LGBT POV

Target has been the target of significant attacks since it was learned that Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel contributed $150,000 to an antigay candidate.  Since there is a large Target in West Hollywood that helps “anchor” the east side of the city, members of the West Hollywood city council have also been under pressure to respond. On Thursday, Mayor John Heilman (pictured here with Councilmember Lindsey Horvath and country star Chely Wright at the WeHo Prop 8 celebration Aug. 4) sent a letter to Steinhafel critical of his actions.

Please click inside to read the letter. Here’s an excerpt:

“Finally, despite your claim that you were supporting a pro business candidate, opposition to equality for any group in our society is ultimately anti-business. Full equality for all groups in our diverse society ensures that all members of our society have meaningful employment opportunities and the resources to contribute to our economy. A commitment to equal rights for all also ensures that businesses can draw on the skills and talents of those who are most qualified. By contrast, opposition to equality undermines economic and business growth.”

In an endeavor to record what happened on Wednesday, Aug. 4, we will continue to post more videos, photos and information from those first-day drafts of history. Here, thanks to Calvin Fleming, are videos of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaking to a crowd of hundreds in West Hollywood Park on the evening of the day District Court Judge Vaughn Walker issued his historic ruling declaring Prop 8 as unconstitutional.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Part 1:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Part 2

California declaró constitucional las bodas gay: El alcalde Antonio Villaraigosa:

Like so many of us, my friends Mary Jo Godges and Renee Sotile are anxiously awaiting District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling on the constitutionality of Prop 8, the amendment passed by voters in 2008 that stripped away the right of same sex couples to marry in California. Walker does not have to give any advance warning that the decision is imminent – so we’re all just holding our breath.

Mary Jo (wearing the glasses in this photo) and Renee got married on Election Day 2008, becoming among the same sex couples married before the right was rescinded. When Mary Jo told me she had former Vice President Al Gore and LA Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean on videotape talking about the case – I realized this was more than just waiting for the news. For them, the wait alone was like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, threatening their marriage, as well, though the California Supreme Court ruled the 18,000 or so same sex marriages remained valid. I asked Mary Jo to write about their marriage – just a reminder to everyone what this Prop 8 ruling is all about. Please click inside to read Mary Jo’s story, plus see video of Lorri Jean on the ruling and Mary Jo and Renee’s wedding.

But first – considering how prescient Al Gore is (he was warning about climate change long before An Inconvenient Truth) – here’s the exchange between Renee and Gore, during a book tour stop in Beverly Hills on Nov. 12, 2009. Renee hands him a DVD of a documentary she and Mary Jo made about Christa McAuliffe, the first Teacher in Space who was killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. (Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars).  Gore says, “I hear good things about the court decision coming up on Prop 8.” He says this six months after the American Foundation for Equal Rights announced they filed Perry v, Schwarzenegger and two months before the case went to trial in San Francisco.

Mark Thompson, my friend and former editor at The Advocate, sent me this wonderful news about historian Stuart Timmons:

Longtime friends of author and community activist Stuart Timmons gathered last week to celebrate his remarkable recovery from a major stroke two-and-a-half years ago. Timmons, 53, is still wheelchair bound, but is now fully mentally alert and with the ability to speak and move about with assistance. He is expecting a return to his research and writing about GLBT history and is especially delighted with the invitation to participate in Centennial celebrations honoring the life and work of gay movement founder Harry Hay.

A two-day conference at City University New York and a major exhibition at the San Francisco Public Library are in the planning stages, with other cities soon to be included. Stuart wrote the award-winning biography on the legendary gay rights leader, The Trouble With Harry Hay, in 1990.  Harry Hay was born on Easter Sunday, April 7, 1912, in Worthing, England, although he lived many decades of his life in Los Angeles.

HRH Lee Mentley added:

Stuart is doing amazing well…, had a great lunch at “The Coffee Table” and he was alert with full memory correcting us on our history and although speaking slowly was participating in the conversation. Well on his way to full recovery! He spoke with Joey Cain on the phone and will be on the planning committee for the 100 Year Celebration for Harry Hay in San Francisco and New York City. It was a joy to be with him!

Actually, Harry Hay and John Burnside lived down the street from me in West Hollywood so I hope this city will be added to the tribute, perhaps at the new WeHo library with an event co-hosted by ONE Institute. Just a thought. I’d be happy to loan my video and photos of Harry and John.

Pictured in the photo are: (left to right) Mark Thompson, Stuart Timmons, Robert Croonquist and Lee Mentley.

As part of a nationwide, 15-city protest against the Hyatt hotel chain owned by the billionaire Pritzkers, about 700 hotel workers, clergy and community supporters staged a mock red carpet ceremony and sit-in outside the Hyatt Andaz in West Hollywood Thursday –shutting down the famed Sunset Strip for an hour and a half during rush hour. L.A. Sheriff’s deputies arrested 63 workers.  The point of the protest was to illustrate the increasing economic divide between the very rich and the workers who serve them, many of whom live in poverty.

According to the union, the Hyatt chains have been particularly harsh, at one point firing staff in three Boston-area hotels to replace them with minimum-wage workers. Included in the 15- city protest of the Hyatt chain was the San Diego hotel owned by Prop 8 supporter Doug Manchester, which is the target of a boycott by LGBT groups and UNITE HERE! workers.

UNITE HERE! represents over 300,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in the hospitality, gaming, food service, manufacturing, laundry, and airport industries. (See HotelWorkersRising.org.) In 2010, citywide hotel contracts covering 45,000 unionized hotel workers in ten cities across the U.S. and Canada will expire and be subject to bargaining.

Perhaps it was the WeHo venue, but before the protest and arrests, the demonstrators paraded on the red carpet, doing E! Entertainment–style pre-event interviews and song and dance numbers a la Glee!  Pictured here are emcee Gaius Charles playing‘G-Truth’ with UNITE HERE Local 11 staffer Rachel Torres playing billionaire Hyatt owner Penny Pritzker during the pre-sit down send-up.

Roots of Equality was one of several youth-oriented activist groups to emerge just before and after the passage of Prop 8. As with most of the new groups, they worked in coalition with others on street activism and lobbying, taking the lead in visibility campaigns centered in downtown Los Angeles. One of their most significant post-Prop 8 efforts was a thoughtful and heartfelt exhibit last November of pre-Stonewall LGBT history.

The remarkable exhibit -The Making of Our Pre-Stonewall LGBT Movement – will be unveiled during a Pride Month kick-off event hosted by the City of West Hollywood on Tuesday, June 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the lobby of West Hollywood City Hall, 8300 Santa Monica Boulevard. The exhibit will be on display at City Hall throughout June.

Please click inside for more info and photos from last year’s exhibit.

The L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center just added its voice to the growing chorus calling for a boycott of the state of Arizona over passage of their bigoted immigration law. Labor and LGBT activist Gloria Nieto called for a boycott on April 23, right after Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law requiring law enforcement to ask anyone they “suspect” of being an undocumented immigrant for papers proving their citizenship – though there is no official description of what an undocumented immigrant looks like. Gloria also noted that Brewer also “killed” the state’s domestic partnership law.

Transgender activist Bamby Salcedo shared about the horrors of detention camps. LGBT people joined a sizable May Day rally in downtown Los Angeles where photographer Mark Hefflinger caught signs equating the Arizona law to the Nazis. On May 1, Equality California also issued a statement about the “appalling” law and said EQCA “stands firmly with all of our immigrant brothers and sisters” and called for “humane, comprehensive immigration reform.”

The cities of West Hollywood, Santa Ana and Los Angeles have called for a ban on most travel to Arizona and suspension of many contracts. Attorneys Dan Torres and Tobias Wolff also called the new law “hateful” – though GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell supports the law in accordance with his beliefs in federalism.

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center says the law is hateful and will not travel to the state, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center Chief of Staff Darrel Cummings said in a press release:

“Our community easily recognizes legalized bigotry and discrimination because we have been fighting it so long and so often,” says Cummings. “We know too well the horrific consequences that result from such policies. Elected officials in Arizona can rationalize and justify these laws any way they choose, but underneath it all lies anti-Latino and, specifically, anti-Mexican and Mexican-American prejudice. The LGBT community is part of these communities and so we stand with all those who oppose legal attempts to marginalize, stigmatize, or persecute any community, anywhere.”

As of today, the Center will prohibit staff travel to Arizona for conferences or other professional activities and will take the necessary steps to end all relationships with businesses headquartered in Arizona.

Please click inside to read the entire press release.

The West Hollywood City Council unanimously adopted a resolution denouncing Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, SB1070, on Monday. The resolution suspends official travel to Arizona and authorizes the development of additional financial sanctions until the new law is revoked.

The City of West Hollywood is the first city in Southern California to authorize this action. Interestingly, three out of five on the council are gay: Mayor John Heliman, Mayor Pro Temp John Duran, and Councilmember Jeff Prang.

Councilmember Lindsey Horvath (pictured here on the right) authored the resolution:

“With official travel now banned and a comprehensive review of the City’s contracts underway, West Hollywood has drawn a line in the sand on this unacceptable and unconscionable anti-immigration law. Numerous cities are now considering action and I hope the tremendous response of support we have received gives others the courage to join us.”

Please click inside for more.

UPDATE: My friend Bill Spaulding emailed me that the City of Santa Ana ALSO passed a resolution condemning the new Arizona law on Monday. Here’s the link to the story in the Orange County Register.

As part of West Hollywood’s 25th Anniversary of Cityhood, the city is commemorating some of its most famous residents, including a month-long tribute to F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of America’s greatest writers.

On Sunday, Frontiers In LA news writer Peter DelVecchico went on the “Fitzgerald in West Hollywood” tour of places frequented by Fitzgerald, including the famous the Chateau Marmont Hotel. Please click inside to see Peter’s sizable photos and read his notes from the tour.

When I first moved into West Hollywood in late 1983, my neighbors on North Laurel Avenue pointed out that our apartment building was right next door to where F. Scott Fitzgerald lived when he wrote his unfinished last novel, “The Last Tycoon.” His apartment was the one with the balcony at the back.

Like so many others of my generation, I had been intellectually mesmerized by Fitzgerald’s critique of the American Dream – exposing the “vast wasteland” – in “The Great Gatsby” and equally enthralled by the reckless, Jazz Age experimental lives he and his wife Zelda lead – as if their drunken flirtation with insanity was the source of their creativity. Now years later – and sober – I lived next door, and then for a spell, in the same building where the great author struggled with his greatness. It was yet another life lesson.

The City of West Hollywood is celebrating one of its most famous citizens and on Sunday – it’s “Fitzgerald in West Hollywood,” a free urban walking tour of places frequented by Fitzgerald. Organizers say to meet at the Chase Bank building on the southwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights. 2 – 3:30 p.m. (1st tour) 3:30 – 5 p.m. (2nd tour) For more information, please call 323/848-6883. TTY for the deaf and hard of hearing at 323/848-6496. Please click inside to see more about the “Big Read” events.

(Editor’s note: Dana Miller is my colleague at Frontiers In LA, where he is a popular columnist who often raises controversial issues. He also lives in and loves West Hollywood where he has produced successful AIDS fundraisers and challenged the LGBT community and WeHo public officials to do better. This post is intended to spark civic discussion well in advance of the next city election – March 2011 – to hopefully increase the usually low voter turnout. Of particular interest to a national audience is that John D’Amico, a respected WeHo politico, calls for the ouster of longtime gay politico John Heilman, past co-chair of the International Network of Lesbian and Gay Officials, in this email interview with Dana. – Karen Ocamb)

JOHN D’AMICO – DISSIDENT, CHALLENGER OR BOTH?

By: Dana Miller

A sleepy West Hollywood City Council meeting woke with a jolt during public comments the other day. John D’Amico, who sat on the West Hollywood Planning Commission for five years, took to the stage to declare it was high time for Mayor Abbe Land and Mayor Pro Tem John Heilman to go. This isn’t some kook rattling about. D’Amico is a well-respected, highly credible gent who has fired a shot heard round the hamlet. I caught up with John D’Amico a few days after his assault.

Dana Miller: Why did you specifically focus on Heilman and Land for ouster?

John D’Amico: Mayor Land and Councilmember John Heilman as 16 and 25 year incumbents [respectively], are regarded by nearly everyone as having a complete lock on power and by direct extension, most critical decision making…..

Please click inside to read the rest of Dana’s interview with John D’Amico.

It’s just past noon in West Hollywood. The temperature reads 70 degrees – tee shirt weather on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Pepper and Charlie enjoy a moment in the sun before mom has to get back to work.

In 1984, before Rock Hudson came out as a gay man with AIDS, actress Zelda Rubinstein was the poster-mother for HIV/AIDS awareness.

Literally. An Los Angeles County AIDS awareness campaign featured her as “mother” in an LA Cares billboard campaign with Rubinsteain warning her Village People-wanna be son, “Don’t forget your rubbers” as he made his way into a world where it was “raining men.” Those billboards were ubiquitous all over the unincorporated portion of LA County where gays, seniors and renters were campaigning to become the new city of West Hollywood.

Rubinstein was best known as the eccentric spiritual medium Tangina Barrons who played a key minor role in the Steven Spielberg-co-written, co-produced movie Poltergeist in 1982. There was something very comforting about her presence as “mother” during those very difficult times when AIDS was snatching away gay men like the creepy Beast in that film.

RadarOnline.com reported today “the sad news that Rubinstein, 76, has been taken off of life support following the failure of two of her major organs.” Please click inside for more on Rubinstein. But here’s a short video – shot in 2007 at a screening of the film Poltergeist that illustrates her wonderful sense of humor.

In commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in celebration of the 25th anniversary of becoming a city, the City of West Hollywood is welcoming nominations from the community for its annual “Keeper of the Dream” award. Anyone who lives in, works in, owns property in, or participates in the West Hollywood community is invited to submit nominations. Click inside for more information. The deadline for submissions is Monday, Jan. 4.

The world was well into the throws of war with Hitler’s Nazis in 1943 when 12 year old Desmond Tutu’s father, a teacher, moved his family to deeply racially segregated Johannesburg, South Africa. There his mother found work as a cleaner and cook in a school for the blind.

One day, a fleeting moment occurred that changed his life, Tutu says:

“I was standing in the street with my mother when a white man in a priest’s clothing walked past. As he passed us, he took off his hat to my mother. I couldn’t believe my eyes – a white man who greeted a black working class woman!”

That white priest became Desmond Tutu’s mentor and together they fought apartheid in South Africa. West Hollywood City Councilmember John Heilman said “people were thrilled” to hear the “human rights icon” address them via videotape at an event commemorating the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Click inside to read the story.

The City of West Hollywood will commemorate World AIDS Day on Tuesday, Dec. 1 by presenting the annual Paul Starke Warrior Award to outstanding members of the community working in HIV/AIDS services.

Special guest speakers will include actress, Emmy-nominated television personality, independent filmmaker and gay icon Ricki Lake; Marie Da Silva, CNN Hero 2008 and founder of the “Jacaranda Foundation;” and Brenda Goodman, board President of Aid for AIDS. Additionally, West Hollywood’s Citychannel 10 will be originating and cablecasting AIDSWATCH for 24 hours—from midnight to midnight. Click inside for details.

Longtime HIV/AIDS Activist Howard Jacobs Dies

Startling and sad news: longtime HIV/AIDS, youth, disability and social services activist and all-around good guy Howard Jacobs died from liver cancer this morning. He was 45, with a birthday coming up. Please click inside for an interview with his former boss West Hollywood City Councilmember Jeff Prang on the circumstances surrounding Howard’s unexpected death and the legacy Howard leaves. UPDATE: A MEMORIAL FOR HOWARD JACOBS WILL BE HELD ON SUNDAY, NOV. 15, AT 1:30PM AT CONGREGATION KOL AMI, 1200 N. LA BREA AVE., WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA 90038.

Literary buffs recall the famous Algonquin Round Table at the Algonquin Club in New York City. From 1919 to 1929, a group of writers, critics, actors and intellectuals would hang out for lunch, get drunk and have witty and catty conversation about books and the matters of the day. At the center was witty writer Dorothy Parker – who, it turns out, also lived in West Hollywood so WeHo is honoring her memory with the Algonquin West Hollywood Literary Award.

Today is West Hollywood City Councilmember John Duran’s birthday. It also is the 18th anniversary of the protests over the veto of AB 101 – the California gay rights bill. In light of the recent demonstrations over the passage of Prop 8 and the upcoming National Equality March in Washington on Oct. 11, I asked John to write a remembrance of AB 101. And we have pictures.