Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, released the following statement from Executive Director Tony Hoang in response to Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) introducing H.R. 2640, the Border Security and Enforcement Act of 2023, which would make it much harder for immigrants to seek asylum in the US and reinstate previous provisions enforced during the Trump Administration:
“The United States has always served as a beacon of hope for immigrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families, including those who are LGBTQ+. Until our nation has a just and functional immigration system, we do not have full and lasting LGBTQ+ equality. Undocumented LGBTQ+ people and those seeking asylum face tremendous negative effects on their social well-being for being members of two marginalized groups.
Many seeking asylum do so because they are fleeing violence or persecution in their countries of origin. As we’ve seen recently in places like Uganda and Iran, LGBTQ+ people face significant danger in other parts of the world simply because of who they are or who they love. Representative McClintock’s bill seeks only to further stigmatize immigrant communities, a population already vulnerable to harassment and discrimination, and he should be ashamed for contributing to anti-immigrant narratives.
Equality California will continue our efforts to educate about the compounded disparities that LGBTQ+ immigrants and undocumented people face, and we urge the House and Senate to vote down this dangerous legislation.”
H.R. 2640 would aggressively reduce the number of people eligible for asylum by expanding a series of felonies and misdemeanors that would make most ineligible for asylum protections. It would also mandate detention for family units crossing the border without prior authorization for the duration of their legal process, including detention for minors. Additionally, the bill would mandate asylum requests be conducted at ports of entry, raise penalties for visa overstays, and crack down on immigrant workers.
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
With drag shows and performers under attack around the nation, the LGBTQ-friendly city of Palm Springs, Calif., has taken a stand for them.
Greater Palm Springs Pride has announced that the theme for Pride Week, to be held in November, will be “Drag Now. Drag Forever,” and that the city will be a sanctuary for drag and all forms of self-expression.
“Greater Palm Springs Pride declares Palm Springs, the Mother Church for Drag in the Coachella Valley, supports drag queens, kings, drag mothers, and baby queens regardless of their realness, flawlessness, disheveled presentation, or fierceness,” reads a press release from the group. “Drag is not a crime. Drag is art. Drag is entertainment and has existed for hundreds of years and is part of everyday life.”
“‘Drag Now. Drag Forever’ is a theme that calls on the community to unite and support the drag community,” Palm Springs Pride President and CEO Ron deHarte said in the release, issued Tuesday along with a proclamation. “Drag is not a crime. Our country has a rich history of drag as an artistic expression, standard of activism, and the backbone of fundraising in the community. We call on everyone to support the drag community and fight all anti-LGBTQ+ bills that threaten the freedom and equality of all.”
“Facing a legislative landscape of increased attacks on members of the LGBTQ+ community coupled with physical violence, we must gather to support one another and be unified against fear and intimidation,” he added. “The fight for freedom continues.”
The primary Palm Springs Pride activities, including a parade and festival, will be held November 3-5 in the city’s downtown area. It will be the 37th annual celebration. Pride Week is the largest annual event in Palm Springs and the largest multiday gathering of LGBTQ+ people in Southern California’s Coachella Valley. In 2022, official Pride Week events attracted 200,000 attendees and generated a $38 million direct economic impact for area hotels, shops, restaurants, and other local businesses, according to the release.
Mission Local is informed that the San Francisco Police Department early this morning made an arrest in the April 4 killing of tech executive Bob Lee, following an operation undertaken outside the city’s borders. The alleged killer also works in tech and is a man Lee purportedly knew.
We are told that police today were dispatched to Emeryville with a warrant to arrest a man named Nima Momeni. The name and Emeryville address SFPD officers traveled to correspond with this man, the owner of a company called Expand IT.
Multiple police sources have described the predawn knifing last week, which left the 43-year-old Lee dead in a deserted section of downtown San Francisco, as neither a robbery attempt nor a random attack.
Rather, Lee and Momeni were portrayed by police as being familiar with one another. In the wee hours of April 4, they were purportedly driving together through downtown San Francisco in a car registered to the suspect.
Some manner of confrontation allegedly commenced while both men were in the vehicle, and potentially continued after Lee exited the car. Police allege that Momeni stabbed Lee multiple times with a knife that was recovered not far from the spot on the 300 block of Main Street to which officers initially responded.
This scenario would explain, in part, why Lee was walking through a portion of Main Street in which there is little to no foot traffic at 2:30 a.m. That was one of several incongruous circumstances surrounding Lee’s violent death, which law-enforcement sources, from the get-go felt made it far from a straightforward or random crime.
Nevertheless, some of Lee’s fellow tech luminaries and a chorus of other influential voices portrayed this killing as part and parcel of a city awash in violent crime and on a descent into further chaos. While Lee is one of a dozen homicide victims in San Francisco this year, his is the only killing that has garnered national coverage — or, in most cases, even cursory local coverage.
San Francisco’s other homicide victims in 2023 are Gavin Boston, 40; Irving Sanchez-Morales, 28; Carlos Romero Flores, 29; Maxwell Maltzman, 18; Demario Lockett, 44; Maxwell Mason, 29; Humberto Avila, 46; Gregory McFarland Jr, 36; Kareem Sims, 43; Debra Lynn Hord, 57; and Jermaine Reeves, 52.
San Francisco is home to much in the way of visible public misery, unnerving street behavior and overt drug use. Its property crime rate has long been high, and the police clearance rate for property crimes has long been minimal. But the city’s violent crime rate is at a near-historic low, and is lower than most mid-to-large-sized cities.
Today’s arrest would appear to undermine the premise that Lee’s violent death was due to street conditions in San Francisco. If the police do have their man, this was not a robbery gone bad nor a motiveless assault by some random attacker, but an alleged grievance between men who knew one another, which the suspect purportedly escalated into a lethal conflict.
Lee’s death, however, was packaged in the media and on social media into a highlight reel of recent San Francisco misfortunes and crimes: large groups of young people brawling at Stonestown; the abrupt closure of the mid-market Whole Foods, leaving San Franciscans just eight other Whole Foods within city limits; the severe beating of former fire commissioner Don Carmignani in the Marina District, allegedly by belligerent homeless people — it all adds up to a feeling of a city coming undone.
This manner of coverage, however, does not capture the actual lived experience of the vast majority of San Franciscans. It also omits potentially mitigating details of the individual events. Carmignani, for instance, was brutally struck in the head with a metal rod and hospitalized. But the lawyer for his alleged attacker claims that the former fire commissioner first pepper-sprayed the homeless man accused of beating him — which certainly would color this incident.
Of note, police sources say that a series of homeless people had previously been pepper-sprayed in the Marina District prior to this instance.
The arrest in the Lee case is a breaking story. We will update or follow this article as soon as possible.
The high-stakes legal battle over a widely used abortion pill has left some blue states busily stockpiling the medication, in anticipation of a time when it could no longer be easily accessible.
The big picture: At least two states say they are creating reserves of mifepristone to continue enabling access to the two-pill regimen for medication abortion that’s at the center of the legal battle. Two others are focusing on the other pill, whose availability isn’t threatened, to offer an alternative.
Misoprostol can be used on its own to terminate a pregnancy, but the method is slightly less effective. The combination regimen is considered the gold standard by health providers.
Driving the news: Last week, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked lower court rulings that put restrictions on the use of mifepristone that the Food and Drug Administration had lifted over the years, including a ban on teleprescribing.
Mifepristone is still available without those limitationsuntil at least Wednesday while anti-abortion groups respond.
But courts have yet to settle anti-abortion groups challenge to the FDA’s overall authorization, and the case could well wind up at the high court again.
What’s happening: The states that have said are stockpiling abortion pills have laws protecting abortion access.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the state “secured an emergency stockpile” of up to 2 million doses of misoprostol.
MassachusettsGov. Maura Healey (D) requested the University of Massachusetts purchase around 15,000 doses of mifepristone and has directed individual health providers to do so as well, which the state says will “ensure sufficient coverage … for more than a year.”
The state will financially support any provider by paying for the doses.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) stockpiled 150,000 doses of misoprostol, a projected five-year supply, “to meet anticipated needs.”
In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) purchased a three-year supply of mifepristone through the state’s Department of Corrections, which has a pharmacy license.
Dispensing mifepristone in Washington at the moment is also protected by a separate federal ruling that prohibits the FDA from rolling back access to the drug.
State of play: The Supreme Court could reinstate the restrictions or even scrap the FDA’s approval of the drug, which could cut off access in Massachusetts and Washington state.
If the FDA’s authorization is revoked, it’s possible that providing mifepristone would violate the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act “because that would cause the introduction of an unapproved drug into interstate commerce,” said Delia Deschaine, an attorney at Epstein Becker Green specializing in FDA regulatory matters.
However, the Justice Department is responsible for enforcing federal law and has argued that mifepristone is safe and effective. That makes it unlikely that the federal government would enforce the law against providers or pharmacies that are prescribing or dispensing mifepristone, even if it’s technically unapproved, Deschaine added.
Yes, but: States would still be subject to the restrictions if they take effect after Wednesday, particularly the in-person prescribing and dispensing requirement.
California, with its exceptionally high LGBTQ+ populations and progressive economic, educational and social policies, was rated by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) as the one of the top 15 states with policies and resources geared toward LGBTQ+ support.
House Digest reported the top cities in California with the highest scores from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Municipal Equality Index, which assesses cities based on non-discriminatory laws, employment policies, municipal services, hate crime rates and political leadership.
San Francisco
Nearly 6.7% of the San Francisco population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, totaling almost a quarter of a million people, according to state records in 2021, making the city more accepting and progressive regarding LGBTQ+ issues.
According to the HRC, San Francisco has a perfect score in the Municipal Equality Index with high marks in non-discriminatory public and workplace laws, all-gender facilities and LGBTQ+ city services.
Irvine
Between Los and Angeles and San Diego is Irvine, known as one of the safest cities in the U.S. with the lowest rate of violent crime per capita of any other city with a 250,000 or higher population, according to the city of Irvine and House Digest.
The Irvine region is home to “Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Orange County,” a national organization that support and provides resources for non-cis and non-heterosexual individuals, giving the city a perfect 100 score on the Municipal Equality Index report.
Santa Monica
Another city with a perfect score from the HRC, Santa Monica hosts a number of local events and organizations that support the LGBTQ+ community. Many of the cities widely known gay bars and piers are a safe haven for non-conforming individuals.
Cathedral City
With a modest number of 55,000 people, Cathedral City is a smaller city, but the residents lean toward more progressive views. Close to a big city, but not quite a big city, Cathedral City has a crime rate that falls beneath the country and state average, making it a safe place to live.
Cathedral City also rated perfectly on the Municipal Equality Index with three out of council members who are openly gay, and California’s first pride event of the year bringing in at least 10,000 attendees.
San Jose
Not only is San Jose a happy place to live, but the city also has a welcoming LGBTQ_ community and is considered “under the radar” since its queer acceptance programs aren’t as publicized as the other California cities. San Jose scored a 97 near-perfect score from HRC.
Long Beach
House Digest reported that Long Beach has spent over 10 consecutive years on the list of best LGBTQ+ cities, reaching a score of 100 and 11 bonus points on the HRC Municipal Equality Index. Long Beach boasts passing non-discriminatory laws and resources in the workplace in support of the LGBTQ+ individuals who reside here.
West Hollywood
Over 40% of the West Hollywood population identifies as non-heterosexual or non-cis, according to Travel Gay. The city is lined with 25 gay bars and clubs, making every corner a pit stop for support.
Los Angeles
Known for its multicultural population, Los Angeles has three neighborhoods with strong communities for closeted and openly gay people. LA welcomed a 100 HRC score for its LGBTQ+ resources.
Palm Springs
Unique to Palm Springs is its common association for retirement, specifically for LGBTQ+ identifying people. Around 50% of residents over the age of 55 identify as non-hetero or non-cis, making it the perfect location for retirees or people seeking a peaceful and leisurely existence, according to House Digest. Palm Springs received a perfect HRC score for its political, economic and educational policies.
San Diego
Outdoor enthusiasts look to San Diego for natural beauty, but the city is also home to a rich cultural scene including art galleries, museums, botanical gardens, breweries and more. Nearly 8.8% of residents identify as LGBTQ+ within the county, making it an inclusive place to live. San Diego was given a perfect score on the Municipal Equality Index.
In a huge show of defiance protesting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation sweeping the country, including Tennessee’s ban on public drag performance, thousands of drag queens and their allies took to the streets this weekend in back-to-back marches through San Francisco and West Hollywood.
“If there’s one thing that I have learned over 36 years,” out state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) shared with the crowd at San Francisco’s Drag Up! Fight Back! march on Saturday, it’s “don’t mess with drag queens!”.
On Easter Sunday in West Hollywood, thousands gathered for a rally in West Hollywood Park organized by the Los Angeles LGBT Center and 40 other LGBTQ+ groups before marching down Santa Monica Boulevard.
“This truly is everything to many people — to Black trans women, to trans men, to non-binary and gender non-conforming, this is everything,” RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Kerri Colby told the crowd in West Hollywood from the rally stage.
“This is not just, this is not just a fun little moment to gather and meet with friends,” she said. “This is our life!”
She called the moment “beautiful,” “powerful,” and “the start of something revolutionary.”
Colby was joined by fellow Drag Race alum Honey Davenport for a performance after speeches by West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne (D), LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath (D), and LA LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendoner.
San Francisco’s march was organized by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the People’s March, Oasis, the SF Democratic Party, and the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and took protesters down Market Street from City Hall to Union Square, where Katya Smirnoff-Skyy led a Drag Story Hour, and a long list of drag royalty performed, including D’Arcy Drollinger, Landa Lakes, Mudd the Two-Spirit, Florida Man, and Juanita MORE!
Sister Roma of Perpetual Indulgence told NBC News: “I am here because drag is not a crime, and trans rights are human rights.”
“The LGBTQ community will not be silenced,” she said. “We will not be erased, and we will not be criminalized.”
San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman (D) praised the organizations behind the event. “Amazing turnout today – thank you to the organizers. DRAG UP! FIGHT BACK! 🏳️🌈”
Wiener lamented from the rally stage in San Francisco, “In 1987, if you had said that in 2023 we would still have to be arguing about whether we have a right to exist, that they would still be calling us pedophiles and predators and groomers — if you had told me that, I would have said, ‘There’s no way that would be happening.’ But that is what’s happening. This is a huge threat to our community.”
“Let’s be clear why they’re doing this,” Wiener said, calling out far-right legislators and their enablers. “They don’t want to talk about the fact that children are getting shot and killed in classrooms in this country. They don’t want to talk about real issues.”
Wiener praised trans kids for being “so damn brave” just for being who they are.
Drag Up! Fight Back! organizer Joanie Juster told NBC: “There has been so much anti-trans, anti-drag legislation passed. It’s creating a dangerous atmosphere of hate and potential violence.”
“If it wasn’t clear already, we hope it is now,” Drag March LA organizers said in a statement before the event. “This is a crucial moment for our community.”
Saturday, April 8, 2023 11:00 AM–1:00 PM San Francisco City Hall
Join Sister Roma, Alex U. Inn, D’Arcy Drollinger, Honey Mahogany, and many more for a rally, march, and live show in protest of recent anti-drag and anti-trans legislation. Legislation has been proposed and passed in states nationwide, targeting gender-affirming care, drag performers, and queer culture. As a result, our stories are being banned from public libraries, our trans kids and their parents are being criminalized, and any acknowledgment of our existence is being outlawed in classrooms. This event is organized by The People’s March, Oasis, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and the San Francisco Democratic Party.
Saturday, April 8, 2023 1:00–5:00 PM 3021 Irwin Street Vallejo, CA 94591
A year after an SUV lost its brakes and blasted through the rear wall of the archive, the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive (LLTA) has now reopened! Join them for an open house to celebrate and explore the archives. LLTA is a sponsored project of the GLBT Historical Society.
Friday, April 21, 2023 6:30–9:00 p.m. PDT In-person program $10.00 | Free for members
This event celebrates the launch of a new exhibition, “Doris Fish: Ego as Artform.” The program will include remarks from curator Ms. Bob Davis and light refreshments. The exhibition showcases the art and artifacts of the late drag artist Doris Fish (1952-1991), including pieces from her personal and professional life.
Friday, April 28, 2023 6:00–7:30 p.m. PDT In-person program $5.00 | Free for members
In WHO DOES THAT BITCH THINK SHE IS: Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag, author Craig Seligman dives into the short but abundant life of Doris Fish (born Philip Mills in 1952). In this conversation with Ms. Bob Davis, founder and director of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive and curator of our new exhibition, Doris Fish: Ego as Artform, Seligman will discuss the life of this outrageous performer and artist and how we can reflect on Doris Fish’s legacy as a guide and inspiration in the fight against current conservative backlash against drag.
Bob Lee, a technology executive who founded the mobile payment company Cash App and previously worked at Square, died Tuesday after he was stabbed near downtown San Francisco, according to his family and police.
San Francisco police said officers responded to a report of a stabbing around 2:35 a.m. Tuesday. The officers found Robert Lee, 43, with apparent stab wounds. He was taken to a hospital and died of his injuries, police said.
Police Chief Bill Scott said in a statement Wednesday night that the investigation is in its early stages and he called it a horrific crime.
The incident is under investigation by the police department’s homicide detail, the department said.
Bob Lee had been working as the chief product officer of the cryptocurrency company MobileCoin. He was previously chief technology officer of Square (now known as Block), a financial technology start-up co-founded by the former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey.
Lee went on to create Cash App, a money transfer service.
“Bobby worked harder than anyone and was the smartest person I have ever known. He will be missed by all those that knew him,” his father, Richard Lee, said in a Facebook post, which was accompanied by a news article about the stabbing. “Thank you to those who have reached out in support.”
The father and son had been living in Miami since October after moving from California, Richard Lee said in the post. They had grown especially close after Bob Lee’s mother died in 2019. It wasn’t immediately clear why Lee was back in the Bay Area.
“I’m so saddened and disheartened to lose my brother,” Tim Oliver Lee wrote on Facebook. “He really was the best of us. I was so fortunate to grow up with him, and I feel like I’ve lost part of myself.”
In a statement Wednesday, Joshua Goldbard, the founder and CEO of MobileCoin, said Bob Lee “passed away yesterday” and praised his business acumen. He did not specify Lee’s cause of death.
“Bob was a dynamo, a force of nature. Bob was the genuine article,” Goldbard said. “He was made for the world that is being born right now, he was a child of dreams, and whatever he imagined, no matter how crazy, he made real.”
Goldbard said in a Twitter thread that Lee was “like a brother to me,” and he praised Lee as a “brilliant” visionary with a “kaleidoscopic” mind.
The World Health Organization confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday that Lee offered his “support and expertise” during the pandemic, saying in a statement that “Bob built a large part of the server for the WHO Covid-19 App.”
Lee also was an investor in Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture, as well as other tech firms, such as the social audio app Clubhouse, according to his LinkedIn profile. He used the handle “crazybob” for his LinkedIn and Twitter pages.
Scott, the police chief, offered his condolences Wednesday night to Lee’s family and friends.
“There is no place for this kind of violent crime against anyone in our city,” Scott said in the statement. “I want to assure everyone that our investigators are working tirelessly to make an arrest and bring justice to Mr. Lee and his loved ones, just as we try to do on every homicide that occurs in our city.”
The fatal stabbing could intensify scrutiny of public safety issues in San Francisco, where residents and business owners have grown increasingly concerned about violent crimes and thefts. Mayor London Breed has pledged to crack down on crime.
San Francisco has had 12 homicides since the beginning of the year, according to data compiled by the police department. In the same period last year, it had 10 homicides.
Lee’s family, friends and colleagues paid tribute to him.
Krista Lee called her former husband “the most incredible and beautiful human being” and said that “he was everyone’s best friend.”
They had two children, Damien, 17, and Scout, 14. Damien Lee said his father was a down-to-earth person who always listened.
“He was such a special person in this world. I’m so sad that he left us so early,” Damien Lee said in a statement.
In a statement shared by her mother, Scout Lee said she was “devastated that somebody would be so cruel to take away my father’s life.”
“He was the best man and an even better father, if you ask anyone who knew him they’d always say that he was the best and they would always have some amazing story to share about their experiences with him,” she said.
“I will forever miss my dad and be shattered by his death because he was not only my father but one of my best friends,” she said later in the statement.
The former MMA fighter Jake Shields remembered him as a “loyal friend.” In a response to one of Shields’ tweets, Musk said he was “very sorry” to learn of Lee’s death.
Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, called Lee’s death “heartbreaking” on the social media platform Nostr. “Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App,” Dorsey wrote.
Joshua Bloch, a friend who worked with Lee at Google in the late 2000s, remembered him as a magnetic person who “always had a huge smile on his face” and “constantly lived life to the fullest.”
In a phone interview Wednesday, Bloch recalled that Lee was a tech “autodidact” who could seemingly “do anything he wanted,” adding, “I don’t think he realized how special he was.”
“People always say nice things about the dead,” Bloch said, “but in this case, I would say the exact same things if he were still alive. He was remarkable.”
Stefan Grygelko, better known as his drag persona Heklina, has died, his longtime friend Joshua Grannell (Peaches Christ) wrote on Facebook April 3.
The two were in London where they were appearing in the “Mommie Queerest” show there, Grannell wrote, adding that he had gone to pick up Heklina that day.
“I do not know the cause of death yet,” Grannell wrote. “I know this is shocking news and I am beyond stunned, but I wanted to let folks know what has happened. Heklina is not just my best friend, but a beloved icon of our community.”
The news shocked and saddened his friends back in San Francisco, with fellow drag queen Sister Roma writing on their Twitter account that she was “absolutely devastated” to learn of the passing of his friend and collaborator for two-plus decades.
“She is one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. This is a nightmare,” wrote Roma, a member of the drag philanthropy group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, in a tweet.
Oasis, the LGBTQ nightclub in which Heklina was once a part-owner, expressed its sadness and said it would open at 4 p.m. Monday.
“We are shocked and devastated to learn of the passing of Heklina today,” the club wrote. “Oasis will be open at 4 p.m. for drinks, stories, and community, if you’d like to come by. Sending love to all.”
Gay former state assemblymember Tom Ammiano told the B.A.R. he will miss the drag artist.
“A true professional [and] with drag under attack her passing is especially wounding,” wrote Ammiano, who also served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and school board. “As an aside, she bartended at events for folks with special needs at the Oasis [and] as a former special education teacher, I loved her for that.”
As Heklina, Grygelko was known for founding the old Trannyshack drag show in 1996 at the old Stud bar. (The name of the show was later changed to “Mother.”)
At the start of each Trannyshack, San Francisco’s outlandish, no-holds-barred Tuesday night drag show, a snippet of the old “Muppet Show” theme music warned “it’s a kind of torture, to have to watch the show,” as the Bay Area Reporter reported in 2008.
The joke belied the fact that the performances were more than just boys in dresses lip-synching to pop ballads or camp classics. The weekly shenanigans often masked what in reality was a uniquely queer riff on the political, social, racial, and gender controversies of the day.
Heklina invited not just drag queens — many of whom went on to become stars in their own right — but also female performers, known as faux queens, and drag kings to share her stage. By doing so, Heklina threw out the rulebook on what it meant to be a drag performer.
Adriana Roberts, a trans woman and an early Trannyshack performer, penned a tribute on Facebook.
“She was a Master Class in successful Nightlife Production: wrangling order from chaos, managing a stage, managing a crowd, putting down hecklers, assembling trusted crews, booking budding queens, promoting events, following one’s heart — but also always being aware of what actually sells,” Roberts wrote. “And she did it all with snark, wit, and balance for over 25 years.”
Roberts, a former production designer at the B.A.R., wrote, “Coming from a punk rock ethos, she created a space that welcomed performers from across the gender spectrum, at a time when drag was VERY codified into TIRED (her words) tropes of men in sequined gowns doing diva lip-syncs. None of us realized it at the time, but she helped revolutionize the concept of what drag could be, breaking its mold years before the rest of the world caught on.”
As the B.A.R. noted in a March 2022 article, since the early 1990s, Heklina had been a mainstay in Bay Area queer nightlife. From the first irreverent drag nights at The Stud, to Trannyshack’s expansion at DNA Lounge that included annual contests, Heklina has often hosted the most prominent drag and nightlife events which included her own numbers.
In 2015, along with D’Arcy Drollinger and other investors, Heklina opened Oasis in South of Market; the same building that once housed the original Oasis. The new nightclub has become popular for not only drag shows and DJed dance nights, but comic plays and musicals, cabaret concerts and community fundraisers. Heklina later sold her share of Oasis ownership and moved to Palm Springs, while still keeping a foothold in the Bay Area’s nightlife scene.
And, of course, Heklina was known for her deadpan line delivery as Dorothy (Bea Arthur’s character) in stage productions of episodes of the classic sitcom “The Golden Girls.” The long-running show became an annual holiday tradition in San Francisco.
State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) issued the following statement Monday afternoon:
“I am absolutely devastated. Heklina was an icon in the truest sense — funny, caring, outrageous, and brave. I first saw Heklina perform when I was a young gay man in the 1990s, new to San Francisco. Over the years, I got to know her and helped her find a space for Oasis. I’ve rarely worked with someone as fierce, creative, and dedicated.
“Heklina created events and community spaces that spun glitter and giant wigs and raucous jokes into a feeling of home. She was fiercely outspoken and always stood up for her friends and community. She was the soul of San Francisco, and it’s hard to imagine the city without her.
“Heklina was also a staunch defender of drag — which is under extreme attack right now — and created opportunities for young drag queens to find their space. While we grieve, we must honor her memory by remembering the joy she brought us and the importance of the art form to which she dedicated her life.”
Nguyen Pham, Board President of San Francisco Pride said in an emailed statement:
“Personally, I’ve been honored and grateful to have engaged with Heklina directly, as well as attended her spectacularly memorable productions, numerous times over the years. I know that her unique brand of radically inclusive drag art has evoked so much pure joy from countless community members and allies for many generations. She was unstoppable and a master without parallel.”
New Report by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research highlights the connection between lack of affordable housing, delayed access to healthcare and food insecurity
A new report published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research highlights the strong connection between the lack of affordable housing and residents’ access to health care in California.
The study, based on responses to the 2021 California Health Interview Survey, reveals that 1 in 10 adults in the state, or approximately 3 million people, faced difficulties in paying for housing this year. Renters, in particular, were more vulnerable, with 18.6% reporting struggles to pay their landlords, compared to only 5% of homeowners who faced similar difficulties. Housing instability was also an issue for 4.4% of California adults.
The report indicates that these factors had a negative impact on people’s use of healthcare resources, with 33.6% of adults who experienced housing affordability issues delaying needed medical care. Additionally, 15.5% of adults who struggled to afford housing reported not having health insurance, compared to 6.8% of those who did not experience challenges with housing costs. Sean Tan, a senior public administration analyst at the center, explains that housing issues are public health issues because of how they affect people’s overall health and well-being. He notes that people struggling to pay for housing tend to cut back on health care and basic necessities, leading to poorer health outcomes.
The report also reveals disparities among different groups, with noncitizen residents, Black or African American adults, and Latinos being more likely to struggle with housing costs than white adults. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults and transgender or gender-nonconforming adults also reported higher rates of difficulty paying for housing.
“There is an urgent need to address the issue of housing affordability in California,” said Ninez Ponce, director of the center and principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey. “State representatives and policymakers must prioritize California’s marginalized communities, who are struggling to gain access to basic human needs.”
The authors of the report suggest that addressing the issue of housing affordability in California will require a combination of measures, including strengthening renter eviction protections, funding more affordable housing developments, and eliminating barriers to building affordable housing. Ninez Ponce, the director of the center and principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey, emphasizes the need to prioritize California’s marginalized communities, who are struggling to gain access to basic human needs.
