News
Pete Buttigieg Primer
Where out Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete stands on the issues


Pete Buttigieg at The Abbey May 9 (Photo by KABC)
A funny thing happened on the way to the Democratic National Committee’s presidential debate stages this June. The young gay guy with a last name no one could pronounce, Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, population 101,166, whose penchant for blindingly white shirts with Kennedy-esque rolled up sleeves started showing up in third place behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in polls ranking the long list of better-known contenders vying for the opportunity to oust Donald Trump in 2020.
But why is Buttigieg the popular “it” guy of early presidential politics?
Late night host Trevor Noah and branding/politico Donny Deutsch call Buttigieg the “anti-Trump,” for his decency, war service, intellect and even- keel sensibility.
Deutsch tried to goad Buttigieg into taking an angry swipe at Trump, asserting that is necessary for any Democrat to win the nomination. Buttigieg balked. He knows Trump’s a bully.
“I’m not too worried about it. I’m from Indiana. I’m gay. I can handle bullies. And I’m literally used to incoming rocket fire [in Afghanistan] so I think I’ll be all right,” Buttigieg said, thrilling the applauding West Hollywood crowd in March.
But Buttigieg’s response to Deutsch speaks volumes about his nimble intellect, his tone of storytelling tinged with shade that plant seeds of moral comparisons while explaining why he won’t play Trump’s game, though he can be just as tough.
“My emotions about this president are not what’s going to matter most, Buttigieg tells Deutsch. “I’m not as interested in expressing my anger about him as I am in defeating and ending his presidency. If we want to have a fight over any number of things – from the way I approach service and the way he did. The fact that I was packing my bags for Afghanistan while he was working on Season 7 of Celebrity Apprentice— we can have that fight. If someone wants to raise the question of which one of us has a more traditional attitude on marriage—we can have that fight.
“But at the end of the day, it’s not about him. It’s not about me. It’s about you, the American voter,” Buttigieg continues. “Here’s the thing about this president: he has the ability to take any attention that comes his way – including attacks and criticism – and just kind of devour and grow bigger from it. So we could unintentionally be feeding the beast by competing to see who’s going to be the one to land the biggest punch, the best zinger. And the reality is—if you just step back and think of the mentality that represents, that’s an environment where he’s the one we’re trying to impress.”
Here’s the thing about Buttigieg: he’s a millennial philosopher and economist who’s been thinking about the mission of politics since Harvard. And he’s a devout Christian who wants to reclaim his faith and values from the Republican money-changers and false prophets. In some ways, he’s the next iteration of the old feminist adage “the personal is political.”
“No one has more at stake [in the 2020 elections] than the younger generation coming up,” Buttigieg says, explaining why seeking the presidency at this moment is a personal calling.
Buttigieg is also keenly aware of the burden of hope and high expectations he shoulders as he campaigns during this incredible moment in LGBT history. But the 37- year old Harvard and Oxford graduate, Rhodes scholar, Naval Reserve Intelligence Officer (deployed to Afghanistan who was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his work in counterterrorism) also practices humility in exercising his public service.
Buttigieg’s calm, smart, palpable authenticity and his charm gushing over husband Chasten Glezman have made him a breath of fresh air on the political landscape.
“I do believe I’m not like the others [Democratic presidential contenders],” Buttiegieg told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday March 17. “I belong to a different generation than most of the others. Mine was the generation that was in high school when mass shootings started being the norm. We’re the generation that’s going to be on the business end of the consequences of climate change. We’re also the generation that’s on track to be the first in American history to make less than our parents if nothing is done to change the trajectory of our economy.”
Buttigieg has given considerable thought to how “America needs a narrative” with which people can identify.
“Presidencies like the one we’re living in don’t just happen. People like the person in the White House don’t come within cheating distance of the Oval Office under ordinary circumstances. And that’s why we’ve got to recognize the seriousness of this moment,” Buttigieg said during his recent appearance at The Abbey in West Hollywood.
“What’s happening right now is a symptom, not a cause,” he continued. “It’s a symptom of a deep disorientation in our economy and our democracy. But we also have the great benefit of living in one of those rare moments in American history when the decisions we make will ripple out throughout time….So, let’s get it right.”
Buttigieg, who is still hiring campaign staff and working on his campaign website—PeteforAmerica.com—has been criticized for not laying out specific policy positions for voters to compare with other candidates.
In fact, Buttigieg talks about issues all the time, couched within or providing context for a story that illustrates his message about freedom, security and democracy.
(UPDATE: the campaign just updated their website with an Issues page.)
Here are just some of those issues.
Hope: “If anybody tells you whether they’re not sure if America is capable in these twisted and dark times of delivering or vindicating our hopes, tell them you saw at The Abbey in West Hollywood the top tier presidential candidate on his way to the White House, moments after his husband introduced him.”
Green New Deal is more of a “goal” than a plan. But climate change is real. “We have got to do this. This timetable isn’t being set in Congress. It’s being set by reality. It’s being set by science. And it’s going to hit— those deadlines are going to hit in our climate with or without us so we have to act…. Retro-fitting buildings means a huge amount of jobs for the building trades in this country. I view that as a good thing.” On Fox News Sunday.
Climate change: “I see a family in South Bend right before school started trying to figure out what they’re going to do after they’ve been run out of their house by a catastrophic flood. The time has ended for us to debate whether climate change is happening, but we need to start talking about it happening in our communities, in the heart of America today.”
Experience: Buttigieg was elected South Bend mayor in 2011, the youngest American mayor at 29. “I have more years of government experience under my belt than the president. That’s a low bar, I know that. I’ve also got more years of executive government experience under my belt than the vice president and more military experience than anybody to walk into that office on day one since George H.W. Bush. So I get that I’m the young guy in the conversation, but I would say experience is what qualifies me to have a seat at this table.” CNN Town Hall, March 10.
Military service/War: Buttigieg served about nine months of active-duty service, with six of those months in Afghanistan as a Reserve Navy Intelligence Officer serving in the Afghanistan Threat Finance Cell (ATFC) in Kabul, placing him in “an imminent danger pay area” from late March to mid-September 2014. “We learned what it is to trust one another with our lives,” Buttigieg said in his presidential launch. In his 2019 memoir, “Shortest Way Home,” Buttigieg writes about soldiers killed President Obama announced the drawdown of the war. “I did not believe the Afghanistan War was a mistake,” Buttigieg wrote. “But as I weighed my place in a war most people at home seemed to think was already ending, I couldn’t stop wondering, how do you ask a person to be the last to die for anything?”

Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten Glezman kiss (Photo courtesy HRC)
Abolish Electoral College: “The Electoral College needs to go, because it’s made our society less and less democratic,” Buttigieg says in the Nation, April 22, as part of a larger democracy agenda that also ends gerrymandering, extends voting rights and amends the Constitution to correct the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. He also wants to structurally reform the Supreme Court to make it less political.
Single payer slides into Medicare for all: “A single-payer environment is probably the right answer in the long term, but I think any politician who throws around phrases like Medicare for all has to explain how we would get there. What you want to do is you take something like Medicare, you put it on the exchanges as a public option, and if people like me are right that that is both good coverage and more cost efficient, then more and more people will buy in and it will be a very natural glide path towards the single-payer environment.” Fox News Sunday March 19
Economy: “The president’s promise is to turn back the clock, that we can somehow just go back to the 1950s. It’s just not true. The economy is changing, the pace of change is accelerating, and what we’ve got to do is master those changes in order to make them work for us.” To Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
Christianity: “When I read Scripture, when I go to church, I read about protecting the immigrant, welcoming the stranger, looking out for those who are on the margins of society….When God comes among us – frankly, priests and politicians don’t look too good in that story. He’s spending his time with sex workers. Right? He’s spending his time with those on the margins of society. And the Scripture I read is about lifting people up, not about beating them down. So let’s talk about it. I’m sick of the religious right having a monopoly on political religion in this country. Let’s have a religious left.” At Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood March 14.
Reaching out to Black voters:
“Part of it is by laying out an agenda of the issues that black voters are asking me about most often: democracy in the way that a lot of voters of color have been excluded or found their voices diminished. Or the issues that are going to be tackled by that democracy—homeownership, entrepreneurship, heath, education, criminal justice reform. But a lot of it is also about a relationship. The black voters who know me best, voters in South Bend, which is a racially diverse city, helped return me to office with an overwhelming majority in the primary and in the general election….I’m hoping to appeal to anyone who is focused on the future—that includes anybody from a blue collar workers in the industrial Midwest to a transgender woman of color, which, by the way, could be the same person.” NBC Today Show.
Demoting the black police chief: Buttigieg says he doesn’t know what’s on the five tapes allegedly of phone conversations inside the South Bend police department that may contain racist comments about former Police Chief Darryl Boykins, who is black. “[T]he reason I don’t know is these tape recordings were made in a way that violated the federal wire tap act. That is a federal law that controls when you can and can’t record people….That’s a law punishable by a term in prison and so I’m not going to violate it, even though I want to know what’s on those tapes like everybody else does.” Buttigieg demoted the chief because he found Boykins “was the subject of a criminal investigation, not from him but the FBI, and it made it very hard for me to trust him as one of my own appointees.” CNN Town Hall, April 22

Mayor Pete Buttigieg in West Hollywood, March 14 (Photo by Karen Ocamb)
Buttigieg’s 1,000 home policy: Buttigieg used expedited code enforcement to demolish 1,000 deteriorating houses in 1,000 days, which critics said adversely impacted communities of color. However, Buttigieg says “the number one can complaint we heard, especially from minority and low income home owners in the neighborhood, was what took you so long?” He added: “No policy is perfect and we learned things the hard way on this one.”
Immigration/asylum: Buttigieg supports DACA and a pathway to citizenship, as well as fixing the legal immigration system. On trans women seeking asylum, he says the US should accommodate them “because we are responsible for their safety. And they are coming here because they believe in us, because they believe they are safer here….They are fleeing what we’re fighting. And that means we need to look at them not as a problem to be handled, but as an asset to this nation and part of the fabric of this country. And we should be lucky to be the place that turn to when they’re in that kind of need.” At Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood March 14
Supports gun control and universal background checks:
Buttigieg is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns; supports universal background checks, opposes guns for teachers in schools, and opposes “Stand Your Ground” laws. PBS Newshour, Feb 15.
Equality Act: “I know what it means to question whether your job will be viewed differently because of who you are. And it motivates me all the more to make sure that all of us are equal. And I want to fight for anybody who is on the wrong end of discrimination. But as part of a community that’s experienced that directly, it’s something that obviously matters to me a great deal.” Los Angeles Blade, March 14, in West Hollywood
Why should women vote for him? “Let’s pause and talk about the war on women that is underway. And it’s one of many reasons we’ve got to talk more about freedom on our side of the aisle. They talk about freedom like the only thing that could make you un-free is like a tax or a regulation. Like government’s the only thing that can make you un-free. Well, you know what makes you un-free? If you cannot make your own reproductive health decisions because of the intervention of some male boss or politician. Let’s talk about freedom that way.”
Late term abortion: “We’re talking about situations where the life and health of the mother is at risk and/or the child can’t survive….You only get to that late moment if you have been planning to bring a pregnancy to term. These are women facing some of the most unbelievably excruciating decisions and if they don’t think it’s easy, it’s certainly not going to be any easier for government officials like me to come in and tell them what to do….In wrangling with those issues, does anyone really think an extra layer on top of the conscience of the woman facing the choice….that somebody else that comes in with their interpretation and their religion is going to make that decision any better? I just don’t think that’s how we handle these things in America.” Morning Joe, April 18.
No free college tuition: “I think we need an expansion of Pell grants. I think we need the ability to re-finance student debt. I think we need to act on the way when your debt is forgiven with income-based re-payment, the way that that’s taxed – I think we need to press states to step up and cover more college costs so it isn’t falling on the students in the form of tuition. And I think there are a number of other steps that are going to expand access to college.”
Trump’s nicknames: In an interview with Politico, President Trump compared Buttigieg to the goofy-looking, gap-toothed cartoon character in Mad magazine. “Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” Trump said. Buttigieg used the presumed insult to make his own point. “I had to Google that. I guess it’s a generational thing.”
Arts & Entertainment
2025 Best of LGBTQ LA Readers’ Choice Award Nominations

It’s time to celebrate the vibrant and diverse LGBTQ+ community of Los Angeles! Nominations for the Best of LGBTQ LA Awards are open from March 31st to April 6th, giving you the chance to highlight your favorite local legends, hotspots, performers, and changemakers. Then, from April 14th to April 27th, cast your vote for the finalists and help decide who truly represents the best of LGBTQ LA.
Use the form below or click the link HERE to nominate!
Local
‘Think of those who have not been seen,’ Cynthia Erivo’s powerful message at GLAAD Awards
Erivo and Doechii delivered powerful acceptance speeches at the 36th GLAAD Media Awards

GLAAD celebrated its 40th anniversary with a star-studded gala in Beverly Hills, honoring achievements in LGBTQ+ media and entertainment, while pushing back at efforts nationwide to turn back civil rights protections, restrict and erase transgender identities.
Doechii accepted a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding music artist, Harper Steele won for outstanding documentary for Will & Harper and Nava Mau was honored with the outstanding series – limited anthology award for Baby Reindeer.
Those in attendance rose for a long and enthusiastic standing ovation as the prestigious Stephen F. Kolzak Award was presented to Cynthia Erivo.
“It isn’t easy. None of it is, waking up and choosing to be yourself, proclaiming a space belongs to you when you don’t feel welcomed,” said Erivo.
The 38-year-old queer Oscar nominee and Emmy, Tony and Grammy winner delivered a moving acceptance speech, in which she thanked GLAAD but also called on the audience to do more to help those in the community who have not yet come out. Video of her remarks has gone viral on Instagram.
“Here in this room, we have all been the recipients of the gift that is the opportunity to be more. I doubt that it has come easy to any of us, but more, for some, the road has not been one paved with yellow bricks, but instead paved with bumps and potholes. Whichever road you have traveled, how beautiful it is that you’ve had a road to travel on at all. There are the invisible ones who have had no road at all. For those who have not
yet even begun to find the road, be encouraged and be patient with yourself, it will show itself,” Erivo said. Then she paused from reading the speech that was in the teleprompter, and ad libbed a poetic, closing message.
“We use the phrase ‘out and proud,’ and though you might not have the strength or capacity to do that now, know that I am proud of your quiet and solitary want to be just that,” she said, and then addressed the community ahead of Transgender Day of Visibility. “We are all visible. We can be seen. We see each other. I see you, you see me. But think of those who have not been seen, think of those who sit in the dark and wait their turn, hoping and waiting for a light to light their path. I ask every single one of you in this room, with the spaces that you’re in, and the lights that you hold, to point it in the direction of someone who just needs a little guidance.”
Broadway legend Patti LuPone offered guidance from queer icons, past and present, when she took the stage to recite inspiring quotes that brought the house down.
“I can no longer accept the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept,” LuPone quoted lesbian, feminist, activist Angela Davis. “Coming out is the most political thing you can do,” she said, quoting Harvey Milk.
Then LuPone cited some of the stars of Drag Race, including Valentina, Kennedy Davenport, Alyssa Edwards, Trixie Mattel, Plane Jane, and Latrice Royale. But it was the words of OG Drag Race alumna Bianca Del Rio that got the crowd on its feet: “Not today, Satan. Not today!”
“Right now, LGBTQ+ rights are under attack, but what they take from us, they take from you too,” said Brian Michael Smith, upon winning the award for outstanding drama series for 911: Lone Star. “These aren’t isolated rollbacks; they’re attacks on all of our civil rights. This kind of representation is more than visibility, it’s resistance.”
When Doechii accepted the trophy for outstanding music artist at the ceremony, the “Denial Is a River” rapper commented on this politically charged moment for the LGBTQ community, as she praised GLAAD for its principles of “acceptance, inclusiveness and empowerment.”
“Those are the same things I strongly believe in and advocate for and that continue to propel me forward, especially now that hard-won cultural change and rights for transgender people and the LGBTQ community have been threatened,” said Doechii. “And I am disgusted. Disgusted. But I want to say that we are here and we are not going anywhere.”
“These kinds of events help me to feel support, to feel like we’re a team working together to make ourselves feel more seen, make others feel more seen, and there’s so much still to celebrate,” said singer songwriter David Archuleta, the American Idol alum who made headlines in 2021 when he came out and quit the Mormon Church. On the red carpet before the gala, he shared with the Los Angeles Blade his advice to fans who want to find joy amid the gloom: “I love to go dance. Dance is so therapeutic. It’s a place where you can just shake it off, feel hot, go out, and that’s a therapeutic way.”
“This is where I find joy,” Michaela Jaé Rodriguez told the Blade. “But the best times where I find even more joy is learning what state we’re in. Learning how I can fire myself, put a fire behind me, and stay as vigilant as possible and be in the forefront and never disappear. And I want to encourage that to a lot of my young individuals out there. Don’t disappear. Stand out, be proud, and don’t be scared. I’m not scared!”
“It feels amazing, being surrounded by basically my own people is always like a big warm hug, so I love it,” Harper Steele told the Blade.
The writer, who took home a GLAAD trophy for her award-winning documentary with her friend and fellow SNL alum Will Ferrell, noted that despite the joy of the evening, she was “very sad” about political moves targeting the transgender community in Washington, D.C. as well where she grew up in Iowa.
“My own home state, who gave me trans protections and rights, just took them away,” Steele told the Blade. “We’re the first group that’s ever had those rights taken away from us, so we’re in a weird time. I’m going to keep doing the best I can to convince people that they’re wrong. Not only are they wrong, but they’re being stupid.”
The Washington Blade was nominated for its coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics Games, ”Paris Olympics: More queer athletes, more medals, more Pride, less Grindr,” in the category of outstanding print article. The winner was “‘Changing The Narrative’: Advocates Fight HIV Stigma in Dallas’ Latino Community” by Abraham Nudelstejer of The Dallas Morning News. The Advocate won for outstanding magazine overall coverage, and Jo Yurcaba of NBC Out won for “Friends Remember Nex Benedict, Oklahoma Student Who Died After School Fight, as ‘Fiery Kid.’”
The Blade also spoke to GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis on the red carpet.
Ellis and the organization survived a difficult challenge in 2024 when Ellis herself came under fire from The New York Times for what it called “lavish” spending. It should be noted that in a one-on-one conversation with Variety in October, Ellis pointed out that The Times report omitted mention of GLAAD’s multi-year campaign that called attention to the newspaper’s unbalanced coverage of issues related to transgender Americans and gender-affirming care, and that any spending issues raised by the report — seen by many as a hit piece in retaliation for GLAAD’s campaign — had already been addressed “two years ago.”
Ellis told the Blade she remains focused on GLAAD’s mission to advance acceptance of the LGBTQ community in media.
“I think tonight for me is about getting everybody together to talk about our stories, how important they are, and make sure that we are plastering the airwaves with our stories. And I think it’s about moving forward and having a plan. We have a plan at GLAAD. We understand what’s happened to this media ecosystem and we’re forging forward.”
Ellis spoke passionately about the challenge the nonprofit faces in 2025 and beyond.
“I think the media ecosystem has changed so dramatically and tectonically in a short period of time, “ she said. “We’re seeing that right-wing media gets about 100 million people a week. Progressive media reaches 30 million people a week. So, we have a 70 million person gap, and that gap is why we’re losing presidential campaigns, why we’re losing the narrative, why our community is under siege. We have to close that gap.”
Read the full list of nominees and winners of this year’s GLAAD Media Awards here.
Obituary
Nanette Kazaoka, an unlikely AIDS activist, dies at 83
Member of ACT-UP, longtime social justice advocate

Nanette Kazaoka, a well-known figure in the fight for HIV/AIDS awareness and the rights of marginalized communities, passed away on Oct. 2 at her home in New York City. She was 83. The cause of death was complications from vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to a statement from her daughter Kelly Kochendorfer.
Kazaoka was an advocate for justice, particularly in the early days of the AIDS crisis, when she became a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT-Up. She is perhaps best remembered for her participation in a 2004 protest in front of Madison Square Garden during the Republican National Convention, when she and 11 fellow activists staged a dramatic naked demonstration, demanding debt cancellation for impoverished countries, according to a statement from the family.
“Bush, Stop AIDS. Drop the Debt Now!” they chanted, with slogans stenciled in black paint on their bodies. The bold protest drew national attention and underscored the urgency of global debt relief as a key element in the fight against AIDS.
She was born Nanette Natalina Bottinelli on June 12, 1941, in New York City. Her father, Angelo, worked as a waiter at the St. Regis Hotel, while her mother, Betty McComb, was a part-time burlesque dancer.
She married her first husband, Fred Kochendorfer, in 1963, and they had two children together, Kim Skrobe and Kelly, both of whom survive her.
Kazaoka’s journey to Fire Island marked a transformative period in her life. Kochendorfer wanted to live there, and so they began renting in 1967. Kazaoka then made a bold decision that would shape her future: She left her husband for another man and began living on Fire Island in 1968-1969, with the children attending school in Ocean Beach, according to the family’s statement.
This period coincided with the early days of the gay rights movement, as Fire Island was emerging as a hub for LGBTQ culture. Her experiences during these years contributed to the strong sense of activism and solidarity that would later define her role in ACT-UP and the broader fight for LGBTQ rights.
Kazaoka’s second husband, Katsushiga “Kats” Kazaoka, a Japanese-American psychologist who had been interred during World War II, died of cancer in 1984, pushing her to enter the workforce as a receptionist while studying occupational therapy at Downstate Medical Center. By 1990, she had earned her degree and sought work with AIDS patients.
In 1988, a close friend introduced her to ACT-UP, sparking the start of her full-time dedication to AIDS activism, the family said. Kazaoka became known for her passionate, unrelenting activism, whether protesting at City Hall or challenging anti-LGBTQ policies at St. Luke’s Hospital.
Kazaoka’s activism spanned 35 years, making her a beloved and respected figure within ACT-UP and beyond, the family noted. She was featured in Sarah Schulman’s “Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT-Up New York, 1987-1993” as well as “Act-Up Oral History, No. 162,” a digital history. She was the cover photo of “Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community,” and was included in The New York Times T Living Magazine story, “LEGENDS PIONEERS AND SURVIVORS.
Her dedication to science continued even after her passing: She donated her brain to the Mount Sinai NIH Brain and Tissue Repository for research to advance the understanding of the human brain health and disease to help end dementia, the family said.
Along with her daughters, Kazaoka is survived by her son-in-law John Skrobe, granddaughter Stella Skrobe and daughter-in-law Christine Arax, all of New York. She and her third husband, Paul Haskell, divorced in 2000.

News
Here are 3 events to celebrate Trans Day of Visibility
TDOV is particularly important this year

Finding the right event to celebrate in community or just gather in a safe space can be challenging, so we put together a list of SoCal events happening during Trans Week of Visibility. The week-long list of events will lead up to Trans Day of Visibility, a day meant to bring trans issues, perspectives and experiences at the forefront, celebrate progress and unite against the erasure of trans lives.
This year, TDOV is particularly important to the LGBTQ+ community because of the ongoing attacks against rights, freedoms and protections. Major news outlets like The New York Times have continued to platform cisgender people speaking on trans rights and have left trans people out of the conversation.
A report by Media Matters and GLAAD finds that The NY Times “excluded the perspectives of trans people from two-thirds of its stories about anti-trans legislation in the year following public criticism for its handling of the topic.”
Dawn Ennis, a trans reporter for the Washington Blade and professor at Hartford University, wrote an article in 2019 regarding the ongoing epidemic declared by the American Medical Association, which disproportionately affects Black, trans women.
Since then, each year has been a record-breaking year for the amount of proposed and passed legislation targeting trans rights. The Trans Legislation Tracker is currently tracking 725 active bills across 49 states. That marks yet another record-breaking year in the ongoing political attacks toward the trans community.
The Los Angeles Civil Rights and Los Angeles City College will be hosting a job fair for the Trans, Gender Non-conforming, Intersex, Two-Spirit community on Thursday, March 27 at 10AM. The event will happen at the LA City College Student Union Building and include work readiness workshops, a professional clothing closet, trainings, support groups and more.
WonderCon is celebrating Trans-masculine Representation in Entertainment with a panel on Saturday, March 29th at 6PM. The panel on representation will be moderated by Yas Modares Ghasiri and panelists will be Mars Wright, Maze Felix, Theo Tiedemann and Avi Roque.
Baby Gay, a non-profit dedicated toward building community space for the LGBTQ+ community will be hosting a celebration to honor international TDOV on Monday, March 31, at 5:30PM. The event will begin with a welcome reception with photographer Zach Oren, of the ongoing photo exhibit “Ides of Gender”, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Sydney Rogers, MSW a.k.a Miss Barbie-Q and a performance by the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles.

The event will happen at The Black Cat, a famous, historical landmark that was renewed from the outside to look just as it did when it was first documented during the LGBTQ+ civil rights demonstration in the nation in 1967, two years before the Stonewall Riots.
India
LGBTQ+ poets included in India’s premier literary festival
Sahitya Akademi seen as mirror of government’s cultural agenda

India’s premier literary institution on March 7 announced it would allow LGBTQ+ poets to participate in its marquee Festival of Letters in New Delhi.
The Sahitya Akademi, often seen as a mirror of the government’s cultural agenda, for the first time allowed these poets into a high-profile poetry reading at the Rabindra Bhavan. They shared the stage with more than 700 writers across 50 languages.
Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat kicked off the Festival of Letters with Mahesh Dattani, the acclaimed English-language playwright famed for his provocative works, as the main guest. Dubbed Asia’s grandest literary gathering, the Sahitya Akademi took place over six days under the “Indian Literary Traditions” theme.
The 2025 Festival of Letters showcased a sweeping range of voices — young writers, women writers, Dalit authors from marginalized castes, Northeast Indian scribes, tribal poets, and LGBTQ+ poets — cementing its reputation as a literary kaleidoscope.
Kalki Subramaniam, a leading transgender rights activist and author, on March 9 chaired a literary session titled “Discussion on Literary Works of LGBTQ Writers in the 21st Century,” which spotlighted contemporary queer voices.
“It was enriching to listen to the profound thoughts of LGBT writers from various parts of the country in their speeches,” said Subramaniam. “The session was particularly memorable with the participation of A. Revathi Amma from Tamil Nadu, Reshma Prasad from Bihar, Sanjana Simon from New Delhi, and Devika Devendra Manglamukhi and Shivin from Uttar Pradesh and Aksaya K Rath from Orissa.”
Subramaniam discussed how global politics shape gender rights and the persistent erasure of trans identity, urging a unified push for solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community. She stressed the vital need to elevate queer works and writers, casting their voices as essential to the literary vanguard.
“It was a pleasure to meet great writers from around the country in the festival as well as meet my writer activist friends Sajana Simon and Revathi Amma after a long time,” said Subramaniam.

The government on March 12, 1954, formally established the Sahitya Akademi. A government resolution outlined its mission as a national entity tasked with advancing Indian literature and upholding rigorous literary standards; a mandate it has pursued for seven decades.
The Sahitya Akademi in 2018 broke ground in Kolkata, hosting the country’s first exclusive gathering of trans writers, a landmark nod to queer voices in Indian literature.
Hoshang Dinshaw Merchant, India’s pioneering openly gay poet and a leading voice in the nation’s gay liberation movement, on March 9 recited a poem at the Festival of Letters, his verses carrying the weight of his decades-long quest for queer recognition. He later thanked the session’s chair for welcoming the community, a gesture that underscored the event’s third day embrace of diverse voices.
The Sahitya Akademi in 2024 honored K. Vaishali with the Yuva Puraskar for her memoir “Homeless: Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India,” a raw account of navigating queerness and neurodivergence. Vaishali in a post-win interview reflected on India’s deep-seated conservatism around sexuality, noting she wrote from a place of relative safety — an upper-caste privilege that shielded her as she bared her truth. The award, she said, was the Akademi’s indelible seal on her lived experience, a validation no one could challenge.
The Sahitya Akademi’s inclusion of LGBTQ+ writers in its main program this year jars with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s conservative stance, which, in 2023, opposed same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court, arguing it erodes Indian family values. Yet, under Shekhawat, the Sahitya Akademi’s spotlight on queer voices at the Rabindra Bhavan suggests it could be a tentative crack in a regime typically rooted in tradition.
The Festival of Letters hosted a translators’ meeting on March 10, spotlighting P. Vimala’s 2024 award-winning Tamil translation of Nalini Jameela’s “Autobiography of a Sex Worker,” a work steeped in marginalized voices that include queer perspectives.
This platform gained significant support from the BJP-led government, with Shekhawat securing a 15 percent budget increase to ₹47 crore ($5.63 million) in 2024. In Tamil Nadu state, however, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, has long opposed such cross-linguistic efforts, fearing dilution of Tamil identity amid decades of anti-Hindi sentiment — a tension the Sahitya Akademi’s inclusive showcase sought to bypass.
‘The Akademi is very inclusive and has a friendly festival ambience,” Subramaniam told the Los Angeles Blade.
California
Equality California to release 2024 Legislative Scorecard and rally at State Capitol
The rally will unite LGBTQ+ community members and political leaders

Equality California will hold a rally at the State Capitol’s West Steps in response to rising anti-LGBTQ+ political attacks on Wednesday, March 26 at 11:00 AM PT.
This rally will also serve as an opportunity to discuss the release of the 2024 Legislative Scorecard, which is a report of politicians and sponsored legislation that further and cement the protections of LGBTQ+ rights. The scorecard also analyzes voting methods and results, gathering an overall score that reflects legislators’ votes on EQCA-sponsored legislation.
Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide civil rights organization working towards bringing justice to LGBTQ+ issues by rallying against legislative issues that attack LGBTQ+ rights.
This call to action will serve as part of the organization’s annual LGBTQ+ Advocacy Day, held each year to bring together constituents with lawmakers in support of pro-LGBTQ+ legislation.
EQCA has a line-up of featured political speakers to include Assembly Democratic Caucus Chair Rick Chavez Zbur, Legislative LGBTQ Caucus Chair and Assemblymember Chris Ward, Legislative LGBTQ Caucus Vice Chair and Senator Caroline Menjivar, among others.
This event is meant to bring attention to the rise in political attacks, unite in community and mobilize efforts toward preserving LGBTQ+ rights for the state of California and beyond.
Japan
Japan’s marriage equality movement gains steam
Nagoya High Court this month ruled lack of legal recognition is unconstitutional

Japan’s Nagoya High Court on March 7 ruled the lack of legal recognition of same-sex marriages violates the country’s constitution.
The plaintiffs argued Japan’s Civil Code and Family Registration Act, which does not recognize same-sex marriages, violates the country’s constitution. They cited Article 14, Paragraph 1, which guarantees equality under the law and prohibits discrimination based on factors that include race, creed, sex, or social status. The plaintiff also invoked Article 24, Paragraph 2, which emphasizes that laws governing marriage and family matters must uphold individual dignity and the fundamental equality of the sexes.
The plaintiffs sought damages of 1 million yen ($6,721.80) under Article 1, Paragraph 1, of the State Redress Act, which provides for compensation when a public official, through intentional or negligent acts in the course of their duties, causes harm to another individual. The claim centered on the government’s failure to enact necessary legislation, which prevented the plaintiff from marrying.
The court noted same-sex relationships have existed naturally long before the establishment of legal marriage. It emphasized that recognizing such relationships as legitimate is a fundamental legal interest connected to personal dignity, transcending the confines of traditional legal frameworks governing marriage and family.
The court further observed same-sex couples encounter significant disadvantages in various aspects of social life that cannot be addressed through civil partnership systems. These include housing challenges, such as restrictions on renting properties, and financial institutions refusing to recognize same-sex couples as family members for mortgages. Same-sex couples also face hurdles in accessing products and services tailored to family relationships. While the court deemed the relevant provisions unconstitutional, it clarified that the government’s failure to enact legislative changes does not constitute a violation under the State Redress Act.
The lawsuit, titled “Freedom of Marriage for All,” brought together a large coalition of professionals, including more than 30 plaintiffs and 80 lawyers. They filed six lawsuits in five courts throughout Japan.
“We filed these lawsuits on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2019, in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Sapporo, and in September of that year in Fukuoka,” noted Takeharu Kato, director of Marriage for All Japan. “Then, in March 2021, the Sapporo District Court handed down the first ruling declaring the current laws unconstitutional, which received extensive worldwide media coverage. Subsequently, the Osaka District Court unfortunately ruled that the current law is constitutional, but among the 10 rulings handed down so far, nine have ruled that not recognizing marriage equality is unconstitutional.”
Kato is a lawyer who is part of the legal team in the Sapporo case. He is also a board member of Marriage for All Japan, a marriage equality campaign.
“The MFAJ (Marriage for All Japan) is fully supporting the lawsuits by publicizing the current status of the trials and the rulings in our websites and social networks, setting up press conferences at the time of the rulings,” Kato told the Los Angeles Blade. “We also make the best of the impact of the lawsuits in our campaign by holding events with the plaintiffs of the lawsuits and inviting them to the rally at Diet (the Japanese parliament) members’ building.”
Kato said the campaign has significantly shifted public opinion, with recent polls indicating more than 70 percent of Japanese people now support marriage equality — up from approximately 40 percent before Marriage for All Japan launched. He also noted 49 percent of Diet members now back marriage equality.
Japan is the only G7 country that does not legally recognize same-sex couples. Taiwan, Nepal, and Thailand have extended full marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
Expressing disappointment, Kato said many Japanese politicians continue to resist marriage equality, despite overwhelming public support. Kato added Marriage for All Japan expects the Supreme Court to rule on their lawsuits in 2016.
“We believe that the Supreme Court will also rule that the current laws are unconstitutional,” he said. “However, the Supreme Court’s ruling alone is not enough to achieve marriage equality under the Japanese legal system. We should put more and more strong pressure on the Diet to legalize marriage equality in Japan as soon as possible.”
Several municipalities and prefectures issue certificates that provide limited benefits to same-sex couples, but they fall short of equal legal recognition.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has faced mounting pressure on the issue as public support for marriage equality has surged in recent years. Kishida has yet to push reforms within his own party; encountering fierce opposition from its traditional leadership.
His government in June 2023 passed Japan’s first law addressing sexual orientation and gender identity, aiming to “promote understanding” and prevent “unfair discrimination.” Activists, however, widely criticized the legislation on grounds it fails to provide comprehensive protections or extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.
National
LGBTQ+ asylum seeker ‘forcibly removed’ from US, sent to El Salvador
Immigrant Defenders Law Center represents Venezuelan national

An immigrant rights group that represents an LGBTQ+ asylum seeker from Venezuela says the Trump-Vance administration on March 15 “forcibly removed” him from the U.S. and sent him to El Salvador.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center Litigation and Advocacy Director Alvaro M. Huerta during a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Blade on Tuesday said officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection alleged his organization’s client was a member of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuela-based gang, because of his tattoos and no other information.
“It’s very flimsy,” said Huerta. “These are the types of tattoos that any artist in New York City or Los Angeles would have. It’s nothing that makes him a gang member.”
The White House on Feb. 20 designated Tren de Aragua an “international terrorist organization.”
President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.”
“I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA (Tren de Aragua), are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies,” said Trump in a proclamation that announced his invocation of the 18th century law.
The asylum seeker — who the Immigrant Defenders Law Center has not identified by name because he is “in danger” — is among the hundreds of Venezuelans who the U.S. sent to El Salvador on March 15.
Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked the deportations. The AP notes the flights were already in the air when Boasberg issued his ruling.
Huerta said U.S. officials on Monday confirmed the asylum seeker is “indeed in El Salvador.” He told the Blade it remains unclear whether the asylum seeker is in the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT.
‘We couldn’t find him’
Huerta said the Immigrant Defenders Law Center client fled Venezuela and asked for asylum in the U.S.
The asylum seeker, according to Huerta, passed a “credible fear interview” that determines whether an asylum claim is valid. Huerta said U.S. officials detained the asylum seeker last year when he returned to the country from the Mexican border city of Tijuana.
Huerta told the Blade the asylum seeker was supposed to appear before an immigration judge on March 13.
“We couldn’t find him,” said Huerta.
He noted speculation over whether Trump was about to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center “started getting concerned that maybe he was caught up in this situation.”
“He’s an LGBT individual who is an artist in Venezuela,” said Huerta.
Neither ICE nor CBP have responded to the Blade’s request for comment.
Huerta said it is “hard to say” whether the asylum seeker has any legal recourse.
“He still has an ongoing case in immigration court here,” said Huerta, noting the asylum seeker’s attorney was in court on Monday, and has another hearing in two weeks. “Presumably they should have to allow him to appear, at least virtually, for court because he still has these cases.”
Huerta noted the U.S. since Trump took office has deported hundreds of migrants to Panama; officials in the Central American country have released dozens of them from detention. Migrants sent to the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba have returned to detention facilities in the U.S.
“Something where the government, kind of unliterally, can just say that someone is a gang member based on tattoos, without any offer of proof, without having to go to court to say that and then take them externally to what effectively a prison state (El Salvador), it certainly is completely just different than what we’ve seen,” Huerta told the Blade.
Huerta also spoke about the Trump-Vance administration’s overall immigration policy.
“The Trump administration knows exactly what they’re doing when it comes to scapegoating immigrants, scapegoating asylees,” he said. “They have a population that, in many ways, is politically powerless, but in many other ways, is politically powerful because they have other folks standing behind them as well, but they’re an easy punching bag.”
“They can use this specter of we’re just deporting criminals, even though they’re the ones who are saying that they’re criminal, they’re not necessarily proving that,” added Huerta. “They feel like they can really take that fight and run with it, and they’re testing the bounds of what they can get away with inside and outside of the courtroom.”
National
Trump administration considering closing HIV prevention agency: reports
Sources say funding cuts possible for CDC

The Department of Health and Human Services is considering closing the HIV Prevention Division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and transferring some of its programs to a different agency, according to a report by the New York Times.
The Times and Politico cited government sources who spoke on condition of not being identified as saying plans under consideration from the administration also call for possible funding cuts in the domestic HIV prevention program following funding cuts already put in place for foreign U.S. HIV programs.
“It’s not 100 percent going to happen, but 100 percent being discussed,” the Times quoted one of the sources as saying.
News of the possible shutdown of the HIV Prevention Division and possible cuts in HIV prevention funds prompted 13 of the nation’s leading LGBTQ, HIV, and health organizations to release a joint statement on March19 condemning what they said could result in a “devastating effect” on the nation’s progress in fighting AIDS.
Among the organizations signing on to the joint statement were D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, which opposes funding cuts or curtailment in domestic AIDS programs, points out in a separate statement that it was President Trump during his first term in office who put in place the HIV Epidemic Initiative, which calls for ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S. by 2030.
That initiative, which Trump announced in his 2019 State of the Union address, is credited with having reduced new HIV infections nationwide by 30 percent in adolescents and young adults, and by about 10 percent in most other groups, according to the Times report on possible plans to scale back the program.
In a statement released to Politico, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, “HHS is following the Administration’s guidance and taking a careful look at all divisions to see where there is overlap that could be streamlined to support the President’s broader efforts to restructure the federal government.”
“No final decision on streamlining CDC’s HIV Prevention Division has been made,” Nixon said in his statement.
“An effort to defund HIV prevention by this administration would set us back decades, cost innocent people their lives and cost taxpayers millions,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, in a March 19 statement.
“The LGBTQ+ community still carries the scars of the government negligence and mass death of the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” Robinson said. “We should be doubling down on our investment to end the HIV epidemic once and for all, not regressing to the days of funeral services and a virus running rampant,” she said.
“We are outraged and deeply alarmed by the Trump administration’s reckless moves to defund and de-prioritize HIV prevention,” the statement released by the 13 organizations says. “These abrupt and incomprehensible possible cuts threaten to reverse decades of progress, exposing our nation to a resurgence of a preventable disease with devastating and avoidable human and financial costs,” the statement says.
Breaking News
Family of Linda Becerra Moran, trans woman killed by LAPD after calling 911, files lawsuit
Moran was pronounced dead after three weeks on life-support

On Feb. 7, Linda Becerra Moran contacted the Los Angeles Police Department in a phone call where she reported that she was being held against her will in a San Fernando Motel.
At around 9:40AM, Moran called the Foothill Division of the LAPD, and was recorded stating that she was not only being held at the motel against her will, but that she was being forced to bring men into her motel room. In the audio call recording, she is heard crying as she answers the questions regarding her safety.
When the officers found her in the hotel room they stated that she didn’t remember how she got there, while speaking in Spanish to the officers.
The statement released regarding the officer-involved shooting says that ‘when officers arrived, they entered the motel room and met with Moran. During their investigation, Moran became agitated, armed herself with a knife and held it to her neck.’
The officers responded by drawing their guns, further agitating her. The attorney representing the family of Moran says the released video proves that the shooting was unlawful and unjust.
Now, the TransLatin@ Coalition is looking for justice for Moran and her family, especially considering that she was someone who received services directly from them. They hosted the first vigil for her on Friday, March 14, in front of the LAPD headquarters.
“Linda Becerra Moran, a trans immigrant who received services from our organization, was brutally shot and murdered by the Los Angeles Police Department. We held a vigil and we invited the community to join us in solidarity as we demand justice and honor Linda’s life,” said the TransLatin@ Coalition in a statement.
The police officer who shot and killed Moran was Jacob Sanchez, 24, who was hired in 2021.
Moran was pronounced dead after three weeks on life support in late February.
Somos Familia Valle, is hosting a poster-making event today from 2PM to 8PM where they will be preparing for a call to action. The call to action is scheduled for Saturday, March 22 at the Foothill Division Police Department, at 1PM. The organization posted a list of demands, along with their statement on Moran’s death.
“At a time where our trans siblings are being attacked politically and socially, now more than ever is the time for us to be loud and seek accountability,” reads the statement. “The murder of Linda Becerra Moran by the Los Angeles Foothill Division Police Department was unwarranted and speaks to the disregard for trans lives, but also the lack of de-escalation tactics.”
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