The Castro Community Benefit District may lose half a million dollars as San Francisco responds to its budget deficit, the district’s executive director told the monthly meeting of the Castro Merchants Association May 7.
Other topics discussed included upcoming events, including next month’s Pride festivities and how small businesses can participate.
“I’m sorry about this. I feel terrible,” Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is the CBD’s executive director, told the merchants as she pleaded for them to contact the office of Mayor Daniel Lurie in a last-ditch effort to prevent the cuts. “The mayor sends the budget to the Board of Supervisors on June 1, so the next two weeks are really, really, really critical.”
The city is now in its third year of making cuts to close its deficit. The current projected two-year deficit is now estimated at $799 million. As the Bay Area Reporter reported last year, the need for cuts threatened two grants the CBD receives annually. The first is a $100,000 grant to maintain Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro for 40 hours a week. The second is $415,000 funding four visible full-time community ambassadors who are trained in deescalation and outreach.
B.A.R. ENDORSEMENTS
SF Congress
Dist. 11: Scott Wiener
Statewide Offices
Governor Katie Porter
Lieutenant Governor Janelle Kellman
Secretary of State
Shirley Weber
Controller
Malia Cohen
Treasurer Anna Caballero
Attorney General
Rob Bonta
Insurance
Commissioner
Jane Kim
SF nightlife summit reveals Gen Z’s ascendance
by John Ferrannini
The refrain was constant at San Francisco’s Nightlife and Entertainment Summit May 6.
As bar owner Katie Rose put it, “Gen Zers are finally learning how to party.”
After COVID pandemic lockdowns and restrictions decimated much of the nightlife industry at the beginning of the decade, now the city’s leaders are feting the owners and promoters of bars, nightclubs, and other event venues, and their employees, as a younger generation starts going out on the town, reversing years of declines in reported drinking behavior among the young.
“A lot of people who came of age in the pandemic are developing social skills, things people in older generations have been doing,” Rose, who owns the LGBTQ-friendly Kilowatt bar in the Mission neighborhood, said during one of the summit’s two panel discussions, which was on the future of the city’s nightlife scene. “I’m definitely starting to see younger people come out. Kilowatt had the best year this year, and I’m incredibly optimistic about the upcoming generation and what’s ahead for San Francisco nightlife.”
Wild West, a gay nightlife promoter who served as moderator, expressed how important the scene is to the city.
“The most rewarding part of my job is when people say, ‘I’ve met my partner at one of your parties,’ or even, ‘I met my spouse at one of your parties,’” West said. “The spaces we are creating for people are more than just a watering hole. We’re integral to the community, and integral to people’s lives.”
Among the city leaders who see the benefits of nightlife economic stimulus is Mayor Daniel Lurie, who made an appearance to thank those who attended the summit at the San Francisco Planning Department’s offices in the South of Market neighborhood.
The mayor made it clear he’s a fan.
“I do have two young children, so I’m not out super late, but when they go off to college, I will go out and I can’t wait for that,” Lurie said. “I’m here to say, ‘Thank you.’ Keep us posted on how to better support you.”
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), long an advocate for nightlife, said he’d like to take Lurie up on that when that day comes.
CALIFORNIA PRIMARY ELECTION
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Al Muratsuchi
SF Board of Supervisors
Dist. 2: Stephen Sherrill
Dist. 4: Alan Wong
SF Board of Education
Phil Kim
Congress (Bay Area)
Dist. 2: Jared Huffman
Dist. 4: Mike Thompson
Dist. 8: John Garamendi
Dist. 9: Josh Harder
Dist. 10: Mark DeSaulnier
Dist. 12: Lateefah Simon
Dist. 14: Matt Ortega
Dist. 15: Kevin Mullin
Dist. 16: Sam Liccardo
Dist. 17: Ro Khanna
Dist. 18: Zoe Lofgren
Remember to vote by June 2!
CA Assembly
Dist.14: Buffy Wicks
Dist.16: Rebecca Bauer-Kahan
Dist. 17: Matt Haney
Dist. 18: Mia Bonta
Dist. 19: Catherine Stefani
Dist. 20: Liz Ortega
Dist. 21: Diane Papan
Dist. 24: Alex Lee
Dist. 25: Ash Kalra
Dist. 26: Patrick Ahrens
AS THE B.A.R. CONTINUES ITS ENDORSEMENTS, THIS LIST WILL BE UPDATED.
“I’m going to have to take the mayor out sometime because I love to go out,” Wiener said. “The renaissance of nightlife in this city has been just extraordinary.”
Policy changes
And that affinity has led to real policy change.
“Nightlife was viewed as a problem to be managed, and not as part of the heart and soul and core of the city,” Wiener said of past lawmakers’ views. “So we had rule and layer, and rule, after rule, and obstacle.”
Wiener; Lurie; Lurie’s predecessor, former mayor London Breed; and Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) devoted time and energy to removing some of those obstacles.
Among their initiatives, the creation of almost two-dozen entertainment zones in the city that allow for outdoor drinking on specified occasions; 20 new liquor licenses in a downtown hospitality zone; and continued proposals to move last call in specified hospitality zones from the current statewide 2 a.m. cutoff to 4 a.m. on weekends and holidays.
The entertainment zones include one in the Cas-
tro, utilized for Castro night markets and the Castro Street Fair, as well as another in the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District in SOMA.
“I think we’re on a trajectory right now and I feel like Mayor Lurie injected some energy and investment into the city and the nightlife realm and all the free things happening – different night markets – really gets you in the mood, ‘Let’s go out,’” said Mary Conde, a straight ally who is senior vice president at Another Planet Entertainment, which operates the Castro Theatre and produces the OutsideLands music festival.
As Ben Van Houten, the director of nightlife initiatives from the mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, put it – crunching the timetable of the changes somewhat – “That’s a lot of stuff in 12 months.”
Haney said that the city needs to play to its strengths to attract businesses and create tax revenue as it faces a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions.
SF AIDS apt. complex nominated for national historic register
by Cynthia Laird
An apartment building in San Francisco that now serves as affordable housing for people living with HIV/AIDS has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. The State Historical Resources Commission approved the nomination of the Raymond Hotel Apartments, also known as the Derek Silva Community, at its May 7 meeting in Riverside.
The recommendation will next be forwarded to the State Historic Preservation Officer for nomination to the National Register.
The Raymond Hotel Apartments building, located at 20 Franklin Street and Market Street in the city’s Mid-Market neighborhood, was designed by architect Gustave Albert Lansburgh (1876-1969) in 1911 and completed in 1912, following the 1906 earthquake and fires, the commission report noted. The building is an example of the Classical Revival design with a distinctive irregular footprint and prominent light wells. The building is of steel-frame masonry construction and features a decorative metal cornice and string courses, and glazed brick windowsills and surrounds, the report stated.
The Raymond Hotel Apartments, also known as the Derek Silva Community, was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places by the State Historical Resources Commission.
“Deep light wells are recessed into the second through sixth stories on the north, south, and east sides,” the commission’s report noted. “Triangular pediments supported by Tuscan Columns adorn both south-facing light wells at the second story.”
The commission’s report highlighted the continuous use of the building.
Andrea Aiello, left, executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District, warned merchants that two city grants may be cut due to the budget deficit.
John Ferrannini
Nightlife event producer Wild West, left, moderated a panel during the San Francisco Entertainment Summit where he was joined by Danny Bell, senior vice president talent buyer, Goldenvoice/AEG Presents; B Patt, CEO and co-founder, Nothin But Hits; Katie Rose, owner/talent buyer, Kilowatt Bar; Mary Conde, senior vice president of Another Planet Entertainment; and Colleen Booth, managing partner/COO, Lazy Bear, JouJou, True Laurel.
John Ferrannini
Help install pink triangle
Cynthia Laird
New injectable PrEP increasingly offered in SF
by John Ferrannini
Injectable PrEP option Yeztugo is increasingly available in San Francisco, medical providers told the Bay Area Reporter. The development is happening just as a new site to receive the medication is coming online.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, last summer Dr. Nasser Mohamed, a gay man who runs Osra Medical in San Francisco, provided what were believed to be the first Yeztugo injections in the Bay Area – and among the first in the country. He told the B.A.R. July 14 that as of that time, only nine doses had been administered in the entire U.S.
Mohamed said at that time that there were ongoing logistical issues because the medication was new. Now, the biannual shot is available regularly throughout San Francisco.
PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, refers to the use of antiviral drugs to prevent people exposed to HIV from becoming infected. The pill Truvada was first approved for PrEP use in 2012 by the FDA; since then, the agency has also approved the pill Descovy for some groups, as well as injectables Apretude and Yeztugo.
Asked about the rollout, Mohamed said in an April 27 phone call, “It’s going really well on a national level” as well as locally.
“I personally didn’t think it would roll out as well as it did,” he said. “I’m seeing a lot of people coming on PrEP now that haven’t been on any form of PrEP before, and it seems like it’s fitting a need people have in the community.”
One issue that’s being addressed there is that some primary care physicians may not be up to speed on the latest in HIV prevention, and need more education.
“There’s a need for basics with prima-
by Cynthia Laird
ry care physicians,” Mohamed said.
For example, there are injection-site reactions associated with Yeztugo that he hopes primary care physicians alert people to before administering the shot.
“The entire point of PrEP, in my view, is giving agency to people sexually,” Mohamed said. “I don’t want people to have that agency taken away.”
Mohamed offers Yeztugo at his practice.
“Most people I’m seeing now can get this with no copay,” he said. “In June, [2025] people drove in from Sacramento to get this from me, right? Now that the second shots are due, they are staying where they are because it’s available.”
Asked about copays, Mohamed stated, “Gilead’s advancing access coupon (previously applied to Truvada and Descovy) now applies to Yeztugo. It is about $7,800 per year toward copays. I haven’t seen people having to pay a copay yet for Yeztugo but have seen it completely denied for patients from out of state.”
After last year’s milestone anniversary, the co-founder of the
Asked about out-of-state patients, Mohamed stated, “I had some people fly in to get Yeztugo from me from other states because I offered it early and it was not available there. Definitely less of that too now that more people are offering it.”
Yeztugo is also being offered by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, including at Magnet at its Strut health center in the Castro neighborhood. Jorge Roman, RN, clinical manager at the foundation, said SFAF’s new pharmacy is helping people who have private insurance with both forms of injectable PrEP.
“There’s a subset of people with insurance we can’t help because we aren’t set up to bill for clinical visits,” he said in a phone interview. “They need to find a provider who can bill for an office clinician. The actual clinical practice purchases the injection, and the provider bills the insurance for the office visit and gets reimbursed for the insurance through general mechanisms.”
He stressed it was a small number of patients.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Department of Public Health stated, “Injectable PrEP is available at SFDPH’s San Francisco City Clinic (SFCC) for anyone who is publicly insured or uninsured. Patients seen at SFCC who have private insurance are eligible for oral PrEP, and are given resources on outside clinics that may provide injectable PrEP.”
Injectable PrEP is also available for San Francisco Health Network patients at the Castro Mission Health Center; the Tom Waddell Urban Health Center; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 86; the Family Health Center at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital; and the Southeast Family Health Center.
“SFDPH also works to provide PrEP access for people experiencing homelessness,” DPH stated, adding that people interested should check out its website https://www.sf.gov/cityclinic-get-prep for more information.
According to DPH, both forms of injectable PrEP are available at its clinics.
New site coming online
Tristan Schukraft, a gay man and the founder and CEO of telemedicine platform MISTR, told the B.A.R. in an April Zoom interview that it will soon be adding injectable PrEP to the repertoire of services offered at its Castro location at 2301 Market Street.
MISTR has physical locations in the Castro; West Hollywood; Las Vegas; Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan; Wilton Manors, Florida; and Northalsted in Chicago.
“For now those are our anchor sites, but we are looking at second markets,” he said.
Schukraft called Yeztugo a “game changer” because the previous injectable option, Apretude, is once every two months instead of once every six.
“When we do roll that out, because we’re not a doctor’s office, people can come online to MISTR, do the health questionnaire, and when the provider prescribes the medication they can choose injectable or oral [PrEP], and if they choose injectable, come in, scan the QR code, get the injection and be out in five minutes,” he said. “You’re just literally coming in to get the injection and leave.”
MISTR publicist Brian Rosman stated, “We built out the storefronts in the gayborhoods so they could handle most of the people we expect to get the injections but for those not near our storefronts, they will eventually be able to get it from a network of other in-person locations.”
People can currently have oral PrEP delivered, but one could pick it up at a storefront if they so chose, Rosman stated.
“We do not offer labs at our MISTR storefronts,” Rosman stated. “Eighty percent of our patients complete at home testing. The rest choose to do their labs in-person at an affiliated network of testing facilities. Most patients have their PrEP delivered but if specially requested, you could pick up prescription[s] at a MISTR storefront.”
Schukraft said that MISTR bills the insurance for the medication but not the online doctor consult or the labs. Seventy percent of MISTR patients are insured, and 30% uninsured, and “it is the insured who cover the cost for the uninsured,” he said.
Added Rosman, “There is no cost to the patient. MISTR absorbs all those costs.”
Schukraft is hoping to start providing Yeztugo late in the second quarter or early in the third of this year. t
pink triangle is seeking volunteers to help with the 31st annual installation this year atop San Francisco’s Twin Peaks. The ceremony for the temporary public art will be Saturday, June 6.
Patrick Carney, a gay man and the co-founder, noted in a news release that there are several volunteer opportunities coming up.
Carney, who sits on the San Francisco Arts Commission, noted that the giant pink triangle symbol serves as a modern history lesson, or reminder. It was used by the Nazis at the concentration camps during World War II to brand suspected homosexuals. Similar symbols, such as a Star of David for Jewish prisoners, marked others who were imprisoned, millions of whom died at the camps during the Holocaust.
“They were labels for ‘undesirables,’” Carney told the Bay Area Reporter last year of the various patches.
The pink triangle was reclaimed by the LGBTQ community in the 1970s as a symbol of protest against homophobia and has been used to represent LGBTQ+ Pride ever since.
The San Francisco display is nearly an acre in size and can be seen for 20 miles on a clear day. Carney noted the installation serves as a communitybuilding project, as hundreds of people assist each year.
Volunteer options include Saturday, May 30, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. for site cleanup; Thursday, June 4, at noon to pick up materials at the warehouse and load a rental truck; and Friday, June 5, from noon to about 3 p.m. for the installation of the triangle’s outline, composed of shiny sailcloth.
On Saturday, June 6, helpers start early, at 7 a.m., to finish the project by placing 175 tarps within the outline. At 10:30, the official ceremony will commence, featuring the San Francisco Pride Band, singer Leanne Borghesi, and remarks from community leaders, the release noted.
Carney stated that with the policies coming out of the Trump administration that are harmful to LGBTQ people, especially members of the transgender community, the symbolism of the pink triangle is more important than ever.
“The transgender community, drag queens, and even Pride celebrations and rainbow flags are being targeted,” he stated. “Let’s hope displaying the pink triangle isn’t one of their upcoming targets.”
B.A.R. readers may recall that last year, the pink triangle was defaced during an alleged act of vandalism. Lester Bamacajeronimo, 20, of San Francisco, was taken into custody after San Francisco Police officers arrived on the scene and observed him actively defacing the art.
After review by the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, Bamacajeronimo was not charged with a hate crime, but was charged with felony vandalism, two other counts of possession of graffiti tools, and resisting arrest.
Bamacajeronimo’s court case is ongoing, with his next court date in June, according to the DA’s office.
Carney testified during the preliminary hearing that the cost of the damaged items was $3,845. In an email last week, Carney stated that it turns out he had purchased extra material back when he ordered the pink tarps, so is using that this year to replace the pieces that were vandalized.
He did not, however, get extra sailcloth that is used for the borders.
“I did not purchase new sailcloth borders because that specific pink dye lot is produced infrequently, and I bought all that was available the last time I ordered,” he stated. “The existing borders can be positioned so that the overflow from the graffiti markings is further downhill and away from the areas where most people are able to stand.”
Last year, the damaged pink triangle remained on display until it was taken down the evening of the Pride Parade.
This year, Carney stated that volunteers are again needed to take down the pink triangle hours after the annual parade ends. That is scheduled for Sunday, June 28, from 4:30 to 8 p.m. On Monday, June 29, help is needed to return the materials to the warehouse.
Everyone who helps out will receive one of the fashionable pink triangle T-shirts, generously sponsored by the Bob Ross Foundation and the leadership of Thomas E. Horn, a gay man who previously served as publisher of the B.A.R. after Ross, the paper’s founding publisher, died in 2003.
To sign up for a volunteer shift, go to https://tinyurl.com/47a4eyx4.
Donations are always welcome, and can be made at thepinktriangle.com. t
Dr. Nasser Mohamed, left, of Osra Medical, and Tristan Schukraft of telehealth platform MISTR, discussed the availability of the new Yeztugo injectable PrEP in San Francisco.
Mohamed, Courtney Lindbergh Photography; Schukraft, courtesy MISTR
several hundred volunteers who turned out to install
30th rendition of the Pink Triangle last year atop Twin Peaks looked at their completed work.
Rick Gerharter
Nonbinary DADT survivor
Lilly Steffanides dies Obituaries>>
by Cynthia Laird
Lilly Steffanides, a nonbinary survivor of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, has died. Steffanides passed away July 28, 2025 in San Francisco, their husband, Devon Raphael, told the Bay Area Reporter.
Steffanides had battled fourth stage pancreatic cancer, Raphael said. They were 56.
Raphael, a gay man, wrote in an obituary for Steffanides that during the last four years, they spoke openly in the press about being a survivor of DADT, going back to when they served in the U.S. Navy. Steffanides was one of five plaintiffs in a nonmonetary, class-action lawsuit filed against the Pentagon in 2023 to upgrade all the DADT military discharges to Honorable.
In Steffanides’ case, their discharge was upgraded from other than Honorable to General, Raphael said.
During their life, Steffanides was known as Kyle, Stephan, and Steve, Raphael wrote in the obituary.
“Dealing with the military in postservice, they transitioned to nonbinary,” Raphael said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I was totally cool with it, and it was great to see them embrace it.”
Raphael, who lives in San Francisco, said that he and Steffanides married on October 31, 2023, as Halloween was their most favorite day of the year.
It was under Stephan that Steffanides was featured in a B.A.R. article in 2021, when they were honored by Swords to Plowshares, a veterans service organization.
Steffanides joined the Navy in 1988. While they were born in Florida, they grew up in San Francisco, the B.A.R. article stated.
“I grew up in a Navy family, for one thing, but I knew I was different,”
Steffanides said in an interview at the time. “Of course, in the 1980s, it was not a big deal to be in the closet, so the idea of telling the Navy I’m not gay made sense.”
At the time, the U.S. military had a long-standing outright ban on “homosexuals” in the armed services. During the administration of thenPresident Bill Clinton, in 1993, this was changed to a compromise ban on LGBTQ people disclosing their sexual orientation – DADT – that remained in effect until 2011, after a congressional repeal was signed by then-President Barack Obama.
But the Navy, of course, had a reputation for being accepting of gay servicemembers even in the pre-DADT era; immortalized by the Village People in the group’s 1979 hit “In the Navy.”
“I loved ‘In the Navy,’” Steffanides said in the interview. “It was a validation. I was going down Market Street with my good friend, and thought ‘we have to go to this recruitment office’ and we signed up before we left. That song was like a recruitment ad for the Navy.”
Steffanides served aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, they said.
Text Dr. Skorupko directly: 917-749-3410 Book online: www.smiledelightdental.com (or scan QR code) Or call: 415-992-5160 (If lines are busy, please leave a message.)
Patientscompletingtreatmentreceivea $100diningcertificate to Morton’sTheSteakhouse. Makeyourvisitadayinthecity.
Patientscompletingtreatmentreceivea $100diningcertificate to Morton’sTheSteakhouse. Makeyourvisitadayinthecity.
more at horizonsfoundation.org/ legacy Horizons Foundation envisions a world where all LGBTQ people live freely and fully.
Lilly Steffanides
Courtesy Devon Raphael
Volume 56, Number 20
May 14-20, 2026
Volume 56, Number XX Month XX-XX, 2026 www.ebar.com
PUBLISHER
Michael M. Yamashita
Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013)
Publisher (2003 – 2013)
Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003)
NEWS EDITOR
Cynthia Laird
ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR
Jim Provenzano
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
B.A.R. endorses Porter for governor
This California governor’s race is unlike any seen in years. Wide open due to Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom being term-limited –and likely seeking the White House in two years – no one in this year’s crop of major Democratic contenders has been able to break away from the pack. Amid this jockeying, the two major Republican candidates, former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Biano, seek only to out-MAGA one another. Neither would be good for LGBTQ residents, or Californians in general; the state would become one giant oil drill if they had their way. Yuck.
adopted – homeless prevention through emergency rental assistance and rapid re-housing and interim housing that can keep people from being unsheltered. Permanent supportive housing paired with mental health and addiction services remains “absolutely necessary,” she added.
The elephant in the room
It’s unfortunate that Porter’s campaign has not recovered from a viral moment last year when she almost walked out during a TV interview with reporter Julie Watts. Shortly after that, a video surfaced from 2021 showing Porter yelling at a staffer for getting in the way of her camera shot. Porter has apologized to the staffer and even turned that video episode into a recent ad, where Porter jokingly says, “Now, could you guys please get out of my shot” as supporters hold signs and laugh in the background.
Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl
Kyle Amato • Race Bannon • Robert Brokl
We’ve held off on endorsing in the race until now to see how the Democratic candidates performed in recent debates and if anyone else would drop out. We were also hoping that more candidates would complete our endorsement questionnaire, but after months of reaching out, only two of the remaining candidates did. We recommend one of them, Katie Porter.
Brian Bromberger • Philip Campbell
Christopher J. Beale • Brian Bromberger
Heather Cassell • Eliot Faine
Philip Campbell • Myron Caringal
Heather Cassell • Meg Collins • Chelsea Davis
Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone
Natasha Dennerstein • Eliot Faine
Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen
Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone
Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno
Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell
David-Elijah Nahmod • Mark William Norby
JL Odom • Paul Parish • Tim Pfaff
Michele Karlsberg • Lisa Keen
Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel
Matthew Kennedy • Philip Mayard
Jim McDermott • Laura Moreno
Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro
Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner
David-Elijah Nahmod • Mark William
Norby JL Odom • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota
Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood
Joshua Polanski • Adam Sandel
Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith
ART DIRECTION
Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh
Max Leger
Cornelius Washington • Evelyn C. White
PRODUCTION/DESIGN
Ernesto Sopprani
ART DIRECTION
Max Leger
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jane Philomen Cleland
PRODUCTION/DESIGN
Rick Gerharter • Gooch
Ernesto Sopprani
Jose A. Guzman-Colon
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester
Jane Philomen Cleland
Rich Stadtmiller • Christopher Robledo
Rick Gerharter • Gooch
Fred Rowe • Shot in the City
Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson
Jose A. Guzman-Colon
Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester
ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS
Rich Stadtmiller • Christopher Robledo
Christine Smith
Fred Rowe • Shot in the City
Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson
ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS
Christine Smith
VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING
Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937
VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING
Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863
LEGAL COUNSEL
Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863
LEGAL COUNSEL
Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.
Bay area reporter
Porter, a straight ally and former congressmember from Irvine, is a single mom with three kids. She’s a consumer advocate and progressive, known during her years in the U.S. Capitol, 20192025, for bringing a white board to congressional hearings and grilling company CEOs and officials during President Donald Trump’s first term. That toughness will serve her well in Sacramento. Her past experience includes serving as California’s independent monitor for banks during the foreclosure crisis, she noted in her questionnaire. She was appointed in 2011 by then-state attorney general Kamala Harris to help enforce the nationwide $25 billion mortgage settlement. “My job was to hold financial institutions accountable to the promises they made to help Californians stay in their homes – and I did just that,” she wrote. Porter strongly supports healthcare facilities providing gender-affirming care to trans youth. As we’ve reported, Trump and his administration have worked overtime to get medical centers to stop such services, and many have complied. “No healthcare facility should ever bend the knee to a president who is hellbent on ripping away healthcare from millions of Americans through his cuts to Medi-Cal,” Porter stated. “California law is clear that discrimination in healthcare is prohibited, and I would work with the attorney general to uphold the law to its fullest extent.” Ultimately, she thinks that California “must work to capture the administrative efficiencies and wider provider availability of a single-payer type system,” she added. “Single-payer will protect access to gender-affirming care and make sure every Californian gets the healthcare they need, when they need it.”
California currently has only two out trans trial court judges, and none at the appellate or state supreme court levels. Porter stated that she would work to change this. “I understand how important it is that our leaders look like the people they represent. This will be a top priority for me as I
Phil
Tmake judicial appointments,” she stated. “I have previously fought for more inclusivity in our judicial system, such as by writing a bill to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities during jury selection.”
On the issue of athletics, Porter stated that trans girls and women “deserve the same rights to participate in sports as other Californians. This is a question of standing up to discrimination and bigotry.” Her reaction to Newsom’s comment that trans participation is “an issue of fairness” to the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year was simple: “Politicians should not be limiting opportunities for trans Californians, but instead fighting to expand their opportunities.” Any policies for competitive athletics, Porter added, “should be determined through the people who have a stake – the LGBTQ+ community, school and sport officials, parents, and the athletes themselves – not out-of-touch politicians.”
Porter is a strong ally to the entire LGBTQ community. She noted that Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion are “immoral and unbecoming of a leader.”
“I have zero tolerance for hate and bigotry. Every Californian should be free to live their truth, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation,” she wrote. She pledged to work against attacks on DEI initiatives and work with the attorney general to defend anti-discrimination rules for LGBTQ Californians.
On housing, which affects everyone, she stated that she has a plan to speed up building by nearly two years, putting California on par with states that have similar worker and environmental protection regulations. “This will bring down the costs of apartment housing by 10%-20%,” she stated. On homelessness, Porter wrote that she will focus on two strategies the state has not
Regarding Watts: we watched as she co-moderated a recent debate and her demeanor was just as combative to the candidates as Porter was to her during that interview last year.
We have some thoughts on this. There is a double standard when it comes to female politicians. When they’re tough, society calls it out as aggression or bossiness. This is not new; we saw it when Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris ran for president. Yet, one can’t be a governor, much less the leader of the largest state in the nation, without being assertive and making hard decisions. Porter is the last major female gubernatorial candidate standing, and she has been on the receiving end from some of her male counterparts, who themselves seem to escape criticism for similar behavior. Bianco, for example, is pugnacious on the debate stage and quickly tries to turn questions back on reporters or moderators, blaming them for issues like homelessness. It’s right out of Trump’s playbook; the president himself has said far nastier things to female reporters – remember “quiet, piggy”? – than Porter uttered to that staffer.
The fact is, and Porter has said this, that in this age of Trump, California needs a governor who will stand up to him. Trump has targeted the Golden State numerous times, on everything from immigration to disaster relief money to gender-affirming care. He will keep doing that. California’s next leader must be prepared to think on their feet, call out MAGA policies that threaten state residents, and do something about them by working with the Legislature and other state officials or taking executive action.
Porter definitely has the skills to do all of that. We encourage readers to take another look at Porter, viewing her candidacy through the lens of what really matters – not a moment of frustration – but as a governor who will lead this great state, and yes, be aggressive when she needs to be. We endorse Porter for California governor. t
for SF school board
he San Francisco Unified School District continues to be at a crossroads. A weeklong teachers’ strike in February brought to the fore issues of low wages, high healthcare costs, and staffing shortages. The agreement that was reached will cost the district $183 million over two years, with the district using its reserves to cover most of it.
44 Gough Street, Suite 302 San Francisco, CA 94103
Bay area reporter
415.861.5019 • www.ebar.com
44 Gough Street, Suite 302 San Francisco, CA 94103
Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.
Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.
Advertising rates available upon request.
Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.
Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.
In June, school board Commissioner Phil Kim, a gay man, will face voters for the first time since he was appointed by former mayor London Breed in August 2024 to fill a vacancy. We’re endorsing Kim in the June 2 primary to complete the term. Kim will need to run again in November for a full four-year term. Currently board president, Kim worked briefly in the district’s central office before his appointment. He is also a former teacher. In his Bay Area Reporter endorsement questionnaire, Kim told us that he is focused on restoring stability to the district “so we can deliver on our promise of strong schools and strong outcomes for every student.”
In a Zoom interview with the editorial board, Kim explained that the district has a three-year budget cycle that the state judges it on. “We’ve come out of negative certification to qualified certification,” Kim said, meaning the district is in a better fiscal position than it had been. However, the district’s budget is strongly tied to student enrollment, the average daily attendance formula that the state uses. “Attendance matters a lot,” said Kim. The state is also withholding funds under Proposition 98, which provides a minimum of guar-
anteed funding for K-12 schools. Governor Gavin Newsom made withholding $5.6 billion of Prop 98 funds part of his budget proposal in January. “We continue to argue not to do that,” Kim said.
Kim stated in his questionnaire that he’s committed to appointing qualified LGBTQ parents to various school committees, including the Parent Advisory Council and the Queer and Transgender Parent Advisory Council. “It is critical that we protect programs and
structures that ensure community voice and student safety,” Kim stated. “I would work to maintain the [QTPAC] and ensure that its recommendations continue to inform district policy.”
With the school district’s financial challenges, the issue of school closures is at top of mind for many families. Kim stated that any conversation about school closures “must begin with transparency, clear criteria, and deep community engagement.” He noted that schools serve as an anchor in their communities, and that factors taken into consideration should include enrollment trends, building utilization, the condition of facilities, access to highquality academic programs, and the impact on students and families. Asked specifically about the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy elementary school in the Castro, Kim would only note that the campus “represents an important part of San Francisco’s history and our city’s commitment to equality. Any decision about the future of a school like HMCRA must take into account its historic and cultural significance, as well as the needs of the students and families it serves.”
We understand that the San Francisco Unified School District is in a difficult position, like most school districts in the state. But we believe that Kim has been an excellent addition to the Board of Education and that voters should elect him in June to complete his term. t
Kim
California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter attended a Pride event last year.
From Katie Porter’s FB page
San Francisco school board President Phil Kim
Courtesy the subject
Mandelman makes CA Assembly bid official
by Matthew S. Bajko
Termed out of office on January 8 next year, gay District 8 San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman will officially launch his 2028 bid for a state Assembly seat during Pride Month. He is aiming to maintain out representation in the Legislature from the city that has gone unbroken since 1996.
Mandelman, 52, will publicly kick off his campaign fundraising for the Assembly District 17 race June 17 at the Harborview Restaurant & Bar in the Embarcadero Center downtown. Individual tickets start at $250, with people able to RSVP online at https://secure.actblue. com/donate/rafaelforassemblykickoff.
“After eight years serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, I’ve seen firsthand what we can accomplish when we run toward our toughest challenges. We’ve made real strides on mental health, addiction, housing, and transit, but I’ve also learned a hard truth: Local government can’t do it alone,” noted Mandelman in a May 12 emailed invite to his event.
“To truly fix the systems that are broken, we need California to step up. That’s why I will be running for the California State Assembly in 2028 and I want you to be there as we kick off this effort.”
As the Political Notebook column had noted in 2023, Mandelman that year opened a 2028 state Senate campaign account with the intention of running to succeed gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) when he would be term-limited from running again. But his plans were upended by a series of political musical chairs kicked off by Wiener’s entrance into this year’s contest to succeed retiring Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).
had kicked in $5,900, as did gay Castro bar owner Les Natali, while another gay bar owner, Chris Hastings of the Lookout, gave $1,332.
Should Wiener be elected to the U.S. House seat come the fall – polls show him ahead of District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan and wealthy tech investor Saikat Chakrabarti who are in a close race for the second spot in the June 2 primary to move on to the November ballot – then it would trigger a special election in 2027 for his Senate seat. With Haney and Christine Pelosi expected to jump into that contest then Mandelman could find himself entering a special election for the Assembly seat should Haney be elected to the Legislature’s upper chamber next year.
It prompted both Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, and Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) to pull papers to run for Wiener’s 11th Senate District seat in two years. Haney, who is running for reelection this year, reported having nothing in his Senate account as of April 18, while the younger Pelosi reported having more than $31,320 in her campaign coffers. (Haney, expected to easily secure another two-year term come November, reported sitting on more than $190,963 in his Assembly account.)
While it appears his state Senate campaign account is still active, according to the Secretary of State’s office, Mandelman told the B.A.R. he has closed it and moved what remaining funds he had raised over to his new Assembly campaign account. He reported having $96,500 in it as of April 18.
Any money he raised for his Senate account can be transferred to his Assembly one, as long as he keeps within the allowable contribution limit per donor per election. It is currently set at $5,900. His filing reported that on April 14 he had reclassified the donations he had received from a who’s who of local leaders for a Senate bid for his Assembly campaign coffers.
Among them were gay former District 8 supervisor Bevan Dufty, former board president Aaron Peskin and lesbian former city treasurer and supervisor Susan Leal (they each gave $500) to gay business consultant Paul Pendergast and gay former B.A.R. publisher Thomas E. Horn (they each donated $1,000). Tech executives Ron Conway and Chris Larsen each
“Still in use as a multi-unit residential building with ground floor commercial spaces facing Market Street, 20 Franklin Street is an excellent intact example of a post-1906 earthquake reconstruction era apartment hotel designed in a Classical Revival
Mandelman had told the B.A.R. three years ago he had no plans to run against a sitting state legislator. He reiterated that stance in a brief interview Tuesday evening, noting that Haney has announced his intention to seek the seat in 2028 and imaginably sooner, added Mandelman, if there is a vacancy for it as early as the end of this year.
“I have no plans to run against a sitting legislator, and a legislator doing a good job at that, which he is,” said Mandelman, currently the board president who lives in the Mission District.
It appears Mandelman is the first, and so far, only person to pull papers to seek the Assembly seat in two years, according to a search of the state’s campaign finance disclosure site. The 17th District covers the city’s eastern neighborhoods.
With the prospect of a special election for the legislative seat being called and held in about a year’s time, Mandelman told the B.A.R. he felt it was time to begin ramping up his fundraising efforts for an Assembly race. He plans to hold a campaign kickoff type event closer to when the election is called.
“This is a March 2028 primary right now, but it could be as soon as the summer of 2027, so basically a year away,” he said, adding that with a contest for an open seat, “these campaigns do tend to be expensive, and I just want to be as well-positioned as I can be if Senator Wiener, as I hope he does, gets elected to Congress.”
Mandelman, who is living with diabetes, first won election to his supervisor seat in a special election in June of 2018. He had lost his first bid to represent the LGBTQ Castro district and surrounding neighborhoods to Wiener in the 2010 election.
style. Architect Gustave Lansburgh’s original 1911-1912 design, which combined utilitarian priorities with strong stylistic expressions and distinctive materials, is clearly legible in this building which continues to convey its significance under Criterion C. Criterion C states, “Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of con-
At that time, the former president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club was seen as being too progressive for District 8 voters. Today, Mandelman is part of the moderate majority on the board and often is aligned politically with Mayor Daniel Lurie
Born in Southern California, his father left when he was a toddler, leaving his mother to raise him on her own in Laguna Beach. As she was dealing with severe mental health issues, Mandelman moved to San Francisco at the age of 11 initially to live with his paternal grandmother. Due to her age, it didn’t work out, so Mandelman landed at first at the home of a classmate from Brandeis Hillel Day School. He in turn moved in with a foster family before landing at the Noe Valley home of his high school English teacher and her husband. He went on to earn a B.A. in history from Yale College, a Master’s of public policy from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a law degree from UC Berkeley’s School of Law.
He worked as a deputy city attorney in Oakland and won election in 2012 to the board overseeing City College of San Francisco. He formerly served as an elected member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, which runs the local Democratic Party.
If elected to the Assembly seat, Mandelman would be the fourth LGBTQ leader to serve in it and the first out person to hold it since 2014. The first to do so was lesbian legislator Carole Migden, followed by two successive gay men –Mark Leno and Tom Ammiano When Ammiano termed out in 2014, the seat was won by David Chiu, a straight ally now San Francisco’s city attorney, who was succeeded by Haney in 2022.
In 2008, Leno had ousted Migden from the city’s state Senate seat and served in it until 2016, when Wiener succeeded him. For the past 30 years there has been LGBTQ representation from San Francisco in at least one of the Legislature’s two chambers.
Mandelman’s Assembly bid fundraising kick-off next month will begin at 5:30 p.m. that Wednesday evening at the Cantonese restaurant located in a street level space of 4 Embarcadero Center at the intersection of Drumm and Sacramento streets. It’s scheduled to end at 7 p.m.
“I’ve worked hard to get City Hall to deliver for San Francisco’s neighborhoods. Now, I’m asking you to help me take that fight to Sacramento to ensure our state government delivers the results our communities deserve,” wrote Mandelman in his evite. t
struction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.”
The report noted the building’s significance in providing much-needed working-class housing after the great earthquake of 1906.
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, center, was honored at statewide LGBTQ rights group Equality California’s San Francisco gala May 9.
Corner stores celebrate Milk with menu items
by Matthew S. Bajko
Couple Bailee Buckner and Justin Roderman were looking for a deli to patronize for lunch Monday and discovered the rave reviews online for Corona Heights Market & Deli. On Yelp, every rating the family-run business has garnered has been five stars, the highest grade a user of the site can give an establishment.
The Duboce Triangle residents also noticed people praising the Harvey Milk sandwich made by the corner store at 4400 17th Street. Given top billing on its sandwich menu, it is made with Ovengold turkey and jalapeño pepper jack cheese ($14.99) on a customer’s bread of choice with veggies, mayonnaise, mustard, and Mom’s special spread, a secret recipe concocted by co-owner Rossete Saba. (Be sure to give her or one of her children behind the counter a heads up about any food allergies when ordering.)
Speaking to the Bay Area Reporter while they waited for their order to be made, Roderman said, “I’m excited to try it.”
Since the Saba family reopened the market a short walk up from San Francisco’s Castro LGBTQ neighborhood during Pride Month two years ago, word has been spreading about their hoagie homage to the late gay supervisor and civic leader. This past January 48 Hills queer co-founder Marke Bieschke highlighted it in his “Big Week” column after stumbling upon the menu item.
“I suspect there is more than one Harvey Milk sandwich in San Francisco, but I just tried and can recommend the one” served up by the Sabas, wrote Bieschke, the online news site’s publisher and arts and culture editor.
In April, the family matriarch and the business received a shout out by Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel in one of his campaign emails about his candidacy for the District 8 seat on the Board of Supervisors that includes Corona Heights, along with the Castro and surrounding neighborhoods, within its boundaries. A gay man who owns Manny’s Cafe on Valencia Street in the Mission district, Yekutiel happened to run into Saba while she was outside her shop and he was canvassing for votes. (Back in 1977,
Raphael wrote in the obituary that Steffanides’ career started as an aviation maintenance administration airman apprentice, providing administrative support for naval aviation operations. That suddenly ended, Raphael wrote.
tory, the family lost their lease and relocated their store and deli to 17th Street where it intersects with Saturn Street, which they operated as Bell’s until 1999. When Milk was assassinated on the morning of November 27, 1978, along with then-mayor George Moscone, Saba said her brother-in-law happened to be visiting from Los Angeles and she startled him when she learned the terrible news.
“I screamed,” recalled Saba, who had voted for Milk to be supervisor. “I was sad. When you know someone who is killed, of course you react.”
steady stream of people working from home coming in on weekdays.
The Harvey Milk “is the number one sandwich we make,” she told the B.A.R. “They like it, they really do. They also like we are supporting the community. This was his neighborhood.”
Michael Saba surmised its popularity also is likely because “everybody likes to get a good turkey sandwich.”
Milk won election to the board’s thennumbered District 5 seat that included those neighborhoods, becoming the first gay person to win an elected office in California.)
As they “traded small business owner stories,” noted Yekutiel, Saba mentioned how Milk used to patronize the corner store she and her late husband had operated in Duboce Triangle on Noe Street from 1972 until 1976. As he had lived nearby, Milk would pop into the couple’s Bell’s Food Store for beer.
With California set to mark Harvey Milk Day on May 22, which would have been his 96th birthday, and wanting to learn more about Saba’s encounters with Milk and the origin story of the sandwich her family created to celebrate him, the Business Briefing column popped by Monday afternoon to their Corona Heights location. Behind the counter was the 79-year-old Saba, whose photo is affixed to the name tags of items in the deli case that she makes, such as the baba ghanoush and pasta salad.
On June 18, 2024, she and her son, Michael, took back ownership of the 17th Street corner market and decided to keep its new name featuring Corona Heights in it. He and his twin brother’s son, Jacob, came up with the Milk sando. (Now 22, Jacob Saba and his brother, Nicola, own Woodside Deli in Redwood City.)
“Well, it’s kind of a spicy sandwich, and he was a spicy kind of a guy and a very important part of our neighborhood. So it’s important to recognize him,” said Michael Saba, 54, when asked about how they came up with its ingredients.
Memories of Milk
As for his meeting Milk, “I personally did not. I was just a child at the time, but I heard stories of him,” Michael Saba told the B.A.R. His sister, Mary Saba, 56, who also works at the corner market, does recall Milk coming into the Duboce Triangle location, which she played in as a little girl.
“I remember my mom talking to him. He used to talk to my mom a lot,” she recalled.
She recalled Milk, who would buy Miller beer, as “a regular man. I never knew he would be supervisor.” Saba had struck up a closer relationship with Milk’s partner at the time, a man she remembers was named Dennis.
The year prior to Milk’s historic vic-
“There was a witch hunt,” Steffanides explained in the B.A.R. interview, after an explosion inside the USS Iowa killed 47 crewmen in April 1989.
The Navy initially concluded that a suicidal crew member, Clayton Hartwig, deliberately caused the explosion. During the investiga-
Although the corner market is located on a hillier section of 17th Street, it still gets a steady stream of tourists stopping in as they hoof it from the Castro to either the Twin Peaks overlook or Golden Gate Park, noted Mary Saba, who joked she thought they should have renamed it The Pit Stop. Saturdays are its busiest days, she said, but they also see a
tion, officers leaked to the media that Hartwig was having a romantic relationship with another male crew member, Kendall Truitt, and that Hartwig decided to commit a murder-suicide when it soured.
The Navy was unable to conclude if these allegations were true and eventually, after a damning report later that year on CBS’ “60 Minutes” and after a third-party investigation, withdrew its initial conclusions, expressed its regret to Hartwig’s family, and stated that the cause of the explosion could not be determined.
Steffanides said that after the Iowa incident, things became more inquisitive.
“They opened my locker, looked inside, and found magazines,” they said in the 2021 B.A.R. interview. “There were eight or nine other discharges at the same time. They’d call us in separately and say, ‘I have evidence. The other guy already confirmed and incriminated you. If you cooperate, you’ll get a lighter sentence.’ Now, nobody wants to turn in your brother for being gay.”
Steffanides said they were denied the presence of a judge advocate general (JAG) attorney, and “ended up going to the brig,” at which time they were reduced in rank.
After being declared “unfit for service in the Navy,” Steffanides said in the interview that they had to stay at their post “to train my replacement.” They were finally kicked out months later on Christmas Eve 1993 in Norfolk, Virginia.
Raphael said the couple had been together for seven years before Steffanides talked about their experi-
As for Bieschke’s supposition about there being more than one sandwich in town named after Milk, it just so happens there is one being sold a few blocks down the street from the Saba’s market. At 4151 17th Street the Eureka Market & Deli makes a sandwich dubbed The Harvey Milk ($14.99) with roast beef or Italian salami, cream cheese, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and choice of peppers.
Aghlab Zidan, who took over the business three years ago, added last year a small deli counter with several signature sandwiches, one being The 5th Avenue. At the suggestion of his customers, he renamed it in honor of Milk, who grew up on New York’s Long Island.
“It’s been good,” Zidan told the B.A.R. about the reception to, and sales of, the special sub.
It appears few other places in the Castro, or across the city, feature a menu item named after Milk, based on a review of various eateries’ menus. The gayowned Hot Cookie on Castro Street has long had the Harvey Milk Toffee Cookie ($4.50) for sale that combines its classic chocolate chip cookie with “a generous amount of sweet baking toffee,” according to the shop.
“There’s a reason this is one of our most popular creations!”
At one point Ike’s Place, which started out in the Castro on 16th Street and is now known as Ike’s Love & Sandwiches, offered a Harvey Milk grilled cheese sandwich dubbed the #305 made with up to four kinds of cheese and stuffed with mozzarella sticks.
But Ike’s was evicted from its Castro location in 2010, and by 2014, the Milk sandwich had been moved to its secret menu, according to Thrillist. Included among the best 50 sandwiches known to fans of Ike’s, the site noted about the Harvey Milk: “Get your pride on with
ence in the Navy, which only happened in front of an attorney helping Steffanides get their VA benefits.
“It was a need-to-know philosophy from the service,” Raphael stated.
“It was a shock to me,” he said.
Raphael wrote that Steffanides experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and survived on the margins of life for 25 years.
“Lilly rose from those hard times by seeking out recovery as well as other LGBTQ+ military personnel and veterans, to be with their own kind,” Raphael wrote. “Lilly recorded interviews of these military personnel’s experiences and archived them.
Lilly spent their life, as they said, ‘making sure the LGBTQ+ veteran community had a voice, that their stories wouldn’t be erased.’ They even took over and hosted an LGBTQ+ military support group for years.”
Raphael stated that he would continue Steffanides’ interviewing and archiving work.
As a plaintiff in the suit, Steffanides was pleased when the Pentagon overhauled its process for LGBTQ veterans to seek honorable discharges in January 2025, as Reuters reported at the time. The number of people affected within the LGBTQ community started with 44,000 but has now grown to 114,000, according to the Impact Fund, which brought the suit.
“We are deeply saddened by Lilly Steffanides’ passing,” the Impact Fund stated in an email to the B.A.R. “Lilly’s courage and dedication helped obtain justice for LGBTQ+ veterans across the country. Lilly made a lasting impact on all who
a cheesy tribute to our fallen supervisor. James Franco with a perm not included.” (An apparent reference to the actor’s portrayal of Milk’s long-term boyfriend Scott Smith in the Oscar-winning 2008 biopic “Milk.”)
When The Melt opens its location in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport, it is expected to have an exclusive menu item called the Harvey Milkshake that it announced back in March would be a vanilla shake with rainbow sprinkles. It was shooting for a May opening date, but the company’s website https://www.themelt.com/ locations only says it is “coming soon.”
SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel told the B.A.R. this week that the current projection for its opening is late summer.
Back in 2019, when Frankie & Jo’s opened its first California location in Larkspur, the ice cream company brought back for Pride Month a fan favorite seasonal flavor it called the Harvey Strawberry Milk, described as “a rich and creamy blend of fresh strawberries and our coconut milk base with chia seeds sprinkled throughout and a swirl of perfectly sweet house-made strawberry jam.” It donated 5% of every single scoop or pint sold to the Harvey Milk Foundation, begun by Milk’s family to carry on his civil rights work and legacy.
“We’re changing the way people think about not only ice cream, but food in general, making vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, gum and preservative free ice cream and cones that are as delicious as they are fresh, healthy, and environmentally conscious. As a progressive and forward-thinking company, we want to use our platform and take the time to honor another true trailblazer: Harvey Milk,” the Seattle-based company touted at the time.
According to its website, https:// frankieandjos.com/products/strawberry-milk it now carries the flavor yearround but simply calls its Strawberry Milk ice cream.t
Got a tip on LGBTQ business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email m.bajko@ ebar.com.
knew them and will be profoundly missed.”
Raphael wrote that Steffanides died shortly after they received their General discharge, brokenhearted that it was not an Honorable discharge.
“They left just as brave as they always were throughout their whole life,” Raphael wrote. “Lilly said they believed none of what they did and tried to do would have happened without a loving home that gave a safe place to make mistakes, sobriety, and their embrace to whom they always were meant to be, a creative nonbinary patriot.”
Steffanides was born October 16, 1968.
Raphael’s obituary stated that Steffanides will be missed by many, including the transgender community; friends at the American Legion Post 448, the predominantly LGBTQ chapter of the national organization; the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; the International and San Francisco Imperial Courts; Swords to Plowshares; the San Francisco motorcycle community; First Thursdays Hella Positive Community; and the San Francisco Veterans Administration.
In addition to Raphael, Steffanides is survived by aunts and cousins.
A short documentary by director Mai Iskander about Steffanides’ fight to have their discharge upgraded has been delayed in post-production due to arts funding cutbacks, Raphael stated.
A celebration of life is planned, but no date has been set. t
Mary Saba, left, and her mother, Rossete Saba, prepared to make a Harvey Milk sandwich at Corona Heights Market and Deli.
Matthew S. Bajko
The CBD doesn’t have legal authority to clean the plaza without the extra funding from the city, Aiello said.
Ultimately, the budget Lurie signed last year included the funding, but that may not happen again.
“We have to figure something with the mayor’s office and [district Supervisor] Rafael [Mandelman] to figure out how to make sure this isn’t happening in the future,” Aiello said. “I have to see what Jane Warner Plaza will look like if that goes away. Thousands of tourists get off the F Line every day in Jane Warner Plaza and it will be a disgusting place. No one will want to go, and there will be no tables and chairs out. It will be disgusting, and smelly.”
Mandelman, a gay man who is currently serving as board president and is termed out this year, said during the meeting that, “We are particularly concerned.”
“I’ve commented to the mayor how problematic that would be,” he said. “We are working to figure this out.”
Lurie has made bringing tourism and nightlife back to the city a priority.
Aiello said there have already been over 300 messages sent to Lurie’s office asking for the CBD funding to be maintained.
“I’ve been told the letters actually help,” she said. “I told the mayor, ‘We have a letter-writing campaign,’ and he
From page 1
“Nobody wants to come and live here and pay ridiculous fucking rents because we have nice office buildings,” Haney said. “They do that because of what you all do, because of our culture. … Whatever our cities were before COVID, in San Francisco and around the state, we’re not 9-5 anymore. This city has to be alive and popping after 6 p.m. with festivals and music and people inside drinking, eating in community. That’s the only way our city is going to continue to thrive.”
Van Houten said the data shows a 4.1% increase in leisure and hospitality jobs in San Francisco and San Mateo counties last year, and that most San Francisco neighborhoods saw sales tax revenue increases during that same timeframe.
“Nightlife is always evolving and adapting,” Van Houten said. “That’s one of the reasons I like this industry.”
Catering to social media
What’s being sought from the nightlife experience has changed, too.
“More people want something experiential, something with added value,” Conde said. “We’re having so much fun at the Castro Theatre – we can show ‘Grease,’ and a few hundred people buy tickets, but when you turn it into a sing-along and a costume contest, it becomes a night on the town and people enjoy those sorts of things.”
B Pratt, the executive director of Best in the Bay Area, an industry night party at Cafe Du Nord on upper Market Street, agreed.
“It’s way more about experience,” Pratt said. “People don’t want to just go out for the sake of going out. There has to be more than alcohol and some music as a baseline.”
said, ‘Good,’ and he also said to me, ‘The budget is not set, Andrea.’ So I still hope with publicity and pressure the city responds.”
Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for Lurie, stated, “Mayor Lurie has been a steadfast ally and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community since taking office, and that commitment has never been stronger. As we navigate serious budget pressures brought on by hundreds of millions of dollars in federal cuts, he will put forward a budget that protects San Franciscans, while continuing to build the safe, welcoming, and thriving city we all deserve.”
Aiello is distributing posters around the neighborhood with QR codes for those who’d like to email Lurie’s office from their cellphones. Those who’d like to email the mayor’s office may do so here.
Self-defense class
Greg Carey of Castro Community on Patrol will be holding another basic self-defense class on Saturday, May 16, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. The cost is $60 per attendee and people who are interested can sign up on Eventbrite.
Upcoming events
The Castro will host a larger Pink Saturday activation than in recent years, and in a new location, said Castro Merchants President Nate Bourg, a gay man.
After the annual event the day before the Pride Parade was discontinued in the 2010s, the merchants sponsored
Pratt added, “There’s a deep level of intent that needs to be there from the minute they were invited, to going with their friends. Every single detail matters.”
Asked what people care about, Colleen Booth, managing partner of the Lazy Bear restaurant and the True Laurel cocktail bar, both in the Mission neighborhood, said, “My candid answer is their Instagram followers.”
She clarified the new generation of partygoers is looking for “the aesthetic showing they’re part of something.”
“People want to share, and have it known, they are out and part of something,” she said. “I personally think San Francisco fell out of love with itself for a bit there. It’s been really nice to see San Francisco, that pride is back.”
Challenges
But not everything is copacetic – with increased demand has come expensive ticket prices.
Danny Bell, who helps put on the new rave series Club Darc and the annual Portola Music Festival, said that’s a legacy of the city’s regulatory environment.
“It costs 50%-100% more to produce an event in San Francisco than in Los Angeles or San Diego,” Bell said.
During his brief speech, Lurie touted the administration’s Permit SF initiative to try to bring down costs on business owners.
Haney teased future legislation to bring down ticket prices, complaining that third parties are buying up tickets to speculate on them.
“If you’re going to pay for a ticket, let the funds go to the venues,” he said, later saying he’d be announcing a new bill May 11.
Assembly Bill 1720 is called the California Fans First Act. Haney’s office stated.
It “would cap ticket resale prices at 10%
“I’m pleased to see the Raymond Hotel on the list,” Payton said.
a smaller daytime festivity on Beaver Street, adjacent to Market and Noe streets.
But Castro denizens think it’s time for more, Bourg said.
“There’s still a desire to do more,” Bourg said, “but I think taking it in stages to make sure it’s done successfully for everyone is really important.”
So the merchants have decided to move the daytime party to 18th Street, between Castro and Diamond streets, which will be closed from noon to 5 p.m. for the festivities.
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 up Castro Street around 6 p.m.
The entertainment zone allowing for outdoor alcohol consumption will be activated, Bourg hopes, from noon to 11 p.m., though 18th Street should be open to vehicle traffic again after 6 p.m.
Oscar Graves, a gay man who works for CG Events, which produces the monthly night market, said the parking lot along 18th Street nestled between Toad Hall and Walgreens will feature a DJ and dancing from 8 p.m. on that night into Pride morning.
“We want to grow toward a larger event” in future years, Bourg said.
Speaking of the night market – the June 19 iteration will celebrate both Pride and Juneteenth, a holiday designating the end of slavery in Texas fol-
above face value in an effort to restore fairness and transparency to the ticketing market while supporting independent venues, touring artists, and concertgoers,” Haney’s office stated. “Unchecked ticket resale schemes and price gouging have made live entertainment increasingly inaccessible, with tickets often being resold online at several times their original price within minutes of release. AB 1720 protects fans from excessive markups while preserving access to live music and cultural events throughout California.”
Rose said that the affordability crisis across the board will make it hard for the city to keep its reputation as a nightlife capital. San Francisco’s median rent for a one-bedroom apartment rose faster than any other U.S. city from September 2024 to September 2025. The city saw a 12% increase in rental prices even as the nation at-large saw rents go down 1%.
“Make it easier for the weirdos to live here, not to be too political,” Rose said, citing cost of living as the preeminent challenge for the nightlife community. “It’s incredibly important we have affordable housing, and affordable places for artists to live.”
The nightlife world hasn’t been unscathed by the fentanyl crisis. Drug overdoses by the powerful opioid, which has sometimes made its way into the supply of recreational party drugs, led Eileen Loughran, outgoing community affairs manager at the city’s Department of Public Health, into a new partnership with the entertainment commission to reach people where they’re at.
Launched in 2023, the partnership was able to provide naloxone, or Narcan, to bars, to assist with acute medical emergencies. Since then, 250 nightlife workers have been trained at 18 businesses and over 500 naloxone kits and 1,600 fentanyl test strips have been provided.
lowing 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.)
Meanwhile, Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is proprietor of Cliff’s Variety on Castro Street, is continuing to plan the hardware and variety store’s 90th birthday on Saturday, June 6, from noon to 5 p.m. It will feature a DJ set by drag artist Juanita MORE!, a drag story hour, and a costume contest hosted by Sister Roma of the drag philanthropic group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and inspired by Cliff’s burly, muscular mascot. The celebration will take place in the store’s parking lane.
Bourg asked, “Do you have to be a man?” to participate in the contest. No, answered Asten Bennett, “You don’t even have to be a hu-man.”
SF Pride courts
Castro businesses
Nguyen Pham, a gay man who is past president of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee board and who is helping with sponsorships this year, teased a Pride kickoff variety show Wednesday, June 10, at the Castro Theatre titled, “Built this City.” He also came to beseech merchants to sign up to be sponsors of the annual event, the city’s largest, and which creates half a billion dollars in economic activity, he said.
Naloxone doses were distributed 529 times, according to Loughran. People interested in learning more about how the city can provide these resources should email overdoseprevention@sfdph.org.
Sexual harassment issues
Another ongoing issue is sexual assault and harassment; participants quoted statistics that nine in 10 women in nightlife spaces have reported sexual harassment or assault. To that end, a panel was facilitated by Lila Carrillo, the director of the city’s Office of Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention, or SHARP.
“When women don’t feel safe, they don’t participate,” Carrillo said. “They will refrain from participating in nightlife.”
She was joined by Joseph Pred, the founder of the Burning Man music festival’s emergency services department and a former entertainment commissioner, and San Francisco Police Department Lieutenant David Goff.
Goff said that business owners and employees shouldn’t be afraid of police intervention if it’s needed.
The “biggest misconception,” he said, is that “police are called or show up and somebody is going to get in trouble or lose their license.”
“The easy way to do it is to turn a blind eye,” he said, but that wouldn’t be right.
Carrillo said that drink spiking sometimes takes different forms than what people might imagine.
“There’s a lot of mocktails out there – nonalcoholic beverages mimicking the flavor of whiskey, the flavor of tequila – so something to watch out for when it comes to drink spiking is
Pham said that SF Pride gets “a lot of flak” for accepting the donations of major corporate sponsors, but that it does so in order to keep the annual festival free and open to the public. (The parade along Market Street is free to watch.)
The B.A.R. has reported that since the return of President Donald Trump last year, some of those corporate sponsors have left – though the organization is cautiously optimistic about 2026.
However, SF Pride has decided to introduce a new sponsorship level for small businesses that may not be able to pay the typical $30,000 minimum.
Though Pride has a $4 million budget, so much of that is spent on insurance, contractors, and other expenses that the organization only has three full-time employees year-round. About $350,000 this year is covered by the city itself, through Grants for the Arts.
“It’s a rag-tag team,” Pham said.
SF Pride’s new small business program will allow small businesses to donate $1,000 and up to $20,000 to be officially recognized as sponsors – “a way smaller, lower than a multimilliondollar business, way to get some recognition as a Pride sponsor and funder,” as Pham put it.
Castro neighborhood businesses can sign up for as little as $500, he said.
“This is your way to show San Francisco Pride and the broader queer community that your business cares about Pride, and cares about community, without breaking the bank too much.” t
it might not be what we’ve typically thought as roofing somebody,” she said, referring to the practice of someone surreptitiously slipping a drug such as GHB into a person’s drink. “It may be an extra shot of alcohol, or real alcohol in a nonalcoholic drink. Another trend is introducing ketamine into somebody’s drink.”
Pred said it’s on bar owners to have their employees’ backs to handle any potentially distressing situations with customers – and that it’s also up to them to create a culture where people don’t stand by and allow predatory behavior.
This doesn’t have to be overtly confrontational, the panel agreed, either, or be relegated to security staff to handle.
“Everybody is working as eyes and ears and everybody has the opportunity to do these very, very low-key interactions that are not confrontational,” Pred said. “You’re doing something called the Hawthorne effect – when people know their behavior is being observed, they change their behavior.”
An example he gave was a barback asking someone who seems creepy how their night is going.
Goff said bar owners should keep time-stamped surveillance footage and make their staff members available for witness statements if police are investigating crimes.
Carrillo said if victims are having problems with police, they should go to her office directly.
SHARP can be reached at info. ovwr@sf.gov, and businesses interested can even participate in a certification program from SHARP meant to fight sexual violence at nightlife spaces by signing up at https://www.sf.gov/ sharp-night-out-certification. t
“It is a highly intact and strong example of high-style Classical Revival design by local architect of merit, Gustave Albert Lansburgh, applied to an apartment hotel, a building type which was introduced and grew in popularity as a housing option for San Francisco’s working and middle-class families in the years after the 1906 earthquake and fires,” the report stated.
“They teach us a lesson – that it was the missing middle housing of its day. It’s a good urban building, a soldiers’ building, we’d call it. It’s a super good example, with a beautiful ground floor and beautiful attic floor.”
There was no public comment on the Raymond Hotel Apartments nomination during the meeting. The report also referenced the building’s ground floor commercial space.
its design as an early 20th-century commercial and residential building which was intended to provide a large number of residential units while maximizing the amount of light available to each,” the report stated. “As when it was constructed, the building has five commercial storefronts with recessed entries and display glazing at its south facade.
Ground floor commercial space on Market Street once housed a bicycle shop and cafe, but those shuttered during the COVID pandemic.
Commissioner Neal Payton, an architect from Santa Monica, praised the nomination of the Raymond Hotel Apartments following the 6-0 vote.
“The building’s six-story height and irregular footprint, including prominent light wells, expresses
The residential lobby “addressed 20 Franklin Street and accessed through the Franklin Street entrance, features
a mixture of contemporary and older finishes and fixtures, and includes an enclosed office, staircases, and an original small mezzanine level with a turned and paneled balustrade,” noted the report. Today, Mercy Housing owns the property, which it acquired in 2001, according to its website. In 2004, Mercy Housing completed a $7 million renovation for the HIV/ AIDS supportive affordable housing complex. There are 68 apartments presently, according to its website. It was named after Silva, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1994. Catholic Charities is the onsite service provider.
In 2023, SF YIMBY reported that Mercy Housing planned a renovation of the building. In 2024, a presentation was made to San Francisco Planning, according to the planning department’s website. Scaffolding is now visible on the exterior of a portion of the building. A Mercy spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on the status of the renovation.
SF YIMBY noted that the building’s residents were notified of the plans and once complete, will be able to move back into their units at the same rental costs. t << Apt. complex From page 5
by David-Elijah Nahmod
Disco superstar Martha Wash will be honored at the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club’s 50th Anniversary Gayla on May 22. The singer, admired for her powerful pipes, is best known for her collaborations with Sylvester, and for her work as one of the Two Tons O’ Fun, later The Weather Girls, the latter of whom had a massive hit with “It’s Raining Men,” a song that quickly became a gay anthem. The Milk Club is awarding Wash the Sylvester James Pride in the Arts Award.
Sylvester, as he was known, was a major voice during the disco era. At a time when being gay was neither safe nor acceptable, Sylvester was out, loud and proud. His songs, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and “Dance (Disco Heat)” were worldwide hits and became gay anthems. Prior to his disco career, Sylvester was a member of the avant-garde drag troupe The Cockettes. Through it all he embraced his gay identity and his gay fan base until his 1988 death from AIDS at age 41.
Wash first came to the public’s attention when she sang back-up vocals on “You Make Me Feel
Martha Wash
to be honored at Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club gala
brought in her friend Izora Armstead to sing for Sylvester and he decided to use them as back-up singers. This is when they first became known as the Two Tons O’ Fun, and indeed, Wash recalls this as a fun time in her life.
“I was really new to the business, although I had
Wash and Sylvester didn’t hang out much, she recalled. Their working relationship was good, and on occasion they might go out after doing a show, but for the most part they had different groups of friends and Wash was also busy doing other things.
Rain or shine
Eventually the Two Tons O’ Fun recorded two albums of their own, and travelled around doing shows. When “It’s Raining Men” came along they decided to change their name to The Weather Girls. Wash told the B.A.R. that she was surprised
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.
THE BIGGEST GIVEAWAY OF THE YEAR STARTS HERE
SATURDAYS | MAY 9- 30 7PM-11PM
1 WINNER OF UP TO $100,000 CASH EVERY HOUR!
• Plus, 5 Winners of $1,500 Free Slot Play
• 100 Points = 1 Entry | Earn entries now
• BONUS! Earn 10X entries every Saturday 3PM-7PM
SATURDAY, MAY 30 12AM MIDNIGHT
1 WINNER OF A VINTAGE FORD BRONCO!
• Plus, 5 Winners of up to $25,000 Cash
• 500 Points = 1 Entry | Earn entries now
• BONUS! Earn 10X entries Wednesdays, now-May 27
‘La Cage Aux Folles’ at Theatre Rhinoceros
by Jim Gladstone
‘La Cage Aux Folles’ is a seminal work of gay storytelling,’ said John Fisher, artistic director of Theatre Rhinoceros, which opens its new production of the musical, composed by Jerry Herman and scripted by Harvey Fierstein, on May 14.
The fine-feathered franchise, about romantic partners and nightclub owners Georges and Albin, a drag queen, preparing for their straight son’s impending nuptials, began as a French play in 1973. It was then adapted as a film, also French, in 1978.
That cinematic iteration spawned Francophone sequels in 1980 and 1985; a Broadway musical in 1983; and, in 1996, the music-neutered American movie, “The Birdcage,” starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. In short, this showgirl story has very long legs. And at the Rhino, it’s alive and kicking for both old fans and new generations.
Light in dark times
While queer arts aficionados age 40 and above are likely familiar with
some iteration of “La Cage Aux Folles,” those born in the 21st century may draw a blank when it comes to this seminal vesicle.
“I wasn’t at all familiar with the show at all until I saw a casting call on Facebook,” said Akhila Narayanan, 24, who is playing Ann, the musical’s ingenue, as well as a member of its pangendered chorus line, the Cagelles. “I started doing research about the show on the web,” said Narayanan in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter.
“Up until then, my main impression of the period when the musical came out had been all about tragedy in the queer community. The AIDS crisis. The Reagan era. I’d heard stories about people cleaning out their loved ones’ apartments in New York, and this idea that if you came across a dumpster full of Playbills, you’d know a gay man had died.
“As someone who wasn’t around at the time, it was so cool to me to discover that back in the ’70s and ’80s there was this gay love story that didn’t end in tragedy. It was a comedy that was so fun and full of love. The happy stories should be told, too.”
Reductive or refreshing
The premiere production of “La Cage Aux Folles” stage musical won six Tony Awards including best score, best book, and best musical. It ran for more than four years. Two additional Broadway turns, in 2004 and 2010, each won a Tony as Best Revival of a Musical.
Yet despite this mainstream success, and the irrefutable enshrinement of the show’s best-known song, “I Am What I Am,” as an LGBTQ anthem, there have long been queer critics who take issue with the piece.
Of a 1994 national touring production, the Bay Area Reporter’s own John Karr wrote, “There aren’t gay people in this show, only straight people’s shallow stereotypes of gays... to me, ‘La Cage’ is little more than a minstrel show.”
The lead couple’s adaptation of traditional male and female gender roles;
the show’s stereotypical gay careers as entertainers, domestics; and even the raising of a child by a same-sex couple (Damn heteronormative model!) have drawn the ire of the oversensitive and incorrigible left. The show, they’ve argued, is simply too old-fashioned.
“Old fashioned or timeless?” asked Crystal Liu, who is co-directing the Rhino production with Fisher, during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter.
“Jerry Herman’s musicals [“Hello Dolly!”, “Mame”] have this Golden Age sound that can feel like the 1940s, but ‘La Cage’ was written in the 1970s, and the show’s St. Tropez nightclub is realistic for that period.
“Sometimes you forget that this sort of music was actually being performed in 1973, even as David Bowie was being played at the same time. I’m excited for audiences to see how the theme of chosen family, the value of
drag, and the necessity of queer spaces –all topics we’re concerned with today– are present in this musical that was first performed 50 years ago.”
A welcome refrain
“La Cage is the first overtly queer show I’ve ever been in,” said Akhila Narayanan, who first did theater and opera while growing up in Seattle. “My mom and dad used to take me to Shakespeare in the Park in the summers,” she said, describing her parents as “very conservative.”
“When I was around 12, we went to ‘Twelfth Night,’ which has all this androgyny and characters whose gender isn’t clear from the beginning, I found it all very interesting. I guess that’s the extent of queer theater that my parents would be comfortable with.”
Narayanan, who now lives in the East Bay and works full time in tech, is cis, straight and has a sibling who identifies as queer.
“It’s generally very liberal where I grew up, and so many of my friends were queer,” she added. “In college I minored in philosophy, so I studied a lot about feminism and gender, which also really opened up my perspective.
“When I saw the casting announcement for this show, I saw that there was this one role for a cis straight girl, and I figured I might as well give it a shot.”
Even an old bird like ‘La Cage Aux Folles’ still has good reason to sing.t
‘La Cage Aux Folles,’ May 14-June 7, $17.50-$32.50. Theatre Rhinoceros, 4229 18th St. www.therhino.org
Samuel Barber’s ‘Vanessa’
by Tim Pfaff
Samuel Barber’s “Vanessa,” his Pulitzer Prize-winning first full-length opera, was commissioned by and premiered at the “old” Metropolitan Opera, in 1958. For all its virtues, a new, 2025 live recording from the National Symphony Orchestra, on its house label, hasn’t changed my opinion of it, except to respect the musicians who do what they can.
Barber wrote superb vocal music, mostly songs, but opera got away from him. “Vanessa” opened to largely positive reviews except for those of some hold-out critics. When the opera had its European premiere at the Salzburg Festival the following year, critics and audiences were largely unimpressed, declaring the piece not American enough.
Gian Carlo Menotti, Barber’s life partner and artistic collaborator, wrote the libretto and directed the premiere. For these ears, it’s he who weighs the opera down, despite his reputation as a theater wizard and the composer of twenty-something operas himself. His libretto for “Vanessa” walks a perilous line between the sensational and the banal, overall a self-cancelling duo.
Menotti fed the myth that “Vanessa” took its “atmosphere” from the “Seven Gothic Tales” of Karen Blixen, the “Isak Dinesen” of “Out of Africa” fame, which Barber liked. But on invitation, Blixen attended the premiere of “Vanessa” and left mid-performance without explanation.
Menotti’s “original” story, set in an unspecified northern clime, hints at the importance names have in opera. (See, for examples, Wagner’s, Siegmund, Siegfried, Tristan, Lohengrin, and Lohengrin’s father, Parsifal.) But its version of the practice more closely resembles Baroque opera, where mistaken identities and frequent genderfuck drive the plot.
In “Vanessa,” it is Anatol who sows confusion and desperation among the other characters. He is named for his father, Vanessa’s long-lost lover, also
named Anatol, whose return she has waited for 20 years. The chief evidence of her fundamental delusional nature is her willful mistaking of the lesser Anatol for the greater, to the point that in the opera’s final scene, she sets out for an imagined life in Paris, having married the younger man.
Her niece, Erika, takes a shine to the living Anatol and, in a fit of passion on the night he arrives, gets pregnant by him. “Erika, let me be alone with him when he comes in,” Vanessa says as the sleigh bearing Anatol first arrives. The coming regret is palpable.
What transpires is closer to folly than to tragedy, a ghost story populated by the walking dead. When Erika laments, “It’s a long winter here,” she is making a commentary more than an observation. The libretto’s deepest dive into the morass of cliché comes when Erika throws herself down a flight of stairs in an attempt to abort the fetus.
The new National Symphony recording also features a distinguished cast, among them Susan Graham as the Governess, J’Nai Bridges as Erika, Matthew Polenzani as Anatol, and the veteran baritone Thomas Hampson as the doctor in what must count as one of his best recordings.
The pressure on the newbie Vanessa, American soprano Nicole Heaston, must have been great. She comes through with a vocally rich performance that makes Vaness less patrician than usual, which she proves the role can take.
The irony is that this largely American cast, try as they do, have difficulties putting over Menotti’s words.
The success of this concert performance derives from the conducting of Gianandrea Noseda, the orchestra’s music director for nine years and one of the most reliable leaders, and often more, of operas throughout the world. His “Vanessa” is keen and propulsive.
“Vanessa” reeks of the movie music of the day, if never quite rising to its color and verve. There’s no arguing that the score is derivative –mainly of the modern Three B’s, Berg, Britten, and Bernstein– but Noseda emphasizes the music’s originality in an unapologetic performance.
Struggles with diction apart, most of them engendered by Menotti’s turgid libretto, the singers give committed performances. Polenzani, in ringing voice, is best, but he is supported by fine work from his colleagues, particularly the veteran singers Graham and Hampson.
For new listeners, it’s hard to imagine a better starter pack. Longtime “Vanessa” lovers will be grateful for such a bracing performance in more modern sound. The rest of us, like Vanessa, will sit and wait.t
Samuel Barber, ‘Vanessa,’ with vocal cast and the National Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda, conductor. www.kennedy-center.org
Left to Right: SNJV, John Mannion, Christopher Juan, and Landyn Endo in Theatre Rhino’s ‘La Cage Aux Folles
Scott Sidorsky
Composer Samuel Barber and lyricist Gian Carlo Menotti
Q-Music: Queer cover stories
by Gregg Shapiro
Broadway actor-singers Claybourne Elder and Michael Longoria move offstage for their album of cover songs, while Xiu Xiu takes on tunes by Grace Jones and Talking Heads, Tori Amos covers Boomtown Rats, Tom Waits and even Eminem, while Smashing Pumpkins release an anniversary four-disc set.
Whitney Houston may be gone, but she is far from forgotten, especially not by gay men. In fact, not only have two of them covered Houston on their respective new albums, but both chose the same song, and the same reimagining.
Claybourne Elder, as well as Calum Scott, selected to reinterpret Houston’s 1987 chart-topping hit single and dance club favorite “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” as a ballad. Elder’s version appears on his debut album, “If The Stars Were Mine” (Center Stage Records).
Utah native and gay dad (and daddy!) Elder is known for his stage work, most recently in the Broadway revival of “Company,” and recently for his portrayal of John, the lover of closeted Oscar in Julian Fellowes’ HBO series “The Gilded Age.”
On “If The Stars Were Mine,” he displays an impressive and varied range in his musical tastes. Stephen Sondheim is represented by three songs (“Something’s Coming,” “Moments in the Woods,” “Finishing the Hat”), as are other musicals (“The Music Man,” “My Fair Lady,” “Floyd Collins,” “If/Then”). Elder’s queer take on “Moments in the Woods,” is especially notable, as is the cabaret act number, “I Wanna Be Evil,” and his renditions of Melody Gardot’s title tune and “Lonesome Goodbye” (co-written by country superstar Chris Stapleton). www.broadwayrecords.com
Like Elder, gay singer Michael Longoria also has his own history on Broadway, performing in “Jersey Boys” and “Hairspray,” as well as offBroadway in “The View Upstairs.” Longoria’s pick for cover material is none other than The Beach Boys for his album “Catch A Wave” Longoria has fun, fun, fun on the 12 tracks, especially on sundrenched numbers such as “I Get Around,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “California Girls,” the title cut, and of course, “Fun, Fun, Fun.” Some of the ear-pleasing subtlety and restraint Longoria applied to “God Only Knows,” “The Warmth of the Sun,” and “Surfer Girl” would have likely benefited “Don’t Worry Baby” (the intention was not to cause baby to worry, after all). instagram.com/michaellongoriasings
As you might have guessed from the title of the album, “Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu: Vol. 1” (Polyvinyl) by experimental band Xiu Xiu, led by openly queer musician Jamie Stewart, is at the polar opposite end of the spectrum from those by Elder and Longoria.
Described as “a collection of covers from Xiu Xiu to you,” the material is mainly art-punk with a few classics thrown in for good measure. Xiu Xiu turns up the heat on “Warm Leatherette,” originally performed by The Normal and later covered by Grace
Jones. Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” sounds like “a real live wire.” Xiu Xiu’s take on Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” is a reminder of why David Lynch included the original version in “Blue Velvet.”
The club roots of queer band Soft Cell’s “Sex Dwarf” are honored here, and as the aforementioned Calum Scott did with his rendering of Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own,” Xiu Xiu takes the song to ballad land. The band brings it to a close by lighting the short fuse on The Runaways’ “Cherry Bomb.” Xiu Xiu, no strangers to covering other artists (see: 2013’s “Nina”), once again leaves its distinctive mark on a few familiar songs. www.xiuxiu.org
Bösendorfer-playing singer/songwriter Tori Amos still managed to capture her share of attention and garner a dedicated following, even with 1990s airwaves competition such as Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana (whom she covered). On her 2001 album “Strange Little Girls” (Rhino/Atlantic), reissued in an expanded double-disc 25th-anniversary edition, including a full-color poster, Amos turned her complete focus to cover tunes.
In keeping with Amos’ distinctive (and slightly peculiar) taste in music, her bizarre choice of Eminem’s “’97 Bonnie & Clyde” stands out from the rest. Far more accessible are her readings of The Stranglers’ cover tune, her
gorgeous takes on Tom Waits’ “Time” and The Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays,” The Velvet Underground’s “New Age,” and a sensitive reading of queer Joe Jackson’s “Real Men.” The four-song bonus disc features admirable renditions of Bruce Springsteen’s “Growin’ Up” and Alice Cooper’s “Only Women Bleed.” www. toriamos.com
With two well-received studio albums to the band’s name, The Smashing Pumpkins did something daring with its third album by releasing a double- disc set. Fans who had been with the band since “Gish” and “Siamese Dream” ate up “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” (Vir-
gin) with a spoon. Now available in a handsomely packaged four-disc 30th-anniversary deluxe limited containing the original album and more than an hour of unreleased tour audio from 1996, “Mellon Collie…” presents the band as a Third Coast version of Boston’s Pixies and Seattle’s Nirvana. The music is as blistering (“Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “Zero,” “Bodies,” “Tales of A Scorched Earth,” and “Jellybelly”) as it is beautiful (“Take Me Down,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “1979,” “Cupid De Locke,” “Thirty-Three,” and “Farewell and Goodnight”) and still sounds as immediate and original as it did a decade ago. www.smashingpumpkins.comt
Drag, & Discussions
‘Heartbreak High’ Season 3
by Laura Moreno
“Heartbreak High,” an Australian teen dramedy, returns for its recently released third and final season on Netflix. Revitalized for a new generation, this eight-episode season (all dropped at once) definitely maintains the frenetic energy for its farewell run.
The successful series was created by Hannah Carroll Chapman, who won an AACTA Award for Best Screenplay and wrote “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009) and “Iron Man 2” (2010). It features Hartley High’s graduating class as they face the scary transition into adulthood.
Messy, loud, and emotional, the series has a musical soundtrack to match. The chaotic, high-octane energy may be a bit much for some, as the trailer reveals. But despite this, I was pleasantly surprised to find the series keeps viewers engaged by featuring a change of pace, stunning visuals, truly funny humor, and captivating contemporary story lines.
Aussie kids
The first two seasons established
“Heartbreak High” as an honest portrayal of today’s Australian youth. Season 1 (released in 2022) introduced Amerie (Ayesha Madon) and her social
redemption after being ostracized. Season 2 (2023) deepened the character development and introduced more nuanced stories of class, race, and sexuality. Now the current Season 3 raises the stakes by its willingness to take on difficult subjects without moralizing. In particular, it tackles issues including the complexities of non-binary identity, as well as the intersection of trans identity and immigrant family expectations.
Perhaps most powerfully, Quinni’s story arc centers on autistic queer representation as well as a leadership role she has taken as team captain. The role resonates with fans as actress Chloe Hayden is autistic herself. The series examines how neurodiversity intersects with sexuality in ways rarely ever seen on screen.
Another unusual story arc prominently featured is that characters face real-world repercussions for their actions, from legal troubles to social fallout, demonstrating that the hardest lessons are often learned outside the classroom.
To be specific, the core plot revolves around the Carnival Ride Button Pusher, an unknown person who actually turned the ride on, accidentally injuring someone, leaving the group paranoid and desperate to keep their involvement a secret. The
Asher Yasbincek (Harper).
Universal themes & local culture
Unlike many teen shows that could be set anywhere, “Heartbreak High” is unapologetically Australian. Filled with local slang and its distinctly Australian humor served up with deadpan delivery and brutally honesty, its
humor is one of the show’s biggest strengths. Filled with authentic teen humor, the comedy is deeply character-driven for the most part.
If you’re not Australian and want the full experience, keep the subtitles on; the Aussie slang in Season 3 fast and furious.
It should be noted, “Heartbreak High” worked hard to get its portrayal of Gen Z queerness right by consulting with LGBTQ+ organizations. In addition, the globally acclaimed series
features queer writers and actors to get the representation right, and it does feel deeply authentic.
The series has garnered critical praise worldwide and has racked up quite a list of Australian awards. It was also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
By featuring queer experiences without making them the sole defining characteristic of its characters, “Heartbreak High” creates space for a nuanced exploration of identity. Fans very much appreciate the approach.
Gen Z viewers (late teens to mid20s) as well as international audiences interested in Australian culture, those who enjoy contemporary teen dramas, and many Millennials who enjoyed the original “Heartbreak High” in the 1990s, are the core audience of the final season.
In sum, “Heartbreak High” Season 3 has redefined teen drama for the Gen Z era and is widely considered the best “teen” show currently running. Critics tend to agree this season doesn’t quite hit the lightning magic of Season 1. Nonetheless, it’s a satisfying close to a great reboot.t
“Heartbreak High” is now streaming on Netflix. www.netflix.com
School of Drag to commence at The Stud
by Jim Provenzano
Attention, aspiring drag queens.
Learn how to tuck, pluck, sashay and slay when The Stud accepts a limited class of newbies to be instructed by notable local drag celebrities.
The Stud, San Francisco’s oldest LGBTQ bar and a historic incubator of boundary-pushing drag, is proud to announce an open call for students to join its inaugural 2027 class of the Stud School of Drag. The 2026–2027 school year will begin in June with just 15 students selected to study the centuries-old folk art of drag under the guidance of some of the most influential drag performers in San Francisco, completely free of charge.
This first class of chosen students will be mentored by an extraordinary faculty of drag artists, including Peaches Christ, Glamamore, Florida Elizabeth Mann, Grace Towers, Nicki Jizz, Fauxnique, Leigh Crow, Tito Soto, Mudd the Two Spirit, Vanilla Meringue, Becky Motorlodge, Katya Smirnoff Sky, Laundra Tyme, and Glamputee.
Headmistress of the new school is former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant and acclaimed political activist Honey Mahogany. A previous version of the school was announced in 2023, with classes set at CounterPulse, but that was postponed. The revived schedule of classes will all take place at the bar.
The faculty
“I fell in love with drag here at the Stud,” said Mahogany in a press statement. “Up until then, I thought drag was just about being campy and female impersonation. But the Stud taught me that drag can be political, dark, scary, weird, emotional and so much more.
I’m excited to bring this art form to a new generation as the first Stud School of Drag Headmistress.”
Headmistress Mahogany will be
joined by Dean of Student Life, Professor Eve Swallows and Dean of Academic Excellence, Professor Queen Curveball.
The program offers a comprehensive curriculum covering the history of drag, character development, makeup, costuming, lip-syncing, and performance techniques. Workshops will be led by visiting professors once a month with monthly performance revues, open to the public, for students to show off their progress. This will be no quick operation. More than a dozen workshops are required through next year with a final showcase set for March 2027.
Open to anyone over the age of 21, the Stud School of Drag encourages applicants of all genders, sexualities and walks of life. Applicants should have little to no prior background in drag, but have a willingness to show up, take risks, and fully commit to the process.
The Stud is one of the oldest drag venues in the United States and is
widely considered one of the most influential drag venues in modern history. When the Stud opened in 1966 at its former location, most drag bars were focused on female imperson-
ation and gender illusion like Finocchio’s. But the Stud was an epicenter for the irreverent, political, and just plain weird drag that San Francisco has become famous for today.
“Drag is an art form that’s been around for all of recorded history,” said Stud Collective co-founder Nate Allbee. “From the Greeks to Shakespeare, as long as there have been live performance, there has been drag. It’s a folk art passed down as an oral tradition from drag mother to drag daughter. The Stud is proud of the part we’ve played in drag history and we are excited to be part of drag’s future.”
“Drag belongs to everyone. There is a long history of trans folks in drag, cis women as drag kings and drag queens, even cis straight men are part of San Francisco’s drag legacy and community. We want to hear from parents with kids, elders who just never found the time, and young people looking for their chance to get on stage,” said Mahogany. “If you can serve, The Stud wants you.”
The deadline for applications is May 31.t
Applications for the inaugural 2027 class are now open at www.studsf.com/schoolofdrag
by Jim Provenzano
We continue our 55th
talented cast includes Ayesha Madon (Amerie), James Majoos (Darren), Chloe Hayden (Quinni), and
Ayesha Madon, James Majoos and Chloe Hayden in ‘Heartbreak High’
t Events Listings >>
that we knew. It was just staggering, so it really kind of stemmed from there.”
She did a lot of benefit shows for hospices, helping to raise funds so that people who were sick could pay their rent and get their medication.
“Because the government wasn’t doing anything to help them,” Wash said. “Everybody took it upon themselves where they lived to help each other out as much as they could. That’s how a lot of organizations got started, because the government wasn’t giving anyone any kind of money to help take care of people who had HIV and AIDS. I remember doing a lot of benefits, and I think a lot of these organizations are still around after all these years. Which is great, and although I think we’ve come a long way, there’s still work that probably needs to be done to continue, to make sure anybody that has HIV and AIDS can get the treatment and medication that they need to survive.”
These days Wash doesn’t do as many
benefits as she used to, but if someone calls and she’s available, she’ll do it.
“If we’re going to be on this earth, we need to be able to help people in some capacity,” she said. “You need to
help somebody, somewhere, that may need your help. I think it’s our duty as human beings to be able to help one another as best you can when you can.”
Ladies of Disco, a show she produces with her partner James Washington. They have recorded a few singles and have done shows in various cities. It’s a rotating line-up, with different ladies
coming in to do the show, such as Linda Clifford, Thelma Houston, and Evelyn Champagne King, among others.
“It’s been a fun thing to do,” said Wash.
Wash said that when she’s at the Milk Club Gayla she’ll say a few words, but probably won’t sing.
“I’m the kind of person that keeps my head down and works and am not necessarily looking for an award,” she said. “Just doing the work as a human being, trying to live as best as I can in the capacity of helping people where I can and when I can. That’s basically it. But I appreciate it, and it does stem all the way back to the gay community. They were right there with us.”t
concert 9pm. $150 for dinner and awards, $30 for concert. milkclubgayla.org instagram.com/themarthawash
Today, Wash tours with The First
Trixxie Carr and Samuel del Rosario in ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ @ NCTC
Martha Wash, Sylvester and Izora Rhodes Armstead at the Hammersmith Odeon, London.
Max Redfern
Lois Tema
ENDORSEMENTS
FEDERAL CANDIDATES
Scott Wiener, US Representative, D11
Kevin Mullin, US Representative, D15
STATE AND REGIONAL CANDIDATES
Xavier Becerra, Governor
Fiona Ma, Lieutenant Governor
Shirley Weber, Secretary of State
Malia Cohen, Controller
Eleni Kounalakis, Treasurer
Rob Bonta, Attorney General
No Position, Insurance Commissioner
No Endorsement, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Sally Lieber, Board of Equalization Member, District 2
Matt Haney, State Assemblymember, District 17
Catherine Stefani, State Assemblymember, District 19
LOCAL CANDIDATES
Phil Kim, Board of Education
Stephen Sherrill, Board of Supervisors, District 2
Alan Wong, Board of Supervisors, District 4
Phoebe Maffei, Superior Court Judge, Seat 16
LOCAL BALLOT MEASURES
YES A – Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond
YES B – Lifetime Term Limits for Mayor and Members of the Board of Supervisors
NO C – Decreases to Business Taxes
NO D – Increases to Business Tax Based on Comparison of Top Executive’s Pay to Employees’ Pay on or before June 2!
