a&e features
2018 Best of Gay LA Awards
All of your favorites, from bartenders to activists and more
Best of Gay LA
Welcome to the inaugural Best Of Gay LA Awards presented by the Los Angeles Blade. There were hundreds of nominations in 25 categories and thousands of votes. Here we present your picks for the best LA has to offer along with editors’ choices in most categories.
LOCAL HERO: JON DAVIDSON
Jon Davidson (Photo courtesy of Davidson)
Jon Davidson has been fighting for the rights of the underdog for most of his adult life.
An attorney focused on the LGBTQ community and people living with HIV, virtually since graduating from Yale Law School in 1979, Davidson has fought and won some of the most important cases facing LGBT Americans. But, as he says, ultimately it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the long game.
“What I’ve learned is that one of the realities of doing the LGBT rights litigation that I’ve spent most of my career doing, is that sometimes you can lose the case, but still win. Because those sorts of cases end up educating people about the things that are wrong,” Davidson told the Los Angeles Blade.
He became interested in politics in high school, around the time of Stonewall. He was boycotting grapes and lettuce in support of California farm workers and he protested the Vietnam War. He says he was excited about political change. He started taking cases pro bono.
His first big case was no small potatoes. He sued the city of Los Angeles on behalf of homeless people. Not long after, he says, in 1985 a lot of his friends started to get sick. He started looking for a way he could help.
Davidson teamed up with attorney and activist Susan McGreevy, who was at the ACLU at the time. She enlisted his help in writing the first brief to the U.S. Supreme Court about AIDS. It was about whether people with contagious diseases could be considered disabled and protected against discrimination under a law called the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The goal was to convince the courts that AIDS was a disabling condition.
“At the time, the Reagan administration was arguing that contagious diseases couldn’t be considered disabilities because that would mean that people with AIDS would be protected from discrimination,” Davidson says.
Another local case got a lot of attention when Davidson was working with a gay rights organization that no longer exists, on behalf of a man threatened with eviction for hanging a gay Pride flag off his apartment’s balcony. The building’s argument was that people would think it was a “gay building.” Davidson argued that people put American flags on their balconies, so why not a Pride flag?
Davidson left private practice in 1988 to work for the ACLA of Southern California. He was there for eight years, and then joined Lambda Legal, where he worked for more than 20 years.
It was Davidson’s work on a case against the Boy Scouts of America that brought much national acclaim. He was the lead lawyer on the Curran v. Mount Diablo Council of the Boy Scouts of America, a case that went to California Supreme Court. He lost the case, but it was part of the fight to get people to understand that the Boy Scouts were engaging in discrimination.
Davidson also helped out on the Dale case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that the constitutional right to freedom of association allows a private organization like the Boy Scouts, to exclude a person from membership when “the presence of that person affects in a significant way the group’s ability to advocate public or private viewpoints.” In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that opposition to homosexuality is part of BSA’s “expressive message” and that allowing homosexuals as adult leaders would interfere with that message. It reversed a decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court, which had determined that New Jersey’s public accommodations law required the BSA to readmit James Dale, who the BSA expelled after Dale went public about being gay.
Davidson says despite losing those cases, the suits against the Boy Scouts outed the organization as discriminatory and ultimately led to a lot of pressure on them to change their position – both social and financial pressure.
“I used to joke that I’ve spent the bulk of my career fighting for LGBT people to serve in the military, get into the Boy Scouts, serve in the Los Angeles Police Department, and to get married, but I didn’t want to do any of those things. But those are four of the most conservative institutions we have in this country and they all in many ways epitomize being an American citizen,” Davidson says.
He and his longtime partner celebrated their 13th anniversary this year, which they count from the time they moved in together.
“I believe that an attack on any member of this nation or the world is an attack on all of us. But I decided more than 30 years ago I wanted to put my professional energies into and work on behalf of my community, which I define as the LGBT community and those living with HIV. That’s what spoke to me and where I felt there was a need,” he says. But, he adds, “A big part of the battle is also to remember that our community also includes several other groups who’ve been targets of the Trump administration – poor people, people of color, Muslims, people from other countries, you name it – it’s frightening. Our community needs to address the fact that many of the gains we made didn’t really help those most marginalized in our community.” (REBEKAH SAGER)
BEST BARTENDER: ANTHONY SALDANA
Anthony Saldana (Photo by Brett Saari Photography)
He prefers to be called a bartender rather than a mixologist, but Anthony Saldana is Micky’s top man behind the bar.
“We are more fine-tuned for speed and agility than mixing fancy drinks, because it’s always so busy,” Saldana told the Los Angeles Blade.
Born and raised in Ontario, in the inland empire, Saldana has lived in LA for the last 10 years, and worked at Micky’s for most of that time.
His first job after finishing UC Riverside was at Target as an executive manager. He says he was making $70,000 but on his first visit to Weho, a friend came running out of Micky’s with his shirt off, and told him they were hiring.
“I went in and spoke with the manager, who tore my shirt off in the office. He takes one look at me, and says I can start Monday. I told him about my Target gig and what I was making. He laughed at me and said I’d make double that,” he says.
Saldana waxes poetic about the days before the straight crowd discovered Weho.
He explains that straight guys come in to hit on drunk girls, but they don’t drink as much.
Trained using YouTube videos, this is the fourth year he’s won a Best Bartender title. In 2013, Grindr awarded him Best Bartender. He was flown to Vegas to receive the award.
“I don’t know why I keep winning, because I’m kind of an asshole,” he admits sheepishly. He adds, “If you come into my bar, and you act shitty I’m going to call you out on it. I’m very protective of my customers. I’ve jumped over the bar and thrown people out. I take shots with all of my customers. They literally love it.”
Saldana left home at 17 to “do his own thing.”
Now fairly distant from his family he says people don’t get to choose to be born into a family. “I want to choose who I love. I don’t want to be forced to love people I don’t even get along with. I travel a lot, and I take my friends wherever I go.”
His family found out about his being gay via social media. He almost married a girl. He has some complicated views on being gay, and says he gets pretty deep with customers about them all the time.
“I was born a straight man. I was in love with this female, it wasn’t until my sophomore year I had my first gay experience. I think as a child something very small could alter your thought process. I feel like the gay community always says ‘oh, you’re born gay,’ but if 10 percent of the community is born different than the other 90 percent, then that would make it a disability. I would hate to think that being gay is a disability. Personally I don’t want to be thought of as born gay… But, I’m gay now.
“I definitely appreciate a beautiful female though… and have this girl Natalie in my life that I call my wife. We’re inseparable and we do everything together, and I swear she would get married in a heartbeat, but sexually I just can’t do it. I associate with being gay,” Saldano says.
Single and dating, he has a staunch rule about never dating customers. He’s pressured a lot by men, and says he’s had to tell people he’s straight because it’s easier than telling men he’s not interested.
Despite turning a few guys away, Salgado gets gifts — lots of them. At Christmas he received a Cartier love band worth $10,000. “I mentioned that I’d always wanted one, and the next thing you know it’s getting screwed on my wrist,” he says. He’s been given a Mercedes, taken on trips, and even had someone give him money for his sick father.
“I mean people will give 10 to 20 percent to a church, whereas in the gay community they’ll give 20, 30 or 40 percent to the bars,” he says.
Although he’s known by the tattoo inked on his flat stomach, complete with washboard abs, the days of bartending shirtless are over.
A gym rat, Saldano says to keep his liver from completely failing, he only does shots of tequila, and his favorite is Don Julio anejo – always with a slice of orange. (REBEKAH SAGER)
MICKY’S
8857 Santa Monica Blvd.
310-657-1176
BEST BARTENDER, EDITORS’ CHOICE: CORY ZWIERZYNSKI
Cory Zwierzynski (Photo courtesy of Zwierzynski)
Bartender and star of “What Happens at The Abbey,” Cory Zwierzynski is the editors’ pick for Best Bartender. For nearly 25 years, The Abbey has dominated gay nightlife in West Hollywood. And Cory is almost as famous, thanks to his starring role on “What Happens at The Abbey.”
“When you start working at The Abbey,” Corey told the Los Angeles Blade, “it’s like joining a big family. We don’t just work together; we have a good time together. We have so many regulars at The Abbey that they are all part of the family too.”
Corey’s favorite moment at The Abbey so far? “People dancing to Diana Ross’ music on the dance floor with Diana Ross. It doesn’t get more memorable than that.”
THE ABBEY
692 N Robertson Blvd.
310-289-8410
BEST DJ: STEVE AOKI
Steve Aoki (Photo courtesy of Aoki)
Steven Hiroyuki (Aoki) is one of the world’s most influential DJs. He certainly has the whole EDM circuit world jumping at venues around the world. But he’s really just an ordinary guy who grew up Newport Beach and attended USCB.
He holds degrees in feminist studies and sociology. But while in college, a spark captured his imagination when he produced a do-it-yourself record and began running underground concerts at Isla Vista, a section of residential land adjacent to UCSB. The venue became known as The Pickle Patch and it changed Aoki’s life.
In his early 20s, Aoki built his own record label, which he named Dim Mak – a reference to his childhood hero, Bruce Lee.
Aoki has won and been nominated for a number of industry awards, both in annual competitions and in magazine rankings. In 2007, he was named Best Party Rocker DJ by BPM Magazine, Best DJ of the Year by Paper Magazine, and Best Set of the Season at the Ibiza Awards. Several years later, in 2012, he was named #15 in the Top 100 DJs in DJ Magazine, and was named America’s #2 Best DJ. Also in 2012, he won an
EDM Effect Woodie Award by MTVu, and the following year he was nominated for his first Grammy.
In 2014, Aoki was awarded two Guinness World Records, one for the “longest crowd cheer,” and also for the “most amount of glow sticks for thirty seconds.” Aoki performed at the 2015 Ultra Music Festival in Miami Beach on May 21. He also earned the Guinness record for “most traveled musician in one year,” with 161 shows in 41 countries in 2014.
To say he has been successful is an understatement.
He is the founder of the Steve Aoki Charitable Fund, which raises money for global humanitarian relief organizations and medical research. In 2015, he was named Global Ambassador for the Best Buddies program, a non-profit devoted to young people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Learn more at steveaoki.com
BEST DJ, EDITORS’ CHOICE: SHANE IVAN NASH
Shane Ivan Nash (Photo courtesy of Nash)
As a transgender activist and talented musician, Nash has consistently shared his story and his music, helping to inspire others. When asked what he loves most about DJing, Nash said, “Your profession requires you to party, dance and create a collected consciousness. The nightlife is the release from life—we’re all on the same beat, in the same moment.”
Of his work with the LGBT community, Nash said, “I’ve helped countless people in the community start their endeavors including Trans Chorus LA and as a board member for LA Pride, I fought for the trans representation.” Learn more at ShaneIvanNash.com.
BEST CHEF: STUART O’KEEFFE
If you haven’t heard of chef Stuart O’Keeffe, then you clearly haven’t been invited to the right A-list Hollywood dinner parties.
A small town Irish hottie, who now lives in West Hollywood, O’Keeffe made a name for himself on the Food Network’s “Private Chefs of Beverly Hills.”
“I was always obsessed with America and always wanted to be on TV,” O’Keeffe told the Los Angeles Blade.
His first gig in the U.S. after culinary school in Ireland was in Napa Valley working at Meadowood Napa Valley. But restaurants didn’t suit him. He says he didn’t like the way people were treated.
“I knew I was destined to do what I wanted without the stress. I thought there must be another way, and I kind of started doing dinner parties in my apartment for friends, and they’d tell people about them. I was also working as an executive assistant, and started getting hired for private parties.
O’Keeffe can’t talk a lot about who he works for, but will mention a few celebs he says have “eaten at his tables” – stars such as Sharon Stone, Jennifer Aniston, Justine Bateman, Harrison Ford, Cindy Crawford, Jane Fonda and Christina Aguilera.
O’Keeffe has been at his job long enough and has become well known enough that he doesn’t suffer fools and although his clients tend to be high-maintenance, he lives to cook for others.
“I want people to be nice. I’m not going to bow down to people. I’m well equipped to do this. I won’t stand for people being rude. I’m fair. I mean, how much do you value yourself really,” he says.
So, why do celebs keep calling him back? He says straight up, it’s the way he looks. “I’m a cute guy from Ireland. A lot of women, I overhear them asking if I’m straight or gay. It can be funny in a really sweet way,” O’Keeffe says laughing.
He’s currently single and dating. He likes to meet guys through friends or at a bar. He says his favorites are the Abbey, Revolver and Chapel. He meets people through friends mostly, and doesn’t do the app thing. He says he’s tried it, but it’s not personal enough and he’s too old school.
O’Keeffe says the “power gays” don’t hire him much.
“They have their set people they use… I think people think that I don’t do this anymore because I do so much TV, or because they think I’m above it. But, if I have time in my schedule, I’ll do it. I don’t really turn down things. I like to keep busy. I’d like to do more things,” O’Keeffe says.
His goal is to have his own TV show on the Food Network. He has another cookbook coming out later this year, and he wants to open a restaurant in the next year or two.
He envisions a show where he can travel around the U.S. — a kind of Irish guy fish out of water. He says he loves rural America, and thinks the people are funny and sweet. They remind him of the small town he grew up in — Nenagh, not far from Limerick.
He says Irish food is different than people think. “We have some of the best meat and fish in the world where we are,” he says.
His signature dishes are chicken cacciatore, short ribs, individual baked Alaska, and a killer flourless cake – “Jennifer Aniston told me my cake was good, so it must be badass.”
For a guy that makes his living off people who don’t cook for themselves, O’Keeffe believes a major problem with Americans in general is that they don’t cook at home enough.
“People need to get back in the kitchen and start cooking. There’s so much joy in that. And it’s healthier,” he says. He adds though that he actually hates to shop. “One of the most annoying thing about cooking is going to the store and shopping for the ingredients. I tell people to go shopping one day, and cook the next day. Cooking can be stressful if you don’t know how to do it.”
When O’Keeffe isn’t cooking for actors and Hollywood executives, you can find him on Mondays at the farmer’s market, on Gardner and Fountain streets, or at his local Whole Foods.
He lists Jar, Rossoblu, and Cecconi’s as his favorite restaurants in LA.
As for his TV aspirations that dream has certainly come true, if you count Food Network, “Stuart’s Kitchen” which aired in Ireland and New Zealand, appearances on Marie, CBS’s “The Talk,” “The Home and Family Show,” and Republic of Telly and Asiana Airlines featured Stuart in its national “Fly with Color” campaign.
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST CHEF: SUZANNE TRACT
Suzanne Tracht (Photo courtesy Tracht)
Chef and owner of the critically acclaimed Jar Restaurant, Suzanne Tracht has won international praise for her culinary adventures at Jar. Her countless appearances on the “Today” show, Food Network, and Extra, as well as her multiple awards led her to be inducted into the Fine Dining Hall of Fame and participating in Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women Summit.
“Relating to people and making them feel warm and welcome isn’t hard and you can do it in many ways, which is why I cook,” Tracht said. “I like feeding people and making them happy.”
JAR
8225 Beverly Blvd.
323-655-6566
BEST BUSINESSPERSON: BRAD LAMM, BREATHE LIFE HEALING CENTER
Brad Lamm (Photo courtesy of Lamm)
Fifteen years ago Brad Lamm was a self-proclaimed total mess. He was bulimic. He smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. He was an alcoholic, addicted to meth, and he supplemented all of this by taking Xanax. In 2002, he got clean.
Lamm’s journey to help others grew into an empire with two treatment centers that have helped numerous people in the LGBTQ community get clean and sober.
“I knew I was gay at 5 years old,” he says. “When I took my first drink at 15, I was deliciously soothed. By the time my first partner died in 1989, I was 19 years old and convinced not only was I going to die, but we were all going to die.”
He added, “We were part of this sad infected class with no upside… Gay men in my generation, pre-HIV cocktail, it was more than a death sentence, it was a shame sentence. It was a downward spiral. It was a grizzly and gruesome death. And I’d already been cast out of my family.”
ACT UP became Lamm’s upside. Although he was still getting high at the time, he fell into a clan he calls “purposeful,” working to make progress and trying to save his life.
“I found a place for my rage, but I thought I was going to die from alcohol and drugs, so when I didn’t, it was an amazing ‘ah-ha’ coupled with helping others, and it was all congruous with my trauma survival and being a gay man,” Lamm says.
It was in Lamm’s search for what to do with his life after getting clean that he found doctor Dr. Judith Landau, a South African psychiatrist focused on “invitational intervention,” a trauma-informed approach to helping families help their families.
“Essentially you invite your family to an intervention and the work starts from there. It suited me and it coincided with enormous energy I had around, never thinking I’d stop this litany of things that were killing me,” he says.
Lamm’s entre into the work Landau was doing eventually led to starting an intervention practice himself in New York, 13 years ago, and it really took off thanks to contacts he’d made in his former life as a TV weatherman.
“Some of the same skills I had as a journalist and some of the people I grew up in that industry with were now in TV running shows, and they knew about my remarkable turnaround.
“The ‘Today’ show said come and do a show on recovery, and Oprah said come and do a docu-series on food and that became “Addicted to Food,” an eight-part series produced for her. Then Dr. Oz said come help launch the show. And I did like 30 stories. That was the rocket fuel to this mission of helping my recovery community and their families reduce its suffering,” Lamm says.
Five years ago, Lamm opened a trauma-informed treatment center that would accept health insurance, Breathe Life Healing Center in Los Angeles.
“Meth and alcohol was my struggle, drug and hurt, so to see treatment in my community is powerful,” he says.
He and Scott Sanders, a Tony, Grammy and Emmy winning television, film and theater producer (Sanders produced the musical “The Color Purple” for Broadway), were married and it was the first gay wedding Oprah attended.
He says he sees so much of himself in the Celie character from “The Color Purple.”
“You’re at the end of the rope and you’re so beaten down, and then all of a sudden instead of cutting Mister’s throat, you choose grace and find your way. And part of that is forgiveness. But forgiveness doesn’t mean I need to live up to anyone’s version of who I need to be,” Lamm says.
Lamm says the headline of his life continues to be defined by something famed author, Alice Walker said to him 13 years ago.
“She told me that ‘the power of you is not your story, but that you’re a ‘bodhisattva.’ I was like, what’s that? She told me to go and look it up. It means, the one who goes into the lake of fire to help another out. That’s the beauty of every person to help another. The very wreckage of my past becomes the crown jewel of my ability to help another,” Lamm says.
BREATHE LIFE HEALING CENTER
8730 Sunset Blvd.
800-929-5904
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST LGBT BUSINESSPERSON: OLIVER ALPUCHE, REDLINE
Oliver Alpuche (Photo courtesy of Alpuche)
When asked what inspired the business venture that led to the opening of this premier gay bar in DTLA, Oliver Alpuche said, “I’ve lived downtown for eight years and noticed that the LGBTQ community was growing, but we had nowhere to go and meet each other. Downtown deserves a dedicated queer space 365 days a year.”
That paved the way for the DTLA Proud Festival, which Oliver created. “DLTA Proud is committed to celebrating everyone’s story, to spreading optimism, to growing our community and to expanding our definition of diversity,” he said. “I love Los Angeles because of how diverse it is.”
REDLINE
131 E 6th St.
BEST LAWYER: S. CHRISTOPHER WINTER
S. Christopher ‘Kit’ Winter (Photo courtesy of Winter)
S. Christopher (“Kit”) Winter didn’t always want to be a lawyer.
“I wasn’t one of those kids who had a clear idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up,” he said. “I could envision myself doing a lot of different things. It all seemed interesting.” That curiosity is reflected in his varied career in New York between graduating from Yale in 1987 and starting law school at UCLA in 1994. “I had a little bit of career ADD after college,” Winter said. “I worked in advertising sales, graphic design, desktop publishing – and I always had a side gig.”
Those side gigs included promoting parties at Limelight, Sound Factory and other New York nightclubs featuring DJs such as Frankie Knuckles, Little Louie Vega, and Junior Vasquez; bartending at various restaurants in the West Village and Chelsea; and working catering jobs for clients including Madonna.
“I think people were surprised when I decided to go to law school,” Winter laughs. “It wasn’t something that you would have necessarily thought was in my future.”
Surprising or not, Winter excelled at law school, graduating UCLA law in 1997 in the top 10 percent of his class and winning numerous academic honors. For more than two decades since then, Winter has been practicing law in Los Angeles, in settings ranging from large national law firms to his current solo practice.
“I don’t believe in fighting for the sake of fighting,” Winter says about his philosophy. “My goal as a lawyer is to help my clients navigate their legal challenges as quickly and affordably as possible.”
Winter’s practice is focused on serving as outside general counsel to small-to-medium sized companies, encouraging his clients to take a proactive approach to avoiding legal problems and crafting effective strategies to address problems. His legal background includes experience in litigation, intellectual property and general business law, and he has authored portions of treatises relating to privacy law and technology transactions.
Winter doesn’t specifically target his practice to the LGBT community, although he says he represents a diverse group of clients.
“I’m a ‘gay lawyer’ because I’m gay and I’m a lawyer,” he jokes. “I’ve been out of the closet since I was a teenager.”
Indeed, Winter has a long history of LGBT activism extending back more than 30 years. As an undergraduate at Yale, he was the co-chair of the Gay & Lesbian Co-op (with the late Sarah Pettit, a founding editor of OUT magazine), and part of a group of students who successfully lobbied the Yale Corporation to include “sexual orientation” in the university’s non-discrimination policy in 1986.
“I was sort of a big gay on campus,” Winter recalls, “writing op-eds in the Yale Daily News, arranging protests, that kind of thing.” Asked whether he contributed to the environment that led the Wall Street Journal to label Yale the “Gay Ivy” in 1987, Winter laughs, “I’d like to think so. I definitely left Yale a gayer place than I found it.”
Winter moved to New York City in 1987, in the middle of the AIDS crisis and shortly after the founding of ACT UP. “It was a terrifying time,” Winter says. “While my straight friends from college were starting their careers or heading to graduate school, gay men were trying to survive an apocalypse.”
Winter became involved in ACT UP and found a home in gay publishing, working first at the New York Native, New York’s gay newspaper, and later serving as the founding advertising director of Outweek magazine.
He later served as the production manager of QW, a gay newsweekly (Troy Masters, Los Angeles Blade publisher was a founder and publisher of QW) for which he also briefly penned the advice column under the moniker “Queer Abby.” “I don’t think we thought much about trademark law back then,” Winter laughs. After working as a freelance desktop publisher at various Conde Nast titles including Mademoiselle, Allure, and Details, Winter decided to pursue the challenge of a career in law, and hasn’t looked back since.
“I love being a lawyer,” Winter says. “Legal issues can be overwhelming to people, and can be fatal to businesses. Helping my clients get through that successfully is very rewarding.”
Winter is married to Patrick Jensen, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. They live in Silver Lake and have two dogs and two cats.
This year will mark Winter’s fourth time riding in AIDS/Lifecycle to raise money for the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST LAWYER: LAURA W. BRILL, KENDALL BRILL & KELLY LLP
Laura W. Brill (Photo courtesy of Brill)
A lifetime focus on cases that promote equal rights, make Laura Brill a force in the fight against discrimination.
“One of my briefs in the early 1990s argued in the case of Lawrence v. Texas (a challenge to a state anti-sodomy statute) that discrimination based on sexual orientation was a type of sex discrimination and that the statute should be ruled unconstitutional on that basis. That same argument has been made many times over the years…this theory is now gaining recognition by courts and administrative agencies, including most prominently, in cases relating to employment discrimination.”
In the case Colin v. Orange Unified School District, Brill helped pave the way for Gay Straight Alliances. Brill discussed this significant moment: “We got the first preliminary injunction requiring the school to allow the club to meet and use school facilities just like any other club. One of my favorite moments since then has been going to gay Pride events more recently and seeing the huge numbers of wonderful high school students marching with their Gay Straight Alliance banners. I’m so happy to have had a part in helping kids have a safe environment at schools.”
“My New Year’s resolution is to do all I can to increase voter registration rates, especially among young people and especially in the LGBTQ community. Many people don’t know that young people can pre-register to vote when they are 16 or 17. Then when they turn 18 they will be automatically registered to vote,” Brill said. “Most people don’t know about pre-registration, but we need everyone registered so we can make sure government policies reflect our priorities, instead of the opposite.”
Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP
10100 Santa Monica Blvd
310-556-2700
BEST ALLY: MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti in his office (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST ALLY: LISA VANDERPUMP
Lisa Vanderpump (Photo by Toglenn; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
As an entrepreneur, avid activist, author, television personality, and restaurant owner of LA staples such as Pump and SUR, Lisa Vanderpump is an LA icon. She has consistently stood up for the LGBT community, having worked as a spokesperson for GLAAD, led the AIDS Walk Los Angeles, served as grand marshal of 2017 Long Beach Pride, worked with Desert AIDS Project, The Trevor Project, the LA Gay & Lesbian Center and more.
In addition to advocating for the LGBT community, Vanderpump created The Vanderpump Dog Foundation, working to help end animal abuse. She somehow also found time to produce “Vanderpump Rules,” the smash reality TV show. She’s the ultimate philanthropist who really does it all. Vanderpump has a love for all living creatures that shines through in her humanitarian efforts, making her a model ally.
BEST DRAG SHOW: LEGENDARY BINGO AT HAMBURGER MARY’S
Jeffery Bowman and cast members from Legendary Bingo. (Courtesy Legendary Bingo)
Beautiful drag queens, fantastic food, money, charities…Bingo! Legendary Bingo at Hamburger Mary’s is not just a great drag show, it’s a fantastic and sometimes wild night out. Jeffery Bowman is almost as legendary as Hamburger Mary’s.
HAMBURGER MARY’S
8288 Santa Monica Blvd
323-654-3800
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST DRAG SHOW: LYRIC HYPERION, GREEN EGGS AND GLAM
Lyric Hyperion Theatre & Café
2106 Hyperion Ave.
323-928 2299
BEST BAR: THE ABBEY
Where else are you going to see Diana Ross or Elon Musk tear up the dance floor? The Abbey is arguably the best-known gay bar in all of the U.S. and always a fun night out with your besties. It’s a treasured LA icon and so is owner David Cooley.
THE ABBEY
692 N. Robertson Blvd.
310-289 8410
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST BAR: REVOLVER
WeHo loves the oversized drinks and darts in the back at this famous video bar.
REVOLVER
8851 Santa Monica Blvd.
310-694 0430
BEST RESTAURANT: SUR RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE
“Real Housewives” star Lisa Vanderpump’s SUR is a great place for people watching, and the upscale food is, well, impressive. It’s definitely a see-and-be-seen scene that can’t be missed.
SUR
606 N. Robertson Blvd.
310-289 2824
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST RESTAURANT: Cecconi’s West Hollywood
The Northern Italian cuisine is spectacular, the decor a kind of elegant retro Roman-chic with outdoor seating. True luxe.
CECCONI’S
8764 Melrose Ave.
310-432 2000
BEST GROCERY STORE: TRADER JOE’S
Quite simply, the best place to go shopping for unique, curated food brands.
TRADER JOE’S
7310 Santa Monica Blvd.
323-969-8048
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST GROCERY STORE: PAVILIONS
Extensive selections of the highest-quality foods. And, at least in WeHo, it’s where the boys are.
PAVILIONS
8969 Santa Monica Blvd.
310-595-1730
BEST REAL ESTATE AGENCY: THE COLLECTIVE REALTY
Experienced real estate agents who negotiate well for their clients. One reader said, “The Collective is the concierge service of boutique realty. And Andy Vulin is the best real estate investment teacher I ever met.”
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST REAL ESTATE AGENCY: BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
Find the most luxurious West Hollywood or Beverly Hills home of your dreams and call Berkshire Hathaway, because no one can close it faster or more fairly. Readers praised their attentiveness to detail.
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
131 S. Rodeo Dr.
310-844-6434
BEST STYLISTS: SHORTY’S BARBER SHOP
Whatever level of service you require for your coif, Shorty’s is the place to go. It’s the very best place in West Hollywood for a drop in fade. People travel from all over Los Angeles to the unmistakable storefront on Fairfax.
SHORTY’S
755 N. Fairfax Ave.
323-297-0554
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST STYLIST: MARCO PELUSI
Celebrity hairstylist Marco Pelusi has the best tips for looking great. “Ask your stylist to do a gloss or a shine treatment when you’re next at the salon,” he recommended. “Your hair can often dry out and look dull, lifeless, and frizzy during winter months; the added shine treatment will boost the condition of your hair and make it look healthy.”
MARCO PELUSI
636 N. Robertson Blvd.
310-967-0999
BEST CAR DEALERSHIP: BEVERLY HILLS BMW
One reader commented, “At Beverly Hills BMW, I walked through and decided what I wanted and with no pressure at all I left with the $90,000 ride of my dreams. No hassles, no pressure. Just great service and a brilliant ride.”
BEVERLY HILLS BMW
5070 Wilshire Blvd.
877-794-4678
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST CAR DEALERSHIP: HONDA OF HOLLYWOOD
Honda of Hollywood has one of the best full-service shops of any dealership in Los Angeles. Our favorites are the 2018 CRVs and HRV. Great quality SUVs at a realistic price.
HONDA OF HOLLYWOOD
6511 Santa Monica Blvd.
323-466-3247
BEST MEDICAL PROVIDER: CEDARS SINAI URGENT CARE
World-class urgent care from one of the world’s leading medical institutions.
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST MEDICAL PROVIDER: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MEN’S MEDICAL GROUP
Doctors you can talk to and advice that’s easy to take because they are just like you. Comprehensive, fully loaded and state of the art.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MEN’S MEDICAL GROUP
9201 Sunset Blvd.
310-550-1010
BEST FITNESS FACILITY: 24 HOUR FITNESS
One of the busiest places in WeHo, 24 Hour Fitness is as much a family for some as it is a gym.
24 HOUR FITNESS
8612 Santa Monica Blvd.
310-652-7440
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST FITNESS: EQUINOX FITNESS
A little bit of luxury goes a long way during a hard workout. Outstanding, modern and clean facilities are what make Equinox worthy of Editors’ Choice.
EQUINOX FITNESS
8590 Sunset Blvd.
310-289-1900
BEST MARIJUANA DISPENSARY: MEDMEN
Since Jan. 1, MedMen has experienced lines down the block and its fans are true believers in the almost Apple Store experience of boutique weed products of every kind. Founder Andrew Modin, almost overnight, has become a business sensation in West Hollywood and is now ramping up to take it national.
MEDMEN
8208 Santa Monica Blvd.
323-848-7981
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST DISPENSARY: ZEN HEALING WEST HOLLYWOOD
Some say it has one of the highest-grade selections of any store in Los Angeles. Its edibles and medicinal choices are outstanding.
ZEN HEALING
8464 Santa Monica Blvd.
323-656-6666
BEST HOTEL: WALDORF-ASTORIA
One of the world’s leading hotel names is now at home along Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Unprecedented luxury is just the tip of the iceberg of the Waldorf experience. After watching it soar skyward during construction, you know you want to spend the weekend there. Staycation!
WALDORF-ASTORIA
9850 Wilshire Blvd.
310-860-6666
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST HOTEL: JEREMY HOTEL
Soon to experience a name change — think One Hotel — The Jeremy, as everyone now calls it, is an astounding architectural gem and gorgeous hotel overlooking Rainbow City. It’s not only a great place to stay, it’s also a destination.
JEREMY HOTEL
8490 Sunset Blvd.
310-424-1600
BEST HOUSE OF WORSHIP: FOUNDERS METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCH
The house that MCC founder Troy Perry built is a rollicking, down home gospel of faith and a beacon in the fight and one of the most consequential cornerstone establishments of LGBT history in LA.
FOUNDERS
4607 Prospect Ave.
323-669-3434
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST HOUSE OF WORSHIP: KOL AMI
One of the most significant Reform synagogues in America is also one of the most innovative. A powerhouse of Jewish tradition and thought, Rabbi Denise Eger is devoted to community and social justice.
KOL AMI
1200 N. La Brea Ave.
323-606-0996
BEST LGBT SOCIAL GROUP: IMPULSE GROUP LA
Impulse Group is an international group that advocates change toward healthier sexual lifestyles among gay men in 18 cities around the world, based in Los Angeles. Founder Jose Ramos felt stronger community bonds and family building among peers can reduce HIV rates and save lives. Turns out he was right.
EDITORS’ CHOICE: BEST LGBT SOCIAL GROUP: VARSITY GAY LEAGUE
California’s largest LGBT recreational sports league is celebrating 10 gay years! A robust and well-organized calendar of Kickball, Dodgeball, Bowling, Tennis, Soccer and Volleyball. Who says gays don’t do sports? Will Hackner and Andrew Miller want to know.
BEST MUSEUM: LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART
LACMA is a world-class museum and with its expansion, including an incorporation of Hollywood movie and Oscar history, it’s unrivaled. Many outstanding collections and community events, like outdoor films, make it a treasured institution.
LACMA
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
323-857-6000
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST MUSEUM: THE BROAD
One of the most important modern museums in the western United States is also one of the most iconic landmarks in DTLA. Eli Broad’s massively important contemporary art collection almost wound up in a building that would have been where the new Waldorf is today.
THE BROAD
221 S. Grand Ave.
213-232-6200
BEST NON-PROFIT: AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION
AHF provides services to more than 600,000 HIV+ individuals in 15 U.S. states and 36 countries worldwide and is the largest AIDS service organization in the world. Michael Weinstein founded the agency as a hospice when no hospital would care for AIDS patients and since then has grown it into a billion-dollar non-profit.
AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION
6255 W. Sunset Blvd.
323-860-5200
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST NON-PROFIT: LOS ANGELES LESBIAN & GAY CENTER
Founded by Morris Kight in 1969, LA’s LGBT Center is now the world’s largest LGBT social service agency and community center and is in the middle of an expansion that will revolutionize its reach. Lori Jean, its CEO, has become one of the most important LGBT non-profit leaders in the U.S.
LGBT CENTER
1625 N. Schrader Blvd.
323-993-7400
BEST VET: LAUREL PET HOSPITAL
A truly empathic provider of outstanding medical services for generations of LGBT community members in West Hollywood.
LAUREL PET HOSPITAL
7970 Santa Monica Blvd.
323-654-7060
Dr. Mark Nunez
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST VET: Dr. MARK NUNEZ, formerly of VETERINARY CARE CENTER, now Medical Director of VCA Miller-Robertson Animal Hospital.
Dr. Mark Nunez was previously Veterinary Care Center’s go-to doctor, known for going the extra mile to save your pet. Dr. Nunez recently accepted a new position as Medical Director of VCA Miller-Robertson Animal Hospital
VCA Miller-Robertson Animal Hospital
8807 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90069
310-657-7050.
BEST LA ATTRACTION: GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY
The go-to place for all family visits and the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood offers views that just can’t be beat.
GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY
2800 E. Observatory Rd.
213-473-0800
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST LA ATTRACTION: HOLLYWOOD BOWL
The iconic outdoor theater celebrates everything about Los Angeles and features some of the greatest names in music, under the stars.
HOLLYWOOD BOWL
2301 N. Highland Ave.
323-850-2000
BEST RED CARPET EVENT: HRC LA DINNER
The Human Rights Campaign brings out the star power each year in Los Angeles and is famous for an exuberant red carpet experience. On March 10, 2018 you have your next chance to take a walk.
EDITORS’ CHOICE, BEST RED CARPET: OUTFEST
The world’s most important LGBT film festival is also becoming one of LA’s most anticipated events.
(Mary Jo De Silva contributed to this article)
a&e features
From Glenn Close to Carol Burnett: How this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival highlighted female icons
The festival was a true celebration of both past and present, and how female icons have shaped so many different generations
As the ever-fashionable Glenn Close walked out in front of the TCL Chinese Theatre sporting a pair of circular shades, sitting down in a chair to block out the sun from her view, she looked a lot like Norma Desmond, the character she brought new dimensions to while starring in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway.
Unlike the famous character she played that lost touch with reality decades after finding success as an actor, Close is one of the rare actors to continue finding success decades after achieving stardom. The eight-time Oscar nominee, who landed her first nomination back in 1983 for The World According to Garp, was surrounded by her family, including her granddaughter, and a very well-behaved white dog that accompanied her on stage. Many of her close collaborators were also in attendance, including Melissa McCarthy and Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping director Frances Lawrence.
The crowd, which included select press and TCM passholders, hung on Close’s words as she reflected on the kind of career most aspiring actors dream of. This was the kind of event the TCM Classic Film Festival does best — not just the yearly Hand & Footprint Ceremony where stars get their hands and feet imprinted by the TCL Chinese Theatre, but the daily programming that connects passionate film fans with the female icons they grew up watching and idolizing. It was a true celebration of both past and present. Where else can classic movie fans not only see an icon like Close receive their dues, but share that moment with the actor’s loved ones?
Close’s ceremony was just the beginning of the action. The festival also gave attendees the chance to hear Carol Burnett and Barbara Hershey speak in dedicated one-hour Q&As; Faye Dunaway, Laura Dern, Sharon Stone, Julia Sweeney, Lorna Luft and Lesley Ann Warren all presented different screenings throughout the four-day festival in Los Angeles (read The Blade’s coverage of Warren’s talk before Victor/Victoria here), while Close herself presented a screening of 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons.
The line just to get into Burnett’s conversation was the longest I saw at this year’s festival, quite literally spiraling around the lobby of the historic Roosevelt Hotel to the point where people couldn’t locate where it even ended. The crowd immediately took to their knees once Burnett walked into the room. In a conversation with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, the seven-time Emmy winner looked back on the origins of her TV career and the women who mentored her.
Burnett would go on to make history as the first woman to host a variety show with The Carol Burnett Show, which ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978. One of the most surprising bits of her conversation was her freeing experience working with studio executives.
“When we got our show, [William S. Paley] said to us, ‘You’re the artist, I’m the businessman. You do what I do, I’ll do what I do. Go do your thing. If it’s not working, I’ll be in touch,’” Burnett recalled. “We never had a sponsor bothering us, or the network bothering us,” adding that the writers’ room was free of outside influence. In today’s media landscape, such a story is unheard of.
Beyond these incredible stories shared by beloved actors, the festival was also an opportunity for different generations to connect through their shared love of film. As a young queer person myself, I’ve noticed how TCM can sometimes be unfairly labeled as a network solely for older people. While the festival’s attendees certainly skew older, the wide variety of female stars drew in multiple different generations; from the women who grew up on Burnett’s variety show in the ‘60s and the ‘70s, to today’s young audiences — mainly gay men! — who fell in love with Laura Dern through more recent hits like Big Little Lies and Marriage Story.
That’s part of what makes the festival so wonderful: the opportunity to connect with all different kinds of people while waiting in line for screenings and panels, and reflecting on how everyone came across a piece of media at a different point in their life. As a queer person, many of these actors resonate with me in a completely different way than they might for older women who grew up seeing a female comedian like Burnett pave the way for more representation.
The opportunity to see living legends in person hits even harder after the recent passing of Catherine O’Hara, Diane Keaton, and Rob Reiner. This theme of crossing generations and passing the baton down couldn’t have been made clearer than the way Mankiewicz chose to close his conversation with Burnett, who reminisced on how I Love Lucy star Lucille Ball became a crucial mentor and friend before her death in 1989.
“I’m listening to you with Amy Poehler and the way she talked about you … the way Tina Fey feels about you,” Mankiewicz said. “To that generation of these brilliantly funny women — and plenty of men, too — you’re Lucille.”
It was impossible to leave that room without thinking about Burnett’s signature line: “I’m so glad we had this time together.”
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Lesley Ann Warren thought ‘Victor/Victoria’ would end her career; then came queer icon status
At the TCM Classic Film Festival, Warren helped introduce a screening of the 1982 camp classic
When Lesley Ann Warren first watched a cut of the campy musical comedy Victor/Victoria, in which she plays Norma Cassidy, the extravagant showgirl known for shouting “Pookie!”, she thought she’d never land a part again.
“I was so shocked to see myself that way, and I went home, and I cried, for a long time, I thought my career is over. It’s just over!” Warren said before a packed Saturday, May 2 screening of Victor/Victoria at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, California, moderated by TCM’s Dave Karger. “So I never thought about [an Oscar nomination].”
Directed by Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), the film stars Julie Andrews as Victoria Grant, a down-on-her-luck performer who meets an older gay man (played by Robert Preston) and winds up posing as a man impersonating a woman on stage. As her artistic career takes off, though, so does her romantic one, as the insecure gangster King Marchand (played by James Garner), who starts off in a relationship with Norma, begins wondering if his attraction to Victoria (or Victor, as she’s known to the outside world) makes him gay. Following the 1982 film, Victor/Victoria was adapted into a 1995 Broadway musical; Andrews was the only part of the production to be Tony-nominated (she famously declined the recognition.)
In 1983, Warren would go on to receive an Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category; Andrews and Preston also earned acting nominations, and the film was recognized for adapted screenplay, production design, and costume design, even winning for its music. Warren’s nomination was surprising because the Academy rarely values comedic, over-the-top performances.
“I honestly didn’t even keep track. I knew that MGM was doing this incredible campaign for me, but I wasn’t a part of it because I was working [on A Night in Heaven], and different times,” Warren recalls, explaining she found out about the nomination after producer Joel Silver called her early in the morning. “It was an out-of-body experience. They had to stop filming that day — all these outlets like Entertainment Tonight flew in to see my reaction … It was thrilling.”
Even more so than the Academy’s recognition in 1983, Warren’s status as a queer icon who resonates deeply with LGBTQ+ audiences has stuck with her, mainly for her work in Victor/Victoria, Cinderella, and, of course, cult favorite Clue. When asked about what that status means to her, Warren expressed strong enthusiasm for her queer fans.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise, I’m thrilled because I love them,” Warren said. “Especially Clue and Victor/Victoria, there’s such larger-than-life women in a way, and that’s really part of the appeal. But I was telling you backstage, I have gotten incredible responses from many people, but two specific people who happen to be brilliant directors.”
Warren said she heard this feedback from openly queer filmmakers Rob Marshall, who went on to direct Chicago and Into the Woods, and Lee Daniels, who helmed The Butler and Precious. “The pain that Cinderella went through and the ostracizing, [Daniels] felt as a child,” she recalled. “He said he used to sit in the corner of his bedroom and sing ‘In My Own Little Corner,’ and it gave him comfort.”
It didn’t take Warren nabbing the Oscar nomination, or the queer community’s love and admiration, for her to come around on her performance in Victor/Victoria, though: everything clicked at the film’s premiere. “I heard and saw the reaction of the people in the flesh, in the moment, and I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to be OK!’”
Based on the contagious, uproarious laughter that could be heard across the entire TCL Chinese Theatre on Saturday night, Warren’s campy-as-hell performance in Victor/Victoria continues to steal the show nearly 45 years later.
a&e features
Meet your local go-go dancer: Steven Dehler
Dancer, certified trainer, and star performer, ready to impart his fitness wisdom to LA Blade readers
Go-go dancers offer a spicy jolt to nightlife. Their hot bodies and high-energy dancing inspire and titillate us, helping to make every night extra special. Steven Dehler has not only done that for the last decade in West Hollywood and Palm Springs, but he’s brought this same energy to the world of dance, fitness, and modeling.
You may have seen him at The Abbey or Beaches Tropicana, and he was even crowned this year’s Go-Go of the Year at the Los Angeles Blade’s Best of LA awards show. He’s an accomplished model for various fitness and underwear brands, as well as starring in fashion, editorials, print, runway, and appearing on romance novel covers.
Beyond the go-go box, he’s an accomplished musician and pianist. He has performed on stage for Voss Events burlesque shows, and you can see him on stage in Beauty of Burlesque at the historic Old Globe Theatre in Downtown LA. He’s worked in film and television, appearing on Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Will & Grace.
He also co-hosts the podcast, On the Rocks, with the Blade’s own Alexander Rodriguez. He’s set to formally join the LA Blade family offering his physical prowess and fitness know-how to LA Blade readers in an upcoming Health and Fitness column for the Blade.
He took some time out to share his history, hot takes, and thoughts from both on and offstage for a look behind the g-string and into his life.
How long have you been performing?
I’ve been dancing for about thirteen years.
How did you get into go-go dancing?
I was already working in the clubs doing bottle service and wasn’t making particularly good money. The person I was dating at the time go-go danced,, and I saw how much money he was making and how much fun he was having so I started dancing with him.
What do you do besides dancing?
What don’t I do? Haha, God, I dip my feet in everything I can, and I’m discovering new ponds constantly. I’m a classically trained pianist, so I always try to incorporate that into my life. In the last few years, I’ve gotten into burlesque, which has been so gratifying, especially learning choreography. I’m not a trained dancer, and I’m pushing 40, so I’m getting into something at an age most dancers are retiring. I cohost a popular podcast called On the Rocks. And besides that, I’ve modeled for 20 years and acted as well.
What do you love about gogo dancing? And nightlife in LA?
I just love to dance. And as someone who’s introverted, I never thought I’d be on stage in my underwear entertaining people. But here I am!
What do you think has changed about nightlife?
That’s a heavy question. So much has changed about nightlife. I’d say the 2010s were really the renaissance of nightlife, and that’s when I appeared on the scene. Since COVID and changes in dynamics with alcohol and Gen Z, nightlife is struggling. Clubs and bars are closing left and right, and many are hemorrhaging money. It’s depressing seeing all the empty businesses in West Hollywood. It’s not good nowadays in LA compared to a decade ago.
What do you love about Los Angeles?
I love LA. I was born in Simi Valley, so I’ve been LA-adjacent since birth. It’s rare for locals to stick around,, haha. This town is really difficult, but it’s full of such amazing people. If you’re true to yourself you’ll find your people here. I’m always meeting new and beautiful people.
What brought you to LA, specifically?
I always thought I’d do great things in LA, and I’m not satisfied until I achieve them.
What is your passion?
Piano is my absolute passion. Music is always evolving, and there are always things for me to learn. I just recently learned a piece from a video game (my other passion) called “Expedition 33.” I’m a big gamer, so I play Super Mario music, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. Y’all do not realize how talented the musicians are who create the soundtracks to these games.
What’s an interesting thing you learned about life from dancing?
I don’t think I realized how socially awkward the general public is. I’ve had people come up to me and just not speak when they wanted to. I experience so many awkward moments with people, but we make them fun and normal, and I think people appreciate that we dancers make them feel okay about who they are.
Favorite spot in Los Angeles?
I love Malibu. El Matador is my favorite spot ever. It’s gorgeous and secluded. I’ve done many photo shoots there.
How has Los Angeles changed you?
Los Angeles has made me more confident. You have to be sure of yourself here. It really can suck you in and spit you out, and if you don’t have a strong sense of self then it can devour you. It’s strengthened me in ways I didn’t think I needed. Never jaded though! Take the lessons and rise above them! ,
What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
I’d tell my younger self to work out my legs more LOL. I played soccer for 14 years, so when I started dancing, I was really top-heavy. I only worked out my upper body, and I did a disservice to myself by not working on my legs.
If you could make one wish for Los Angeles what would it be?
My one wish for Los Angeles would be to get rid of the smog!
What do you want for the queer community?
I want the queer community to come together more. This whole LGB without the T is so disgusting to me, and becoming more prevalent. There are a lot of people in our community who are just uneducated about the fact that our trans brothers and sisters are being targeted across the globe. We’ve got to be better about protecting them.
What do you look for in a person?
I look for humor. If we can laugh every day, then I’m happy.
Celebrity crush?
Honestly, I’m not crushing on any celebrities right now. Bored.
What is your favorite thing to do in your downtime?
My favorite thing is playing video games. I’m such a huge gay-mer. My dad introduced me to games when I was like five, playing the original DOOM.
What are your goals for the future?
My goal for the future is to continue to do what I love. It’s not easy. What you want to do doesn’t necessarily provide you a living, but you gotta do what you love in some aspect. So as long as I’m still doing what I love, I’ll be happy.
Are you excited about your new column with the LA Blade?
Absolutely! I’ve been working out for 20 years, and I’m a certified trainer and bodybuilding specialist, so I’m very excited to share my knowledge and advice with readers.
Keep an eye out for Dehler around town and in the pages of the Blade very soon. Follow him on Instagram and listen to him on the On the Rocks Podcast every week.
a&e features
The strange, surreal and sensual underground cinema of Quentin Lee
Lee celebrates 30 years of crafting indie, queer Asian American flicks with a local screening series starting May 1.
In Quentin Lee’s spirited feature film debut, Shopping for Fangs, viewers are shown shards of stories: pieces of narratives that are spliced and, sometimes, hastily shoved together in a way that inspires whiplash, excitement, and unnerving anticipation. We are thrown into a San Gabriel Valley of the late ‘90s and shown its darker underbelly: an image that betrays its tranquil real-life reputation.
This is not the San Gabriel Valley I grew up in (but perhaps wish I did). It’s an uncanny, noir version of it that draws inspiration from reality and remixes it with style through Lee’s risque, imaginative lens.
Shopping for Fangs starts at the scene of a crime, where a man has pinned a woman against a wall in the dark. Suddenly, another figure appears, dressed in a sparkly champagne dress, a curly blonde Marilyn Monroe-esque wig, and sunglasses that, we will soon discover, are permanently fixed onto her face. She draws a gun at the man, threatening to “blow his face off,” and her fragment of the film’s story begins.
The 1997 feature weaves together the lives of several Asian American characters and explores their queerness, their yearning to belong, and the ways that these angsts transform into physical and mental affliction. Phil, a bored and indifferent office worker, begins to grow hair at a rapid rate and act out in all-consuming aggression. His storyline, written by the film’s co-director, Justin Lin of Fast & Furious fame, is a werewolf tale that digs into stereotypes around Asian American masculinity and rejects them with energetic rebellion.
Shopping for Fangs marks the beginning of a 30-year legacy for Lee: one in which he has continually explored what it means to be queer, Asian American, and to navigate stigma, racial identities, and sexual longing in an increasingly tech-centered world through the 90s and early 2000s. His films are beasts of their own: hybridizing person and monster, desire and animosity, reality and fantasy to create poignant stories where his untethered characters break from their molds, transform, and find their own forms of catharsis.
Beginning on Friday, May 1, Lee’s films will be screened in a special retrospective at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles. The opening night features a viewing of Shopping for Fangs and a Q&A with Lee and Lin.
To celebrate and understand Lee’s journey, the Blade sat down with him to discuss his early years making movies and how his art has helped him understand his own identity more.
What films intrigued you when you were young, before you started making movies?
I grew up as a teenager watching a lot of horror films, and then I became really into Brian De Palma and Hitchcock genre thrillers. I remember I was maybe 15 in Hong Kong, and I picked up this Premiere magazine right before we were leaving for Canada. Brian De Palma had all the storyboards of Casualties of War laid out, and I said, ‘Oh my god, this is the kind of filmmaker I want to become.’
I graduated from UC Berkeley, and [there] I started dabbling in experimental filmmaking. So I’d say, as a filmmaker, I really started off with experimental video, video art, and things like that. [Then], I applied to UCLA Film School and didn’t get in. I thought: I’m not going to wait for UCLA before I start making movies. So I made my first short film called “To Ride a Cow.” I did it with my friend, my then-boyfriend, and also with my best girl friend.
Then, I was traveling to film festivals with my little short film…I think it was ‘93. It was really a fun year that I got to learn a lot more about storytelling, literature, and literary theory at the same time. I remember I was really young. “To Ride a Cow” won the best student film award at the New England Film Festival. I drove from Yale to Boston for that screening. And the programmer was saying something like: ‘Well, all you need to do is just go to the film festivals and talk to some people, and you’ll be making your next film.’ And the next thing, [I’m here] like, 30 years later. [Laughs]
Your first feature, Shopping for Fangs, has been described as the cinematic lovechild of David Lynch and Wong Kar-wai. In the story, every character is fragmented, and the narrative explores their deep isolation, misbelonging, or unfulfilled desire. What was it like for you to create these characters, and did they reflect underlying themes that you wanted to explore as a young filmmaker?
I realized further down the line, all my films are about someone trying to look for a connection to the world, but they’re not really sure how. And that very much is how, emotionally, I’ve felt most of my life, even till today. I was an immigrant from Hong Kong, moved to Canada, and then moved to America, came out as being queer, and then also found this new kind of Asian American identity.
In the beginning, I wasn’t even sure I was going to stay in America, so I didn’t completely identify with being Asian American. And then eventually, after I graduated, I thought: You know what? That’s actually a really good identity. Shopping for Fangs is about that. It’s about all these really fragmented characters, whether it’s Phil or Katherine or the husband, and even Clarence, who is this queer Singaporean student trying to get a VISA. That’s kind of me. John Cho didn’t know he was playing me. It’s about them finding a place to belong. That became a throughline for most of my movies.
[Before making Shopping for Fangs], I had put a collection of my short films together, and I premiered them as a feature at the Vancouver International Film Festival. I was coming back in [the winter] of ‘95, and I was really good friends with Justin. I said: ‘Why don’t we make a feature together? You can write a story. I can write [one]. It’s like Chungking Express!’ We spent Christmas writing together. He wrote the story about the werewolf, the Asian American guy.
I wrote this thing about…I was really obsessed with going to Monterey Park and the Alhambra, San Gabriel Valley area. And I thought: Okay, I want to write something about that. I was also into Hitchcock influences, so, in the end, I came up with the story of Katherine, and we mashed them together. Then, I applied for a Canada Council for the Arts grant, and they wrote: ‘Here’s $50,000. Go make the movie.’ Then, we made it. We started in the summer of ‘96, and I knew that I had to start a company. I started Margin Films to be the entity that produced it.
I didn’t have a status. I wasn’t American, wasn’t even a resident, so I thought: Well, I guess the only entity I could start is a C-corporation — because I needed to make Shopping for Fangs.
It was such a moment to watch Shopping for Fangs and be like: Oh, I grew up going to this plaza in the San Gabriel Valley, and now I see it as a centerpiece of a film. You imbue it with mystery, and it, in turn, imbues your film with more mystery as well. About finding connection, how did that ethos evolve in the making of your later films like Ethan Mao and The People I’ve Slept With? Visually, they’re more stripped down. Was that intentional?
Ethan Mao was about this kid who just came out, and he’s trying to figure out where he really belongs. He runs away from home. In “The People I’ve Slept With,” the main character is semi-inspired by the actress in it. At some point, I was listening to David Lynch, [and he said]: ‘Every story has a different way to do it.’ So, there really is no one way to make a movie. Every movie, what I actually do is try to find out: ‘What is this? How should I approach the aesthetics,’ and with Ethan Mao, I’m playing a lot.
Because of my experimental background, I wanted everything in the house to be like a Greek drama, shot in 35 millimeter film. Everything outside the house, I wanted to be digital video. And the digital video was transferred to film. That became the aesthetics for Ethan Mao and his world. And then with The People I’ve Slept With, it was the beginning of digital film technology, and it was the first time I made a decent-budgeted film with a digital camera. It was very exciting and, at the same time, I was nervous. It’s interesting and reminds me of how technology changes as our culture also changes.
With this upcoming screening series, what do you hope to impart on queer Asian American people who might be seeing your films for the first time?
I hope to have a new generation of audiences take a look at Shopping for Fangs. When it came out, people were like: ‘What is this? It’s not even Asian American. The characters are Asian, but there’s nothing about Asian American identity.’ It was very annoying to hear that, because obviously me and Justin were thinking: ‘We have all this ideology, all these things in it.’ Eventually, years later, more writing on it [has come out], so people started to understand: It actually is about identity.
A message that I want to [tell] new generations of diverse, queer, and all combinations of different audiences, is that they should go out and experiment. Each of my films is very different, and I think people should just go out and make things, and not have to worry so much about what they should be making. They should be making what they want to make. I started my journey doing exactly that, so I guess I’m pretty happy about it.
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.
a&e features
Catherine McCafferty is ‘Pretty Gay’
The viral comedian and talk show host discusses building an online community for her queer fans.
If you’re queer and have used social media in recent years, odds are you’ve seen (and cackled at) a clip of the LA-based performer, Catherine McCafferty.
The comedian first gained attention through clips from her web series, Pretty Gay. A hybrid interview and dating show, it features our host chatting with LGBTQ+ celebrities while running them through the chaotic activities she has planned for their faux-date. It’s the embodiment of the cringe-humor McCafferty has perfected over the years, a humor she recently took international through her comedy special, (Not) That Bad, and that she continues to share online as Pretty Gay enters its fourth season on Patreon.
McCafferty perfectly maneuvers the chaos of cringe-comedy while still facilitating intriguing conversations of what queerness looks like for her ‘dates’ today. She sat down with the LA Blade to talk not only about Pretty Gay but how she developed this unique sense of humor, with the host beginning the conversation by explaining, “I was a little bit of a haunted child.”
“I had a deep sadness since I was born, and I still have that. But I do think that goes hand-in-hand with being a silly goose and being a comedian!” Catherine exclaimed, as the jovial host candidly described her lifelong struggles with mental health. She detailed her past with the lightness that fans know her for, speaking about growing up in Chicago and the compulsory heterosexuality that held her back from coming out until adulthood. It’s an issue that many face today; mainstream society dictates that heterosexuality is the only ‘right’ way to live, with girls especially being told that the only path to true happiness is one that ends with marrying a man. “I used to say that I was going to marry a man and watch him die, and then I would have a second life where I dated women!” Said McCafferty, discussing how she struggled to unlearn these toxic beliefs before coming out in her 20s. “When you’re holding on to something [like that] for so long, and then the dam breaks, it’s like… that [freedom] is just so abundant.”
It was through this self-discovery that McCafferty finally gained the confidence to begin her career as a standup in Chicago’s historic comedy scene. This was when she started considering what she wanted her comedy to be, content that would not only carry her trademark sardonic wit, but would have the LGBTQ+ community laughing right along with her.
Finally, she settled on making a series that would address a glaring issue millions of LGBTQ+ people struggle with today: being terrible at dating.
“I didn’t know how to go on gay dates, so [Pretty Gay] is kind of selfish,” joked Catherine as she described the early days of her web series. “We started like two years ago, and it’s really blown up. I feel so grateful!” Each episode follows Catherine as she goes on a date with an LGBTQ+ guest — usually a sapphic, non-male performer — with the subject trying to keep up with the host’s many segments. These range from trying out cheesy pick-up lines, to defending Catherine from imaginary spiders, to even calling the host’s real mother and asking for her blessing on their nonexistent relationship! This has proven to be an endlessly entertaining format, with Pretty Gay releasing on Patreon to a huge community of over 16,000 online fans.
“I feel so grateful for my Patreon community,” said the host as she raved about how much she loved her many supporters. “We’ve built a community where people are talking [with each other]…[having] a community of people who feel safe with me, it just feels so wild. It’s so cool.”
But it’s not just the format the has led to Pretty Gay’s widespread popularity. While the series is stacked with impressive guests and comical moments, what really makes it such a stand-out is how it spotlights the parts of our queer community that most programs (including LGBTQ+ ones) won’t.
“Whenever you are part of a marginalized group, people are going to look at you as a monolith,” McCafferty explained. “It hurts young people who are just watching Heated Rivalry and Hunting Wives — I love that representation, but it’s very specific.” It’s a glaring issue that too many people ignore today; most mainstream queer characters are either cisgender, white, or conventionally attractive, with a majority being a mixture of all three. While these ‘digestible’ instances of queerness may have been vital when the media refused to acknowledge this community existed, modern viewers are long past these early days of inclusion. Yet it’s still rare to see queer people from marginalized backgrounds get the spotlight, meaning members of those intersections still suffer rampant ignorance despite an increased awareness of the LGBTQ+ community.
It’s an issue that McCafferty and her team are committed to fighting against, with the host explaining, “When we are casting a season, we cast a wide net, because there are really funny people who live in all different kinds of bodies, and they should have a platform!” It’s a representation that has led to stars like Cameron Esposito, Yazmin Monet Watkins, Vivian Wilson, and countless others featuring on Pretty Gay to discuss their experiences of being a queer person today. These are impactful discussions, but also immensely funny ones, with McCafferty emphasizing, “We want to have real conversations, but we also want to laugh! Like, [queer people] get to be dumb too — it’s not all just like crying, coming out, and not being accepted. Some of it is just running around a table, chasing each other, and just being silly.”
Through humor, Catherine makes her guests and viewers relax, offering a welcoming, all-inclusive respite to everyone watching the shenanigans on display. It’s this happiness-centric approach that allows for both important knowledge and joyful escapism, with McCafferty stressing, “My primary goal with Pretty Gay [is] to really just platform queer joy…that’s the space that I inhabit in my community and also in my comedy.”
And this platform is only growing, with each episode of Pretty Gay bringing more fans into McCafferty’s strange yet heartwarming world of bad first dates. As the show enters its fourth season, the host remains focused on offering the vital representation our community needs while still showing queer people as the full — and often very goofy — humans that we are.
Through Pretty Gay, Catherine McCafferty creates an online community of acceptance and unabashed joy that viewers can’t help but fall in love with. And if you ever want to join that community, Catherine is ready to welcome you in today — as long as you go on a date with her first, of course.
a&e features
Meet your local musician: Ross Alan
The non-binary artist and Best of LA Award Nominee spills some tea
You don’t have to look far to support your local non-binary musician. Meet Ross Alan, who you’ve probably seen around town. They can easily be recognized by their stunning eyes, genteel demeanor, and killer fashion sense.
They’ve performed and sold out in venues nationwide, from Pete’s Candy Store in New York City and Davenport’s in Chicago to iconic Los Angeles stages like Hotel Café, The Viper Room, the Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood, and Whisky a Go Go. This year, they were nominated for an LA Blade Best of LA Award.
Alan is building toward their next chapter: a bold country-disco fusion project slated for 2026. They took some time to enlighten us about the spirit behind the rocker and give us a little insight and inside tea.
How did you get into music?
One day, as a kid, I sat down and watched Sister Act 2. There is a scene when Ryan Toby’s character hits his high note in their rendition of “Oh Happy Day,” and something changed in my soul and body. It was like all the atoms I’m made of woke up.
Now I’ve been making music for 15 years. To have such a specific and voracious moment like that. I knew, so young, that music was what I wanted to do. There was no surprise on my end that this is where I ended up. I mean, I can queue up the memory of me doing the choreography to “Oops I Did It Again” at my uncle’s wedding at the age of 10 or singing in our family garage while my stepdad worked on cars. Art is in my blood.
How long have you been performing?
I’ve been performing as Ross Alan for the last 6 years. I was performing before that under a different artist name for a decade, but I’ve toured domestically a good bit in the last 3 years or so. I am so excited to be getting all this new music from my upcoming record out and really getting the chance to shine on stage with it. Performing is where I feel the most secure in what I’m doing as an artist.
What do you love about music/live performance in LA?
Well, LA is home now. I’ve lived in the Midwest and the South, and I spent years living in New York and Chicago. But performing in Los Angeles always feels safe because this is like my actual home. It feels like I can take bigger risks out in the bars, it feels like I can try new things, and still be embraced by my peers. I think everyone here is chasing their dream, knowing that everyone is straddling their own form of bravery in the pursuit of their goals. There is a vulnerability we all share, and that makes the art so much better.
What do you love about Los Angeles/West Hollywood?
I’ve been in Los Angeles now for 5 years, and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t still smile on my commute. And from stupid stuff, right? Like palm trees lining a street, or a really gorgeous sunset backlit by the Hollywood neon horizon. I’m such a romantic, it makes sense that I’m a songwriter. There is just not a day that goes by that I don’t meet someone doing something cool or planning something amazing. My community is so sensational, and the environment of this city breeds serenity, innovation, and a level of togetherness I’ve never felt anywhere else.
What brought you to LA?
Music! Fame! Hot people! Warmth!
No, honestly. I hate being cold, and moving here from Chicago was like the deepest exhale I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve wanted to live in Los Angeles since I was a kid – and not in a way that I understood. Like I knew I needed to be here, but I didn’t know why. And 30 years later, here we are, and I was right. Sometimes you just know where you’re meant to be, but you don’t know when. So sometimes you gotta just ride the ride.
What is your passion?
I think a younger version of me would have said music or art or something plain. But I’m approaching 35. I think my passion is creation for the intention of being perceived and being understood.
I think we all pursue our own alleyways of work, relationships, and expression in order to be understood. Not necessarily from outside parties, but even on our own. I pursue a deeper understanding of myself, my music, and my purpose every day. I love that in a world filled with any and every resource known to man, we can use those tools to be seen and validated in our experiences. Those moments of realizing you aren’t alone are vital in my eyes, to know someone else hears you. I’m very passionate about making sure everyone feels heard and that empathy isn’t a lost art.
What’s a weird thing you learned about life from performing?
My mantra for every performance is “It might be the last night, but it is only one night.” You have to treat it like you will never get on the stage again. Leave everything up there: your sweat, your vulnerability, your art. It could be the last time you ever get to show people who you are and what’s important to you. But it is also only one night.
So if I flub with a lyric, or miss a step or mark – it’s okay. That’s the nature of live performance and being on a stage in front of an audience. I’m human, so mistakes are bound to happen. And it’s not letting those tiny slips get to you. Because I’m a perfectionist, I want every moment to go off as I planned it. But that’s not reality. So you really have to go in saying, “It might be the last night, but it is only one night.” Go hard, but be gentle.
Favorite spot in Los Angeles?
I have a few! Love a classic Griffith Observatory hike. I go to Los Globos in Silverlake pretty regularly for queer line dancing with Stud Country. The best breakfast burrito is Wake N’ Late in Hollywood. I swear by that place. I’ll walk the floral district in DTLA for any number of incredible blooms, and that is definitely a soul lift. Rustic Coffee in Santa Monica has the best sandwich in the world. You walk up to the airstream, order the chicken caprese – you’re so welcome. And lastly, I’d say the Hollywood Farmers Market on any given Sunday. Live music, talented local vendors, and fresh produce. Absolutely.
How has Los Angeles changed you?
It has made me more patient. It’s made me work harder. It makes me more and more queer every day. What a paradise.
What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
You know who you are. Don’t let others scare you away from being exactly that. It’s your superpower.
If you could make one wish for Los Angeles, what would it be?
I could say so many things. Fortified infrastructure, improved disaster relief, mandatory driving classes, better systems of support for the unhoused population, removal of ICE in every fucking capacity, increased public transit availability, financial aid to small local businesses and the arts. I love this city. I want it to thrive.
What do you want for the queer community?
Above all, honestly? Safety. For my trans siblings, for my non-binary siblings. For our youth. For those in our community who don’t feel safe in their own homes. It’s been said so many times, but none of us are free until all of us are. So what are we doing about it? Being queer is not a luxury; it’s a privilege.
I don’t want us to have to battle forever – but the battle is not done. It’s so obvious that the battle isn’t over, and it really hurts seeing that so many people think that just because we got marriage equality and because I can wear a skirt in Los Angeles. I need those who have privilege to use it against the forces that wish us harm. Protect our community.
I’m talking to allies too. Because as Bad Bunny coined at the super bowl, “the only thing more powerful than hate is love”. And love is what the queer community is made of.
What do you look for in a person?
As I’ve gotten older, the bar has never been lower, but it’s also never been more serious. I look for prowess with communication. I look for independence and stability. I look for baseline physical attraction, and I look for a good sense of humor. The rest? It really doesn’t matter. I love so many different types of people, and the only real thing that matters is chemistry. The rest will work itself out if it is supposed to.
Celebrity crush?
I have so many. Laith Ashley, Justice Smith, Sophia Bush, Rachel McAdams, and Danny Ramirez. The list is long!
What is your favorite thing to do in your downtime?
Watch scary movies and rhinestone stage costumes for myself.
a&e features
Melvin Robert will perform homecoming solo at Gay Men’s Chorus of LA’s Spring concert
The Blade sat down with the entertainment host to discuss how music has brought him closer to his family, queerness and artistic core.
In 2013, Melvin Robert stepped into the parking lot of his old elementary school. He observed the playground equipment he hadn’t touched in 20 years, and rounded the corner until he reached a set of stairs that would lead to the auditorium. He was here to attend his first rehearsal as part of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA).
Untethered and unsituated, Robert wanted community. At his best friend Trinity’s urging, he found himself now with one foot in the past, and one inching towards a new future.
Taking a few hesitant steps forward, he sees it. A wayside trash can: not, but might as well have been, the same trash can he was thrown into as a child, the first time he was called a gay slur. He felt anxiety knot his stomach, building in his throat. “I [thought] about that little boy,” Robert told the Blade. “I put my hand over my heart and said, ‘We’re good.’ Because, on the other side of the trash can, was the most beautiful group.”
Robert found the community he’d always wanted, and the voice within himself that he had buried out of shame. In the chorus, a sea of 300, Robert met people who would provide him with love, support, and encouragement that was a plentiful stream. He would also sing, for the first time in his life, without fear — the fear that had dampened and smothered his joy for so long.
On Mar. 21 and 22, Robert will return as a guest soloist for GMCLA’s upcoming Spring concert, “AND THE BEAT GOES ON.” A celebration of gospel, R&B, and Motown, the concert will transport guests through the expansive and transformative sonic fabric of Black American music and history.
Robert performed his last concert for GMCLA in 2018, after which he began his rocketing rise in entertainment journalism. A self-starter in the field, Robert is now an Emmy-winning broadcast host and currently serves as entertainment anchor for KTLA 5.
The Blade sat down with Robert to discuss his lifelong relationship to music, his return to GMCLA and his dreams as an artist.
Music has shaped your life from a young age. What were those early listening experiences like, and how does it continue to change and influence you?
I have a very eclectic taste in music. I attribute that to my dad. Growing up, [on] many mornings, my younger brother, Eric, and I would wake up to the sound of my dad. He would open the door to our room, and he’d go sit in a chair and play the saxophone. That’s how he would wake us up in the morning. [On the way to] school, my dad would play — some days it’d be Steely Dan, and some days it’d be Bob, Tupac Shakur, and Stevie Wonder. My dad had this really eclectic taste in music that inspired me.
And I always loved musical theater. I used to love going to the theater as a kid, to the Ahmanson and the Pantages. I wanted to be in a big buxom Broadway show. My grandma Vera loved Nat King Cole and Ray Charles and Fats Domino, and was from New Orleans. So I grew up with a lot of that Zydeco music playing throughout the house, and jazz, and that really influenced me as a person.
Music has been there for me when I really needed it. When I was first coming out, I remember listening to Yolanda Adams’ “Open My Heart,” and I would play that while driving around. It was my prayer when I was trying to figure out my identity and my sexuality — knowing I was gay but being really afraid and being like: God, please, help me get through this [at] 16 or 17.
Music is transformational, and it is a healing balm. I believe so much in the power of music. I believe so much in the power of musical theater and Broadway. I believe that theater is a temple: [we’re] together for that one moment in time, [in a] sanctuary to learn, heal, and be transformed.
What does it feel like to return to GMCLA for this Spring concert?
I’m so excited to be back with my brothers in song, [and] I’m humbled at the invitation to return. It’s very much a homecoming to be with everybody, and when they told me what I was going to be singing, it was so meaningful and impactful to me. One of the songs I’m going to sing is Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind.” It was such a wink from my grandmother, Vera, because she would listen to that song. I have such fond memories of being in the kitchen or other rooms in her house and hearing that song.
Music is a big connection to memory. Sometimes you hear the first couple notes of a song, and you just go somewhere mentally: whether it takes you back to a moment of sadness or joy or heartbreak or pain, or maybe where you were when you first heard it, or you hear a new song, and you just stop, because the lyrics are so powerful and the melody is touching to you. Music is so important and necessary. It’s medicine.
Do you still have dreams of being on Broadway, and how does that fuel you?
Those dreams have never left me. I haven’t given up on it. I think in the last couple of years, I paused on that because I just didn’t have the time to devote myself to anything other than being a host. I’m really humbled by all of it. Within that, I love to sing and dance. It’s still very much a part of who I am. I think in my core, I am an artist. It’s what sets my soul on fire, and it’s what makes me feel the most blissful, the most at peace, and the most at ease.
We spoke about the concept of “homecoming” and the cycles of returning to who you are. What would you say to your younger self, who you saw again at that first rehearsal?
That people love you, even when you think people are not thinking of you, or people are not holding you in their hearts. I know that that’s your story that you want to tell yourself, [but] you’re more meaningful and impactful to people than you realize. It’s not always easy to believe in yourself, yet you must continue journeying forward and continue the work that you’re doing to believe in yourself. As hard as it is, you have to keep pushing, and you have to keep going, and you have to continue to have faith in who you are and the intent behind why you do what you do.
“AND THE BEAT GOES ON” will be performed on Mar. 21 and 22. Tickets and 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.
a&e features
Quick chat: Katya Zamolodchikova works with Grindr to answer ‘Who’s the A**hole?’
Katya Zamolodchikova has been a breakout star since their tenure on RuPaul’s Drag Race. With Trixie Mattel, they’ve created a veritable media empire with multiple YouTube series, live shows, tons of brand awareness, and podcasts. Katya steps away from their frequent collaborator to unite with everyone’s favorite frenemy, Grindr, on an interview podcast, “Who’s The Asshole?”
She brings her offbeat sense of humor, irreverent mind, and a new hairpiece to interview some of the hottest people of the moment. This season features Jinkx Monsoon, Jeremy Scott, everyone’s favorite transvestigator Luscious Massacr, Peaches, Pat Regan, and The Traitors star Colton Underwood.
This marks the fourth season of this podcast, which has a distinctly different vibe from The Bald & The Beautiful in the same way Monet XChange plays off Bob the Drag Queen, but is a consummate professional interviewer on Monet Talks. Katya breaks from playing off her straight man, Trixie, and instead partners with Grindr. It’s the perfect combination for a sexy, unhinged podcast with some of your favorite queer celebrities dishing about life, sex, and app culture.
Katya took time for quick chat and gave us a brain dump of her hottest thoughts about everything from Heated Rivalry to hooking up.
Edge: What do you love about this podcast?
Katya: I love getting to talk to wildly different people about sexual ethics, social mores, and really dissect our behaviors and patterns around sexuality.
E: What is your take on the Heated Rivalry phenomenon?
K: I love it. I love them. I love gay sex and I can’t wait for season 2.
What does dating look like in a post-Heated Rivalry world?
Probably just fucking on a Zamboni. I think that’s the vibe.
Any thoughts on Pillion?
I think it’s very important. I think it’s essential. In a way, it’s even required. (I haven’t seen it yet.)
What is the state of Drag? Drag Race?
Drag is, has always been, and will always continue to be corny, so we must do everything in our power to be as cunty as possible. Drag Race is franchising all over the globe, and I think it’s amazing.
Has “representation” sanitized queer expression?
I don’t think so. You should see some of my queer friends and the way they express themselves! Nothing sanitary there!
Who benefits from “respectable” drag?
Restaurant and nightclub owners. Less blood and feces to clean up.
How have the apps changed queer culture?
They have changed our culture in so many ways. For introverts and shy folk, apps are such a boon! I was afraid to talk to anyone up to age 30. I would have to give a big, warm thank you to Grindr for helping facilitate my year of sexual discovery.
Hot takes on dating? Polyamory? open relationships?
It’s always much simpler than people think. Do you like him? Do you? You should be able to answer that question in 2 seconds. Does he like you? You should answer that in 3 seconds. The rest is just trial and error and hopefully a lot of moaning and groaning (on the hockey rink only, of course).
Katya has six episodes of this season of “Who’s The Asshole?” premiering each Thursday on YouTube and your favorite podcast apps.
a&e features
‘Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!’ and ‘Swan Song’ director Todd Stephens recalls the bygone era of raunchy 2000s comedies
The outrageous and campy ‘Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!’ is back nearly 20 years later
Todd Stephens, director of both the outrageous Another Gay Movie (which turns 20 this year!) and Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!, knows all too well that the era of early 2000s comedies like Wet Hot American Summer and Not Another Teen Movie has largely come and gone.
But with the theatrical re-release of his 2008 cult classic Another Gay Sequel, which features memorable cameos from RuPaul, Perez Hilton, Scott Thompson and the late Colton Ford, Stephens is hopeful that his 2000s comedies will find new audiences and “make people laugh” in our increasingly “crazy, dark” world.
“Nobody’s really making these kinds of raunchy, irreverent satires [anymore]. I mean, people are afraid. Comedians and filmmakers are afraid of being cancelled if they cross the line, which sometimes we do when we’re making crazy comedies,” Stephens says. “There are things about Another Gay Sequel that I would never do now. I wish I could go back and change. But it takes a lot of guts to make a politically incorrect film, and I think that’s why people still appreciate seeing that.”
Shot on location in Florida, Another Gay Sequel follows four young men (played by Jake Mosser, Jonah Blechman, Jimmy Clabots, and Aaron Michael Davies) who spend their spring break vacation in Fort Lauderdale — the goal, of course, to hook up with as many men as possible. What ensues must be seen to be believed, as Stephens’ comedy harkens back to pre-Grindr and pre-Instagram hookup culture.
“I made films primarily for the queer community so we could laugh at ourselves. Up until that time, mid to early 2000s queer content was so serious — coming out films where the queer characters were agonizing about who they were,” Stephens says, while foregrounding that he made his own coming out movie with 1998’s Edge of Seventeen. “I wanted to do something different and set it in a world where they were already out loud and proud. Being queer was not the conflict. They just wanted to get laid like every other young guy!”
While Another Gay Movie grossed nearly $800,000 worldwide and has continued to reach queer audiences, Stephens admits he faced more challenges when coming back for the sequel two years later. He says, “The sequel was not as well-received as the original. I think that’s generally the case with sequels. The other challenge with Another Gay Sequel is that I was originally going to make it with the cast of the first movie, and unfortunately, right before we started shooting, two of the guys decided not to come back.”
Stephens continues, “I didn’t speak to them for years, but now, over the years, we’re all friends again. Actually, we just had dinner a couple of weeks ago and even batted around ideas for doing a part three of the trilogy. So who knows!”
In the indie film scene, Stephens is known for his more understated character dramas. Most recently, Stephens wrote, directed, and produced Swan Song as the final film in his “Ohio Trilogy,” which also features 1998’s Edge of Seventeen and 2001’s Gypsy 83. The 2021 release starred the late Udo Kier as hairdresser Pat Pitsenbarger, based on the queer inspiration that Stephens looked up to growing up in Ohio.
“When Udo opened the door to his house and introduced me to his dog, whose name was Liza Minnelli, I was like, ‘There’s another whole side of Udo that the world hasn’t really seen.’ He was, honestly, probably the best actor I’ve ever worked with in my life. Every day watching him on set was like a masterclass in acting,” Stephens says. “It’s a big loss, but Udo had a legendary career, so he left a lot of amazing work behind for us to check out.”
Recalling both his experiences working with the late Kier and Ford, and the importance of younger queer people connecting with the icons that came before them, Stephens says: “When I was growing up, the small town gay bar was where I met people from other generations. They told me stories and passed on queer culture. There was this intergenerational conversation that happened because we were gathering as a community. That is, sadly, something more challenging these days.”
He concludes, “The five queer resorts we shot at in Another Gay Sequel, for example, are all gone. The physical gay world is becoming extinct, and that’s something we have to work harder at to learn from our elders — the ones who paved the way for us. It’s more challenging, but we just have to work a little harder to connect with everybody. Get off our damn phones and go be with our people!”
Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild! is currently streaming on all major platforms.
a&e features
35 years after ‘Truth or Dare,’ Slam is still dancing
Salim Gauwloos on Madonna, HIV, and why he almost didn’t audition for Blond Ambition Tour
Most gay men of a certain age remember “the kiss.”
It was the moment Madonna’s dancers Salim Gauwloos and Gabriel Trupin locked lips in the hit 1991 documentary film “Truth or Dare,” which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this spring.
The kiss was hot, but what made it groundbreaking is that it appeared in a mainstream Hollywood movie that screened in suburban multiplexes across the country. This wasn’t an obscure art house film. The movie, and tour on which it was based, received months of breathless media attention all over the world for bold expressions of female empowerment and queer visibility. Madonna was threatened with arrest in Toronto for simulating masturbation on stage and Pope John Paul II urged Catholics to boycott the show, triggering a media firestorm.
“Truth or Dare” was billed as a behind-the-scenes documentary of the tour, but it quickly became clear that the real star of the show wasn’t Madonna, but rather her colorful troupe of seven backup dancers, six of whom identified as gay: Kevin Stea, Carlton Wilborn, Luis Xtravaganza Camacho, Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza, Gauwloos, and Trupin; Oliver Crumes III identifies as straight.
We saw them party and march in the New York City Pride parade. They were unabashedly queer at a dangerous time — before protease inhibitors began to stem the AIDS plague and before most celebrities and politicians embraced the gay community in any real way. Being out in 1991 carried major risks to career and reputation.
Enter Gauwloos, one of those brave dancers who vogued his way into the hearts of countless gay men entranced by his handsome looks, his stage presence, and dance skills.
Gauwloos — known then and now as “Slam”— sat down with the Blade to talk Madonna, the lasting impact of “Truth or Dare,” the public disclosure of his HIV status, and plans for a new book on his life.
His story is fascinating — from growing up in Europe to dancing in New York to landing the gig of a lifetime with Madonna. He performed on that tour while secretly HIV positive and went without medical treatment for 10 years because he was living in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Not even Madonna knew of his HIV status. Two other dancers on the tour were also HIV positive but no one talked about it. Ironically, Madonna was singing “Express Yourself” and advocating for condom use during her concerts yet backstage three of her dancers were secretly positive.
“A lot of people were dying so I wasn’t going to tell Madonna I had HIV,” said Slam, now 57. “And the others didn’t either. It wasn’t the moment to do it. She used to make speeches about Keith Haring and AIDS and I thought it’s going to be me next.”
Gabriel Trupin died of AIDS in 1995. Slam was diagnosed at age 18 in 1987, a frightening time when a positive test result often meant a death sentence. He booked the “Blond Ambition Tour” at age 21 after moving to New York. His friends encouraged him to audition but Slam resisted because he wasn’t a big Madonna fan.
“It was crazy, everyone wanted that job,” he said, “but I wanted to dance with Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul.” He listened to his friends and shortly after the audition, Slam received a call from Madonna herself inviting him to join the tour.
“We all wanted to be stars but not even Madonna knew how big that tour would become. The way it was choreographed and directed, the stars aligned. … It never looks dated even today.”
The world tour kicked off in Japan in April 1990 then moved to the United States and Europe, stirring controversy wherever it went. There was the iconic cone bra; the aforementioned simulated masturbation during “Like a Virgin”; and religious imagery that offended many Catholic groups and the Vatican.
And the controversy didn’t end with the tour. Cameras were rolling throughout the tour for what Slam thought would be a “video memory” for Madonna. But as the tour unfolded, director Alek Keshishian reportedly became more interested in what was happening behind the scenes so plans for mere tour footage were expanded into a full documentary.
“We were young and partying and didn’t really know what was going on,” Slam said. “You live in this celebrity bubble and you sign a paper – I don’t even know what I signed.”
In 1992, Kevin, Oliver, and Gabriel sued Madonna for invasion of privacy and fraud claiming she used some footage without their consent. They claim they were told nothing would be included in the film that they didn’t want to be seen. In one specific incident, Gabriel alleged that he told producers he didn’t want the scene of him kissing Slam to be in the film as he wasn’t fully out.
“Gabriel was forcibly outed,” in the movie, Kevin said in a 2016 interview.
Slam did not join his colleagues in the lawsuit.
“I couldn’t sue because I was illegal but I wasn’t ever going to sue,” Slam said. “I’m not a suing kind of person. But good for them, they fought for it and won. A lot of people don’t have the balls to sue Madonna.” The suit was settled two years later for an undisclosed sum.
“We were all conflicted about the kiss,” he said with a laugh. “The kiss, oh my God, my boyfriend is going to kill me! Belgian stress!”
Beyond worrying about his boyfriend’s reaction, Slam had concerns about the impact of being openly gay on his modeling career.
“In 1990, you couldn’t get high fashion campaigns as an openly gay model,” he said. “I was worried about that. I couldn’t get a campaign because I was gay. My agency told me to say I was straight and it was just a game.”
In 2016, pegged to the 25th anniversary of “Truth or Dare,” the surviving six dancers filmed a documentary about their lives post-Madonna titled “Strike A Pose.” In it, Slam publicly revealed his HIV status for the first time in an emotional scene with his former colleagues.
“I found the strength to tell the world I have HIV,” he recalls. “I was scared but I felt brave. The outcome and messages were beautiful. After I saw ‘Strike A Pose,’ I knew we gave people hope. And not just for gay people.”
He was infected in 1987 but didn’t get treated until 1997. After the tour ended, he said he went into a depression and his agency dropped him.
“I was partying too much after the tour,” he recalls. “I made a decision to live as an illegal alien.” In 1997, Slam collapsed and was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia.
“They started treating me and thank God the new HIV drugs were out, the cocktails, it took me a couple months to get better.”
Madonna didn’t participate in “Strike A Pose” and Slam said he hasn’t seen or spoken to her since the end of the tour. He said he had no idea of the impact “Truth or Dare” would have.
“You look at this movie in 1991 and you don’t think it’s going to be such a big thing and 35 years later it’s still helping people,” he said. “It was helpful for people who felt alone at that time. It was such an important documentary.
“I don’t think younger gay people realize how important Madonna was to gay and queer visibility — she was a big part of it. We showed the world it’s OK to be gay and that was the great message of this movie.”
He noted that, decades later, many of his friends have transgender kids and that queer culture is represented in much of mainstream pop culture.
“It’s amazing how far we’ve come,” he said. “I know we’ll always be marginalized but we have come so far. I’m really proud of our community. The current nightmare will be over and I do believe that things will get better.”
Referencing President Trump’s attacks on the LGBTQ community and crackdown on immigration, Slam described the situation in the U.S. today as “sad.”
“Everything is such a mess,” he said. “Some of these people have lived here 30-40 years and they take you out of your home. I can’t even imagine. It breaks my heart. When I was illegal it was a different story.”
Slam met his husband, Facundo Gabba, who’s from Argentina, in 2000, and he helped him get a legal case together to win citizenship. He filed a case in 2001 and was told there was a 99 percent chance he wouldn’t be permitted to stay in the United States because they weren’t allowing HIV-positive immigrants to remain in the country. But he got his green card anyway in 2005 and became a U.S. citizen in 2012.
Today, Slam and Gabba live in Brooklyn, though they travel a lot because “I can’t take the cold.” The couple married in Argentina in 2010 and in the U.S. in 2016.
Slam is still dancing and working as a choreographer. He’s teaching at a contemporary dance festival in Vienna in July and even offers online lessons via Salimdans.com.
As a longtime HIV survivor, Slam is dedicated to a healthful lifestyle.
“You have to keep moving; when you move you stay healthy,” he says. “Dance heals everything. I do yoga, I eat healthy and clean as possible. I don’t watch much TV … I try to stay healthy and positive. If I absorb all of the negativity I would be sick.”
In addition to his ongoing work in dance and choreography, Slam is in the early stages of writing a book about his extraordinary life and pioneering career.
“I always knew I had a book inside of me. I want to talk about my HIV status. I know I can inspire more people. I want to tell even more secrets in the book; secrets are a poison so I want to tell everything.”
Among those secrets, he notes, is a desire to write about his strict Muslim father and the years he spent as an undocumented immigrant in America.
“Those are the things I want to talk about, the struggles. It’s a love story, hope and resilience. I know it will help people.”
As for his friends from the tour, Slam says he remains in contact with Gabriel’s mother and José Xtravaganza is his best friend. Baltimore’s Center Stage theater is currently developing a new musical about Xtravaganza’s life. And Slam said he occasionally talks to Oliver, though “he still can’t pronounce Sandra Bernhard’s name.”
At the end of our interview, Slam indulged a round a rapid fire questions:
• Favorite song to perform in the “Blond Ambition” tour? “Express Yourself.”
• Aside from Madonna, who was your favorite artist you worked with? Toni Braxton in “Aida” on Broadway.
• Favorite Madonna song? “Live to Tell”
• Favorite Madonna video? “Bedtime Stories”
• What’s more stressful: performing in a concert or performing on the VMAs? “Both, because we always had to be perfect.”
• Did you go to Madonna’s recent “Celebration” tour? “I didn’t see the show but I saw clips online.”
• What do you remember most about performing “Vogue” at the VMAs? “It was nerve-racking for them to flip those fans.”
• When was the last time you vogued? “I teach classes so a couple weeks ago.”
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