Local
Is America on a slippery slope to fascism?
The Republican Party ‘has become a threat to liberal democracy,’ says Steve Schmidt
President Donald Trump (Photo by Michael Key)
Out journalist Masha Gessen, an expert on Russian President Vladimir Putin and authoritarianism, pulled no rhetorical punches.
“I don’t think we have fascist rule in this country, but what we have is a fascist leader,” Gessen told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on June 23, referring to President Donald Trump. “We have a nativist, nationalist leader who is devoting all his energy into portraying a group of people as a super dangerous enemy, both sort of subhuman animals, right, ‘infestation,’ and superhuman at the same time because they’re so frightening— because if we don’t protect ourselves, terrible things will happen, we don’t know what kind of catastrophe will befall us,” encapsulating Trump’s use of fear tactics and dehumanizing language about immigrants to rile his base.
“That is fascism,” Gessen said. “Whether we allow fascism to take over this entire country is an open question and none of us knows what’s going to happen. But it is by no means hyperbole to call Trump a fascist.”
Gessen noted how slowly fascism takes hold. “Somebody posted recently the mock cover that The Boston Globe did before Trump’s election to try to scare people that said, ‘Deportations to Begin.’ And we thought it would be so shocking just a year and a half ago—and now we’re in the middle of it,” she said. “Deportations have long since begun and worse than deportations.”
“And soon internment camps,” Reid added as an almost throwaway afterthought.
And then came the internment camps—for children.
But first came the announcement. In March 2017, Trump called for an end to the “catch and release” policy whereby migrants crossing illegally into the US, a misdemeanor, would be freed to stay in the country while awaiting a court hearing. A Department of Homeland Security proposal called for women and children to be separated as a deterrent to mothers.
Implementing the new policy proposal “could create lifelong psychological trauma,” Marielena Hincapie, executive director at the National Immigration Law Center, told Reuters for a March 3, 2017 story. “Especially for children that have just completed a perilous journey from Central America.”
A year later, on April 6, 2018, Attorney General Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions announced a new “zero-tolerance” policy. Lest anyone miss the point, Sessions went to Friendship Park on the border on May 8 and gleefully spelled out the new policy.
“People are not going to caravan or otherwise stampede our border. We need legality and integrity in the system. That’s why the Department of Homeland Security is now referring 100 percent of illegal Southwest Border crossings to the Department of Justice for prosecution. And the Department of Justice will take up those cases,” he said. “If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple. If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law.”
The felony criminalization of immigration forced authorities to take a child while the parent was referred for prosecution, which often resulted in deportation without the child. Sessions later declared that asylum would not be granted to anyone fleeing from domestic violence or gangs.
Asked by NPR if separating a child from a mother is “cruel and heartless,” White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said on May 11: “I wouldn’t put it quite that way. The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever. But the big point is they elected to come illegally into the United States and this is a technique that no one hopes will be used extensively or for very long.”
During a May 15 Senate committee hearing, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that families seeking asylum who present themselves at ports of entry stay together. However, DHS later clarified that families may be separated if they can’t prove a custodial relationship or if DHS thinks a child may be at risk, being used by a trafficker to gain entry. In practice, asylum seekers who presented themselves at a point of entry were blocked, forced to find another way into the country, thus making their crossing illegal, with the children removed.
On May 29, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a 21 percent surge in one month in unaccompanied children in government detention centers. “Although the government has not disclosed how many children have been separated from their parents as a result of the new measures, [HHS] said Tuesday that it had 10,773 migrant children in its custody, up from 8,886 on April 29,” the Washington Post reported.
More than 100 children under the age of 4 were taken from their mothers, including breast-feeding infants, The New York Times reported, using data provided by HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The policy was the last straw for former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt who renounced his membership in the Republican Party, now “fully the party of Trump.”
“This child separation policy is connected to the worst abuses of humanity in our history. It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families,” he said in the thread. “Today the GOP has become a danger to our democracy and values.”
Schmidt also came close to calling Trump a fascist. “Conservatism has become synonymous with obedience to the leader – a leader who says ‘I am the law. I am above the law. I will define what truth is.’ Truth is what the leader says it is, not what we would have recognized months ago as objective truth,” Schmidt told MSNBC. “The last time this happened, it unleashed a tragedy the likes of which the world has never seen. And I think there is a real lack of imagination in this country about how fragile these institutions are and how dangerous a president as unprepared, as authoritarian, as ignorant as he is—the damage he would be able to cause.”
The government tried to control the detention narrative. But reporting by Los Angeles native Jacob Soboroff for MSNBC after touring a facility in McAllen, Texas burst through. He described essentially a prison with “babies sitting by themselves in a cage with other babies.” He said reporters on the tour were asked to smile at the kids because they “feel like animals locked up in cages.” ProPublica released smuggled audio of young children crying for their parents. Reports of “tender-age shelters” and the sight of young people escorted in the dark of night to facilities around the country caused outrage.
Trump said he didn’t like the images and on June 20 signed an executive order that kept in place his “zero-tolerance” policy, but allows families to stay together while the parents are being prosecuted. However, many questions remain: what happens if the parents’ cases are not adjudicated within 20 days, when a federal court settlement requires that children be released from detention?
And while a San Diego judge ordered family reunification within 30 days of separation, the government has apparently not been keeping track of the children, including infants and toddlers who do not know their names. More than 2,300 children are in government custody since the separation policy started in April.
“I miss my mother and when I see those children on the border it rips my heart out,” says Maria (a pseudonym to protect her identity). “She died trying to get me here. She carried me from Honduras, first on a bicycle, then a van, a train, on foot, on bus…We traveled for such a long way, it took months. I remember it. She died in a small town on the side of the road in Mexico trying to get to my brother in California. She was not a criminal. She only wanted to give us both a better life but she didn’t make it. I was only 6 years old.
Maria remembers the good part of the journey. “People don’t understand. For 99 percent of the people, the journey is a highlight of their life, sometimes the only family they have in the world are people they meet along the way. They take care of each other, feed each other, share everything and they look out for the children, even the older boys who travel alone,” she says. “When my mother died people took care of me, they knew what my mother wanted for me and they made it happen.
“It’s not what Trump wants you to think,” she continues. “There were some bad people who took advantage of the good people, but they were not us. Most of the bad people were making money, stealing from the people the journey, making promises they did not keep.”
“I am not a bad hombre and neither was my mother,” she adds. “I was captured but not separated from the woman who told immigration people she was my mother. She took care of me for 2 years and worked everyday to help me find my brother. I still call her mom and she is still in danger of deportation all these years later.”
Maria made that journey in 2003. She was reunited with her brother, who had been adopted by a gay couple in the Palm Springs area and she eventually came out as a lesbian. She is working on getting her citizenship. “I love this country. My brother and I are lucky,” she tells the Los Angeles Blade.
Not everyone is as lucky. Last May, among the caravan of 225 asylum seekers fleeing Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to the Mexican border were more than 20 transgender women. Not all arrived in Tijuana.
“Some of us have been kidnapped, assaulted, and disappeared,” Ivan Mondragon, 30, who organized the transgender group, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Some have been forced into sex work. Here in Tijuana, one of our girls was assaulted, someone broke her rib and we haven’t seen her since she posted a video on Facebook after she was beaten.”
“I have friends who don’t have the opportunity to ask for asylum because they are already dead,” Shannel Smith, 28 of Honduras, told the Union-Tribune. She is fleeing gang members who killed her friend.
Roxanna Hernandez, 33, turned herself to ICE in San Diego seeking help—she had AIDS and was also fleeing violence as a trans woman. ICE took her into custody, shuffled her from facility to facility until she died alone on May 25 in New Mexico.
But asylum for LGBT people is not easy to get. Udoka Nweke, a 29-year-old gay Nigerian, has been in Adelanto Detention Center since Dec. 2016. Fleeing his country after being attacked by an anti-gay mob, Nweke’s asylum plea was denied and he attempted suicide. The Black LGBTQ Migrant Project has petitioned for his release on parole so he can access lifesaving medical treatments.
Concern is growing about the psychological and emotional well being of the children now in government detention camps.
Mark Takano on the bus touring several camp facilities. Photo courtesy Takano’s Office
Out Rep. Mark Takano is among the congressional representatives who travelled to border towns and detention and prisons to see what’s happening. To him, the incarceration and the tent cities dramatically remind him of the Japanese-American internment camps during World War Two.
“I am just taken by how much the history of Japanese-American internment has been made current,” Takano tells the Los Angeles Blade. The fact that the family separation policy has been suspended “only proves that the administration was lying when it said it was law and they were forced to do this.” In fact, ‘the law did not require any of the cruel policies that they were implementing.”
Takano says that when he visited the McAllen, Brownsville and Port Isabel detention centers, he met with about 15 women from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. “None of these women posed a danger to our country. None of these women even came close to images of MS 13, which this president likes to broad brush all immigrants with to justify his policies.”
At Port Isabel, “you see 15 foot high walls and fences topped off with coiled razor wire,” Takano said. “And, of course, that image reminded me of my mother and my father who were two and three years old they went to Heart Mountain in Wyoming and Tule Lake in California. And certainly two and three year olds did not pose a danger to our country. And the executive order that lead to the interment of Japanese-Americans and Japanese immigrants” and Trump’s cruelty policy “were motivated by an extreme political agenda that was also further propagated by a media and a press that repeated the exaggerated claims of politicians….Rounding up and interring all Japanese-Americans was discriminatory.”
The disproportionate response then and now is based on “some vague notion of national security, some vague notion we’re protecting the public. That is simply a fiction and untrue. And it’s causing great suffering,” he says. “This is an immoral policy,” the scapegoating, stigmatization, “the marginalization of a vulnerable minority whose due process rights were not respected.”
“How does this connect to LGBT people?” Takano recalls how during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, members of Congress called for the tattooing, quarantining, “the interment of LGBT people,” he said. “Medical science certainly negated those outrageous claims. We know that the calls to segregate and round up gays and to confine them was motivated by an anti-gay and homophobic animus.”
“[History] is repeating itself but it has gone to a new low with Donald Trump. When we were incarcerated [in Japanese-American internment camps], our families were intact. My parents were with me,” out actor George Takai told CNN. “But in this case, it’s come to a chilling low where babies are torn away from their mothers and placed in separate internment camps.”
Takai says Trump’s lies and inflammatory rhetoric are similar to what happened to Japanese-Americans in the 1940s. “We were characterized by the government, classified as ‘enemy aliens.’ We were neither,” he said, noting that many young Japanese Americans “rushed to their recruitments centers to volunteer to serve in the US military” right after Pearl Harbor but were denied.
But repeat a lie often enough “and it becomes a reality.” That’s what happened with “enemy aliens,” Takai said, recalling comments from the politically ambitious California Attorney General Earl Warren: “We have no reports of sabotage or spying or fifth column activities by Japanese Americans. And that is ominous because the Japanese are inscrutable. We can’t tell what they’re thinking so it would be prudent to lock them up before they do anything.”
“Taking that stereotype and grotesquely turning it against us—the big lie is happening with Donald Trump now, as well,” said Takai. “They are not murderers, rapists and drug dealers. They are literally fleeing for their lives and to call them infestations is absolutely grotesque.”
LGBT people should be concerned about Trump’s call to do away with immigration judges. “What are we going to do for LGBT people who are fleeing regimes that actually torture and kill them for being gay?,” asks Takano. “They don’t even get a hearing?” This anti-immigrant attitude harms us morally, to have this be done in our names as American citizens.”
The 2026 Los Angeles Blade Best of LGBTQ LA Awards are here! You submitted your nominations—now it’s time to vote for the finalists. Voting is open through March 6, 2026.
Among some of your favorite categories are Best Drag Performer, Local Influencer of the Year, Best Happy Hour, Go-Go of the Year, Activist of the Year, Public Official of the Year, Best Non-Profit, Best Bartender, Best DJ, Best Local Podcast, and so many more!
Winners will be revealed at the Best of LGBTQ LA celebration on Thursday, March 26 at The Abbey. Stay tuned for more party details coming soon!
Vote using the form below or by clicking HERE.
Here are this year’s nominees!
Best Drag Performer
- Cake Moss
- Charles Galin King
- Kyra Jete
- Laylah Amor
- Misty Violet
Best Drag Show
- Bring It To Brunch at Mattie’s
- Brunch Service at The Abbey
- Hamburger Marys West Hollywood
- Las Reinas at Mickys
- Rocc-ettes at Mattie’s
Local Influencer of the Year
- Charles Hernandez (CnoteLA)
- Curly Velasquez
- Justin Martindale
- Lucas Dell
- Rose Montoya
- Victoria Pousada Kreindler
Best LGBTQ Bar
- Gym Bar
- Kiso Los Angeles
- Mattie’s Weho
- Or Bar
- The Abbey
Best Happy Hour
- 33 Taps
- Fiesta Cantina
- Hi-Tops
- Mickys
- Motherlode
- The Abbey
Go-Go of the Year
- Daniel Mooney
- Gabriel Gonzalez
- Jay Nova
- Prince Joshua
- Steven Dehler
- Victoria Shaw
Best Restaurant
- Bottega Louie
- Hamburger Mary’s
- La Boheme
- Pura Vita
- WeHo Bistro
Best Radio or TV Station
- CHANNEL Q
- KTLA
- LatiNation
- Out TV
- REVRY
Best Cannabis Retailer/Lounge
- Artist Tree Lounge
- Elevate
- Green Qween
- Med Men
- The Woods WeHo
Best LGBTQ Owned Business
- Fan Girl Cafe
- Green Qween
- JJLA
- MISTR
- Wildfang
Best LGBTQ Social Group
- Dark Circle Film Society
- Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles
- NLGJA Los Angeles
- Outloud Sports
- Unique Woman’s Coalition
- WeHo Dodgeball
Best House of Worship
- Congregation Kol Ami
- Founders Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles
- Hollywood Boulevard Episcopal
- Hollywood United Methodist
- InVision Church Los Angeles
Activist of the Year
- Cory Allen
- Joshua Marin-Mora
- Liliana Perez
- Maebe A. Girl
- Rose Montoya
Public Official of the Year
- CA State Treasurer Fiona Ma
- Chelsea Byers
- John Erickson
- Lindsey Horvath
- Maebe A. Girl
Best Local Pro Sports Team
- Angel City FC
- LA Chargers
- LA Dodgers
- LA Lakers
- LA Rams
- LA Sparks
- Los Angeles FC
Local Ally of the Year
- Abbe Land
- Jessica Steinman
- Kevin De Nicolo
- Lindsey Horvath
- Senator Lena Gonzalez
Best Doctor/Medical Provider
- AIDS Healthcare Foundation
- Better U
- Dr. Eric Chaghouri
- LA LGBT Center
- St. John’s Wellness
- UCLA CARE Center
Most LGBTQ-Friendly Workplace
- AIDS Healthcare Foundation
- City of West Hollywood
- JJLA
- Los Angeles LGBT Center
- Revry
Non-Profit of the Year
- AJ Socal
- Equality California
- Los Angeles LGBT Center
- OutAthletes
- Project Angel Food
- Trans Lifeline
Best Local Actor
- Annie Reznik
- Jason Caceres
- Michael Scott Montgomery
- Nhut Le
- Shaan Dasani
- Trevor Dow
Best Local Theatre
- Celebration Theatre
- Center Theatre Group
- Geffen Playhouse
- International City Theatre
- LA Opera
- Pasadena Playhouse
Local Musical Artist of the Year
- Prince Joshua
- Robert Rene
- Ross Alan
- San Cha
- Tom Goss
Best LGBTQ Event
- Dinah Shore
- GLAAD Awards
- LA Opera Pride Night
- MISTR’s National PrEP Day
- Outloud Music Festival at Weho Pride
- Pride Night by Hyperion LA
Best Regional Pride
- DTLA Proud
- Hermosa Beach
- Long Beach Pride
- Palm Springs Pride
- WeHo Pride
Best Promoter of the Year
- Andres Rigal
- Ash Rodriguez
- Beau Byron
- Joshua Flores
- Paul Nicholls
LGBTQ Professional of the Year
- Cory Allen
- Erik Braverman
- Kathleen Rawson
- Liliana Perez
- Michael Ferrera
- Tristan Schukraft
Best Bartender
- Alex Satoshi DiDio
- Danny Hernandez
- Manny De Cielo
- Matt Stratman
- Michael Susi
- Michael Vega
Best DJ
- Boy Apocalypse
- DJ Les Ortiz
- DJ SRO
- Lord Izac
- Simon Harrison
Best Local LGBTQ Podcast
- BabyGay
- No Matter What Club
- No Matter What Recovery
- On The Rocks
- Sloppy Seconds Podcast
- Very Delta
Best Salon/Spa
- Bautis LA
- Folklore Salon & Barber
- Project Q
- Shorty’s Barber Shop
- The Massage Company WEHO
Best Music Venue
- The Disney Concert Hall
- The Hollywood Bowl
- The Roxy Theatre
- The Troubadour
- The Wiltern
Best Fitness/Workout Spot
- Barry’s WEHO
- Equinox on Sunset
- Gold’s Gym
- John Reed Fitness
- LA Fitness, Hollywood
Best Hotel
- Andaz
- Edition Hotel
- Hotel Ziggy
- Kimpton La Peer Hotel
- SoHo House
California
Experts discuss pathways forward as anti-trans violence continues to rise
On Thursday, Feb. 19, the Williams Institute invited a panel of local experts to discuss the rise in anti-trans hate crimes, and ways communities can seek refuge and support.
During a recent webinar hosted by the Williams Institute, a local LGBTQ+ policy think tank, several policy experts, law scholars, and advocates gathered online to discuss violence against transgender people in California as well as potential solutions to navigate the year ahead.
Here are important updates gathered from the session. These expand on an earlier Blade article about the increase in reported hate crimes and incidents against trans people since 2013.
What we’re familiar with: trans people face higher rates of victimization and violence
llan H. Meyer, the Williams Distinguished Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute, utilized data collected by the 2022-2023 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) to re-solidify the lived experiences of trans Angelenos and Californians.
The reality is: transgender, gender expansive, and intersex (TGI) communities face much higher rates of violence compared to cis people who are not queer-identifying.
Out of the 9,146 Californian respondents who participated in the national USTS, 19% of those surveyed reported that they received threats of violence. 38% reported facing verbal harassment, and 42% experienced online harassment. Overall, nearly 60% of the TGI people surveyed experienced some form of violence, threatening behavior, or harassment.
And for Black and brown trans women, whose experiences of transphobia may also coincide with misogynoir, racism, and anti-immigration rhetoric, they are at an even greater risk when it comes to experiencing violence and harassment.
Why is there an increase in violence against trans people?
When the webinar’s moderator, Senior Scholar of Public Policy Ayden Scheim, posed this question, Meyer pointed to the political “scapegoating” of trans people in the U.S. Under the current administration, there is a proliferation and mobilization of anti-LGBTQ+ hate that is especially rooted in anti-trans bias.
The higher numbers in recent data can also be explained by increased training for police when it comes to investigating and reporting anti-trans hate crimes and incidents. This could also be because more people are willing to report the violence they face.
Historically, though, TGI people report higher rates of distrust when it comes to seeking support from the police, so they often underreport the violence they experience. While researchers are working hard to collect a more “complete record” and a full portrait of anti-trans hate and violence, there are factors that can limit this work.
“Not everybody reports, not everybody who reports is assessed to actually be a hate crime, and not everybody who is assessed to be an actual hate crime is actually reported upward so that it gets into the data,” Meyer explained, detailing the difficulties researchers can face when trying to piece together a more “complete record” and full portrait of anti-trans hate and violence.
There is a “gap between legal protection and lived safety.”
Much of the distrust trans people experience when it comes to police and officials is a product of systems that have proven to be hostile towards trans people. “I feel like that tells us something that’s really important. Violence is not some random act…It is a pattern. It is structural. It interacts with social perceptions and economic vulnerability,” said Pamuela Halliwell, the Director of Behavioral Health Services at the San Diego LGBT Community Center.
Halliwell described her work as existing at the crossroads between behavioral health, community practice, and research, allowing her intimate insight into the tedious, chronic “hypervigilance” many trans people begin to embody as they face increased fear and stress from the threat of violence.
“It looks like people are being removed from their homes. It looks like fear, shame,” Halliwell described. “It looks like discrimination that feels overwhelming and contributes to a host of other mental health symptoms that become overwhelming and damaging. It looks like housing instability. It looks like communities are carrying communicative stress.”
While acknowledging that California has some of the strongest legal frameworks for trans people, Halliwell explained that there is a gap between stronger protections and the still prominent and tangible violence trans people face. She pointed towards a need for accessible survivor-centered reporting systems, making sure people know that these resources are available and ensuring that data collection and analysis moving forward really centers people across all gender identities.
How do we address our “structural vulnerability” and lean into different avenues of care?
Alec Watts, Assistant Deputy Director of Research and Policy at the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), explained that the department conducts extensive outreach to make sure communities and organizations are empowered with inclusive education. Part of this includes attending events as well as hosting trainings to educate people about civil rights protections, human trafficking, housing, and hate violence.
There are also direct ways members of the public can make their voice heard.
File a complaint
Watts explained that people are encouraged to file a complaint with the CRD directly if they believe their rights were violated. The department is in charge of investigating thousands of these complaints, and can provide mediation and, potentially, help file lawsuits in court on behalf of victims.
Consult in the CRD’s Community Conflict Resolution Unit
These are free, confidential resolution services intended to help community members when people are experiencing fear, conflict, or tension. Members of this unit can help facilitate discussion after an incident occurs, provide educational materials, and can assist schools in mediating tension between students, adults, or both.
Seek anonymous support through the California vs Hate hotline
The CRD operates the non-emergency reporting hotline for anyone in the state who has experienced or witnessed a hate crime or incident. But Watts stresses that this is more than just a reporting hotline — once you make a report, you are connected with a trauma-informed care coordinator who can connect you with legal, financial, mental health, or mediation resources. Services are free and available, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or immigration status. Reports can be made at the website or on the phone, at 8338-NO-HATE.
“Our psyche cannot function in survival mode forever,” Halliwell said, pointing to a sustained fear that trans people navigate the world with. As severe and real as these fears are, Halliwell also clarified that TGI communities are not solely defined by harm. “The data [also] reflects a community that continues to show up, build networks, create chosen families, and demand better systems…It also highlights where intervention is possible. Structural vulnerability can be addressed, prevention is possible, and community care is real and expanding.”
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
Los Angeles
Nikko LaMere’s photo exhibit “JOY!” documents the euphoria of Black queer nightlife
Now available to view at the LA LGBT Center, “JOY!” is a raw preservation of Black queer nightlife, fantasy and self-discovery.
It’s 2018, inside queer dance party Ostbahnhof, and the floor is packed with a sweaty, hypnotic energy as people groove to the sexy, lush soundscapes of techno and deep house. Photographer and visual artist Nikko Lamere rushes to grab their disposable camera, accidentally spilling some of their whiskey ginger on someone, and snaps a couple of shots of their friends: immortalizing their uninhibited joy and movement forever.
Eight years later, these photos LaMere captured across various local queer dance parties comprise their newest and largest photo exhibition yet: “JOY!” Displayed at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, “JOY!” is a raw documentation of Black queer nightlife, fantasy, and euphoria. It includes two of LaMere’s major bodies of work and follows the artist’s queer journey and creative evolution.
The exhibit’s opening on Feb. 13 is one of two events in the Center’s “Highly Favored” programming series that uplifts Black queer liberation every February. The next event comes this Saturday, and is a celebratory dance party akin to the ones documented in LaMere’s photos.
Prior to this exhibit, LaMere was most known for their saturated and stylized editorial work with contemporary music phenoms like Doja Cat, SZA, Latto, Billie Eilish and Kehlani. Propelled at a young age into flashy spaces with modern-day tastemakers and legends, LaMere sought refuge in photography throughout their adolescence. Their fascination with the camera began in elementary school while growing up in Culver City, when their grandmother gifted them a Nickelodeon-themed camera to take photos with.
Their eye and talent were reinforced with praise, and this love for the craft grew from curiosity to solace in high school. Bullied for being gay and femme, LaMere sought refuge at the library, where they first discovered the technicolor, surreal work of visionary photographer David LaChapelle. This became a direct pathway for LaMere’s own career: one that, though successful and fulfilling in its own way, led to a need for change.
For so long, the camera was a means to fulfill someone else’s vision. Now, LaMere began to use it as a tool for connection and raw documentation. In 2018, they didn’t set out to create what is now their “In the Night” photo series; they were simply trying to explore their own queer journey, and preserve the friendships and environments that made them feel comfortable in their own skin.
That vulnerable process of “becoming” is one they hadn’t touched upon in their previous work. For the first time, they couldn’t carefully and methodically create the shot; whatever they snapped was based purely on instinct, a fleeting moment of true and embodied tenderness, ecstasy, and freedom.
“To have this body of work shot all in black-and-white, for it to be so gay and Black — it feels really affirming,” LaMere said. “These are the most raw images and things I could create. There’s no Photoshop. There’s no retouching. It’s literally straight from the camera. It just is. I think part of joy is being able to just be, and that’s what these images are.”
“JOY!” also includes LaMere’s work, “Queer Fantasy,” a collection of 40 black-and-white film portraits and interviews with local queer performers, artists, and everyday people. This newer project grew from the core of “In the Night,” and is another intentional project focused on highlighting the beauty and individuality of queer Angelenos. Each person is asked: “What is your queer fantasy?,” illustrating that queer fantasy is not only a transformative kind of rebirth: it is a process built by radical efforts to cultivate joy, success, and safety in the face of violence and discrimination.
For LaMere, “JOY!” is about this process and the moments of self-discovery found on the dance floor, where you can really feel tethered to the person you’re becoming while “the world is burning around you.” While speaking with LaMere, I am grounded by the words of DJ, artist and organizer Darryl DeAngelo Terrell.
“Here, in this space we as black people [are] forced to find liberation in our own bodies, it’s in us, deeper than melanin, and it is activated by bodily acts,” Terrell writes. “We Move* in ways that others can not fathom to understand. Through these acts, we find the most beautiful yet temporary forms of true freedom; we find joy, peace in these acts.”
“JOY!” is available to the public on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. More information about the exhibit and “Highly Favored” can be found here. This Saturday’s queer dance party will also honor special guests Hailie Sahar, a starlet on the revolutionary FX show Pose, as well as filmmaker and ballroom culture documentarian Elegance Bratton.
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
Los Angeles
A new “queer summer camp” cycling event rises from the legacy of AIDS/LifeCycle
The LA LGBT Center will host its first ever “Center Ride Out,” a 3-day community cycling adventure from Los Angeles to San Diego.
On April 24, 500 cyclists will meet at Elysian Park before dawn, stretching and preparing for a 110-mile ride through urban scenery and rolling hills. They will be part of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s inaugural “Center Ride Out,” a 3-day journey that takes riders through Los Angeles and Temecula, reeling to a stop at the San Diego LGBT Community Center.
The cycling adventure is a rejuvenating, communal queer experience that taps into the importance of shared joy and advocacy in the fight to defend LGBTQ+ rights. Its roots are sacred for many queer elders: Center Ride Out rises from the legacy of the cherished AIDS/Life Cycle (ALC), a seven-day cycling adventure from San Francisco to L.A. that formed in 1994 and ended with its last ride in 2025.
In its 31-year run, ALC riders raised over $300 million for HIV and AIDS resources, services, and awareness. This year, Center Ride Out provides a new, exciting extension of this important event, allowing cyclers to raise funds in support of the LA LGBT Center, The San Diego LGBT Community Center, and the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.
This support is crucial as LGBTQ+ organizations face a new crisis: widespread defunding. In the last fiscal year, the LA LGBT Center lost $9 million in federal support, according to its CEO Joe Hollendoner. The funding raised by Center Ride Out’s participants will help offset this loss and keep the organization’s various programs and services, from gender affirming care and HIV prevention resources to LGBTQ+ senior and youth support, afloat. “We anticipate further divestment in our work by the Trump administration, [so Center Ride Out] allows people to align their own personal passions with our mission in a broader way,” Hollendoner told the Blade.
Altogether, Center Ride Out participants will cover nearly 200 miles of ground together. At the end of the first 110-mile day from L.A. to Temecula, where riders will get to look at historic landmarks and embark on a museum lunch stop together, the day culminates at campgrounds at Lake Skinner.
Here, riders can take a full rest day at their lakeside camp, where it will exude queer summer camp vibes. There will be massage and medical services, arts and crafts activities, dance parties, and time to relax and connect with the community. “Folks [can] build relationships, have some fun, and feel safe. That’s a feeling a lot of people [need] right now, especially our trans and nonbinary siblings,” Hollendoner said.
Day 3 ends with an 87-mile downhill, coastal ride through the town of Rainbow in northern San Diego County, before ending with a celebratory bash at the San Diego LGBT Community Center.
Hollendoner rode ALC five times while it was active and is excited to be part of this new legacy from its very beginning. “I’ve heard our community elders talk about how powerful it was to be at the start of AIDS/LifeCycle, and the idea that I can be here at the start of Center Ride Out, an event that I hope will go for three decades or longer…It feels really exciting to me,” Hollendoner said.
For newcomers and experienced cyclists alike, Center Ride Out aims to provide an accessible experience: paring down the initial weeklong ALC ride to three days. To take part, cyclists are expected to raise $2,500 by April 10. For those who may struggle to reach this minimum, staff members have established a community fund.
The community fund will also provide scholarships for BIPOC, trans, women, and femme participants — historically underrepresented communities at ALC — as well as microgrants for BIPOC and trans-led teams to encourage a diverse range of cyclists.
Come April, scores of queer cyclists will get to experience this adventure together: one that is both storied and fresh in its purpose, lineage, and joyful expression of queer togetherness. “Center Ride Out is providing an exciting opportunity for people to not only fight back and be in community with one another, but to build resiliency and be surrounded by people who share values around liberation,” Hollendoner said.
To learn how to register, donate to or volunteer for Center Ride Out, more information can be found here. The three-day adventure takes place from April 24 to April 26.
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
Los Angeles
Stonewall Young Democrats bounces back from “quiet year” with Hero Awards
On Saturday, Feb. 7, the Stonewall Young Democrats (SYD), an organization that mobilizes and fosters community for young, LGBTQ+ people, hosted its “Hero Awards” ceremony at Beaches West Hollywood. Under luminous pink light, vibrant crowds of community members showed up to support and celebrate people and organizations spearheading LGBTQ+ visibility, change, and livelihood across L.A. County. Political figures filled the venue wall to wall, including LA Mayor Karen Bass, West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, West Hollywood Council Member John Erickson, and California Assemblymember Rick Zbur.
Several local advocates and politicians were honored for their queer advocacy and leadership, including City of Los Angeles LGBTQ+ community affairs liaison Carla Ibarra, L.A. Democratic Party Chair Mark Ramos, Congressman Mark Takano, and L.A. County LGBTQ Commission Chair Sydney Rogers. The Los Angeles Blade was also recognized with an Impact Award.
Los Angeles Blade publisher Alexander Rodriguez accepted the award. In his acceptance speech, Rodriguez shared, “We report on and share the struggles of our queer community. We also get to see the resilience and strength our community has, even in the face of adversity. We see firsthand the importance of the Stonewall Young Democrats and the amazing network of people they have put together, as seen here today.”
The Stonewall Young Democrats formed in 2004, immortalizing the 1969 Stonewall riots in its name. The decision to carry the legacies of early gay rights movements is poignant: queer resistance and their enduring battle against political and social marginalization and violence are seared into the organization’s core.
SYD’s President Kanin Pruter is keeping this link to the past alive; it’s a reminder of the interconnectedness of the queer community. “Our history is there for a reason,” Pruter told the Blade. “Without lesbians during the AIDS crisis, we would not be where we are today. And our movement was started by Black trans women.”
This recent Hero Awards marks SYD’s revitalization. After a relatively quiet year, its board is excited to grow its organization, recruit diverse and eager LGBTQ+ folks, and create fruitful opportunities for everyone in the organization to develop their political advocacy and organizing skills.
Most importantly, Pruter hopes that SYD can be a safe, inclusive, and accessible space for any LGBTQ+ person who has felt outcast before. “In a loving and joking way, we’re an island of misfit toys,” Pruter said, who is intentional about creating environments where queer folks who have experienced trauma, isolation, and exclusionary social politics can fit in and belong.
“I want folks to be open, vulnerable and leave any preconceived notions at the door. We come in here [and] we are who we are. We respect each other’s identity, and we’re here to foster a culture where everyone feels welcome.”
Pruter encourages young LGBTQ+ people who are interested in getting involved in SYD, to contact him and learn more about the organization. More information can be found here.
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
AIDS and HIV
Congresswoman Maxine Waters introduces new resolution for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
H.Res.1039 supports more funding, resources and awareness for Black American communities, who are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS.
Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Advocates established this day of awareness on Feb. 7, 1999, and nearly 30 years later, Black communities in the U.S. continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV.
On Wednesday, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters introduced H.Res.1039, a resolution that supports the goals of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and calls for a collective commitment to address disparities Black people with HIV face. Waters represents the state’s 43rd congressional district, a majority Black and Brown population comprising South L.A. cities like Hawthorne, Gardena, and Inglewood.
In the resolution, Waters urges state and local government officials, as well as their public health agencies, to acknowledge the importance of this awareness day and encourage their constituents to get tested for HIV. The resolution also requests that the Secretary of Health and Human Services prioritize distributing grant funding to minority-led, HIV organizations and community-based approaches to fighting HIV stigma, LGBTQ+ discrimination, and racism.
In 2023, young Black men accounted for 47% of new HIV diagnoses among youth, while young white men made up 3% of these diagnoses, according to a new Williams Institute report. Black women also have the highest HIV diagnosis rate among women, and Black community members overall represent 38% of new HIV diagnoses and 39% of people living with HIV in the U.S., despite being only 12% of the national population.
Beyond the disproportionate rates of infection and diagnosis amongst Black Americans, these communities also face greater difficulties in accessing the medical care needed to prevent and treat HIV. In the same year, white Americans were 7 times more likely to access Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) compared to Black Americans, a data point that affirms racial and healthcare inequities Black people continue to face in the U.S.
“[This] is a day to commemorate the impact of HIV/AIDS on Black Americans and encourage continued efforts to reduce the incidence of HIV, eliminate health disparities, improve access to care and treatment, and show support for all those who are living with HIV/AIDS,” said Congresswoman Waters, in a press release.
Waters has been an advocate for people impacted by HIV/AIDS since the peak of the crisis in the 1980’s. In 1998, she worked to establish the Minority AIDS Initiative, which expanded national prevention and treatment efforts in support of minority communities, who remain disproportionately impacted by HIV. In 2025, Waters introduced the “HIV Prevention Now Act” as well as the “PrEP and PEP are Prevention Act,” to increase prevention efforts and reduce health insurance barriers to access preventative resources, respectively.
H.Res.1039 is the latest addition to the congresswoman’s efforts to raise awareness for Black and other minority communities impacted by HIV/AIDS, and to fund and support on-the-ground efforts that prioritize their care and wellbeing.
The resolution is endorsed by various LGBTQ+ organizations mobilizing for communities impacted by HIV, including AMAAD Institute (Arming Minorities Against Addiction and Disease), LA Pride, AIDS Foundation Chicago, and PFLAG National. The resolution is also co-sponsored by 29 other U.S. representatives, including fellow California congressmembers Robert Garcia, Laura Friedman, Nanette Barragán, Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Lateefah Simon and Mark Takano.
H.Res. 1039 has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and currently awaits further action.
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
Los Angeles
Project Angel Food is now able to feed 10,000 people daily with expanded building
On Thursday, community gathered to celebrate Project Angel Food’s new kitchen and campus building, which allows them to serve more of the county’s critically ill community.
On Feb. 5, community members gathered at 922 Vine Street to celebrate the expansion of Hollywood-based non-profit Project Angel Food. That Thursday morning, the organization cut the ribbon for its Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen and Campus: one of two new buildings that greatly increase its capacity to provide healthy food and nutritional resources to the county’s critically ill community members.
Project Angel Food was founded in 1989 by author and activist Marianne Williamson and blossomed from a dire need to feed people impacted by HIV/AIDS during the epidemic. Today, the organization cooks and delivers over 1.5 million meals, tailored to specific needs that include chronic illnesses and gastrointestinal issues, to 5,000 people across Los Angeles.
In August 2023, the organization launched its “Rise to the Challenge” campaign, a multi-year expansion and renovation project backed by $51 million. Now, its first phase is complete, and its impact is expected to double.
With the new Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen and Campus, Project Angel Food’s kitchen staff — which, like the rest of the organization, is majorly powered by volunteers — has access to 16,000 square feet of expanded space, which includes more ovens, walk-in freezers, and hot cook lines than they’ve ever had access to previously. Project Angel Food CEO Richard Ayoub explained today that this will allow staff and volunteers to serve 10,000 people a day.
The organization’s executive chef, John Gordon, explained to the Blade that “space issues” were a major hindrance previously. Before the new kitchen was opened, staff worked out of a much smaller Lincoln Heights facility. “If you didn’t get the rack, you don’t have the sheet pans. If you got the sheet pans, you don’t have the last chiller,” Gordon said, explaining how difficult it was before to balance multiple tasks in the same space. Now, their team of seven chefs, 12 kitchen assistants, dishwashers, and volunteers can work in several cook lines at the same time.
“We’re much more efficient this way,” Gordon continued. In the kitchen, the day begins at 8 a.m. Someone will pick music for the morning, setting a groove for staff as they sync up to review recipes, pack meals prepared from the day before, and cook meals for the next day ahead. After a lunch break, they continue to work until 4 p.m. to make sure they’re meeting the needs of the community they serve.
For locals like Celeste, a Project Angel Food client who is affected by multiple sclerosis, this service is crucial. On days the disability “really takes effect,” being able to receive nutritious meals customized to her needs makes a meaningful difference. “Some days, I’m not able to get up,” Celeste said. “Just that one meal [can] give me an extra boost [and] allow that sun to shine brightly even on my rainy days.”
For advocates and Project Angel Food supporters, Thursday’s celebration was also an act of resistance and a bold declaration against the federal administration. Jamie Lee Curtis, the honorary co-chair of the “Rise to the Challenge” campaign, spoke of the “love” that lay at the core of Project Angel Food’s foundation: a kind of love she finds completely absent in the federal administration.
“We are a community here today the same way they are in Minnesota, and I feel like what they’re doing is what we’re doing,” Curtis said to the crowd, defiance firm in her voice. “And we’re only going to get any shit done if we do it together and defy these motherfuckers.”
County supervisor Lindsey Horvath, a former delivery volunteer at Project Angel Food, affirmed this statement and guaranteed the county’s continued support in the organization. Horvath spoke of the government’s “glaring absence” during the HIV/AIDS epidemic: one that is “eerily similar” to its attitude now.
As the government mobilizes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, sending immigrant communities spiraling into crisis, on-the-ground organizations like Project Angel Food are standing in firm support of their marginalized and ill community members. Horvath’s confirmation of county support is also rooted in this mission.
The building’s exterior also reflects the organization’s dedication to its residents. On the south side, a new large-scale mural painted by esteemed local muralist Robert Vargas highlights the stories of local volunteers and vendors who live and work in the neighborhood. Vargas explained that seeing these people in action “crystallized” the dedicated service and harmony that exists among the organization’s volunteers, clients, staff, and nearby community members.
Next, the second building of the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen and Campus begins construction this summer. This space will house the organization’s nutrition, volunteer, and client services and will also include its first department dedicated to research and policy. There will also be a training kitchen, where clients will be able to learn how to cook meals on their own.
As Project Angel Food’s growth continues, Ayoub hopes community members who are able to pitch in will do so. While public funding can feel unsteady, he explained, community strength and sustainment can fill those gaps of doubt. The organization is $2.3 million away from its goal in securing capital for this second building, and Lorre will match donations up to $1.5 million.
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
Arts & Entertainment
2026 Best of LGBTQ LA Readers’ Choice Award Nominations
Nominations for the Best of LGBTQ LA Awards are open from until February 15th!
It’s time to celebrate the vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community of Los Angeles! Nominations for the Best of LGBTQ LA Awards are open from until February 15th, giving you the chance to highlight your favorite local legends, hotspots, performers, and change-makers. Then, from February 23rd to March 6th, cast your vote for the finalists and help decide who truly represents the best of LGBTQ LA. The Best of LGBTQ LA Awards Party will be held on March 26th at The Abbey!
Use the form below or click the link HERE to nominate!
Los Angeles
Community members urge city council to invest in trans lives
Advocates introduced the TGI Wellness and Equity Initiative, a campaign that would direct crucial funding to trans, gender expansive and intersex community organizations.
At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, ahead of L.A.’s regular city council meeting, a long procession of people wrapped around the entrance leading into the council chamber. Someone remarked that it was “unprecedented” to see so many people gathered, waiting to get inside. Several housing advocates and legal experts were waiting to make public comments about Measure ULA, otherwise known as the county’s “mansion tax.”
Another fifty or so transgender, gender expansive and intersex (TGI) advocates from the TransLatin@ Coalition (TLC), a long-standing organization that provides housing and meal support, legal services, mental health guidance and peer support groups, showed up to demand real, tangible support on behalf of themselves and their community members as the Mayor prepares the city’s budget on how funds will be allocated.
TLC advocates called on the city council to invest in their TGI Wellness and Equity Initiative (TGI WE), a two-year pilot program that would provide $4 million to five organizations that support the safety and rights of local TGI people. This money would expand each organization’s ability to hire more staff and expand their outreach, resources, and ability to serve a continually underserved community: TGI Angelenos who are multiply marginalized as violence against trans people and immigrants continues to increase.
During public comment, TLC president and CEO Bamby Salcedo requested that the council move forward with the initiative. Aside from general support, she asked that two council members act as co-sponsors and petitioners for the initiative. This way, TGI WE can be added as an official agenda item for future city council meetings, which would get the ball rolling for the initiative’s funding goals.
“Right now is the time to stand in solidarity with our community and stand against the federal government, who is attacking and trying to disappear trans people,” Salcedo told council members. Several other advocates, including TLC policy ambassador ChiChi Navarro, Christopher Street West board member NiK Kacy and Invisible Men director Jovan Wolf delivered passionate statements in support of TGI WE.
“Los Angeles is in a state of crisis, and our communities are running out of time,” Navarro told the council. They also spoke to the county’s growing investment in LAPD, while TGI organizations receive nothing. “This is not a resource shortage. It is a resource allocation choice [that] is costing lives. We need this council to introduce the TGI Wellness and Equity initiative immediately…We cannot wait. We need urgent investment today.”
TGI WE would fund community-run organizations that focus on individualized care that is facilitated with language support and sensitivity training, a kind of care that is crucial for TGI community members who often face criminalization and discrimination at the hands of law enforcement agents.
“We are their lifeline, and we demand your support,” Jovan echoed. “It’s time for the city of L.A. to make good on its promises to be for everyone…You and all of us know that we have been marginalized, pushed to the sidelines, and we continue to be an afterthought in your budgets and your agendas.”
When the meeting concluded, TLC members rallied together for a demonstration, calling out: “Support trans lives!” as council members filed out of the chambers.
On the quiet walk back onto the street outside, Navarro reflected on the importance of this meeting and the effort community members made to be there. “A lot of the time, not just city council, [but] groups in general tend to forget trans people,” Navarro told the Blade. “Trans people are here. You saw today: clearly, we’re not a small pocket. I think we have to show them: we’re here [and] we’re not going anywhere.”
“It’s not great to be left in a place where you’re expected to continue to do the work, but without any actual support,” Navarro continued. Besides concrete funding, official citywide support for TGI WE would affirm that elected officials are willing to take a stance and take meaningful action when it comes to supporting TGI community members. “So it’s not just the money,” Navarro said. “L.A. has a motto, [that] L.A.’s for everyone. But I don’t know how you can say that when you’re not doing everything in your capacity to protect everyone.”
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
Los Angeles
UCLA’s long-standing LGBTQ+ alumni organization welcomes new president
The Blade sat down with paralegal studies professor and local advocate Bobby Rimas to talk about intersectional leadership and his goals for the UCLA Lambda Alumni Association.
As a young student studying history at UCLA, Bobby Rimas was grounded by his growing desire to give back to his community. He worked as a tutor for low-income students and became invested in learning about the ways intersectionality impacts people’s access to education and resources. “My barriers may not be the same as yours, and your barriers may not be the same as mine,” Rimas told the Blade. “How do you apply that in leadership [and] in the classroom?”
After 15 years of service to UCLA’s various alumni networks, first beginning with the Pilipino Alumni Association, Rimas became president of the university’s Lambda Alumni Association on Jan. 1. The UCLA Lambda Alumni Association was formed in 1989 as a way to support LGBTQ+ students and graduates with professional development, scholarship opportunities, mentorship, and other outreach support.
UCLA has long been a local epicenter of queer activism and advancement. Students formed groups like the Gay Student Union and Lesbian Sisterhood in 1969 and 1973, respectively, to empower and connect queer students. Queer art and culture also thrived in this time, as students saw the launches of the queer campus paper, magazine, and a film festival that centered on LGBTQ+ stories.
Administratively, campus officials were taking a stance against LGBTQ+ discrimination. In 1975, UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young banned departments and programs from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.
In the decades since, leaders like Rimas are working to preserve this history and also build upon it. How can we inspire students in and out of the classroom? How do we make sure they have access to valuable resources and can advocate for themselves in places that are not always inclusive of their needs and identities?
Rimas often ponders these questions, both as president of the Lambda Alumni Association and at Cal State LA, where he works as an associate professor of paralegal studies. There is often cross-pollination in the concerns he receives from alumni members as well as his students: How do they find employers who are accepting of LGBTQ+ people? How do they avoid being discriminated against in the workplace?
These are questions Rimas hopes to tackle more in his role as president of the UCLA Lambda Alumni Association and in his continued tenure as an educator. One of his first goals is to expand the board and bring on more diverse perspectives to the organization. “More people means more activity,” Rimas said, who hopes that the combined knowledge and resources of the board can better serve students and alumni.
Rimas also hopes to throw a large Gala event, one that mirrors the extravagant, celebratory 2019 bash he organized for the association when he was first brought onto the team. 100 people attended, creating a wave of awareness for the organization and increasing their scholarship funding.
What’s next? UCLA Lambda Alumni Association’s first board meeting is this upcoming Monday. Rimas hopes to discuss strategies to grow the organization’s presence beyond the campus’ reach, in other queer cornerstones like West Hollywood, elevating diverse LGBTQ+ voices, and improving ways they can professionally support their network’s members.
Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
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