Chelsea Byers and Helen Krieger have secured the first and second spots in the race for West Hollywood City Council. After an eventful campaign season, with 13 candidates running to fill the three seats up for grabs, Byers and Krieger have come out on top. Each holding a wide lead ahead of their challengers, they are all but guaranteed to each win a seat.

However, the race for third has shaped up to be an incredibly close contest among John Duran, Kyle Brazeal, and Stephen Post. Duran currently holds third, Brazeal fourth, and Post fifth, but they are all within 100 votes of each other, meaning their positions could easily swap as more ballots are counted. 

The Winners

Byers and Krieger both ran on progressive platforms, with focuses on building more housing, creating biking and transit infrastructure, and opposition to Flock cameras in the city. The two are also both housing advocates. Byers works at the non-profit Welcoming Neighbors Network which aims to end the U.S. housing shortage and Krieger helped build affordable housing in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. 

They were both backed by the progressive Unite Here! Local 11 union, which represents service worker employees around L.A. The union has become a major influence in West Hollywood elections in recent years, providing resources and support to many progressive candidates. 

Byers and Krieger have been friendly with each other on the campaign trail, and with other countywide progressives. Byers even earned a shoutout in L.A. Mayor-elect Nithya Raman’s election night speech. Their campaigns were also supported by former WeHo Mayor and current L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. 

Byers was the only incumbent running for re-election, with Mayor John Heilman and Council member Lauren Meister term limited. Heilman and Meister supported the campaigns of Duran and Brazeal for Council, who are now battling each other and Post for the third and final seat. 

The Race for Third

California counts ballots slowly compared to other states and with the margins between third, fourth, and fifth so narrow, it may be a while before the race can be called conclusively. 

Duran and Brazeal’s campaigns focused on public safety, opposition to adding bike lanes on Fountain Avenue, and creating a Transit Oriented Development Alternative Plan in West Hollywood. Both argued that the city’s politics had become too ideological and called for a return to common sense decision making that they claimed was absent in new city leadership. 

Duran is a longtime civil rights attorney and West Hollywood politician, serving on the City Council between 2001 and 2020. Duran’s time in elected office ended in scandal as he was accused of multiple accounts of sexual harassment, first in 2016 and then again in 2019. He lost his re-election bid in 2020. 

Brazeal is a political newcomer, working in a career in finance before joining the Council race this year. His campaign was rattled by allegations of transphobia in a story reported by the Los Angeles Blade, with a transgender woman accusing him of calling her a slur in 2024. 

Post, currently in fifth, is a progressive backed by many of the same organizations as Byers and Krieger, and was the only candidate backed by the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. He made anti-flock policy a cornerstone of his campaign and argued that it compromised WeHo residents’ privacy and the city’s values. 

A Majority Voting Bloc

With the incoming Council members, and Erickson’s unsuccessful run for state Senate keeping him in his position, the Council is guaranteed to have at least a three-vote majority to pass progressive policies in line with Krieger and Byer’s campaign promises. This means Flock cameras are most likely coming down and the plan for bike lanes on Fountain Avenue will likely proceed unchanged, regardless of who wins the final seat.

Caleb Kaufman 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.

Nithya Raman is the projected winner of the Los Angeles mayor’s race, beating out incumbent Karen Bass in a contentious campaign to lead the second largest city in the nation. Raman has won 52% of the vote with 75% of precincts reporting. 

Earlier in the year, City Council member Raman’s chances of pulling off a victory seemed slim. Mayor Bass won handily in the June mayoral primary, and Raman came in a distant second, inching out the bombastic former reality TV star Spencer Pratt to secure a spot in the runoff. 

Raman ran on a progressive platform that promised to address chronic issues in Los Angeles, like homelessness, affordability, and lack of housing supply. Raman made the case that the Bass administration had not confronted these challenges effectively and that Los Angeles needed new leadership that could. 

A newcomer to politics, Raman first ran for office in 2020 when she won a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, the first time a challenger had defeated an incumbent for a city council seat in nearly two decades. Her election was a shock to the L.A. political establishment and taught Raman how to effectively organize a grassroots campaign, a skill that would be invaluable to her 2026 mayoral victory. 

Despite lacking establishment backing, earning no endorsements from her fellow council members, Raman was supported by many progressive organizations and unions, including the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Unite Here! Local 11, and the Western States Carpenters union. They provided her with thousands of eager canvassing volunteers and organizers. These canvassing efforts helped sway public opinion and introduce Raman to voters who had likely never heard of her. 

Homelessness was a particular flashpoint in the election. In April, reporting by the L.A. Times showed 40% of the people who participated in Mayor Bass’s signature anti-homelessness program ended up back on the streets within a year, and overall homelessness levels increased across the city in the last year. Raman pointed to her district’s near 50% decline in unsheltered homelessness between 2025 and 2026 as proof she could confront the issue more effectively. But time will tell if she can translate this success city-wide. 

Mayor Bass served a hectic and tumultuous term as the first woman mayor of Los Angeles. In early 2025, she had to deal with the fallout of the Palisades fires, one of the most destructive wildfires the city has ever seen. Only a few months later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids shocked immigrant communities around L.A. and subsequent protests shut down the city. In response, President Trump deployed the National Guard to the streets in a move many saw as federal overreach, further inflaming tensions. 

These remarkable challenges ingrained anti-incumbent sentiment among some voters who believed Mayor Bass could have done more to help Angelenos in both instances. 

Raman spent her campaign painting the mayor as insufficiently proactive in countering the policies of the Trump-Vance administration. Raman has promised to protect L.A.’s queer community from federal actions that could harm them, especially emphasizing her support for the transgender community, which has been the target of numerous attacks from President Trump. 

The Mayor-elect said she would pressure Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to reevaluate its ending of gender-affirming care services. The hospital’s center for Transyouth Health closed in 2025 following federal pressure to end trans healthcare for minors, impacting more than 2,000 patients who were receiving care when the closure occurred. Despite federal threats, gender-affirming care remains legal in California. 

Speaking with the Blade last month, Raman said she would “reach out to [CHLA’s] board and speak to them about that decision and see how we can push them to do better [for] trans patients,” outreach she said had not happened under the Bass administration. 

In her election night speech to an energized crowd at the Greek Theater, Raman reiterated her support for the queer community, committing to “show up for our gay and trans siblings,” across Los Angeles. 

Caleb Kaufman 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.

The U.S. Senate has flipped to Democratic control.

Democrats will control of the Senate after flipping the minimum four Republican-held seats, giving the party control of both chambers of Congress and a majority in the legislative branch, according to NBC.

The Senate, the upper legislative body, holds 100 seats, two for every state, and oversees several important functions of the federal government, including confirming judicial and Cabinet appointments.

There will now be two openly LGBTQ+ members of the Senate: freshly elected Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, who is gay, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is a lesbian.

With greater control over federal legislation, Democrats could have an opportunity to advance measures such as the Equality Act, which would expand federal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

During the campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to South Carolina Democratic Senator-elect Annie Andrews using the anti-transgender slur “Tranny Annie,” while emphasizing culture war issues, including trans participation in sports and gender-affirming care.

Democrats, meanwhile, have centered their campaigns on the growing affordability crisis as somatic issues, including the Ukrainian-Russian war, Palestinian-Israeli war, and the war in Iran. 

Just minutes after polls closing, Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra was named the projected winner of California’s governor’s race by the Associated Press, beating out the Republican Steve Hilton. Becerra has a long history in elected office, serving as a congressman representing parts of Los Angeles and East LA, then as California Attorney General, and most recently as the Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden. He also has a long history of supporting pro-LGBTQ policies. 

As a congressman, he voted against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which banned same-sex marriage on the federal level. As California attorney general, he sued the Trump-Pence administration in 2017 over a policy that aimed to ban transgender people from serving in the military. As HHS Secretary, he publicly defended access to gender-affirming care for transgender patients, including for minors, noting that it has been shown to reduce suicidality among transgender youth. This is a major contrast to the current HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has since made the agency’s official policy that it “rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children.”

In his campaign for governor, Becerra has continued to support gender-affirming care, saying in a statement on X that “as Governor, I will stand firm to secure California’s status as a sanctuary state for trans youth and their families,” and posting an image with the phrase “protect trans youth.” 

Becerra’s opponent Steve Hilton made LGBTQ issues a small but loud part of his campaign.

He opposed transgender participation in women’s sports, attending and speaking at a “Save Girl’s Sports” rally that called for a ban on transgender people playing in women’s sports in California. In an interview with the San Francisco Standard, Hilton was asked about his favorite girl’s sport, responding “I don’t follow girl’s sports,” and declined to make any commitments to further women’s competition in sports beyond calling for an end to transgender participation. 

Hilton came under further criticism from the LGBTQ community for releasing an innuendo-laced  campaign advertisement in October that appeared to show two women in an intimate setting before revealing that one is trying to convince the other to vote for Hilton. Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director at Equality California, called the ad “a disgusting attempt to exploit lesbian intimacy for political attention” in an interview with the Blade. It was also unpopular among conservatives, with Evangelical Pastor Jack Hibbs stating that the ad was distasteful and that “lesbianism among college girls and some high school girls right now is an actual pandemic of social ill.”

Becerra’s victory in the governor’s race is no surprise in California where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans nearly 2:1. The real challenge was making it past the primary election. After former Congressman Eric Swalwell dropped out of the Democratic primary amid allegations of sexual misconduct, Becerra seized on the opportunity and became the frontrunner. He later beat out billionaire Tom Steyer in the June primary to become the Democratic nominee. 

In the general election, Becerra ran a quiet campaign for governor, counting on support from the overwhelmingly Democratic California electorate. As a result, Becerra has been sparse on many specific policy commitments on the campaign trail. However, his track record indicates that California’s next governor will likely support pro-LGBTQ policies.

Caleb Kaufman 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.

The U.S. House of Representatives is projected to flip to Democratic control.

According to the Associated Press, Democrats are moving toward control of the House after defeating six Republicans in key battleground races.

While several major questions remain about how Democrats will lead beginning in 2027, their control of the chamber will expand their oversight powers, allowing them to pursue efforts to check an executive branch that has operated with little congressional oversight over the past two years.

With control of the House and expanded oversight powers, more LGBTQ Democrats could be positioned to take on leadership roles in the new Congress.

Incumbent Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is poised to become chair of the House Oversight Committee, where he would have greater authority to investigate the Trump-Vance administration, subpoena officials and oversee federal agencies.

Garcia sent out a two word statement following the confirmation of the Democratic Party’s control: “Lawyer up.”

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) could gain a leadership position on the House Appropriations Committee, which has authority over government funding. Such a position could allow him to put roadblocks in the way of much of the Republican agenda, including many projects Trump has personally spearheaded while in the Oval Office.

Some political strategists, like those at Newsweek, have said a third Trump impeachment could be on the table. However, convicting President Donald Trump in a Senate trial would require a two-thirds majority, an outcome that remains uncertain.

These midterm elections have been rife with personal attacks, gerrymandering at the behest of Trump, and heightened political tensions across the country. Republicans have campaigned on the idea that voters are effectively voting for Trump, while also focusing heavily on transgender issues. Meanwhile, many Democrats have pushed back by centering their campaigns on the growing affordability crisis as the war with Iran continues.

The Los Angeles LGBT Center has seen the impact of fearmongering rhetoric about transgender people firsthand so it set out to change the narrative. 

The L.A. LGBT Center this year began a new deep canvassing initiative to combat misconceptions about transgender healthcare. The volunteer canvassers are encouraged not only to share facts and voting information, but also to connect with voters by using personal experiences to frame their political engagement. “The key components of deep canvassing involve getting vulnerable and curious with the voter and exchanging stories to show how political issues are tied to personal real lived experience,” said Maria Do, the community mobilization manager at the L.A. LGBT Center. 

The campaign focused on speaking to voters in the San Gabriel Valley, a working class and ethnically diverse area on the far east side of Los Angeles County. The deep canvassing campaign targeted the city of Monterey Park in particular, a neighborhood home to large Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian immigrant populations. The goal was to connect with infrequent voters who may be uninformed or misinformed about LGBTQ issues. They focused mainly on informing voters about gender affirming care and then encouraging them to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. 

“There have been a lot of attacks and just a lot of misinformation around gender affirming care,” Do said. This campaign aimed to dispel misconceptions about transgender care and to treat it like any other kind of healthcare. “We’re trying to frame gender affirming care access as part of health care access for all,” Do said. 

Deep canvassing 

Deep canvassing at the LGBT Center has its origins in the political battle over the 2008 ballot proposition to ban gay marriage in the state of California. After the ballot proposition passed, the center organized volunteers to knock on doors and have conversations with voters who supported it. These conversations surprised advocates. 

“Concerns voters had about same-sex marriage weren’t rooted at all in lived experience, but were fed through media misinformation and their own biases,” Do said. This convinced organizers at the LGBT Center that having face-to-face interactions with voters would be the most productive way to combat narratives that dehumanized and politicized queer rights. This same technique is being utilized by the center today to target rising anti-trans sentiment and policy. 

Do says that many people are unaware of reduced access to gender affirming care and threats against health systems, patients, and providers from the federal government. Many did not know that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shut down the largest gender affirming care clinic for trans youth in the country following pressure from the Trump-Vance administration. When canvassers inform people about these challenges, they often get into conversations about a voter’s own struggles with healthcare access. 

“They have shared a lot of stories about Medi-Cal access being cut,” Do said. Voters have also expressed concerns over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in their communities. These similar concerns over healthcare access and federal overreach can help build solidarity across demographic communities. “To share that attacks are also happening on the transgender community has allowed space to sort of see the through line between different efforts to help protect various marginalized communities,” Do said.

What’s on the ballot

The L.A. LGBT Center is non-partisan and has not officially endorsed any candidates on the ballot. But the organization still views this election as consequential for queer people across the state and decided to weigh in on six of the statewide ballot propositions, emphasizing an opposition to Proposition 44. 

The proposition would mandate that community health clinics spend 90% of their annual income on patient care. While proponents of the measure say that it would ensure that clinics are prioritizing services over profits, critics say that its definition of patient care is too narrow, that 90% is an unrealistic goal, and it would end up hurting patients more than helping them. 

LGBT Center officials have said that it would harm community clinics around the state, including others that specialize in queer healthcare. 

“Community clinics who fall short [of spending 90% of revenue on program expenses]… would face severe penalties, an estimated $1.7 billion in the first year alone. At a time when the federal government is seeking to strip people of healthcare, this measure will lead clinics to close and make matters worse,” the L.A. LGBT Center’s director of advocacy Joey Hernández said in a written statement. 

“It isn’t always going to be a win”

Ricardo Sebastiań has volunteered for two of the deep canvassing actions with the LGBT Center and said it is an effective way to change people’s minds. 

“Canvassing is a tried and true tactic for advocacy,” Sebastián said. 

They think that a face-to-face conversation with someone can humanize what can otherwise feel like abstract political issues. “Even if you’re meeting somebody who has a different worldview, there is an opportunity there to find middle ground, and that shifts people. You never know the type of impact you’re going to have on somebody when you’re having an open dialogue,” Sebastián said. 

Do said that volunteers have spoken with people who had never met a transgender person before and that these conversations around trans healthcare can drastically change these people’s perspectives. “Folks started to see themselves and started to empathize,” when they spoke about transgender healthcare with canvassers with the LGBT Center, Do said. 

When out knocking on doors, the most common response for canvassers is, well, nothing. Most of the time, knocks go unanswered and volunteers simply leave behind pamphlets provided by the LGBT Center. And even when canvassers get someone to the door, they can often be preoccupied and dismissive. But this doesn’t discourage volunteers like Sebastián. They feel like the productive conversations they have make it all worth it. 

“It isn’t always going to be a win,” Sebastián said. “There’s always going to be somebody who doesn’t want to talk to you or doesn’t care or is very staunch in opposing views. But you can’t let that discourage you from getting to the next door.”

Caleb Kaufman 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.

Poll workers across the country are pulling out the ballots and “I voted” stickers, bracing for one of the most divisive and consequential midterm elections in modern times.

Few states have drawn as much media attention, fiery rhetoric, and last-minute political shake-ups as Michigan.

Tomorrow, Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed will face off against Republican nominee Mike Rogers for the Great Lakes State’s Senate seat.

In a state where LGBTQ+ adults make up nearly 11 percent of the population, it is important to understand where each candidate stands on issues affecting the community.

El-Sayed, a former public health official and politician, has a record of advocacy and healthcare policy experience related to the LGBTQ+ community.

He led Detroit’s Ryan White HIV program and partnered with LGBT Detroit to make public health services more open and affirming for LGBTQ+ residents. Drawing on his public health expertise, he has also committed to restoring federal HIV and PrEP funding gutted by the Trump-Vance administration. He refuses corporate PAC money, has been outspoken in his support for trans rights, and has vowed to be a “lion for LGBTQ+ rights” in the Senate.

Earlier this year, El-Sayed spoke to PrideSource, where he reaffirmed his support for the LGBTQ+ community, specifically the transgender community, which has faced the brunt of political attacks and hateful rhetoric.

“There’s a reason that if I’m asked, I always say that I support trans rights because I believe in all rights,” El-Sayed said. “I want folks to see their own rights in the plight of a trans person who’s being discriminated against.”

He continued, explaining that if he gets elected to the Senate, he will champion LGBTQ+ rights wherever he can.

“I want the community to know that I intend to be a lion for rights. When somebody’s coming for you, I intend to stand in the cut to protect you. We have to answer this broader question — do we want to live in the kind of America where we leave some of us behind, or do we want to live in the kind of America where we understand that government of the people, by the people, and for the people means all the people?

“My job as a public servant is to stand up for folks. It’s what motivated a lot of my efforts in Detroit and Wayne County to make sure that our services were deeply accessible and empowering of LGBTQ+ residents — and it’s why I take the idea of protecting all of our rights so seriously.”

Rogers, meanwhile, last served as a public servant in 2015, when he represented Michigan’s 8th Congressional District. Before entering politics, he worked as a special agent for the FBI from 1989 to 1994. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress again in 2024 and is now seeking a seat in the Senate.

Compared to El-Sayed, Rogers has a lengthy anti-LGBTQ+ record, according to the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD.

Rogers has called being gay a “lifestyle choice” saying he wouldn’t support his own child if they were gay, has a record of multiple votes against marriage equality, as well as opposition to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the discriminatory military policy that led to LGBTQ+ service members being discharged for who they are or who they love.

Rogers also voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal hate crime protections to people targeted because of their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, alongside existing protections based on race, color, religion, or national origin.

Additionally, he voted against a fully inclusive Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which sought to ensure survivors received protections and housing regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. He also voted against the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, including LGBTQ+ patients.

His record has become a point of contention, which saw an unexpected political shake up that has started to dominate coverage. 

Just yesterday, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat who previously ran against El-Sayed for the party’s Senate nomination, withdrew her endorsement of him and instead endorsed Rogers, surprising her team and members of the Democratic Party.

Jeremy Moss, an LGBTQ+ state lawmaker who is also running for federal office in Michigan that the Blade interviewed earlier this election cycle, condemned Steven’s sudden about face in a statement on Instagram.

“I strongly disagree with Haley Stevens’ decision to endorse Mike Rogers.

Abdul and I have talked about our shared commitment to fighting MAGA extremism, dismantling ICE, and expanding affordable healthcare … But openly cheerleading Mike Rogers is unacceptable. He would be a rubberstamp for Donald Trump, from engaging in voter suppression and election denial, to continuing ICE’s cruel and unlawful operations, to defending disastrous tariffs, to slashing affordable healthcare, and more …

And Rogers, with his abysmal anti-LGBT record, would gleefully confirm Supreme Court justices who will rollback the rights that I have fought hard to protect.”

Despite himself not being a member of the LGBTQ community, HRC has become a vocal supporter of El-Sayed since he emerged as the Democratic nominee.

“I’m proud to have the Human Rights Campaign standing with us in this race,” said El-Sayed. “LGBTQ+ Michiganders deserve leaders who will have their backs when it matters most, not just when it’s politically convenient. That’s the commitment I’ve carried throughout my career in Detroit and Wayne County, and in the United States Senate, I’ll fight to ensure every Michigander can live without discrimination and never have to wonder whether their rights will still be there tomorrow.”

HRC President Kelley Robinson issued a statement today ahead of tomorrow’s election, urging Michigan voters to choose equality over discrimination.

“Mike Rogers voted for a constitutional ban on marriage equality — more than once. He opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And he’s gone after trans kids. There’s only one pro-equality Senate candidate on the ballot in Michigan: Abdul El-Sayed. And he has HRC’s unequivocal support,” Robinson said in a statement. “We have boots on the ground in Michigan, and we’re seeing this thing through until the end.”

The Los Angeles Blade reached out to Rogers regarding his anti-LGBTQ+ policy record but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

California Deputy Attorney Gen. Marissa Roy is in a race against Deputy District Attorney John McKinney to be the next City Attorney of Los Angeles. The election for City Attorney has been overshadowed by L.A.’s Mayoral election and the national midterms that will determine control of both chambers of Congress. However, the City Attorney has the power to interpret national, state, and local laws in Los Angeles, set guidelines for enforcement of laws, and represent the city in civil and misdemeanor capacities. This means the winner of the election will shape the city’s legal priorities from law enforcement to civil rights and consumer protection. 

Roy spoke with the Los Angeles Blade in an exclusive interview discussing her campaign priorities and her plans if elected as the L.A.’s next City Attorney. 

First and foremost, Roy views Los Angeles as a city under siege by the Trump-Vance administration and believes that the current City Attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, could have done more to insulate the city from harm. 

“I think the thing to remember with the Trump administration at the end of the day is that they’re bullies,” Roy said. She believes that the city should be fighting the Trump-Vance administration in court more aggressively and more frequently. “We need to be really active in this litigation because it is what works,” she said, adding that when the National Guard was deployed in L.A. amid protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, California state sued for their removal, not the city. 

A particularly prominent example of the Trump-Vance administration’s policies impacting Los Angeles came last year when Children’s Hospital L.A. ended its gender-affirming care services amid federal pressure. Roy said that if elected, she would work to get the hospital to reinstate the “life-saving care” the hospital provided for transgender youth. She said that regardless of executive orders to end gender affirming care for minors, it still remains legal in California and that it may be a violation of the California Unruh Civil Rights Act to deny trans patients care on the basis of their gender identity.  

“As city attorney, I would want to work with the California Department of Justice to say that you still have to comply with state law, which bans that discrimination,” Roy said. She also said that the city could join numerous other lawsuits against the Trump-Vance administration, as it has targeted gender-affirming care and transgender rights across the country, something current City Attorney Feldstein Soto has not yet done. 

Roy said another priority of her campaign was to wield the City Attorney’s office to protect Angelenos from predatory employers, landlords, and companies. She wants to scale up the public rights branch of the City Attorney’s office from 25 to 100 lawyers to help the city proactively prosecute workers’ rights, tenant rights, and consumer protection cases. When the city wins these cases, they not only get back pay and restitution for the litigants, they also get civil penalties from whoever violated the law, which can then go towards fighting more cases. “These are revenue-generating sections, and they operate based on the penalties they win, so that is how we are able to scale up the work,” Roy said. 

But more important than any individual issue, Roy wants to show Angelenos that the city is actively working for them, not just waiting and watching. “I know that this office can be a fighter and that people deserve their government to be fighting with them,” Roy said. “It shouldn’t always fall on their shoulders … this should be an office that is your lawyer.”

For more information, head to www.MarissaRoy.com.

Caleb Kaufman 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.

Questions about how high-level political appointees wield their power have long persisted, particularly under the Trump-Vance administration. Now, allegations involving openly gay Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Ric Grenell, White House adviser Alina Habba, and her husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, are making headlines across newsrooms.

The allegations have prompted President Donald Trump to order an investigation into what has become a convoluted mess, raising questions about a potential “pay-for-play” scheme within the White House.

Axios first reported that Habba accused Grenell of directing her husband to send $17.6 million to a Texas defense and security company, with approximately $5.6 million supposedly earmarked for the Kennedy Center. A text message allegedly sent by Grenell to Mildon promised VIP events and access to administration officials, including Trump, in connection with arranging a donation.

“Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy center, and you’ll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS,” the message allegedly sent by Grenell reads, according to Axios.

Habba, a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, has alleged that the Kennedy Center never received the donation. Grenell, who served as the center’s acting director from February 2025 to March 2026, has denied sending the text message and called the allegations against him false.

According to Axios, Habba raised concerns with Trump on Oct. 9 after money had reportedly been sent to the Texas company but the promised donation to the Kennedy Center had not materialized. One administration official described Habba as “pretty animated” during the discussion and said she exclaimed at one point, “Ric stole the money!”

However, an administration source told Axios that Habba had not gathered all the necessary information before making the accusation.

“[She] didn’t have all her stuff in order. She went in there half-cocked without all the facts yelling about Grenell stealing. And the facts keep changing,” the source told Axiso. “That doesn’t mean Ric is out of the woods. This looks really shady.”

Following Habba’s accusations, Trump called White House Counsel Will Scharf into the Oval Office and asked him to investigate her claims, according to sources cited by Axios.

Trump and Scharf then called Grenell, who denied the allegations and said he would have immediately alerted others if he had known about a $17 million contribution.

“There’s no way this is true. This is crazy,” Grenell told Trump at one point, according to a source briefed on the discussion.

The Kennedy Center reportedly has no record of receiving the alleged $5.6 million contribution. The White House investigation remains ongoing, with officials examining the digital authenticity of the disputed text message.

Grenell has denied soliciting money under false pretenses or receiving any payment from Mildon.

“I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center, and I’ve never received any payment from him at all,” Grenell said. “Make him give proof to what he is saying, not make these absurd allegations.”

The amount Habba cited has also reportedly changed. She initially claimed the donation intended for the Kennedy Center totaled approximately $17 million, while the amount allegedly designated for the performing arts institution appears to have been $5.6 million.

The allegations come amid broader questions about corruption within the Trump-Vance administration. Vice President JD Vance addressed the issue last week when asked whether he had witnessed anything inside the White House that gave him pause.

“D.C. is a corrupt town,” Vance said. However, he added, “I have not seen a single shred of evidence that [Trump] participates or sanctions in that corruption.”

The Los Angeles Blade reached out to the White House, Habba, and Grenell for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

On a cool evening, around a hundred people gathered at the Black Cat’s outdoor seating area in Silverlake. The crowd was full of precisely trimmed mustaches, sleeveless cardigans, and colorful rainbow pins that read “Nithya Raman for Mayor of Los Angeles.” 

This was the “Coming out for Nithya” LGBTQ fundraiser for Nithya Raman’s mayoral campaign. 

The event which took place on October 8th, was hosted by gay comedian Joel Kim Booster and Pickles the Drag Queen. The pair encouraged the queer audience to support Raman and to donate money to her campaign. The event ended with over $20,000 raised to support Raman according to an organizer of the fundraiser.

Raman is locked in a tight race to become the next mayor of Los Angeles with current incumbent Karen Bass. After coming second in the mayoral primary in August, defeating right-wing provocateur and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, Raman and Bass advanced to the general election. Since then, current City Councilmember Raman has been steadily gaining in the polls, with most showing her now maintaining a consistent lead over Bass. But the race is far from over, as many of the same polls show a large portion of voters are still undecided. Mayor Bass did not respond to multiple requests to comment on this story. 

After an hour of the audience ordering drinks and snacking on appetizers, Raman took the stage. She addressed the audience in an impassioned speech where she invoked the history of the historic Black Cat venue where the event was taking place.

In the early hours of New Year’s Day 1967, undercover police officers raided the gay bar, arresting and beating patrons for kissing people of the same gender as the new year rolled in. The raid left many queer community members badly injured, and others were permanently placed on the sex offender registry. The bar would soon have its liquor license revoked and was forced to close only a few months later. 

“Six weeks after the raid, hundreds of people stood right where we are right now on Sunset [Avenue] and peacefully protested,” Raman said in her speech. “In 1967 being seen on that sidewalk could cost you your job, it could cost you your home, it could cost you your family, and they showed up anyways,” she said. “How remarkably brave.” 

She then tied the historic oppression of queer people in Los Angeles to contemporary issues, highlighting the Trump-Vance administration’s targeting of transgender people. “Right now, Donald Trump and the people around him are running a coordinated attack on trans people,” she said. Raman remarked on how this targeting of trans people has impacted Los Angeles. “Last year, under pressure from the Federal government, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shut down the largest clinic for trans youth in the country,” she said, referring to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ decision to suspend gender affirming care services. 

“As mayor, I will use every tool that the city has to protect trans Angelenos,” Raman said to ecstatic applause from the audience.

After her speech, Raman spoke with the Los Angeles Blade about the specific actions she would take to protect Angelenos from the federal government. 

According to Raman, the federal administration is conditioning funding to the city “in ways that undercut some of the values of inclusiveness that we have here,” she said. “Going through the courts is very powerful… I would do more of that. This city has actually not filed as many cases as other cities have.” 

Speaking about CHLA’s ending of gender affirming care services, Raman said, “There are other hospitals that have not stepped back from their services as quickly as CHLA did.” If elected as Mayor, Raman said she would “reach out to their board and speak to them about that decision and see how we can push them to do better [for] trans patients,” she said, adding that she doesn’t think “that outreach has happened yet” under Mayor Bass’ administration. 

She added that her campaign’s focus on affordability and affordable housing is particularly important for queer people. She said that if elected, she would create “an office of tenant protections” to help renters most vulnerable to being priced out of the city. 

“Housing is what makes LA a haven for people,” Raman said. “If you can’t afford to live here, then LA is not a place that is inclusive anymore.” 

Caleb Kaufman 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.