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Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Vol. 52 • No. 47 • November 24-30, 2022
SF LGBTQs mourn victims in Colorado Springs shooting Matthew S. Bajko
Joel Engardio is the District 4 supervisor-elect on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
On 4th try, gay SF supe candidate Engardio wins by Matthew S. Bajko
I
t may have taken him four attempts, but gay former journalist Joel Engardio can now call himself a supervisor-elect. In a stunning upset, he has ousted from office District 4 San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar. His victory means, for the first time in the city’s history, three gay men will be serving as supervisors at the same time. It also marks the first time in a decade that there will be a trio of LGBTQ supervisors on the board. In a November 17 statement to the Bay Area Reporter, Engardio said his campaign “was a movement of parents and residents who helped me win this historic election. They want a city that works and I look forward to getting to work so we can create our best San Francisco.” He also thanked “the Department of Elections for a transparent and trustworthy counting process. I also want to thank every District 4 voter for participating in our democracy.” In a November 16 email to his supporters Engardio wrote, “It’s an honor to be given the opportunity to lead the next steps as a newly elected city supervisor.” He had lost his three prior bids for the Board of Supervisors’ District 7 seat. But his Lakeside neighborhood, where he shares a home with husband Lionel Hsu, was redistricted out of it this year and combined with the Sunset in Mar’s supervisorial district. It provided Engardio the opening to once again seek election to the board. He had continued to lay the groundwork for another supervisorial bid following his defeat in 2020. He took on leadership roles in community groups focused on public safety and crime issues. Engardio was also a vocal supporter of the successful recall campaigns earlier this year against three of the city’s elected school board members and former district attorney Chesa Boudin. See page 14 >>
Alex U. Inn speaks at a vigil for the Club Q victims that was held in San Francisco’s Castro LGBTQ district Sunday, November 20.
by Cynthia Laird
H
arvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco’s LGBTQ Castro district was filled with mourners Sunday night, grieving the loss of life following a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs Saturday that left five people dead. Officers were dispatched to Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub located at 3430 North Academy, at 11:57 p.m. Mountain time
our LGBTQ citizens. ... I am so terribly saddened and heartbroken.” The Colorado Springs Police Department released the names and pronoun preferences of the victims Monday. They are: Kelly Loving (she/her), Daniel Aston (he/him), Derrick Rump (he/him), Ashley Paugh (she/her), and Raymond Green Vance (he/him). Media reports indicated that Aston, 28, who was a bartender at the club, identified as a trans man and Loving, 40, was a trans woman. See page 10 >> Christopher Robledo
World AIDS Day draws attention to the epidemic by Eric Burkett
A
s they have for the past 34 years, AIDS activists along with LGBTQ and health organizations will be gathering at events around the Bay Area Thursday, December 1, to mark World AIDS Day. Founded by the World Health Organization and the joint United Nations Programme on AIDS, World AIDS Day seeks to call attention to the global epidemic that has killed 36 million people since it was first discovered 41 years ago in 1981. The WHO’s theme this year is “Equalize.” According to figures from WHO, HIV continues to be a major worldwide health crisis, having killed 40.1 million people, so far, and infecting 1.5 million people each year. “There were an estimated 38.4 million (33.943.8 million) people living with HIV at the end of 2021, two-thirds of whom (25.6 million) are in the WHO African Region,” WHO stated. In California, 138,000 people are living with HIV while, in San Francisco, there are an estimated 16,000 people living with the virus, one of the largest populations in the United States, according to San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The 31st anniversary of the National AIDS Memorial Grove will be celebrated at its Light in the Grove benefit Wednesday, November 30, at 6 p.m. at the tranquil dell in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Tickets are available online at EventBrite, (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lightin-the-grove-re-imagined-magical-experience2021-tickets-173866849427) starting at $300. This year, according to the grove’s website, “we are honoring our very own Cleve Jones with our Lifetime of Commitment Award as we gather
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Saturday, November 19, after receiving a 911 call seconds earlier, at 11:56:57 p.m., according to the release. “Multiple firearms were found at the scene,” according to the release from the police department. Authorities were still working to identify who the firearms belonged to, but stated that a long rifle was used during the shooting. Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez noted that Club Q “is a safe haven for
Rick Gerharter
Carolyn Kauli’i, right, discussed a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt remembering Marty Lynn Prairie, an Oglala Lakota Sioux from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, during a small, private ceremony on March 20, 2021 to commemorate National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in the National AIDS Memorial Grove. The grove will hold its annual World AIDS Day public ceremony December 1.
with our community on this beautiful evening in the Grove.” Jones, a gay man and longtime AIDS survivor, co-founded the AIDS Memorial Quilt that is now overseen by the AIDS grove. Since the quilt has returned to the Bay Area in early 2020 (after spending several years in Atlanta under the control of the now-dissolved Names Project), Jones has been more involved in the organization. In June, there was a massive display of quilt panels in San Francisco’s Golden Gate
Park that featured remarks by Jones and quilt co-founders Mike Smith, a gay man, and Gert McMullin, a straight ally. The following day, the public is invited to participate in the World AIDS Day National Observance, a two-hour event at the grove from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is free. More than 500 people are expected, according to the grove’s website, which also has information on Light in the Grove. (https://www.aidsmemorial.org/) See page 14 >>
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