Following a march taking place in London to protest the apparent police bias that has held up the investigation into the 2023 death of SF drag legend Heklina, a similar march and vigil, with two "angry drag shows," will be happening here in SF.

A previously announced "Justice For Heklina" march happening Monday, March 31 in London, to protest the London Metropolitan Police Department's seeming negligence and bias in their investigation of the suspicious, untimely death of Heklina in April 2023, will coincide that same day with a march and vigil here in San Francisco.

Police in London have slow-walked their investigation, says Heklina's longtime friend and collaborator Peaches Christ, who found her friend dead in the flat they were sharing while getting ready to perform there. As we learned in January, the London Metro Police have had CCTV footage of three men leaving the flat around the time Heklina would have died, and it took them nearly two years to release it seeking the public's help identifying them.

Heklina was found, Peaches said, in a "compromising position" after an online sexual encounter in the apartment, and there were drugs present in the room, which she believes led police to de-prioritize the case. While foul play was not necessarily suspected, the suspects abandoned Heklina and the circumstances of her death remain unclear.

The Chronicle reports today that a medical examiner found a "lethal amount" of drugs in Heklina's system — and Peaches elaborates on the "haunting" image of coming upon her friend, "dressed in drag, on her knees with her face on the floor and her hands on either side of her head." She adds that Heklina had a history of relapsing on drugs and alcohol when traveling, and these relapses would be accompanied by sexual binges.

Peaches further says that it would be strange for Heklina to be entertaining a group of three men, and that she preferred to line up her tricks back to back. And, she says of the three men, "I am not convinced that they didn’t have something to do with it."

A London detective reportedly told Heklina's friend and executor, Nancy French, that there likely was "investigative bias" in the case, and he apologized for how long this has taken. A new investigator was put on the case, as the Chronicle reports, and a team of five from the London Metro Police traveled to San Francisco and Palm Springs to interview Peaches and French last week.

The BBC subsequently picked up the story, as this case follows several others in the last decade in which the London police have ignored or neglected cases involving LGBTQ+ victims. And in one high-profile case of a gay serial killer who was meeting young men on an app in 2014 and 2015, the police interviewed the killer multiple times and let him free, leading to the deaths of more men.

"I hate being the person who incorrectly would cry 'homophobia' if it's not homophobia. They have left me no choice," said Peaches Christ, whose birth name is Joshua Grannell, in the BBC broadcast.

While the London protest will begin in the morning on Monday, gathering in front of Parliament, the San Francisco protest will begin later in the day, with folks gathering at The Stud between 5 and 7 pm Pacific Time. There will be a 6:30 pm drag show there, according to a Facebook post, and a candlelight vigil and silent march up Folsom Street to Oasis is set to begin at 7:30 pm.

The march will double as a protest against the Trump administration's rhetoric against and treatment of LGBTQ people, and the "new world order."

"Bring signs & placards highlighting London MET Police & Trump administration abuses of power, as well as their institutionalized homophobia and transphobia. Also ones celebrating the life and accomplishments of Heklina are very welcome as well," the post reads.

A drag show at Oasis will follow at 9 pm, and the after-party will be at the weekly Pillows party at Powerhouse. Scheduled to perform during the evening are Crickett Bardot, Falsetta Knockers, Laundra Tyme, Lindsay Slowhands, Mocha Fapalatte, Raya Light, Stanley Frank Sensation, Suppositori Spelling, and others to be announced.

Peaches Christ will not be in attendance, as she will be in London for that protest, along with Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters fame, and London drag queen Cheddar Gorgeous.

Peaches tells the Chronicle, regardless of the outcome of the case or the London police's recent activity, "it does not take away the fact that we were mistreated, mishandled, ignored."

This post has been updated with new details of the case from the Chronicle's report.

A candlelight vigil is planned for Tuesday evening in San Francisco's Chinatown to mourn the death of 40-year-old Michelle Go, a native of the East Bay who was killed Saturday when she was pushed in front of an oncoming subway train in New York's Times Square.

The SF vigil, at 6 p.m. in Portsmouth Square, is planned in solidarity with another happening in Times Square that's been organized by the NY-based Asians Fighting Injustice.

Go was shoved in front of a subway train on New York's N/Q/R/W line at Times Square Station on Saturday morning, and died from severe trauma. As we learned Monday, Go was born in Berkeley and grew up in Fremont, where she attended American High School, graduating in 1998. Most recently, she had been working for Deloitte in New York, and her family said she had just recently returned from a trip to the Maldives to celebrate her 40th birthday.

A suspect who fled the scene of Go's murder and later turned himself in has been identified as 61-year-old Simon Martial. The New York Post describes Martial as "unhinged," detailing how he shouted at reporters while being escorted out of the Midtown South precinct on Saturday — saying things like "I’m God," and claiming that he killed Go because "she stole my fucking jacket."

Go's family put out a statement Saturday, saying they were "in shock" over her loss, and saying that Go "was a beautiful, brilliant, kind, and intelligent woman who loved her family and friends, loved to travel the world and to help others."  They add, "Her life was taken too soon in a senseless act of violence, and we pray that she gets the justice that she deserves."

The violent and terrifying act — one of the greatest fears of public-transit riders everywhere, and especially in New York — is being seen both as another example of violence against Asian Americans that has seemingly increased on urban streets in the last two years, and as a first "test" of sorts for new Mayor Eric Adams.

The original version of the flyer for the Times Square vigil tonight had a message on it saying "Text 'stopasianhate' to 808-698-6868 for updates," but a subsequent version of the flyer instead says to text "rsvpnow" to that same number.

Top image: Go, center, on vacation with her family in an undated photo.

A large crowd has come together this evening in Oakland for a candlelight vigil for Charolettesville. #wpxi pic.twitter.com/AV9phFW9J3

— Ryan (@WPXIPhotogRyan) August 13, 2017

Following a spontaneous and mostly peaceful march in Oakland Saturday night in response to the events in Charlottesville that day that briefly shut down a freeway, as well as a gathering in downtown San Francisco, more such gatherings sprang up around the Bay Area Sunday. These included another, quieter gathering in Oakland's Latham Square that the Chronicle described has having a quieter mood and older crowd than Saturday's march — and included some 1960s-style folk singing and much quoting of Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

In San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall, hundreds gathered despite drizzly weather Sunday evening, according to IndyBay, carrying signs that read "Disgusted I Have To Say No to Neo Nazis; United Against Violence; No KKK, No Fascist USA; Trump/Pence Regime Must Go; My Grandfather's Relatives Were Murdered By Nazis; and Silence = Death."

Per the Chronicle, the event began with some speakers — using an Occupy-era convention of a "people's mic" — condemning the ACLU for endorsing the alt-right groups' right to gather in Charlottesville in the first place — the ACLU has long taken the stand that all speech, including most hate speech, is protected by the First Amendment. But others shouted those speakers down and said they were there to mourn the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, allegedly at the hands of 20-year-old James Field Jr.

Similar vigils and gatherings, many organized by the group Indivisible, happened throughout Sunday in Berkeley, Point Reyes Station, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Mill Valley, Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, El Cerrito, Castro Valley, and Mountain View.

But in less than two weeks, we could be facing more street skirmishes and — hopefully not, but very possibly — more bloodshed here in the Bay Area. As SFist reported today, the Pacific Northwest-based Patriot Prayer is organizing alt-right rallies in San Francisco and Berkeley on August 26 and 27, both of which are likely to draw new-Nazi contingents just as rallies in Berkeley did this spring.

Additionally, an alt-right March on Google is scheduled for this Saturday, August 19, to protest last week's firing of engineer James Damore.

The families of six men who've gone missing from the streets of San Francisco in recent years are gathering for another candlelight vigil tonight to keep attention on these unsolved cases. The most recent case, that of 22-year-old Paulo Netto, remains unsolved after the Brazil native disappeared following a frantic call to his sister on October 28.

The other five cases, referred to as The California Five and which we discussed following a similar vigil in September, have been missing for periods ranging from seven months to three years. They are 19-year-old Sean Sidi, who was suffering from a brain injury and went missing on May 21 of this year; Shawn Dickerson, a 24-year-old missing since 2011; Cameron Remmer, a bipolar 31-year-old who went missing after checking out of his hotel on a business trip in S.F. in October, 2011; and Jackson Miller, a 23-year-old who disappeared here in May 2010. It is not believed that any of these cases are related, but the families of the victims have joined forces as their loved ones remain unfound.

Tonight's vigil will be at 7 p.m. on the Polk Street steps of City Hall. It's being dubbed a "vigil of hope." Organizers are also including in the event a commemoration of the life of Derrick Shao, the 20-year-old City College student who went briefly missing last month before his body washed up in San Leandro.

Anyone with any information pertaining to any of these cases is asked to call the SFPD at 415-553-1361.

[BCN/Appeal]
[SF Weekly]

A few months back we brought you the news of 19-year-old Sean Sidi, missing since May 21 when he was last thought to be headed to Golden Gate Park. He remains missing, and his family maintains that not enough has been done to find him, in part because cases of missing men get less police and public attention than those of missing women. They're joining with the families of four other missing young men for a vigil this weekend to bring attention to this cause, and to their missing loved ones.

Sidi, who was suffering from some mental disability due to a traumatic brain injury a few months before, left his family's home in San Francisco to visit a former teacher at the French American School at Oak and Gough, and was never seen again. His father spoke to him by cell phone that afternoon on May 21, when he said he was going to Golden Gate Park, after which his cell phone went dead. Police and search parties have located no sign of him since.

Crishtian Hughes was 20 when he disappeared in February, somewhere in San Francisco. He came here from San Diego to visit friends, and his family never heard from him again. They've set up this Facebook page, and they will join with Sidi's family on Saturday, along with the families of Shawn Dickerson, a 24-year-old missing since 2011; Cameron Remmer, a bipolar 31-year-old who went missing after checking out of his hotel on a business trip in S.F. in October, 2011; and Jackson Miller, a 23-year-old who disappeared in May 2010.

The website LostNMissing now calls them the California Five. If you have any info pertaining to any of them, you're asked to call SFPD at 415-553-1361.

All five families are coming together in the hopes that they can bring some more public attention to any or all of their cases. The vigil will be held on Saturday, September 14 at 2 p.m. at the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park.

[Appeal]
[Facebook]

Previously: Family Of Missing 19-Year-Old Sean Sidi Holds Vigil