Petrelis Files

What I Saw on Castro Street This Weekend

The weather was overcast in San Francisco on the weekend, but there were bright people and things everywhere, bringing their own brand of sunshine and I've got the pics to prove it.

Three rays of sunlight, after enjoying a hearty brunch of food and lots of good gab about modernization of the Denver Principles for persons with AIDS, a project of POZ magazine and the National Associaiton of People With AIDS. From the left, Sean Strub of POZ, Randy Allgaier of the HIV Prevention Planning Council, and me. They went on to the life-celebration service for Marty Delaney of Project Inform.

The folks at the Human Rights Campaign clearly have a long-term contract on the outward-facing bus shelter on Castro near 18th Street. The ad caught my eye because it features a black lesbian, unlike the NGLTF ads for their Winter Party in Miami recently.

Dr. Marcus Conant, one of the first doctors in the world to treat people with AIDS, walking up to the service for Delaney. Conant asked me to be at his Tuesday night forum at the gay community center on HIV and hepatitis.

I didn't know friends and lovers of Leonard Matlovich had purchased a plaque for him. It's on the large green apartment building on 18th Street, walking toward the Bear-bucks coffeehouse. Nice to see other activists besides Harvey Milk getting some recognition for their contributions to the neighborhood, and the movement.

Chris Bowman, head of the local Republican Party office, on his way to get a burger.

Paul Boneberg, executive director of the Gay Historical Society, who was all giggles when first seeing me, then got serious once I started snapping pics. Also on his way to Delaney's service at the Eureka Valley Rec Center.

HRC equality symbol = Mercedes Benz icon. I loathe how HRC's insipid image has colonized so much of gay life, but I must admit it looks great on a red luxury imported automobile.

"I was supposed to die, but I didn't. Gave up activism and went back to school," said my pal Matt Chappell, of the defunct ACT UP/Golden Gate chapter. He was on his way to the Delaney celebration. I wasn't. I went off to catch the new Russian film "12" because I needed a dose of art-house cinema.