By Greg Hernandez “Good Trouble is about to be the most LGBT-inclusive show you’ve ever seen and we’re proud of that,” show co-creator and executive producer Bradley Bredeweg told a crowd of more than 130 fans inside the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre. Bredeweg was joined at the Jan. 12 Good Trouble screening and panel discussion by fellow show creators and executive producers Joanna Johnson and Peter Paige, as well as cast members Zuri Adele, Sherry Cola, and Tommy Martinez. A spinoff of The Fosters, which ended its five-season run last June, Good Trouble fast-forwards five years. Set in…
Author: Kelly Freter
“It’s entertainment by us, about us, and for us.” That’s how writer-director Andrea Meyerson describes Lesbian Love in Shorts, the hit collection of lesbian-themed shorts coming to the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre for a special one-night-only screening at 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12. “These are all about love, showcasing our lives across generations,” explains Meyerson, whose film Getting Started is part of the program. Additional shorts in the program are Pop Rox, Foxy Trot, Marguerite, Boihood, and Salamagan. Some of the filmmakers will be in attendance for a Q&A to be followed by a party with dinner and…
By Greg Hernandez The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s amazing volunteers became the center of attention at a festive appreciation party on November 30 that included a dinner and dancing at Liaison Restaurant + Lounge in Hollywood. “We are celebrating you,” the Center’s Volunteer Resources Program Manager Camille Araullo told the crowd at the event. “The Center was founded 50 years ago by volunteers. What a testament to the power of volunteerism. This party is for you, and about you.” “It’s always been fun to volunteer at the Center,” special events volunteer Forrest Martin said while enjoying the festivities. “It builds…
By Greg Hernandez Multi-media artist Christopher Angel Ramirez has spent more than a decade exploring the complexity of growing up gay in the Latino culture. In Color Bonita, his media art performance piece which opens January 19 at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre, Ramirez will share what he’s learned about the queer Latino experience and how it is influenced by family, religion, machismo, and homophobia. “There are pressures and expectations that come with being a man in a Latino culture,” says Ramirez, a writing lecturer at University of California, Merced. “For lot of Latino men, even now, their…
By Greg Hernandez Nikita Dragun paid her first-ever visit to the Center’s Trans Wellness Center (TWC) just days after the YouTube star’s video calling out Victoria’s Secret for a transphobic comment went viral. “It was so eye-opening,” Dragun said of her TWC tour. “It’s inspired me to want to be more involved and help in any way I can. It’s just amazing to know that there is a place like this for trans people. To see the amount of resources here and the efforts being made to better the community is incredible and so inspiring.” TWC, a community-based partnership between…
Sitting around several tables in the Triangle Square community room, members of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Senior Chorus rehearse the song We Need A Little Christmas from the Broadway musical Mame. “We have to be really fun with this one,” group leader Keith Lamont tells the chorus. “Ham it up!” The rehearsal was for the Chorus holiday concert held on Wednesday, December 19, at Triangle Square for residents and members of the general public. The 10-member group performed renditions of such classics as Let It Snow, Blue Christmas, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, A Holly Jolly Christmas, as well…
On New Year’s Eve, #BOOM! 2019: The Boom Ball! will embrace the house and ball scene in the spirit of the dramatized TV series Pose. The annual event at West Hollywood Park Auditorium provides an alcohol- and drug-free alternative to the bar and club scene on one of the biggest party nights of the year. #BOOM! has been cosponsored by the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the City of West Hollywood, APLA Health, and the Institute for Public Strategies since 2014. “It’s really quite a festive event,” says Center Health Services Manager Mike Rizzo. “We offer a safe alternative to people…
By Greg Hernandez Popular YouTube personality MacDoesIt decided forgo a traditional party, instead inviting his fans and fellow OUTfluencers to a clothing drive for his 22nd birthday, all benefitting youth clients at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “I was just wanting to give back and I wanted to contribute to the Center,” said MacDoesit, whose real name is Machaizelli Kahey. “I wanted to find a good day to do it and thought, ‘Why not my birthday?’ It’s a way to giveback and come say happy birthday to Mac.” On hisDecember 1 birthday, about 150 people showed up at the Center’s…
Seated in the top row of the empty, brightly litDavidson/Valentini Theatre at the Los Angeles LGBT Center on a recent fall afternoon, Fabian Quezada– Malkin settles against the back wall and begins to slowly unfold a tale as dramatic as any that has been depicted on the stage here. Raised in an impoverished section of Guadalajara, Mexico, Quezada–Malkin realized, as so many LGBT children do at a very young age, that he was different from the other boys around him. He soon became a victim of homophobia and ceaseless bullying. “It wasn’t an easy life,” the 34-year-old recalls, his widening…
My affinity for the LGBT community goes way back, so far, in fact, that they’re part of my extended family. Listen, we are all God’s children. We are not here to judge anyone. We are living in very strange times right now. We all know that love prevails, and it will. Keep loving each other and be kind to everyone and no matter what; the LGBT community will thrive and all of your allies will help to lift you up. Just know that Jenny has got you. Let me break it down for you. When you have a life in…