mejia with his friends Derrick Tynan-Connolly and Jimmy Kennedy in front of the Castro Theatre marquee on Castro Street.

Round About - Welcoming A New Year! Photos by Rink

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A wreath and packages at P.O. Plus on Castro Street

A wreath in the window at Vanguard Realty

A wreath at Cafe De Casa in the Castro

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A wreath for sale at Russian Hill Bookstore

A holiday tree in the front windows at Cliff’s Variety

Art Is Life, a book on the life of artist Keith Haring, is for sale at Dog Eared Books Castro.

Puzzles on display at Cliff’s Variety

Tote bags featuring “Purple Rain” and “Rebel” images is in the window at Cliff’s Variety

A book about environmental activist Greta Thunberg is for sale at Dog Eared Books Castro.

Colorful stuffed animals for sale in the window at Russian Hill Bookstore.

Outdoor dining at the Bell Tower restaurant on Nob Hill

The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen is offered in the window at Dog Eared Books Castro.

Gifts are on display at Russian Hill Bookstore.

Outdoor diners at the Hog Island Oyster Company at the Ferry Building

S AN F R ANC IS C O BAY T IM ES

DEC EM BER 17, 2020