LGBT POV

Friday morning, openly gay LA City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl kicks off LGBT Pride Week in Los Angeles with a special presentation in City Council Chambers to celebrate 40 years of LGBT pride in Los Angeles. The public is invited to this free event.

This year’s presentation will honor Roots of Equality, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, and Christopher Street West for their contributions to the LGBT community. (Full disclosure: I was among those honored one year.)

Rosendahl said in a statement:

“I’m pleased to kick off Pride Week by honoring three organizations that have had a positive impact on our City’s LGBT community, and on Los Angeles as a whole. I have seen so much progress in my lifetime, but we still have so much work to do to achieve equality and justice, here in California and around the world. I’m proud to acknowledge those who are helping to advance the cause.”

9:00-10:00 am – Reception sponsored by Christopher Street West, 3rd Floor Rotunda

City Hall,
 200 N. Spring Street

10:00 am – Presentation, Council Chambers, Room 340

Please click inside for more info on the honorees.

US Sen. Barbara Boxer, who recently introduced a bill to extend COBRA health benefits to domestic partners, will be a featured speaker at Sunday’s Rock for Equality rally at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center in Hollywood. Boxer is expected to face a tough re-election battle this November.

But excitement is building over the anticipated announcement by Rep. Linda Sanchez, a member of the House Subcommittee on Social Security, that she plans to author legislation that would bring equality to Social Security benefits.

The Rock for Equality campaign organized by the LA Gay & Lesbian Center and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force demands an end to Social Security discrimination against tax-paying same sex couples. Organizers will rally at the Center’s McDonald/Wright headquarters at 1625 N. Schrader Blvd at 9:30am and then march down Hollywood Blvd and Vine Street for a “rocking chair rock-in” at the Social Security Administration building around 11:30am.

Please click inside for more info and to read the resolution passed by the LA City Council supporting efforts to bring equality to Social Security benefits.

I interviewed new LAPD Chief Charlie Beck last week for Frontiers In LA magazine with an eye to getting to know the man behind the badge. As a fan of former Chief Bill Bratton – who supported Beck over Assistant Chief and volunteer LGBT liaison Jim McDonnell – Beck also believes in Bratton’s famous “broken glass” and gang intervention policies. But Bratton, like LA Sheriff Lee Baca, has a lesbian sister so there has been some sense that LA’s two top cops at least have some understanding of LGBT issues. We don’t know Beck, other than a few initially favorable comments after Beck was selected. However, if his meeting with me is any indication, he’s off to a good start as a promising LGBT ally. What a long way from Ed Davis and Daryl Gates. Beck is expected to receive unanimous confirmation from the LA City Council this morning.