Pride's celebrity grand marshal
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'Pee-Wee as Himself'
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New LGBTQ center in Marin
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Pride Month events
The
www.ebar.com
Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Vol. 55 • No. 23 • June 5-11, 2025
from YouTube
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie unveiled his balanced budget proposal Friday, May 30.
Lurie’s $15.9B budget preserves Castro grants, closes deficit
by John Ferrannini
T
wo Castro Community Benefit District grants were spared cuts in Mayor Daniel Lurie’s proposed 2025-26 balanced budget of $15.9 billion. The spending plan, which will now be reviewed by the Board of Supervisors, closes an $800 million deficit and sets aside $400 million in reserves. A Lurie spokesperson confirmed that the two grants – one for $100,000 that funds 40 hours of cleaning per week in Jane Warner Plaza at 17th and Castro streets, and another $415,000 grant that funds four full-time Castro Cares community ambassadors – will continue. See page 10 >>
Hegseth to strip Milk’s name from Navy vessel
The USNS Harvey Milk was docked in San Francisco last March after it made its maiden voyage to the city. Matthew S. Bajko
by John Ferrannini
S
ecretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the U.S. Navy to rename the ship named for the late San Francisco supervisor and gay rights icon Harvey Milk. The decision, coming during Pride Month, set off waves of criticism from LGBTQ officials and community leaders. Military.com first reported the news June 3.
The outlet reported that the planned timing of the announcement June 13, just after World Pride wraps in the District of Columbia, is intentional, and that the move is being made to create “alignment with president [Donald Trump] and [Hegseth] objectives and [Navy Secretary John Phelan] priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture.” A number of naval ships in the John Lewis class
of ships were named for civil rights heroes such as Milk, who himself was a Navy veteran. As the Bay Area Reporter noted in February 2020, Milk was given an “other than honorable” discharge from the U.S. Navy and forced to resign on February 7, 1955 rather than face a court-martial because of his homosexuality, according to a trove of naval records obtained by the paper. See page 5 >>
California group fosters community among LGBTQ surfers by Matthew S. Bajko
Courtesy the subjects
State Senators Scott Wiener, left, and Christopher Cabaldon
LGBTQ bills advance out of CA legislative chambers by Matthew S. Bajko
L
egislation aimed at protecting the rights and health care of LGBTQ Californians, particularly those who are transgender or living with HIV, is moving forward this session in Sacramento. Ahead of the June 6 deadline for the Legislature to pass bills out of their chamber of origin, 15 bills of importance to the LGBTQ community had already advanced as of June 2 and will be taken up for final passage by legislators later this summer. See page 3 >>
H
aving skateboarded for years, Army veteran Bibi Benitez decided to apply her skills from the street to the water and take up surfing. In 2018, having recently moved to San Francisco, she made her way to the shoreline in Pacifica south of the city and rented a surf board. “Ever since, I’ve been in the water,” said Benitez, 30, who is an analyst for the California Public Utilities Commission and also barbacks at the Edge bar in the Castro. “If you want to find, like, a connection to your body, to the environment, surfing is a huge way. And I think it’s like a spiritual practice in that kind of way.” Just prior to learning to surf, Benitez had come out as a queer transgender woman. A Latina, as her mom is from Colombia and her father hails from Cuba, Benitez saw few surfers in the water who looked like her, as the sport has long been dominated by white, cisgender straight men. “As a queer person, it is really hard to get into spaces like that that are usually occupied by toxic masculinity or just men in general. I think it is a little scary,” Benitez noted. Via a friend who also surfs, Benitez was in-
Courtesy Queer Surf
Bianca Valenti, a big wave surfer out of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, rides a wave at last year’s SWITCH.
troduced to the group Queer Surf about four years ago. She clicked with the other LGBTQ surfers she met at its meetups and other events, and has remained active with the nonprofit ever since. “Queer Surf provides a huge, you know, blanket to allow you to explore something that’s very
magical, and I think can help heal you as a person, especially someone who faces microaggressions every day as a queer person,” said Benitez, who has taken part in one of the surfing camps the group hosts across California. See page 10 >>