West Hollywood
Icon Ivy Bottini bids farewell to WeHo
Ivy Bottini. (Portrait by Jon Viscott for Los Angeles Blade)
Short, white-haired, walking with a cane—Ivy Bottini commands attention when she walks into a room because she’s earned it. But after almost five decades of making a difference in Los Angeles County—roughly two of which were as a pot-stirrer on the West Hollywood Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board—Bottini, 93, is moving to Florida on Feb. 1 to live with her daughter. She plans to continue painting, go fishing and find a Democratic club so she can keep giving ‘em hell—whoever the deserving “they” might be.
Bottini leaves WeHo with her not only her wit and wisdom but the history of how she became an activist: her struggle to embrace an authenticity that dare not speak its name; then standing up to hypocritical freedom fighters who tried to determine who gets to be free.
But Bottini did not spring full-born, ready to fight, from Athena’s brow. Like other female mortals before the Women’s Liberation movement, she went along with society’s flow, assuming her expected role as suburban wife and mother—until she just couldn’t anymore. That part of Bottini’s story—told in her book The Liberation of Ivy Bottini, A Memoir of Love and Activism —is as important as all the protests she’s organized. Her story may not be a blueprint for every LGBT activist, but it illustrates how grappling with personal truth in life-changing moments may yield an ineffable inner light of freedom that no one can extinguish.
Born to Long Island cab driver and former boxer Archie Gaffney and his unhappy housewife on August 15,1926, Bottini’s tomboy life was good until her father died in a car crash. Suddenly their expenses were severely limited. Luckily, she got a full scholarship to the Pratt Institute of Art and Design to study advertising, graphic design and illustration. After graduation, she worked in New York City art and advertising agencies—before the freer era depicted in “Mad Men.” In 1952, she married the young man across the street, Eddie Bottini, had two daughters, Laura and Lisa, and quietly struggled with her silent attraction to women.
“I became an activist as I think a lot of lesbians or women who aren’t sure of their sexuality and are struggling might have become an activist. After falling in love with all my gym teachers—that was a clue—and with all other teachers in grammar school and then junior high and high, I really was struggling growing up with how I felt about girls and women,” Bottini told the Los Angeles Blade in an extensive interview. “I was still falling in love with women quietly, silently.”
Bottini, an art director and illustrator at Newsday (from 1955-1971), finally called an old friend from school and asked to come over. Embarrassed, she asked Doris, “this wonderful dyke,” to take her to a gay bar. To which Doris replied, “God we (their basketball team) thought you’d never get it.” They went to Jan’s on the north shore of Long Island where Bottini was mesmerized by a woman dancing on the small dance floor.
The next night Bottini went back alone, sat at the bar and finally worked up the courage to ask that same woman, Nancy, to dance. “That changed my life that evening. I just felt when I walked in there by myself, I felt like I had walked into my home, where I was supposed to be. So over the next handful of years, I struggled,” she says.
Then in 1966, Newsday reporter Dolores Alexander told Bottini about an amazing interview with Betty Friedan, whose book “The Feminine Mystique” “was all the rage.” Dolores took Bottini to a women’s meeting in New York City “and soon I was helping to found the first chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW)” with Dolores. She also joined national NOW where she served on the board for three years.
Meanwhile, Bottini was also having a great clandestine time hitting the ton of gay bars on Long Island with Nancy and her partner. But by September 1968, “I just had had it,” living a secret double life, Bottini says. “I was on the Long Island Railroad in a snowstorm coming back from a New York NOW meeting and when we got to Garden City, I just got off the train.”
It wasn’t her stop and it was cold. She found a payphone and called her psychiatrist. “I was really struggling,” she says. When he answered the phone, Bottini was quietly crying explaining her circumstances. “I can’t go home anymore. And he said, ‘sorry,’ and hung up. And so I yelled out—it was late at night—I yelled out ‘fuck you!’ I was so angry at him. I never went back.”
Bottini called a friend in Levittown who invited her over and offered her a room for as long as she needed one. She joined a social club and called her husband to say she couldn’t come home as long as he was there. Eventually he left and she went home, though the couple didn’t divorce until 1972.
Delores Alexander called Bottini about a three-bedroom condo with a great kitchen, balcony and view on West 93rd Street for $350 a month. She snapped it up and moved in with her daughter Laura while her youngest daughter moved in with her dad. “My life became totally different in one fell swoop,” she says.
Bottini came out unexpectedly when answering a question at a 1968 New York City NOW press conference. Without realizing it, she referred to herself as a lesbian. But once out, she doubled down.
“I accepted that I was a lesbian and as I accepted this, my life changed considerably,” Bottini says. She was elected president of New York NOW and served two terms. Her consciousness raising workshops were picked up by NOW chapters throughout the country, as was the national NOW logo she designed at the request of national NOW President Aileen Hernandez.
In 1969, Bottini introduced the struggle for lesbian rights into the women’s movement through a panel entitled, “Is Lesbianism A Feminist Issue?” But she was shocked by the response of the “mother” of the feminist movement, Betty Friedan.
Bottini organized the August 26, 1970 Strike for Peace and Equality to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. The women’s march drew an estimated 50,000 people marching down Fifth Avenue. But one moment threw shade on the glorious celebration. Bottini handed out lavender armbands to show solidarity with the oppression of lesbian sisters. Though prominent feminists such as Gloria Steinem accepted them readily, Friedan, Bottini later told the Los Angeles Times, threw the armband on the ground and twisted it with her heel.
“My point was, ‘How can you have a women’s movement and leave a huge amount of women out?’ ” Bottini told The Times. “But Friedan just never got that. She doesn’t understand that lesbianism is the bottom line of the women’s movement. If you can’t get past the fear of being thought of as a lesbian, whether you are or not, then you never are really free….Sexual politics is civil rights.”
Friedan called Bottini a “lavender menace” and, Bottini believes, plotted a “purge” of lesbians, starting with voting her out of NOW leadership. The LA Times notes that a 1973 Friedan essay in the New York Times Magazine “smacked of downright paranoia; Friedan even claimed a woman was sent to seduce her and then blackmail her into silence while unnamed lesbians took over NOW.”
Before she was expelled, Bottini helped produce the “NOW YORK TIMES” with “All the news that would give The Times fits.” And her Strike Committee helped organize radical feminists and NOW protests around New York City, including the brazen takeover of the Statue of Liberty on August 10, 1970, hanging a 40-foot banner declaring “WOMEN OF THE WORLD UNITE.”
In fact, the Statue of Liberty was an accidental event in lieu of vandalizing another New York statue. When she took over as president, Bottini instituted weekly NOW meetings for different programs, after which the group would grab beers at Remo’s, a bar in Greenwich Village. One night a lesbian couple from Queens who skipped the meeting showed up at the bar. Concerned, Bottini asked what happened.
“And Pat said, ‘We’re gonna blow up a statue.’ And I said, ‘Did I hear that correctly? What are you talking about?’”
Pat recounted how every night driving home from work, Bottini recalls, they passed an “eight-feet tall statue of this Greek god with hair blowing in the wind and he’s got a spear, a pitchfork, and he’s got rippling muscles and a bare chest and a loin cloth and legs of steel. And his pitchfork is over the head of a woman and is bleeding and the name of the statue is Civic Virtue, and we’re gonna blow it up.”
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, she’s serious.’ And my brain is going two hundred miles an hour and I’m thinking no, no, no, no you can’t. You’re gonna go to jail,” Bottini says. “And I’m thinking she’s such a good worker, I can’t afford to lose her— never mind that she’s gonna be in jail. So I said, ‘Oh ya know, that’s small potatoes, a local statue. I’ll tell you what, if we’re gonna do something like that, we have to make a big statement. So let’s go take over the Statue of Liberty.”
Bottini chuckles, remembering. “And then I could hear myself and the other part of my brain is going, ‘are you out of my your mind?’” Over the next few weeks different committees get to work. “And when women divide into committees, you might as well give up because that’s gonna happen.”
This is happening at the same time that Bottini is organizing the Women’s March for Equality so she gives the committees free reign.
“So comes the 10th of August and now we are at the day we will take over the Statue of Liberty. We go over on two different ferryboats and we get off and some of the women start sauntering hither and yon up to the statue. Their clothes were a little bulgy. They had a forty-foot piece of oil cloth, cut in pieces, put around different women’s bodies so they looked pregnant.
“I’ve got a picket line going and we’re walking around the very narrow oval that picket lines used to walk,” Bottini recalls. “And they have guitars and they’ve written different lyrics for popular songs and suddenly there’s something going on. And I turn and look at the statue and here the banner is just being dropped over the side of the railing at the top of the pedestal. It’s huge. And it says ‘WOMEN OF THE WORLD UNITE.’
“So, okay, that was great,” Bottini continues. “Now we gotta get the hell off the island because we’re on a federal island and you’re not supposed to be where we are and doing what we’re doing. And there are no ferryboats. They stopped all traffic coming to the island. So I looked back toward Manhattan and I see three police boats heading our way. Then I see two fireboats. So I think we are definitely going to the federal pen. We’re gonna get arrested.
“They land and the captain gets off the middle boat and he’s got a bullhorn and he’s standing down on the little wharf. He yells up to me: ‘What are you women doin’ up there?’ And I go, ‘We’re playing guitars and singing.’ And he says, ‘Uh huh. Okay. How long are you gonna be?’ Which is not what I expected, ya know? And I go, ‘Oh, uh, probably no more than a half hour.’ And he goes, ‘Okay, I’ll be right here.’ And I said, ‘Thank you and I’ll be right here,” Bottini says, laughing.
As Bottini returned to singing and marching, the captain ordered the three police boats to put on their sirens. “It’s going wup, wup, wup,” Bottini adds. “And the two fireboats were shooting off their water canons, which went way the hell up in the air. And so we got the wup, wup, wup and the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh goin’ and we had a party.” After which the ferryboats docked, the women boarded and went home.
Photos of the takeover appeared in newspapers around the world, including the front page of a paper in Paris.
Bottini left NOW in 1971 after being voted out, moving to Los Angeles to focus on her other loves—acting, comedy and the growing gay rights movement. She studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute and later toured the country for several years performing her lesbian feminist one-woman show, “The Many Faces of Woman.” At one point she had to go home suffering from Graves Disease but moved to Silver Lake full time in 1975.
Bottini was hired by Susan Kuhner, Director of Programs at the LA Gay Community Services Center, as director of their women’s program. (Kuhner was later interim co-executive director with Steve Schulte.) She left when she was hired by David Mixner and Peter Scott as Southern California Deputy Director of the campaign to fight the anti-gay Briggs Initiative.
It was during that successful campaign that she met lesbian real estate broker Gail Wilson. “She was a wonderful human being,” Bottini recalls. “But when I first met her, I was at odds with her. Gail raised a lot of money and she had a lot of people that knew her from AA so she was a very successful realtor.”
But at one event, Wilson was advising her gay and lesbian audience about how to act professionally in the straight world. “When I heard ‘you should not come out,] I thought, ‘Oh, this is not gonna be good.’ The place was packed and Gail is saying, ‘Don’t come out, just do your job, keep your private life to yourself.’ And I was going to go through the roof because that’s exactly why we were being attacked because they never thought we’d fight back. Like, we weren’t gonna come out of the closet and stand up for ourselves because horrible things could happen to you.
“So I got up and spoke and I didn’t mince any words. And I thought, ‘Well, she’s gonna hate me for the rest of her life. But she was a wonderful, magnanimous human being. And she said to me a month or so later, ‘What are you gonna do?’ And I didn’t know. Maybe go back to the center. She said, ‘No, no, don’t do that. Go get your real estate license and come work with me in my real estate office.’ So I said Okay. I mean, you show me a door that’s open and I’m gonna walk through it, ya know?”
Ivy Bottini, Jean O’Leary, Jeanne Cordova, Robin Tyler (Photo courtesy Robin Tyler)
Bottini went on to become a successful real estate agent while continuing to paint and speak out against the closet and any type of assimilation.
All those seemingly little life-changing moments helped create the powerhouse who took on politicians and the gay male establishment, including her Stonewall Democratic Club friend Morris Kight, when AIDS hit and no one knew what to do. Bottini and her longtime gal-pal Dottie Wine organized a town hall meeting at Fiesta Hall in West Hollywood where Dr. Joel Weisman gave out information about how the new HIV virus was spread through bodily fluids, information that literally saved people’s lives.
“I saw the danger,” says Bottini. “I saw the danger that we were about to get hit with while it was happening and we didn’t even know it. People’s lives were just being torn apart with deaths—and children being taken away from lesbian mothers—it was too much. I saw a tapestry of hurt and that’s what I was fighting.
Rep. Adam Schiff, Ivy Bottini, LA County Assessor Jeff Prang, Dottie Wine. Photo by Karen Ocamb
“What I will miss most is the camaraderie in the city,” Bottini says. “It’s hard for me to say which issue was more important because they were all leading to the same place. It was leading to our liberation and our internal heart.”
Oh, and Bottini’s most prized award? The apology she finally got from NOW.
West Hollywood
Administration refused to honor World AIDS Day; residents gathered with defiance, grief and love
Yesterday, members of the APLA Health Writers Group read moving stories to a large group of locals gathered at the AIDS monument.
On Monday, the federal administration did not honor World AIDS Day, for the first time since the international awareness day was created in 1988. In addition to significant funding cuts to organizations focusing on HIV preventative treatment and care, the government’s halting of this commemoration perpetuates a dismissive system of inaction against LGBTQ+ people.
And yet, over 50 community members filled the empty spaces of West Hollywood’s AIDS monument yesterday evening, waiting in the night chill as city officials delivered impassioned statements and writers from APLA Health read personal pieces that centered a grief and love for those lost to the epidemic.
Before the readings began last night, West Hollywood vice mayor John Heilman asked for residents to join him in a righteous rage against administrative apathy. “I want to ask us all to reflect for just a moment about all of the people we lost…I want us to reflect and get angry,” said Heilman. “We have a fucking president who won’t even recognize World AIDS Day.”
Irwin Rappaport, board chair for STORIES: the AIDS monument, echoed this immense disappointment. “Many of us here tonight lived through the 1980s, so we know what that’s like,” Rappaport said. “We also know that because of that neglect, because of that lack of caring from the federal government, we have to care for one another — and we know how to do that. When we don’t have recognition from others, we know how important it is to preserve our own history, to tell our own stories.”
Through heavy silence, five writers from APLA Health’s writers group stood tall before a podium and shared intimate writings they created about the epidemic and its personal impact on them. The collective was established in 1989 to provide an inclusive, expressive space for HIV-positive writers and allies to work on their writing and learn how to share their stories.
Writer Brian Sonia Wallace, who served as West Hollywood’s poet laureate from 2020 to 2023, has been working with the writers group for the last four years to help them hone and refine their narrative voices as they share their heaviest grief and the depths of their love for the people they lost to HIV and AIDS.
Hank Henderson, one of these writers, read from a diary entry from November 29, 1991. His voice, clear and strong, wavered as he shared about the death of his dear friend Richard. In a piece filled with lush, rich detail, painted clearly with a strong and loving voice, Henderson recounted a memory with Richard during the latter’s last years.
“The Santa Barbara sky is clear blue forever today…Yesterday came and went like a half-remembered dream between snooze alarms,” Henderson recited. “Last year, we walked to the beach. We spent hours there, played frisbee ourselves, brought the dog. Richard even yelled out 30-minute tanning turnover alarms. Yesterday, he took tiny, labored steps back to the car, used my shoulder to keep himself from falling over. Nobody said anything. We just pretend it’s normal.”
Another writer, Austin Nation, shared the story of being told he was HIV-positive at 26 years old. As a young nurse, he remembered the shock of seeing “young, beautiful men” arriving at the hospital covered in “purple, blotchy sores.” When he received his own test results, a paralyzing terror washed over his body. An incredulity followed the fear: why was this happening to him? “I got this thing for what?” Nation spoke. ”For having fun? For making love? And now it’s gonna cost me my life?”
But as he stood before the crowd, now 63 years old, he was met with applause and joy as he stated and repeated: “I’m still here. I’m still here.” The writers, in their grief and loss, have come to a place where they are able to share these stories, empowered and held. “In a world that writes off people with stories like mine,” Nation said. “It’s a hell of a good day to be alive.”
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.
West Hollywood
West Hollywood kicks off community-focused programming for World AIDS Day
Since 1988, queer communities have come together on Dec. 1st to honor siblings and allies lost to the AIDS epidemic.
Since 1988, LGBTQ+ communities have come together on Dec. 1st to commemorate queer siblings and allies lost to the AIDS epidemic. This year’s World AIDS Day follows the theme “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response” and highlights the substantial funding cuts to research, health services, and community initiatives that have prioritized the safety of people with HIV and AIDS. The theme challenges people to think about “radical” ways to organize together and ensure that those who are impacted are able to access the care, treatment, and awareness that they need.
Beginning today, the City of West Hollywood is kicking off programming to recognize the historical transformation that local queer communities experienced during the AIDS epidemic. A panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be available for viewing at the City’s Council Chambers at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard through Monday, Dec. 15th.
Known as the largest community arts project in history, the Quilt is a powerful memorialization of loved ones who died during the epidemic. Each panel of the Quilt contains a story of remembrance, immortalizing a life cut short during the crisis. The project currently contains over 50,000 panels dedicated to over 110,000 people, all woven together in a 54-ton tapestry piece.
If you’re visiting the panel today, there will be an additional gathering opportunity tonight at the West Hollywood Park for STORIES: the AIDS Monument. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., members from the HIV-positive writers collective APLA Health Writers Group will present intimate readings that reflect on their experiences. Community members will be allowed time to wander through the monument and also preview the new Herb Ritts: Allies & Icons exhibition at ONE Gallery after the program. The art show includes striking black and white portraits of activists who stood in alliance with those most impacted during the AIDS epidemic.
Additionally, fresh flowers will be placed on the bronze plaques that line the City’s AIDS Memorial Walk. During the AIDS epidemic, West Hollywood was at the center of a rampant grief and loss that juxtaposed vibrant programming and efforts that boosted healing and fought against stigma and violence. It continues to be a vibrant space that houses various organizations and memorial spots that continue to uphold the revolutionary history and advocacy work that has continued since the epidemic’s beginnings.
Today, West Hollywood is in the process of executing its HIV Zero Strategic Plan, an initiative that began in 2015. Its goals include: expanding healthcare access for people living with HIV and AIDS, reducing the rate of infections, lessening health disparities and inequities for those impacted, and slowing the disease’s progress from advancing to AIDS.
According to West Hollywood mayor Chelsea Byers at a recent Cityhood event, the initiative carries forth the City’s “bold vision” and commitment to ensuring marginalized community members living with HIV do not face the life-threatening discrimination and health barriers that their elders experienced.
To learn more about the City’s programming, read 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.
West Hollywood
Today, West Hollywood celebrates 41 years of queer cityhood
WeHo’s city officials are trying to preserve the fight for queer safety and rights that began decades before.
On Nov. 29th, 1984, West Hollywood was incorporated as an independent City, making its sovereignty official and solidifying it further as a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ community members, their stories, and their freedoms. Inspired by other prominent gay neighborhoods like New York’s West Village and San Francisco’s Castro District, West Hollywood was established by local queer advocates and residents. Their first city council was made up of a majority gay governing body — the first in the world, according to the West Hollywood History Center.
This political legacy, and the city’s vibrant and proudly queer history, continues to be preserved. On Monday’s celebratory event, West Hollywood mayor Chelsea Byers announced that the City’s current council “continues to be a majority-LGBTQ+ body,” holding tightly onto a “spirit” that reflects, prioritizes, and fights for Los Angeles’ queer community.
West Hollywood has been through various transformations, cocooning and revitalizing itself through the country’s evolving political and cultural upheavals. It has long been home to a ravishing nightlife that celebrates LGBTQ+ expression, and was a focal point for queer-led liberation and activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Trailblazers like Morris Kight led the first gay pride march through West Hollywood’s streets in 1970 and opened the Los Angeles LGBT Center to nourish the City’s robust and blossoming queer communities.
Today, West Hollywood continues to be the place where queer organizers and residents plant roots. Earlier this month, STORIES: the AIDS monument opened up in the City’s park after over a decade of work, shining a light on the legacies of gay activists, artists, historians, and community members who fought to survive as anti-gay stigma led to the erasure of their rights and lives.
As waves of anti-LGBTQ+ hate and violence continue to surge through the country, West Hollywood elected officials aim to continue doing the critical work that began decades before them: the work that protects the ability of queer residents to advocate for themselves, to live with protections and dignity, and to relish in joy. Mayor Byers is inspired by the resilience of the community members who stood together to establish this independent City in 1984. “The people who lived here…wanted a city with strong protections for renters, with progressive policies, and with a local government that would actually reflect and protect the people who call this place home,” said Byers, at the Nov. 24th celebration.
Over 40 years later, these needs have not changed. The way forward? Remembering and fighting for that initial promise and hope. “We are a chorus. We are a tapestry,” said Byers. “We are the product of thousands of people who, for more than four decades, have dared to say: We can build something better 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.
West Hollywood
From nickname to reality, the Rainbow District is made official by the City of West Hollywood
The mile along Santa Monica Boulevard from N. Doheny Drive to N. La Cienega Boulevard welcomes residents and visitors to come as they are
Even in today’s political climate, we will not be hidden.
The vibrant stretch on Santa Monica Blvd of over 50 local businesses, representing the full spectrum of LGBTQ+ expression, from N Doheny Dr to N La Cienega, has had the loving nickname of the Rainbow District for decades. Well, now it’s official. From nightlife to restaurants to community organizations, the City of West Hollywood has formally designated the space as such, honoring the neighborhood’s legacy as a safe haven for the queer community and beyond.
In addition to making the name official, the Rainbow District is being launched with a full range of social media, including Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, keeping the residents and visitors updated on all upcoming events and happenings in the neighborhood.
Long known as a beacon of acceptance, inclusion, and visibility, where everyone is welcome, this iconic mile-long corridor is now formally recognized for what it has always been: a place where people from every walk of life can come together, be themselves, and celebrate the beauty of diversity.
City of West Hollywood Mayor Chelsea Lee Byers states, “For generations, the City of West Hollywood’s Rainbow District has been a place where LGBTQ+ people take their first steps into living openly, where the warm embrace of community is found at every turn, and where the joy of living out, loud, and proud fills the streets. The City’s official designation of the Rainbow District honors both the legacy and the future of this vibrant neighborhood, home to beloved entertainment venues, bars, and restaurants that have long served as cornerstones of LGBTQ+ life. Today, the Rainbow District is more alive than ever, and it will always stand as a beacon of hope, pride, and belonging and as a reminder that everyone deserves a place to celebrate joy, to be seen, and to be supported.”
The Rainbow District officially joins a nationwide list of iconic LGBTQ+ landmarks. West Hollywood will not be hidden amid political backlash and will continue to protect queer spaces, uplift queer voices, and foster a safe and joyful environment for all.
“This designation is not only a celebration, but it also serves as a promise,” said Visit West Hollywood President & CEO Tom Kiely. “A promise to keep LGBTQ+ spaces visible, valued, and vibrant for generations to come. As the Rainbow District continues to evolve, it will remain a place where locals and visitors alike can connect through culture, creativity, and community. The City’s formal designation affirms its significance and highlights The Rainbow District as the ultimate playground for travelers seeking a unique, inclusive, and authentic experience.”
The Rainbow District will be home to upcoming community events that include:
- Winter Market & Ice Skating Rink — December 2025
- Go-Go Dancer Appreciation Day — March 2026
- Harvey Milk Day — May 22, 2026
- WeHo Pride Weekend & the OUTLOUD Music Festival at WeHo Pride — June 5–7, 2026
Follow the Rainbow District on socials to discover local happenings, support small businesses, and be part of a neighborhood that celebrates every person for exactly who they are.
Instagram: @RainbowDistrictWeHo TikTok: @RainbowDistrictWeHo
Facebook: facebook.com/rainbowdistrictweho More Info: visitwesthollywood.com/rainbowdistrict
West Hollywood
West Hollywood’s AIDS Monument preserves the pain and power of people lost to the crisis
STORIES: The AIDS Monument is now available to view at West Hollywood Park, 15 years after its conception.
It was 1985, at the height of the AIDS crisis, when Irwin Rappaport came out as gay. As he came to terms with his identity, he witnessed people around him grow weaker: their faces becoming gaunt, painful lesions developing on their bodies. Five years later, he began volunteering as a young lawyer at the Whitman-Walker Clinic, a community health hotspot in Washington, D.C. that created the first AIDS hotline in the city, opened homes for patients with AIDS, and distributed materials that promoted safe sex.
The work being done at the clinic was instrumental, essential, and deeply painful. “When you see that sickness and experience that death among your friends and people you know, and when you’re writing wills for people who are much too young in ordinary times — it has an impact,” Rappaport told the Blade. “And even though in 1996 we saw life-saving medications come around, you never forget the sense of fear that permeates your life. The sense of loss.”
Determined to honor and share the legacies of people who died from AIDS, Rappaport joined the Foundation for the AIDS Monument (FAM) board to work towards the organization’s goal of creating a physical monument dedicated to memorializing these histories. FAM treasurer Craig Dougherty first conceived of this project in 2010 and, after 15 years, STORIES: The AIDS Monument is now available to the public for viewing.
Created in collaboration with the City of West Hollywood, STORIES: The AIDS Monument is composed of 147 vertical bronze pillars known as “traces.” Designed by artist Daniel Tobin, 30 of these traces are engraved with words like: activism, isolation, compassion, and loss, which correlate to the over 125 audio stories collected and archived on the foundation’s website. This multimodal storytelling allows people who come across the monument to engage more intimately with the people represented by these physical pillars.
At nighttime, lights transform the monument into a candlelight vigil, providing a warm glow to a wanderer’s journey through the structure.
When people were able to walk around the traces at Sunday’s grand opening ceremony at the Pacific Design Center, the last remnants of the weekend’s rainstorm created a kind of “spiritual” and reverent atmosphere for those gathering, according to Rappaport. “I think there’s a certain peacefulness and serenity about the design, an opportunity for reflection,” he continued. “For some, it may bring back incredibly painful memories. It might bring back wonderful times with friends who are no longer here. It might remind them of their own caregiving or activism, or the sense of community that they felt in striving with others to get more attention to the disease.”
Now that the monument has been built, FAM has passed the mantle of management and programming to One Institute, a nonprofit that engages community members with queer history through panels, screenings, and other educational initiatives. One Institute plans to host monthly docent tours, art installations, and other special events during various LGBTQ+ national awareness days, including the upcoming World AIDS Day in December.
Rappaport also hopes to do outreach with local schools, so that young students are able to engage with the monument, learn about the people who were affected by the AIDS crisis, and interact with the ripples of transformation that this time period sparked in politics, research, the arts, and within society. “For younger people, I think [this is] an invitation for them to understand how they can organize about issues that they care about,” Rappaport said. “[So] they can see what the HIV and AIDS community did as a model for what they can do to organize and change the world, change culture, change law, change politics, change whatever they think needs to be changed. Because we had no other choice, right?”
West Hollywood
West Hollywood invests $1 million to build LGBTQ+ Olympic hospitality house
Pride House LA/WeHo will be an interactive space for queer athletes and allies to celebrate the 2028 Summer Games together.
The first-ever Olympic hospitality house began with humble roots in 1992: a tent pitched on the Port of Barcelona for athletes to gather with their families. Since then, they transformed into fixtures of several major sporting events, with hopes of fostering belonging and safety for athletes of various cultural backgrounds.
It wasn’t until 2010 that the first LGBTQ+ hospitality house, the Pride House, appeared during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Over the years, its existence and visibility have faced barriers. During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games in Russia, Pride House International was denied from organizing its safe hub. The rejection was a blow to the visibility and safety that the organization was trying to promote and create for queer athletes. But this didn’t go unnoticed. International fans demonstrated quiet resistance, hosting remote Pride Houses in support of the Olympians who were barred from openly communing and celebrating together.
As Los Angeles prepares to host the Summer Olympics in July 2028, Pride House is coming back stronger than ever. In early October, the West Hollywood city council approved an agreement that would allocate $1 million to sponsor Pride House LA/WeHo as they prepare to build a temporary structure at West Hollywood Park for the 2028 Games. For 17 days, vibrant LGBTQ+ sports programming will fill the park’s grassy knolls.
Pride House LA/WeHo CEO Michael Ferrera detailed at a Nov. 1st Out Athlete Fund fundraising event that the team plans to build a concert stage to seat over 6,000 people. There will also be a museum that will take viewers through 100 years of queer Olympics history, viewing areas for people to watch the games, and a private athlete village for queer Olympians. “The dream of that is — imagine you’re an athlete from a country where you can’t be out,” said Ferrera. “You come here, and you can be safe and sound.”
As outlined in the city council agreement and stated by Ferrera, most of the programming will be free and open to the public, and in the heart of a neighborhood that many of the county’s queer residents recognize as their safe haven. “We’re centering this important event in West Hollywood Park where our community has come together for decades in celebration, in protest, to support each other and to live our lives,” Pride House LA/WeHo CEO Michael Ferrera wrote to the Blade. “There is no place that is more representative of inclusion and safe spaces.”
The City of West Hollywood is promoting this inclusion further by asking for local community members to voice their perspectives on the formation of Pride House LA/WeHo at West Hollywood Park. On Monday, a community conversation will take place at Plummer Park to encourage residents to help shape the cultural programming that will take place in the summer of 2028. Another conversation will take place on Nov. 21st at the City’s 40th anniversary of Cityhood event.
“We couldn’t do this without the generosity and partnership of the city of West Hollywood,” Pride House LA/WeHo marketing co-lead Haley Caruso wrote to the Blade. “We are so happy to help bring the Olympic spirit to West Hollywood while also providing the community a safe and entertaining venue to enjoy the Games.”
Head to PrideHouseLAWeho.org for more information
West Hollywood
Drag performers delight Carnaval crowds with demure and daring dances
The Halloween party is one of the most anticipated events for queer Angelenos.
On Friday night, techno pop remixes surged through a tight block on Santa Monica Boulevard, where hundreds of eager partygoers danced near a pop-up stage. Bass-heavy grooves echoed across neighboring streets as Beetlejuices, angels, and vampires swayed and thumped to the beat.
Oct. 31 marked the arrival of West Hollywood’s annual Halloween Carnaval, one of the county’s citywide celebrations — and one of the most anticipated for queer Angelenos.
The first Halloween Carnaval was celebrated in 1987, and has since become one of the most awaited nights for local queer celebration. Drag performers donning elaborate costumes and glamorous makeup set the stage ablaze as they strutted, flipped their hair and danced to the cheers of a crowd that grew enormously as the night went on. The energy was infectious, and the Los Angeles Blade was on the scene to photograph some of these moments.
Image captures by Blade reporter Kristie Song.
West Hollywood
West Hollywood installs new intersex pride flags on Intersex Awareness Day
On Sunday, city councilmembers gathered to raise two new pride flags to honor intersex community members
Early yesterday morning, on National Intersex Awareness Day, West Hollywood mayor Chelsea Byers, Vice Mayor John Heilman, as well as councilmembers Danny Hang and John M. Erickson gathered to install and raise two new intersex pride flags. They fly side by side with the American flag, upholding the City of West Hollywood’s vision of solidarity between national pride and LGBTQ+ visibility.
“We are facing unprecedented attacks on our community. It is important that we recognize the entirety of the LGBTQI+ community,” Vice Mayor John Heilman wrote to the Blade. “Intersex people have long been ignored and their issues disregarded. Raising the intersex flag also raises awareness about the challenges many intersex people face.”
Intersex people are born with naturally occurring variations in reproductive and sexual anatomy that don’t fit into binary “male” or “female” categorizations. As Planned Parenthood details, this can look like having both ovarian and testicular tissues or having combinations of chromosomes that aren’t “male” or “female,” just to name a few. According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, one of the biggest issues intersex people face is non-consensual surgeries performed when they are children. These operations are considered medically unnecessary and can leave lasting physical and psychological damage on intersex youth.
The fight for bodily autonomy and intersex visibility was the main reason behind the first action organized by intersex advocates and trans allies on Oct. 26th, 1996. Protestors stood outside the Boston Convention Centre, passed out leaflets, and spoke with clinicians, nurses, and other medical professionals attending the annual American Academy of Pediatrics conference.
One of the main leaders behind this movement was Morgan Holmes, an intersex woman who had experienced a violating medical procedure meant to “correct” her anatomy. In May of 1996, she presented testimony in a room adjacent to a symposium on genital surgery for intersex infants, a conference she and other members of her advocacy group had been rejected from.
“What I am saying is that my medical ‘care-givers’ failed to respect my autonomy or my intelligence when they assumed that because I was a child, they could do whatever they wanted as long as my father provided his consent,” Holmes said. “And when I began to balk, instead of questioning their own treatment of me, they blamed my body, and they cut it up.”
Today, intersex people and their stories are more broadly recognized, but still struggle to reach mainstream audiences when it comes to discussions around LGBTQ+ identity. West Hollywood city officials see this addition of intersex pride flags as a step forward. “Updating our city’s flags was my item because visibility matters,” councilmember John M. Erickson wrote to the Blade. “Intersex people have always been part of our story, and it’s time that their history, identity, and pride are recognized in the public spaces that belong to all of us.”
West Hollywood
Residents remain dubious as officials claim “no ICE involvement” at The Abbey
The Oct. 17th “undercover operation” was addressed at the latest city council meeting
On Friday, Oct. 17th, West Hollywood gay bar The Abbey found itself in the center of a social media storm as clips were shared depicting the presumed presence of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. In a video posted on Oct. 18th by Charles Hernandez, who often creates content around gay nightlife in Los Angeles, several people are seen standing in a line as they are apprehended and handcuffed by officers wearing sheriff’s vests and tees. Hernandez noted that, while dressed in varying attire with the word “sheriff” on it, none of the officers were willing to identify themselves or present their badges upon request.
Hernandez can be heard asking the officers about the cause for arrest, to which one responded: “I don’t have to tell you our cause.” The video creator also questioned another officer, who can be seen wearing a gaiter to cover his face. “Isn’t it illegal to wear a mask in California?” Hernandez asked. “He has COVID,” an officer replied. In September, Governor Newsom signed five bills that weakened federal agents’ abilities to access school sites and health facilities, and prohibited them from hiding their identities. More specifically, SB 627 requires all California law enforcement agencies to create written policies limiting their officers’ use of facial coverings by July 1, 2026.
As this video circulated around the web, the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station released an online statement of their own, denying allegations that the officers present were federal immigration officers. The station also claimed that the night’s events were a result of an “undercover operation” that was conducted in response to reports made about pickpocketing and the transportation, use, and sale of illegal substances. “Several arrests were made,” the statement read. “ICE was not involved.”
Still, residents remained unconvinced, criticizing the station’s lack of transparency, careful conduct, and accountability. Over 50 people took to the comments of this statement to voice their discontent. “[It] was not that long ago when officers would raid LGBTQ spaces and arrest people simply for being there,” one comment read. “A raid such as this does not inspire feelings of safety for our community. Especially in times when people are being kidnapped off the street by masked federal agents. There simply must be a better response to pickpockets and “other criminal activity” than undercover raids by masked officers and transporting detainees in unmarked vehicles. DO BETTER.”
Two days later, at the West Hollywood city council meeting, West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station Captain Fanny Lapkin took to the podium to address some of these concerns. Echoing the station’s Instagram statement, Lapkin confirmed that the “pre-planned operation” was created in response to “concerns from our businesses and our community in regards to the pickpocketing, to the narcotics, and also to the illegal vending and some of the criminal activity during illegal vending.” Lapkin also confirmed that no federal agents were present, stating that everyone who took part in the operation was “sheriff’s department personnel.” And because the arrests were made as part of a planned operation, Lapkin further stated that warrants were not “necessary.”
The events were discussed with brevity at the meeting, but community ire has not been dispelled. Several people continue to question the ethics of this undercover operation: Why were the individuals being arrested not clearly told the reason for their detainment? Why were unmarked vehicles present? Why conduct the operation in this way, as Los Angeles neighborhoods continue to stay on high alert over immigration raids? These questions remain unanswered as more specifics about the operation have yet to be released.
West Hollywood
Captain Fanny Lapkin wants more “transparency” between officers and WeHo residents
We sat down with the recently appointed captain to discuss her approach to LGBTQ+ community safety
Before Fanny Lapkin became Captain of West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station in August, she was a longtime advisor and mentor for the county’s deputy explorer program: a training and career development opportunity for young adults interested in law enforcement. “I probably had eight or nine of — I call [them] my kids,” Lapkin told the Blade. When some of these mentees became deputies, she felt like a “mama.” Lapkin brings this nurturing approach to her leadership, where she hopes to build deeper community trust and humanize her staff members. “People have the misconception that we’re machines and that we’re robots. We are human beings,” said Lapkin.
Lapkin first ventured into law enforcement as a college student, where a casual walk into the East Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station for volunteer credit led to a seven-year-long stint. As a volunteer, she assisted deputies, participated in neighborhood watch, and became involved with safety measures for local community members. “I fell in love with the job,” said Lapkin. She officially took on a law enforcement role in 1997 and was eventually assigned to the Santa Clarita Valley’s Sheriff’s Station, where she worked as a community relations deputy.
In 2019, Lapkin began working at the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, climbing the ranks as service area sergeant to service area lieutenant before her most recent promotion to station captain in August. Lapkin says that she and fellow station staff pushed for LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum for peace officer standards and training.
In September 2018, AB 2504 was passed, which required the state’s commission on peace officer standards and training to develop training material around LGBTQ+ identity and create inclusive workplaces. In 2024, AB 2621 was chaptered into law, which required the commission to also create and implement instruction on hate crimes against specific groups, including LGBTQ+ communities.
Today, Lapkin hopes to continue building trust with marginalized community members, especially LGBTQ+ individuals afraid to seek help through law enforcement. The Blade sat down with the captain to discuss her perspective and approach.
How do you hope to foster effective relationships between the sheriff’s station and community members?
Honestly, [it’s about] being available, being present. Joining Neighborhood Watch, having that open communication, making sure that you know the residents, whether it be from our LGBT community or visitors. We make sure that our deputies have the necessary training to be able to deal with different community members, whether direct leaders, whether business owners, or public safety commissions. Being available for them — I think that’s the number one thing, is just making yourself available to have those conversations.
Also, having that transparency — if something does happen, let’s talk about what happened. In some cases, we won’t be able to discuss for obvious reasons, but it’s having that open communication and making sure that our community feels that they’re safe and that their voice is heard.
It’s having the conversation: How can we come together to find a resolution for [issues]? People come from different directions to try and resolve a problem. So my thing is, everybody has a seat at the table. From being a volunteer to a deputy to moving up the ranks, I’ve always lived by that. I’ve had amazing mentors who have always had that open-door policy, [where] every community member has a seat at the table. Come and tell us what your concerns are, and we’ll tell you how we can fix them. There are going to be times when we cannot do something about it, because it doesn’t rise to the level of a crime. But we can tell you, without giving you legal advice, how you can try to resolve something.
How have you seen community issues and safety shift since you started working in the West Hollywood Sheriff’s station in 2019? How do you hope to address all of these shifts?
2019 kind of put us all in a bubble. But again, it’s just having that open communication and making yourself available, going to local events, participating in outreach, and just making sure that our community members, whomever they are — our Russian community, our Jewish community, our LGBT community — that they feel that they’re being heard, that we listen to them, and we understand that each of them have unique needs. So it’s trying to understand that and fostering a great environment where they’re comfortable enough to come to us, whether it be telling us how wonderful our deputies are, or also telling us they didn’t like the service that they received.
If I get a concern, [like] somebody saying, “Well, I don’t like the way this deputy handled the call.” I look at every single body-worn camera footage. I listen to the phone calls. And if it’s something that we could do better, we fix it, right? And if it’s something that maybe was misinterpretation…I tell [deputies]: take the extra two minutes to listen to our community, because you’re going to learn something by just slowing yourself down.
Unfortunately, our patrol deputies are under tight constraints. We are understaffed. They are working the extra overtime, but…we’re not machines, we’re not robots. We’re humans. And sometimes, the human nature kind of steps in at times. But we have to make sure that we teach them how to find the balance.
What are the unique needs and challenges West Hollywood communities face today?
The challenge is just making sure that our community trusts us [and] that our community is comfortable enough to come to us when they have a concern, when they’re victims. Especially with the LGBTQ community or even our transgender community, they’re a little nervous about going to law enforcement, or they feel that they’re going to be victimized again. That’s one thing that [we see] as a priority. We want to make sure that they don’t feel that, and that they do feel that they’re being heard, and that their safety is one of our concerns. We don’t care whether you’re LGBTQ, transgender, Jewish, or Russian — we’re going to treat you equally. If you’re a victim of a crime, we’re going to assist you and help you. I think we just want to make sure that our community members feel that they can come to us and we’re going to advocate for them, [that] we’re going to be a good partner.
What are the active ways that you and the station are building that kind of trust, specifically with LGBTQ+ and trans community members? How can they have that open dialogue with you and the station to feel safer?
Because there was a need for our transgender community…we started with a quarterly meeting, but we moved them to every six months, where we have a meeting and we invite any member of the community to come in and sit down and talk to us. We included our California Department of Justice partners. We included the trans Latina community. Our LGBTQ commission came out.
That’s something that we’re trying to figure out. What’s going to be the best time to have these open dialogues? It’s a town hall roundtable. Tell us what your concerns are, and we’ll tell you how we can fix them.
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