MAN ARRESTED FOR VANDALIZING CENTER
Damario Brown, 23, from Leimert Park in South Los Angeles, was sentenced to 36 months probation and nine days in jail after pleading guilty to the hate speech graffiti he spray painted at one of the L.A. LGBT Centers facilities early February.On February 9, Brown wrote “Fuck Trannies” and other slurs on a wall at the center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza in Hollywood.He was arrested a month later on March 9, after police identified him via surveillance footage. He was ordered to stay away from The Center, and he was also given 45 days of graffiti removal labor for his crime.
MAN ASSAULTS DRAG PERFORMER AND FRIEND
A man assaulted RuPaul’s Drag contestant Valentina and West Hollywood photographer Jason King, while they were walking to their car after leaving a bar in Weho’s Boystown last month.
WEHOville reports that King was walking with Valentina and Trinity Taylor, another RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, when the assailant punched Valentina and then punched King on the nose after he tried to intervene. The alleged assailant was arrested and charged with aggravated battery. His name was not released.
SAN DIEGO PRAY THE GAY AWAY PROTEST
San Diego activists are planning to protest anti-LGBT religious group Restored Hope Network (RHN) during their yearly conference that is scheduled to take place at The City View Church in San Diego only four miles northeast of Hillcrest, on June 16 and 17. RHN is a faith-based organization that claims to be accepting of individual who feel they can rid themselves of homosexual thoughts and urges through faith doctrines. Critics say their “pray the gay away” tactics are in line with gay conversion therapy.
LONG BEACH MAN STOMPS ON PRIDE FLAG
Long Beach Rep. Alan Lowenthal has had a rainbow LGBT flag hanging outside of his DC office since 2013, as a symbol of his solidarity with the LGBT community. Last month a man ripped the flag off its holder, threw it on the floor, and stomped on it several times, proclaiming the flag was “disgusting, immoral, and goes against everything that is right” before he left the building. The flag was not damaged and it was returned to its original place. Lowenthal is currently supporting the passage of a bill that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in housing, employment, education and other areas of life.
PRIDE PARADE REPLACED WITH RESIST MARCH
The LA Pride parade is going back to its roots this year by becoming a resist protest march to make a statement about human rights and resist the political forces that want to roll back LGBTQ+ rights. The march hopes to attract around 500,000 people. It will start on Hollywood Boulevard, where the first Los Angeles Pride Parade took place in 1970 and it will end at the LA Pride festival at what’s left of West Hollywood Park.
For more information, visit lapride.org.
TRANS CHORUS OF LOS ANGELES
The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center has announced it will be welcoming the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles (TCLA) to its Renberg Theatre for the first time. The musical ambassadors will perform two nights only, Friday, April 7 and Saturday, April 8, at 8pm. TCLA will perform planet Earth’s first staged concert production of the full The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie.
For more info visit transchorusla.org.
