By Greg Hernandez Whether it’s a phonebank, a letter writing effort, or marching in the streets, the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Resistance Squad has repeatedly been called into action over the past 12 months. “I love the Resistance Squad,” member Jennifer Rivers said as squad members participated in the Keep the Dream Act Alive March in Westwood in February. “You get a call, something happens,and you’re there.” The volunteer-based rapid response team was launched in the months after the 2016 presidential election when nerves were raw and spirits low. Since then, more than 800 volunteers have participated in the Squad’s various actions…
Author: Kelly Freter
By Greg Hernandez A record-breaking crowd of more than 1,700 LGBT people and their allies ate and drank the night away at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Simply diVine on March 24. The popular food and wine event benefitting the Center was held at iconic Hollywood Forever for the first time and featured more than 70 booths representing L.A.’s most popular food and drink destinations. “Every year it seems to be getting better and better and this is a great new location,” David Cooley, owner of The Abbey and Chapel at the Abbey, said as he poured drinks for guests…
Each month, approximately 4,000 people get their prescriptions filled at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s pharmacy. Overseeing the bustling and recently expanded facility and its 40 full-time employees is Pharmacy Director Nicole Thibeau, who feels like she’s found her dream job on the ground floor of the Center’s McDonald/Wright Building. “I’ve always been very socially conscious and I’ve always felt a little bit on the outside of things,” she tells Vanguard. “But here it just feels like I belong. There’s a cause, there’s a reason, everyone is very socially conscious and everyone is here for something bigger than themselves.” Thibeau…
By Greg Hernandez Thanks to the non-profit charity The Giving Spirit, 70 Los Angeles LGBT Center youth experiencing homelessness will receive a unique coat which transforms into a sleeping bag at night. The impact of such a gift will be palpable. The Center sees approximately 300 individual youths experiencing homelessness per month but currently has only 65 beds for emergency and temporary shelter. Many are on a waiting list for shelter and come to the Youth Center for meals, showers, clothing and laundry, and various programs and services. “So many of our youth are unable to go into shelters due to…
By Greg Hernandez Singer and Broadway veteran Shoshana Bean is donating the proceeds from her latest single, This is Me, to help the Center build a better world for LGBT people. “I wanted to give to a place that is local and speaks to my heart,” says Bean. “I want to call attention to those fighting for equality and to be accepted for who they are. It just felt natural to me.” This is Me is an Oscar-nominated song from the musical The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman, which hit theaters late last year. “It’s a song that I think speaks to anyone who…
By Greg Hernandez It was a day of celebration and inspiration for more than 300 people who gathered at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s The Village at Ed Gould Plaza for the The Future is Black: Reclaiming Our Power on February 17. The Black History Month event included live musical and spoken word performances, an art exhibit, a resource fair, rousing speeches, informative panels and an assembly presented by the Center’s Youth Ambassadors Coalition, all honoring black history, culture, and the power of our future. A powerful keynote speech was given by Sharon-Franklin Brown, an LGBT activist and former U.S. Navy sailor…
By Greg Hernandez Without intervention, one in two black gay and bisexual men will acquire HIV in their lifetime, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kevin, a Los Angeles-based musician in his 50s, never thought he’d be one of them. Now, six years after finding out he is HIV-positive, he desperately wants others to avoid infection. That’s why he is spreading the word about National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The February 7 awareness day was founded in 1999 as a national response to the growing HIV and AIDS epidemic in African American communities. This year’s theme is “Stay…
By Greg Hernandez The Los Angeles LGBT Center joined more than 400 people for a passionate yet peaceful “Keep the Dream Act Alive March” on February 3. “They will go after all of those who are marginalized but we will not let them,” the Center’s policy and operations manager Maria Melo told the crowd after they marched about two miles from Westwood Village near UCLA to the Wilshire Federal Building. The Center joined forces with the California Dream Network, Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights, UndocBlack Network, UndocuMedia, SEIU Local 2015, and Korean Resource Center for a march and rally calling…
By Greg Hernandez Part of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Youth Center was transformed into a hair salon this week with professional barbers and hairstylists busy trimming, coloring, and blow drying hair. Professional make-up artists were expertly applying cosmetics to fresh faces before the youth made their way across the hall to a makeshift studio for a photo session. It was all part of the Center’s annual Beauty Day which drew about 40 youth participants and culminated in a flashy fashion show complete with a runway, lighting, and music. “I think it was beautiful chaos,” said C.J. Richardson, the Center’s…
By Greg Hernandez Center CEO Lorri L. Jean stood on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall before a crowd of more than 500,000 people on Saturday and led them in a chant: “Be the storm!” “Until we see the change we need in Washington, it is our duty, it is our obligation, to do much more than simply hunker down and weather the storm,” Jean said during her rousing speech. “We must be the storm!” Fueled by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, the second Women’s March Los Angeles was focused on turning out the vote and bringing attention…