Dorothy Allison dies
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‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’
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1st mpox variant case reported in San Mateo County by Liz Highleyman
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he first U.S. case of a potentially more severe variant of mpox, known as clade I, has been reported in San Mateo County, the California Department of Public Health From San Mateo County announced Satur- San Mateo day, November 16. County Health Health officials con- Officer Dr. Kismet sider the risk to the Baldwin-Santana public to be low, but they are urging people at higher risk – including gay and bisexual men – to get vaccinated. San Francisco public health officials are also monitoring the situation. “At this time, there are no reported cases of clade I in San Francisco,” the department stated over the weekend. Both San Francisco and San Mateo health officials said the risk of clade I is low. See page 10 >>
Vol. 54 • No. 47 • November 21-27, 2024
SF trans community bracing for 2nd Trump administration by John Ferrannini
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he defiance was as palpable as the crisp air on the steps outside San Francisco City Hall November 18 as members of the city’s transgender and allied communities gathered to celebrate Transgender Immigrants Day. After all, it’s only been two weeks since the election of Donald Trump to a second term as U.S. president – following a campaign in which rolling back trans rights was a major theme. “We have got your back,” said Honey Mahogany, a Black queer trans person who is the director of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives. “The Office of Trans Initiatives is here to serve, here to support you, and here to ensure that here, in California, we are going to Trump-proof this state.” Trans leaders want the community to know they aren’t helpless – especially in more accepting parts of the country like San Francisco – and they also want to provide information about how people can prepare for January 20, when Trump is inaugurated as the 47th president.
Trump proposals
Trump’s campaign to return to the White House kicked off in 2022 on the heels of a resurgent antiLGBTQ backlash nationwide, particularly with regard to issues affecting the trans community. Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills – on issues ranging
John Ferrannini
Honey Mahogany, executive director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives, spoke at a November 18 rally to mark Transgender Immigrants Day.
from bathroom and sports access to identity documents and access to gender-affirming care – have been introduced in recent years, largely passing in conservative states. In the closing stretch of the 2024 campaign, a TV commercial with the tagline “Kamala is for they/ them, President Trump is for you” (referring to
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris) aired over 30,000 times and in every swing state. A Future Forward PAC analysis found it among the most effective of the campaign, swinging viewers 2.7% toward Trump after viewing it. See page 2 >>
Program connects San Francisco 2017 0 withMedia a Kit older adults visitors by Matthew S. Bajko
Courtesy the subject
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is making a pitch to be board president next year.
Mandelman eyes SF board presidency by Matthew S. Bajko
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nce again, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is eyeing the board presidency position. With a moderate majority set to be seated on the 11-member governing body in 2025 and his having the most seniority on it, he is making the case that he has the experience to lead the board during what will surely be a rocky two years. This is the third time Mandelman has put his name into contention for the powerful position at City Hall. He had sought it in 2022 and in 2019 but fell short of the six-vote threshold See page 10 >>
for what has been a key ingredient to their forming a close bond. Wiselogel, a gay resident of the city’s Tenderloin our years ago, during the height of the COneighborhood, had lost many of his friends during VID pandemic, Billy Wiselogel answered his the height of the AIDS epidemic. Over the years, phone to take a call from Sue Fulcher. A volhe found it difficult to make new ones, he told the unteer with Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, Bay Area Reporter during an interview in October San Francisco, Fulcher was checking in to see how politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and outside of an Asian restaurant at the Embarcadero he was handling the disruptions brought on by the international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting Center downtown where he and Fulcher were havglobal health crisis. team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles ing lunch during one of their routine get-togethers. Fulcher, 73, mentioned that one of the programs fromservices the team rst LGBT “I have afifriend, ” said Wiselogel when asked what offered by the nonprofit senior agency behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you impact covered. the biggest has been from meeting Fulcher. partnered older adults in San Francisco with visiHad the two not become acquainted, “It’d be awful,” tors. Because of stay-at-home orders in place at the Wiselogel said. “I would be lonely all the time.” time, the hangouts were being conducted virtually, Fulcher chimed in that she feels “very lucky to and Fulcher inquired if Wiselogel would be interhave met Billy through that very first phone call.” ested in being matched with someone. To which Wiselogel interjected, “Same here, I “We had just a delightful chat,” recalled Fulcher, Matthew S. Bajko feel very lucky. They don’t grow people like Sue a retired resident of the East Bay city of Pleasant LBFE volunteer Sue Fulcher, left, talks on trees.” Hill who had begun volunteering with the San with Billy Wiselogel, whom she has been The nonprofit agency is looking for more volFrancisco-based agency just as the COVID lockvisiting for four years. unteers like Fulcher to help provide services to downs went into effect in March 2020. LGBTQ seniors and other older adults in the city, Sensing an immediate rapport with Fulcher tow, as he also has served as a volunteer with LBFE. especially during the upcoming holidays. It offers a over the phone, Wiselogel asked if he could be “She just kept on calling me. It was the very worst variety of opportunities on Thanksgiving and durmatched with her. It was the start that summer of a time, I was really sick,” recalled Wiselogel, 72, who ing Christmas for those looking to volunteer over friendship which has been going strong ever since, was recovering from having the then-novel corothe coming weeks and, the agency hopes, throughdeveloped at first via phone calls up to three times navirus. “I realized I had a friend. I was so grateful, out the rest of the calendar year. a week then over monthly meals at a restaurant because I don’t know anybody.” somewhere in the city and different events they Fulcher told the B.A.R., “We laugh together,” as will attend, often with Fulcher’s husband, Bill, in See page 11 >>
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