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Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Vol. 53 • No. 32 • August 10-16, 2023
LGBTQ leaders back providing reparations by Matthew S. Bajko
Steven Underhill
While there was no formal street party, revelers still gathered on Castro Street for Halloween in 2019.
Castro aims to reboot Halloween with costume contest, films by John Ferrannini
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fter years of not having organized festivities, plans for Halloween in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood are moving forward – but it won’t be the block party that was quashed by San Francisco leaders 16 years ago after violence marred previous events. Instead, local merchants will be asked to activate their storefronts the weekend before – Halloween falls on a Tuesday this year – while the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence host on October 28 a costume contest at the Castro Theatre, which itself will be showing that Saturday a marathon of five films culminating in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Manny Yekutiel, a gay man who owns an eponymously named cafe in the Mission and is a member of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board, and Sister Roma of the philanthropic drag nun group introduced the ideas for reviving the local Halloween observance at the August 3 meeting of the Castro Merchants Association. They stressed that there’s a lot to be fleshed out – it’s “all very up in the air,” Yekutiel said – but that there will be no planned street closure. Yekutiel, a former member of the San Francisco Small Business Commission, said that he could provide funding to merchants who want to activate their businesses and storefronts for the day through the Civic Joy Fund, a $2.5 million project he co-launched to energize the city’s commercial corridors. Yekutiel told the Bay Area Reporter August 7 that two-thirds of the funding comes from individual philanthropists, such as tech billionaire Chris Larsen. One-third comes from what he termed “institutional partners,” whose identities are going to be announced next week. Larsen did not immediately return a request for comment Monday from the B.A.R.
‘High queer holiday’
Halloween festivities in the Castro, which harken back to celebrations among queer people in the Tenderloin, North Beach, and Polk Gulch in the mid-20th century, became one of the premiere events of the year for the neighborhood by the 1970s, when it was known as an LGBTQ event. See page 10 >>
Age with Pride
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hen it comes to providing reparations to California’s Black residents due to the systemic discrimination and racism they and their ancestors have experienced for decades, LGBTQ leaders in the state are largely in support of doing so. But when it comes to offering cash payouts, there is less clarity among out electeds on how to do so. The state’s Reparations Task Force in late June released its final report and recommendations for what next steps Golden State legislators can take to redress the historical atrocities perpetrated against African Americans in California. Among its suggestions was having the Legislature issue a formal apology and look at enacting 115 reforms to state laws and policies. But the headline grabbing section of the report was the suggestion that Black Californians should be financially compensated. It recommended that the “community of eligibility” for reparations be “based on lineage, determined by an individual being a Black descendant of a chattel enslaved person or a descendant of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th Century.” While news reports in the spring had suggested those eligible could receive a payout of $1.2 million,
Courtesy the subjects
Assemblymember Corey Jackson, Ph.D., left, and Jovanka Beckles, an AC Transit board member who is running for a state Senate seat, both support California’s reparations task force and its recommendations.
the task force laid out various calculations in its final report for how to determine how much those eligible could be owed by the state. “While below, the Task Force delineates methods for awarding cumulative compensation to the whole
of the class of eligibility, many African Americans in California have suffered particular injuries that can and must be addressed through restitution or particular compensation,” noted the advisory panel, See page 9 >>
Pickle relishes role as inaugural West Hollywood drag laureate
by Matthew S. Bajko
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he sings, has comedic chops, and is known for being a “powerhouse host” in the Los Angeles entertainment scene. Now Pickle can add another feather to her cap as West Hollywood’s inaugural drag laureate. After being recommended for the advocacy role by the city’s arts commission in the spring, Pickle won unanimous approval in June from the West Hollywood City Council to serve as the LGBTQ enclave’s ambassador for all things drag. She was formally installed Sunday, July 16, on International Drag Day. “When the opportunity came up, it sounded like a natural fit for me,” Pickle told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent interview at the West Hollywood location of local coffee chain Go Get Em Tiger. “I want to help drag artists spread their wings.” She has also used her drag to promote educational initiatives with children by hosting local drag story hours in West Hollywood and Los Angeles. Since 2017, Pickle has led her local chapter of the national Drag Story Hour organization and is creating a drag-based curriculum tied to the state’s arts education standards so it can be used in schools. “I find kids to be curious and open-minded, and the parents are so awesome,” said Pickle when asked why she got involved in the drag story hours. “I meet a lot of queer parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds who are looking for fun things to do with their children.”
Courtesy Pickle
Drag queen Pickle is the second drag laureate in California, having been chosen to represent West Hollywood.
Speaking to the B.A.R. just over a week into being the drag laureate, Pickle had yet to determine much about her tenure other than knowing she wanted to host community meetings for drag artists who perform in West Hollywood to hear directly from them about the issues they are facing. “I hope we can get on the same page and find some unity there. We are all very friendly mostly,”
said Pickle, 30, who attended Los Angeles’ Hamilton High School Academy of Music before graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York with a B.A. in liberal arts. “It would be great to have a space where people could express their concerns and talk about the art form and how it is working in the city and maybe not working.” See page 11 >>
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