Los Angeles
Schiff inspires, candidates charm at California Democratic Convention; Buttigieg surges in Iowa
For several minutes on Saturday, the California Democratic universe stopped jousting for their favorite candidates and gave a rousing vote of confidence to Rep. Adam Schiff, who is steadily leading the House Intelligence Committee’s historic impeachment inquiry into President Donald J. Trump.
Introduced by Rep. Alan Lowenthal as “our protector,” Schiff opened his remarks to the three-day California Democratic Party (CDP) Endorsing Convention in Long Beach by acknowledging the one minute/20 seconds standing ovation.
“I feel like I should just stop there,” Schiff said wryly in a strained voice. “You will forgive me if I’m a bit exhausted. It’s been an eventful week.”
Schiff has been sounding the alarm about the Trump presidency since before he became chair of the Intelligence Committee, recalling to the Los Angeles Blade the despondency he saw Election Night 2016 at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “The reality of the next two years proved every bit as bad, in some ways worse, than what we feared,” Schiff said Nov. 2018. “It really takes your breath away.”
It’s gotten worse, Schiff told convention delegates. “Our democracy is at risk, more so now than any time in my life,” Schiff said.
“Two years ago, I stood before you and I urged you to resist and you did. But we are more than a resistance now – we are a majority. We are a majority in one House and we will become a majority in the other and we will send that charlatan in the White House back to the golden throne he came from,” Schiff said.
“The most grave threat to the life and health of our democracy comes from within, from a president without ethical compass, without an understanding of or devotion to our Constitution and the beautiful series of checks and balances it established, setting ambition against ambition so no one branch of government could overwhelm another. And most importantly, so no despotism could take root,” said Schiff.
“There is nothing more dangerous than an unethical president who believes he is above the law,” said Schiff.
That has been a theme of presidential candidate California Sen. Kamala Harris who consistently says, “justice is on the ballot.”
Out Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, Sen. Kamala Harris, Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur (Photo courtesy Equality California)
But Harris’ campaign has been struggling of late — including a drop to 3% in the most recent Iowa poll that caused some buzz among longtime political consultants that she should drop out and save herself the embarrassment of losing in the early states and limping into her home state’s Super Tuesday Primary. However, Harris and her campaign seemed energized at the convention, including an appearance Friday night at a “Dems, Drinks and Drag Queens” party sponsored by the LGBT Caucus and Equality California. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, Kamala is strong and bold,” Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters he plans on campaigning for her in Iowa.
In fact, all the headlines about Harris’ flagging campaign have caused something of a backlash, especially among black women who are angry that only Harris is being targeted and pressured to drop out among all the other lower-performing candidates. Harris has been endorsed by Higher Heights for America PAC, an organization “dedicated to electing more progressive Black women” that is holding several mobilization events for her in Atlanta, Georgia and Columbia, South Carolina following Wednesday night’s Democratic debate. The Friday, Nov. 22 event features LGBTQ icon actress Sheryl Lee Ralph.
Harris was the first of eight presidential candidates to take the stage at the CDP/Univision forum Saturday afternoon, which was broadcast and live streamed in both English and Spanish.
Many Democrats were confused and angry that former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren skipped the endorsing convention. Univision correspondent Jorge Ramos told the forum audience that their absence illustrated a broader problem with Democrats because “they know they’re going to get about 70% of the Latino vote and they just take it for granted.”
Taking the Latino vote for granted in California is especially unwise now since this year marks the 25th anniversary of the passage of Prop 187, the Republican anti-immigration initiative that dramatically changed the California political landscape. Latino voters surged in response and the GOP started its steady decline — registering now as a third party behind No Party Preference among California’s 20,328,636 registered voters, 44.1% of whom are Democrats.
Turnout is another matter, according to PPIC. “Voter turnout continues to lag among nonwhite Californians,” PPIC reported last August. “Our surveys over the past year indicate that 45% of Latino adult citizens, 53% of Asian American adult citizens, and 57% of African American adult citizens are likely to vote, compared to 68% of non-Hispanic white adult citizens…. Latinos—California’s largest racial/ethnic group—represent 35% of the adult population, but they account for only 19% of those most likely to vote. Asian Americans comprise 15% of the adult population and 13% of likely voters. The share of African American likely voters matches their representation in the adult population (6%).”
PPIC apparently does not consider California’s LGBTQ population a demographic worth counting.
The need to reach and inspire Latino voters is considerable since California starts vote-by-mail on Feb. 3, for the March 3 Super Tuesday Primary, with nearly 500 delegates at stake. Feb. 3 is the same day as the Iowa Caucuses – and California Democrats have long helped phone bank, fund and advocate for their candidates in the Nevada Democratic Caucus, this year on Feb. 22.
In addition to the CDP/Univision forum, Harris, out South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former HUD Sec. Julian Castro and investor-philanthropist Tom Steyer participated in a 90-minute forum at Cal State Los Angeles on Sunday, which was sponsored by the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles, the California Latino Legislative Caucus and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).
Univision smartly began their forum with a question from Yvette Mojica, a student at the Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, who wanted to know what Harris would do to help her feel safe about going back to school without being afraid of being shot.
Harris, who has herself experienced the sudden threat of violence, addressed the trauma that’s now the norm among school children.
“I’m sick of what happened to you, to your classmates, I’m sick. I’m fed up with it and it’s got to stop,” said Harris, adding that even elementary students think shooter drills are “normal.”
“And these tragedies keep happening, which tell them that they need to pay attention,” Harris said. And “instead of opening their minds to the wonders of science and art and math, half their brains are worried about who’s going to come bustin’ through the door. It is traumatizing our children and it’s got to stop.”
Harris said that as president, she would take executive action if Congress didn’t present her with a bill in her first 100 days.
Harris segued from mass shootings to the trauma experienced by children afraid to come home to find their undocumented parents taken away by ICE.
And with that, Ramos asked the question that Joe Biden probably expected would be asked: “Can we have an honest conversation about Obama’s legacy? Of course, he gave us Obamacare and DACA and the Paris Agreement. And of course, the country was going through a terrible economic situation, I agree with that. However, he deported more than three million people. Was that a mistake? Do you think President Obama made a mistake?”
Harris probably expected that question, too – but not framed in a way that would create a sound bite around the word “mistake.”
She dodged and stalled. “I think that President Obama did many great things and is probably one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had,” Harris said as the audience applauded.
“I think many people agree with that but he deported three million people,” Ramos said.
Harris shifted to how, as California attorney general, she disagreed with the policy and “informed California law enforcement that ICE detainers are not mandatory.”
“So, do you think he made a mistake?” Ramos asked
“Because I was aware that there were people who were by ICE’s own definition, non-criminals, that were being deported. That was wrong,” Harris said. “I disagreed with it and that’s why I issued that policy for the sheriffs and the district attorneys of California telling them that these were not mandatory.”
That Harris had not used the word “mistake” was underscored when Ramos asked the same question of popular Bernie Sanders, who is the largest recipient of Latino contributions and drew crowds of young Latinos in LA – and Sanders answered quickly with a simple “yes.”
Sanders then pivoted. “What I’m going to tell you is in fact what the American people want, and they want to stop this ugly demonization of the immigrant community and the racism that is coming from the White House,” Sanders said against the larger backdrop of calls for the ouster of white nationalist/deportation mastermind Stephen Miller.
Sanders pledged to reestablish legal status for 1.8 million “Dreamers” on Day 1 of his presidency.
Harris, however, ended the day with the endorsement from the highly regarded, 10,000-member United Farm Workers. She had already been personally endorsed by civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, who co-founded UFW with Cesar Chavez and Gilbert Padilla.
Sanders, who emphasized that his health is good after his heart attack, came out of the convention with the endorsement of the California Young Democrats and the earlier endorsement of the powerful California Nurses Association, affiliated with the National Nurses United.
Meanwhile, during his time in LA, Sanders also endorsed the Rental Affordability Act, a ballot initiative by AIDS Healthcare Foundation on the Nov. 2020 ballot.
The biggest surprise of the convention was the news after his forum performance that Pete Buttigieg had surged to the lead in the Des Moines Iowa poll. He jumped to 25% in the new CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of likely Iowa caucusgoers — a 16-point increase since the September CNN/DMR poll.
There was a three-way battle for second place with Elizabeth Warren registering 16%, and Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders coming in at 15%.Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar jumped to 6%, while Harris, Steyer, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and businessman Andrew Yang all ranked at 3%.
Interestingly, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — who has not officially entered the race — got 2%. In fact, Bloomberg created the other major surprise of the weekend by apologizing for his “stop-and-frisk” policing policy during an appearance at a black megachurch in Brooklyn on Sunday. “I’m sorry that we didn’t,” Bloomberg said. “But I can’t change history. However, today, I want you to know that I realize back then, I was wrong.”
Adding another surprise on Monday — Bloomberg received the endorsement of Columbia, South Carolina Mayor Steve Benjamin.
“He’s got what it takes and he’s got the resources to take it to Trump,” Benjamin told AP in an interview. “I believe firmly that Mike Bloomberg can win. I think resources are going to matter.”
Buttigieg was circumspect after hearing the polling news in Long Beach, saying they were “extremely encouraging.” But, he added, “We have felt a lot of momentum on the ground.”
To some pundits, Buttigieg’s surge means Iowa voters are favoring a more centrist agenda, underscored by the new presidential ambitions of Bloomberg and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who attended the Long Beach convention, got a few nods and didn’t get booed.
Last Friday, former President Barack Obama expressed concern to a clutch of wealthy liberal donors about more progressive Democratic candidates getting out over their skiis with “big structural” change proposals on health care and immigration issues.
“Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision we also have to be rooted in reality,” Obama said. “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”
And Buttigieg fits right in that scenario during the Univision forum.
After a few pleasant exchange in Spanish — Buttigieg speaks seven languages — KMEX anchor Leon Krauze asked him about Bloomberg and Patrick getting in the race. “Some seem to doubt whether the current group of candidates is strong enough to beat President Trump. Is it?
“First of all, I think every one of the candidates competing on the democratic side would make a monumentally better president than the one we have right now,” Buttigieg said, adding that he thinks he’s “the best person to go into that competition, but the job is for each of us to go out there and prove it.”
Buttigieg said it was not his “place to characterize somebody else’s plan,” regarding Warren saying she wouldn’t not push for Medicare-for-all until the third year of her presidency. But he still has concerns about commanding people leave their private plans.
“I would rather allow Americans to make the decision for themselves, so the idea of our plan, Medicare-for-all who want it, is we make it available for everybody, but we trust you to decide whether and when you want it,” he said. “And my thinking is if this is the best plan for everybody, then everybody will choose it and it will become the single payer. If, on the other hand, there remains some Americans — I’m thinking, for example, about a lot of union members who negotiated good private plans who would prefer to keep their plan — I’m not going to command them to abandon that plan.”
Buttigieg was also asked about Obama’s apparent advocacy for centrism.
“Here’s what I agree with is the idea that the role of activists is to move the country as far forward as possible and to tug the politicians forward,” Buttigieg said. “That’s different from the role of those seeking office and holding office who have to balance the concerns of different constituencies. But I also believe that being bold and having big ideas should not be measured by how many people you alienate. Because the things I’m proposing, for example, it’s true that they’re not as extreme as some of the others, but they would still make me the most progressive president of my lifetime.”
Buttigieg said:
“The most important thing is to put forward the policies that we believe make the most sense. But also, I think this is very important — right now, there is an American majority ready to back us up, not only on issues like minimum wage and family leave where people have trusted Democrats for a long time, but in the areas where Democrats had been on defense in the past — guns, immigration, healthcare. We should do everything we can to hold that majority together, galvanize, not polarize it. And if we can do that, and I’m talking not just about how to win elections, but how to govern, if we can hold that majority together in a unifying way for a divided country, we have the opportunity to deliver the boldest, biggest changes that we have seen in longer than I had been alive.”
Buttigieg said that, as a veteran, his foreign policy involving committing American troops to conflicts abroad would be “based on the need to save American lives, the knowledge that there is no reasonable alternative, and the network of alliances that helps save American lives and preserve American interests. All of those things have to go together.”
The “real tragedy” of Trump’s “betrayal in Syria is that what you had there was preventing endless war.”
Buttigieg also addressed drug cartels killing Americans in Mexico, border security, the cost of caregiving, and, mass school shootings.
“Finally, Mayor, over the last ten years around 150 shootings have been committed by children, teenagers, minors, 17 and younger. How do we keep guns outside the access of children, at least children?” Krauze asked.
“This is something that has affected my community,” Buttigieg said, referring to South Bend, not Pulse nightclub. “The darkest moments I think for most mayors are the moments when you find yourself consoling parents of children who have been killed or teenagers who have been killed in violence and often it is also teenagers perpetrating gun violence. It is why the time has come to insist that it is a matter of national security that we stop allowing the Second Amendment to be distorted into an excuse to do nothing whatsoever when it comes to common sense gun policy.”
“The things I trained on in the military have no business being sold for profit in American communities,” Buttigieg said. “They’re weapons of war.”
With 90% of Americans, including most gun owners, including most Republicans, supporting background checks and the red flag laws, why has Congress not acted?
“This is what tells us that our democracy is broken and that gerrymandering, money, and politics and the other distorting forces that make our democracy less democratic need to be confronted and need to be reformed to deal with this and every issue,” Buttigieg said. “Everybody can have a water balloon, nobody can have a nuclear weapon. Anyone can have a slingshot, nobody can have a predator drone. So this is not some new constitutional idea we are asserting. It’s just that we’ve got to decide where to draw the line and we need to draw the line tighter than we have so far.”
Buttigieg was not asked if Obama made a mistake deporting 3 million people.
While Buttigieg may have charmed Democrats in Long Beach — including former Rep. Katie Hill who supports Harris but likes Buttigieg — he still has a major problem with black voters as illustrated by the NBC News headline on Sunday: “Pete Buttigieg is struggling with black voters — and not just because he’s gay.”
Janell Ross reported:
“ROCK HILL, S.C. — On a recent Sunday morning, Pete Buttigieg stood before rows of black churchgoers, a group he and the other Democratic 2020 candidates must win over for a reasonable chance of capturing their party’s presidential nomination.
“I know what it is to look on the news and see your rights up for debate,” he told the crowd gathered in the sanctuary of an African Methodist Episcopal events center in Rock Hill. “I also know what it is to find acceptance where you least expect it and to find compassion when you most need it.”
As Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, highlighted his personal knowledge of the marginalized American experience, and as he quoted verses from the books of Proverbs and Matthew, he did not overtly describe himself as gay or mention the husband he adores. He was trying to connect with a group of potential voters who, on the whole, have been skeptical of his candidacy.”
“The true Pete Buttigieg test, the one he’s unquestionably failing,” Andra Gillespie, an Emory University political scientist, “has to do with the résumé and the issues.”
“Buttigieg must contend with questions about his record on race, police accountability and crime reduction in South Bend, which came to the forefront after police there shot and killed a black man in June. The city’s violent crime rate is double the average of comparably sized cities. And the number of shooting victims in the city has nearly doubled since 2018. Buttigieg was also criticized for firing the city’s first black police chief, who viewed himself as working to expose and remove racist white officers, in 2012, the year Buttigieg took office. Buttigieg is widely perceived as not having handled the situation well,” Ross reports.
That, and Biden scored 21 to 39 points ahead of Buttigieg in a series of South Carolina Democratic polls last October.
On Monday, two days before the MSNBC/Washington Post Democratic Primary debate, Buttigieg is in Atlanta with an appearance at Morehouse College where he will have the opportunity to explain the campaign screw up of putting the photo of a black woman and young boy on the cover of Buttigieg’s Douglas Plan to combat racial inequality, which the candidates billed as a “comprehensive investment in the empowerment of black America” —only to discover the photo was a Kenyan woman portrayed in a stock photo.
“This is not ok or necessary,” tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Somali-born refugee.
The campaign apologized and said it was “selected while a contractor was running our site.”
There are other issues dogging the campaign. But Buttigieg’s “bold new plan to grow paths to opportunity for all Americans through more affordable college as well as through workforce development and training opportunities,” announced Monday, plus his pledge to make a historic $50 billion commitment to HBCUs, may prompt young black voters to listen to his plans and not make the 37-year old candidate’s mistakes emblematic of his character, his intellect or his ability to compete with others to defeat Trump.
The California Democratic Endorsing Convention ended with only a handful of state and federal seats pulled from the Consent Calendar for further consideration. There was no endorsement in CD 25 in the contest to replace former Rep. Katie Hill because there was not enough time under party rules to consider Assemblymember Christy Smith and her apparent likely Democratic opponent Cenk Uygur who Equality California and others have accused of using anti-LGBTQ, sexist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric in multiple videos posted on Twitter. This could be an expensive distraction from keeping the seats Democrats flipped in 2018 out of the hands of Republican Steve Knight who is fighting to get that seat back.
If Donald Trump isn’t impeached and removed from office, 2020 could prove to be the most expensive year for elections in America history.
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.
Los Angeles
South L.A. celebrated Black joy and resistance at yesterday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade
The Blade also sat with staff from Center South, a community site that champions the safety and health of South L.A.’s LGBTQ+ communities of color.
At 9 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 19, South L.A. community members gathered on the streets, holding onto lawn chairs and the hands of their children and family members. “Good morning,” one greeted. “Are you ready for the parade?” Neighbors laughed and hugged underneath the warm morning sun, staring into the horizon in anticipation of the county’s official Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade, organized by Bakewell Media and the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper.
When the parade began an hour later, organizations like labor union SEIU Local 721, civil rights group Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, and HIV care and advocacy nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation marched to cheers and waves from the crowd. Young musicians, drill and cheer teams from Marcus Garvey School and other schools stepped in unison, performing elaborate routines and sending jolting, infectious waves of drum and trumpet like electricity through paradegoers.
Black liberty and joy coalesced with a call to face injustice at yesterday’s festivities. Black Lives Matter Los Angeles members handed out flyers demanding accountability for Keith Porter, who was killed by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on Dec. 31. Marchers also waved the Iranian flag in solidarity with its people, who have faced increasing state-sanctioned violence after they began protesting the government in the midst of an economic downfall.
Communal care and empowerment remain, for many, the only way forward as trust in broader governmental systems and structures wanes. While celebrating the monumental work of the late civil rights activist, community members yesterday echoed an important, resonant message: The work is not yet done.
This community work is largely supported by local advocates and organizations like Center South: one of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s community sites. Yesterday morning, ahead of the parade, senior program manager Steven Campa and fellow staff members welcomed people into the space for coffee and pastries.
They also handed out flyers introducing residents to the site’s resources, which include: hygiene kits, HIV testing, a free monthly farmers market and clothing closet, mental health and primary care services, substance use and recovery programs, as well as social groups that prioritize LGBTQ+ people of color living in the neighborhood.
Center South opened six years ago, reclaiming a space that once housed a vibrant jazz supper club. At first, the site focused on providing services specifically for men who have sex with men (MSM), regardless of whether or not they identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Over time, Center South became more inclusive of and responsive to the local community as a whole, becoming a safe space for anyone in South L.A. seeking refuge and care.
Campa, who has been with Center South since its founding, emphasized the constantly-evolving nature of the place as it molds itself to best serve and represent its community. Staff members and clinicians are nurtured by their own personal connections to the neighborhood, yearning to give back to the place that raised them.
And that has an effect. “How does it look to have a provider who’s queer: a provider that looks like folks in the community?” Campa said. “We’re our community. Folks grew up [here]…To speak to the MLK Day parade, this was a holiday for the Center. Folks chose to be here. Understanding that we are on MLK Boulevard, we want to continue to do [show up] every year to provide a safe space for the community.”
Campa, his staff members, and fellow Los Angeles LGBT Center staff want to expand what it means to be safe and healthy — and to see that reflected more broadly in their communities. “A healthy person needs medical care [and more],” said the Center’s chief equity officer, Giovanna Fischer, who showed up on Monday to celebrate the parade with the community. “[They also] need food access, immigration support…That’s definitely going to impact their health and wellbeing,” Fischer told the Blade. “
Campa, Fischer, and other advocates are strategizing for their community in uncertain times, as threats to instrumental funding are seemingly always on the table. But as they “forecast for the future” and continue to build a collective vision that uplifts LGBTQ+ people of color, their fight endures. “We deserve to think about where we want to go,” Fischer said. “We deserve the opportunity to dream and scheme, and so does our community. So until further notice, we’re going to continue to do that.”
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
Advocates demand that trans youth be protected as cases are argued in Supreme Court
This week, LGBTQ+ advocates and legal experts spoke in support of trans youth as two Supreme Court cases challenge their rights and safety.
This Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding two cases about transgender girls in sports: Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J.
In 2020, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed into law HB 500, which bans transgender girls and women from participating in school sports. This affected the first case’s respondent: transgender student athlete Lindsay Hecox, who was barred from participating in the track and cross country teams as well as intramural soccer and running clubs.
In 2021, then-governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, approved HB 3293, which enacts a similar ban. Becky Pepper-Jackson (B.P.J.), now an incoming high school student, opposed the discriminatory policy when it prevented her from joining her then-middle school’s cross country and track and field teams. Pepper-Jackson has also only undergone female puberty due to gender-affirming care, but West Virginia argues that its anti-transgender policies should be upheld because of her assigned sex at birth.
For LGBTQ+ advocates and allies, these cases illustrate the burden and harm transgender people face daily as their rights to privacy, dignity, care, and inclusion are constantly at risk of being eroded and stripped completely.
Experts also wonder if these cases could potentially reshape the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause as well as the civil rights law, Title IX. The former prohibits discrimination on other factors aside from race, though governments have argued that certain “suspect classifications” can be looked at more closely through “heightened scrutiny.” The latter prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally-funded schools.
What is unfolding and how local advocates are informing change:
The fight ahead is weary, and experts are certain that the states involved will not concede their points. In a webinar organized yesterday by the Williams Institute, several LGBTQ+ policy experts, including Rutgers Law School professor and anti-discrimination scholar Katie Eyer, examined where these cases may be heading, as well as efforts to muddy the arguments.
“It seems possible that the court might try to sidestep that issue here by saying that these laws don’t target transgender people at all,” Eyer said. “I think for most people, this seems bananas: like an upside-down world. We all know these laws were about transgender people.”
Jenny Pizer, an attorney for the LGBTQ+ civil rights legal organization Lambda Legal and a co-counsel member for the B.P.J. case, affirmed this sentiment at a press conference organized Tuesday by Lambda Legal and AIDS Healthcare Foundation affinity group, FLUX. “They’ve gone to great lengths to say there’s no discrimination,” Pizer said. “[They’re arguing] it’s just technicalities or classifications.”
Eyer was one of three Equal Protections scholars who filed an amicus brief to be considered in the Supreme Court cases. An amicus brief is a legal document submitted by someone who is not involved directly in a case but who may offer additional perspectives and information that can inform the ruling process.
Eyer’s brief provided historical context that clarified the disadvantages of blanket sex-based policies. These types of laws, according to Eyer, uphold stereotypes over nuance, truth, and equal protection guidelines. For Pepper-Jackson, who has only undergone female puberty and who does not “benefit” from what dissidents define as a sex-based competitive “advantage,” the state should have provided her the ability to argue that she should have the same rights as other girls.
“Of course, the state hasn’t done that here,” Eyer said. “Under these precedents, the Supreme Court should invalidate the laws as applied to those trans girls who really don’t have a sex-based competitive advantage.”
Who are these bills protecting?
The states argue that their policies are merely “ensuring safety and fairness in girls’ sports.” But queer advocates understand that this is a veneer for the exclusion of transgender people from society. Forcing trans youth out of sports “does not protect anyone,” according to California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network director Dannie Ceseňa, who spoke at Tuesday’s press conference.
“It encourages the scrutiny of children’s bodies. It fuels gender policing, and it creates hostile school environments — not safer ones,” said Ceseňa. “Our youth should not inherit a world that treats their existence as a threat.”
Transgender people are systemically disempowered
At yesterday’s webinar, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Williams Institute Andrew Flores discussed his own amicus brief in support of Pepper-Jackson. The brief highlights the need for “heightened judicial scrutiny” in Pepper-Jackson’s case because the majority of political processes “systemically fail” transgender people.
For example, the transgender community faces substantial barriers in exercising their voter rights because of voter identification laws and other policies that regulate and define identity. “Even being able to gain access to the franchise is a burden for transgender people,” Flores said. “The court does play an important role there. It can grant legitimacy to arguments…or at least [acknowledge] that these issues are more complicated than maybe how they’ll receive them.”
What’s next?
Experts are hesitant about where the cases stand. “Bottom line: I don’t know what the court is going to do in these cases. They may send them back down for further development,” Pizer said, who thinks future rulings will not shift more overarching policies regarding transgender rights. “I think they will probably decide based only on laws about sports, not laws more broadly about the rights of trans folks.”
But whatever is decided, the impacts will trickle down to everyone. While the cases deal specifically with anti-transgender policies, experts warn that LGBTQ+ issues have always been tied to racial, economic, and disability justice. “There’s this looming constitutional campaign to really undermine civil rights,” said Eyer. “That affects LGBTQ people. It affects people of color. It affects people with disabilities. It affects everybody, and it really is concerning.”
As transgender inclusion and safety are being argued on the largest legal stage, advocates are asking: “When are you going to step up?” They are also sending a direct message to transgender youth: “We see you, we believe in you, and we are fighting for you,” said Ceseňa. “You deserve joy, community, and care. You deserve a future that reflects who you are and not who anyone or any politician demands you to be. Trans youth deserve better.”
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
AIDS Healthcare Foundation will celebrate its legacy of food relief at the New Year’s Rose Parade
This Thursday, AHF will march at the Rose Parade in celebration of its “Food for Health” program: an initiative that has fed community members in need for five years.
This Thursday, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will march in the highly-anticipated Rose Parade in Pasadena. AHF will present a Jack and the Beanstalk float with the titular character climbing amongst ginormous tomatoes, eggplants, strawberries, and tomato plants. It’s befitting of this year’s parade theme: “The Magic in Teamwork,” which celebrates the power of collective effort and unity.
The whimsical design also honors the organization’s “Food for Health” program, an initiative that began in 2021 to respond to food insecurity across the U.S. For nearly five years, “Food for Health” has hosted free food pantries and farmers’ markets, providing hot meals and fresh groceries nationally for families and veterans in need of food assistance.
“Food for Health” was also crucial in the wide-sweeping emergency response various nonprofits were trying to organize after the devastating Palisades and Eaton Fires in January. AHF’s program delivered over 75,000 hot meals to evacuees and Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) first responders.
The float also honors the individuals fueling these on-the-ground efforts, like Janet and Christy Lee, the sisters behind Altadena’s Fair Oaks Burger. For eight months after these major fires broke out, the Lee sisters worked closely with “Food for Health” to host free weekly farmers’ markets in the parking lot of their restaurant to support community members who had been displaced and impacted by the wildfires.
Both sisters will join fellow local advocates and leaders like labor activist Dolores Huerta, LAFD Captain Thomas ‘Kit’ Kitahata, Champions of Caring Connections executive director Bettye Randle, and “Food for Health” directors Carlos Marroquin and Tara O’Callaghan as riders on the AHF float.
The Rose Parade begins at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning, marching through 5 miles of Colorado Blvd. Now in its 137th year, the parade’s inaugural event was held in 1890 and continues to delight local residents and usher in the new year with illustrious musical performances and grand floats. More information about tickets and parade guidelines can be found on Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses website.
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
Recent L.A. County report reveals record number of hate crimes against transgender and nonbinary community members
The county’s Commission on Human Relations (LACCHR) released its annual hate crime analysis, revealing a rising violence against LGBTQ+ Angelinos.
Last Thursday, Los Angeles County’s Commission on Human Relations (LACCHR) released its 2024 Hate Crime Report, which analyzes data compiled from over 100 reporting groups, including local law enforcement agencies, educational institutions, and community-based organizations like the TransLatin@ Coalition. In its 45-year history of compiling these reports, the LACCHR recorded an “unprecedented” amount of hate crimes in this most recent analysis.
The report states that there were 102 anti-transgender crimes, “the largest number ever documented in this report.” 95% of these reported incidents were violent.
Part of the reason for this increase in reported crimes is the expanding outreach LACCHR is trying to create with partner organizations, ensuring that queer community members feel increasingly safe in reporting crimes that have been committed against them. These “grassroots efforts” have proven invaluable in building community trust, according to Dr. Monica Lomeli, who leads the production of LACCHR’s annual hate crime report.
“For the LGBTQ community, [there’s] a history of not being heard, not being believed or being misgendered,” Lomeli told the Blade. “I remember us working with a lot of different law enforcement agencies [and] victims would tell us: ‘They keep misgendering me. They don’t believe me. They keep having me make different reports.”
Lomeli stresses that, for those who feel unsafe reporting hate crimes to law enforcement agents, there are other options. One of these pathways is the commission’s community-centered initiative and reporting system, LA vs Hate, which allows people to report hate crimes and access resources like multilingual reporting guides. There is also 211 LA, a program funded by the commission that provides free, confidential support in 140 languages.
The report is instrumental to the formation of initiatives focused on queer safety and is also a resource to various LGBTQ+ organizations as they track violence committed against their community members. But the collection of this data has not been smooth, especially in this current administration.
Lomeli explained that, earlier this year, the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reached out to various human rights organizations, including the LACCHR, and was aiming to gain access to and shut down the commission’s hate crime database. “There was an attempt to bring down our data,” said Lomeli, who described these attempts as an infringement on the general public’s ability to access the report’s findings.
Moving forward, the commission’s Network Against Hate Crime, which hosts quarterly meetings with leaders from law enforcement agencies, advocacy groups, educational institutions, and social services providers, will hold a briefing on the report and discuss collaborative solutions to support community members.
Lomeli hopes to bring LGBTQ+ issues to the “forefront” of one of these upcoming meetings, given the high number of hate crimes committed against queer community members that were highlighted in the report. LA vs Hate will also continue to host campaigns, marketing efforts, and awareness events to promote the equitable treatment and safe existence of queer and other marginalized Angelinos.
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
LGBTQ+ community calls out Radio Korea over host’s homophobic comments; station acknowledges but skirts accountability
On Nov. 3rd, Radio Korea host Julie An claimed that “gay people began the spread of AIDS” on a talk show broadcast by the station.
On Monday, Nov. 3rd, Radio Korea aired its regular morning talk show program, where one of its hosts, Julie An, discussed her lack of support for the LGBTQ+ community, citing her religious beliefs. She also went on to comment that gay people spread HIV and AIDS, and that conversation therapy — which has been linked to PTSD, suicidality, and depression — is a viable practice. Clips of this have since been taken down.
Radio Korea offers Korean language programming to engage local Korean American and Korean immigrant community members. Its reach is broad, as Los Angeles is home to the largest Korean population in the U.S, with over 300,000 residents. As An’s words echoed through the station’s airwaves, queer Korean community members took to social media to voice their concern, hurt, and anger.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, attorney, activist, and former congressional candidate David Yung Ho Kim demanded accountability from the station. Writer and entertainer Nathan Ramos-Park made videos calling out Radio Korea and An, stating that her comments “embolden” people with misinformation, which has the ability to perpetuate “violence against queer people.”
Community health professional Gavin Kwon also worries about how comments like An’s increase stigma within the Korean immigrant community, which could lead to increased discrimination against queer people and their willingness to seek health care.
Kwon, who works at a local clinic in Koreatown, told the Blade that comments like An’s prescribe being gay or queer as a “moral failure,” and that this commonly-held belief within the Korean immigrant community, particularly in older generations, strengthens the reticence and avoidance clients hold onto when asked about their gender or sexual orientation.
“When you stigmatize a group, people don’t avoid the disease — they avoid care,” Kwon explained. “They avoid getting tested, avoid disclosing their status, and avoid talking openly with providers. Stigma pushes people into silence, and silence is the worst possible environment for managing any infectious disease.”
For weeks, Radio Korea did not offer a direct response to the public criticism. Its Instagram feed continued to be updated with shorts, featuring clips of its various hosts — including An.
On Friday, Radio Korea CEO Michael Kim released an official statement on the station’s YouTube page. In this video, Kim stated that An’s comments “included factual inaccuracies” and that the station “does not endorse or share the personal opinions expressed by individual hosts.” Kim also stated that Radio Korea “welcomes members of the LGBT community to share their perspectives” in order to deepen understanding through dialogue.
Afterwards, Kim continued that though he acknowledges the “pain” felt by queer community members, he concluded: “I don’t think Radio Korea needs to apologize for what was said any more than Netflix should apologize for what Dave Chappelle says, or any more than Instagram or TikTok should apologize for what people say on their platforms.”
Kim then offered a justification that An’s statements were “not part of a news report,” and that he was “disappointed” that David Yung Ho Kim, specifically, had been vocal about An’s comments. Kim stated that he was the first person to interview David in 2020 during his congressional campaign, and that he had provided the candidate a platform and opportunity to educate listeners about politics.
“After all these years, the support Radio Korea has given him,” said Kim, “the support I personally gave him, even the support from other Radio Korea members who donated or even volunteered for him — he dishonestly tried to portray Radio Korea as being an anti-gay organization.”
Kim went on to criticize David’s purported “hurry to condemn others,” and also questioned if David has disowned his father, who he states is a pastor. “What kind of person is David Kim, and is this the kind of person we want in Congress?” Kim asked viewers, noting that Koreatown is “only about three miles from Hollywood, and some people just like to perform.”
At the end of the video, Kim stated that his duty is to guard the legacy of the station. “My responsibility is to protect what was built before me and ensure that Radio Korea continues serving this community long after today’s momentary controversies disappear,” Kim said.
For community members and advocates, this response was unsatisfactory. “The overall tone of the statement felt more defensive than accountable,” Kwon wrote to the Blade. “Instead of a sincere apology to the LGBTQ+ community that was harmed, the message shifts into personal grievances, political dynamics, and side explanations that don’t belong in an official response.”
Kim’s portrayal of the criticism and calls to action by community members as a “momentary controversy” paints a clearer picture of the station’s stance — that the hurt felt and expressed by its queer community members is something that will simply pass until it is forgotten. An continues to be platformed at Radio Korea, and was posted on the station’s social media channels as recently as yesterday. The station has not outlined any other action since Kim’s statement.
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
Forgetting queer pioneer Morris Kight is “impossible”: Advocates and friends share stories at remembrance
On Saturday, Nov. 22nd, Kight’s ashes were interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Over 50 people made their way to the rooftop chapel at Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s Gower Mausoleum on Saturday afternoon, taking in sweeping views of the city as a gentle wind began to envelop the space — a wind that some thought signaled the presence of Morris Kight. Hosted by local nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), this reception provided longtime friends, fellow activists, and anyone else impacted by Kight’s legacy with the opportunity to share some of their most memorable stories about the LGBTQ+ vanguard.
Kight died on January 19, 2003, after decades of leading peaceful, bold, and outspoken action against oppressive systems that targeted marginalized communities. As Congresswoman Maxine Waters declared at the remembrance event: “You have to be a hell of somebody to be memorialized 22 years after.”
Kight co-founded the Los Angeles LGBT Center in 1969, first known as the Gay Community Services Center, where so many queer youth and adults found the courage and empowerment to seek education, resources, and comfort. It became the place where they could fully embrace themselves.
At 19, AHF president Michael Weinstein found himself at the front steps of the Center, afraid but compelled. This is where his and Kight’s lives would intertwine, setting him on his own path of liberatory leadership. This first encounter and relationship “cemented” his identity, Weinstein told the crowd, after an arduous search for belonging and internal understanding.
The impact Kight had on Weinstein and innumerable other queer folks was not just a consequence of his work, but the purpose for it all. “We were his payment. We were his reward,” said Miki Jackson, Kight’s longtime friend and another instrumental voice in early LGBTQ+ movements. “Morris cared that we were loud enough, we were out enough, we were visible enough that a child in Kansas in elementary school would know about it. He cared about where people were wounded the most.”
Kight projected his voice in hopes it would reach those who were silenced, becoming the face of several important movements, including the Gay Liberation Front. He raised money for people with AIDS, co-founded the Stonewall Democratic Club, and pushed for L.A.’s first pride parade in 1970 — unabashedly fighting for the visibility of LGBTQ+ people as they were met with societal violence and rejection.
“The idea of forgetting a Morris Kight is basically impossible,” said Terry DeCrescenzo, one of the founders of the Gay Academic Union. She recounted fond memories with Kight, including a story tied with her roots of protesting. Together, they blocked the streets of Sunset and Larrabee and sang the civil rights anthem “We shall overcome.” At first, DeCrescenzo was in disbelief. “I thought, ‘I went to Catholic school for 17 years to sit on the sidewalk singing We shall overcome?’ And the answer is yes. He showed me a way of doing things — of approaching life — that I didn’t dream I was capable of. So I thank you, Morris. I love you. I miss you.”
Kight’s ashes have been officially interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, granting him a final resting place. In life, he built sites of belonging for queer people, and today, this ground joins a tender catalog of spaces that contains a trace of what his loved ones hope he is remembered for: the fierce kindness with which he led his life. His endless stories. His desire to be with and fight for the people he loved.
Saturday’s remembrance event also offered a moment of deep reflection for the future of local queer activism. “We’re what we have left,” said Jackson, a queer elder who marched alongside Kight in the country’s early days of LGBTQ+ protesting — and who paved a path for younger advocates like Congressman and Equality Caucus Chair Mark Takano to continue the fight. “May we honor Morris by carrying his fire forward until every LGBTQ+ person in this country can live safely, open and unafraid,” said Takano.
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
The Los Angeles LGBT Center has reopened and upgraded its community tech hub
The David Bohnett CyberCenter provides free access to important tech resources for LGBTQ+ community members.
On Thursday, community leaders and advocates gathered at the Los Angeles LGBT Center for a joyous ribbon-cutting event that ushered in the organization’s revamped tech hub. For 27 years, the organization’s David Bohnett CyberCenter has provided local residents a safe space to utilize computers, printers, scanners, and attend workshop opportunities to build their tech literacy skills, stay connected, discover joy, and research important opportunities.
Here, individuals can safely surf the web, complete online benefits and services forms, apply for jobs, as well as make progress towards educational programs. It’s a safe space where LGBTQ+ community members can reliably use technology that can provide them with vital avenues into improving and living their lives.
The CyberCenter is funded by the David Bohnett Foundation, which provides grants to various LGBTQ+ initiatives and social programs nationally in order to improve equity for different marginalized communities. In 1998, the foundation established its first tech hub at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, so that queer community members would not be shut away as technological advancements made online access increasingly necessary. “The idea was simple but urgent,” Bohnett said at yesterday’s ceremony. “[It was meant] to ensure that LGBTQ+ people had access to the technology that could open doors to education, employment, and connection.”
Yesterday, this CyberCenter’s updated facilities were welcomed with warm applause, cheer, and a celebratory banner that was cut by Bohnett himself. It marked an evolving growth towards the foundation and the Center’s shared commitment to the hub’s initial promise: to guarantee equitable technological access to the county’s queer residents.
“Our community members regularly share how missing even one piece of access—a computer, a quiet place to work, a stable connection—can stall their progress,” said Sydney Rogers, senior program manager at the Trans Wellness Center. “For so many, technology isn’t just a tool—it’s the gateway to opportunity. Résumés, job searches, online trainings, interview prep—all of it depends on having access to reliable equipment and an environment where people feel safe and supported.”
For Bohnett, what began as a room with a “handful of computers” has grown into over 60 CyberCenters nationwide — and they are all “rooted in the belief that digital access is not a luxury, but a lifeline,” said Bohnett. “Every time I’m back here, I’m reminded that the Los Angeles LGBT Center was the first to bring that vision to life.”
The David Bohnett CyberCenter is open from Tuesdays to Thursdays, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and from 2-5 p.m. More information about its location and services can be found here.
Los Angeles
This queer, Latine-led organization is protecting residents against SNAP cuts and immigration raids
The weeks-long delay in SNAP benefits left food insecure residents stranded. Community centers like Mi Centro worked to help them.
Light rain and mist loomed over the quiet Boyle Heights Neighborhood on Friday morning as residents made their way towards a free farmer’s market at Mi Centro, a community center on South Clarence Street. There, they were greeted with a warm“buenos días” by program coordinator Norma Sánchez and guided into an adjacent room with crates of fresh produce and a table with mental health resources.
Created in collaboration with team members from both the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Latino Equality Alliance, Mi Centro doubles as a hub for information and resources as well as a sanctuary of respite and comfort for its Latine community members. It provides immigration services, legal clinics, housing rights panels, and a monthly free farmers’ market. This November, Mi Centro has organized an additional market with the support of collaborating organizations, including food justice ministry Seeds of Hope, to step up for community members after SNAP benefits were cut at the beginning of the month.
Combined with the increased presence of federal immigration agents in the county since June, this cut in essential funding has created additional strain for local Latine community members when it comes to accessing food and feeling safe when stepping outside. For staff members at Mi Centro, these issues impact the livelihoods and safety of the people and spaces most familiar and important to them. “This is the community where my family immigrated to,” Caín Andrade, Mi Centro’s program manager, told the Blade. “Now I feel like it’s not only my duty, but my pleasure and my privilege to come back to the same community and help.”
At Friday’s market, Andrade noted that it yielded one of the “biggest turnouts” despite the weather, and explained that Mi Centro has seen a steady increase in the need for food and resource assistance in the last couple of months. Several community members showed up to access groceries and look through the other resource tables at the market. One of these tables included information about benefits and insurance enrollment, and another included pamphlets from local health nonprofit QueensCare about free health screenings. All written materials were provided in both Spanish and English, and Sánchez made sure to speak with each resident about their needs.
“We really curated Mi Centro as a community center where people can feel like they belong,” said Andrade. “[We] provide a space that feels a little bit more like home to them: that’s warm, that’s got flowers and art, a couch to sit on, and just have somebody that listens to you — somebody that can speak Spanish and give them the opportunity to articulate what they’re going through in their language. We can see the sighs of relief.”
Andrade also emphasizes the intergenerational teamwork that happens at Mi Centro: a synergy that is guided by “young, queer Latino community” voices that have been embedded within the neighborhood. Mi Centro’s queer staff are deeply shaped by these communities that have long been home to them — and they, in turn, are shaping these spaces to be more inclusive: where LGBTQ+ visibility is embraced and cherished.
With a team that “represents the entire rainbow,” residents see the advocates working to support them as “our kids, our nephews, our grandkids,” Andrade said. “We are equally protective of them. We want to make sure that they are being given access to everything that other communities might have easy access to.”
Mi Centro’s next free farmer’s market takes place on Friday, Nov. 21st. More information can be found here.
Los Angeles
LA Assessor Jeffrey Prang to be honored by Stonewall Democrats
Prang is among America’s longest-serving openly gay elected officials
You may not be too familiar with LA County Assessor Jeffrey Prang. You’ve probably never heard of the office of the LA County Assessor, or you might only have a vague notion of what it does.
But with a career in city politics spanning nearly thirty years, he’s among the longest-serving openly gay elected officials in the United States, and for his work serving the people of Los Angeles and championing the rights of the city’s LGBTQ people, the Stonewall Democratic Club is honoring him at their 50th Anniversary Celebration and Awards Night Nov 15 at Beaches Tropicana in West Hollywood.
Prang moved to Los Angeles from his native Michigan after college in 1991, specifically seeking an opportunity to serve in politics as an openly gay man. In 1997, he was elected to the West Hollywood City Council, where he served for 18 years, including four stints as mayor.
“I was active in politics, but in Michigan at the time I left, you couldn’t really be out and involved in politics… My life was so compartmentalized. I had my straight friends, my gay friends, my political friends, and I couldn’t really mix and match those things,” he says.
“One of the things that was really impactful was as you drove down Santa Monica Boulevard and saw those rainbow flags placed there by the government in the median island. That really said, this is a place where you can be yourself. You don’t have to be afraid.”
One thing that’s changed over Prang’s time in office is West Hollywood’s uniqueness as a place of safety for the queer community.
“It used to be, you could only be out and gay and politically involved if you were from Silver Lake or from West Hollywood. The thought of being able to do that in Downey or Monterey Park or Pomona was foreign. But now we have LGBTQ centers, gay pride celebrations, and LGBT elected officials in all those jurisdictions, something that we wouldn’t have thought possible 40 years ago,” he says.
Prang’s jump to county politics is emblematic of that shift. In 2014, amid a scandal that brought down the previous county assessor, Prang threw his name in contention for the job, having worked in the assessor’s office already for the previous two years. He beat out eleven contenders in the election, won reelection in 2018 and 2022, and is seeking a fourth term next year.
To put those victories in perspective, at the time of his first election, Prang represented more people than any other openly gay elected official in the world.
Beyond his office, Prang has lent his experience with ballot box success to helping get more LGBT people elected through his work with the Stonewall Democrats and with a new organization he co-founded last year called the LA County LGBTQ Elected Officials Association (LACLEO).
LACLEO counts more than fifty members, including officials from all parts of the county, municipal and state legislators, and members of school boards, water boards, and city clerks.
“I assembled this group to collectively use our elected strength and influence to help impact policy in Sacramento and in Washington, DC, to take advantage of these elected leaders who have a bigger voice in government than the average person, and to train them and educate them to be better advocates on behalf of the issues that are important for us,” Prang says.
“I do believe as a senior high-level official I need to play a role and have an important voice in supporting our community,” he says.
Ok, but what is the LA County assessor, anyway?
“Nobody knows what the assessor is. 99% of people think I’m the guy who collects taxes,” Prang says.
The assessor makes sure that all properties in the county are properly recorded and fairly assessed so that taxes can be levied correctly. It’s a wonky job, but one that has a big impact on how the city raises money for programs.
And that wonkiness suits Prang just fine. While the job may seem unglamorous, he gleefully boasts about his work overhauling the office’s technology to improve customer service and efficiency, which he says is proving to be a role model for other county offices.
“I inherited this 1970s-era mainframe green screen DOS-based legacy system. And believe it or not, that’s the standard technology for most large government agencies. That’s why the DMV sucks. That’s why the tax collection system sucks. But I spent $130 million over almost 10 years to rebuild our system to a digitized cloud-based system,” Prang says.
“I think the fact that my program was so successful did give some impetus to the board funding the tax collector and the auditor-controller to update their system, which is 40 years behind where they need to be.”
More tangible impacts for everyday Angelenos include his outreach to promote tax savings programs for homeowners, seniors, and nonprofits, and a new college training program that gives students a pipeline to good jobs in the county.
As attacks on the queer community intensify from the federal government, Prang says the Stonewall Democrats are an important locus of organization and resistance, and he encourages anyone to get involved.
“It is still an important and relevant organization that provides opportunities for LGBTQ people to get involved, to have an impact on our government and our civic life. If you just wanna come and volunteer and donate your time, it provides that, if you really want to do more and have a bigger voice and move into areas of leadership, it provides an opportunity for that as well,” he says.
A ‘Battle’ we can’t avoid
UCLA’s long-standing LGBTQ+ alumni organization welcomes new president
The National Rainbow College Fund will grant $2,500 to 200 LGBTQ+ students: out or not
Few openly queer nominees land Oscar nominations as ‘Sinners’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ lead the pack
South L.A. celebrated Black joy and resistance at yesterday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade
South L.A. celebrated Black joy and resistance at yesterday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade
UCLA’s long-standing LGBTQ+ alumni organization welcomes new president
The National Rainbow College Fund will grant $2,500 to 200 LGBTQ+ students: out or not
Few openly queer nominees land Oscar nominations as ‘Sinners’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ lead the pack
A ‘Battle’ we can’t avoid
-
Los Angeles5 days agoSouth L.A. celebrated Black joy and resistance at yesterday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade
-
Los Angeles2 days agoUCLA’s long-standing LGBTQ+ alumni organization welcomes new president
-
LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health3 days agoThe National Rainbow College Fund will grant $2,500 to 200 LGBTQ+ students: out or not
-
Movies3 days agoFew openly queer nominees land Oscar nominations as ‘Sinners’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ lead the pack
-
Movies1 day agoA ‘Battle’ we can’t avoid