JESSE McCLOUD “I’m 26 years old, a non-binary queer hand embroidery artist. Started embroidery over three years ago. I started sewing clothes very young with both of my grandmothers but embroidery I picked up along the way and it stuck the most. I taught myself how to embroider and most of my work is very…
BY PAULO MURILLO LOS ANGELES MEMORIALS HELD FOR DR. STEVE GANZELL THROUGHOUT THE CITY A “Celebration of Life” for Steve Ganzell took place last month at Eagle LA and at Plummer Park in West Hollywood. Steve Ganzell, a beloved community leader, former President of Christopher Street West (the organization that produces LA Pride) and a long-time contributor to THE FIGHT, passed…
CENTER SOUTH The Los Angeles LGBT Center opened the doors of Center South last month, a 5,500-square-foot community space located at 2313 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. near Leimert Park, which signifies the first-ever expansion of the world’s largest LGBT organization into South Los Angeles and champions its long-term commitment to care for LGBT…
Massive Task “Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we’ve created to protect us.” —Alexander Leon, @alexand_erleon
“The world is falling apart, dear Readers! Unfortunately I used up my lifetime allocation of verbatim references to Yeats’ The Second Coming during Trump’s first year. Seriously. This works on the honor system. You simply cannot parrot lines from a single poem more than a hundred times. It’s a rule.” TO THE POLLS! One third…
COUPLES SOBRIETY With Valentines Day in mind, we asked these two husbands with long term sobriety, how they make their relationship work while working a program of recovery. BY PAULO MURILLO KNOWING YOUR BOUNDARIES “For me, the tools of recovery make me the best version of myself. If I’m a person of integrity and I’m…
THE FIGHT TO POSTHUMOUSLY PARDON GAY CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER BAYARD RUSTIN California lawmakers called on Gov. Gavin Newsom last month to posthumously pardon Bayard Rustin, a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. who helped organize the March on Washington, for his conviction in the 1950s under a state law frequently used to target gay men,…
MANUEL PAUL Santee Alley Trade, created by Los Angeles based artist, Manuel Paul (M.P.), is a digital art Instagram account, named after a swap meet located in an actual alley in Downtown Los Angeles. Paul uses this center to localize the subject of his artwork that celebrates the classic Chicano male form and down-low, lifestyle.…
FRIDAYS THROUGH JANUARY 31 PINCHE QUEEN PRESENTS: softBUTCH 10PM-2AM 131 E 6th St, Los Angeles, 90014. Pinche Queen Present. He/Him She/Her They/Them. Hosted By DTLA’s, Pinche Queen, Beats By DJ FOXYLECTRO, SHOWS BY Rubella Spreads (BIRTHDAY HENNY)& Rify Royalty. EVITA 10:30PM-2AM Nightingale, 643 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles. Presented by the producers of Daddy…
BY PAULO MURILLO LOS ANGELES BIG ASS GAY KISS BILLBOARD FOR “SCHITT’S CREEK” FINAL SEASON A billboard with a giant gay kiss was put up in Los Angeles to advertise the show Schitt’s Creek. The billboard shows gay actor Dan Levy, who plays David Rose, kissing Noah Reid, who plays David’s fiance Patrick Brewer. “F*ck…
It’s time for the GLBT community and allies to make the case that hostility towards gays and transpeople is not a legitimate tenet of any faith. LOUNGING BY THE POOL WITH OUR LAPTOPS The new California law that is meant to protect contract workers from exploitation by companies like Uber is threatening freelance contributors to…
Sober New Year We asked these clean and sober folks with various lengths of recovery time what their year was like and how they stayed sober throughout 2019BY PAULO MURILLO ALLOWING MYSELF “I celebrated 12 years of recovery in 2019. Crystal meth was in my life for 11 years, so I’ve been meth-free longer than…
LGBTQ SENIORS FACE CHALLENGES ACCESSING AGING SERVICES A groundbreaking new report by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) on the area’s growing LGBTQ senior population found that that one in five don’t use aging services because they feel unsafe or unwelcome. “These findings validate the need for us to listen to LGBTQ seniors as…
QueerMaps From the makers of Spotlight comes a new online resource to track down the queer spaces, politically-significant sites, and secret spots that have helped shape Los Angeles into the culturally-rich city we know today. Queer Maps is an interactive, online map of active LGBTQ organizations, bars, nightclubs, etc. in Los Angeles from 1871 to…
BY PAULO MURILLO LOS ANGELES JUSTIN WELLS, WESTWIND RECOVERY TREATMENT CENTER CEO, FOUND DEAD. RIP Justin Wells, the co-founder and CEO of Westwind Recovery Treatment Centers and Sober Livings in Los Angeles was found dead in his home last month by his husband Zack Ament, who is Chief Operating Officer at Westwind Recovery. No official…
You must check out the lesbian Renault ad, a Sapphic commercial masterpiece. But more importantly, have a lovely holiday month. Cheers. CLEAN UP ON AISLE ONE I’m starting to wonder what GOP lawmakers would do if Trump actually did shoot someone in cold blood on Fifth Avenue. Was it really Trump’s bullet that killed the…
SOBER FOR THE HOLIDAYS We asked these clean and sober individuals with various lengths of recovery time, how they plan to maintain their sobriety during the upcoming holidays BY PAULO MURILLO THE REALITY “I was born and raised here, so my holidays will all be spent local. We have lots of annual traditions. The way…
