Out & running in D9
Pornographer David Hurles dies
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ARTS
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The
www.ebar.com
Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Vol. 53 • No. 16 • April 20-26, 2023
SF supes’ panel backs fixed seating at Castro Theatre by John Ferrannini
Rick Gerharter
San Francisco Police Department command staff were able to march in uniform during last year’s Pride parade, while other officers wore casual wear.
SF Pride keeps police policy for ’23 by John Ferrannini
T
he organization that puts on the San Francisco Pride parade and celebration will allow some uniformed police to march at the event this year, under the same conditions as last year, the Bay Area Reporter has learned. “The SFPD contingent will be allowed to march in this year’s parade as long as they meet the guidelines set forth by the agreement we made with them last year,” said Suzanne Ford, a trans woman who is the executive director of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration Committee. “Our board has formed a committee that is meeting with SFPD Pride Alliance this month to continue discussing the relationship between SFPD and the local queer community.” A ban on uniformed officers from the San Francisco Police Department marching in the parade was enacted in 2020 after officers detained protesters who blocked the 2019 parade, leading to allegations of excessive force, as the B.A.R. reported (https:// www.ebar.com/story.php?289063). One of the protesters, Taryn Saldivar, alleging violations of their constitutional rights, battery, and false arrest and imprisonment, later sued the city and the police department, receiving a settlement of $190,000 in September 2021. Due to COVID-19, the Pride parade did not take place for two years. As a result, the ban didn’t become an issue until 2022, when it prompted outrage from many quarters including Mayor London Breed and gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who said they themselves wouldn’t participate if the restriction on police uniforms was enforced. Breed and Dorsey reversed course when a compromise was reached (https://www. ebar.com/story.php?id=316123) whereby the police chief and command staff were allowed to march in full uniform while others would be allowed to march out of uniform. (As it turned out, Breed had COVID in late June and was forced to miss the parade and See page 10 >>
T
he San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee voted 2-1 April 17 in favor of an amendment to landmark the fixed orchestra seating in the Castro Theatre. The amendment, offered by District 5 Supervisor and committee vice chair Dean Preston, adds “fixed theatrical seating configured in movie palace style” at the Castro Theatre. The committee – which consists of Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, Preston, and chair District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar – has to vote on the expanded interior landmarking and the amendment once more, next Monday. The matter of interior landmarking for the Castro Theatre will then go to the full Board of Supervisors, which makes the final decision. It is largely what opponents of Another Planet have wanted since the Historic Preservation Commission in February recommended interior landmarking of the movie palace but only with the “presence of seating.” Many supporters of Another Planet and the Castro Theatre Conservancy, which lob-
Scott Wazlowski
A Board of Supervisors committee voted 2-1 Monday for an amendment that would preserve fixed orchestra seating at the Castro Theatre.
bied for the fixed seating amendment, spoke during public comment. The vote came two weeks after Peskin issued an ultimatum to theater operator Another Planet Entertainment to come to an agreement with the community. As gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman explained at the meeting’s outset, no agree-
ment has materialized. “I am, unfortunately, sad to report we have not had luck in those negotiations,” Mandelman stated. “Although there were moments in the last several weeks, both sides in my view have done things and taken positions that ensure there would not be one at least not for now.” See page 10 >>
SF City Hall to be lit up for Lesbian Visibility Week
by Heather Cassell
S
an Francisco City Hall will join a handful of cities around the world lighting up select buildings for Lesbian Visibility Week from April 24-30. For the first time, according to Victor RuizCornejo in Mayor London Breed’s office, City Hall will be awash in red, orange, white, and shades of pink (the colors of the lesbian flag) Friday, April 28. San Francisco joins London’s OVO Arena Wembley and Glasgow’s OVO Hydro Arena, which will also be lit up in the flag’s colors for the week recognizing lesbians. The Bay Area Reporter reached out to Linda Riley, publisher of the U.K.-based lesbian magazine, Diva, and initiator of the modern Lesbian Visibility Week campaign, for comment and a list of other cities. Riley did not respond by press time. Lesbian Visibility Day is formally observed Wednesday, April 26. “I think it’s ironic that a lot of people don’t know the colors of the lesbian flag,” said Frances “Franco” Stevens, a lesbian who is co-founder of The Curve Foundation. Stevens was the subject of the documentary, “Ahead of the Curve” ,” about the groundbreaking lesbian magazine she founded in San Francisco in 1990. The magazine is now a quarterly project of the foundation. Steven’s wife, Jen Rainin, co-produced and co-
AdobeStock/Maxim
The colors of the lesbian flag will light up San Francisco City Hall Friday, April 28, to mark a global event raising visibility about lesbians.
directed the film with Rivkah Beth Medow. Stevens noted the prevalence of the rainbow flag and similar banners like the Progress flag, but not the lesbian flag or the visibility week. Additionally, she said lesbian visibility is getting lost as the world becomes more inclusive and the ways queer people identify become more diverse. Throughout the film she asked, “Is the term ‘lesbian’ still relevant?” she told the B.A.R. “Overwhelmingly, the response was, ‘Yes,’” Stevens said, adding that she will be out in front of San Francisco City Hall when it is lit up in the colors of the lesbian flag. “We are still here, and we need recognition.”
“We need to be recognized for our contributions to the community, to our culture, [and] to our city,” she said. Lesbian Visibility Week was launched in 1990 by a group of Los Angeles lesbians to champion better representation for queer women within the LGBTQ community, reported Pink News. That same year, Curve hit newsstands across the country. Three years later, New York City lesbians launched the activist group the Lesbian Avengers , which started at the Dyke March at the 1993 LGBTQ March on Washington. See page 2 >>
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