The Open Space Therapy Collective will be hosting a community building experience featuring dozens of LA-based professionals from across different industries. This community-building event was planned in response to the sweeping political attacks against the queer, trans and BIPOC communities. The event hosted by Queerly Connected is fittingly titled We Got Us, and it will be free and open to the public. 

Wellness providers will be there to provide art therapy, movement therapy, grief counseling, sound baths, yoga and other creative and healing arts. 

“As political pressure on our communities intensifies, it’s increasingly more important for us to come together and create a space where our healing and joy can intersect,” said Renea Johnson, founder of Open Space Therapy Collective and host of Queerly Connected. “Historically, in times like these, it’s important for us to expand our community and nurture collaboration. That’s why I’m so grateful for everyone who steps out to build community with us at Queerly Connected. 

Another aim of the event is to learn and experience the modalities of the queer, trans and BIPOC communities. Attendees can deepen their understanding and learn more about a queer-informed approach. 

Some of the experiential workshops and other offerings will include grief counseling by Studio DDLA, sound baths by TSage and DG Sound Healing, full-spectrum support from The Gender Doula, artist collaborations by Secret Spot, nails by Little Brother Nails and more. 

The event will take place at Studio DDLA. This event is meant to encourage people to come as they are, with a rolling entry from 4PM until 7PM on Sunday, March 16. 

To learn more about the event or the collaborators, visit their website.

The West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce (WHCC) announced the launch of WeHo Gives Back, a new initiative that is committed to supporting small businesses in West Hollywood that have been impacted by the Los Angeles fires.

“The small businesses of West Hollywood are resilient, but they need our community’s support
now more than ever,” said Genevieve Morrill, WHCC president and CEO. “WeHo Gives Back is
our way of ensuring these establishments receive the support they need to recover and thrive.”

West Hollywood is home to a diverse number of locally owned businesses. From the nightlife and restaurant industries to service providers like dry cleaners and salons, there’s a business for every one of the community’s needs. According to the WeHo Chamber of Commerce, businesses have been experiencing revenue declines between 25 percent to 50 percent with retail, hotels, restaurants, and bars being hit the hardest. In some cases, businesses have reported over 70 percent in loss of revenue, leading to a reduction in staff and operating hours.

About 26 percent of West Hollywood’s workforce is made up of hospitality workers, primarily employed by small businesses. These businesses, including the hotel industry, contribute to an estimated 70 percent of the city’s revenue. Tax revenue is used to support social services, community safety, and infrastructure improvements.

WHCC is calling on the community to support through WeHo Gives Back with a goal to restore the loss in foot traffic and to raise much needed funds. The public is encouraged to venture out to West Hollywood to shop, dine, and play.

The initiative kicked off on March 1st and West Hollywood go-ers will start to see QR codes on signs, napkins and websites in order to contribute to the recovery fund.

For more information about WeHo Gives Back or where to donate, visit wehochamber.com/wehogivesback.

The Human Rights Campaign issued a statement Thursday criticizing Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said this week that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports was “deeply unfair.”

HRC President Kelley Robinson said, “When LGBTQ+ lives are under attack, real leaders don’t hedge — they fight. Across this country, extremists are stripping away rights, banning books, and targeting trans kids just for being who they are. This is not the time for political calculations or playing it safe — it’s time to be bold, to stand up, and to say unequivocally: We will protect LGBTQ+ people with everything we’ve got.”

She continued, “The fight for equality has never been easy, but history doesn’t remember those who waver — it remembers those who refuse to back down. Our message to Gov. Newsom and all leaders across the country is simple: The path to 2028 isn’t paved with the betrayal of vulnerable communities — it’s built on the courage to stand up for what’s right and do the hard work to actually help the American people.”

A longtime ally to the LGBTQ+ community, Newsom was one of the first public officials to officiate same-sex marriages in the early 2000s, which at the time drew criticism from leaders in his own party.

His remarks on trans athletes came during an interview with right-wing pundit and provocateur Charlie Kirk, on the inaugural episode of the governor’s podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom.”

The move signals a possible shift in how Democratic leaders are positioning themselves on issues concerning trans rights, especially provided the speculation about Newsom’s plans to run for president in 2028.

President Donald Trump delivered a divisive and partisan address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday that also included multiple references to his administration’s anti-transgender executive actions.

“We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military,” Trump said, promising, “our country will be woke no longer.”

Later, he said “We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools, and they signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

“I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports,” Trump said.

At that point, the president introduced one of his special guests, Payton McNabb—who, he said, was seriously injured three years ago when her girls’ volleyball game was “invaded by a male” who spiked the ball “so hard in Peyton’s face, causing traumatic brain injury.”

GLAAD, in a press release before Trump’s speech, noted that “McNabb has since been hired by opponents of trans people to use her injury to argue that all trans youth should be denied the chance to play sports as their authentic selves.”

She is “a paid spokesperson for an anti-transgender group that also advocates to ban health care and to force schools to dangerously out LGBTQ youth without their consent,” the group wrote.

Trump continued, “Take a look at what happened in the women’s boxing, weight lifting, track and field, swimming, or cycling, where a male recently finished a long distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours.”

“It’s demeaning for women, and it’s very bad for our country. We’re not going to put up with it any longer.”

During this section of the speech, news cameras turned to Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer turned anti-trans activist, who was a guest of Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa) and has worked with the same group as McNabb.

GLAAD wrote that Gaines “parlayed her fifth place finish into a career of testifying in states she does not live in to support full bans on transgender youth as young as kindergarten from playing sports.”

Later, when decrying government spending, Trump noted $8 million was used “to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of” and $8 million “for making mice transgender.”

About an hour into his speech, the president said, “My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13 year old little girl.”

“Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging their daughter to use a new name and pronouns,” he said. “‘They-them’ pronoun, actually, all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.”

GLAAD notes that “records show January Littlejohn of Tallahassee, Fla., worked with the school district to support her nonbinary child, before Littlejohn sued the district with lawyers from a national anti-LGBTQ+ group.”

According to GLAAD, the family’s complaint accused school of discussing “restrooms and name change requests with their child without their consent” but “a public records request showed that the family had ongoing communications with the school and gave approval to let their child and their teachers lead on appropriate school protocols.” 

“The Trump White House is using the address to Congress to continue its baseless and unhinged disinformation campaign against transgender Americans,” GLAAD said. “The invited guests being deployed to smear transgender people are paid spokespeople for anti-LGBTQ groups that demand schools dangerously out LGBTQ students without their consent, who go against every major medical association supporting medically-necessary health care, and do nothing to promote women and girls in sports or protect everyone’s safety and wellbeing.” 

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is pushing back after President Donald Trump’s interim U.S. attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, disclosed his office’s inquiry into whether the congressman’s remarks about Elon Musk earlier this month constituted a threat against a public official.

“This is completely ridiculous, to essentially threaten me with possible prosecution [and] investigations through the U.S. Department of Justice because I used a metaphor to criticize Elon Musk,” Garcia told The Bulwark’s Tim Miller during an interview on Feb. 20.

At issue is a Feb. 12 appearance on CNN during which, as Martin said in a letter to the congressman’s office, “When asked how Democrats can stop Elon Musk, you spoke clearly: ‘What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy.’”

He continued, “This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk—an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a ‘dick’—and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry.”

Garcia’s comments came just after he participated in the first House subcommittee hearing on Musk’s DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which was established by an executive order issued on the first day Trump took office.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Blade, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) said “Rep. Robert Garcia is a thoughtful, hardworking, and law-abiding legislator who serves his constituents and the nation with distinction. House Democrats will not be intimidated by far-right extremists who are determined to weaponize the criminal justice system against Congress.”

Garcia serves on the powerful House Oversight Committee as well as in the Congressional Equality Caucus, as one of its 11 LGBTQ+ co-chairs. In November, he was elected the Democratic Caucus Leadership Representative.

“I’ve talked to a lot of folks, members of the House and others, who have been very supportive.” he said on Feb. 20. “I said, ‘Look, we can’t allow this singling out of me. It’s not really about me, right? This is about silencing critics and critics in Congress.’”

Later in the interview, he added “we’re talking to the appropriate folks, and of course, talking to folks in the Democratic leadership” who understand the broader stakes in terms of “our job” as House Democrats to “be the loyal opposition.”

U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (Va.), the Oversight Committee’s top Democrat, also issued a statement condemning Martin’s letter:

“This is a shameful attempt to silence and stifle congressional oversight. Mr. Martin—an organizer, financier, and legal representative for the January 6th insurrection—is weaponizing the Justice Department to carry out the president’s retribution tour.

“This ‘Operation Whirlwind’ is a smokescreen meant to distract from the true intentions of the Trump administration: Silencing criticism and snuffing out any attempt to exercise oversight of their misdeeds and perversion of the law. I can assure you that Congressman Garcia and our fellow Oversight Democrats will not be deterred by these threats, and we will continue to fight to safeguard our democracy and protect the rights of the American people we serve.”

Martin on Feb. 19 announced “Operation Whirlwind,” a new initiative to prosecute threats against public officials at all levels of government, which some critics and legal experts believe is primarily intended as a means of silencing criticism.

In addition to Garcia, Martin has sent letters to the Senate’s Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Jan. 21, Feb. 3, and Feb. 11, indicating plans to review remarks he made in 2020 to see if they constituted unlawful threats against two of Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch,” Schumer said, “I want to tell you, Kavanaugh—you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” 

The top Senate Democrat was speaking during a rally about the conservative jurists’ potential revocation of decades-old constitutional protections for abortion, which they ultimately did in 2022 with their 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

As detailed by aide to the senator in his response to Martin, “on March 5, 2020, the day after the comments referenced in your letter, Senator Schumer made the following remarks” from the Senate floor:

“Now, I should not have used the words I used yesterday. They didn’t come out the way I intended to. My point was that there would be political consequences—political consequences—for President Trump and Senate Republicans if the Supreme Court, with the newly confirmed Justices, stripped away a woman’s right to choose.

“Of course, I didn’t intend to suggest anything other than political and public opinion consequences for the Supreme Court, and it is a gross distortion to imply otherwise. I am from Brooklyn. We speak in strong language.

“I shouldn’t have used the words I did, but in no way was I making a threat. I never—never—would do such a thing. Leader McConnell knows that, and Republicans who are busy manufacturing outrage over these comments know that too.”

The aide concluded, “As Senator Schumer’s statement on the Senate floor confirmed, the comments were not a threat to physically harm any person. I hope that this clarifying information is helpful.”

Shortly after Trump’s appointment of Martin, the conservative lawyer and activist dismissed pending cases against rioters who sacked the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, fired the prosecutors who were involved, and began investigations into those who brought obstruction charges that were ultimately invalidated by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June.

Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor who teaches law at the University of Michigan and serves as a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, told the Washington Post she had “never seen anything like these letters from a U.S. attorney,” who would typically assign agents to lead such a probe while abiding the Justice Department’s policy of not confirming or denying the existence of any investigation.

“It seems like a fair inference that these letters are designed more to chill free speech than to seek clarification, as they purport to do,” McQuade added.

Garcia agreed, telling Miller that the effort “could have a chilling effect on other folks that actually want to come out and criticize and oppose” Trump, Musk, the administration, or their allies.

Looking ahead, Martin has “given me, by the way, till Tuesday to respond to this letter,” Garcia noted. When asked about what he planned to do, the congressman said “we’re having some conversations about that” but “what we’re not going to do is stay silent.”

“The lesson here is not to retreat,” he said. “The lesson here is to push harder and continue to let people know they are literally trying to limit free speech.”

Discussing his remarks about Musk during an appearance on CNN on Feb. 20, Garcia said “what’s really critical at this moment, I think, for all of us to understand, is that we should be allowed to speak freely, and we certainly should be allowed to use figures of speech, and anyone that watches that can see that as a figure of speech or a metaphor in the way we’re describing this fight.”

The congressman added, “And it is a fight. This is a fight for democracy.”

The National Rainbow College Fund was launched as a new scholarship program through the San Diego Foundation aimed at supporting LGBTQ+ students across California whether they are openly out or not. 

According to a survey conducted by Student Loan Hero, LGBTQ+ students face significant barriers in paying for their education. Families may not financially support LGBTQ+ students, leading many to turn to loans to finance their education. Students who also identify as people of color such as Latinx and Black students, are further pushed into debt by racial inequality as loan borrowers in academia. 

According to an LGBTQ+ youth report by the Human Rights Campaign, only about 26 percent of youth are out to all of their family members. 

Jeff Spitko, senior director for integrated fundraising at San Diego Foundation which powers National Rainbow College Fund spoke with L.A Blade regarding the new scholarship program. 

“We have over 500 applications in draft mode and over 200 that have already been submitted, coming from over 320 different zipcodes from across California,” said Spitko. “So I think that what gets me most excited about this program is the ability we have to help LGBTQ+ youth across the state.” 

This scholarship protects students from being outed throughout the entire process–from the application process, to the award being given. 

“We want to make sure that students across California–and hopefully around the country over the next coming years–get the education they deserve and that they dream of, whether they are out and proud, or still have not had the opportunity or family support to come out,” said Spitko. 

To apply, a student who identifies as LGBTQ+ whether publicly or privately, must be a high school senior; an incoming or current college or university student; or an adult re-entry student. The application is not currently open to graduate or Ph.D-level students, but the San Diego Foundation plans to extend the scholarship to those students in the future. 

Applicants need to have lived in California for at least one year and must demonstrate financial need by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the California DREAM Act Application or the Federal Student Aid Estimator Tool. LGBTQ+ students must plan to enroll in at least 6 units in an accredited public or nonprofit community college; four-year university,  trade, vocational school anywhere in the United States.

“As a student at UC San Diego, National Rainbow College Fund eased my financial burden and enabled me to focus on my studies. It also empowered me to be recognized as a person and to be accepted for who I am and as I am,” said Brayden Pape.

LGBTQ+ borrowers had a higher debt burden on average, with $16,000 more than their cisgender and heterosexual peers: 60 percent of LGBTQ+ student loan borrowers regret taking out student loans; 28 percent feel that they can’t manage their student loan payments and more than 53 percent reported earning less than $50,000 per year. 

A 2022 study from the Williams Institute found that LGBTQ+ students are four times more likely than non-LGBTQ+ students to choose college in a state with a more welcoming climate and to live away from family; 60 percent of white LGBTQ+ students are not out to staff or faculty and less than 40 percent of LGBTQ+ students of color are out to staff or faculty. Community colleges have even higher rates of keeping sexual identity private: more than 70 percent white LGBTQ+ students and 65 percent LGBTQ+ students of color are not out. 

The application is open now until Mar. 5. 

 For more details about eligibility and selection criteria, please visit the National Rainbow College Fund website. 

A landmark 2016 theme study that highlighted the history of the LGBTQ community was pulled from the National Park Service website on Thursday. 

Last week, NPS received instructions to remove the “T” and “Q” from “LGBTQ” from all internal and external communications, triggering an uproar when trans people were removed from the website of the Stonewall National Monument. 

At that time, an internal debate ensued over what to do with the LGBTQ Theme Study, with Trump political appointees calling for removal of all transgender references and some NPS staffers pushing back, suggesting instead that the entire study be removed. Editing the document to remove one community’s contributions violates the academic intent of the project, the source told the Blade.

In 2014, the Gill Foundation recognized an omission of historic LGBTQ sites in the nation’s records, and the organization made a grant to the National Park Service to commission a first-of-its-kind LGBTQ Theme Study, which was published in 2016. It was a landmark project that represented major progress for the LGBTQ community in having our contributions included in the broader American story. 

The Blade took screen shots of the Theme Study site last week. This is how the study was described on the site: “LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History is a publication of the National Park Foundation for the National Park Service and funded by the Gill Foundation. Each chapter is written and peer-reviewed by experts in LGBTQ Studies. … During Pride Month in 2016, President Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument as the country’s first LGBTQ national monument. Today there are 10 LGBTQ sites designated as a National Historic Landmark or listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”

Removal of the theme study has raised concerns that future LGBTQ monuments and project work are dead in the water. The Blade reached out to the National Park Service last week for comment and received a curt response that the agency is implementing Trump’s executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” as well as agency directives to end all DEI initiatives.

Marc Stein, director of OutHistory, a public history website that generates evidence-based LGBTQ research, issued a lengthy statement in response to the removal of the theme study.

“Our histories have been appropriated, censored, commodified, distorted, erased, falsified, marginalized, pathologized, rejected, silenced, and simplified,” Stein wrote. “… They think they can erase trans and queer people from history, remove trans women of color from the history of Stonewall, pretend that LGBTQ+ people did not exist, did not struggle, did not fight, did not suffer, did not survive, did not thrive. If they think any of this, they have never experienced or witnessed our perseverance, our rage, our resilience, our joy.”

The hospital broke ground on a new 27,000 square-foot youth mental health center yesterday during a breaking ground ceremony in Echo Park, with Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez (CD-13), and other political leaders. Gateways Hospital serves a large population of at-risk youth, which include LGBTQ+ and Latinx patients who make up a large percentage of the population of the County of L.A.  

This inpatient wing expansion is set to be completed by late 2026. This resource comes at a time where crisis support help lines are receiving record-breaking numbers of callers who are experiencing distress under the current administration and the executive orders that are taking many LGBTQ+ and Latinx resources away. By then, the current administration will have been in office for over a year and other mental health services for LGBTQ+ and Latinx youth will be undoubtedly threatened and halted.

Organizations like The Trevor Project, which provide resources and assistance for mental health, reported up to a 700% increase in calls following the November presidential election. 

“Gateways Hospital is stepping up to meet the adolescent mental health crisis head-on. This expansion means more young people–especially those leaving foster care and LGBTQ+ adolescents–will get the care they need and deserve,” said councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez (CD-13). 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report in October 2024, highlighting disparities between cisgender and transgender youth. The youth risk behavior survey in this study was conducted in 2023 and became the first nationally representative data about transgender students. According to the study, ‘transgender and questioning students experienced a higher prevalence of violence, poor mental health, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, unstable housing and a lower prevalence of school connectedness than their cisgender peers.’

“With so many of California’s youth struggling with mental health issues, this new Gateways hospital wing for youth and adolescents in Echo Park represents a critical expansion of care. By adding specialized adolescent beds, Gateways is taking concrete action to support our young people during their most vulnerable moments,” said Mark Faucette, senior program director of the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program. 

The new expansion is supported by a $19.2 million grant from the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program. The new Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Center will provide support services to youth who are experiencing psychiatric emergencies and support them in their journeys through the mental healthcare system. The new hospital wing at the Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Center at the hospital’s main campus in Echo Park will have 37 new inpatient beds, making Gateways one of the largest providers of acute adolescent mental health services in Los Angeles County.

Gateways also currently provides free services to students at 22 Los Angeles Unified School District schools with services in Spanish and American Sign Language, as well as English. LAUSD just happens to also be currently enacting a new phone-free policy in response to declining mental health in youth.

To learn more about the project, visit the Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Centers website. 

When faced with questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion, detractors often respond with demands for evidence or complaints about cost. 

Husbands Chad Topaz and Jude Higdon spend their time trying to find answers to those questions — on top of their other jobs as math professor, university administrator, and parents to a son and two dogs.

It started when Topaz, a mathematician, found himself as one of the only people in justice spaces able to quantify some of the issues facing marginalized communities. When community members pointed out that all the artists in the new wing of a local museum were white, Topaz then researched the diversity of artists at major museums. The study found that in 18 major U.S. museums, artists are 85% white and 87% male. On top of that research, Topaz determined more diversity existed in regions, time periods, and even museum permanent collections than was being displayed. “You’re taking a bad problem and making it worse through your curatorial decisions and practice,” says Topaz.

As it turned out, it also meant that Topaz was sometimes one of a few mathematicians with a concern for justice. When a colleague pointed out that there was only one woman on a 50-person mathematics editorial board—one of the highest professional achievements for an academic—Topaz set out to figure out if that was the exception or the trend. He looked at 435 journals, and it was indeed the trend.

These experiences were transformative. “My activism and sense of justice and my quantitative skills could be brought together,” said Topaz.

But finding projects was another story. Higdon, the administrator who Topaz praises as an “organizational genius,” was able to channel some of Topaz’s math-justice energy into collaborations with community partners. “I’m not afraid of tech nerds [and] mathematicians,” said Higdon, looking affectionately at his husband, “I know how to speak their language enough, but I also know how to build an organization and how to connect that work with other folks.”

So, following the success of early projects, the two co-founded the non-profit research institute QSIDE in 2017, which “uses data science to promote justice.” Citing Ida B. Wells’s famous quote, “the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them,” Topaz says they believe that “data science can be a potent form of that light of truth.”

Since then, the team—which has grown beyond Higdon and Topaz—has published more than 15 peer-reviewed research articles, in addition to writing white papers and creating data tools.

One of their biggest projects bucks up against some of the biggest arguments against any work concerned with diversity, equity, and inclusion: that it’s too expensive. At least in one case, they have the numbers to prove otherwise.

QSIDE works with community partners who make programs to lower incarceration rates. People of color are more likely to be incarcerated. Community partners make programs for youth to “disrupt these cycles of incarceration and poverty,” says Higdon.

Regardless of how effective the programs are, state governments often opt not to fund them because of their cost. That cost analysis fails to acknowledge broader economic benefits from the programs—and losses from incarceration.

“We’ve built this econometric model that models out what’s the true cost of incarceration versus the cost of a program that can be used by community-based organizations,” says Higdon.

Topaz is also the author of a forthcoming book on the intersection of data and criminal justice, titled Counting on Justice. It explores the numbers behind inequality in the U.S. criminal justice system.

In the recent weeks, Higdon, Topaz, and QSIDE have been hit by the wave of anti-science and anti-DEI actions washing over the nation.

Higdon said that QSIDE lost a major corporate funder out of the blue, despite being assured they were set for renewal two days prior. “Is this because we have DEI in our name?” Higdon asked the grant manager, “and he kind of hemmed and hawed about it,” before saying no, but Higdon was not convinced.

Topaz, a career academic, has been watching the cuts to scientific agencies with horror. As a member of an advisory subcommittee at the National Science Foundation, Topaz had a mechanism to lodge an official complaint against the cuts, but the rest of the group balked, citing unspecific rules. When the group didn’t budge, Topaz publicly resigned.

“The director of the NSF is complying with illegal executive orders and not complying with stays that judges have put on those illegal actions,” Topaz said, “It seems to me like now is exactly the time we should be speaking out about these cuts.” 

Topaz said the idea that any of these actions will promote better science or a meritocracy is a lie. “[It] is essentially segregation and keeping a vast pool of talent away from opportunities so that those opportunities can belong to white men. I won’t even use the word meritocracy to describe what they’re doing because that is a lie.”

With the widespread cuts to science funding, especially science concerned with DEI, the team is dedicated to doing the work. “We can weather this storm in a way that organizations that have a bigger infrastructure are not,” Higdon said. “We can stick to our principles despite the headwinds that we’re facing right now.”

At every point in the interview, Topaz and Higdon emphasized that while they are excited about the power of math and data, they don’t view their contributions as more important than others. Each project has partners from “boots on the ground, community members or community-based organizations that can represent the voices of affected people,” alongside any other subject-matter experts they may need.

“We don’t think our technical skills are better in any way,” said Higdon. “They have superpowers. We have superpowers. Together, we have a Justice League.”

(This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.)

When Fountain Theatre set out to produce the Los Angeles premiere of Audrey Cefaly’s play
Alabaster, they were hoping that the all-female show about the power of art and the strength
and resilience of women would be a timely celebration of the country’s first female president.

That didn’t turn out, but in the wake of the fires that devastated Los Angeles last month, the
story – which follows a romance that blossoms when New York photographer Alice, who’s
travelled to the titular Alabama city to capture the portrait of June, a woman whose survival of a tornado has left her with physical and emotional scars – has become even more relevant.

“It’s very much a play about loss and trauma and grieving and how we process and move
forward,” says Casey Stangl, who’s directing the Fountain production. “It has this wonderful sort of straddling the fence of comedy and tragedy in the way that life does.”

And that includes the current political climate.

“On some level, it’s actually even more resonant because we don’t have [a female president]
and that’s yet another loss,” she says.

The LA fires are more than a backdrop for the theatre – they’ve directly affected the production, including delaying its opening to Feb 16. One of the actors was living in the evacuation zone, while another lived in a warning zone. Another had respiratory issues inflamed by the smoke that reached her home.

“Even once we got ourselves back in the room, we’re all still sort of dealing with that. The
physical effects, right? But also just the trauma of it,” Stangl says.
Still, all of that trauma in the room went a long way to building the emotional reality of the play – a literal use of art to process trauma through a play about using art to process trauma.

In the play, June takes up painting to deal with her own trauma, while Alice uses photography to process the trauma of others – and also as an escape from her own tragedies. But the play also explores some of the challenging moral issues around art as a sort of trauma porn.

“There’s a little bit of a dilemma for Alice, because the power dynamic is tricky. There’s an
automatic sort of unequal power dynamic between a photographer and a subject. And then
when things start to change a little bit, it’s a little bit of a thorny place to navigate ethically,” Stangl says.

Since its 2020 world premiere at the Florida Repertory Theatre, Alabaster has been produced
across the country to rave reviews. Fountain Theatre’s production has some secret weapons
that tie it to the play’s history while also invigorating it with new meaning.

Actress Carolyn Messina, who plays Weezy, one of June’s talking goats that narrate the play –
yes, it’s that kind of magical realist theatre – was part of the original production and has been
close with playwright Audrey Cefaly since high school.

And Virginia Newcomb, who plays June, actually grew up in Alabaster, Alabama, and brings a
natural authenticity to the show.

“That town is very much in her body and in her spirit,” Stangl says. “We don’t have a dialect
coach. I mean, we don’t need one. The actresses are kind of amazing. They’re just really talented and good and smart and charismatic and funny. It’s been kind of a feast in the room.”

Alabaster by Audrey Cefaly plays at the Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave, Los Angeles,
CA, 90029 open until March 30, Fri-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 2pm. PWYC
Mondays 8pm. Tickets available at https://www.fountaintheatre.com/events/alabaster