By Greg Hernandez Thomas Keim showed up at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Transgender Job and Resources Fair on November 8 hoping for better experiences than those he’s had during his year-long job search. “I have gone to many interviews and as soon as I show up, I can see people get physically uncomfortable,” Keim explained. “I’ve seen people move backward when I reach out to shake their hands.” Keim began transitioning in 2017 shortly before he started a job at an insurance company which fired him after four months. “I received an email saying my personality profile no longer met the…
Author: Kelly Freter
By Greg Hernandez Held the day before Thanksgiving, the 18thannual TransGiving celebration helps members of the community connect at a time when many miss their families the most. “Many of us are dealing with a lot and walking in our trauma. So when we gather for TransGiving, it’s all about love,” says TransGiving founder Chela Demuir, longtime president of Unique Woman’s Coalition (UWC). Organizers expect more than 200 people for the elegant, four-course meal at LA Celebrations Banquet Halls on Wednesday, Nov. 21. This year’s dinner is sponsored by the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Trans Wellness Center (TWC), the community-based partnership between the Center and…
By Greg Hernandez October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and LGBT people are just as likely to experience abuse or violence from an intimate partner as anyone else. “It’s an important time to remember that domestic violence impacts the LGBT community and is as prevalent as it is in non-LGBT communities,” says Terra Russell Slavin, the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s deputy director of Policy and Community Building.“The issues still remain far too invisible.” The Center is home to the nation’s largest and most comprehensive LGBT domestic violence program. Its STOP Domestic Violence and Domestic Violence Legal Advocacy Project offer the services of LGBT specialists…
By Greg Hernandez The opening night performance of Sarah Jones’ Sell/Buy/Dateat the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre on October 14 left many of the stars in the sold-out audience raving. “She is a badass,” said Will & Gracestar Debra Messing. “Tonight is amazing. I had to be a part of it. To be here at the Center is particularly special because a lot of beautiful things happen here.” Jones portrays an array of multi-cultural characters—19 in all—in a show that is based on the real-life experiences of people affected by the sex industry. The characters from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds and…
The federal government wants to make it tougher for documented immigrants—including those who are LGBT—to obtain permanent residence or a visa if they use Medicaid, food stamps, or other public assistance. The proposed change to what is known as the “public charge” rule by the Department of Homeland Security is being seen as a way to scare immigrant families from seeking access to health care, nutrition, and housing programs. It aims to radically lower the historical standard for determining whether someone is “likely to become a public charge.” If implemented, any person who seeks or uses a wide range of health…
PrEP may be increasingly popular among white gay and bisexual men, but the HIV prevention strategy has yet to catch on with Latinos and other LGBTQ people of color. Anthony Tielemans has been on PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis) for three years and looks to National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day—observed each year on October 15—as a time to encourage other Latinos to consider starting the one-pill-a-day regimen. Tielemans is a health education specialist at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Though PrEP doesn’t offer protection from other STDs like condoms do, it’s safe and reduces the risk of HIV infection by up to 99%…
The audience at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza sat spellbound as David Parke Epstein shared his poem recounting a horrific Thanksgiving in 1962 “when my father strangled me at noon as my stepmother shrieked, ‘Your son’s a queer!’” Epstein was one of 16 LGBT seniors who shared their deeply personal writings at the My Life is Poetry reading on October 26 which was the culmination of an eight-week workshop at the Center. “We’re talking about queer seniors—people who are not strangers to discrimination, to violence, to trauma,” says Steven Reigns, the poet laureate of West Hollywood from…
By Greg Hernandez Love of family was a consistent theme among all of the honorees at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s 49thAnniversary Gala Vanguard Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel on September 22. Philanthropist Ariadne Getty was memorably presented with the Rand Schrader Distinguished Scholar Award by her son, August Getty, and daughter, Nats Getty, both of whom identify as LGBT. “Our mother is a beacon of light, an example of what every mother should be,” her daughter said. “I can honestly say she has zero judgment and she gives with an open heart.” Getty’s son drew one of the…
Herbie Taylor uses one of the 12 computers at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s David Bohnett CyberCenter at least three times a week to check email and to print out song lyrics for his upcoming gigs. “My WiFi is up and down at home,” Taylor explains as he takes a break in the courtyard of the Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza. “Sometimes I’m there two or three hours and sometimes I lose track and someone will say, ‘The Center is closing.’ I get very busy and time just goes by.” It was 20 years ago that the David Bohnett Foundation opened…
By Greg Hernandez It may be a solo show, but Sarah Jones will have plenty of company in Sell/Buy/Date, which opens at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre on September 27. The Tony Award-winning performer portrays an array of multi-cultural characters—19 in all—in a show that is based on the real-life experiences of people affected by the sex industry. “I feel so much gratitude to the people who have lent me parts of their stories, parts of themselves—my goal is to do them justice,” she says. “The idea is we sell sex, we buy sex, and there are places in…