Dear friends and readers -
I am having terrible technical issues with this blog and I don’t know when they will be resolved. However, I will continue to post stories on FrontiersLA.com.
I apologize for any inconvenience.
Karen O.
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On Saturday, April 27, just days after Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk testified before Congress about the need for more funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, actress and Creative Coalition member Sharon Stone was making the rounds at the White House Correspondents’ gala sharing how profoundly arts education had impacted her life as a child. At the same time in West Hollywood, the Lambda Literary Foundation was honoring the lifetime achievement of five Los Angeles-based LGBT literary pioneers whose work and personal authenticity not only impacted but may well have saved millions of lives.
The Lambda Literary Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary with an historic OUTWRITE! event at the West Hollywood Public Library honoring author Rev. Malcolm Boyd, historian and professor Lillian Faderman, novelist Katherine V. Forrest, author and professor John Rechy and author and columnist Patricia Nell Warren. The well-produced event featured presenters who cited personal experiences about the honorees, followed by either a reading or song or film clip to underscore how indelible their artistic contributions have been on the consciousness of LGBT America at a time when telling their truth was desperately needed and dangerous.
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Reaction to professional basketball center Jason Collins coming out as gay in Sports Illustration today has been overwhelmingly positive. In his story, Collins says his good friend Joe Kennedy helped him make the decision:
I realized I needed to go public when Joe Kennedy, my old roommate at Stanford and now a Massachusetts congressman, told me he had just marched in Boston’s 2012 Gay Pride Parade. I’m seldom jealous of others, but hearing what Joe had done filled me with envy. I was proud of him for participating but angry that as a closeted gay man I couldn’t even cheer my straight friend on as a spectator. If I’d been questioned, I would have concocted half truths. What a shame to have to lie at a celebration of pride. I want to do the right thing and not hide anymore. I want to march for tolerance, acceptance and understanding. I want to take a stand and say, “Me, too.”
Joe Kennedy responded on Twitter:
First Lady Michelle Obama also posted a supportive tweet:
And NBA officials said they had Collins’ back, too:
So did fellow NBA player, including Kobe Bryant:
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“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay,” says Jason Collins in Sports Illustrated. Collins is the first active pro sports male athlete to come out – and he’s a free agent seeking a team. This season Collins played with the Celtics and Wizards. Here’s an excerpt from his Sports Illustrated story:
I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.” If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.
My journey of self-discovery and self-acknowledgement began in my hometown of Los Angeles and has taken me through two state high school championships, the NCAA Final Four and the Elite Eight, and nine playoffs in 12 NBA seasons.
I’ve played for six pro teams and have appeared in two NBA Finals. Ever heard of a parlor game called Three Degrees of Jason Collins? If you’re in the league, and I haven’t been your teammate, I surely have been one of your teammates’ teammates. Or one of your teammates’ teammates’ teammates.
Now I’m a free agent, literally and figuratively. I’ve reached that enviable state in life in which I can do pretty much what I want. And what I want is to continue to play basketball. I still love the game, and I still have something to offer. My coaches and teammates recognize that. At the same time, I want to be genuine and authentic and truthful…..
The first relative I came out to was my aunt Teri, a superior court judge in San Francisco. Her reaction surprised me. “I’ve known you were gay for years,” she said. From that moment on I was comfortable in my own skin. In her presence I ignored my censor button for the first time. She gave me support. The relief I felt was a sweet release. Imagine you’re in the oven, baking. Some of us know and accept our sexuality right away and some need more time to cook. I should know — I baked for 33 years….
The recent Boston Marathon bombing reinforced the notion that I shouldn’t wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect. Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully? When I told Joe [Kennedy, former classmate and now Congressmember] a few weeks ago that I was gay, he was grateful that I trusted him. He asked me to join him in 2013. We’ll be marching on June 8 [in Boston’s Gay Pride].
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(Editor’s note: A version of this commentary will appear in Frontiers magazine. This is an opinion piece in order to highlight a number of points that I think are important, especially in advance of how healthcare will change under ObamaCare in January. If cultural competency and collecting LGBT data don’t become standard operating procedure – not just administration policy – we face more alarms and distrust, which can only lead to more health disparities – Karen Ocamb)
It looks like Meningitis Hell Week in West Hollywood may be over. On Friday, April 12, news emerged that popular gay attorney Brett Shaad had gone quickly from “fit” to brain dead as a result of contagious bacterial meningitis. On Friday, April 19, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health posted a notice on its website that they had “not identified any other cases of meningococcal disease associated with this patient, nor identified any linkage between this patient and cases being reported in other areas of the country,” such as New York City.
But while the L.A. gay community might feel some relief after a week of intense fear and anxiety, the mess created by mistrust and misunderstandings exposed the dire need for cultural competency in how public health departments deal with LGBT populations. Indeed, had Public Health been culturally aware and forthcoming from the beginning, this mess might not have happened.
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(13th CD candidate Mitch O’Farrell with supporter Luis Lopez. O’Farrell won the Stonewall endorsement. Photo by Karen Ocamb)
There was tension in West Hollywood Park Auditorium Monday night as battling campaigns geared up to make pitches for Stonewall Democratic Club’s endorsement in the 13th and 6th city council district races for the May 21 LA City elections. There was whispering, elbow nudging and a few outright sneers. But somewhat shockingly, there really was little acrimony or rancor or nasty swipes at a candidate’s character that one has come to expect at cranked up grassroots political endorsement meetings. Perhaps most surprisingly, the candidates who lost the endorsements also felt pleased with how they had fared in the process.
The first round was the motion to endorse Mitch O’Farrell, Eric Garcetti’s gay former field deputy who was the top vote getter in the March 5 primary. Each side took turns explaining why they supported O’Farrell or opposed John Choi, a Public Works Commissioner. Progressive Victory President Hans Johnson, for instance, said O’Farrell was a “progressive grassroots organizer from the ground up.” He also said the endorsement was a “test” of Stonewall’s purpose to leverage its power to stand behind a well-qualified openly LGBT candidate. West Hollywood City Councilmember Jeffrey Prang noted his 23 years as a Stonewall member and said that as a staffer for former LA City Councilmember Ruth Galanter, he knows that “LA is broken” and needs someone who understands how LA’s neighborhoods work. Longtime Democratic activist Jimmie-Woods Gray said “we don’t have time for someone to learn how to run this district” on the job. O’Farrell also spoke on his own behalf, noting that he won the March 5 Primary, has lived in the district for 21 years with his partner George Brauckman and that his family’s Native American and Irish immigrant background helped him learn how to be a fighter.
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Absentee ballots just went out for the Los Angeles City runoffs on May 21 so the next month should be a fast and furious phalanx of TV, radio and social media ads storming the consciousness of anyone awake for more than five minutes. Voter turnout for the March 5 Primary was so low, there is grave concern that a relatively small group of registered voters will elect the leaders of the second largest city in America. LA Daily News politico Rick Orlov says that vote-by-mail ballots (which used to be promoted as “Vote Naked”) accounted for 46 percent of the Primary vote. Applications to vote-by-mail can be downloaded online.
Stonewall Democratic Club has already chosen most of their preferred candidates – but Monday night, April 22, at 7:00pm at the West Hollywood Park Auditorium (647 N San Vicente Blvd) they’re going to tackle two outstanding races – the seriously contentious 13th City Council District contest between Mitch O’Farrell and John Choi and the Special Election for the 6th Council District between former Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez and Nury Martinez, an LAUSD board member. Going into the Stonewall meeting, Montanez has already won the endorsements of the LA County Democratic Party (chaired by openly gay politico Eric Bauman), HONOR PAC and the Women’s Political Action Committee. Martinez appears to have a lot of on-the-ground support, as well as an endorsement from LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
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The 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the JW Marriott in Los Angeles Saturday night were fun and inspiring, especially the truly kick-ass acceptance speech by entertainment attorney Steve Warren as he accepted the Stephen F. Kolzak Award from Leonardo DiCaprio and Charlize Theron. I knew Stephen and I think he would have been thrilled. I’ll have more on that with photos later. But I need first to write about my experience watching former President Bill Clinton accept GLAAD’s first Advocate for Change award. (See video below)
Earlier in the day, Clinton campaigned for LA Controller Wendy Greuel as she seeks to become this city’s first woman mayor in the May 21 election. News reports show Clinton as the rock star campaigner we’ve come to expect over the years and I think some of us expected to see the old politico who made arithmetic cool at the Democratic National Convention take the stage at the GLAAD Awards. There was some of that after he donned his glasses and assumed a bit of the professorial mode. But Clinton seemed old and tired, even as he joked about it.
“I don’t know why Harvey made Jennifer do that,” Clinton said, referring to powerhouse producer Harvey Weinstein and how actress Jennifer Lawrence flubbed Clinton’s name during the introduction. ”She really was like 2-years-old when I became president. I met her backstage and she looked like she was touring the Museum of Natural History.”
At times, though, Clinton seemed almost frail, as if accepting the GLAAD award was a swan song to the gays that he was doing as a favor for his very gay-friendly daughter Chelsea.
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The 19 year old suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, – shown here in the white baseball cap with his brother just about 10-20 minutes before the bomb blast near the Boston Marathon Finish Line – has been given his Miranda rights and will be tired as a terrorist in
the US, according to NBC News. Correction: US Attorney says fed government has the opportunity to exercise the “public safety exception” to Miranda in cases of national security.
Relieved after a week of anguish, America applauded his arrest.
The GOTCHA shot:
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On a day when much of America is fixated on the unfolding developments regarding the Boston Marathon bombing, the Boy Scouts of America decided to release it’s potentially homophobia-shattering recommendation to allow gay youth to join the private religious-based organization. AP reports that:
Under pressure over its longstanding ban on gays, the Boys Scouts of America is proposing to lift the ban for youth members but continue to exclude gays as adult leaders.
The Scouts announced Friday that it would submit this proposal to the roughly 1,400 voting members of its National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20.
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