Out in the Bay

In his debut novel, Brooklyn native Robert Jones, Jr., describes the romantic and tragic relationship between Samuel and Isaiah, two enslaved young men on a Mississippi cotton plantation in the early 1800s. The Prophets explores gender and sexuality, race, power, toxic religion and masculinity.

Lines are being drawn for the decennial mapping of Congressional, state legislative, and county and city districts based on the prior year’s census. This decade, there are more LGBTQ members on the California citizens’ panel that draws those lines than in 2011. Meanwhile, an effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom – a long-time LGBTQ ally – seems to have a good chance of qualifying. 10 pm tonight (Tuesday) on Out in the Bay, hear the implications for the Golden State’s queer residents from...

Quick, what’s your sexuality? Most of us know roughly where we fall on the Kinsey scale that goes from zero (totally straight) to six (flaming faggot or butchest of dykes). But have you considered another continuum, the asexual – allosexual one? Science writer Angela Chen explains it eloquently tonight on Out in the Bay (10pm Tuesday), but in my crude shorthand: this continuum has on one end those repulsed by sex, to horny-as-hell on the other, with most folks — gay, straight and otherwise —...

On tonight's Out in the Bay (10 pm Tuesday) San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman says his passion for politics goes back to age 5 and his passion for providing mental health services to combat homelessness from his mother “spiraling into mental illness” a few years later. Though he grew up in gay-friendly San Francisco from age 11 — when he moved north to live with his grandmother — he “had to leave San Francisco to come out” while a sophomore at Yale, which he called “the gay Ivy.”...

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's new book, The Freezer Door , mourns losing "the dream of queer" -- a “world without borders and hierarchies”-- that she says consumerism, technology and gentrification are destroying. She reads passages from The Freezer Door and dissects topics therein on tonight's (10pm Tuesday) Out in the Bay . She laughs, too; introduces us briefly to the ice cube, the ice cube tray and other characters; even snipes at the literati: “It’s hard to imagine anything more...

Can we have civil civic discourse in these fractious times? Manny Yekutiel, activist and owner of the cafe, bookstore and civic events space Manny’s, passionately believes so and tells us why, 10 pm tonight (Tuesday) on Out in the Bay. Manny opened his “people-powered and community-focused meeting and learning place” in San Francisco’s Mission District on Election Night 2018 to encourage civic engagement. He’s since hosted hundreds of events — initially in person, now virtually — on topics...

Blackmail, My Love is a noir murder-mystery novel set in San Francisco, 1951 - "The Dark Ages of Queerdom," as author and illustrator Katie Gilmartin puts it - when cops raided gay and lesbian bars, beat up patrons and demanded "protection" money, and when lesbians and gay men were so afraid of public exposure they were easy blackmail targets. The book is illustrated with 21 of Gilmartin's original prints, including "Miss Double Strand" here. 10pm Tuesday on KALW, historian, printmaker,...

Happy New Year? We all hope 2021 will be kinder to us than 2020 … but only time will tell. So this week: 2020 in the queer-view mirror and a look ahead with national politics and legal reporter Lisa Keen. 2020 brought hardships on many fronts. Yet for LGBTQ people in the US, 2020 brought significant progress on some fronts, while bringing setbacks on others. Ms. Keen breaks down the top 2020 developments and assesses potential gains and losses for queer folk in 2021, including insights on...

In the Bay and across the country, we’re nearly 10 months into COVID restrictions. Some of us are skin-starved, many love-starved. No hugs, no spooning, no sex. No friends, no family. It’s a lot to deal with. But many of us felt lonesome even before the pandemic pushed us further into isolation. Getting what we truly need is always a challenge, so how are we coping now? To find out, Out in the Bay producer Truc Nguyen got intimate with Bay Area residents. {NOTE: this episode contains some...

The music of Malik Mays, who performs as Mahawam, is “about resilience, it's about power, it's about beauty, it's about sex,” they told Out in the Bay. Mays grew up between Arizona and Texas with a single mother. In their early twenties they settled in Oakland, where they’ve lived since 2013. Like many in the Bay, Mays shares living space with six other people, including their partner. There’s a chicken coop in the backyard and a garden where Mays grows mugwort. “I got it because I wanted to...

Brandon Taylor’s highly praised debut novel, Real Life , gets deep into desire, intimacy, sex, abuse, homophobia, racism, misogyny, love, hate and the blurred lines between friends and lovers. Oh, and let’s not forget cut-throat scientific academia.

Pamela Sneed’s prose and poetry can reach out and grab you. They did me. She reads four poems from her new memoir, Funeral Diva , on this week’s Out in the Bay and shares some of her life story .

Photojournalist Kristin Lyseggen profiles nine current and former inmates in her new book "The Women of San Quentin: Soul Murder of Transgender Women in Male Prisons ." Surrounded by convicted murderers and rapists, she writes, they are often forced to fight for their lives on their way to womanhood inside some of the world’s most dangerous prisons for men. She and Daniella Tavake, one of those profiled in the book, share intimate parts of their stories with host Eric Jansen on this week's...

With recent gay rights gains, why is it still difficult for young people to be lesbian, gay, bi, transgender or “queer,” even in the San Francisco Bay Area? The Pacific Center for Human Growth, an LGBT counseling and community center in Berkeley, reports that many queer youth feel unsafe at school every day .

Blackmail, My Love, is a noir murder-mystery novel set in San Francisco, 1951 - "The Dark Ages of Queerdom," as author and illustrator Katie Gilmartin puts it - when cops raided gay and lesbian bars, beat up their patrons, and demanded "protection" money, and when lesbians and gay men were so afraid of exposure they were easy blackmail targets.

Lesbians and their friends take over the stage at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley Friday, Nov. 13, in a concert benefiting Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which has defended the rights of LGBT people in many recent legal cases and political battles.

Halloween not enough? The gory, century-old Grand Guignol theatre style is recreated in Thrillpeddlers' Shocktoberfest 16: Curse of the Cobra , playing through Nov. 21 at the Hypnodrome in San Francisco. And Theatre Rhinoceros, the nation's longest-running LGBT theater company, presents Shakespeare Goes to War at The Thick House.

Dedicated to capturing the oral history of queer San Francisco, Out In The Bay host Marilyn Pittman interviews one of the legendary figures of the 60's, 70's, and 80's: former Cockettes member, Dolores Deluce. Her memoir, "My Life, A Four-Letter Word: Confessions of a Counter-Culture Diva," made Amazon's Top 20 and is an intimate, honest look back at life in the city during its radical heyday. Friends with Divine, Sylvester; lover to many gay men, witness to the devastation of AIDS, Dolores...

Out in the Bay ventures into outer space 7pm Thursday with cast members of Star Trek Live , a comedic gender-bending homage to the hit '60s TV show, now on stage at Oasis Night Club in San Francisco.

Chana Wilson grew up in the 1950s with a suicidal mother. She learned in adulthood that her mother had been a closeted lesbian given psychiatric treatments - including electroshock - to “cure” her. Mother and daughter developed a deep bond when both came out as lesbians in the women’s and gay liberation movements of the late 1960s and ’70s. There's much more to this touching, fascinating story in "Riding Fury Home," Chana’s memoir. Marilyn Pittman hosts. Thursday, October 8, 2015.