In 2012, Eric Arimoto was in his late forties, studying to become a marriage and family therapist, when he encountered something he hadn’t before. At his internship, his cohort gathered to listen to two speakers — an event that was announced at the last minute. In stepped Aiden Aizumi, a young transgender man, and his mother, Marsha. 

Eric remembers Marsha tearily apologizing to Aiden for not knowing how to support him when he was first transitioning and struggling with his gender identity. “I was crying so hard,” Arimoto told the Blade. “Because she said the words that I never heard from my own parents. I’m a 61-year-old Japanese American gay man, and my parents loved me to pieces. But, they weren’t advocates, and they didn’t understand what it was like walking in the world as Japanese American and gay, and not feeling a part of any community — like I belonged anywhere.”  

This surrogate experience of familial acceptance was pivotal for Arimoto, who began to mend and reckon with his fractured identities. Marsha encouraged him to become a facilitator at PFLAG San Gabriel Valley Asian Pacific Islander, the local Asian American chapter of an organization dedicated to creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people, friends and allies to learn from and connect with one another. Marsha was fundamental in developing the group in 2008, and now, in 2013, was ready to create another queer-affirming space: Okaeri.  

Okaeri’s origins

The name comes from a Japanese custom — when you return home, you are greeted with, “Okaeri.” Welcome home. The essence of the group lies in this simple phrase, brief but brimming with endearment. Okaeri is dedicated to increasing visibility for Japanese Americans, or Nikkei, who identify as LGBTQ+: creating events, projects, educational initiatives and programs that embrace and affirm who they are. 

Since its formation, Okaeri has grown into a diverse, far-reaching connective system that continues to branch out. It’s home to the first U.S. conference focused specifically on LGBTQ+ Japanese Americans, which has been held biannually since the organization’s very beginnings. There is also Okaeri Connects: online, monthly discussion groups for queer folks and allies, hosted in both English and Japanese. This April, Okaeri hosted its first Connects group for the trans and gender diverse Nikkei community. 

Okaeri also preserves the vast, nuanced stories of their community members in “Okaeri Voices,” an archival oral history project that features interviews and stories shared by queer Nikkei, as well as their family members and friends. 

The group’s growth has only continued to gain momentum, and in 2025, it was integrated into Little Tokyo Service Center as a community program. For over a decade, Okaeri has drawn the curiosity of queer Japanese Americans across generations and across the country: reminding them that they are not alone, that queer and trans Japanese Americans have always existed and will continue to exist. Okaeri provides them with metaphorical and physical places to imagine and create their own futures as well as reconnect with their lineage and cultural roots.

This path ahead was forged largely by Marsha, who nurtured her community and brought people into her purpose. “She never turned away from difficult topics or discussions,” Arimoto said. “She was here to learn and lean into the discomfort of learning about a different culture.  She also played the role of the loving, compassionate, amazing Japanese American mom. She was just the mom for everybody, right? I told Marsha: I don’t need you to be my mom. I have a mom, and I loved my mom. I need you to be Marsha. I need to be you, because you are an amazing advocate and friend.” 

Marsha died in late 2025, and her legacy is one that continues to be a light for her friends, family, and fellow community advocates. Marsha illuminated, for them, what is possible. 

Aiden’s story

“My mom became my champion,” said Aiden Aizumi, who is now an activist and worker in educational spaces. Growing up, he felt he could only go “so far” when it came to forming connections or finding belonging as a queer kid. He didn’t dress like the girls around him, nor did he fit into the rigid and high-pressure academic environment at school. “There was a disconnect there for me: a gap I just couldn’t ever bridge.” 

When Aiden realized he was transgender, it felt like he’d found the one missing piece of a lifelong puzzle. “I think I had picked up these pieces of myself throughout my life…but I still didn’t feel comfortable in who I was. Suddenly, it was like: Oh, that would have solved everything if I had known before.” 

At 20, he came out to his parents and remembers his initial frustration around their delay in using his correct pronouns and chosen name. A therapist helped him reframe the situation; she asked how long it had taken him to realize this about himself. Two years, Aiden replied. 

“I’m not saying it should take two years,” Aiden remembers her saying, “but you have to think: you gave yourself time. I think you owe them the chance to adjust.” This didn’t take away the pain of their mistakes, but it was enough to soften them for a while. Marsha, specifically, actively tried and was able to come around more quickly. Spaces like Okaeri and their monthly discussion groups are important for this adjustment period: for growing and learning while minimizing the hurt you might, even unintentionally, inflict on your loved ones. 

“This is your opportunity to try and practice,” Aiden said. “It’s a muscle, and this is your chance to try it and mess up without your kid here. Try to start working that muscle.” 

Okaeri’s future and its blossoming young generation

Okaeri has provided a luminous liminal space for Nikkei allies to practice, “mess up,” and learn about their queer friends and family members. It’s also been the space where young queer folks like Xander Omoto, who is one of the co-facilitators of Okaeri’s latest trans and gender diverse discussion group, got to discover and “test” their true self. 

Omoto lives in Oregon and found Okaeri online in 2023, while struggling with his gender and sexual identity. He was closeted to his family, so finding Okaeri was finding a space he could finally feel safe and fully accepted within. “I fell in love with these people that lived so many miles away from me and that I never met before, but they became very much like family,” Omoto told the Blade. “I joke about having these gay uncles who immediately became close friends.” 

After being part of an English-speaking Connects group, Omoto remembers logging onto the monthly Zoom one day and finally entering the name he wanted to be called. “[It] wasn’t the name everyone knew me by and, immediately, people called me this name that I was always hoping could be mine, and automatically used pronouns I’d never had used for me before.” 

It was the beginning of his “fresh start,” where he was being seen for who he was for the very first time. “As I got more and more practice doing that, I felt more and more confident and was able to work up toward showing more of myself to the people that I already knew. It was this really important incubation period where everything was very new and scary, but I had people who had been through it, or people who were just there to accept me as I am.” 

Through this Connects group, Omoto befriended another Japanese American trans man, Kai Mita, the co-facilitator of their new trans and gender diverse discussion group. Mita grew up in Illinois, and they both realized they shared similarities in their upbringings and media touchstones. “We really identified with the story in Mulan,” Mita said, laughing. 

The two also grew up in predominantly white communities and grew up feeling disjointed from their Japanese American heritage. Okaeri was the bridge that brought them closer to their histories — in a way that also honored their trans identities. Omoto found this “surprising” and had once accepted that his queerness would remain separate from his cultural identity forever. “That’s the really cool thing about Okaeri: I get to be both at once,” Omoto said. 

There was also a singular, stark moment that brought him closer to his relatives, who were forcibly relocated and incarcerated during World War II. When President Trump was inaugurated for the second time, Omoto was struck with the violence his ancestors faced, and how that coincided with the violence he was facing in the present-day. 

“One of his [Trump’s] policy points was: there are only two genders, male and female. And I just remembered feeling this fear,” Omoto said. “It was the first really political, national scale of fear that I had felt personally, and I realized that my grandparents and great-grandparents had felt the same way during the Second World War. Going through incarceration, they were labeled in a similar way. They were labeled as an enemy, as an alien, as an ‘other,’ and segregated out. As I see everything playing out politically and our country repeating a lot of those past mistakes, being able to process this huge burden and fear with other people who understand that is so important. It is way too much for any one person to be going through alone.” 

Mita, who also lives in Oregon, resonated with this reckoning. Recently, he visited the Japanese American Museum in Portland, where he learned more about the Minidoka concentration camp, where over 13,000 Japanese Americans were forced into. “My grandma was actually part of that site. Knowing the similarities of political statements were very identical — that was terrifying and really hard to process. Let alone like…yeah, that’s my grandparents,” Mita said.  

As Mita questioned how queer and trans Nikkei can stay afloat today, Omoto answered with the core that lies within Okaeri. “I think one of the foundational pieces of resistance is community,” he said. “When we’re in these very specific affinity groups, Okaeri, we’re able to share these stories, these hidden histories. That makes me think of now, and how we can persist and try to thrive in these times today.” 

To learn more about Okaeri and find up-to-date info about events and programs, refer to their website and social page.

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.

Here’s a question for LGBTQ+ people who don’t remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. How would you live the final few hours of your life, counting down to a deadline that would trigger an ideological holy war with terrorist attacks and nuclear bombs? If you’re still in the closet, would you come out for the fresh air of freedom, or would you remain enslaved to your hidden secret?

Millions of people around the world held their breath Tuesday, April 7, after the petulant President of the United States “reveled in threats to commit war crimes” – bombing Iran back to the Stone Age. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” unhinged Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

On Easter weekend, Christian National savior Donald Trump wrote online that “all Hell will reign down” on Iran unless the new leaders open up the Strait of Hormuz, adding “Glory be to GOD!” He followed up with an emphatic: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”

Mocking God or God’s messenger is blasphemy in Islam. In 2015, 12 people were murdered, and 11 were injured in an attack on Charlie Hebdo, a Paris weekly that published cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

Two hours before Iran’s existential deadline, the former Reality TV star announced a two-week extension for diplomacy as if real war on TV is a video game. More deeply at play: no matter what the cost, Trump doesn’t want to be a “loser” in the eyes of his cruel, dead father.

“Loser. That’s a word that Donald Trump fears being called more than any other,” famed CBS News journalist Dan Rather suggested in 2017. “An isolated president in an isolated administration looking at public losses and dropping popularity will react in ways no one can predict.”

Millions exhaled, grateful for temporary relief from the legacy of Trump’s unscrupulous upbringing. But for thousands of LGBTQ+ people among those millions, the retreat was not a reprieve from constant societal and religious oppression. They still fight a secret war within over choosing freedom or the “safety” of the closet.

Gay journalist Garrett Glaser’s childhood was different. He was a 12-year-old in eighth grade when his first intense boy-crush called him “fairyboy” on the school bus.

“What’s weird is that, despite my crush on Jon, I felt no emotional pain or humiliation when he called me ‘fairyboy.’ I realized he was reacting the way any adolescent boy would if he felt his masculinity had been questioned,” Garrett writes in his memoir FAIRYBOY: Growing Up Gay and Out in Pre-Stonewall New York and Beyond. “In any case, it was rare that Jon took part in the jock rituals on the bus, and I certainly didn’t take his remark personally. With hindsight, I realize that I almost felt a strange satisfaction in being called ‘fairyboy.’ Despite the slur, my beloved had acknowledged me; he had seen me for what I secretly – but not ashamedly – was.”

Two years later, in 1967, Garrett came out to his mother. “You are going to a psychiatrist right now, young man! We are going to nip this in the bud,” his mother said.

Garrett’s memoir details his curious relationship with his parents and stepmother and how he maneuvered in the counterculture world of the late 1960s/1970s.

He then began a long career in journalism. After his family’s acceptance, Garrett developed a healthy self-confidence – unlike the amoral, empty vessel who became the most powerful person in the world.

Angelinos came to know Garrett as the cute TV reporter at KNBC4 who might be gay. At the time, local mainstream journalism largely devalued minority and gay and lesbian journalists as being inherently biased in a world where supposed “objectivity” was the standard.

Coverage of the 1992 LA Riots, for instance, was assigned by white news producers who’d never been to South Central. Black reporters who wanted to cover the growing tension around the Rodney King trial were denied until all hell broke loose. Black reporters were called in from their beats in the suburbs, to which they’d return after the riots were quelled.

White helicopter team Bob Tur and Marika Gerrard later exposed the shocking newsroom attitude.

“When I told my contacts at the KCOP assignment desk that we were getting ready to take off to cover the impending violence, they told me, ‘Don’t bother going until 10 o’clock and tell the city that everything is calm.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had a two-way radio in my hand, and I threw it across the floor. They were so out of touch with the community. And that really underscores one of the contributing factors to the LA riots: political correctness blinded a lot of people. It’s almost like a malignancy that white people suffer from. So, I was told not to fly, but I ignored it, and we took off and flew the helicopter to South Central,” Tur told Huffington Post for the 20^th anniversary in 2012.

Their live coverage of white truck driver Reginald Denny being beaten wound up saving Denny’s life and countless others warned to stay away from 83rd Street and Normandie. The coverage also showed the LAPD was nowhere in sight, which led to millions lost in looting.

Tur, father of MS NOW anchor Katy Tur, transitioned into a woman in 2013 and joined Inside Edition as a helicopter reporter.

Though Garrett was out to friends and colleagues, he was not out to the general public. That changed with a Sept. 3, 1994, LA Times story: “Out of the TV Newsroom Closet: KNBC’s Garrett Glaser Breaks Ground as an Openly Gay On-Air Reporter.”

“The most prominent fixture in Garrett Glaser’s cubicle at KNBC-TV Channel 4 in Burbank is a 3-by-4-foot ACT UP poster proclaiming, ‘Hollywood, Quit Censoring Our Queer Lives!’ Beneath are photos of him with celebrities he has interviewed, intermingled with photos of him with various (non-celebrity) boyfriends,” Joseph Hanania reported.

“Glaser, 41, Channel 4’s media/ entertainment reporter,” Hanania continued, “sits on the board of directors of the National Lesbian/Gay Journalists Assn. and, in his free time, hosts gay-themed shows for KCET-TV Channel 28, including its recent commemoration of the gay liberation movement’s birth with the Stonewall riots 25 years ago….Glaser’s openness about his orientation and his willingness to fight for gay causes set him apart among on-air personnel.”

One “gay cause” was AIDS. Garrett came out on-air Dec. 5, 1994, during a live report about the death of Elizabeth Glaser, who founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and made history speaking at the 1992 Democratic National Convention about being infected with HIV through a blood transfusion and unknowingly passing it to her daughter, Ariel, and son Jake.

“As a gay man who’s lost more than a few friends to the virus, I am grateful to Ms. Glaser for helping to heighten awareness of AIDS outside the gay and lesbian community,” Glaser told his television audience. Afterwards, he told the LA Times that he hoped that “other gay and lesbian reporters in this market will see you can be out and still keep your job and do good stories.”

“I don’t care if a reporter is covering city politics or sports. He’s a role model. And it’s important that the 10-year-old watching at home knows that some of the reporters he sees are gay. He needs to see the reporter doing his job well, and to know that the stereotype for gays and lesbians is most often false,” Glaser told Hanania in 1994. “Gays are still an invisible minority. The sooner we stand up and are counted, the faster the fight will go in our favor.”

Authentic visibility. “I remember, even in high school, saying that I would not go into the closet. I saw the toll that took on people, the self-torture, the frequent resort to alcohol and drug abuse,” Garrett said in 1994. “I saw gay people get married and have kids because they thought they had to. I saw others who didn’t live up to their potential because they thought they didn’t deserve it. I wanted no part of that; I wanted to be proud of myself.”

Thirty-two years later, Trump pledged to end the Culture Wars, which includes the Project 2025 mandate to erase any policy, rule, or law impacting LGBTQ+ people. And despite the popularity of Heated Rivalry, public opinion of LGBTQ+ people is declining. And recently, the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to overturn laws protecting minors from so-called “conversion therapy.”

“This ruling is a profound failure of both logic and moral responsibility that confuses ‘free speech’ with ‘false speech,’” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen.

Garrett, now retired, agrees. “It turns out in study after study that many of these [so-called “counselors”] are quacks retained by fringe religious groups for the purpose of teaching young children to hate themselves. It’s emotional child abuse, plain and simple. Who says so? Our nation’s leading medical organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association,” he told me after the ruling.

“I view my success as an example of the power of having loving parents and a supportive home life in childhood. Simply put, in my case, love and acceptance worked. It helped me to accept and love myself early on. Any parent who loves their child should stay away from the dangerous charlatans who want to destabilize their kids and fill their heads with lies that the experts will tell you are dangerous and without any scientific basis.”

If grown-up straight kids like Trump and his religious zealots decide to commit genocide against “a whole civilization,” fairyboy Garrett Glaser can spend his final hours before the bombs drop embracing an open, principled, and fulfilled life with the man he’s cherished for 25 years.

Check out Karen Ocamb’s video chat with Garrett Glaser

This is a cross-post from Karen’s LGBTQ+ Freedom Fighters Substack.

Fresh off a monumental win, Lo Colby steps into this conversation with the same grace and strength that captivated the judges and audience alike. In our candid interview with Colby, she reflects on the pivotal moment of being crowned Miss International Queen USA 2026, sharing the raw emotion, surprise, and grounding presence of those who were her biggest cheerleaders when her dream came to fruition.

Throughout our conversation, Colby opens up about the years of preparation, perseverance, and self-belief that led to this victory. Representing Los Angeles with pride, she speaks to the power of chosen family, the lessons forged through resilience, and her steadfast commitment to advancing transgender economic empowerment. Both genuinely thoughtful and deeply personal, Colby’s story reveals not just a titleholder. We get a glimpse of a purpose-driven advocate that she is, determined to create real and much-needed change.

First off, congratulations! What was going through your mind in the moment you were crowned Miss International Queen USA 2026?

Honestly, I was in complete shock when Mimi Marks announced my name. I had never experienced a moment where every emotion was happening all at once.

What I remember most clearly is looking over at Zhane Dawlings, and she said to me, “You did it.” That moment helped ground me. Everything suddenly felt real when I went in to hug her. It was overwhelming in the best way possible, and it’s a moment I will cherish for the rest of my life.

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Can you tell us a bit about your journey leading up to this moment? What inspired you to compete?

This journey actually started a few years ago. Todd Montgomery and Kimmie Kim from Miss International Queen USA approached me while I was competing in a drag pageant. That moment really lit a spark in me. It made me realize that a dream I had admired for so long might actually be possible.

At the time, though, I knew I wasn’t ready yet. I made the decision to wait until the 2026 competition so I could fully prepare myself. Once I was accepted as an official contestant, I went into full training mode. I treated it like preparing for the Olympics with weekly runway coaching, interview and Q&A training, and a lot of personal work on building my confidence and stage presence.

Allowing myself that time to grow made all the difference.

You represent the City of Angels. How has Los Angeles shaped who you are today?

I moved to Los Angeles with the dream of becoming a successful working drag performer in West Hollywood.

Over time, this city gave me so much more than that dream; it gave me community. I found myself surrounded by incredibly talented artists and performers who eventually became my chosen family. Being in that environment pushed me to grow creatively and personally.

Los Angeles taught me that grit, hard work, and believing in your vision can take you further than you ever imagined.

Your platform focuses on transgender economic empowerment. What inspires you to advocate on this issue?

I’ve experienced firsthand what it feels like to walk into a room or an interview and know that people may already have assumptions about you. Sometimes those unconscious biases can create barriers before you even have the chance to show who you are professionally.

Because of that, I worked incredibly hard to make sure my skills, experience, and work ethic speak for themselves. But I also recognize that many transgender people face disproportionate discrimination and inequality in the workplace.

That’s why I’m passionate about advocating for economic empowerment. Trans people bring valuable perspectives, resilience, and creativity to professional spaces, and I want organizations to recognize the incredible contributions our community can make.

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You’ve spoken about the wage gap affecting transgender women. What are some of the biggest obstacles you’ve personally seen or experienced?

Before we can even talk about the wage gap, we have to acknowledge the barriers transgender people often face just trying to enter the workforce.

Unconscious bias is a major factor. People may make assumptions based on how someone looks, presents, or even sounds. But there are also very practical challenges, like navigating legal name or gender marker changes.

I remember early in my transition when my legal name had not yet been updated. I went into an interview where the way I was presenting didn’t match the name on my documents, and the room immediately filled with confusion. Instead of focusing on my professional experience or qualifications, the conversation shifted toward my gender identity. While uncomfortable, I stood in my truth and used it as a way to educate those I was interacting with. A lot of these obstacles can be resolved with the proper education within organizations. 

For folks who may not fully understand this issue, why is economic empowerment such a critical part of trans advocacy?

Economic empowerment is foundational because financial stability impacts every aspect of someone’s life. When transgender people have equal access to employment, fair wages, and career advancement, it creates opportunities for housing stability, healthcare access, and long-term security.

Historically, transgender women, especially trans women of color, have often been portrayed in very narrow ways in the media, which has contributed to stigma and limited opportunities in professional spaces.

By focusing on economic empowerment, we help shift that narrative. It allows transgender people to thrive and to build meaningful careers.

What are some concrete changes you hope to push for during your reign?

One of my goals is to collaborate with LGBTQ+ organizations to expand career development programs for transgender individuals. That includes mentorship opportunities, professional networking, and career readiness training.

I also want to encourage companies and organizations to implement more inclusive hiring practices and workplace education programs. Sometimes change starts with giving people the tools and understanding to create a more supportive environment.

Through my platform, I hope to help create partnerships between community organizations and businesses so that more transgender individuals can access meaningful employment opportunities.

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How do education, career access, and entrepreneurship all play a part in closing this gap?

These three elements work together to create long-term economic and financial security.

Education provides the foundation, whether that’s formal education, professional training, or skill development. Career access ensures that transgender individuals actually have the opportunity to apply those skills in the workplace.

Entrepreneurship is another powerful pathway. Many transgender people have built successful businesses when traditional workplaces were not welcoming. Supporting trans entrepreneurs helps create financial independence and can also open doors for others within the community.

What advice would you give to transgender folks who are navigating similar challenges in professional spheres?

My biggest advice is to never underestimate the value of your voice, your experience, and your perspective.

There will be moments when you feel like you have to work twice as hard to prove yourself, but your authenticity and resilience are strengths. Surround yourself with a community that supports your growth, and don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself.

Most importantly, remember that you belong in every room you walk into.

Pageantry centers in on beauty and performance. How do you balance your flawlessness with advocacy?

Pageantry may highlight beauty and performance, but at its core, it’s about platform and purpose.

The stage allows you to capture people’s attention, but what you do with that attention is what truly matters. For me, beauty and advocacy are not separate. When people see confidence, elegance, and professionalism on stage, it opens the door for meaningful conversations about the issues that matter to our community.

What does winning this title mean not just for you, but for the broader transgender community?

Winning Miss International Queen USA is deeply personal, but it’s also something much bigger than me.

Every time a transgender woman is given a platform like this, it creates visibility and representation for our community. It shows that our stories, our achievements, and our voices deserve to be celebrated.

Looking into the future, what legacy do you hope to leave as Miss International Queen USA 2026?

I want my legacy to be one of opportunity.

If my reign helps create more pathways for transgender women to succeed, then I will feel that I’ve truly honored this title.

Representation is powerful, but lasting impact comes from opening doors for others. If my time as Miss International Queen USA helps open doors for future generations of trans women, that would be the legacy I’m most proud of.

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It is with great pleasure that I’d introduce The Los Angeles Blade’s newest addition, Christian Cintron. Cintron is here, queer, and ready to share his voice with our readers, a voice as multifaceted as the communities he represents. Cintron brings a dynamic blend of insight and irreverence to his work as a writer, comedian, and actor. With a résumé spanning roles from marketing executive to drag performer to energy healer, his forthcoming contributions to the Los Angeles Blade promise a perspective shaped by lived experience and deep personal evolution. 

While his writing has appeared in Backstage, Hollywood.com, and Queerty, it is his experience in comedy that has most powerfully shaped his writing. The discipline of stand-up, where every word must earn its place, informs his journalistic style, resulting in work that is as sharp as it is authentic. At a time when audiences are often reluctant to engage with more difficult conversations, Cintron bridges the gap with humor and honesty, delivering commentary that invites reflection without losing its sense of wit or humanity.

Welcome to the team, Christian Cintron…

You have been referred to as “a jack-of-all-trades and master of fun.” As a writer, comedian, actor, and spiritualist, you are a true Renaissance man. With such a glistening resume, what can our readers expect in your forthcoming publications for the Los Angeles Blade?

I bring a unique perspective. I’ve been everything from a marketing executive to a drag queen to an energy healer. I remember the times when if you weren’t a straight white man, you had to be exceptional. Those expectations left a lot of us searching for who we are, and I just did a lot of the things I wanted to do and have continued to work on myself. 

On the other side of all of these experiences, I’ve found some growth and space for a lot of nuance. This facilitates a lot of the tough conversations we have to have as a society. But we also don’t have the attention spans or want to have them, so I bring a little humor, sass, and pop culture references to help the medicine go down, so to speak. 

Your work has graced the pages (or screens) of Backstage, Hollywood.com, and Queerty. How did writing an outlet mold or impact your comedic voice onstage?

Ironically, I think it’s more the opposite that my experience onstage helped me hone my voice, write more clearly and efficiently to handle the workload of a working writer. I think there are a lot of internal blocks and unresolved issues that gum up the works when we’re writing. My time in comedy has helped me work through a lot of that to get my point across. I will say that journalistic writing has taught me word economy, so that’s helped me write tighter jokes. 

Now, I wouldn’t find this interview complete without inquiring into your spiritual side.  Can you shed some light on your spiritual philosophies and how they influence your written and comedic endeavors? 

I think spirituality is 50% what we know in our core and 50% making peace with the unknown. I had a bit of a spiritual awakening. It started when I did drag. Something about healing my own issues with gender really helped me integrate two parts of myself: the part of me that learned strength from women and the man who was able to be myself without feeling emasculated. 

Ironically, putting on the mask of drag helped me find my inner masculinity. Then strange things started happening. I was drawn to developing my spiritual side, healing myself, and doing a lot of inner work. 

A lot of queer folks have religious trauma. I went to Catholic school for 14 years, from pre-kindergarten to high school. After getting more spiritual, I understood the qualities everyone’s preaching about in Christianity: charity, love, joy, and grace. Growing up around showed me some great tools to live by, but also a lot of fundamental BS, lying, and manipulation. I took a class in college on Satan that literally charted how everything attributed to Satan in the Bible is based on who the authors were beefing with at the time.  

This strange cognitive dissonance of people claiming Christianity “above all else” but not being remotely Christ-like really highlights the spiritual sickness of American culture. I try to bring healing to people by saying the quiet part out loud. Deputizing people to speak their truth and share their stories. I tell my students you don’t know whose medicine you’re carrying. I think we all have spiritual healing to do. 

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Appearing in the Laugh Proud comedy special on Tubi is pretty major (we heart Tubi). What did this experience open your eyes to in regard to performing for a broader audience?

Yay, Tubi! Laugh Proud was an amazing experience. It was nice to work with comics at all levels of their career and perform at the LGBT Center’s Renberg Theater. Seeing comics I looked up to, like Alec Mapa and Lily Tomlin, had performed there was a dream. 

As a comic, you’re always working for a broader audience, and every past set is just a version of who you were in that moment. I think the biggest lesson from the whole experience is that dreams do come true. I always wanted a special on TV, and that dream did happen. On the other side of the experience, some of the grandiosity that scared me about the whole industry really fell away. We’re all just artists arting about and working together, we can make amazing things happen. 

Stand-up comedy: entertainment, social commentary, personal therapy. What is the ratio of each that works for you?

36-26-36, which are also my measurements, j/k. Honestly, I think it’s less a ratio and more finding out all of the parts that make up who you are and getting all the horses going in the same direction. 

Those sum up core aspects of my personality, people I have been, and my values. Finding a way to put all those together and the agility to cycle through those parts of myself all day, every day, is part of the magic of going with the flow.

That’s why I created Stand Up 4 Your Power. It sums up the things I love: comedy, personal empowerment, social justice, joy. I put them all into a way to help people heal and rewrite their stories. 

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You also birthed Stand Up 4 Your Power. What was the impetus to merge stand-up comedy and self-empowerment?

Trigger warning, but I lost a few friends from comedy to suicide. Part of why I’m not a household name is that stand-up comedy can take a toll on your mental health. I had to take breaks to really focus on myself and heal. A lot of stand-up comedy is about the sharp edges and making light of the darkness. Each time I left and did improv, or drag, or therapy, or spiritual work,, it changed who I was but the skills of joke writing and expression always kept me sane. 

I wanted to help give that to other people. I was sick of seeing angry and depressive comedians kill the vibe, and so I created the sum of everything I learned from stand-up comedy and outside the art form that helped make me a better version of myself. I put that in a program that helps me help people rewrite their stories, process old emotions, and shift the vibe.
Comedy helps you speak confidently, express emotions, and change the narrative. Why not do that for your mental health and personal goals? 

Who were the comedians or performers that made you laugh the hardest growing up?

I can’t miss the opportunity to drop a little education on my baby gays out there. The first comedy specials by out comedians were Bob Smith and Suzanne Westenhoefer. I remember watching them alone in my room and feeling something. I also remember Alec Mapa’s LogoTV special filmed at The Abbey really inspiring me to believe I could be queer and POC and just tell my story. 

Growing up, I always loved female comics like Elaine Boozler, Rita Rudner, Paula Poundstone, and even Ellen, may she rest in peace, out of the limelight. I was also a huge fan of John Leguizamo and Tracey Ullman. They were the blueprint and my dream. Creating characters and telling stories.  

You also teach at the Rodney Dangerfield Institute. I am curious, what have your students taught you about comedy (I hope at least one is reading this)?

This is another weird dream moment. Rodney Dangerfield did Ladybugs and Rover Dangerfield. Kinda shocking that a bawdy self-deprecating comedian would make children’s programming. His widow put money aside to help Los Angeles City College make comedy education more financially accessible, and I love that. That means that our students come from all walks of life. 

I’ve had veterans, artists, people who are just curious, and even a few dancers from Jumbo’s Clown Room. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned to be a more patient individual, and I feel I’ve grown with my students. I’ve learned from each class, whether it’s at LACC, the West Hollywood Library or the LGBT Center. I even have a class coming up with Outfitters Wigs in Hollywood. 

Do you feel comedians have a duty to challenge political and/or cultural norms?

Yes! Throughout history, comedians have had a fundamental duty to challenge political and cultural norms to rub up against authority. The most powerful jokes are the ones that punch up at what’s wrong with society. 

What’s gotten lost is that comedians at some levels stopped caring about having the whole audience enjoy the joke. They are content with having their petty tyrannies or podcasts. You can say whatever you want and care less about being funny and more about being famous. 

How can you be in an art form of the people if you have a falsely inflated ego? I teach my students that stand-up comedy is about balance and imbalance. You play with self-awareness and social awareness. I think what’s missing from both comedy and the world is the balance of those two things. 

Part of cancel culture is that if someone doesn’t like you, they don’t want you to succeed, and they don’t want to be around you or support you. Rather than step their pussies up and write better jokes or learn about other points of view, they bitch that no one wants a tepid take on transgender people by a millionaire while the world’s on fire.   

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How has our current cultural climate impacted what your audiences respond to with laughter? Are there topics that you find folks are more hesitant to respond to?

I firmly believe nothing is off limits in comedy. But the more offensive the material, the margin of error becomes razor-thin. I think it’s a lot easier to split the room these days if you talk about anything political. 

In the end, it really all boils down to the intent, the vibe, and the performer. The political state of affairs has made it a bit hard to laugh at some things, so it’s more – does bringing up what we need to talk about kill the vibe or not? 

Since we’re on the topic of audience responses, can you recall and recount any heckler horror story that haunts your memories?

I am lucky to say, knock on wood, I’ve never had any crazy hecklers; it’s mostly just drunk girls woo-hooing. My biggest horror story was one time I was really excited about filming a tape. So I invited my mom, my aunt, and this guy I was seeing. There were a lot of random corporate groups that were there. I cracked a joke about being gay and Latino, and I saw this tall Black guy in the front row just cross his arms and give me this look. It was a look like no matter what I said, he wasn’t going to listen. 

After that, I realized you have to find a way to bridge the gap to the people who just won’t like you. I wrote a joke about straight Black men and gay men. We have so much in common. Who else can pull off bright colors and walk down the street and spontaneously burst into song?  

And now a palette cleanser: what’s one of the more unexpectedly wholesome or rewarding post-show moments you’ve experienced?

Part of comedy is performing at nontraditional venues. I’ve performed everywhere from a laundromat to a Thai restaurant to a synagogue to a benefit for a girl’s soccer team. What is always unexpectedly rewarding is when I’m the most nervous about a show, having someone walk up to me and tell me they enjoyed it. 

With such a fine-tuned, established voice on the comedy scene, I am curious to know what theme or topic you are most looking forward to exploring for the Los Angeles Blade. Let’s put the “Op” in Op-ed,” shall we?

The comedian in me has a lot of opinions on how I wish things would be better. I think what I’d love to explore for the Blade is a lot of the conversations I have with friends, or to offer a unique take on some of the shit we all bitch about or have beef with, with the intention of bringing some sort of resolution.  

I’m Puerto Rican, queer, I’ve done drag. I’ve really toed the lines of never really being a part of one single community, but also seeing it from multiple perspectives. I think this helps me ask provocative questions and share hot takes that encourage people to look at all sides of things. While our society may have abandoned journalistic ethics, I still try to bring that sense of balance and truth, even if I’m sharing an opinion.  

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Looking ahead, what project would make you feel like you’ve unmistakably leveled up as an artist? Aside from writing for the Blade, of course.

Right now, I’m working on turning the workbooks I created for Stand Up 4 Your Power into a book I can put out into the universe. I’d be lying if I said there isn’t still a part of me that would love to star in a television show or movie. My dream has always been to be part of a cult movie or pop culture reference, like a Greg Araki movie or getting some great line that becomes a meme. 

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Bisexual people comprise nearly 60% of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S., the Pew Research Center noted in 2024. So why — across film, television, news media, in conversations both within and outside the queer community — does bi representation remain either harmful or misleading, if not outright invisible? 

As defined by the Bisexual Resource Center, “bisexual” and “bi+” are affirming labels that encapsulate the experience of having sexual and/or romantic attraction to more than one gender, and also include identifiers like pansexual and omnisexual. 

Historically, on-screen portrayals of bi+ people have been largely negative. They are the greedy and unfaithful partner, a conniving seductress oozing with desire and little more, a straight woman trying to appeal to men, a closeted gay man holding onto a shred of propriety, a queer person who is not really queer after all. 

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“The stories we tell shape who gets seen and then who gets funded,” bi+ attorney and activist Christina Fialho told the Blade. “So when bi+ people only show up as villains, hypersexualized tropes, or not at all, decision makers start mistaking fiction for reality.”

Fialho has emerged as a leading changemaker for bi+ advocacy and advancement in Los Angeles. Near the end of 2023, she founded Rewrite the BiLine, an organization dedicated to countering biphobia and its proliferation in popular media with nuanced storytelling, local political advocacy, and cultural activations. 

It all began with a report. Fialho was interested in studying the last three decades of U.S. news media and coverage on bi+ people, and found that from 2013 to 2023, only 6.67 percent of LGBTQ+ news coverage centered on bi+ communities, their stories, and their issues. The slate is blank — and this active erasure seeps into social conditioning and political rhetoric that make it difficult for bi+ people to thrive and advocate for their rights. 

“I really believe that that invisibility isn’t accidental,” Fialho said. “It’s reinforced by legal, political, and philanthropic systems that still cling to a binary understanding of identity. And until that changes, bi+ communities are going to continue to be overlooked where it matters most in investment resources and power, and that has a direct effect on lived experience. 

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Today, Fialho released a follow-up report that looks at the continued shrinking of bi+ representation in public media since Trump’s second presidential term began last January. In the last year, bi+ people were represented in 2.3% of LGBTQ+ news coverage. The majority of these mentions focused on broad outlooks on bi+ people and the deficits they face — rarer still was a focus on their individual voices, layered stories and perspectives. 

The Blade sat down with Fialho to discuss her personal story as a bi+ woman and community member and her bold and vocal advocacy that led to West Hollywood becoming the first city in Southern California to advance legal protections for non-nuclear families.

One of Rewrite the BiLine’s focal points is humanizing bi+ people in film, TV and news media after years of mischaracterization. How did those representations affect your journey of understanding your own bisexuality? 

I didn’t know I was bi until later in life. Growing up, I didn’t have a word for my feelings. I think society and religion had built a culture that erased the word bisexual from the vocabulary that was in my reach. When I did start to hear it, it was often associated with a character on screen who was the villain, the cheater, the murderer. Sometimes we have to be the vampire, but that still didn’t help me identify myself in those characters. 

I realized, had I seen more authentic bi+ representation on screen, I might have come out earlier to myself. Had there been cultural acceptance of bi+ people, especially in the 90s, I might have embraced myself completely at a younger age. So my hope with the work we’re doing at Rewrite the BiLine is to ensure that this next generation can grow up seeing themselves reflected on screen, on stage, and in the stories they read.

What you just said about binary understandings of community being so limiting and restrictive resonates, and I’m curious about how that applies to the protections you’ve fought for in West Hollywood. How did that partnership begin?

These local actions grew out of a simple truth that people in my community, our community, kept repeating: our families exist, whether the law acknowledges them or not. And I think for too long, non-nuclear families, including poly people, have been forced into invisibility. Coming out about your family, if you have a diverse family or relationship structure, can still carry real risk socially, professionally, and legally. But we came together as a community, organized, spoke up, and pushed for change.

I launched this campaign, really, about a year ago. I reached out to Councilmember Chelsea Lee Byers, who was the Mayor of West Hollywood last year. She’s also bi, and she’s been an incredible champion from day one. In May of last year, she introduced the update to the City of West Hollywood’s non-discrimination law to include diverse family and relationship structures. The council unanimously voted to explore this, and then earlier [this March], the City of West Hollywood actually took two actions.

Note: Through Fialho’s and Councilmember Byers’ efforts and leadership, it will be unlawful in West Hollywood to discriminate against non-nuclear families starting on April 15. These protections apply to the realms of housing, business establishments as well as city facilities and services. The City is also currently developing a plan for recognizing plural domestic partnerships as a direct result of Fialho and Byers’ work. 

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What kind of precedent do you hope this sets for the rights of non-nuclear families and relationships across the country?

I think this is really a watershed moment for non-nuclear families. Cities are realizing that families come in many forms, and the law really should protect, not police, those relationships. I expect cities across California will adopt similar protections, and I hope and really believe that state law will eventually follow.

The state has an interest in protecting love and commitment, not gatekeeping it. The state of California has long been a bellwether for civil rights, expanding the promise of equality through hard-won anti-discrimination laws. So lawmakers really should carry this progress forward by enacting statewide protections.

You’ve reported on diminishing bi+ representation in news media, but I also see a lot of positive social and political change happening with your efforts. Do you feel that it’s been easier, in recent years, for people to relate to and identify as bi+?

I do think that we’ve seen some positive bi+ representation on screen [like] Heartstopper, Heated Rivalry. There’s some good positive representation, and there still is a lot of negative bi+ representation being made on screen. And that really needs to change. It’s just uncreative writing. 

But I think in terms of the local work here in West Hollywood and in Los Angeles, I’ve seen a huge change. The more that I’ve spoken out about my own identity, the more I’ve connected with other folks who have either revealed to me behind the scenes, “Hey, I’m also bi.” 

I did an event in September last year with the City of West Hollywood for Bi Visibility Month, where we had a panel discussion on bi representation on screen. And a lot of the panelists like R.K. Russell, who was the first NFL active player to come out as LGBTQ+ — and he came out as bi — were on the panel, and he also came out later in life. So you start to hear your own story reflected in other people’s stories, and that makes you feel less alone and more empowered.

You mentioned that media representations made it difficult for you to come to terms with bisexuality in your earlier years. Right now, in 2026, what does that identity mean to you?

I feel really connected to the term bisexual because I want to embrace its history. I love the definition that Robyn Ochs came up with. I call myself bisexual, because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted romantically and or sexually to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree.

I also identify with the term pansexual, which is the sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity, and I also identify with the term queer. I think there’s a lot of overlapping of terms that one person can identify with. But yes, bisexual — I mean, I started Rewrite the BiLine. I want to scream it from the mountain top!

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.

It’s 1996 when Gary Boston, convinced by a coworker, tags along to a store on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where, together, they purchase matching sleek Bianchi performance bicycles and promise each other they will embark on the three-day AIDS fundraising ride from Boston to New York City. 

From 1994 to 2002, several of these rides would crop up across the nation: first in California and New York City, then in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Florida, Texas and Alaska. Known as the “AIDSRides,” organizers from Pallotta TeamWorks united cyclists, from novices like Boston to professional riders, for multi-day rides that raised money for LGBTQ+ centers and HIV/AIDS research and resources. 

When the AIDSRides began, HIV/AIDS had become the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44. Throughout its eight-year run, the AIDSRides amassed over $105 million to support critical services and medical developments as the epidemic continued to disproportionately ravage the country’s queer communities. 

When Boston joined his first ride in ‘96, he had just come out as gay the year before. Navigating being out through the height of the epidemic was tumultuous, and he credits the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center — known as New York City’s queer “heart and home” — as the space that anchored him to safety and showed him what effective and powerful advocacy looked like. 

“I felt this obligation to give back,” Boston told the Blade, in a recent phone call. “To pay homage to all of those folks who had come before and kept those of us who were yet to come out of the closet safe and provided a roadmap to how to give back to the community.” 

Then, training commenced. Boston hadn’t been on a bike since he was a child and, now, he found himself at the mouth of Central Park to get into shape for the 275-mile journey ahead. “It was really fun [and] a little scary,” Boston said, who recounted how cycling clubs would edge him and his colleague out with their rigorous speed and perfectly formed lines. “It’s terrifying coming upon them as a newbie biker. I think that first [training ride], we struggled to make a lap around Central Park, [which is] maybe six or seven miles.” 

Slowly but surely, they improved, progressing into longer rides across the George Washington Bridge and into Rockland County. After completing this trek, Boston would complete it for several years before joining the first AIDSRide in Texas, his home state. This iteration, a weeklong excursion, was a meaningful homecoming for Boston: a chance to face and resist the stigmas that had followed him in his upbringing. “It wasn’t the most welcoming of places to have an event like this, so it was important for me to go home and do that,” Boston said.

In 2000, after 4 years of continuous cycling and fundraising, Boston faced a ride that would have him putting his trusted Bianchi into storage for nearly 20 years: a seven-day behemoth of a ride in Alaska that he was “completely unprepared” for. 

Cold, rainy, and arduous rides weren’t new for Boston, who had been evacuated during a massive wind and rainstorm on a cycling trip in Texas and had previously taken shelter in a New Haven stadium during a hurricane. Still, Alaska remained the most difficult memory. The wet snow and sleet seemed never-ending.

“It was cold at night, so you went to bed wet and cold, and you woke up wet and cold. It was really a struggle to get up and go each day,” Boston recounted. For years after, he observed that his fingertips would peel, almost like a sunburn, and he’d feel a lingering pain from the aftermath of exposure. This recurring shedding would bring, with sharp clarity, both the joy of being in community and the lasting bodily effects cyclists endured for their shared cause. 

Boston recalls that, soon after this ride, he “burned out.” His job was also picking up, and his romantic relationship was taking off, making the draw of the rides more distant over the years. AIDSRides had also shut down, and from its ashes emerged AIDS/LifeCycle (ALC), which was first known as the California AIDS Ride. 

Just as friendship brought Boston to his first ride in New York City, friendship would rekindle his cycling in 2018. He returned to cycling and fundraising for HIV/AIDS with ALC, which brought cyclists from San Francisco to Los Angeles. This also marked a new chapter for Boston, who began to merge his passions for craft and knitting with his fundraising ambitions to support LGBTQ+ organizations and investment into HIV/AIDS research and resources.

Online, he is known as “Gary Knits, Gary Rides,” where he shares updates about his “craftvism.” Balls of yarn adorn his background in these videos, where he speaks to the camera with a personable and sincere warmth. In 2021, Boston began hosting knitalongs and crochetalongs: events that would bring together indie crafters for giveaways and projects to raise money for ALC. In 2022, he created “Destash4Good,” an online fiber auction where people could list their underused yarn for sale, providing low-cost ways for people to gather new materials and contribute to Boston’s fundraising efforts for ALC. 

By the time ALC ended in 2025 due to declining ridership and mounting costs to put together the ride, Boston had raised over $225,000 to support the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. A phoenix of its own, ALC has seen a new ride emerge and evolve from its legacy: Center Ride Out. 

This new expedition amplifies ALC’s community aspect, creating a joyous “queer summer camp” that whisks cyclists from L.A. through Riverside County to its final destination point: the San Diego LGBT Community Center. From Feb. 1 to Feb. 13, Boston hosted a round of “Destash4Good” to raise money for Center Ride Out’s community fund: a pool of scholarship funding that will support underrepresented riders and close the gap for people struggling to meet the $2,500 fundraising minimum.

In those two weeks, Boston raised just over $13,000, well over his initial goal of $10,000, to support the LGBTQ+ Centers as they battle federal attacks on funding and increased rhetoric that targets queer and trans community members. Boston is glad to see that Center Ride Out preserves ALC’s spirit: an unwavering commitment to showing up for those impacted by queer stigma, health injustice, and social prejudice that spanned three decades. Administrative neglect was rampant at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and advocates remain stalwart as that attitude remains pervasive today. 

“We’ve got a whole new set of challenges,” Boston said. “[But] we’ve done this before. Let’s refocus and make things more accessible. Let’s get a whole new generation of grassroots activists out here raising money to be able to continue to support the community.” 

To learn more about Boston and support his craftivism, you can find information on his Youtube page. Read more about Center Ride Out here.

Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.

Thirty miles north of San Francisco, in a town hugged by the San Pablo Bay, Ariela Cuellar grew up with little exposure or connection to the queerness she now proudly inhabits. Cuellar is the senior communications specialist at the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network, where she creates educational materials and storytelling that champions queer people’s health, social equity, and political empowerment.

As an adolescent, Cuellar attended a private Catholic school in Vallejo, where conversations around health and sex education were funneled through the lenses of abstinence and piety. Sex was taught as something to avoid; it was a rite of passage that was meant to facilitate and affirm the sanctity of family, marriage, and religious devotion. 

Visible queerness was shunned, too. Only a few of Cuellar’s classmates were out, and rumors quickly spread about them. “Queer folks were not talked about in a positive light,” Cuellar told the Blade. There were no LGBTQ+ resource centers in town either, rendering queerness invisible if not outright impossible.

When she entered college at UC Davis, Cuellar began to explore new arenas of possibility, which involved active participation in queer and feminist spaces. She interned for the Women’s Resources and Research Center and helped organize the campus’s Feminist Film Festival. “That’s where I first got my experience working in communications and with a community-based center,” Cuellar said. “[From] that space, I knew I really wanted to be in advocacy and also be around my people.” 

Upon graduating, Cuellar worked in community engagement and marketing at the Sacramento LGBT Community Center before moving into her current role at the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network.

The organization mobilizes LGBTQ+ coalitions across the state to strengthen the ongoing fight for queer rights and protections. Staff members host panels on important legislation and LGBTQ+ research; organize events that bring the community together for conversations around health access, substance abuse, and mental health; and create culturally sensitive education on stigmatized subjects to reflect and support the entire breadth of the LGBTQ+ umbrella. 

The Network is stitched together by queer educators and advocates, including Cuellar, who are dedicated to upholding nuance and inclusion in their work. They make sure that their own humanity, and the humanity of their community members, is what is felt first. “We’re not robots that show up with our work hat on,” Cuellar said. “We, as queer people, are also feeling the impacts of these real-world events. It feels like a pendulum…progress has been set back.” 

To combat federal attacks against the queer community, the Network is prepared to ramp up its efforts this year. Cuellar explains that this involves increased advocacy for trans youth, and making sure more conversations are sparked around bodily autonomy, gender affirming care, and debunking misinformation around trans people. 

The Network is also hosting a “Pride in Prevention” event on April 2, where they are collaborating with Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural for a day of community care at the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center. Various organizations will be present to provide resources on substance use prevention, structural violence, incarceration, and other topics for people to engage with. Cuellar says the atmosphere will be comfortable and relaxed: a chance to learn, in a safe space, about how one can be proactive about their health. 

Community efforts like these are imperative in confronting the disparities and gaps LGBTQ+ people face when accessing the care they need. In a new Measure of America report on the well-being of various Angelenos, 11% of cisgender LGBTQ+ adults and 21% of trans and nonbinary adults reported that they had not sought out health care because they were afraid they would be treated unfairly based on their gender or sexual identity. 

Local activations that center queer health and destigmatization can build bridges for a more equitable and healthy future for queer folks, including the most marginalized in these communities. Organizations like the Network inspire that hope. “We’ve been in difficult and similar situations before,” Cuellar said. “With community strength, knowledge, and relationship-building, I know we’ll be able to make it past this administration and after this.” 

Pride in Prevention takes place on April 2, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Connie Norman Transgender Empowerment Center. More information can be found here, as well as on the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network’s social media.  

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.

WeHo: Where to even begin with this queer fever dream of a city? Many moons before Visit West Hollywood became the well-manicured global brand that it is today, it was an alkyl nitrate-scented social experiment in what could happen when a small yet bold city dares to take a chance on itself. As a forefather of the Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) model, WeHo envisioned what a West Coast gay mecca could look like and then made it a glossed-up, oh-so-tangible reality. 

From their early days as an unincorporated pocket of the behemoth that is Los Angeles County to its own city, it has never once shied away from dancing to the beat of its own DJ set. And it is folks like Visit West Hollywood President and CEO Tom Kiely who have pioneered tourism models. The Blade had the chance to sit down with Kiely and discuss what it takes to turn a 1.9 square mile city into the globally known gaycation destination that it is today.

Visit West Hollywood began as one of the earliest Tourism Business Improvement Districts. Could you share one special part from that evolution?

From an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, you will find a long history of forward-thinking cultural progress in West Hollywood. The City Council worked to support local businesses by innovatively developing a stand-alone non-profit organization, with secured funding and a singular purpose of promoting visitation to West Hollywood hotels. 

Tourism Business Improvement Districts (TBIDS) are now considered the gold standard for tourism marketing organizations. City community leader, lawyer, and Council member John Heilman worked alongside others to form the foundation of Visit West Hollywood, and he continues as Mayor through today. Under Mayor Heilman’s leadership, the 2026 TBID renewal strategy was unanimously supported and solidifies the largest scope for Visit West Hollywood through the next decade as a once-in-a-lifetime mega series of sporting events comes to L.A. in the coming years.

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West Hollywood is just under two square miles, yet it packs a punch. What’s the secret that makes this tiny urban gayborhood the shining queer beacon that it is?

West Hollywood’s footprint has long reached beyond its shoe size. As the heart of Los Angeles, this 1.9-square-mile city has led by example by never being afraid to challenge norms and always putting community first. The City of West Hollywood was founded in 1984 when residents came together with a shared vision to protect and nurture the creative community that had long called the area home, including designers, artists, and minorities who shaped its cultural fabric. 

Today, that same spirit continues to define West Hollywood as one of the most dynamic destinations in the region. Travelers are drawn to its unmistakable energy, where a world-class culinary scene ranges from Michelin-recognized restaurants to buzzy neighborhood favorites, nightlife spans legendary music venues and cutting-edge clubs, and boutique shopping and wellness experiences line its walkable streets. 

At its core, West Hollywood remains a place where everyone is welcome, celebrated for its longstanding commitment to inclusivity and self-expression. This ethos is reflected throughout the city’s hospitality landscape, from a renaissance of new luxury hotels to city-led public art initiatives. In fact, West Hollywood has embedded creativity into its very infrastructure: digital billboards transform into rotating works of art for 15 minutes of every hour, while hotels are required to meet public art thresholds, reinforcing the city’s belief that creativity should be accessible to all.

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What’s the most surprising statistic that you like to share about West Hollywood’s tourism impact?

The small size of our city has not stopped the global impact of West Hollywood and travelers’ interest to stay in the heart of L.A. Because of West Hollywood’s unique positioning near the Hollywood Hills, the city has a dynamic array of lifestyle offerings that travelers are attracted to. It is not only California’s most walkable city, based on amenities per square mile, but West Hollywood has recently been designated by LA Magazine as the Wellness Capital of the West Coast, with over 50 wellness offerings per square mile. 

When the Michelin Key program first announced its California hotel rating program a few years ago, West Hollywood claimed 10% of all California hotel designations, with just a 1.9 square mile radius. Now, West Hollywood has over 20 hotels to choose from, ranging in price and world-class amenities, welcoming for all travelers, including international markets from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and much of Western Europe. The first-ever Michelin 3-star restaurant for L.A. was announced as Somni West Hollywood. Chef Michael’s Cimarusti was soon announced as the second 3-star, with a sister restaurant, Connie & Ted’s, located in West Hollywood.

In a city known for over-the-top personalities and hype events, what’s the one mark on the calendar year that encapsulates WeHo Pride?

West Hollywood has long had a reputation as the Rainbow District of L.A., offering a variety of community programming and an authentic historical perspective for the LGBTQ+ community. West Hollywood is still the place where the LGBTQ+ community has long come to gather in celebration, advocacy or protest and continues to today. 

The new West Hollywood Stories AIDS Monument is a perfect example of this when it was revealed in 2025, incorporating a podium for speeches inside the West Hollywood Park. Throughout the year, the West Hollywood AIDS Monument will host tours and programming in association with the One Gallery/One Institute during the AIDS Walk and WeHo Pride, a 40-day celebration of Pride in its many shapes, from the Dyke March to Arts Festival and the Outloud festival.

 Talk about creatives, the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival continues its longstanding tradition every October 31^st to provide a runway for the amazing showmanship of makeup artists, designers, and fashion innovators to display along Santa Monica Boulevard/Route 66 in West Hollywood.

How does Visit West Hollywood balance being both a tourism destination and a community advocate?

West Hollywood has long been a destination for travelers to share in the same spirit that West Hollywood residents stand on. West Hollywood’s number one market for visitors comes from Palm Springs, and West Hollywood hotels are buzzing when the desert’s festival season is in full swing, hours away in the desert. Creatives, innovators, and thought leaders share in the pillars West Hollywood stands on, and complement the positive work already achieved by city residents.

Supporting local businesses is a hot topic. What initiatives does Visit West Hollywood use to shine a light on small entrepreneurs in WeHo?

Top funnel travel motivators continue to rely on local innovators, and after the pandemic, Visit West Hollywood’s creators campaign highlighted many local entrepreneurs offering world-class experiences to travelers and locals alike. Our partnership with the City of West Hollywood continues with the WeHoLocals.com initiative for resident offers as well as community offers, all from direct support of the City of West Hollywood, and we keep in close touch with the city’s Economic Development department on new openings to promote the West Hollywood travel experience.

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What’s the biggest challenge in marketing a place like West Hollywood, particularly in our current politically tumultuous times?

One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that West Hollywood’s values, particularly its longstanding commitment to inclusivity and self-expression, are communicated authentically during politically turbulent times. Located in the heart of L.A., a global cultural capital where social issues are often front and center, West Hollywood is both highly visible and deeply connected to broader conversations happening across the country. The opportunity, and the challenge, is continuing to celebrate what makes West Hollywood special while ensuring that the message resonates with visitors from all walks of life.

Not only is West Hollywood’s hospitality community well-positioned due to our residents’ progressive spirit, but West Hollywood always has something unexpected around every corner. Our city has continuously evolved throughout the decades, at the forefront of culture from the speakeasies during prohibition, the ‘60’s rock n roll wave, the AIDS crisis, and the renaissance of new luxury. Travelers are attracted to the exciting happenings in our city, and Visit West Hollywood’s longstanding international investment has paid off with key markets understanding the values West Hollywood stands on. Key motivations to base your stay in West Hollywood remain, especially for awards season, in addition to the mega series of sporting events coming to Los Angeles.

We hear a lot about investment in the visitor experience. What’s something exciting on the horizon?

There is so much in the pipeline for restaurant, showroom, and gallery openings, but Visit West Hollywood is particularly excited about the forthcoming opening of the PUBLIC Hotel, standing on the motto of “luxury for all,” brought by the same team as the West Hollywood EDITION. The PUBLIC hotel will take over the original Standard Hotel building in 2026. This, alongside the 2025 launch of the Sun Rose Hotel, shifting from the Pendry branding as an independent property leading in entertainment from its Live at Sun Rose music venue, as well as the neighboring Mondrian hotel metamorphosis as well. Keep an eye out for The Now, unveiling a Japanese food hall in addition to welcoming the global footprint of Sushi Samba, the expansion of Pura Vita to the Sunset Strip, and Laurel Hardware’s beautifully designed Laurel Supply.

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Can you share with our readers a not-so-well-known fact about West Hollywood?

West Hollywood first unveiled to the United States the career of Elton John as well as the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Pinkberry launched in West Hollywood, and so did Barry’s. Did you know the Chinese chicken salad and the Moscow Mule also came from West Hollywood? 

Keep an eye out for a forthcoming documentary from the Sunset Marquis hotel called If These Walls Could Rock, with celebrity stories that pull back the curtain on the drugs, sex and rock ‘ n ‘ roll scene at the hotel. Jonny D’Amico’s Rock-N-Walk tour departs nightly, showcasing many of the salacious stories of West Hollywood hidden in plain sight.

From your perspective, what makes the local LGBTQ+ business community uniquely resilient and essential to West Hollywood’s identity?

A quick look at the history of the LGBTQ+ community on the West Coast, you will find West Hollywood leading since the start. Local residents support their own community and, over the years, have attracted a worldwide promotional outlet, thanks to West Hollywood’s proximity to celebrities living nearby in the Hollywood Hills. 

As a communications pioneer, how do you balance celebrating what’s iconic about WeHo while still pushing for innovation and inclusivity?

Through all of Visit West Hollywood’s marketing efforts, we rely on a pillar to welcome all to have freedom of heart. Come as you are, and feel the unmistakable spirit and energy of West Hollywood throughout the year.

Iconic, innovation, and inclusivity all complement each other in West Hollywood. You can’t talk about inclusivity or innovation without talking about West Hollywood’s iconic and unmistakable impact. Historic overlay zones keep West Hollywood stories alive for walking tours and city exploration. Part of what makes West Hollywood iconic is the welcoming and inclusive ethos to try something new and to innovate. Look how it turned out for Elton John, The Eagles, The Doors, not to mention The Troubadour, The Abbey, The Roxy, the Whisky a Go Go, the Comedy Store, and so many more. 

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What’s one piece of advice you’d dish out to someone who wants to show up for West Hollywood, whether they’re supporting small businesses, attending events, or just exploring the city for their first time?

Start with what excites you and let West Hollywood build the experience around that. Whether you’re showing up for incredible food, design, relaxing wellness, nightlife, or just a great walkable day exploring, West Hollywood really does have something for everyone. We recently launched a new AI-powered VisitWestHollywood.com that helps visitors customize their experience based on their interests. If you’re a foodie, it can point you toward the city’s standout restaurants. If you’re into nightlife or live music, it will guide you to the best spots. And if shopping or design is your thing, it will lead you straight to the Design District. 

West Hollywood may only be 1.9 square miles, but each of West Hollywood’s neighborhoods maintain a unique personality: from the iconic Sunset Strip, to the inclusive Rainbow District along Route 66/Santa Monica Boulevard, to the eclectic and innovative Design District. My advice is to lean into what you love and explore from there. And of course, take advantage of programs like WeHo Loves Locals, which makes it even easier to support the incredible small businesses that make this city so special.

Visit West Hollywood has been a long-time sponsor for LA Blade’s Best of LA Awards, continuing this year.

From the brownstone-lined blocks of pre-gentrified Brooklyn to the sunlit shores of the Pacific, Jed Inductivo’s story is one of equal parts reinvention and determination. Long before Brooklyn became an Instagram filter, it was a place that sharpened his instincts and taught him how to read a room before the room even knew it was being read. Now firmly repotted and rooted in LA and thriving at Compass Sunset Strip, Inductivo embodies the best of both the East and West Coasts. He approaches his real estate game as the deeply human experience that it is.

Whether he’s guiding first-time buyers to “decide into” the market, protecting or championing equity as President of the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance Los Angeles chapter, Inductivo shows up as not just an agent but a connector and community builder. In an industry totes obsessed with numbers, Jed Inductivo proves that the best deals are built not just on square footage but on trust.

From Brooklyn to Honolulu to Los Angeles. How did your journey across coasts impact who you are today and your approach to the real estate game?

Growing up in Brooklyn before it was trendy gave me grit, street smarts, and the ability to read a room fast. You had to think on your feet and assess situations quickly, and that instinct still serves me in high-stakes real estate negotiations. 

Honolulu was a completely different chapter, and where I truly grew up professionally. I moved there to open Nobu Waikiki (following a Cornell College crush), and hospitality at that level, rooted in the aloha spirit, taught me warmth, anticipation, and how to understand a client’s needs before they articulate them. Running large teams in luxury hospitality during high-pressure moments sharpened my leadership, coaching, and problem-solving skills. 

Los Angeles feels like the perfect blend of both worlds. It’s dynamic and ambitious like New York, but with the pace and light of Hawaii. That combination mirrors how I show up: gritty yet gracious, strategic yet empathetic. Real estate is a service industry – just a very expensive and emotional one – and I bring all of those life experiences to my clients as a trusted advisor, counselor, problem solver, experience maker, and sometimes even what I call a “FRIENT.”

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You famously turned your own rental regrets into a mission for others. What’s the biggest insight you tell first-time home buyers to help them avoid experiencing similar mistakes?

In my 20s, I was making good money but didn’t have the financial literacy or long-term strategy I have now –  and if I did, I’d probably be a financially free millionaire by this point. That regret fuels my mission. I truly believe that even in a pricey city like Los Angeles, homeownership is possible, but it requires intention and a strategic plan. 

The biggest insight I share with first-time buyers is this: don’t drift into the market, decide into it. That’s why I start with what I call a VIP – a Vision & Initial Possibilities meeting – which is step one in becoming a homeowner. It’s where we map out a bespoke strategy based on your current situation. Maybe you’re ready in three months, maybe it’s three years or more. Both are valid. What matters is that you’re no longer guessing; you’re building a plan.

At Compass Sunset Strip, you’ve assisted all kinds of folks, from first-timers to investors and everyone in between. What’s one story that rekindled your ambition for real estate?

As cheesy as it may sound, I genuinely care. I like sleeping well at night, which means I’m truly client-first, even when that means advising someone not to list their home or not to buy a property that could become a financial strain later. Real estate is a multi-sport endeavor, and you’re only as strong as your weakest player, so I’ve intentionally built a network of trusted partners – lenders, escrow officers, inspectors – who share that same integrity-driven philosophy, because one bad actor can derail everything. 

I think of a client from the LGBTQ+ community whose dominant language was Spanish; before meeting me, he’d been working with a predatory lender and an agent who weren’t honest about what he could realistically afford. Thankfully, that deal fell apart. When he came to me, we built a strategic plan around the neighborhoods he loved, a monthly payment he felt confident with, and a down payment that protected his savings, which meant waiting about six months. By month seven, he secured a beautiful condo with a low HOA, becoming the first homeowner in his family, and today that home holds his dog, his partner, and his adopted child. Those are the moments that remind me why this work matters.

How do you maintain authenticity and personality in an industry that’s often focused on numbers and contracts?

Early on, I was fortunate to be mentored by a top-producing agent in the Palisades who built her entire 30+ year career on relationships, not cold leads or chasing strangers, but referrals from clients who trusted her deeply. That philosophy stuck with me. I’ve taken it even further by operating from abundance: not everyone is my client, and that’s okay. Some people are probably better served by another agent. 

The clearer I’ve become about my values, the more aligned clients I attract, and frankly, the more enjoyable and successful the experience is for everyone. I host quarterly events rooted in my real interests – a Vision Board party, a holiday white elephant book swap, a dog adoption happy hour – because community matters to me. 

A brilliant colleague once told me, “If you don’t show up as yourself, how will people find you?” I’d rather be fully seen by the right people than vaguely visible to everyone. In an industry driven by contracts and numbers, relationships are still the real currency, and authenticity compounds.

You are President of the Los Angeles chapter of the LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance. What was your impetus to step into this leadership role?

It’s truly been an honor to step into this role. The LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance is both a fair housing advocacy organization and a professional network that includes not just agents, but lenders, escrow officers, and other industry partners, all committed to better serving our community. 

About a year and a half ago, the LA chapter had been disbanded, and at a national conference, a former national president approached me about the opportunity to revive it. I saw it as a chance to bring together like-minded professionals – both members of the community and strong allies – to elevate standards, increase awareness around fair housing, and better equip ourselves to help LGBTQ+ individuals and families become homeowners. 

While we’re still rebuilding, forming a governing board from scratch and laying a new foundation has been incredibly meaningful. Leadership, to me, is about creating access and opportunity – and helping make homeownership a true reality for our community, not just an aspiration.

The Alliance started in 2020 to champion homeownership while fighting housing discrimination. What is the biggest obstacle you have witnessed in housing equity for LGBTQ+ folks?

While we’re fortunate in Los Angeles to live in a relatively progressive bubble, housing discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals is still very real across the country – in some states, contracts can quietly fall apart once a seller discovers a buyer is part of our community. 

Even here in LA, where discrimination may be less blatant, it still happens in more subtle ways. I’ve seen our trans community face some of the greatest obstacles, particularly because a real estate transaction involves so many vendors – lenders, escrow officers, title reps – and not all of them understand or take the time to respectfully navigate issues around names, gender markers, and identity documentation. That lack of awareness can create unnecessary stress in an already high-stakes process. 

The solution is education and alignment – building a trusted network of professionals who approach every transaction with dignity, clarity, and empathy. Through the Alliance, we’re committed to ensuring members of our community feel informed, respected, and empowered to move through homeownership with confidence and pride.

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For folks not too familiar with the Alliance’s work, can you paint a picture of what your particular chapter is actively accomplishing in Los Angeles?

Even in a progressive city like Los Angeles, housing equity for LGBTQ+ people is not a solved issue. California has stronger protections than many states, but recent rhetoric, including Governor Newsom’s comment that Democrats should be “more culturally normal” and focus less on pronouns and identity politics, shows how quickly conversations can unintentionally marginalize our community, even when the intent may be broader appeal. 

Nationally, LGBTQ+ homeownership rates sit around 51% compared to roughly 71% for straight, cisgender households, a nearly 20-point gap that reflects systemic barriers, distrust, and lack of tailored education. Our LA chapter is focused on closing that gap by making homeownership feel accessible, informed, and affirming. We host LGBTQ+-friendly homebuyer workshops, connect people to inclusive lenders and vendors, and educate our community about down payment assistance programs, grants that can reach up to $85,000, and California programs like Dream for All that can help with up to 20% of a down payment. Our goal is simple but powerful: if someone raises their hand to build wealth – maybe even achieve early retirement or generational stability – we want to be the trusted resource that helps them do it with dignity, clarity, and confidence.

Can you spotlight for us one initiative that you’re most enthusiastic about, whether advocacy, education, community engagement, or other?

One initiative I’m especially enthusiastic about is creating a comprehensive LGBTQ+ real estate resource guide – both digital and print – featuring trusted, vetted, affirming vendors across every stage of the transaction, from lenders and escrow officers to inspectors and estate planners. Buying a home involves a full ecosystem of professionals, and we want our community to know exactly where to turn for respect and understanding. 

Alongside that, we’re developing a Homebuying 101 guide designed to demystify the process and give people a confident starting point toward ownership. We also host quarterly “lunch and learns” led by industry leaders focused on best practices for serving LGBTQ+ clients – not just how to help them buy, but how to protect and preserve that asset long term. For me, it’s about education, alignment, and empowerment – making sure our community isn’t just participating in homeownership, but thriving in it.

Looking into the near future, what is one intention or objective you have in mind for LA’s chapter of the Alliance?

My intention for this year is growth, both in visibility and in impact. We’re rebuilding an already incredible community of professionals who genuinely care about equity and ethical service, and I want more people to know who they are and what they stand for. That means increasing exposure through publications like yours, showing up at major community events like WeHo Pride, and building partnerships with organizations such as the Laurel Foundation. 

We’re also being more intentional about engaging political constituents and local leaders so that housing equity for our community remains part of the broader civic conversation. For me, it’s about expanding the table – bringing more voices, more allies, and more resources into the room – so the Alliance becomes not just a professional network, but a visible, trusted pillar within Los Angeles.

If you could instill a touch of hope in aspiring homeowners regardless of who they are or where they are coming from, what would you tell them?

You can do it, I truly believe that. No matter who you are or where you’re starting from, homeownership is possible. It may not be today, or three months from now, or even three years from now, but with a clear plan and the right guidance, it’s absolutely achievable. 

Homeownership is far more attainable than many people think, especially when you have advisors who care more about your long-term stability than a single transaction. There are some incredible client-first agents out there, but if you’re not sure where to start, you now know at least one, and I’d genuinely be happy to help. Until then, happy house hunting, and may the keys be ever in your favor.

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It’s Feb. 4 when I sit down to call Genevieve Morrill, only a week after she officially stepped away from her longtime role as president and CEO of West Hollywood’s Chamber of Commerce. For 15 years, she paved the way for the City’s business ecosystem: creating robust opportunities for business owners and championing their rights.

Her leadership style has always been defined by forward-thinking, ambitious, and collectively-driven change. “I’m not here to tell you how to lead,” Morrill told the Blade. “I’m here to lead with you.” This focus on inclusivity and community empowerment stretched into advocacy for marginalized community members. From early on, Morrill has been a strong ally for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people, creating pathways for diverse leaders and business owners. 

Today, we dive into Morrill’s legacy of queer advocacy: one that has earned her this year’s “Local Hero” award at the upcoming Los Angeles Blade’s Best of LA Awards on Mar. 26. 

Uplifting queer and trans people in the business sector 

In West Hollywood, and Los Angeles more broadly, Morrill is known for her dedication to shaping and revitalizing dormant spaces. The Chamber was “in trouble” when the board asked her to take over leadership in 2010. They were struggling under the pressure of the recession, and the next steps looked risky and obfuscated. Morrill readily accepted the challenge, her internal armor strengthened by a childhood that was always on the move. 

Morrill’s father was a Methodist minister and would often move the family around to take part in “community development work” across the globe. She felt propelled by a sense of duty and mission from a young age. “It’s kind of in my DNA… [I grew up] in an organization that was focused on caring for the world,” Morrill said, who also attributed her strong sense of justice and community-oriented service to her parents’ involvement in civil rights and the women’s movement. 

Her responsibility to the people led to major reforms at the Chamber of Commerce: the board tripled its budget, increased membership by 20%, and created widespread visibility for small businesses across West Hollywood. Under her guidance, the Chamber also established a small business task force as well as its philanthropic Small Business Foundation: an organization dedicated to expanding opportunities and providing training for queer and BIPOC business owners, as well as other minority community members. 

This all sprouted from Morrill’s keen eye: while immersing herself deeply in the beast of WeHo’s business ecosystem, she observed the lack of initiative employers would take when it came to hiring and empowering trans and queer workers. She began collaborating with Drian Juarez, then the vice president of programming at Trans Can Work: a local workforce development organization that supports transgender and gender nonconforming people. 

In the early 2010s, Morrill and Juarez hosted their first seminar together, where fewer than 10 people attended. “It was a real challenge to get people there,” Morrill said, who explained to the Blade that, even a decade ago, business owners were hesitant to adapt queer inclusivity into their branding. Queer stigma continued to be rampant and widespread. 

Morrill refused to accept this. For the next seminar focused on trans people in the workplace, she called various local businesses and pushed them to attend. “You need to get there,” she recounted, remembering that her tone was urgent and stern. Over 50 people attended this second seminar. She recalls this early foray into queer advocacy as one of her many “significant” achievements. 

These workshops then formed into a steady program: WeLead Academy, a professional development opportunity that uplifts queer and BIPOC entrepreneurs. Over two months, participants learn about money management, leveraging technological advancement for business growth, collaborating within the community, navigating government systems, and other essential business skills. It is powered through the Chamber’s Small Business Foundation. 

In her years of service to West Hollywood, Morrill set a precedent for this expansion of inclusivity: to ensure that the City’s wide, varied fabric of people felt represented and capable of unlocking success. Morrill also recognizes that the spaces around us are ever-changing, and rather than stay locked in old ways, she questions: how can we preserve the spirit and histories of our environment, while allowing for growth that takes us to a more equitable future?

She reflects on older conversations she had with the late LGBTQ+ rights activist Ivy Bottini, where they would often discuss the loss of lesbian and sapphic sanctuaries. Even within queer spaces, there is still a need to constantly recalibrate and think about who we’re leaving out of the conversation. But Morrill thinks about these dilemmas with hope and continues to stand in solidarity with the queer communities “being attacked and trying to be erased” right now. 

What’s next for Morrill?

This new chapter ahead is marked by bittersweet excitement. On leaving the Chamber, Morrill explained that, as hard as it is to “break off” from these 15 memorable years and the space that defined her community work, it’s a necessary change. 

This has been her whole life, up until now. “[When I] was asked if I was still going to leave at the end of 2025, my heart said no,” Morrill said. “But out of my mouth came: yes. I think my heart is still here in West Hollywood [and] with all the businesses…I know there’s still a need for somebody to defend and fight for them.” Morrill’s successor is Len Lanzi, whom Morrill trusts will lead the Chamber well in its next era. 

A return to the arts?

When I ask Morrill what the future looks like ahead, she is unsure but excitedly brings up an old passion project: a nonprofit she started in 2007, called “Books with Feet.” The concept is rooted in her core love for theater, books, and the arts: classic short stories are performed so that every single word, even in narration, is performed with exciting and dynamic movement. 

Here, Morrill directed stories on the stage: a place she found success in during her adolescence. She recounts performing in a hit show in Chicago and giving it her all during its 14-week run. She studied under acting legends in the 1980s, before beginning to coach students herself. 

“I think what happened for me was I didn’t really have a desire to hit the pavement with my headshot,” Morrill said. “But I had a desire to continue to be immersed in the arts.” So she ran Books with Feet until 2011, when it became impossible to manage both this and her Chamber role. “So, I might get back to that. Who knows?” Morrill said. 

As we talk more, her entrepreneurial, innovative spirit springs forward, ripe with possibility. She discusses the possibility of creating cultural hubs across the county, revamping “dumpy” abandoned theaters and transforming them into lively arts districts of their own. “I feel like the strings have been cut,” Morrill said, of this new liberating freedom she feels for her path ahead. “As that happens, more space will open up for me [and] that will help me understand what the universe is going to present to me.”

Celebrate Morrill with the Blade at our upcoming Best of LA Awards on Mar. 26, held at the Abbey in West Hollywood. More information can be found here.

Kristie Song is a California Local News Fellow placed with the Los Angeles Blade. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.