LGBT POV

About 25,000 people enjoyed the 8th annual West Hollywood Book Fair Sunday at Wet Hollywood Park.  Three of the big draws this year were legendary singer/dancer Carol Channing, who was “interviewed” by funny man Bruce Vilanch, game show host and animal rights activist Bob Barker, and Susan Olson who played Cindy Brady on “The Brady Bunch.”

This year the WeHo Book Fair splurged on fun with comics and mysteries, though there was plenty of intellectual fare, too – including a debate between Rev. Eric Lee, the executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and revolutionary Sunsara Taylor over whether people and civil rights organizations have the right to be “neutral” when it comes to equality and social justice. I’ll have a post later going more into depth on this one! I will also have a later post on my interview with Carol Channing, who is smart as well as charming.

But for now – I hope the pictures tell the story. Click on individual photos for more information on some photos.

And a special word about these last three photos.  I think this is the first time I have seen demonstrators carrying signs outside a progressive event speaking out IN FAVOR OF ABORTION RIGHTS! I was shocked – shocked when I arrived and saw what I thought were the standard protesters who show up at anything remotely to do with gays or women’s rights. I actually had to read the signs several times to make sure I got it.

Then there’s Doug Spearman – pictured here with his dog. Now there are plenty of important and famous folks who live and work around West Hollywood.  But actor Doug Spearman – best known for his role on the gay drama “Noah’s Arc” – has been incredibly generous with his time and with fellow actor Wilson Cruz, outspoken about the importance of engaging young people in the social justice movement.

And finally – Jinx Beers -pictured here holding her book “Memoirs of an Old Dyke.” Jinx founded The Lesbian News in August 1975 as two typed pages replicated on a mimeogrpah machine.   She writes, “As each generation before me, I’ve been written off by the generation after me. That’s OK, because much of what I and hundreds of lesbians my age accomplished laid the base for what followed.” That could have come from anyone 75 years old. But it came from a lesbian who fought invisibility and the threat of  violence implicit in the heterosexual assumption – who created a publication that still exists today because there is a need for it.  We owe Jinx and people like her a debt of gratitude.