When I started doing AIDS/LifeCycle in 2011, I fell in love with the experience and the community. Over the next few years, I started recruiting my friends in New York City to also do the ride. When I saw a job posting in 2013, I realized that the recruiting I had been doing on my own was actually a job! Since I had wanted for awhile to live in California, this was the right job at the right time. My job involves educating folks about how we do the ride to support the work of the Center and the San…
Author: Greg Hernandez
By Greg Hernandez Barry Bishop struggled to get through his poem Waiting about his visit to the AIDS Memorial Quilt when it was on full display on the National Mall. I am full to overflowing with their memories. I see their ghosts in every mirror that I pass. They haunt the dark and empty spaces of my life -spaces that should have been filled with their laughter, their love and their light. Bishop’s voice broke and tears fell, but he seemed determined to forge ahead with a spellbound virtual audience watching on Zoom for the My Life is Poetry reading. The August…
Growing up gay, closeted, hating myself, and then coming to the Los Angeles LGBT Center was indescribable—very surreal. I had the overwhelming feeling of “So, this is what it’s like!” The Center is the place where I can wear my big earrings without shame, where I am taken seriously, where I can contribute to others’ lives in the same way other volunteers contribute to mine through their kindness, acceptance, and love. The Center has brought me love, and I have, in turn, learned to love myself. At my high school graduation in June, I came out to my whole school…
Wearing wigs and face masks, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 winner Symone and runner-up Kandy Muse spent Thursday afternoon packing groceries at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Pride Pantry. “What’s happening here is incredible—especially during the pandemic,” said Muse, of the Center’s pantry from where more than 24,000 boxes of food have been distributed since June 2020. “Not everyone has the privilege of having three meals a day,” Muse pointed out. “Some people have to choose between paying their light bill and putting food on the table for themselves or their loved ones.” Added Symone: “If we can help each…
By Greg Hernandez Whenever Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles performs, it makes for an exciting and memorable moment. After the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Love in Action telethon reached the $500,000 mark, the world’s first LGBTQ+ mariachi band noisily played its way onto the KTLA 5 stage in joyous celebration. But there was much more generosity to come. Donations continued pouring in and, by the end of the two-hour telecast on August 14, more than $1.1 million had been raised benefiting the Center’s programs and services that have been continually provided during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m over the moon…
Registration has kicked off for AIDS/LifeCycle, the world’s largest single event HIV/AIDS fundraiser which returns as an in-person event on June 5–11, 2022. The 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles takes participants through some California’s most beautiful countryside and is co-produced by San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here,” Center CEO Lorri L.Jean said in a special video that premiered Wednesday. “Registration for AIDS/LifeCycle 2022 is open!” The ride advances the shared interest of the Center and the Foundation in reducing new HIV…
By Greg Hernandez When actress Quei Tann was asked to participate in this weekend’s Love in Action telethon benefitting the Los Angeles LGBT Center, her answer was an immediate “yes.” Tann happens to know first-hand how important the Center’s programs and services are to the community and what a difference they can make in someone’s life. “Unlike some people who feel aggrieved and annoyed by seeing homeless people in the streets, my heart really breaks because that was me,” she shares. Tann, a rising star with recurring roles on Netflix’s Dear White People and the BET+ Original Series Tyler Perry’s Bruh,…
People living with HIV are almost twice as likely to have alcohol abuse problems which can lead to many serious health complications, according to Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Director of Research Risa Flynn. That’s why the Center is asking current Health Services clients who are living with HIV and drink alcohol to participate in Project ReACH, a research study being conducted by investigators from Brown University and funded by the National Institutes on Health. The study looks at different approaches to help people with HIV manage their alcohol use in a healthy way. The Center is among the handful of…
I happened to attend a conference at the University of Nevada, Reno, and one of the speakers was Lorri L. Jean. Her presentation about the Center and AIDS/LifeCycle inspired me and sounded like a dream I wanted to be part of. In 2012, due to unexpected life changes, my wife and I moved from Reno to Los Angeles. The Monday after we unpacked, I applied at the Center because I could not imagine anything more rewarding than getting to work there every day. It took a few attempts. I started volunteering and finally got my opportunity. It is so lovely to…
By Greg Hernandez It seems 2021 is looking a lot like 2020. Throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, demand for the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s vital programs and services—health care, mental health counseling, services for seniors and youth experiencing homelessness, affordable housing, and so much more—hasn’t let up. The Love in Action telethon airing live Saturday, August 14, from 7–9 p.m. PT, on KTLA 5 is critical for the Center to continue serving those who need it the most—especially with the highly-contagious Delta variant threatening any return to normalcy. “The Center is really saving lives,” said Dear White People cast member…