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Gap fashion show inspires
Meadow project gets grant
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Frameline opens
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Shocked show canned
Vol. 43 • No. 25 • June 20-26, 2013
Chipotle seeks OK for Castro space by Matthew S. Bajko
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by Seth Hemmelgarn
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an Francisco Examiner publisher Todd Vogt has called off a planned June 30 concert by Michelle Shocked, the singer who had an anti-gay meltdown during a San Francisco concert in March. After many people expressed outrage over his plans, Vogt said in a Wednesday, June 19 interview that he’s “sick” over what’s happened. Shocked’s concert was to take place on the day of the San Francisco Courtesy CNN LGBT Pride parade Michelle Shocked and celebration. He said the intention had been “to shine a light” on “bigotry and hatred, and to have Ms. Shocked apologize for her comments and perform for free. It was intended to be a healing and good See page 9 >>
Chipotle wants to open a restaurant in the former Home Restaurant space in the Castro. Rick Gerharter
or the third time this year the San Francisco Planning Commission will weigh whether to allow a formula retailer to open on a prominent corner in the city’s Castro district. This time Chipotle Mexican Grill is seeking permission to open at the old Home restaurant location at the corner of Market, 14th, and Church streets. Gay former San Francisco chef Steve Ells founded the Denver-based chain in 1993 and is its chairman and co-CEO. The company will plead its case before the planning commissioners at their meeting Thursday (June 20), but it may leave disappointed. As expected, Chipotle triggered a new clause aimed at limiting the number of chain stores that can open along the Market Street corridor between Octavia Boulevard and Castro Street. According to the staff report released Friday, June 14, a Chipotle at 2100 Market Street would bring the number of formula retailers within a 300-foot radius to 36 percent. Anything at 20 percent or higher is automatically recommended for rejection by planning staff. See page 6 >>
Visual Aid Same-sex couples plan weddings to close by Matthew S. Bajko
by Seth Hemmelgarn
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San Francisco-based nonprofit that’s been helping artists with AIDS for more than 20 years is shutting down. In an email blast last week, Visual Aid Executive Director Julie Blankenship called recommending the group’s closing “the most difficult decision” she’s made in her 11 years as head of the agency. Jane Philomen Cleland “We’re closing because after weather- Visual Aid’s Julie ing most of the re- Blankenship cession, we found we just didn’t have the resources to go on anymore, and we felt it was most responsible to close now,” Blankenship said in an interview. The board voted earlier this month to shut down and the organization, which serves people throughout the Bay Area, will close July 1. Blankenship said much of the group’s funding comes from individuals, as well as See page 16 >>
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urrounded by 130 relatives and friends at an historic stable in the heart of California’s wine country, Laura Kutch and Jasmine Dominguez plan to exchange their wedding vows in late September. Together two and a half years, the San Leandro couple became engaged last August. Local ABC Channel 7 news anchor Cheryl Jennings will officiate, the first time she has presided over a same-sex couple’s wedding. “She offered to officiate my wedding long before Jasmine and I had gotten engaged,” said Kutch, 37, who works in the station’s public affairs department. “She has been ordained and done several heterosexual weddings but we will be her first official gay wedding.” It will take place at Rancho Wikiup, which means summer camp in Klamath Indian, a vacation lodge in Santa Rosa built in 1915 by San Francisco industrialist John Rosseter. The couple learned about it from a woman who runs a catering company that is a nonprofit and teaches under-privileged youth how to work in professional kitchens. Kutch had worked on a profile of the agency, called the Worth Our Weight Culinary Apprentice Program, for the television station and ran into the employee at an event ABC hosted in November. “She asked about our wedding plans and she told us about it. It doesn’t advertise but is open
Jonathan Ernst
Jenni Chang, left, married Lisa Dazols earlier this month at the Guerneville Lodge. Maria Caruana, center, pastor of Freedom in Christ Evangelical Church in San Francisco, officiated the ceremony.
and ready to host lots of events,” said Kutch. It fit the bill since the couple didn’t want a church wedding, neither woman is religious, and being native Californians, they wanted to
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WELCOME VISITORS! See the 42nd Annual San Francisco Pride edition of America’s oldest and best-read LGBT newspaper on June 27. Included in this expanded 3-section edition will be our monthly travel column, featuring Palm Springs!
marry in the Bay Area, even though same-sex marriage is legal in several other states. “The whole idea for why we want to be marSee page 17 >>