Support Grows for Vicki Marlane Block

Community backing continues to grow for dedicating a Tenderloin block in honor of a transgender performer two years after her death.

The grassroots effort aims to designate the 100 block of Turk Street after Vicki Marlane, who died in 2011 at the age of 76 due to AIDS-related complications. For years Marlane hosted a popular drag revue show at the gay bar Aunt Charlie's, located at 133 Turk between Jones and Taylor.

The block is also where the Compton's Cafeteria revolt by transgender people, upset at police harassment, occurred in 1966. Today, a sidewalk marker commemorates the site of one of the earliest actions in the country for LGBT rights.

Last summer the Bay Area Reporter's Political Notebook suggested renaming that block of Turk as Vicki Marlane Way. Members of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club in January announced they would petition the city to officially call that portion of the street Vicki Mar-Lane.

The club later decided to take an easier route than seeking an official street name change. Instead, it opted to ask the city to merely alter the street signs to include Vicki Marlane in parenthesis below the word Turk.

Under such an approach mailing addresses would not need to be changed, thus businesses and residents on the block would avoid the hassles and expense of having to change addresses.

Over the summer the North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefits District agreed to assist the Milk club with its effort, Sue Englander, the Milk club board's correspondent, told the B.A.R. last month. The two groups have begun contacting the property owners on the 100 block of Turk Street to seek their backing.

"Property owners must buy in with a statement of support for the project," explained Englander in an email.

In July, the Log Cabin Republican Club of San Francisco voted to endorse the effort. Club President Fred Schein also sent a letter of support to District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents the Tenderloin at City Hall, seeking her help "in achieving this recognition" for Marlane.

"We believe that Vicki Marlane was an important part of the city's proud history of demonstrating how persons of all backgrounds can build a stronger and more successful society," wrote Schein. "Vicki Marlane worked for many years to establish the transgender community as part of the city's rich culture. She was a caring, thoughtful person who often set personal interests aside for the benefit of her contemporaries and those yet to come."

A change.org petitioned launched earlier this year seeking the Board of Supervisors' backing for the street name effort has netted 402 signatures.

Kim did not return a call seeking comment.

Born Donald Sterger in Crookston, Minnesota, Marlane started out as a traveling circus performer before settling in San Francisco in 1966. She underwent sex reassignment surgery in the 1980s and retired from performing after moving to San Diego.

A decade later Marlane had returned to the city by the bay and came out of retirement. In 1998, her show "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" debuted at Aunt Charlie's. It evolved into popular weekly Friday and Saturday shows called "The Hot Boxxx Girls."

Marlane earned the honorific "the lady with the liquid spine" for her performance moves. Michelle Lawler documented Marlane's life in the 2009 independent film Forever's Gonna Start Tonight .

The Vicki Marlane Street Name Addition Campaign still needs to raise $500 toward a total of $2,500 in order to submit the proposal to the city's Department of Public Works. A fundraiser hosted by Collette LeGrande Ashton and Felicia Elizondo, a.k.a. Felicia Flames, is being held this weekend to raise additional funds for the effort.

It will take place at 4 p.m. Sunday, September 8 at Aunt Charlie's with a show and raffle at 5 p.m.