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THE FIGHT SF / BAY AREA LGBTQ MONTHY MAGAZINE JULY 2019

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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 1


Please join us for an informative panel discussion:<br />

The San Francisco LGBT Center<br />

Saturday, May 11th, <strong>2019</strong> | 10:30am-1:00pm<br />

Those with Testes<br />

Saturday, August 17th, <strong>2019</strong> | 10:30am-1:00pm<br />

Those with Ovaries<br />

The <strong>LGBTQ</strong> Perinatal Wellness Center - Oakland<br />

Saturday, February 16th, <strong>2019</strong> | 10:30am-1:00pm<br />

Those with Ovaries<br />

Saturday, November 9th, <strong>2019</strong> | 10:30am-1:00pm<br />

Those with Testes<br />

To RSVP, please visit the RSC website, or the Eventbrite page:<br />

rscbayarea.eventbrite.com<br />

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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 3


<strong>THE</strong>CONTENTS<br />

ON <strong>THE</strong> COVER<br />

LEO HERRERA<br />

COVER PHOTO, CONTENTS<br />

PHOTO AND FEATURE PHOTO<br />

BY JOSE GUZMAN COLON<br />

FEATURES<br />

12 BEYOND SOUND BITES<br />

MOVING FORWARD ON<br />

TRANSGENDER RIGHTS<br />

14 <strong>THE</strong> DRAG KINGS OF<br />

SAN FRANCISCO<br />

FUDGIE FROTTAGE ON<br />

EQUALITY AND RECOGNITION<br />

4 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> | www.thefightmag.com<br />

16 <strong>THE</strong> UNCOMPROMISING<br />

QUEER UTOPIA OF<br />

LEO HERRERA<br />

IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE<br />

AIDS NEVER HAPPENED<br />

20 HEART THROB<br />

<strong>THE</strong> SEVEN COLORS OF SEX<br />

22 GRATEFULLY GAY<br />

CONNOR JESSUP’S<br />

COMING OUT STORY<br />

24 PRIDE INSTITUTE<br />

RECOVERY DOESN’T<br />

JUST MEAN LIVING<br />

SUBSTANCE-FREE<br />

28 I’M FINE<br />

FINAL SEASON OF<br />

<strong>THE</strong> DEKKOO SERIES<br />

29 DON’T LET ME GO<br />

DARIO’S NEW SINGLE<br />

ON RELATIONSHIPS<br />

DEPARTMENTS<br />

06 <strong>THE</strong> EDITOR<br />

08 <strong>THE</strong> TALK<br />

10 <strong>THE</strong> CITY<br />

11 <strong>THE</strong> NATION<br />

26 <strong>THE</strong> ART<br />

30 <strong>THE</strong> CALENDAR


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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 5


<strong>THE</strong>EDITOR<br />

Hello Gentle Reader, and welcome<br />

to <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong>.<br />

I trust you all spent the 50th<br />

anniversary of Stonewall in riotous<br />

celebration. I myself spent the lion’s<br />

share of San Francisco Pride staffing<br />

<strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> booth at the Civic Center.<br />

I haven’t been to the festival in years,<br />

because I tend to share in the prevailing<br />

<strong>SF</strong> prejudice that the official<br />

Pride celebration at the Civic Center<br />

being the providence of tourists and<br />

straight looky-lous—a place true San<br />

Franciscans avoid. But duty called,<br />

and instead of dancing my Pride away<br />

at Juanita MORE’s annual fundraiser,<br />

I spent approximately 26 hours deep<br />

in the thick of it.<br />

And I’m glad I did, because most<br />

of the folks I met fell into one of two<br />

camps: older <strong>LGBTQ</strong> folks who once<br />

called the city home, and have been<br />

priced out and forced to move to the<br />

suburbs; Or young Queers, mostly<br />

from the Central Valley, who made the<br />

long drive to San Francisco with stars<br />

in their eyes to spend just a few hours<br />

with a tacky rainbow flag tied around<br />

their neck in a place where they<br />

thought they could be themselves. I<br />

spent two days hearing stories about<br />

how the city used to be, or listening<br />

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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 7


<strong>THE</strong>TALK<br />

>> WHAT <strong>THE</strong>Y’RE SAYING


<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 9


<strong>THE</strong>CITY<br />

>> BY BRENDEN SHUCART


<strong>THE</strong>NATION<br />

>> NEWS BRIEFS


BEYOND<br />

SOUND<br />

BITES<br />

BY ORLY LYONNE<br />

AT LEAST ELEVEN<br />

BLACK TRANS<br />

WOMEN HAVE<br />

BEEN KILLED THIS<br />

YEAR. MEANWHILE<br />

<strong>THE</strong> TRUMP<br />

ADMINISTRATION<br />

IS TRYING TO GIVE<br />

MEDICAL PROVIDERS<br />

AND INSURANCE<br />

COMPANIES LICENSE<br />

TO DISCRIMINATE<br />

AGAINST TRANS<br />

PEOPLE.<br />

In<br />

a historic moment, Democratic<br />

presidential hopeful Julián Castro<br />

used the televised debate stage<br />

last month to support civil rights for transgender<br />

people, reports Sony Salzman at<br />

www.rewire.news.<br />

His comments were echoed later by<br />

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who called for<br />

justice for black trans women. Of the 20<br />

candidates invited to the debate stage<br />

across two nights, Castro and Booker<br />

were the only two to specifically mention<br />

transgender rights.<br />

A spokesperson for media watchdog<br />

group Media Matters for America noted<br />

that Castro and Booker’s comments are<br />

likely “the first time that trans rights were<br />

mentioned in an affirming way.”<br />

This discussion of transgender rights on<br />

a presidential debate stage may signal the<br />

Democratic Party’s willingness to embrace<br />

broader civil rights and social justice platforms<br />

amid a shifting national conversation<br />

around <strong>LGBTQ</strong> rights, writes Salzman.<br />

In 2008, not a single Democratic candidate<br />

endorsed marriage equality. But<br />

by 2016, the official Democratic platform<br />

included a section affirming that “LGBT<br />

rights are human rights and that American<br />

foreign policy should advance the ability<br />

of all persons to live with dignity, security,<br />

and respect, regardless of who they are or<br />

who they love.”<br />

Though historic, Castro and Booker’s<br />

comments reminded advocates how marginalized<br />

and misunderstood the transgender<br />

community remains, reported www.<br />

rewire.news.<br />

“It seems both Julián Castro and Cory<br />

Booker are ready to fight for [transgender/gender<br />

non-conforming] people,”<br />

said Cecilia Chung, senior director of<br />

strategic initiatives and evaluation at the<br />

Transgender Law Center.<br />

“However, for their comments to move<br />

beyond sound bites, they need to take<br />

action,” she said. For example, “Neither<br />

of them mentioned how they would seek<br />

input from trans communities, and this<br />

should be a focus for all the candidates.”<br />

“In my opinion, trans rights were not<br />

talked about,” said Lourdes Ashley<br />

Hunter, executive director of the Trans<br />

Women of Color Collective. “There was a<br />

mention of trans people … [but] they were<br />

mentioned as a ploy to pander to marginalized<br />

communities.”<br />

Chung noted that at least eleven<br />

black trans women have been killed this<br />

year. Meanwhile, she said, “the Trump<br />

Administration is trying to give medical<br />

providers and insurance companies license<br />

to discriminate against trans people, which<br />

would disproportionately impact Black trans<br />

people and trans people living with HIV.”<br />

And for Hunter, it’s not enough to mention<br />

these deaths in passing.<br />

“We can talk about murders, but we<br />

need to talk about how that is manifesting,”<br />

Hunter said, noting that structural<br />

issues enabling violence against trans<br />

women go much deeper than military bans<br />

and health-care issues, and include fundamental<br />

services that many in the United<br />

States take for granted, such as the ability<br />

to use a public restroom and get a driver’s<br />

license that matches their gender identity.<br />

“I hope the next president would appoint<br />

trans people to their team as well as<br />

to the judicial branch, so that we can be<br />

more than just an afterthought to campaigns,<br />

but instead front and center having<br />

our needs represented,” said Chung.<br />

12 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> | www.thefightmag.com


The democratic<br />

debates briefly<br />

spotlight transgender<br />

rights, hopefully<br />

signaling the party<br />

is willing to embrace<br />

broader civil rights<br />

and social justice<br />

platforms.<br />

<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 13


INTERVIEW


FUDGIE FROTTAGE


COVER FEATURE


<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 17


LEO HERRERA


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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 19


HEART<br />

THROB<br />

The seven<br />

colors of sex.<br />

LEON<br />

FOX<br />

BY LEON FOX | PHOTO BY ELANA RATTI<br />

For about seven years now, I’ve<br />

majored in the gay erotic arts,<br />

via escorting, adult film acting,<br />

sex and intimacy coaching, etc;<br />

and if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s<br />

that we’ve been programmed to believe<br />

that there is only one kind of sex worth<br />

having: the pornographic, reptilian, and<br />

carnal. It’s the kind of sex that inundates<br />

porn sites, that popular dating and<br />

hookup apps extol, and what we most<br />

commonly imitate in the bedroom.<br />

This is what I call “red sex.” And<br />

don’t get me wrong; I love red, both as a<br />

color, and as a kind of intimate interaction,<br />

but when it’s the only pigment you<br />

see when you pull back the sheets, it<br />

can get boring and repetitive—especially<br />

when there’s a full spectrum available<br />

to us in our bedroom adventures.<br />

Which is why I’ve written this guide!<br />

To show you all the hues that can use to<br />

make your sensual moments burst with<br />

technicolor! Sex can do so much more<br />

for the fulfilling than simply using it to<br />

scratch that solitary itch, over and over<br />

again (woof!).<br />

For the sake of structure, I’ll be using<br />

the seven chakras in the body—each<br />

with its traditionally associated color—<br />

to pinpoint the physical place from<br />

which these shades of sex metaphysically<br />

emanate.<br />

20 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> | www.thefightmag.com


LEON FOX


CONNOR JESSUP


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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 23


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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 25


<strong>THE</strong>ART<br />

>> <strong>LGBTQ</strong> ARTISTS


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<strong>THE</strong>CALENDAR<br />

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<strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> 31


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32 <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> <strong>SF</strong> | www.thefightmag.com

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