Throughout his political career, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has proved to be a fierce campaigner. He showed his canvassing strength yet again in his primary contest for the 11th House District seat being vacated by Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).
Even with the powerful former House speaker endorsing District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan to succeed her, and former tech executive Saikat Chakrabarti spending millions on his own candidacy, Wiener came out of the June 2 race in a commanding first-place finish with 41.1% as of Tuesday.
“This campaign is powered by people who believe that government can, and must, take action to make people’s lives better and more affordable, because that is fundamentally what it’s about, and that’s what this movement is about,” Wiener told a packed room of his supporters and members of the media at his watch results party June 2 at his campaign headquarters on upper Market Street in San Francisco. “I also want to thank my opponents for participating in the democratic process. It was a spirited primary, but in San Francisco, we would not have it any other way.”
Headed into their November matchup, Wiener is seen as the frontrunner against the more progressive Chan, who garnered nearly 30% of the primary vote. But with Pelosi’s support of her candidacy, along with that of various local unions and progressive groups, Chan struck a confident stance of her own chances to win the House seat on election night last week.
“We’re coming for you. We’re coming for you from San Francisco to Washington, D.C,” she said of the moneyed special interests and billionaires opposing her in the race. “We’re gonna show you how progressive taxation looks like. We’re gonna show you what working people’s power looks like.”
Yet Wiener’s queer and trans backers are bullish on seeing him become the first LGBTQ community leader sent to Congress from the Bay Area. Among them is his gay former legislative colleague, Evan Low, who lost his own bid for a San Jose-based congressional seat in 2024. He is now CEO of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, the national organization that works to elect out candidates across the U.S.
SF sees pink start to Pride season
Patrick Carney waves as he and other volunteers posed for a group photo after installing the iconic pink triangle atop Twin Peaks Saturday, June 6. Carney co-founded the project 31 years ago as a way to add more color to the Pride season and impart a history lesson, as the symbol was used by the Nazis at the con-
centration camps during World War II to brand suspected homosexuals. Today, the pink triangle has been reclaimed by the LGBTQ community as a sign of pride, as people noted during a celebratory ceremony after the installation. The pink triangle will remain up until after the San Francisco Pride Parade June 28.
Pride and protest meet at SF City Hall flag raising
by John Ferrannini
Budget cuts ended up taking center stage at the annual San Francisco City Hall Pride flag raising ceremony June 5, as the event was interrupted by protesters shouting down Mayor Daniel Lurie’s remarks. About 30 protesters were outside the venue banging cookware as Lurie raised the flag on the mayor’s balcony at City Hall. Then, as the mayor spoke inside, some who’d entered the building began shouting “Shame!”
See page 10 >>
Party promotes SF values amid Qatar World Cup appearance
by John Ferrannini
The first Qatari person to publicly come out of the closet as LGBTQ is spearheading a campaign to call attention to human rights abuses in the Persian Gulf state. The effort includes a party called “Love Is You” this Saturday and a music video that will be filmed there.
The timing is intended to coincide with Qatar’s appearance in the FIFA World Cup on June 13 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Dr. Nas Mohamed, a gay man who is now a United States citizen, publicly came out in advance of the soccer tournament being held in Qatar in 2022.
“They are directly concealing, intentionally misleading people about their stance on LGBT issues, how safe it is for an LGBT person to be in their presence,” Mohamed told the Bay Area Reporter.
In 2022, a Qatar government official told CNN that “everybody is welcome in Qatar” during that year’s World Cup. A government statement did note the country is conservative.
The B.A.R. reached out to the Consulate General of the State of Qatar to ask if the country misrepresents its record on LGBTQ rights, but has not heard back.
Readers may remember Mohamed as community grand marshal of the 2023 San Francisco Pride Parade, and from his work in HIV prevention and treatment as founder of Osra Medical.
He also recently ended a lawsuit against self-driving car company Waymo, which he alleged denied him service due to an AI algorithm mistakenly listing him among individuals sanctioned by the U.S. government due to his Middle Eastern name. Mohamed dropped the suit after Waymo changed its processes.
After coming out, he founded the Alwan Foundation to fight for LGBTQ rights in the Persian Gulf region.
Human rights groups critical
Homosexuality carries a penalty of three years in prison in Qatar. For Muslims tried in courts governed by Sharia law, the death penalty is technically on the table. Detention for “violating public morality” is allowed up to six months without a charge.
Human Rights Watch reports that “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Qatar face arbitrary arrest under vague and broad morality laws, harsh treatment in detention, including beatings, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, and denial of legal or medical access, and forced conversion therapy for transgender women.”
Mohamed called attention to the Human Rights Watch report, saying he introduced the organization to victims who came forward and were anonymously featured in a 2022 report.
Mohamed said that with the eyes of humanity on this year’s World Cup, now is the time to speak up again. The U.S., Mexico, and Canada are serving as cohosts for the tournament, which goes through July 19.
“My voice is recognized in this space because of what I did,” Mohamed said, referring to coming out and founding the Alwan Foundation. “The big thing was the moment when people knew Qatar is coming here, and now as an American, I’m part of San Francisco, and they are coming on Pride Month to play
page 10 >>
Congressional candidate state Senator Scott Wiener spoke at his election night party.
Steven Underhill
Protesters gathered outside of San Francisco City Hall Friday, June 5, as Mayor Daniel Lurie presided over the annual Pride flag raising ceremony.
John Ferrannini
Dr. Nas Mohamed will hold a party June 13 timed to Qatar’s appearance in the World Cup at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
Courtesy the subject
Bill Wilson
Oakland gala
Oakland gala to celebrate Bay Area LGBTQ leaders << Community
by Brian Guan
LGBTQ leaders will be recognized at the K. Stewart Foundation’s upcoming second annual Out + Excellent Charity Gala. The event returns to the Bay Area Saturday, June 13, supporting the foundation’s efforts as a nonprofit championing marginalized communities.
The gala takes place at the California Ballroom in downtown Oakland.
In its celebration of “Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, and women-led visibility and community power,” the gala will consist of a cocktail reception, dinner, performances, and a silent auction, according to a news release.
A fundraiser as well as an awards ceremony, proceeds from the gala will be directed toward the foundation’s financial goals, including raising $50,000 for a community “queer women-centered space” by August 16, said foundation COO Kira Lee in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter.
Founded in 2023 by Lee and K. Stewart, a lesbian couple, the foundation focuses on supporting families and households from underserved backgrounds, including the LGBTQ community. The foundation was created to “build pathways to opportunity through leadership development, family support, economic empowerment, cultural programming, and community advocacy,” an email statement said.
It held its first Out + Excellent gala at Richmond’s CoBiz, a Black-owned coworking and event space, in 2025.
The event was a part of the foundation’s broader community-based programming. Lee explained how the foundation had organized another fundraiser titled “#Fight4Farrah,” supporting a queer Bay Area mother fighting breast cancer and unable to afford a second mastectomy.
That fundraiser was about “a really simple solution that none of the social safety net providers at the time had capacity to take on,” Lee said.
Since then, Lee described how the gala has become “a lifeline for families that are working, that are volunteering, that are largely socially active and politically conscious, and are finding hardship” at a time of reduced funding for LGBTQ organizations.
This year’s event will feature several prominent LGBTQ honorees from the Bay Area, celebrated for their leadership. They were selected largely through a “call to the community,” Lee said.
Honorees include Rowena Brown, a queer woman and Oakland’s at-large City Council member; Sean Sullivan
and Richard Fuentes, the partnered owners of Oakland LGBTQ bar and event space Fluid510; Lady Ryan, coowner of Oakland venue Golden Ratio and a queer DJ previously named the Bay Area Reporter’s best DJ of 2026 (https:// www.ebar.com/story/164613); and Faatimah A, the West Oakland-based lesbian founder of the Women’s Premier Basketball Association.
For Lee, LGBTQ identity is more central to the event than ever. She recounted how 2025’s gala was welcomed by the straight community. “We had allies from every walk that either had a queer child, had a queer brother or sister, or had a queer parent,” Lee said.
Simultaneously, Lee characterized LGBTQ presence as a particularly key component of the upcoming event.
“This year, our LGBTQ community knew it was for them, and that’s something we’re really proud of,” Lee remarked.
Speaking with the B.A.R., multiple honorees reflected on the gala and the K. Stewart Foundation.
In a phone interview, Ryan described her resonance with the foundation’s mission. “Queer families, Black families, masculine center folks navigating parenthood and wellness deserve culturally responsive support,” Ryan said.
To Ryan, the foundation’s work building support systems is essential. “When you’re going to look for resources and the person doesn’t necessarily have your same demographic,” she explained, “there’s definitely been experiences of dismissal, of denial.”
Ryan described having experienced similar ordeals with her own reproductive care. “Having a resource to be able to connect to someone – or some networks of people – that understand you
is really valuable,” Ryan said.
Faatimah A, 34, described her own experiences as a lesbian in a video call. “I was once a young person that was looking towards: how do we navigate this space?” she reflected. To her, “amplifying more of these people that are doing the work in the community” is important.
Brown stated in a text message that she was “honored” to be recognized.
“I often say that representation matters – not because it is symbolic, but because it shapes who feels welcome in the room, whose experiences are considered, and whose voices are heard,” she wrote.
In an email statement, Sullivan noted the alignment between the foundation’s work and his own experience creating “safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people.”
Sullivan sees the gala as an opportunity for unity. “Our strength is found in our resolve to stand together,” Sullivan stated. “Events like this do that & also allow us opportunities for joy in the midst of chaos!”
For Lee, too, celebration is vital. She referred to current challenges experienced by people who are Black, Brown, LGBTQ, and women in areas ranging from immigration policy to reproductive rights.
“Our community is being described as negotiable by certain powers right now,” Lee said. “There are folks that prefer … we not be seen, prefer we not be heard.”
In the wake of this, Lee stressed that marginalized communities must “recommit [themselves] to joy.”
The second annual Out + Excellent Gala + Charity Dinner runs Saturday, June 13, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the California Ballroom at 1736 Franklin Street in Oakland. Tickets start at $85 and can be purchased at https://tinyurl. com/3ndate4b. t
K. Stewart, left, and Kira Lee of the K. Stewart Foundation attended the first Out + Excellent Charity Gala last year.
Courtesy K. Stewart Foundation
Bill Wilson
SFAF, LA center disavow new cycling event Community News>>
by John Ferrannini
Two Golden State nonprofits that used to put on the annual AIDS/ LifeCycle fundraising bike ride are disavowing a new endurance ride next year that claims to be supporting HIV prevention and education. According to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, former participants have received emails about the new event, sparking confusion that the agencies’ 545-mile AIDS/LifeCycle was being resurrected.
SFAF and the LA Center officials didn’t explicitly name the bike ride in a vague news release sent June 4; but a spokesperson for SFAF later confirmed it’s about the Joy Ride CA.
Reached for comment, Joy Ride CA organizer Tom Manning stated that the ride was created for those who’d have liked to see AIDS/LifeCycle continue.
“I believe the 7-day California cycling event has become an iconic event that has changed thousands of lives. Not only the lives of those benefitted by the fundraising, but also the lives of participants,” he stated. “The Joy Ride provides an opportunity for people who, like myself, would like to see this continue. The Joy Ride is not about taking money away
From Joy Ride CA
The announcement of the 2027 Joy Ride CA endurance fundraiser has sparked confusion among some bicycle enthusiasts that the old AIDS/LifeCycle was going to start up again.
from a community. I think there is plenty of room for doing good, and there is certainly plenty of need.”
Its website states “Get ready for our 6 day cycling event from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Coming June 2027!”
It also states, “The joy continues,” which some have apparently interpreted as the AIDS/LifeCycle is continuing.
Further, under the “About Us” page, Joy Ride states it is spun off of Joy Ride FL in Florida, which has a social media presence. The bottom of the Joy Ride CA page states it is from FAB Adventures Inc., but a link to FAB’s webpage leads one to a 404 error page.
SFAF and the LA Center held their final AIDS/LifeCycle last year after a three-decade run. It ended due to high operation costs and dwindling participation. Both organizations have since debuted smaller bike rides – SFAF’s, titled Cycle to Zero, just happened last weekend, beginning in Sausalito and traveling to Guerneville in Sonoma County before returning to Sausalito.
Cycle to Zero will take place again next May 21-23. In Los Angeles, Center Ride Out, which occurred earlier this year, will next take place April 23-25.
SFAF and LA Center officials were critical of Joy Ride organizers.
“It is disappointing that any new ride would seek to capitalize off of and misrepresent their event as a continuation of our 30-year history,” stated Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay Black man who is CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “During these challenging times, it is important that organizations are working together to care for our communities.
Unfortunately, that is not what is happening with the roll-out of this new event.”
The LA Center’s CEO, Joe Hollendoner, MSW, is a gay man who was CEO of SFAF before TerMeer.
“We are aware that many AIDS/LifeCycle community members received an email about this new cycling event that misrepresents the new event as a continuation of AIDS/LifeCycle’s mission,” stated Hollendoner. “We want to be clear that this event is not a continuation of AIDS/LifeCycle, and we are not aware of any meaningful connections that this new event has to California or to HIV/ AIDS or LGBTQ+ organizations here.”
According to the news release, Joy Ride CA reached out to SFAF and the center “to discuss a possible partnership, but during the initial discussion, no plans were shared for how the Florida-based nonprofit would overcome the high cost of fundraising and other structural barriers, which led the organizations to make the difficult decision to sunset the event and pivot to a more sustainable 3-day model. Although both organizations were open to additional conversations with organizers, none were pursued, making today’s announcement about the planned event surprising and disappointing.”
The release stated that no email lists or other participant information was provided to Joy Ride CA.
“The email sent to past AIDS/LifeCycle participants about the new event was sent without knowledge or authorization, as doing so would violate the agencies’ own policies,” the release continued. “SFAF and the Los Angeles LGBT Center are actively investigating how participant contact information was obtained, and taking formal action to protect participant data and hold the responsible parties accountable. The organizations encourage anyone who received the email who does not wish to receive further correspondence from the entity to unsubscribe from their email list.”
TerMeer and Hollendoner stated that their organizations’ new rides this year were successful. Cycle to Zero brought in about $1.8 million, according to SFAF officials. The LA Center announced in late April that it had raised more than $830,000 from its new cycling fundraiser.
“We thank our communities for helping to make the inaugural years of our new 3-day events a success,” stated Hollendoner and TerMeer. “We hope more former participants will join us next year to ensure the legacy and love created during AIDS/LifeCycle lives on.” t
World Cup prompts SF health advisory
by John Ferrannini
The San Francisco Department of Public Health is anticipating a potential increase in some communicable diseases this summer, it stated in a health advisory sent June 9. That includes the mpox virus, officials noted.
The advisory links some of the concern to the FIFA World Cup, from June 11-July 19.
Though San Francisco won’t be
hosting any matches, there will be six at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara County from June 13-July 1, beginning with Qatar vs. Switzerland.
An estimated five to seven million visitors are expected in 11 American cities, the advisory stated. For LGBTQ soccer fans coming to the Bay Area, local advocates are hosting a Pride House based in San Francisco to offer the visitors a safe space to congregate throughout the competition. It launches Thursday night at the city’s LG-
BTQ community center, as the Bay Area Reporter was first to report last month.
“The city will host related events and expects an increase in domestic and international travelers, potentially increasing the risk of importing infectious diseases that are not common locally such as measles, typhoid, or tuberculosis; or are not prevalent in summer such as influenza (e.g. from the Southern Hemisphere),” the health department advisory stated. “Other risks include heat illness and the
“We
- Meggy Gotuaco and Dipti Ghosh, Legacy Circle Members
potential threat of violence and bioterrorism. There is also an ongoing large Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. To date, no Ebola cases associated with this outbreak have been reported in the U.S., and risk to the general public is low.”
The advisory continues that there may be measles, viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF), and an uptick in both COVID and mpox.
State health officials note that mpox
can spread through intimate physical contact such as massages, cuddling, or sex (oral, anal, or vaginal); direct skinto-skin contact with the rash, scabs, or body fluids that touched sores; sharing a living space or personal items with someone who has mpox; and spread from a pregnant woman with mpox to the fetus or baby. Casual contact, like one might have in an airplane, office, or store, is unlikely to spread mpox.
See page 11 >>
“A legacy gift is very easy to do. There’s no writing a check today. It’s intent that will be realized when we’re not here.”
- Bill Lowell and Richard Davis-Lowell, Legacy Circle Members
Volume 56, Number 24
June 11-17, 2026
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There’s a bit of good news coming out of Wash-
ington, D.C. this Pride Month. On Sunday, a federal court blocked the Trump administration’s Bureau of Prisons from transferring 14 transgender women into men’s prisons where they would be at extremely high risk of rape, violence, and sexual assault. The new ruling from the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of a Bureau of Prisons policy requiring all incarcerated transgender women to be housed in men’s facilities regardless of individual safety assessment and risk of assault, the National Center for LGBTQ rights noted in a news release. NCLR was one of the legal groups that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the trans women, along with GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, Eve Hill of Goldstein and Levy LLP, and Jennifer Fiorica Delgado, Alexander Shalom, Natalie Kraner, and Wayne Fang of Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
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We reported on this case back in April, after a federal appeals court vacated an order that kept the women from being moved. However, Shannon Minter, a trans man who’s legal director of NCLR, told us at the time that it was only the beginning of the case, Doe v. Blanche. And with this week’s granting of the preliminary injunction, the case continues to move through the courts, though the trans women will not be moved to men’s prisons. In his ruling, federal Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, found that all 14 women had established that 1) they are likely to succeed on the merits of the case; 2) they are likely to suffer imminent and irreparable harm absent injunctive relief; 3) the balance of equities favors plaintiffs; and 4) injunctive relief is in the public interest.
That’s a victory.
will only recognize two genders, male and female. The order dismisses gender identity and attacks gender ideology as “permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true.”
The executive order directed the Bureau of Prisons to transfer transgender women in women’s prisons to men’s prisons, NCLR noted. The order also addressed medical care in federal prisons.
“The Attorney General shall ensure that the Bureau of Prisons revises its policies concerning medical care to be consistent with this order, and shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”
President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14168, under which the U.S. Department of Justice sought to transfer the women to men’s prisons, was issued the first day he returned to the White House, January 20, 2025. The order, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” states that the federal government
The trans women prisoners filed for emergency relief and were granted temporary injunctions stopping the transfers. The Trump administration appealed and the appellate court found that the plaintiffs did have standing to bring their claims and sent the case back to the district court. It was then that Lamberth reviewed motions and issued his decision.
Minter stated that Lamberth’s decision was the right one. “This decision reaffirms a bedrock constitutional principle: the government cannot knowingly place people in grave danger and simply look
Good news for trans women prisoners Headline
the other way,” he stated. “Officials are not free to ignore documented risks of rape and violence because of who someone is. These women have the right to serve their sentences without being subjected to assault, and the court has rightly held that the law requires the government to assess and respond to the real dangers they face – not look the other way.”
In his ruling, Lamberth noted that a court in the Northern District of Texas had issued a preliminary injunction in Fleming v. Rule, a case brought by several cisgender female prisoners against a prison there, as well as the U.S. attorney general and the Bureau of Prisons. In that case, the prisoners challenged the bureau’s practice of housing trans women in women’s prisons. The Texas court ordered the Bureau of Prisons to house trans female prisoners at that facility “in a secure, segregated area,” and to use “separate movement, routing, scheduling, or other measures as necessary to prevent overlap between male inmates and female inmates in housing and shared spaces,” that decision stated. The defendants in that case have since filed notice of the court’s preliminary injunction, Lamberth wrote, noting that four of the transgender female prisoners housed at the Texas prison that are subject to the injunction are also plaintiffs in the Doe v. Blanche case.
But Lamberth ruled that nothing in his preliminary injunction conflicts with the injunction issued in Fleming, and that it “merely enjoins defendants from transferring plaintiffs to men’s prisons,” he wrote. “It does not, at this juncture, require that plaintiffs be housed alongside cisgender female inmates or share common spaces.”
Trans women should not be housed in male prisons due to the real potential for violence. Trump’s policy contradicts the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, which has for years required an individualized safety assessment for placement decisions, as NCLR noted. Transgender people in prison are sexually abused or assaulted at nearly 10 times the rate of the general prison population, according to the federal government’s own data. NCLR, GLAD, and the other attorneys did a great job in getting the preliminary injunction granted by Lamberth, as it means that the trans women plaintiffs will continue to be housed in female prisons as the case proceeds. t
The transgender candidate who isn’t
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Transgender issues are once again taking center stage in the midterm elections, but it is one specific battleground that features a candidate who is under attack for being transgender, while simultaneously not being transgender.
Enter Texas, if you dare, where Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing off against Democratic state Representative James Talarico to serve in the United States Senate. The race is an interesting one, with the unpopular, scandal-plagued Paxton up against the popular Talarico in a state that has been under GOP control for some time.
Fox News, “When Talarico goes in for a blood test, soy milk comes out.” This wasn’t so much about a vegan diet – but right-wing claims that Talarico isn’t manly enough or has “low testosterone,” another jibe that’s been lobbed at the candidate.
This is where we start getting into the, er, meat of the discussion.
I don’t mean the more obvious examples of this, like how mainstream media outlets tend not to include trans voices in trans-focused coverage. Indeed, in a 2024 study conducted by Media Matters, it was found that the New York Times, one of the worst perpetrators of this, failed to include transgender people in such coverage 66% of the time.
When I claim Paxton is unpopular, I should also note that he was impeached in 2023 on a 121-23 vote by the Texas House of Representatives. But the Texas Senate was unable to gain enough members willing to convict him later that year, and he ended up being acquitted. His wife, state Senator Angela Paxton (R), is divorcing him on “biblical grounds,” as was reported last year. The divorce trial was recently removed from the court’s calendar as the parties are working to re solve the matter, the Hill reported.
Likewise, as of polling conducted from May 27-28 by Texas Public Opin ion Research, Talarico leads over Pax ton, 47% to 44%. It’s a pretty strong lead in the Lone Star State, and has many on the right concerned.
Unable to come up with any real opposition, and forced to support a very flawed candidate, Republicans have turned to the one thing they excel at: character assassination. Everyone from Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to President Donald Trump, who endorsed Paxton, has attempted to paint Talarico as a vegan – which is surely a strong insult in the biggest beef-producing state in the union. I should note that Talarico is neither a vegan, nor a vegetarian. This didn’t stop the right from claiming that he wants to “ban BBQ” or calling him “Tofu Talarico.”
Talarico, who is straight, has been an ally to the LGBTQ community, and this has opened him up to all the usual foolishness. And while a lot of it has been the typical claims that Talarico supports transgender surgeries for children and whatnot, some have taken that next step, asserting that Talarico is, himself, transgender. Most likely, even, a trans woman.
You see, Miller also posted about Talarico on X, writing, “The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender Senate candidate.”
And yes, Trump had to get into the act as well. During a largely incoherent rant about Democratic policies, Trump said, “They won’t change men playing in women’s sports. They won’t, you know, this transgender, this guy running in Texas, he says there are six genders. He wears a mask all the time. He’s a disaster candidate.”
I’m honestly not sure where the “mask wearing” part of the statement came from, unless Trump somehow mixed up a recent Fox News appearance by retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, where bad studio lighting made it appear that Harward had a silicon mask seam at his neckline.
I do, however, suspect I know what the “six genders” refers to, as Talarico did speak at a 2021 Texas House debate on transgender issues, and noted six different chromosome variations in the discussion. That, however, is not the same as claiming these as “genders,” but when has Trump – or the rest of the modern right – let facts get in the way?
No, I am instead referring to the fact that the majority of anti-trans legislation assumes that there are, somewhere, transgender people who are participating in nefarious acts. Or, at best, allowing transgender people to have basic rights to use a restroom will open the door to said actions by others somehow pretending to be transgender.
If you listen to the arguments against trans rights, you will often hear a shifting narrative between these two, leaving things vague enough to mean either of the above, while only curtailing the rights of trans people.
After all, assault in restrooms – one of the biggest fears expressed in such discussions – remains illegal no matter the gender identity of its perpetrator.
Or consider the sports discussions. Yes, there have been a small handful of actual transgender athletes, but we heard far more about female gold medal boxer Imane Khalif at the last Summer Olympics than about any actual trans Olympians – mainly because, well, there weren’t any.
And now, with Talarico, the transgender label gets applied to him not because he is transgender – and not even really because he has been trans supportive – but because it can be used as a shorthand for “weird” and “dangerous.”
When transgender people are not given a voice, while they are being misrepresented at all levels, this is what happens. We become a boogeyman rather than an actual, factual living-and-breathing human. Our reality is replaced with lies and falsehood – and real harm takes shape.
In a better world, calling Talarico transgender would not be a viable political attack.
It’s harrowing that it is. t
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller jumped into the act, too, claiming on
This all reminds me of one of the intriguing things about being transgender in the 2020s: arguments about trans issues tend not to include actual transgender people.
Gwen Smith would love to see an actual Texas trans person win a Senate race. You can find her at www.gwensmith.com.
Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico
Christine Smith
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Courtesy federal court
CA LGBTQ legislative caucus set to grow by single digits
by Matthew S. Bajko
by Matthew S. Bajko
by Matthew S. Bajko
Following last week’s primary races for seats in the state Assembly or Senate, the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus is looking at the likelihood of growing by single digits later this year. At the moment, its membership stands at 14 Democratic legislators.
Following last week’s primary races for seats in the state Assembly or Senate, the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus is looking at the likelihood of growing by single digits later this year. At the moment, its membership stands at 14 Democratic legislators.
Following last week’s primary races for seats in the state Assembly or Senate, the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus is looking at the likelihood of growing by single digits later this year. At the moment, its membership stands at 14 Democratic legislators.
It is all but assured of maintaining that number following the November 3 general election, with the nine incumbent members up for reelection this year shoo-ins to win their races. And the caucus could very well see its ranks grow to 16 in December when the winners of the fall contests are sworn into office.
It is all but assured of maintaining that number following the November 3 general election, with the nine incumbent members up for reelection this year shoo-ins to win their races. And the caucus could very well see its ranks grow to 16 in December when the winners of the fall contests are sworn into office.
It is all but assured of maintaining that number following the November 3 general election, with the nine incumbent members up for reelection this year shoo-ins to win their races. And the caucus could very well see its ranks grow to 16 in December when the winners of the fall contests are sworn into office.
With her commanding first-place finish in her primary for the open 31st Assembly District seat, gay Democratic Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea is set to become the first LGBTQ member of the Legislature from her section of the Central Valley. As she and the other Democrat in the race garnered 62% of the primary vote, Perea is expected to easily defeat Republican Jim Polsgrove in November to succeed termed out Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno).
With her commanding first-place finish in her primary for the open 31st Assembly District seat, gay Democratic Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea is set to become the first LGBTQ member of the Legislature from her section of the Central Valley. As she and the other Democrat in the race garnered 62% of the primary vote, Perea is expected to easily defeat Republican Jim Polsgrove in November to succeed termed out Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno).
With her commanding first-place finish in her primary for the open 31st Assembly District seat, gay Democratic Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea is set to become the first LGBTQ member of the Legislature from her section of the Central Valley. As she and the other Democrat in the race garnered 62% of the primary vote, Perea is expected to easily defeat Republican Jim Polsgrove in November to succeed termed out Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno).
“As the latest results continue to show a lead, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible support of our volunteers, supporters, and voters,” Perea wrote in a June 5 Instagram post.
“As the latest results continue to show a lead, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible support of our volunteers, supporters, and voters,” Perea wrote in a June 5 Instagram post.
“As the latest results continue to show a lead, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible support of our volunteers, supporters, and voters,” Perea wrote in a June 5 Instagram post.
“This moment belongs to all of us who came together around a shared vision for Fresno County’s future.
While there is much to celebrate, our work is far from over. Onward to November!”
“This moment belongs to all of us who came together around a shared vision for Fresno County’s future. While there is much to celebrate, our work is far from over. Onward to November!”
“This moment belongs to all of us who came together around a vision for Fresno County’s While there is much to celebrate, our work is far over. Onward to November!”
In Southern California, Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes (D), who is queer and bisexual, is looking to knock out conservative Assemblymember Leticia Castillo (RCorona), whom she narrowly lost to in 2024 for the 58th Assembly District seat. The younger sister of lesbian state Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), she is in first place with 52.2% of the vote as of Tuesday, leaving Castillo underwater with 47.8%.
In Southern California, Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes (D), who is queer and bisexual, is looking to knock out conservative Assemblymember Leticia Castillo (RCorona), whom she narrowly lost to in 2024 for the 58th Assembly District seat. The younger sister of lesbian state Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), she is in first place with 52.2% of the vote as of Tuesday, leaving Castillo underwater with 47.8%.
In Southern California, Riv erside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes (D), who is queer and bisexual, is looking to knock out conservative Assemblymember Leticia Castillo (R-Corona), whom she narrowly lost to in 2024 for the 58th Assembly District seat. The younger sister of lesbian state Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), she is in first place with 52.2% of the vote as of Tuesday, leaving Castillo underwater with 47.8%.
“This June primary is an important step on our path to winning back Assembly District 58 in November and giving our community the champion it deserves,” Cervantes had noted about her candidacy.
“This June primary is an important step on our path to winning back Assembly District 58 in November and giving our community the champion it deserves,” Cervantes had noted about her candidacy.
“This June primary is an important step on our path to winning back Assembly District 58 in November and giving our community the champion it deserves,” Cervantes had noted about her candidacy.
Equality California endorsed both Perea and Cervantes ahead of the primary. EQCA managing director Tom Temprano, a gay man, told the Bay Area Reporter that the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization is pleased to see the “two exceptional queer women of color advancing to the November general election.”
Equality California endorsed both Perea and Cervantes ahead of the primary. EQCA managing director Tom Temprano, a gay man, told the Bay Area Reporter that the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization is pleased to see the “two exceptional queer women of color advancing to the November general election.”
CA LGBTQ legislative set to grow by single Marking
Equality California endorsed both Perea and Cervantes ahead of the primary. EQCA managing director Tom Temprano, a gay man, told the Bay Area Reporter that the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization is pleased to see the “two exceptional queer women of color advancing to the November general election.”
Both are strong candidates capable of winning their races, added Temprano, and will represent counties where LGBTQ residents have seen their rights come under attack by local officials.
Both are strong candidates capable of winning their races, added Temprano, and will represent counties where LGBTQ residents have seen their rights come under attack by local officials.
Both are strong candidates capable of winning their races, added Temprano, and will represent counties where LGBTQ residents have seen their rights come under attack by local officials.
“Both are running as out queer women and running in parts of the state where that sort of representation is especially important,” he said.
“Both are running as out queer women and running in parts of the state where that sort of representation is especially important,” he said.
“Both are running as out queer women and running in parts of the state where that sort of representation is especially important,” he said.
The caucus could also welcome as a new member gay West Hollywood City Councilmember John Erickson should he win his bid for the open Senate District 24 seat in Los Angeles County. The Democrat jumped up from third place on election night to now hold the top spot with 20.3% of the primary vote as of Tuesday.
The caucus could also welcome as a new member gay West Hollywood City Councilmember John Erickson should he win his bid for the open Senate District 24 seat in Los Angeles County. The Democrat jumped up from third place on election night to now hold the top spot with 20.3% of the primary vote as of Tuesday.
The caucus could also welcome as a new member gay West Hollywood City Councilmember John Erickson should he win his bid for the open Senate District 24 seat in Los Angeles County. The Democrat jumped up from third place on election night to now hold the top spot with 20.3% of the primary vote as of Tuesday.
In second with 18.4% is political consultant Brian Goldsmith, a straight ally and more moderate Democrat who benefitted from the millions cryptocurrency backers spent in support of his candidacy and on attacking Erickson. Their Senate race in November is set to be one of the most expensive and closely watched this year, with support of LGBTQ advocates and leaders split between the two.
EQCA is supporting Erickson, while its former executive director, gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood), endorsed Goldsmith.
In second with 18.4% is political consultant Brian Goldsmith, a straight ally and more moderate Democrat who benefitted from the millions cryptocurrency backers spent in support of his candidacy and on attacking Erickson. Their Senate race in November is set to be one of the most expensive and closely watched this year, with support of LGBTQ advocates and leaders split between the two. EQCA is supporting Erickson, while its former executive director, gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood), endorsed Goldsmith.
In second with 18.4% is political consultant Brian Goldsmith, a straight ally and more moderate Democrat who benefitted from the millions cryptocurrency backers spent in support of his candidacy and on attacking Erickson. Their Senate race in November is set to be one of the most expensive and closely watched this year, with support of LGBTQ advocates and leaders split between the two. EQCA is supporting Erickson, while its former executive director, gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood), endorsed Goldsmith.
The most members the caucus could have during the 2027 legislative session would be 18, though that is highly unlikely. It would depend on the outcome this fall of the U.S House race in San Francisco and there being an upset in one Central Valley Assembly race.
The most members the caucus could have during the 2027 legislative session would be 18, though that is highly unlikely. It would depend on the outcome this fall of the U.S House race in San Francisco and there being an upset in one Central Valley Assembly race.
The most members the caucus could have during the 2027 legislative session would be 18, though that is highly unlikely. It would depend on the outcome this fall of the U.S House race in San Francisco and there being an upset in one Central Valley Assembly race.
While Matthew Adams, aiming to be the first asexual to serve in Sacramento, is in second place with 26.1% as of Tuesday in the race for the Assembly District 9 seat spanning several northern Central Valley counties, he faces a tough general election contest against Assemblymember Heath Flora (RRipon), who took first in the primary with 30.3%. For Adams to be victorious, he would need to secure support from
While Matthew Adams, aiming to be the first asexual to serve in Sacramento, is in second place with 26.1% as of Tuesday in the race for the Assembly District 9 seat spanning several northern Central Valley counties, he faces a tough general election contest against Assemblymember Heath Flora (RRipon), who took first in the primary with 30.3%. For Adams to be victorious, he would need to secure support from the 23% of people who voted for GOPer
While Matthew Adams, aiming to be the first asexual to serve in Sacramento, is in second place with 26.1% as of Tuesday in the race for the Assembly District 9 seat spanning several northern Central Valley counties, he faces a tough general election contest against Assemblymember Heath Flora (RRipon), who took first in the primary with 30.3%. For Adams to be victorious, he would need to secure support from the 23% of people who voted for GOPer
Jim Shoemaker in the primary, likely due to their being upset with Flora’s various scandals.
Jim Shoemaker in the primary, likely due to their being upset with Flora’s various scandals.
the 23% of people who voted for GOPer Jim Shoemaker in the primary, likely due to their being upset with Flora’s various scandals.
They range from questions on if Flora lives in the district or in Sacramento to his having an affair with a lobbyist while married and being ordered by a state court to pay past due child support to his ex-wife, as the Sacramento Bee had reported on last fall. Adams had told the B.A.R. this spring he would be a long shot against Flora in a general election matchup but felt flipping the seat was still a possibility.
They range from questions on if Flora lives in the district or in Sacramento to his having an affair with a lobbyist while married and being ordered by a state court to pay past due child support to his ex-wife, as the Sacramento Bee had reported on last fall. Adams had told the B.A.R. this spring he would be a long shot against Flora in a general election matchup but felt flipping the seat was still a possibility.
They range from questions on if Flora lives in the district or in Sacramento to his having an affair with a lobbyist while married and being ordered by a state court to pay past due child support to his ex-wife, as the Sacramento Bee had reported on last fall. Adams had told the B.A.R. this spring he would be a long shot against Flora in a general election matchup but felt flipping the seat was still a possibility.
He has already been hitting Flora about his perceived lack of attention toward his constituents, writing in an Instagram post over the weekend that “the news came through, Heath Flora will officially be on the ballot this November. Where he won’t be is anywhere in District 9, because he will continue his pattern of being ‘virtually nonexistent in the district for years,’ according to local GOP leaders.”
He has already been hitting Flora about his perceived lack of attention toward his constituents, writing in an Instagram post over the weekend that “the news came through, Heath Flora will officially be on the ballot this November. Where he won’t be is anywhere in District 9, because he will continue his pattern of being ‘virtually nonexistent in the district for years,’ according to local GOP leaders.”
He has already been hitting Flora about his perceived lack of attention toward his constituents, writing in an Instagram post over the weekend that “the news came through, Heath Flora will officially be on the ballot this November. Where he won’t be is anywhere in District 9, because he will continue his pattern of being ‘virtually nonexistent in the district for years,’ according to local GOP leaders.”
To reach a historic high of 18 caucus members, not only would all four of the out nonincumbents advancing out of their primaries need to win in November, with Adams offered membership, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would have to lose his bid for Congress. But his strong first-place finish in the primary for the 11th House District seat being vacated by Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has Wiener tagged the frontrunner in his fall contest against District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan
To reach a historic high of 18 caucus members, not only would all four of the out nonincumbents advancing out of their primaries need to win in November, with Adams offered membership, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would have to lose his bid for Congress. But his strong first-place finish in the primary for the 11th House District seat being vacated by Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has Wiener tagged the frontrunner in his fall contest against District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan Should he win, then Wiener would step down from his state Senate seat and decrease for a spell the ranks of the affinity group for out legislators. It could be until late next summer or early fall before another out legislator from San Francisco is sent by the voters to Sacramento, adding a member back to the affinity group for out lawmakers.
To reach a historic high of 18 caucus members, not only would all four of the out nonincumbents advancing out of their primaries need to win in November, with Adams offered membership, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would have to lose his bid for Congress. But his strong first-place finish in the primary for the 11th House District seat being vacated by Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has Wiener tagged the frontrunner in his fall contest against District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan Should he win, then Wiener would step down from his state Senate seat and decrease for a spell the ranks of the affinity group for out legislators. It could be until late next summer or early fall before another out legislator from San Francisco is sent by the voters to Sacramento, adding a member back to the affinity group for out lawmakers.
Should he win, then Wiener would step down from his state Senate seat and decrease for a spell the ranks of the affinity group for out legislators. It could be until late next summer or early fall before another out legislator from San Francisco is sent by the voters to Sacramento, adding a member back to the affinity group for out lawmakers.
Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) is expected to run in a special election to serve out Wiener’s term in the Senate through 2028, and will likely face a tough campaign against another straight ally, Christine Pelosi, one of the congressmember’s daughters. Should he be elected, Haney would resign from his Assembly seat, triggering a special election to serve out the remainder of his term through 2028, since he is running unopposed this year for reelection.
Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) is expected to run in a special election to serve out Wiener’s term in the Senate through 2028, and will likely face a tough campaign against another straight ally, Christine Pelosi, one of the congressmember’s daughters. Should he be elected, Haney would resign from his Assembly seat, triggering a special election to serve out the remainder of his term through 2028, since he is running unopposed this year for reelection.
Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) is expected to run in a special election to serve out Wiener’s term in the Senate through 2028, and will likely face a tough campaign against another straight ally, Christine Pelosi, one of the congressmember’s daughters. Should he be elected, Haney would resign from his Assembly seat, triggering a special election to serve out the remainder of his term through 2028, since he is running unopposed this year for reelection.
And cueing up his candidacy to succeed Haney is gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. The current president of the board, Mandelman is termed out of his office early next January and, on June 17, is kicking off his public fundraising for a legislative bid. t
And cueing up his candidacy to suc ceed Haney is gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman dent of the board, Mandelman is termed out of his office early next January and, on June 17, is kicking off his public fundrais ing for a legislative bid.
And cueing up his candidacy to succeed Haney is gay District 8 Su pervisor current president of the board, Man delman is termed out of his office early next January and, on June 17, is kicking off his public fundraising for a legislative bid.
Avigil held at Harvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood Friday, June 5, called attention to the 45th anniversary of what would become known as AIDS. Former city health commissioner Cecilia Chung, a transgender woman living with HIV, made remarks holding a microphone, as did Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay Black
HIV-positive man who is CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and Lance Toma, a gay man who is CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center. Speakers called on San Francisco leaders to protect HIV/AIDS funding in the city budget and honored the memory of those lost to the disease.
Assembly candidates Annalisa Perea, left, and Clarissa Cervantes each finished in first place in their respective races.
Courtesy the candidates
Avigil held at Harvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood Friday, June 5, called attention to the 45th anniversary of what would become known as AIDS. Former city health commissioner Cecilia Chung, a transgender woman living with HIV, made remarks holding a microphone, as did Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay Black
HIV-positive man who is CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and Lance Toma, a gay man who is CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center. Speakers called on San Francisco leaders to protect HIV/AIDS funding in the city budget and honored the memory of those lost to the disease. gooch
Assembly candidates Annalisa Perea, left, and Clarissa Cervantes each finished in first place in their respective races.
Courtesy the candidates
Read all about it, gay-made chili crunch debuts in SF
by Matthew S. Bajko
If newsboys were still employed, they would be heralding the debut of a chili crunch condiment cooked up by gay San Francisco resident Carter Gibson He is set to ship the first orders of his Extra Extra Chili Crunch later this month to people who made pre-orders via his website.
And Gibson is looking to eventually sell jars of his spicy garlic-based condiment at local farmers markets this summer. He told the Bay Area Reporter on Monday he is just waiting for the final inspection of the communal kitchen he is renting on Treasure Island in order to mail out his version of the popular Asian condiment.
“That is the very last step. We don’t expect any problems because it is a shared kitchen,” said Gibson, 35, who lives in Noe Valley with his husband, Nicholas and for over a decade has been a group project manager at Google
He settled on a nostalgic, early 1900s newspaper branding idea for his chili crunch to play off of the name his husband had suggested. He had proposed using a double “extra” since Gibson came up with a recipe featuring extra amounts of garlic and spices that resulted in an extra crunchy condiment.
“I like really bold flavors,” noted Gibson, recalling that when his husband said, “Why not call it Extra Extra?” he realized, “There’s nothing more extra than extra extra.”
And that brought to mind the “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” cries of young newspaper peddlers made famous by countless movie scenes. The label on the jar Gibson sent to the B.A.R. proclaims, “Breaking News: EXTRA EXTRA Released!” and reports, “A stunningly bold culinary achievement launched.”
“It clicked,” said Gibson, who looked at a variety of daily periodicals from the 1900s for inspiration in designing the logo of his chili crunch brand. The
typeface and imagery he used are reminiscent of the nameplates seen atop the front pages of newspapers at the turn of the century.
He also didn’t want to play into Asian tropes by using dragon imagery, for example, or an Asian-influenced name for a product created by someone of English and Irish ancestry. Gibson explained he wanted the branding to be unambiguous about the condiment’s creator and not take advantage of a cul ture other than his own.
“One of the reasons I felt so strongly about that is this is my take on a chili crunch, which is very western,” said Gibson. “I am not trying to say this is an old or even traditional recipe. It is not Asian in any way. It is the flavor profile of an Asian condiment, but with my own western palate on top of it.”
a chili crunch, Gibson was hooked and began adding it to all manner of dishes. As the label of his own product instructs, “Put it on EVERYTHING.”
“I use it all the time on everything –salmon, rice, broccoli, chicken, sushi,” said Gibson. “I am constantly putting it on something. I always have three jars in the house at any given time.”
That sparked his initial conversation with his spouse about making his own.
Joking that his family “is so white,” Gibson said he grew up in Virginia on a diet of hot dogs and mac and cheese until he enrolled in college at American University, where he graduated in 2012 with a B.A. in arts, film, and media arts. Once he tried
“One day I decided I was paying too much for chili crunch and thought this is crazy, I feel like I could make chili crunch” recalled Gibson.
For his own version Gibson wanted to take “a Californian approach,” he explained, by using local ingredients for his western interpretation of a chili crunch. He sources organic garlic and shallots from Gilroy and avocado oil from a producer in the state.
“Even though it’s more expensive, literally 10 times as expensive as grapeseed oil,” noted Gibson. “I hadn’t seen chili crunch manufactured that used
avocado oil. We realized we were on to something different, and it tastes good, too, so that is good.”
He tinkered with the recipe this spring after receiving feedback from family and friends. One unique aspect of his Extra Extra Chile Crunch the B.A.R. noticed after tasting it is that Gibson uses larger pieces of garlic than other chili crunch brands.
“We’ve made a few adjustments to the heat (lowered slightly) and actually upped the amount of garlic a little bit!” Gibson noted of his most recent change to the recipe.
Via extraextracrunch.com people can order a single net weight 5.5 oz. jar ($17.99) of his Extra Extra Chili Crunch for delivery or sign up for a $16 monthly subscription. Gibson hopes to mail out the first orders before the end of June and is ready to go as soon as he gets sign off from the state inspector.
Come July, he would like to have a stall at farmers markets in the city and plans to reach out to ones in the Inner Richmond and on the Embarcadero this month to inquire about what availability they have for new vendors. He’s been in contact with the organizers of the one in Noe Valley just blocks from where he lives though has been told the soonest a spot may open up is the fall.
“It’s small-batch, Noe Valley made. It is perfect for the Noe Valley Farmers Market,” said Gibson.
Having gone through the multiple hoops to launch a small processed food business in the Golden State, Gibson cautioned anyone thinking about following suit to be prepared that it is not as easy as merely coming up with a recipe and branding. Due to his using fresh ingredients that can cause botulism if not handled correctly, he needed to apply for a food handlers permit in addition to a seller’s permit. This spring, Gibson also passed a course offered online by the University of Michigan required for obtaining a food processing license.
In late March, Gibson received signoff from a lab that tested his product to ensure it is shelf stable. Rather than produce the chili crunch in his home kitchen, Gibson was required to rent a commercial kitchen to make the monthly batches of his condiment. He estimated his upfront costs at $5,000.
“I am not frustrated by it. It has been really exciting and fun,” he said. “It’s been a really incredible journey.”
He’s excited for the public to be able to taste what he has cooked up and is hopeful the first jars will arrive at his customers’ doorsteps this Pride Month.
“If we are selling 100 jars a month that would be amazing,” Gibson told the B.A.R. “I am just ready to get started and get feedback from more people. That will be awesome.”
Angela’s readies to open Castro location
After long last the Angela’s Ice Cream location in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro district is nearing an opening date. Signage of its pending arrival recently went up on the building formerly home to a 7-Eleven convenience store, and the local chain has begun hiring for what will be its third location in the city.
As the Business Briefing column reported last October, siblings Cielo Garat-Zanella and her older brother, Ignacio “Iggy” Garat, operate the string of ice cream shops. Garat, who is gay, lives not far from the new location going into the vacant corner storefront at Noe and 18th streets, and his construction firm has been handling its buildout. The siblings launched Angela’s in Petaluma in 2017, along with their mother, Angela Pryor-Garat. Named in honor of the family’s matriarch, the business now has five North Bay locations, in Forestville, Healdsburg, Mill Valley, and two in Petaluma.
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Carter Gibson, right, holds a jar of his Extra Extra Chili Crunch as his husband, Nicholas, looks on.
Art Bodner
t Oakland Mayor Lee to seek reelection Community News>>
compiled by Cynthia Laird
As expected, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee will seek reelection on the November 3 ballot, she announced last weekend. Lee, who won the mayor’s race in a special election last year, will be running for a full four-year term.
During a roundtable with reporters last month, Lee, 79, strongly hinted that she would run for reelection and said an announcement would come after last week’s primary. Lee, a Democratic former congressmember who represented Oakland, became mayor following the 2024 recall of former mayor Sheng Thao, who was engulfed in a corruption scandal. (Thao has pleaded not guilty.)
In her June 6 announcement, Lee stated that she was seeking reelection to continue building a safer, cleaner, and more prosperous Oakland for all residents. A straight ally, Lee has long championed the LGBTQ community.
Last November, Lee was on hand as the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center and the Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District unveiled rainbow crosswalks near the center on Lakeshore Avenue, as the Bay Area Reporter noted at the time.
In her 2026 campaign launch announcement, Lee touted her support of small businesses and entrepreneurs.
“One year ago, Oaklanders made a clear choice,” Lee stated. “We chose to come together – labor and business, neighbors, and community leaders, residents from every part of our city –around a shared belief that Oakland can be safer, cleaner, stronger, and more hopeful. And today, I am proud to say: Oakland is on the Move.”
Under Lee’s leadership, Oakland has seen homicides reach a 58year low, violent crime continue to decline, and national recognition for the city’s community-based ap proach to reaching gun vio lence through the Ceasefire program, the release noted.
Since she assumed of fice in May 2025, her administration has launched the Office of Homelessness Solutions, advanced thousands of affordable housing units, mobilized more than 10,000 volunteers through the “Keep the Town Clean” initiative, and cut permitting delays to help small businesses open and grow, according to the release.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee has announced she will seek reelection in November.
entrepreneurs, and young people can thrive; and every neighborhood is safe and clean.”
For more information, visit barbaralee4oakland.com.
SF mayor taps Moscone for film panel
Jonathan Moscone, a gay man and the son of slain former San Francisco mayor George Moscone, has been appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie to the city’s film commission. Lurie made the announcement June 5, in which he made several other commission appointments. Moscone’s term ends May 1, 2027.
Moscone is an executive and artistic leader with more than three decades of experience driving large-scale cultural initiatives and cross-sector partnerships, the mayor’s office stated. As the former executive director of the California Arts Council, he managed a $34 million grant budget and a staff of 30, notably piloting the $60 million California Creative Corps workforce development program. His deep roots in San Francisco’s civic and cultural landscape include serving as chief producer at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where he led the successful Proposition E ballot campaign in 2018 to restore municipal arts funding through a reallocation of the hotel tax.
An alumnus of Williams College and the Yale School of Drama, he brings extensive experience fostering investments in San Francisco’s creative economy.
In a text message, Moscone stated that Lurie has already sworn him in to the commission post.
Over the next four years, Lee is focused on continuing the public safety strategy that prevents crime; advancing charter reform, which voters will decide on in November; and keeping up momentum to clean up illegal dumping and trash in neighborhoods, the release stated.
“I am running for reelection because our work together for a vibrant Oakland is far from finished,” Lee stated in her announcement. “In the next four years, my commitment to you is this: I will keep fighting for a city where our children can dream boldly; our seniors can age with dignity; our working families can afford to live; our small businesses, artists, and
Obituaries >>
Maurice Angelo Robinson
September 12, 1958 – April 8, 2026
Maurice Angelo Robinson, affectionately known as Mickey to his mother and Mick to his friends, passed away peacefully in San Francisco on April 8, 2026. He was 67. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia on September 12, 1958, to Atlas and Maurice Robinson, Mick embodied kindness, humor, and compassion, and left an indelible mark on those fortunate to know him. Mick was a devoted son to his mother, who survives him along with his cherished uncle,
Moscone also currently serves as president of the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association.
Queer surf exhibition
Queer Surf will hold SWITCH, a daylong exhibition of trans, queer, and nonbinary surfers, at Linda Mar Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica Saturday, June 13, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A news release noted that in addition to showcasing surfers of all levels, SWITCH will include drag performances, Indigiqueer ocean drum medicine with Wakan Wiya Two Spirit Drum, dancing, and more.
See page 10 >>
He was also a lover of dogs, especially his beloved Pupples. Mick was also an avid traveler, finding great joy in exploring the world.
Mick’s story as a long-term survivor of HIV was told in the 2016 documentary film “Last Men Standing.”
He found his calling as a peer counselor, working with individuals struggling with substance abuse. Through his broader advocacy, he helped many other HIV-positive people. His compassion and infectious sense of humor brought hope and healing to many, and his quick wit and friendly demeanor endeared him to everyone he met.
Mick’s spirit will continue to inspire and warm those who knew him. In our hearts, his laughter echoes, and his smile shines brightly.
Finishing touches are being made on Pride-related events in the Castro this month. One is a family-friendly affair, while the others are a dance party and a more festive night market.
Local business owners heard the latest about the plans at the June 4 Castro Merchants Association meeting.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, there will be a daytime Pride celebration between Castro and Diamond streets from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 27, sponsored by the merchants and produced by CG Events, the same organization that produces the monthly Castro night markets.
The reason streets east of Castro Street won’t be closed is because shortly after the event, the Dyke March – which begins at Mission Dolores Park and walks through the Mission to upper Market Street – will be pouring onto Castro Street around 6 p.m.
The old Pink Saturday block party that used to be held the night before the Pride Parade was discontinued in the 2010s. Since then, the merchants have sponsored smaller, daytime festivities on Beaver Street, adjacent to Market and Noe streets. This year, the party will be on 18th Street.
Chris Carrington, a gay man who co-founded CG Events, said the afternoon will include “a variety of family programming, entertainment, and food and beverage vendors – everything you would have seen on the Noe Street activation the past few years.”
Then, between 8 and 10 p.m. that night, there’ll be a DJ in the parking lot nestled between the Walgreens and LGBTQ bar Toad Hall, off 18th Street.
Nate Bourg, a gay man who is the
“We are so excited at the Victory Fund to see history being made, and to see the first openly LGBTQ-plus member of Congress from Northern California and the Bay Area,” Low, who attended Wiener’s election night party last week, told the Bay Area Reporter. “It’s a long time coming, but we are so deeply grateful for Scott for answering the call for service and helping to cement history and continuing the legacy of so many who have come before him.”
It was 39 years ago that Pelosi first won election to her House seat by narrowly defeating the late gay progressive San Francisco supervisor Harry Britt. Several out candidates have sought the seat since but were never seen as having a shot at ousting Pelosi.
Wiener had long planned to seek the congressional seat when Pelosi stepped down. But he announced his bid last fall months before Pelosi made her retirement official due to the momentum that was building behind Chakrabarti following the launch of his bid for the House seat in early 2025.
Tom Temprano, a gay man who is managing director of statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California, told the Bay Area Reporter that he’s confident of seeing Wiener make LGBTQ political history this fall. EQCA, like the B.A.R., endorsed Wiener ahead of the primary and will be working to ensure his victory on the November 3 ballot.
“I am not concerned. I think the primary results in California’s 11th House District speak for themselves. Senator Wiener was first with a bullet,” Temprano said, referring to attaining the top position with noteworthy speed.
As he’s twice done in seeking his citywide legislative seat, Wiener won in neighborhoods across the city, not solely in the districts like the Castro and Noe Valley that he
president of the merchants group, had said last month that he hoped the entertainment zone allowing for outdoor alcohol consumption would be activated from noon to 11 p.m. – though 18th Street will be open to vehicle traffic again after 6. But Thursday, Bourg expressed that as a result of a compromise with the San Francisco Police Department, the entertainment zone will end at 8 p.m., though there will be dancing in the parking lot till 10.
“We are being asked to end our to-go beverage sales at 8 p.m. on Pride Saturday,” Bourg told SFPD Mission Station Captain Sean Perdomo, who was at the meeting. “We want it to go later, but that wasn’t in the cards. We want to continue to expand the use of it over time, so I wanted to flag that for your department, and we have been – and will continue to – show it can be done safely. Hopefully no parklet accidents; the timing of that was unfortunate.”
represented when he served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Temprano noted. They ranged from those more progressive and more moderate to ones where renters are the majority, added Temprano, a former elected college board member in San Francisco who was a legislative aide at City Hall.
“I think this primary showed what we have known all along. His strong, strong track record delivering on issues that matter to San Franciscans makes him the frontrunner to be the next congressperson and to finally have LGBTQ-plus representation for the queerest congressional district in the country,” said Temprano.
Rabbi Martin Rawlings-Fein, cochair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, agreed. The political group also backed Wiener, one of its former leaders, in the House race, and Rawlings-Fein told the B.A.R. seeing him elected to Congress would be “amazing.”
“He’s steadfast, he does his work, does his research, and he gets things done,” said Rawlings-Fein, who is bisexual and a transgender father.
Gay former District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio, who represented westside neighborhoods of San Francisco until being recalled last year, told the B.A.R. he believes Wiener can win over many of the Asian voters in that area of the city. He pointed to Wiener’s netting more than 60% support from Sunset residents during his 2024 reelection race.
“So it shows that there is support for his brand of politics,” said Engardio, who added when asked about having the first gay House member from San Francisco, “well, representation is always important. I was the first ever openly gay person elected to a westside district, and I heard from a lot of people that that mattered to them. I think it matters to have Scott Wiener represent our entire city in Congress.”
With voters in Engardio’s district still upset about the Great Highway along Ocean Beach being turned into a city park, which led to his
at a bar that has receipts, or … if there was video surveillance inside a bar, that may be a circumstantial case the DA decides to prosecute. It happens more frequently than you’d think – people in accidents run away and say their car got stolen.”
In an Instagram post that included video of the vehicle and damage to the outdoor seating area, the restaurant thanked the community for its support since the incident. It has since reopened for business.
designating the end of slavery in Texas following the Civil War. Juneteenth was designated an official federal holiday in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden, and happens to fall on the third Friday of June this year. (The night market is typically held on third Fridays.)
Bourg was referring to the car crash into two Castro Street parklets and the Cafe Mystique restaurant early May 31. Regarding that incident, in which the driver fled, Perdomo said an arrest will almost certainly be made soon.
“We’ve developed some leads,” he said. An arrest was made June 5.
Perdomo said that the suspect will likely be charged with a misdemeanor, despite the fact a video shows the person fleeing and property damage at the Mediterranean eatery, a popular brunch destination.
Felony vandalism typically requires intent, Perdomo said, and hit-and-runs usually only become felonies when there are injuries. Ultimately, the San Francisco District Attorney’s office will make the final decision.
“You’d think it’d be a felony,” he told the B.A.R. “If you don’t get a hold of the person right after, we don’t necessarily have the evidence to charge a DUI. … If he’d been
ouster from office after he put the closure of the roadway before voters citywide, Wiener saw his support in the Sunset slip this year. As of the June 9 posted election results, he received nearly 29% of the vote in supervisorial District 4, while Chan netted a little more than 37% and Chakrabarti was at 15%.
A backer of seeing the commute route turned into a park, Wiener could face even stronger headwinds in that part of the city come November should a ballot measure aimed at reopening the Great Highway qualify. For Chan, who has voiced support for seeing the matter go back before voters, it would offer one pathway to blunting Wiener’s chances at running away with the House seat.
As she noted the night of the primary, “The work is not done yet. It just got started.” t
“Most importantly, we are grateful that no one was hurt. While there is damage to repair, the kindness and love we have received from this community have reminded us how fortunate we are to have such incredible people supporting us,” it noted. “Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We look forward to see you all soon and continuing to serve our wonderful community.”
Regarding the entertainment zone activation on Pink Saturday, Perdomo said police will be out in force to prevent potential incidents, promising four platoons on day and night shifts.
“We like people to have a good time but, when there’s alcohol involved, it can be hard to manage,” he said. “We don’t want public disorder to get out of control.”
Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is the former merchants president and is proprietor of Cliff’s Variety on Castro Street, disagreed with Bourg about the latter’s assertion that such a large number of police may not be necessary.
“Having seen the heyday of Pride, let’s be cautious,” she said.
Night market
CG Events is also hosting an expanded Castro Night Market Friday, June 19. That edition will celebrate both Pride and Juneteenth, a holiday
Carrington said 18th Street will be closed from Hartford to Diamond streets, with a stage at 18th and Diamond streets featuring drag performances from alums of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” including DeJa Skye and Kennedy Davenport.
“It’s a bigger event than what we’d normally do for a night market,” he said.
Patrick Batt, a gay man and past merchants president who owns AutoErotica on 18th Street, said that the night market has to do more to let people know that despite 18th Street being closed to vehicular traffic, the businesses remain open.
“I appreciate you putting out signage relative to the businesses being open, but I think they need to go out at noon when you close the street. There needs to be more of them and they need to be more visible, and while I’m willing to bottom for the community once a month –”
The room erupted in laughter. (In season, the night markets happen on a monthly basis, and Batt had said in the past that the perception of some people is that the street closure means it is closed to pedestrians, negatively impacting his business.)
“– I think that’s important not just for me, but for everyone on 18th Street,” he continued.
Carrington expressed he understood Batt’s concern. t
Castro store marks 90th anniversary
The Castro is expected to have a vibrant night market on June 19.
Steven Underhill
Bill Wilson
Congressional candidate Supervisor Connie Chan, left, smiled as she appeared in San Francisco with Congressmember Nancy Pelosi ahead of the June 2 primary.
Bill Wilson
Cliff’s Variety, a mainstay in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro neighborhood, marked its 90th anniversary with a party Saturday, June 6. Store co-owner and straight ally Terry Asten Bennett, second from left, was joined by Mayor Daniel Lurie, third from left, who congratulated
the longtime local business, which has been a regular winner of the Bay Area Reporter’s best variety store category in the paper’s readers’ poll. Asten Bennet received commendations from city leaders on the milestone.
From page 1
soccer. A country that criminalizes and tortures us in detention.”
Music video and party
To that end, Mohamed has launched a new campaign, “Love is the Goal,” which includes a song, “Let Your Love Shine,” featuring Mohamed and rock singer Debby Holiday.
The lyrics were partly inspired by a poem Mohamed wrote when he first left Qatar for New York, in the font an Arabic holy text is typically written in. Mohamed has a line from the poem as a tattoo “as a promise to choose the truth that I hold.”
“I was born and raised there [in Qatar] and I only spoke Arabic and, as a teen, I had a moment where I was like, really deep down, I knew there was a truth I hold that’s not aligned
<< Flag raising
From page 1
Lurie paused and asked if he should lend a moment to listen to the protesters.
“This is San Francisco; we expect this,” Lurie said, to applause from his invited guests contrasting with boos and jeers from demonstrators. “We’re good.”
Queer protest organizer Jason Wyman told the Bay Area Reporter outside before the event that the reason for the protest are cuts to HIV and LGBTQserving nonprofits that have passed or been proposed.
“HIV services save lives, pure and simple,” Wyman said.
Anna Worley-Ziegmann, a nonbinary, bisexual person, said she came out to protest because, “in a moment when the mayor’s office says they are celebrating Pride, they are cutting HIV services –gutting the infrastructure queer people built, and spitting on the legacy of this city being the leader in HIV care.”
No arrests were made during the protest, Wyman said.
The mayor’s two-year $16.9 billion balanced budget proposal was announced June 1.
His office told the B.A.R. the same day that there aren’t future cuts to community-based organizations in the works that haven’t been announced.
However, organizations like the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the San Francisco Community Health Center did see grants cut earlier this year based on last year’s budget, as the B.A.R. reported.
Specifically, SFAF is facing $1.2 million in cuts cumulatively over two years, and SFCHC lost $139,000. The two organizations told the B.A.R. core services may be impacted by a confluence of fac-
<< Business Briefing
From page 6
with what’s told,” Mohamed said. More recently, he said, “When I was chatting with my friends, they said you need to sing that tattoo out loud to the world.”
A music video for the song will be filmed at the “Love Is You” party that will be held at The Mint, at 88 Fifth Street, June 13, from 4 to 10 p.m. Attendees must be 21 or older.
“I’m inviting everybody to the dance floor,” Mohamed said. “The first 800 people can come for free. That’s the capacity of the venue.”
Mohamed said it’s appropriate because, “the queer dance floor is where I found love in San Francisco.”
Co-producing both the event and the song is Simon Tam, known for the popular Real Bad fundraising house music party at 1015 Folsom over Folsom Street Fair weekend. Philip Grasso, also of Real Bad, is co-producing the party.
tors, including federal cuts and a drop in philanthropy.
For its part, Lurie’s office is trying to fill a two-year $643 million deficit compounded by the impacts of HR 1, President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is creating funding gaps for local hospitals and providers because the law reduces federal Medicaid spending. That means more care is being provided without compensation to medical institutions, which in turn creates more budgetary pressure on local governments.
The Lurie administration states it is using $34 million to keep people enrolled in Medi-Cal and CalFresh even as HR 1 increases eligibility requirements for those programs. The new work requirements in HR 1 may result in 45,000 San Franciscans losing health care over the next two years – requirements that aren’t waived for those living with HIV/AIDS.
Gay Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro as District 8 supervisor, defended Lurie in his remarks at the ceremony, joking that it’s “homophobic” that the budget process happens the same month as Pride.
“It is not always the most useful thing to rage against your allies, and for me, it’s clear that Daniel Lurie is deeply and profoundly an ally to the LGBTQ community. We see it in lots and lots of ways.
Most recently, we saw it in about $2 million in rejections of proposed cuts that were going to impact the LGBTQ community. And I guess I’d like to start by thanking the mayor and his budget team for reversing those cuts and investing in our queer community.”
Mandelman was referring to cuts to a number of LGBTQ organizations that’d
Grasso told the B.A.R., “It’s an honor to amplify Nas’ vision, projecting love back into the community through music, hospitality, and breathtaking installations of beauty. It’s been wonderful seeing so many talented individuals donate their time and services.”
Natasha Koral, a bi woman, is also co-producing. She stated, “It’s been a real privilege to work on this campaign and bring this vision to life.”
Mohamed said he met Tam and Grasso on the dance floor.
“They saw me dancing, and we became friends,” he said.
Tam, a gay man, told the B.A.R. in a phone interview, “The party, the song, the campaign, it’s all combined, all of it. As a queer person who has spent a lot of my life creating spaces for people to be free, this felt deeply personal to me. You can feel your body soften when you’re finally safe, and that’s what I want people to feel, that sense of safety.
been proposed, but that did not make it in the mayor’s budget proposal.
In his remarks, Lurie brought that up.
“There is anxiety about the budget, and I know how important your work is to our city,” he told the assembled guests. “That is why this year, we made significant investments in healthcare, and we will continue to support the organizations doing critical work for the LGBTQ+ community. When the federal government cuts HIV and AIDS funding, we will backfill them as we always have, because no one, no one in this city should lose access to health care because Washington turns its back.”
Lurie thanked SFCHC for “making a difference for San Francisco every day.”
“With their work, you will continue to drive down to zero the number of [HIV] infections,” Lurie said.
Honey Mahogany, a Black queer trans person who is head of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, thanked the mayor for the add-backs, as well as those fighting for more. After listing a number of initiatives the city is working on, Mahogany said, “I know, that’s certainly not enough, and trust me, this is just the beginning. There are many incredible activists and many incredible allies who, here in the city and county of San Francisco, are fighting every day to improve things. And the budget process isn’t over yet: We still have a lot of work to do.”
The Board of Supervisors will soon begin reviewing Lurie’s proposal. A final budget is due August 1.
Lurie also thanked the “hundreds of thousands of those names who we do not say, who live their lives quietly and with dignity, who had to hide who they were, who loved in secret, who carried the weight of a world not ready for them.
“A lot of people describe the dance floor as their church, where they find their heart and connection with others, and that’s so important right now in this climate,” he added. “What are we fighting for? We’re fighting for our way back to love, which is intrinsic in all of us.”
Tam continued that love is “always there within us, even when the world makes it hard to feel, because it’s who we are. It’s what makes us human. If ‘Love is You’ helps people reconnect with that love, then my hope is they carry it beyond the dance floor and into their lives.”
Mohamed said he decided as an adolescent “to choose the truth and innocence I hold over any cruel truth I am told. … During this World Cup, I will sing it to the world to speak of the crushing pain of authoritarian oppression described in my tattoo, and of the love that has always lived within me, a love I chose to trust and let guide me forward.”
Suzanne Ford, a trans woman who is the executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, gave a shout-out to Mohamed during her remarks at Mayor Daniel Lurie’s City Hall Pride festivities last week.
“People around the world still dream about San Francisco,” Ford said. “People like Dr. Nas Mohamed, the first publicly out gay man from Qatar. … Being the city of dreams comes with responsibility. This city has always been a leader in showing what inclusive progress can look like.”
Mohamed said that, as a San Franciscan, “We want to show what we stand for.”
“When the world is gathering, we wanted to show we stand for the freedom to believe, the freedom to choose our body, and we stand for the freedom to choose who we love,” he added.
To sign up for the party, visit Eventbrite at https://tinyurl.com/yp4p3kta. t
They are part of this story today. And today, we raise the flag for them.”
Thomas E. Horn, a gay man and the former Bay Area Reporter publisher who received a commendation from the Board of Supervisors June 2, was thanked by Lurie and Mandelman for his work in the community. He posed with the mayor and the Pride Month proclamation.
Horn told the B.A.R. after the event that, “In spite of the pushback and hostility our community is facing we have a mayor who is standing strong. He insisted on being there the whole time and the guy’s a busy guy with shit to do. He had a Pride proclamation when Washington officials would not do that. So, I’m grateful to live in San Francisco.”
Horn said he was “embarrassed but grateful” Mandelman led the crowd
in singing “Happy Birthday” to Horn, whose birthday is June 7.
“He apparently had advance knowledge,” Horn said.
SF Pride Executive Director Suzanne Ford, a trans woman, discussed what Pride means to her.
“I grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky, watching San Francisco Pride on the television in the 1970s,” Ford said. “And I didn’t know, at that time, any openly trans person or leader in my city, in my state, in this country. I didn’t know a future like mine was possible. But I did see San Francisco. I saw people living openly, joyfully, authentically, and it changed me. That’s the power of visibility. That’s the power of Pride, and that’s why what we do here now matters still – what we do here matters far beyond the city of San Francisco.” t
They opened Angela’s first San Francisco location last July in Noe Valley at 3751 24th Street on the corner of Chattanooga. It was followed by a second location in the Fillmore in December at 3108C Fillmore Street.
third one at 3998 18th Street last fall but construction has taken longer than expected. They are opening up the facade fronting Noe Street by adding windows and had to replace the rotted out flooring inside after discovering it had been damaged by the former occupant’s coolers.
joints. It is made with Strauss organic chocolate soft serve ice cream, cookie crumbs, cake bites, rainbow sprinkles, and swirls of TCHO chocolate. Its location in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district is at 2304 Market Street on the corner of 16th Street. Orders for pickup (and delivery) can be made online at https://tinyurl.com/3dmx89m4. t << World Cup
The siblings had hoped to open the
Trans people of color exhibit in Vallejo
The Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive has an exhibit celebrating trans people of color at the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. A reception and Pride flag raising ceremony will be held Friday, June 12, at 6 p.m. at the museum, located at 734 Marin Street.
The exhibit is curated by Ms. Bob Davis, a transgender woman who founded the Louise Lawrence archive in Vallejo in 2018. Davis is a community grand marshal for this year’s San Francisco Pride Parade.
The exhibit, “I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live,” is copresented with the San Franciscobased GLBT Historical Society. It shines a spotlight on the resilience,
An exact opening date has yet to be announced. Garat-Zanella told the
creativity, and cultural impact of Black, Latine, Asian, and Pacific Islander trans and gender-nonconforming people, a news release noted. The exhibit features studio portraits, candid photographs, archivist materials, and self-portraits.
The Vallejo Gay Network is sponsoring the flag-raising ceremony.
The museum is open Tuesday-Friday, noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults.
For more information, visit vallejomuseum.net.
A look at SF’s ‘Unspeakable Vice’
The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel will present the next in its Making History Fun Again speaker series with Shawn Sprockett’s “Unspeakable Vice: How San Francisco Became America’s Gayest City” Thursday, June 18, in the
B.A.R. this week they are aiming before “late summer” to welcome the first customers to the Castro location.
For more information about Angela’s Ice Cream and its various locations and offerings, visit its website.
A super fundraiser for SF LGBTQ center
Speaking of ice cream, throughout
Redwood Room at 6 p.m. The hotel is located at 495 Geary Street.
Sprockett, a gay man who’s a professor and designer in San Francisco, is originally from Florida. Sprockett was inspired to action following the passage of the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in his home state in 2022, a news release noted. In response, he began researching and documenting alternative perspectives on local queer history, particularly the experiences of women, transgender communities, and people of color, and sharing those stories through monthly walking tours across San Francisco’s historic and often forgotten “gayborhoods,” the release stated.
Drawing from extensive historical research, Sprockett’s talk examines how queer communities shaped San Francisco’s cultural identity long before the city became internationally recognized as a center of LGBTQ life and activism,
June, customers who order a Cosmic Chocolate Chip Shake at Super Duper Burgers will be helping to raise funds for the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. Five percent of all sales of the $7.50 treat will be donated to the nonprofit agency.
The limited-time shake was inspired by “one seriously iconic dessert,” according to the Bay Area chain of burger
according to the release. The evening will also explore recurring themes of visibility, resistance, displacement, and community-building, offering insight into how lessons from the past may continue to inform movements for equality and belonging today.
Admission to the talk is complimentary with RSVP. A no-host cocktail reception takes place at 5 p.m. For more information and to register, visit https://tinyurl.com/2vz4mp2j.
SFPD Pride patch
San Francisco Police Department officers are celebrating Pride Month by wearing special Pride patches in June and raising funds for Openhouse, a nonprofit that provides services to LGBTQ seniors.
This is the first year that the San Francisco Police Officer’s Pride Alliance is raising funds for Openhouse,
which was founded in 1998, a news release stated. The agency partners with Mercy Housing to provide affordable apartments to seniors at 55 and 95 Laguna Street; many of the residents identify as LGBTQ. The two organizations are planning for a third site, at 1939 Market Street, that aims to construct 187 affordable units, not far from the other developments. A final round of financing is expected later this year, and if successful, the building is expected to open in 2029, as the B.A.R. previously reported.
For the last six years, the Pride patch project has demonstrated the support and inclusiveness of the SFPD to the LGBTQ community, the release stated. A short video about the project can be seen at https://tinyurl.com/5c9yczks. t
Mayor Daniel Lurie, left, thanked former Bay Area Reporter publisher Thomas E. Horn for his work in the community. Horn currently sits on the board that oversees the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center across from City Hall.
Bill Wilson
by Brian Bromberger
The great news is that Frameline is celebrating its 50th anniversary, June 17-27,
doubt about the power of queer stories to shape the world. If our stories didn’t have this unstoppable power, there would be no need to ban them.
Yet during the launch last month when Madsen gave this speech, Matthew Ramsey, Director
Frameline50
Our coverage of Frameline50 will occur in three parts, with Part 1 below including reviews of films in the first five days of the festival. See last week’s issue for our feature on the festival’s beginnings in the 1970s.
op this art form rooted in the human body and coming out of their own experiences as women. Such famous artists as Judy Chicago, Arlene Raven, and Suzanne Lacey were initially involved. The community gave younger women the
2017 Media Kit 0 a
Mission Statement
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
Film festival kicks off at The Castro and other theaters
‘Acting Like Women’ ‘Jaripeo’
‘Lady Champagne’
Fresh Meat Festival celebrates 25 years
by David-Elijah Nahmod
For three days beginning June 19, the Fresh Meat Festival takes to the stage at Z Space to bring audiences a night of dance, music, drag, theater, and interdisciplinary performance. It’s a return engagement for Fresh Meat, which is celebrating 25 years of shining a spotlight on queer and trans performers. The festival began in 2002 when creator and co-curator Sean Dorsey, who is a queer transgender man, put together what he thought would be a one-time festival.
“The community response was overwhelming, though,” Dorsey said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “And so, we expanded our mission and work. Today we offer yearround events and programs on top of the festival.”
Dorsey added that he never thought the festival would reach the 25-year milestone.
“It feels extraordinary,” he said. “Celebrating 25 years as a transgender and queer organization is incredibly powerful, especially in this climate. Wow, when I founded this project, I certainly never thought that one day we’d turn 25.”
The primary goal of the Fresh Meat Festival, Dorsey pointed out, was to bring joy to his audiences and to his performers, which is particularly important given the attacks the trans and queer communities are being subjected to from the GOP.
Liberated future
“There is so, so much joy and love
in that room,” said Dorsey. “It’s really medicine for our audiences and our artists. At this time of such violent attacks on trans and queer communities, this festival is not just about resisting erasure and harm, it’s really about celebrating each other unapologetically. It’s powerful and healing to get to see ourselves reflected on stage. It’s powerful and healing to be part of a massive audience reveling in their queerness and trans-ness. Artists light the way for us out of brutal times like these. The artist’s imagination is revolutionary. We cannot build a liberated future until we’ve imagined it first.”
Eric Garcia, who is queer and gender-expansive, co-curates the festival with Dorsey, and refers to Fresh Meat as “a true cornerstone in the Bay Area arts scene.”
“What makes it unique is that we’re presenting wildly different artists at different points in their careers on the same stage,” Garcia said in an interview with the B.A.R. “Some artists have been shaping queer culture
‘The Lunchbox’
by Jim Gladstone
Food, glorious food.
“The Lunchbox,” a richly satisfying new musical now in a world premiere production at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is stacked with delicious vittles and vivid ditties.
From the fantasy banquet in “Oliver!” to the clambake reverie of “Carousel”; from the feast of “miso soups” and “meatless balls” in “Rent”’s “La Vie Boheme,” to the heaping helping of “Corn Puddin’” served up in the Tony-anointed “Schmigadoon!”, combo-plates of culinary evocation and heartfelt composition have helped
for decades. Others are newer voices whose work is just starting to reach larger audiences. The festival creates a celebratory space where all of that exists together.”
Garcia is also the company’s Managing Director. They work on everything from artist communication and contracts to production schedules, accessibility planning, budgeting, staffing, and making sure hundreds of moving pieces are com-
municating with each other. If an artist needs information, if a designer needs a schedule, if a crew member needs a document, there’s a decent chance it eventually lands in Garcia’s inbox.
“I’m also an artist myself, so I spend a lot of time thinking about what artists actually need in order to do their best work,” said Garcia. “Oh, and I emcee the festival as my drag persona Churro Nomi.”
New works
Among the performers are a 35-voice trans, intersex, and genderqueer chorus. There will be FilipinxAmerican drag artists performing together as a supergroup. Also expect to see contemporary dance, live music, experimental theater, diasporic dance, disability led performance, and artists whose work sits somewhere between all those categories.
“Several artists are performing the world premieres of brand new works we commissioned through our Fresh Works! Program, including Pangaea,
Merry musical makes a delicious debut at Berkeley Rep
bring soul-nourishing power to many a musical.
Built around the 135-year-old Mumbai tradition of dabbawallahs traveling by foot and bicycle to bring tiffins (multi-tiered metal containers) of fresh-cooked food from mothers and wives at home to men at their workplaces (and then return the empties for re-use the next day), “The Lunchbox” delivers with all the charm and unlikely efficiency of its milieu.
Simple romance, social insight Ritesh Batra’s book, based on his 2013 screenplay for the critically ad-
mired film, is, at its simplest level, a gently simmering love story. Ila, played with limpid emotion by Kuhoo Verma, is stuck in a passion-depleted marriage. Fernandes is a longtime widower whose brusque shell hides a witty inner romantic.
The plot hinges on an ongoing fairytale coincidence that makes “The Lunchbox” feel like a better fit for the inherent artifice of the stage than the photorealism of its film version.
JanpiStar, B. DeVeaux, and Shawn Lee with Bay Area Independent Chinese Dancers,” said Garcia. “You’ll also see incredible performances by Sean Dorsey Dance, Shawna Virago, ZuZu Beloved, and New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus.”
Dorsey wants the public to know that this isn’t just a show for queer and trans people. Anyone, including allies, are welcome to enjoy it.
“If you’re a fan of exquisite art, innovative performance, being part of community celebrating each other and trans and queer artistry, you are going to love the Fresh Meat Festival, period,” Dorsey said. “There is literally nothing else like this in the nation. People travel from across the country to attend the festival.” t Fresh Meat Festival, June 19 and 20, 8pm; June 21, 3pm, Z Space, 450 Florida St. $20-$50. All performances ASL-interpreted; KN95 masks required and provided. www.zspace.org www.freshmeatproductions.org
Trying to rekindle her connection with her husband, Ila slips an affectionate note into the tiffin of homemade delicacies she sends his way each day. A rare glitch in the dabbawallah system finds her lovinglyprepared lunch mistakenly delivered to Fernandes. The food is marvelous, a gustatory oasis in the midst of his humdrum paper-pushing workday. He slips a kind thank you note into the emptied tiffin (“He licked it clean!” exults Ila, before realizing that it’s a foreign tongue making her feel so good).
Thus begins an ever wittier and wiser epistolary relationship. It’s completely dependent on the same error being repeated on a daily basis. This is a musical though, so we swallow it with a spoonful of sugar.
“The Lunchbox” celebrates the expressive love languages of home cooking and written correspondence. It hits with particular poignance at this moment when we nod our heads when we’re told our world suffers from an epidemic of loneliness. Ila and Fernandes are heroes for taking the risk of reaching out, of being open to connecting with strangers rather than continuing to settle for melancholy lives of Good Enough.
There’s a secondary plot that obliquely touches on another related contemporary American social ill; the lack of strong adult male friendships.
Fernandes, initially resistant to the professional and platonic personal overtures of his optimistic underling, Shaikh (Aathaven Tharmarajah, an absolute delight), gradually agrees to mentor, and then inevitably befriends,
him. The aborning avuncular relationship is surprisingly touching.
It’s worth noting though, that in India, and much of the world, strong male friendships are much less fraught than in our toxic country. Watch the warm, unselfconscious physical contact between the dabbawallahs as they go about their work (and their dancing). Their casual affection registers not as straight or queer, but as pure.
Multisensory embrace
Along with a handful of centerpiece song-and-dance numbers, the score, by brothers Daniel and Patrick Lazour; choreography, by Reshma Gajjar—a well-balanced blend of folk, street, Broadway, and Bollywood styles; and direction by Rachel Chavkin (“Hadestown”) keep the stage in a state of city busy-ness with near constant snippets of rhythm, melody and motion.
The terrific instrumental ensemble is cleverly placed within the apartment block set, making the players part of the city’s anonymous crowds. One percussionist is tucked in a stage-
level alcove, sitting cross-legged like a busker, ignored by passersby.
Costumes by Arjun Bhasin and lighting by Bradley King give us vivid colors, but as seen through the dusty scrim of underprivileged urban life.
Like the savory aromas and flavors suggested by lyrics and dialogue that rhapsodize over dishes of eggplant, mutton, apples, and cauliflower; evanescent lines of music waft from the stage into the audience.
Performers and onlookers are drawn together, collectively immersed in a multisensory stew of mundanity and magic.
There’s the effective occasional jolt of strong spice (one dish is cheekily described as incorporating enough chilies to “burn a hole through his hole”; one moment of agony disrupts the wry, self-protective acceptance of life’s vagaries that prevails among Batra’s characters), but overall ‘The Lunchbox’ provides warm, welcoming envelopment.t
‘The Lunchbox,’ through July 5. $25-$135. Berkeley Repertory,
Left to Right: Filipinx, JanpiStar, B. DeVeaux, and ZuZu Beloved are among the performers in this year’s Fresh Meat Festival
Left: Artistic Director Sean Dorsey Right: Managing Director Eric Garcia as MC Churro Nomi
Left to Right: Benjamin Mathew, Savidu Geevaratne, and Vishal Vaidya in the world premiere musical, ‘The Lunchbox’ at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre.
Kevin Berne
‘What It Feels Like for a Girl’
by Laura Moreno
Set in 2004, the BBC series “What It Feels Like for a Girl” is now available on Prime Video. Adapted from Paris Lees’ 2021 memoir, it features Byron (Ellis Howard), a working-class trans teenager who escapes a dying mining town for the underground club scene in Nottinghamshire.
This is a series that makes audiences nostalgic for the Y2K era, including the Madonna song the series is named after and the time period’s particular brand of wild fashions, back before social media made people increasingly more judgmental and self-conscious.
In the show, Nadia Almada has just won “Big Brother,” the first transgender contestant to win the show, securing an amazing 74% of the public vote in 2004. Byron watches Almada on a
grainy television and can see the situation is rich with possibilities, but possibility doesn’t pay rent.
Amidst lots of drugs and drinking with no income, Byron descends into petty criminality with his crew, who call themselves The Fallen Divas and operate as both a chosen family and survival infrastructure.
In today’s increasing surveillance state, the odds of getting caught engaging in wrong-doing have skyrocketed, and indeed Byron does end up serving a stint in a young offenders’ institution, where the series focuses on how gender is navigated inside. An unspoken lesson may be that it is possible to navigate poverty with dignity and self-respect.
At some point, Byron gets kicked out of the house before she’s old enough to hold a full-time job in the
Paris Lees’ semi-autobiographical series finds the sacred in the profane
UK. Just as there is a safety net for those who are too old to work, there should be one for people too young to work as well that allows them to maintain their self-determination.
A woman’s instinct
“What It Feels Like for a Girl” is based on Lees’ own experiences and adapted for television by a writing team that includes trans women with similar histories, the series features performances so specific they feel almost documentaryadjacent. It is a raw exploration of gender and class oppression.
But at times, the likability of the characters is questionable. Very little time passes before the series again becomes hard to watch. That appears to be the point. Lees and her writing team aren’t interested in making trans girlhood palatable. Be advised, this se-
ries is not for everyone.
And yet, the actors’ performances and the magnetic energy between them shine on screen. Laquarn Lewis as Lady Die, Hannah Jones as Sasha, Laura Haddock as Byron’s mom, Adam Ali, Alex Thomas-Smith and many others. The supporting cast is so good it steals the show at times.
In addition to top-notch acting, many things distinguish “What It Feels Like for a Girl.” It is a polished production. The color palette shifts to highlight Byron’s moods, no explanation needed. Moreover, the soundtrack is equally praiseworthy. It even punctuates a dramatic scene with opera music in the background.
The show is at its absolute best when it lingers on the small, stolen moments of recognition aptly conveyed by the brilliant actors, like Byron pensively
Q-Music: Pride 2026 playlist
by Gregg Shapiro
Out singers, clearly queer lyrics and innovative talent mark this year’s first queer roundup of music choices. Hear new sounds from Aaron Lee Tasjan, Voxtrot, Paisley Fields, The Necessaries, Brandon Carmody.
Personals
Your hotel apt or mansion. Casanova (415) 818-3126. $6000 per session.
Erotic unforgettable rendezvous great conversationalist. Easy on the eyes.
In 2024, queer singer/songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan released “Stellar Evolution,” one of the best and most underrated albums of that year (or any year). The songs were personal (“The Drugs Did Me”), political (“I Love America Better Than You”), and had a distinctive sense of humor (“Pants”), many delivered in a modern, electronic-driven, pop style. Tasjan’s new album, “Get Over It, Underdog” (Blue Elan), is an entirely different musical experience. Still mourning his mentor, the late singer/songwriter Todd Snider, who passed in November 2025 (and to whom the record is dedicated), Tasjan’s album is draped with loss. While not as immediately attentiongrabbing as its predecessor, “…Underdog” takes a few spins before revealing the glitter beneath the gloom on “Lost & Alone,” “Science Friction,” “Lydia’s Boots,” and “Clown Shoes.” aaronleetasjan.com
Led by queer singer and musician Ramesh Srivastava, Austin band Voxtrot re-emerged after a 12-year hiatus in 2022. Four years later, Voxtrot is releasing its second full-length album, “Dreamers in Exile” (Cult Hero), almost 20 years after its debut album was released.
So, was it worth the wait? Definitely! Greatly influenced by twee pop (Belle and Sebastian) and Britpop (The Housemartins), Voxtrot continues in this vein throughout the album, with standouts including the title cut, “My Peace,” “Fighting Back,” “Esprit de Cœur,” “Quiet Noise,” and “New World Romance.” Let’s hope Voxtrot doesn’t stay in exile so long again. voxtrot.net
Twirling on green vinyl, “Are U Mad At Me” (Don Giovanni) by Brooklyn via Iowa queer artist Paisley Fields considerably cranks up the variety, separating it from 2022’s “Limp Wrist.” You can hear the Pansy Division influence on the punky “Straight Panic Defense” and “Party Girl.” Fields is a natural-born storyteller on the painfully nostalgic AIDS number “1984.” Not abandoning the country influence of early albums, the fantastic “You Should Tell Your Wife,” “Silver Spurs,” and “Hand Off the Hat” are welcome additions to the classic queer country genre. Yippee ki yi gay! www.thepaisleyfields.com
The late, queer musical genius and cellist Arthur Russell (who, like Paisley Fields, also hailed from Iowa before relocating to New York), died too soon in 1992. A musician of many talents whose influence is still felt widely today, Russell was a member of various musical units before embarking on a solo career.
One such act, The Necessaries, is finally getting its due with the double disc compilation “Completely Necessary (Anthology 1978-1982)” on Omnivore Records. Comprised of The Necessaries’ 1981 Sire Records debut album “Event Horizon,” as well as “Pilots Facing North” (1978-1981 studio recordings) and “Songs From the Blue Colony” (1980-1982 studio record-
ings), the music puts them in league with beloved artists such as Television and Talking Heads. However, it was not meant to be. The good news is that The Necessaries now have a chance to be discovered by a whole new audience. omnivorerecordings.com
catching her own reflection in a nightclub mirror, or a shared cigarette with Lady Die.
One notable takeaway is that women in general, even just brushing past each other briefly in the ladies room, tend to be far better at detecting trans people (not always in a kind way) than the men on the dance floor, who may wrongly suspect tall women of being trans, and fail to notice when the babe in their arms really is a real trans woman.
Paris Lees has given us a valuable trans story in “What It Feels Like for a Girl” that doesn’t beg for pity or ask for applause. It simply demands to be seen on its own terms. The story is based in truth and we’re fortunate to be able to see it.t
Now streaming on Prime Video www.primevideo.com
Established queer Portland, Oregon musician Brandon Carmody isn’t kidding when he calls his new album “AI.” From the music on the album to the cover art, the entire product was created via AI prompts, including the audience reactions on the “live” recordings. As it turns out, this backfired on Carmody when his plans to have an album listening session at a Portland record store were canceled due to protests by staff and musicians. The controversy even earned Carmody coverage on two of the city’s local news networks. Some of the songs address the threat of AI, including “Humanity’s Last Dance,” “Eye of the Robots,” and the title song. It may be hard for listeners to separate the subject of the material from the way it was created. www.brandoncarmody.comt
Gorgeous gigolo from Beverly Hills, travel to SF. George Hamilton look alike 6 ft 178 lbs sexy, smoky sexuality, male nympho for the generous discerning, discriminating man.
Left: Calam Lynch and Ellis Howard in ‘What It Feels Like for a Girl’
Right: Laquarn Lewis, Hannah Jones, Ellis Howard, Alex Thomas-Smith and Adam Ali in ‘What It Feels Like for a Girl’
Both photos: Hera Pictures/BBC/Enda Bowe
June.
by Jim Provenzano
We continue our 55th anniversary celebrations by reprising some of our online discussion panels. The tenth edition of the Bay Area Reporter’s monthly online chats, “True Crime,” took place in February 2022.
The B.A.R. has an impressive history of reporting news stories often overlooked by the mainstream media. Many of our crime stories have later been sourced by other outlets. Some have even helped solve cases.
Current and former reporters discussed coverage of the Harvey Milk/ George Moscone assassinations, the White Night Riots, anti-gay crimes, the Castro Halloween shootings, and some gruesome recent murders. Reporter Ed Walsh, Transmissions columnist Gwen Smith, and former World News columnist Heather Cassell shared their experiences and insight on some of the B.A.R.’s most notorious crime features over the years. Arts & Nightlife Editor and B.A.R. Talks producer Jim Provenzano moderated.
Enjoy the chat. Watch more of our B.A.R. Talks on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@BayAreaReporterSFt
Drag Me Downtown
“Dear San Francisco” Circus Bella
and lots of tequila, but also a homoerotic charge underneath.
“Lady Champagne” (June 17, Castro)
and directed “9 to 5,” “Foul Play,” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”
Executive Producer Dolly Parton introduces the film and shares her remembrances of the man who directed her first two films. Perhaps his life can be summed up in one of his own quotes, “The response to human ridiculeness is laughter.”
Higgins was beloved in Hollywood. The film talks briefly about his coming out and then struggle with AIDS. We would like to have seen more about his personal relationships rather than just the photo montage we are given, and perhaps some analysis about how his gay sensibility impacted his work, especially “Harold and Maude.”
“Downtown” (June 21, Castro)
It’s 1986 and the center of gay Amsterdam life is the vibrant, hedonistic nightclub Downtown, the name of this superb Dutch film. The liberating nightlife here was a paradise briefly for young men in the early to mid-1980s.
The story centers on three guys and their friendship: Ronnie, the DJ whose dream is to open a restaurant, Lennart, a disillusioned lawyer but heartthrob dancer who can have any man he wants, and Bas, the newcomer golden boy, a 20-year-old artist.
Lennart and Bas are immediately attracted to each other, though Ronnie had hoped to bond with Lennart. Meanwhile, regular attendees are disappearing as AIDS starts to kill gay men. The movie then switches to 2021 during the COVID pandemic. Ronnie recognizes Bas in the subway and arranges for a fateful reunion dinner party with them and Lennart in hopes of reviving their friendship; one of Frameline50’s best narrative films.
“Jaripeo” (June 20, Castro)
This first-person hybrid documentary follows the annual Jaripeo (rodeo with bull-riding) in Penjamillo, Michoacan State in rural central Mexico with its macho hypermasculinity on the surface, Catholic conservatism,
People said if it was an album, they would buy it. I was thinking about it, and then, also, since becoming a dad, I feel like I think a lot more about what we leave behind. I thought about my son having this for his whole life and maybe playing it for his kids. I was also like, “But it’s a weird, little, musical theater nerd album. Who’s going to listen to it?” Then, talking to some friends and colleagues, somebody said, “Yeah, but I bet Clay Elder at 20 years old would have loved this album.” You know what? I would have.
You played the character of John Adams in twelve episodes of the HBO period series “The Gilded Age.” My husband still mourns your character’s death. What was that experience like for you?
It was so thrilling to be part of, not just because I was such a big fan of
We hear about the young queer ranchero through the experiences of co-director Efrain Mojica revisiting his past. Noe a cowboy and nurse –out to friends but not his family– prefers macho men, not effeminate guys; and Joe, makeup artist and rodeo fan, who came out in a dress at a quinceañera party and makes no secret of his femme sexuality. He performs in drag at the rodeo, but only hooks up with straight men.
The film has a dreamy, hazy look with evocative camera angles adding to the lush seductive tone. While the men interviewed express some feelings, there’s not much emotional depth nor any real analysis of how they live with the contradictions. While not conventional storytelling, the film shines a spotlight on this underground queer cowboy culture.
“Julian” (June 20, Roxie)
Adapted from the memoir by Belgium artist/activist Fleur Pierets, this poignant Belgium film makes a cause celébre of same-sex marriage.
Fleur arrives late at a concert and Julian had to stand up to let her pass though. Fleur remembers nothing about the concert, focusing on the back of Julian’s neck. The two women fall in love. When they announce to their friends they are getting married, they suggest having the ceremony in Greece or Italy, but neither of those countries in 2017 had legalized same-sex marriage.
They come up with Project 22, realizing they are fortunate to live in one of the 22 countries where same-sex marriage is legal, so they use their privilege to make a point, by getting married in each of the 22 countries.
They use camcorders to record their adventures and get married in four countries, when Julian is diagnosed with brain cancer. The film avoids being maudlin, with the small moments standing out, such as when they catch each other’s eyes across a dinner table. It’s melancholy but life-affirming as they attempt to give meaning to every precious moment they share.
“Downton Abbey.” First of all, getting to work on a Julian Fellowes show was like, “I can’t believe I’m working on a Julian Fellowes show! This is incredible.”
76-year-old man set in Spain, Vicente (Jose Ramon Soroiz) having recently split with his younger, wealthier partner of 25 years, lives in Maspalomas, the gay-friendly tourist resort in the Canary Islands with secluded cruising in the dunes, lounging on a nude beach, clubbing at night. He has an active sex life and is engaging in a threesome when he has a stroke.
His estranged daughter, whom he abandoned after divorcing her mother years ago, has him brought back home, to the more conservative San Sebastian, and puts him in a care home. Disjointed, he goes back into the closet, even being mean to his gay caregiver. He’s forced to undergo another process of self-discovery, ruminating about past decisions he made in his life.
It’s the sequel you didn’t know you were dying for. Champagne Horowitz James Dickerson White (“So I’ve been married a couple of times. It’s none of your fucking business”) is the brilliant drag persona of local legend D’Arcy Drollinger, San Francisco’s first drag laureate. The sequel to “Shit & Champagne,” dubbed a “dragsploitation slapstick comedy,” has an absurd plot.
Exotic dancer Champagne is accused of murdering her husband and winds up in Lady Prison, where villain Pixie Pardonne Moi (the fabulous Matthew Martin personifying aspects of every Hollywood diva), a fragrance tycoon, wants to take over the world by harvesting all the prisoner’s G-spots. Her perfume Poon transforms its users into addicts.
Many of the jokes here bomb and there are moronic patches, but there’s enough witty satire and gay camp) to the nth degree that’s outrageous. Viewers will have a hilarious time as long as you don’t think about anything, especially the plot. Drag icons Sister Roma, Peaches Christ, and Varla Jean Merman have cameos.
“Maspalomas” (June 19, Roxie)
In a queer coming of age story of a
Soroiz deservedly won the Spanish equivalent of Best Actor for his dapper, empathetic, but resilient Vicente. The film is a character study, that slyly poses the issue of the challenge of aging in gay men. An unlikely but powerful gem, it’s one of Frameline50’s best movies.
“Public Access” (June 21, Castro)
This wacky and wild (and at times pornographic) documentary charts the birth of the first public access channel in the U.S., Manhattan Cable TV (owned by Time Warner) in 1971. People not recognized by mainstream TV could have their own show, empowering underrepresented communities, but also shifting the formula of who controlled TV.
“TV Party,” the first countercultural variety show, featured the band Blondie, who described the show as a clusterfuck of ideas, which isn’t a bad definition of public access TV in general.
“Emerald City” was TV’s first gay show with segments of interest to queer viewers, such as bathhouses, which is a hoot. Later it gave valuable information on how to protect oneself against AIDS.
Voice-over narrations of folks who created and produced these shows comment 50 years later, one of whom describes public access as an early form of social media. The argument can be
Also, very purposefully, the original show runner sought out theater actors to do the roles. People say it was because of the pandemic, and they were just trying to give theater actors jobs. We were cast in 2019, and it was very purposeful to cast theater people because he felt like theater people could handle the language and style of the time period better than a lot of contemporary actors.
You can currently be seen in the role of Dr. Orin Scrivello D.D.S. in “Little Shop of Horrors” at the Westside Theatre in New York City. I know it’s only been a couple of days, but how is it going so far?
I’m having the best time! I have played different roles in my life, but I think that doing comedy is my favorite. This is a broad role. Replacing somebody in a show, especially in a comedic track like this, you hope that they’re like, “Yeah, do whatever you
made that public access was the antecedent of YouTube and TikTok. It’s a hodgepodge of remarkable footage that’s meant to mimic the experience of the wild early days of public access in all its chaotic and unfiltered creativity.
“Uncle Roy” (June 18, Roxie)
This is a poignant love letter from filmmaker and photographer Keri Pickett to her uncle Roy Blakey (1930-2024), who began his several careers as a professional ice-skating performer in ice shows (i.e. Holiday on Ice, Disney on Ice) around the world. He amassed a vast collection of ice-skating artifacts, including skates, costumes, posters, postcards, and programs, especially of his childhood idol Olympic champion Sonja Henie. They tell the history of ice shows and their importance, especially for queer people who (like Roy) often skated in these programs.
Starting in 1970, Roy became a fulltime freelance photographer, taking celebrity photos but also queer icons such as Divine and Candy Darling. He’s one of the forefathers of gay male photography, shooting portraits of nude men that appeared in gay magazines like “After Dark” and “Honcho.” His self-published “He” was the first book of male nudes that could be sent through the mails legally after obscenity trials. His photos stressed the male nude as an aesthetic and not just as a sexual object.
The film is a race against time to preserve his memories and archives as Roy slips into dementia and his health declines after a seizure. Both his iceskating memorabilia and gay nude collection were donated to the University of Minnesota Libraries’ JeanNikolas Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies. The film captures the special closeness between Roy and his niece/ caretaker. This is one of Frameline50’s treasures and is unmissable.t
Read more reviews on www.ebar.com.
www.frameline.org
want to do,” within bounds, make it your own with your own funny things.
They have been totally open to me getting to play and do my own thing. Also, playing a person who is on edge and a little bit crazy is just fun because it allows you this freedom to be spontaneous in a really fun way. I’m having a blast. I’m only three performances in, and I’m still learning a lot, but having such a great time.
Are there any other TV, movie, or stage projects in the works that you’d like to mention?
I’m actually shooting a film next month. I’m taking off some performances of “Little Shop,” so if people are coming, look on the website because the website will tell you what show I’m in. For about five weeks, I’m taking off random shows here and there, and then I have one week when I’m completely out.
I’m shooting a movie that Douglas Carter Beane wrote. It’s a really beautiful little film about a down-onits-luck town in Pennsylvania and a group of community theater actors who live there. Santino Fontana’s in it, and a lot of theater people. I’ll be shooting that in June, which will be fun. I’m also singing at Liza Minnelli’s 80th birthday party at Carnegie Hall at the end of June, which I’m very excited about.
We’re talking at the start of Pride month. Is there anything special that you are planning to do to celebrate Pride?
Well, I’m singing at Liza Minnelli’s birthday party [laughs]t
Read the full interview, with music videos, on www.ebar.com.
www.claybourneelder.com
Claybourne Elder
M Cooper
<< Claybourne Elder
From page 13
Left: ‘Celebrating Laughter: The Life & Films of Colin Higgins’ Right: ‘Downtown’
Left: ‘Maspalomas’ Right: ‘Uncle Roy’
Pride books roundup 2026, part
by Jim Piechota
Here’s the third installment in our Pride 2026 books roundup, where things get intimately personal with biographies of George Michael, memoirs from Laverne Cox, Frankie Grande, and Phill Branch, self-help guidance from Max Hovey, and a gorgeously written poetry book from Nicholas Goodly. There’s so much to enjoy here; get your Pride on with these immersive, personal stories of struggle, triumph, and perseverance.
“Star Power: Poems” by Nicholas Goodly
$18 (Scribner)
Using dramatic prose and gorgeous turns of phrase, poet Nichoas Goodly illuminates his perspective on the Black queer experience through a mesmerizing collection of carefully calibrated verses.
A generous collection of starthemed poetry separated into six sections graces these pages beginning with “How to Be a Star” and “How a Star Begins” where, in “Attitude,” Goodly recognizes both his good and bad demeanors as equal parts of his identity, or how the Super Friends became as powerfully formative as Aretha Franklin songs throughout his childhood as they were “wailing from downstairs.”
Other pieces describe his father who “doesn’t scare me anymore,” or sketches on gender and anatomy that are complex and beautifully conveyed. This exquisitely diverse and creative collection of poetry and wordplay forces the reader to create their own images from letters and language, and the result is an exercise in imagination and literary beauty. Poetry lovers will swoon over this collection.
www.simonandschuster.com
“No Fats, No Fems: A Guide to Queer Empathy and Unpacking Prejudice” by Max Hovey
$19.99 (HarperOne)
Combining personal anecdotes with sound advice about trends and navigating derogatory behaviors in queer spaces, Max Hovey, a Londonbased writer and activist, approaches difficult topics with lucid, actionable, corrective behaviors in this debut guide.
He begins with a declarative statement that applies to all of us: “We have rightfully dedicated so much of our time to protesting against the way society treats us. But in the process, we’ve neglected how we treat each other.”
Hovey admits that he still gets comments on social media just for having his nails painted or for being too “fem.” This kind of hate for a behavioral deviation from the “norm” is what inspired him to write the book. He discusses internalized homophobia, the damaging effects of unconscious bias, as well as where our prejudices stem from, their impact, and what to do about them.
If your aim this Pride season is to become a better queer person to yourself and to your community, Hovey’s proactive guidebook, meant to be read with empathy and an open mind, is an awesome place to start.
www.harpercollins.com
“Transcendent: A Memoir” by Laverne Cox
$30 (Gallery)
As a four-time Emmy-nominated actress and trans rights activist, Laverne Cox, 54, has become a household name in queer circles worldwide. Dedicated to her family, her teachers, and “to trans and nonbinary people everywhere, you are anointed,” this debut memoir encapsulates her life prior to and immediately following her transition as well as the peaks and pitfalls of a life spent
initially in the darkness of uncertainty and obscurity, but also in the limelight of fame and queer visibility.
The three-part memoir traverses three formative periods throughout Cox’s vibrant life and ever-evolving career. The first section, “What’s Wrong with Me,” details her struggles growing up in Mobile, Alabama. The subsequent sections chronicle Cox’s young adulthood, coming out, chasing stardom on both coasts, and the emergence of her trans identity, then onto the present years as she discusses her award-winning role in “Orange is the New Black” beginning in 2012.
Reveling in the ownership of her personal truths, Cox’s confessional bares all in this raw, conversational, and intensively revealing portrait of inner strength, resilience, unity, selflove, self-discovery and flawless pride. We could all use more of this kind of galvanized queerness right now; go get this book and uplift yourself through Laverne Cox’s words and actions.
www.simonandschuster.com
“Tonight The Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael” by Sathnam Sanghera
$29.95 (Pegasus)
This biography of George Michael stands above other tomes of the same theme in that British memoirist Sathnam Sanghera writes about the music superstar from the perspective of a fan and not just a biographer. The author imparts great perspective into each chapter, from Michael’s childhood as the son of Greek immigrants, through his Wham! days and on into musical icon status as a solo artist.
While the book captures the obsessive nature of George Michael fans (the author, included), Sanghera also effectively details the singer-songwriter’s personal life, his years spent as a closeted man, his drug use, his embarrassing and career-risking arrest for lewd behavior in a Beverly Hills public restroom, and his sudden shocking death in 2016 at age 53.
This carefully crafted biography is an absolute must-have for George Michael fans who still consider “Careless Whisper” and “Freedom! ‘90” apt anthems for a lost generation. This is impeccable work. www.pegasusbooks.com
“Supergay! A Memoir” by Frankie Grande
$28.99 (SourceBooks)
Yes, he’s the brother of hitmaker Ariana, but Frankie is very much his own man, and this alternatingly chatty, silly, bubbly, revealing, and crisply written memoir is sheer fun and proof positive that he’s spent his life working hard for what he’s got now.
This autobiographical essay collection glitteringly captures Grande’s self-described “oversized fabulousness” and escorts readers through his childhood spent in awe of his loving, corporate professional mother (who demanded academic excellence), his hardworking grandfather (who frequently stepped in for his father), an
affinity with superheroes and everything within the sci-fi/fantasy entertainment world, and the fact that his surname means “big” in Italian. Dating missteps, sexual self-discoveries, drug use, and much, much more are all on the table for discussion in this book, and Grande’s effervescent personality shines right along with the confessions, good and bad. For true fans of Frankie Grande,
whether of his work on Broadway, reality TV or elsewhere, there’s a pink parade of frenetic and fascinating personal details delivered on every page in a confessional that’s true to its title in more ways than one. www.sourcebooks.com
“The Double Dutch Fuss” by Phill Branch $30 (Amistad)
Sheer personal perseverance is the dramatic overarching theme of Branch’s dynamic coming-of-age memoir. Among the many trials and tribulations the author suffered with throughout his childhood, one in particular happened to become the title of the book.
He recalls his stoic father recoiling at the sight of Branch jumping rope with female schoolmates when he was a boy; he’d much preferred a masculine son who tossed a football around instead. The author admitted that even back then, he recognized that “I was indeed a fag.”
That internal confirmation thankfully never stopped Branch from doing as he pleased and realizing his dreams, regardless of what others thought of him. He continued jumping rope, ignoring the violence within his household, and finally coming to terms with his sexuality as he grew up. This is an exceptional and inspirational life story.
