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Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971

Vol. 55 • No. 28 • July 10-16, 2025

South, North Bay LGBTQ community centers go through changes by John Ferrannini

Courtesy AG’s Office

State Attorney General Rob Bonta

Hate crimes rose in 2024, says California annual report by John Ferrannini

alifornia last year saw reported antiLGBTQ+ bias events rise 13.9% over 2023 numbers. While the increase was significantly less than the dramatic spike in such incidents that was reported last year, state prosecutors cautioned a lack of data likely accounts for such a steep year-to-year drop off. The state recorded an eye-popping 86.4% increase of anti-LGBTQ+ bias events from 2022 to 2023, as the Bay Area Reporter reported around this time last year, when the 2023 hate crimes report was released. On June 25, in the middle of this year’s Pride Week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta released the “Hate Crime in California 2024” report. It reported that hate crime events in general rose 2.7%, from 1,970 in 2023 to 2,023 in 2024. The report does caution “comparing 2024 crime data to prior years,” because “not all agencies were able to submit a full year of data for 2024.” The report goes on to state that agencies in seven counties – including Los Angeles and San Diego counties, but none of which were in the Bay Area – did not report full data, “due to a variety of reasons including but not limited to issues with their Record Management Systems (RMS), unresolved reporting errors, staffing issues, being newly established reporting agencies, or failing to submit data.” The report defines a hate crime event as one that “contains the occurrence of one or more criminal offenses, committed against one or more victims, by one or more suspects or perpetrators. Victims can have more than one offense committed against them.” In San Francisco, the city reported 52 hate crime events impacting 57 victims and involving 51 suspects. The regional BART system and SF State both reported one event for San Francisco County each involving one victim and two suspects for the transit incident and three for the campus hate crime. “There is absolutely no place for hate in California,” Bonta stated. “Transparent and accessible data is a critical part of understanding where we are and how we can end hate crimes in our communities.” See page 6 >>

an Francisco may have one of the country’s highest concentrations of queer people, but the LGBTQ communities north and south of the city also have community centers to meet people’s needs. One of those, the San Mateo County Pride Center, is reckoning with limitations as its fiscal sponsor seeks a merger to survive. Southbound from San Francisco on Highway 101, the center at 1021 South El Camino Real in the city of San Mateo provides mental health and senior services, as well as peer groups for LGBTQ+ parents and gay men, plus a book club. The center just passed its eighth anniversary, having opened June 1, 2017. The peer groups are virtual. The center reopened its doors post-COVID in March 2023, as the B.A.R. reported at the time. The center’s executive director Francisco “Frankie” Sapp, a disabled, biracial, queer, transgender man, stated to the B.A.R. that the center has a budget of $1.5 million and that it serves 12,000 people annually. Asked if it’s facing financial challenges from either canceled government contracts or donations drying up, Sapp stated that, “Interestingly, the Pride Center’s financial sustainability has experienced little direct impact this year. Most financial

Matthew S. Bajko

Francisco “Frankie” Sapp is executive director of the San Mateo County Pride Center.

changes to our program, as a fiscally sponsored one, have been secondary. “We are doing our best to brace for future impacts as we just began the process of potentially becoming a 501(c)3,” he added, referring to the designation for stand-alone nonprofit organizations. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges on

the horizon. Sapp continued, “Our total numbers served continues to grow each year despite our static number of team members, and various other resources. This is why working with partners and being supported by a parent agency, like StarVista, has been essential to helping us operate.” See page 6 >>

SF mayor sets 60 days for Castro 2017 0salonMedia a Kit coffee, nail negotiations by John Ferrannini

Mandelman stated the request came directly from the mayor, who marked six months in office July 8. “The mayor asked for it, and the parties agreed, and an Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie set a 60-day I am grateful for his engagement,” Mandelman stated. timetable for good faith negotiations between Despite a report to the contrary in the San Franthe two businesses flanking the Castro Theatre cisco Chronicle, neither the coffee shop nor the nail and the building’s owners and managers, according The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, salon had been served with an eviction notice as to one of the business owners and the neighborpolitics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and of July 8, according to both Ken Khoury and APE hood’s supervisor. The news comes as electrical reporting spokesperson David Perry, a gay man. The daily pawork on the renovation project atinternational the theater begins coverage from the Blade’s award-winning team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles per had reported July 7 that outside programmers, on Castro Street, and the venue begins booking from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s rst LGBT such as theﬁLGBTQ international film festival Fraevents for 2026. the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you meline heldcovered. each June, have been contacted by APE Ken Khoury, the proprietornewspaper. of the Castro CoffeeFrom Co. about returning to the Castro Theatre next year. at 427 Castro Street, stated to the Bay Area Reporter on The Nassers didn’t return a request for comment. July 8 that Lurie “suggested a 60-day negotiating period APE has insisted it will not be a landlord to the in good faith.” Ken’s brother, Riyad Khoury, owns the Khourys’ businesses. The events and concert proCastro Nail Salon at 431 Castro Street, on the other side John Ferrannini moter also initially disavowed involvement in the of the theater. The historic movie palace is owned by the lease situation, saying that it had no plans for the Nasser Family and, since 2022, is managed by Another Ken Khoury fills an order of coffee beans space and the matter was between the brothers and Planet Entertainment. at his Castro Coffee Co., which remains the Nassers. Later, however, the company changed As the B.A.R. first reported, the Khoury brothopen despite ongoing negotiations over tact, telling the Chronicle that it wants to use the his lease. ers, both straight allies, said they had till June 30 spaces for an expanded box office. The theater is to vacate their spaces because their leases were not slated to reopen by March. renewed by the Nassers. As of July 1, APE began Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman The B.A.R. also first reported that, according to subleasing the three-unit building that includes the were involved in the negotiations. city officials, because it is a legacy business, the city theater and the two storefronts, the brothers say. Reached for comment, a Lurie spokesperson rewill have to approve any expansion of the theater Yet, as of that date, both businesses were still ferred the B.A.R. to Michelle Lynch Reynolds, prointo the nail salon’s space. The coffee company was open, and neither had been served with an eviction grams and communication manager for the Office not eligible to be a legacy business. notice, Ken Khoury told the B.A.R. He added he’d of Small Business. Reynolds didn’t return a request already paid his rent for July, and that Lurie and gay for comment. See page 7 >>

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