BY ZEKE STOKES | Let me say up front that no one from GLAAD asked me to write this, and I did not run its content by them or coordinate in any way. These are my independent observations based on my experience as Vice President and Chief Programs Officer under the leadership of Sarah Kate Ellis for five years. I was there for much of what is detailed in the recent New York Times story, and I feel compelled to provide a counterpoint to the imbalanced — and perhaps libelous — story put forward by the Times. 

Before I get into the content of the piece, it’s incredibly relevant to point out that the writer of this piece, Emily Steel, signed an open letter last year criticizing GLAAD and more than 100 other organizations and leaders who spoke out against The New York Times’ coverage of transgender people. That alone should have disqualified her from investigating and writing this story. I won’t speculate about her motives or those of her editors, but the fact that she had taken a public position against GLAAD’s work speaks volumes. 

Beyond that, the piece is riddled with bad reporting, innuendo, lies, mistruths, facts out of context, and misinformation. I know because I was there — but no one at the New York Times bothered to call any of us (and there are many) who could have instantly debunked this nonsense. 

So let’s get into it — facts first. 

Sarah Kate Ellis’s salary is not $1 million per year. It’s not even close. It’s easily searchable and publicly available on GLAAD’s IRS 990 forms, which are filed annually. The most recent documents indicate a salary of roughly $575,000 and a bonus of about $27,000 — a lot of money, yes, but a far cry from $1 million and very much in line with the leadership of nonprofit organizations with similar budgets. 

Much has been made of GLAAD’s work at Davos, so let me offer some context there as well. The World Economic Forum meets in Davos each year and is composed of leaders from government, business and international organizations, civil society, academia, and media to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. Until GLAAD entered the frame in 2017, LGBTQ issues were not on the agenda. Today, they are a centerpiece. 

While I did not attend any of GLAAD’s trips to Davos, I was privy to the strategy, logistics, and other details related to those activations. Here’s the truth. Those trips are funded by a donor who specifically designated those funds for that purpose in order to provide GLAAD an opportunity to have a seat at the table with world leaders, Fortune 100 CEOs, and global influencers in order to make progress on criminalization of LGBTQ identities, HIV medication access, and reform in the Catholic Church. You don’t do that with events and meetings at the local Hampton Inn. If you want to have a seat at the table with world leaders, you go where they are. 

GLAAD is not a direct services organization — it is an agent of culture change, and culture change is a long and expensive game. When you show up to Davos, Cannes Lions, the Emmys, Sundance, and other places of elite influence, you must show up as their equal in order to earn a place in the conversation and be trusted to co-create the change we are advocating for. And what is the change that has happened, exactly, from GLAAD’s presence in Davos? 

A simple Google search will produce a laundry list of impact for the LGBTQ community from GLAAD’s work there, especially critical at a time when DEI and other inclusive programs are under attack in the corporate world. It’s also worth noting that GLAAD’s fingerprints are all over many things that never are acknowledged publicly because to do so would damage the work and the end goal. 

Nonetheless, here are just a few headlines tell the tale: 

Washington Blade: GLAAD, HRC Presidents Attend World Economic Forum

Associated Press: Pope Approves Same-sex Blessings For Couples

Associated Press: Pope Says Homosexuality Not A Crime

World Economic Forum: What Davos Taught Me About Supporting My Transgender Child Partnership for Global LGBTQIA+ Equality: Davos Promenade Lights Up Rainbow 

New York Times: Vatican Says Transgender People Can Be Baptized and Become Godparents Here’s the bottom line. 

Sarah Kate Ellis has taken the organization from literal bankruptcy to the stages at Davos, the Emmys, Cannes Lions, the Super Bowl, and countless other places to represent our community and make change. She has made GLAAD a juggernaut with a place at the table at the world’s most influential cultural moments and among the globe’s leading decision makers and culture shapers. That’s why Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023 and why she commands the respect of the team she leads at GLAAD, the board of directors who hired her, and the leaders of the industries in which she is making change every day. On a personal level, she is one of the most honorable, visionary, judicious, and impactful leaders I have ever worked with. 

It’s a shame to see the New York Times stoop to petty vindictiveness and shoddy reporting for clicks and revenge. It’s not just an attack on Sarah Kate Ellis — it’s an attack on all of us who have been a part of turning GLAAD around and making it a leading global voice for equality and acceptance. My only demand of GLAAD’s leadership would be to go even bigger, even louder, even harder, and even faster. Stay the course. The world needs you now more than ever. 

Zeke Stokes is former Vice President and Chief Programs Officer at GLAAD and an executive producer of the award-winning documentary ‘TransMilitary.’

While the Biden administration announced positive policy shifts for some immigrants last month, he simultaneously nearly closed the door to asylum and set a new record for the number of immigrants in detention. Currently, there are over 13,200 people jailed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in the U.S. — a record for the Biden administration that has been steadily climbing. As a queer, Black migrant who fled persecution in Nigeria — where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to 14 years in prison — this shameful and continuing record reminds me of my days in ICE detention and the right to due process I was denied.

In 2017, I fled my home in search of America’s promise of refuge and freedom, after being subjected to violent attacks due to rising LGBTQ+ persecution in Nigeria. Upon landing in Atlanta, without being able to consult a lawyer, I was shackled and caged in ICE detention for three months. I quickly learned that there is no right to a public defender for people navigating the U.S. immigration system who can’t afford to hire their own lawyers. I called countless organizations for help; one of the groups even told me they don’t assist queer refugees. 

Facing these realities alone in detention was devastating — as it is for thousands of others like me who have endured the indignities of detention and lack of legal counsel. It is nearly impossible to win an immigration case without a lawyer while in detention: Only six percent of people without representation in deportation proceedings initiated since 2001 have had successful case outcomes, compared to 45 percent of people with representation. Immigrants with attorneys are five times more likely — and detained immigrants with attorneys are 10.5 times more likely — to obtain relief from deportation than those without representation.

The stakes are even higher for Black and queer immigrants like myself, who are significantly more likely to be targeted for deportation, detention, and abuse. While only seven percent of non-citizens in the U.S. are Black, they make up a full 20 percent of those facing deportation. In a recent letter to the White House, my organization, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), and other advocates condemned the Biden administration’s ballooning, punitive immigrant detention system, in which “LGBTQ individuals … suffer homophobic and transphobic harassment and abuse … [and] Black immigrants face unaffordable bonds and violence at disparately high rates.” 

To change these devastating outcomes, I joined a campaign advocating for universal legal representation through the Fairness to Freedom Act and its recently introduced companion bill, the SHIELD Act, which together would build the nationwide infrastructure needed to provide access to legal representation for every person facing deportation, whether or not they can afford an attorney. While I managed to eventually find an attorney to help secure my freedom and make my asylum case before a judge, others are not so fortunate. Fairness to Freedom would help provide attorneys for anyone facing deportation, regardless of circumstance, identity, nationality, or ability to pay.

In the face of expanding immigrant detention and as people like myself continue to seek safety in the U.S., I urge federal lawmakers to take a stand against detention and for due process by establishing the right to legal representation for all people facing deportation. Everyone should have a fair shot at asylum or other forms of relief with a legal advocate by their side to help them make their case and secure their freedom. This is the promise of America I had imagined — the opportunity to thrive in safety, freedom, and dignity. 

Uchechukwu Onwa (he/him) is a Nigerian-born organizer, trainer, abolitionist, and movement strategist. As a high-impact voice for the LGBTQ+ community, he is a steering committee member of the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP) with over 10 years of experience working in community outreach, public health, and human rights. Before joining the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) team, he worked as the Co-Director/Organizing Director for the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project (QDEP). Uche’s work has been featured in the Windy City Times, Shondaland, Plus Magazine, Buzzfeed, the Advocate, Vogue, PoliticsNY, AMNY, Pulitzer Center, the Washington Blade, and more. 

Sen. JD Vance presented a “questionnaire” last year to career State Department nominees for ambassador to intimidate them — or thwart their nominations. It was recently leaked without comment from Vance. More than a neutral questionnaire, this was a loaded invitation to rumble on the far right of the Republican Party from a senator who does not serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Washington Post headline de-gayed the story, “Leaked memo shows JD Vance’s anti-woke ideology…”.  In fact, the questionnaire was focused solely on LGBTQ issues.

Professionally nurtured and funded with a $15 million donation by gay billionaire Peter Thiel, vice presidential candidate Vance is caught up in the contradiction between having a billionaire gay business and political mentor while launching a searing, anti-gay questionnaire targeting career State Department nominees for ambassadorial posts worldwide. A political contortionist, Sen. Vance became in the last year the single largest obstacle to confirming career ambassadors in the Senate. 

The Vance questionnaire is a stunning, obsessive document harkening back to the Eisenhower-era investigations of suspected homosexuals, State Department diplomats (“twisted twerps in pinstripes”) and “Fellow Travelers” of the Lavender Scare. It is written in the icy language of investigators —“Please provide a discreet response to each question.” Like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s insistence that suspected “sex deviates” be reported to him using a “green pencil,” the Vance questionnaire obsesses over really small things like “gender neutral bathrooms” intended to stigmatize and inflame. But for this questionnaire it is “The Progress” flag, over and over. Will you fly “the Progress Flag?” When would that be “appropriate?” Should “the Progress Flag” be displayed? “If confirmed, on what basis would you determine when and where raising the Progress Flag….”, Vance, the questioner, presses. What the heck is the “Progress Flag?,” I wondered as a gay man in my 70s. Oh, right, it is the banner known worldwide as the rainbow Pride flag, itself something of a cliché, with some new stripes to include transgender people and people of color.

The questioner asks nominees, “how would you explain ‘human rights for LGBTQ people?” where they are neither respected nor exist, in states where imprisonment or execution may be possible. You can feel the questioner doing an eye-roll as though “human rights for LGBTQ people” is a crazy oxymoron. I am reminded of U.S. Civil Service Commission attorney John Steele’s memorandum in the early 1960s discussing why homosexual Americans can have no such rights. “Although there are dissenting voices, our society generally regards homosexuality as a form of immoral conduct … uniquely nasty,” he wrote in a document the Mattachine Society discovered in a file labeled “Suitability” at the National Archives.

It is surprising that recipients of Vance’s questionnaire, the folks whose appointments were put on hold by Vance, did not leak the document sooner. We do have gay ambassadors who have led the way, ably representing our country and its values, even in places like authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Hungary. U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman hosted in 2023 at the embassy in Budapest a Family Pride picnic attended by several hundred guests and their families, including Ambassador Pressman, his husband and their two children. 

In his remarks Ambassador Pressman said, “It has become abundantly clear that right now in Hungary — as leaders call for new laws to “protect children;” as books are wrapped in cellophane; and bookstores fined for displaying books; as rainbow benches are defaced — now is also the right time for the U.S. to celebrate you and your families by hosting what I am told is one of the largest LGBT family gatherings in Hungary’s history.” This is the great soft-power of American example, a force worldwide. During Ambassador Pressman’s confirmation hearing a rubber boat on the Danube River carried a sign that said, “Mr. Pressman, don’t colonize Hungary with your cult of death.” I understand a photo of that protest is proudly displayed behind Ambassador Pressman’s desk. 

LGBTQ historians and archive activists should be grateful to whomever leaked the questionnaire. First, because it so well reveals JD Vance’s character in hot pursuit of anything LGBTQ with the small-bore criticism of displaying the Pride flag during regional Pride celebrations. Most important, in the larger context of targeting State Department nominees, we owe remembrance to the LGBTQ Americans who came before us — those “twisted twerps” who were interrogated and left with stalled careers in ruins.

Charles Francis is president of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. and author of “Archive Activism: Memoir of a ‘Uniquely Nasty’ Journey.’“

President Joe Biden not seeking re-election isn’t just good for Democrats looking to stave off a second Donald Trump presidency, but it’s good news for all the other candidates on the ballot who were at serious risk of millions of Democratic voters sitting out November altogether.

This unexpected, but much needed, turn of events has generated a wave of reactions across the nation, but one thing is clear: Vice President Kamala Harris’s entry into the presidential race is going to provide a significant boost to down-ticket races for the Democratic Party.

Before Biden’s delayed departure from the election, the Democratic Party was doing an excellent job at ignoring the increasing number of voters of all ages who were not willing to compromise their morals or values in November for Biden to vote in the lesser of two evils — which to them is still evil. From the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas War, immigration, the economy, and more — these Democrats were okay with dealing with the consequences of Biden losing understanding that they will struggle under Republicans, they will struggle under Democrats. No matter who is in office, they will struggle. Why should their conscience be in conflict as well? And that was before Biden’s “Weekend at Bernie”’s debate performance.

Biden staying on the ticket wasn’t just going to hurt our chances to keep the White House and democracy alive in the U.S., but it was going to hurt all the local and state candidates and propositions that had the luck of being on the same ballot had Democratic voters sat this one out.

Now, I am not really under the illusion that his decision not to seek re-election had anything to do with the millions of Democratic voters who were set to watch the chips falls where they may. I am pretty sure it had to do more with hard to have conversations about the millions of dollars that were not going to go to the Democratic Party had Biden stayed the course. And now that Harris is in and will be the presumptive nominee, the spigots are on again and the money is flowing. I haven’t seen this much excitement for a candidate since a then-Senator Barack Obama earned the nomination of the Democratic Party back in 2008.

Whether you like her or not, for millions of Democrats, Kamala Harris represents a new era of leadership, one that is more inclusive and reflective of America’s diverse population. Within 24 hours, her candidacy has galvanized a broad coalition of voters, including women, people of color, and young people. This renewed enthusiasm at the top of the ticket is going to have a ripple effect, energizing the base and increasing voter turnout, which is crucial for down-ticket candidates.

For states like California and counties like Los Angeles, the largest in the U.S., this is a game changer.

Californians have 11 ballot propositions on their November ballot. Among them, a controversial ballot proposition to repeal parts of Proposition 47 (Prop 47) and increase drug crime and theft penalties and allow a new class of crime to be called treatment-mandated felony, which gives offenders the option to participate in drug and mental health treatment.

Prop 47 was a ballot measure passed by California voters on in 2014 that made some non-violent property crimes, where the value does not exceed $950, into misdemeanors. It also made some simple drug possession offenses into misdemeanors and provided for past convictions for these charges to be reduced to a misdemeanor by a court. Under Prop 47, offenders qualified for a reduction from a felony to a misdemeanor for certain crimes including: certain forgeries, commercial burglary, petty theft with priors, bad check, grand theft crimes, possession of stolen property, and possession of a controlled substance.

Realistically, there is very little that could happen to keep California’s 54 electoral college votes from going to Harris — assuming she’s the nominee — a low voter turnout of Democrats would favor this conservative backed proposition.

Even though local races are “technically” nonpartisan in California, a similar fate was projected in the Los Angeles County’s district attorney race that sees progressive prosecutor Democrat George Gascón fighting to keep his job against former Republican turned No-Party-Preference Nathan Hochman. Hochman has been endorsed by at least six of the nine people (excluding Gascón) that he ran against during the primary. Setting the stage for a second showdown between Gascón and seemingly everyone else who was on the ballot during the primary and has now lined up behind Hochman.

Harris’s historic candidacy as the first Black and South Asian woman on a major party’s presidential ticket holds immense symbolic value. Her presence has already mobilized minority voters who feel underrepresented in the political arena. Increased turnout among these demographics can significantly impact races at all levels which is going to be especially key for progressive candidates like Gascón and criminal justice reform measures on the November ballot whom these voters are more likely favor.

President Biden’s decision to step aside has opened the door for Kamala Harris to lead the Democratic ticket and give us a fighting chance to avoid another Trump presidency. The announcement of Harris as the potential nominee has raised more than $81 million in the 24-hour period since Biden’s announcement.

Facts. Harris’s candidacy has energized the base, already mobilized key voter demographics, and strengthened the party’s overall electoral chances. As we move towards the election, Harris is going to be a powerful catalyst for important down-ticket races. She was just the lifesaving move that had to happen in order to bring the Democratic Party back to life because all races on the ballot with Democrats were going to suffer had Biden stayed on the ticket. Now, on to November.

Jasmyne Cannick is a Democratic strategist and elected delegate to the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.

Seven years ago, my fight for queer liberation in notoriously homophobic Jamaica culminated in a violent and brutal unlawful arrest and detention. This was the peak of decades of persecution due to my sexual orientation and work as a queer human rights defender and activist. It completely broke me and silenced me. I suffered severe emotional trauma, from which I am still recovering years later. 

Following that life-threatening arrest, I became a shell of who I once was. I cut off communication with my community for several years, unable to face my fear of the police and the hostility of the world around me. 

In 2022, I was one of the 9,591 at-risk LGBTQI+ people who reached out to Rainbow Railroad for help. Through the organization’s Emergency Travel Support (ETS) program, which relocates at-risk LGBTQI+ people and helps them make asylum claims in countries like the U.S., I resettled in Canada where I’ve been living safely with dignity and pride. 

This Pride Month, I’m reflecting on what it means to be safe. Who has access to safety and why others are excluded from it. What is our collective role and responsibility in expanding safety for our queer and trans communities, especially those in the over 60 countries that criminalize LGBTQI+ people? 

Safety means different things to different people depending on our experiences and journeys. For me, it’s the difference between suffering and thriving, feeling worthless and worthy, and feeling hopeless and hopeful. It is the difference between displacement and belonging. 

Rainbow Railroad recently released a report that examines the state of global LGBTQI+ persecution, drawing on data from 15,352 help requests spanning 100+ countries. This report is significant for several reasons, chief among them is the reality that no other organization or government captures the breadth and depth of data on LGBTQI+ forced displacement, perpetuating the invisibility of queer individuals in humanitarian responses. The report is an important contribution to the discourse on the intersection of queer identity, LGBTQI+ persecution, forced displacement, and humanitarian protection systems. 

Of all the data and insights uncovered in the report, I was most struck by one statistic — 91 percent of at-risk LGBTQI+ individuals relocated through the ETS program reported an improved sense of personal safety. This statistic is particularly personal to me because ETS was the only relocation option accessible to me in 2022 when I reached out to Rainbow Railroad for help. 

I am in that 91 percent because I am now thriving. I feel worthy. I am hopeful about life. And I belong. 

Today, among the 120 million forcibly displaced people around the world, queer and trans individuals face compounded complications from homophobia and transphobia while trying to access protection and safety. And while the anti-gender movement continues to swell in some states, I firmly believe that the U.S. remains a global leader in refugee resettlement — which is why the U.S. government must uphold its international obligations and reverse its recent executive order that imposes severe restrictions on the right to seek asylum. 

Queer and trans individuals deserve freedom, a sense of home, and belonging — realities that flourish only when rooted in the bedrock of safety. 

There is a lot more work to be done. It’s challenging. It’s complex. It’s costly. But I have experienced firsthand what the transformative impact of Rainbow Railroad’s work has on someone’s life — that ability to lift people out of danger into safety is something worth celebrating this Pride. 

Latoya Nugent is the head of engagement for Rainbow Railroad.

For close to two decades now, I have witnessed the never-ending brutality and stigmatization of key populations, not only in Uganda but across the global Black community.

For too long, LGBTQI+ people in Uganda and across the African continent have been subject to discrimination, social exclusion, and prosecution, which restricts their access to jobs, health care, and much more. 

A toxic concoction of prejudice and legislation, including Uganda’s 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), has driven the LGBTQI+ community underground.

In Uganda today, LGBTQI+ people are less likely to seek out necessary, lifesaving services like HIV prevention and treatment. Drug users are regularly denied necessary harm reduction treatments. Sex workers are routinely targeted for assault and extortion by clients and by the police. 

Throughout the continent, marginalized communities are contending with intersecting forms of discrimination based on socioeconomic class, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

And so, the cycles of poverty and marginalization roll on, health inequities widen, HIV and other illnesses can spread, and mental health and general well-being suffer.

We founded the Uganda Key Populations Consortium (UKPC) in 2018 to put a stop to all this — to challenge draconian laws like the AHA and advocate for equity and equality for key populations. 

Back then, so many of us didn’t have a home — a place where we could sit together and say: This is what we, as a people, need and stand for. 

UKPC brings together LGBTQI+ people and people from other key populations to express themselves, learn and build community. We work with partners to create safe spaces — drop-in centers — across the country, where our community can connect, access health services, and make their voices heard. 

Thanks in large part to these drop-in centers, we saw a huge increase in the number of people starting antiretroviral therapy, using HIV self-testing tool kits and taking steps to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

We also establish strong relationships with civil society, nongovernmental organizations, and government partners that support us and our work to serve our community, despite constant challenges.

Today, all our work is under threat.

The AHA encourages violent abuse and discrimination against my community. A recent report paints a grim picture: since the AHA was passed, Uganda’s LGBTQI+ community has suffered 434 evictions and banishments, 309 incidents of violence, 92 recorded instances of mental health distress, and 69 arrests. 

The law also threatens people supporting LGBTQI+ communities and those providing or seeking basic health services.

Our community organizations have closed dozens of drop-in centers, shutting down a critical link between individuals and their peers — not to mention essential mental and physical health care. We have diverted much-needed funds to make our offices and meeting places safe and secure. We can’t be sure that reaching people online is safe, and that their data and identities will be protected.

Still: we are fighting back. I am fighting back. Our community is fighting back.

Changing the status quo will require more work and support. We need partners like the Global Fund and its Breaking Down Barriers initiative, because those programs empower communities to lead — and give us a voice. They also give us a platform for collective action, to continue working against the violence and hatred that, some days, feels inescapable. 

When communities come together, change is possible.

Pride is a moment to celebrate — and to protest. Every June, I take a moment to close my eyes and focus inward, to honor myself and the community that made me. To think about what we’ve accomplished, and the work still left to do. This year is no exception.

We are proud of who we are. No law can take that away from us.

Richard Lusimbo is the founder and director general of the Uganda Key Populations Consortium, and a longtime LGBTQI+ and human and health rights activist. UKPC is a partner of the Global Fund’s Breaking Down Barriers initiative, which aims to reduce human rights-related barriers to health.

By Laura Friedman & Jirair Ratevosian | BURBANK, Calif. – As we celebrate Pride in Los Angeles, it’s important to reflect on the rich history and ongoing fight for LGBTQI rights in this vibrant city and all around us.

Pride is not just a celebration of who we are and who we love, but a reaffirmation of the values of equality and acceptance that have driven the LGBTQI movement for decades. 

The LGBTQI community has been at the forefront of advocating for rights that many take for granted today. From the Stonewall Riots to the recent landmark Supreme Court decisions affirming marriage equality and workplace protections, the LGBTQI movement has consistently pushed the envelope, demanding that the promise of democracy be fulfilled for all citizens.

This fight is not just about the rights of LGBTQI individuals; it is about the integrity of our democratic system itself.

However, as we revel in the progress we have made, we must also recognize the threats that persist. Across the United States and around the world, anti-LGBTQI legislation continues to emerge, threatening the hard-won rights of the community. In some states, laws are being enacted to restrict access to healthcare for transgender individuals, ban discussions of LGBTQI topics in schools, and undermine marriage equality.

Internationally, many countries still criminalize same-sex relationships, subjecting individuals to persecution and violence simply for who they are.

These threats underscore the importance of Pride as more than just a month-long celebration. It is a call to action, a reminder that our fight for equality is intrinsically linked to the broader fight for democracy.

We must stand together, not only during Pride Month but throughout the year, to defend the rights of all LGBTQI individuals. Practicing pride yearlong means advocating for comprehensive policies that protect the community against discrimination in housing or healthcare, supporting LGBTQI organizations, and fostering inclusive spaces where everyone can thrive.

In recent years, we have also seen efforts to suppress voter turnout, particularly targeting marginalized communities. These attempts to undermine our democratic process make it all the more crucial for us to remain civically active and exercise our right to vote.  By participating in elections, we can elect leaders who are committed to advancing LGBTQI rights, defending against discriminatory legislation, and promoting a society where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

The power of the LGBTQI community has been demonstrated time and again, influencing policies and shaping the political landscape to be more inclusive and representative.

Even as we exercise our right to vote, we must remain vigilant against those who seek to divide us and spread misinformation. We have witnessed a troubling rise in efforts to sow discord within the LGBTQI communities in Los Angeles, often fueled by falsehoods and harmful rhetoric.

These divisive tactics are designed to weaken our solidarity and undermine the progress we have made. More than ever, we must double down on our commitment to acceptance, inclusivity, and mutual respect. 

LGBTQI individuals who also belong to ethnic minority communities, such as Black, Latino, Asian, or Armenian, face disproportionate systemic injustices. They often find themselves at the crossroads of multiple forms of discrimination.

This harsh reality highlights the urgent need for comprehensive reforms that address both racial and sexual orientation-based biases within our justice system and resources to organizations working to create tolerance in communities. By recognizing and confronting these interconnected issues, we can work towards a society where all individuals, regardless of race or sexual orientation, can live free from fear and persecution.

It was here that the first Pride parade in Los Angeles took place in 1970, marking a significant milestone in our ongoing journey toward visibility and acceptance. As we celebrate Pride this year, let us honor the history of West Hollywood and the legacy of those who fought before us.

Let us commit to carrying their spirit of resilience and advocacy into our daily lives- and to the ballot box this November. By doing so, we can ensure that pride is not confined to a single month but is a constant force driving us toward a more equitable, inclusive, and loving society. 

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First elected to the California State Assembly in November 2016, Laura Friedman represents the cities of Burbank, Glendale, and Los Angeles, as well as the communities of La Crescenta, Lake View Terrace, Montrose, North Hollywood, Shadow Hills, Sherman Oaks, Sunland-Tujunga, Studio City, Toluca Lake, and Valley Village.

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Dr. Jirair Ratevosian is a former legislative director to Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA). Ratevosian, 42, was born in Hollywood, CA, to a Lebanese mother and an Armenian father. He served as a Senior Advisor for Health Equity Policy at the U.S. Department of State and worked for the Office of U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.

By Sharon McGowan | TAKOMA PARK, MD. – June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, a time dedicated to recognizing and celebrating and walking  in solidarity with our diverse community of loved ones and affirming the dignity, humanity, and rights of all people.

It is also a time to reflect on how far we have come and how much  work there is still to do in building a more accepting and inclusive world.  

This month brings to mind many of our community’s greatest legal victories in the Supreme  Court: the striking down of the sodomy laws that made our relationships criminal and the  discriminatory so-called “Defense of Marriage Act,” as well as the extension of federal  nondiscrimination protections and marriage equality to LGBTQ+ people across the  country.  

For me personally, June also happens to be the month that I celebrate my own wedding  anniversary. While the memories of my wedding continue to bring me joy, I also still  remember the day-long drive that my now-wife and I needed to make from our home state  of Maryland to Massachusetts, as it was one of only three states that would allow us to  marry at the time. 

This year, in addition to the pride I feel in being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am  also tremendously proud to be celebrating Pride Month as the new CEO of Public Justice.  Founded in 1982, Public Justice is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization that takes on  purveyors of corporate corruption, sexual abusers and harassers, and polluters who  ravage the environment. At its core, each of our battles is inspired by a pledge to further  equity and equality, end systemic oppression, and protect and expand access to justice for  all. 

By way of example, Public Justice represented Camika Shelby, whose son Nigel died by suicide at age 15 after experiencing unchecked LGBTQ+ harassment and race  discrimination at school.

Along with our co-counsel from Wardenski P.C. and Conchin,  Cole, Jordan & Sherrod, Public Justice fought not only to demand justice for Camika but  also to bring change to the Huntsville, Alabama, school system that had shirked its  responsibility to protect LGBTQ+ students from sex-based harassment.

Because of  Camika’s bravery, Public Justice secured an important victory for students in the deep  south, where progress for both the LGBTQ+ and Black communities takes longer than it  should and always feels tenuous at best.  

Cases like Nigel’s demonstrate the urgency of holding institutions accountable for the  harms that they cause, either through their actions or their failures to act; and speaking  truth to power and demanding accountability from institutions large and small is what we do at Public Justice.

That’s why we, along with Lambda Legal, the National Women’s Law Center and a host of local and national LGBTQ+ partner organization, launched campaigns in all 50 states in 2017 to urge State Departments of Education to follow federal laws  protecting transgender students after then-U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said  she wanted the federal Department of Ed to be “less political,” by which she meant  undermining school policies protecting trans young people.

Public Justice is also proud to represent Steve Snyder–Hill and over one hundred  other survivors of sexual abuse by long-tenured Ohio State University physician Richard Strauss. First victimized by Dr. Strauss, some of our clients were then lied to by OSU officials determined to deny and cover up Strauss’ decades-long patterns of abuse.  

Many in the LGBTQ+ community will recognize Steve’s name and recall him as someone  who — just like Public Justice — has never been afraid to speak truth to power. A veteran of  the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, Steve publicly came out as gay just after the repeal of  “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

He then found himself in the media spotlight after he was booed for asking a question on extending spousal benefits to LGBTQ+ military members during a Republican debate in 2011. Now, Steve is working with Public Justice and its co counsel, Scott Elliot Smith LPA and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP,  in this latest chapter of advocacy, designed not only to shed light on the horrific crimes perpetrated by Dr. Strauss but, also to press OSU to make the systemic changes needed to  ensure that students can obtain their education in a safe environment, free from sexual  harassment and abuse. 

Public Justice also fights to protect the ability of people to seek justice in the courts. I know  first-hand just how meaningful getting one’s day in court can be. In 2005, I was proud to  serve as lead counsel for Diane Schroer, a transgender woman who sued the Library of  Congress for withdrawing its job offer to her upon learning that she was transitioning and  planned to start work as the woman she is.

The result was a groundbreaking ruling that the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment also protects individuals from  discrimination for being transgender, an interpretation of the law that was ultimately ratified by the U.S. Supreme Court, albeit over a decade later.  

I cannot help but shudder at the thought of where we would be had Diane not had her day in court: the law might not have continued to develop, and the public would likely not have learned about Diane’s story, which offered people an opportunity to learn more about who  trans people are, and how we all lose out when discrimination deprives us of the talents of people like her.

That’s just one example of why Public Justice’s core mission of ensuring  access to justice – and particularly to the courts – for everyone, and not just a privileged  and powerful few, is so essential for us all. 

So, as we wave our pride flags this month, we must hold onto the joy of how far we’ve  come, and how brave and beautiful our LGBTQ+ community is. I’m proud that Public Justice has played a role in our progress and is an organization that will never be complacent in the face of injustice, whether against the LGBTQ+ community or any other  community targeted for abuse or vulnerable to exploitation.

Apropos of the season, I am  filled with pride at being the first openly LGBTQ+ leader of this storied organization and look forward to putting that pride into action 365 days a year. This Pride, I invite my LGBTQ+ family, as well as our invaluable friends and allies, to learn more about the critical  work that we here at Public Justice are doing to create a more just, fair, and equitable world, by visiting us at www.PublicJustice.net.

Just as pride is a year-round affair, so too is our quest for justice — we hope you’ll join us.

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Sharon McGowan is the Chief Executive Officer of Public Justice, leading its legal and foundation staff, and guiding the organization’s litigation and advocacy work. Prior to joining Public Justice, Sharon served as a partner with Katz Banks Kumin, and previously served as Chief Strategy Officer and Legal Director for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the nation’s oldest and largest LGBTQ+ legal organization.

McGowan also held several senior positions within the Obama Administration, including within the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where she helped implement nationwide marriage equality across the federal government. 

By Don Kilhefner | Los Angeles is the only city in the world with two major LGBTQ Pride celebrations, largely within walking distance of each other.  The two adjacent events serve as a stark reminder of the class and race divides in the L.A. LGBTQ community and the struggle between the elite capture of Pride by West Hollywood and a semblance of grassroots and community-based organizing by Los Angeles Pride, recently clawed back from WeHo.   

On Sunday, June 2, the City of West Hollywood holds its Pride parade along with a week-long festival.  One week later, on Sunday, June 9, Los Angeles Pride, about a half mile away from where the WeHo Pride parade started the week before, LGBTQ people and their allies will march down Hollywood Blvd., site of the first Pride march in June 1970, then called Christopher Street West—Gay Freedom Day—named after the street in Greenwich Village in New York City where the Stonewall Inn was located.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, therein lies an important tale of two cities with vastly different community Pride narratives representing two different political/economic agendas.

I helped to organize the first two Pride celebrations in Hollywood and have closely observed and written about the evolution of those events during the past half century.  The foundational truth about Pride celebrations across the U.S. in the month of June is that those celebrations commemorate the June 28, 1969, Stonewall Rebellion, the spark that ignited the fire that became the Gay Liberation movement, commencing LGBTQ people’s long march toward freedom.  That foundational truth about Pride has been buried today under the superficial gloss of a gigantic, hedonistic party, tons of glitter, and relentlessly making money, and the roots of Pride have been danced over mindlessly and recklessly. 

Recently, as I was checking out at my neighborhood Trader Joe’s in Hollywood, I asked the 20-something gay man who was my cashier how he felt

about having two Pride celebrations in nearly identical locations.  He replied earnestly that it truly baffled him why there were two instead of one united event.  He was excited when I promised him a copy of this article the next time I saw him.

L.A. Pride: The Macro Historical View

Early in April 1970, Morty Manford reached out to the Los Angeles Gay Liberation Front by telephone as a representative of the New York City GLF requesting that nascent Gay Liberation groups across the country organize some kind of event to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion on Sunday, June 28, 1970—a few months away.  New York GLF was planning a march.  Morris Kight proposed to the Sunday afternoon GLF meeting that such an event be planned, it was adopted unanimously, and Kight would take the leadership on that GLF involvement.

Rev. Troy Perry of the Metropolitan Community Church and Kight became central to making the first Pride event in L.A. a reality.  At first, a sidewalk protest along Hollywood Blvd. was envisioned and then grew in scope to an audacious march on Hollywood Blvd. itself.  The L.A. City Police Commission, after a furious anti-gay tirade by Police Chief Ed Davis, refused a permit to use the street for such a scurrilous event.  The ACLU went into court, forcing the LAPD to issue a permit, which ended up spitefully as permission for the use of only one lane on Hollywood Blvd.  On June 27, the Saturday before the Sunday event, the Los Angeles Times, then a publication with over 1 million subscribers, ran an article about the ACLU victory, providing all the publicity needed to make the march a success.  

That first L.A. Pride march started out from McCadden Place in one lane on Hollywood Blvd., and when spectators later seized the entire boulevard, LGBTQ people proudly and enthusiastically marched forward in an event that had never ever been seen before in L.A and into the history books.  Estimates of attendance ranged between 20,000 and 35,000, clearly on the high side; the LAPD officially reported 2,000, definitely on the low side. The rest is history.

Handwritten draft of 1972 L.A. Pride flyer found in FBI files on its surveillance of L.A. GLF.

Subsequently, the Stonewall commemorative event in L.A. was organized by the all-volunteer, not-for-profit, grassroots, community-based Christopher Street West Committee.  As such, the CSW committee had the usual periodic ego performers, episodic dramas, political correctness debates, and financial woes.  But woebegone, every year, somehow, the event occurred and grew in size and solidarity.  The Gay Liberation organizing was working.

For eight years (1970-1978), Pride occurred on Hollywood Blvd with not much distinction made between participants and spectators—people just spontaneously joined in off the sidewalks.  More conventional gay people were shocked in 1970 with GLF’s paper mache replica of a Vaseline jar, the most popular sexual lubricant at the time, with a big sign in front of it repeating a popular Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial at the time, “Ain’t nothing good without the grease,” and 1971’s Cockapillar, similar to a dancing Chinese New Year’s Dragon, with the dragon head replaced by the head of a penis with seductive lips and eye lashes, expanding and contracting, to the crowd’s delight.  Since the first two celebrations, the Respectability Police of CSW made sure nothing too radical (or too gay) ever entered again.

1970 First Pride: Vaseline jar with KFC and GLF saying, “Ain’t nothing good without the grease.”

In 1974, a festival was added to the Sunday march, making Pride a weekend affair.

Then, in 1979, CSW took the blue pill and moved the Stonewall celebration to Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. It was a controversial decision dividing the CSW committee, but a majority vote won out.  The winning argument was that WeHo was more gay friendly, even though Hollywood Blvd. had always been gay friendly as well.  The real reason was financial.  Then, WeHo was an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County, within Supervisor Ed Edelman’s district, and Edelman was extremely gay friendly, providing more County financial support for expensive ancillary services like police, traffic control, safety, and clean-up.  In 1984, the independent City of West Hollywood was incorporated and took over support when the County’s ended.

This transition from Hollywood to West Hollywood was critically important, particularly for the heart and soul of the Stonewall commemoration.  WeHo, with about 30,000 residents in the late 1970s and 1.9 square miles in size, was very affluent, with few buildings then taller than two stories, and having a small-town feel.  It was definitely a whites-only residential town with white supremacy proclivities, resulting in GLF and others demonstrating during the 1970s against the white racism and sexism of its gay clubs and bath houses.  WeHo has usually addressed race and class issues with tokenism and window dressing.  The white power structure remains intact.  

Today, the city of West Hollywood, its developers, corporate businesses, and caterers of luxury products are extremely wealthy with beautifully designed, seven-story hotels, spacious office buildings, and expensive residential towers everywhere, a largely white, wealthy, entitled enclave surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, which is majority people of color, affordable housing deprived, and a working poor, cheap labor pool for WeHo and Westside homes and businesses.

Since 1979, the character and development of CSW’s L.A. Pride in West Hollywood has largely paralleled the economic development of WeHo—follow the money.  Gradually, sometimes imperceptibly, the grassroots CSW L.A. Pride celebration occurring in WeHo evolved into a CSW and WeHo event, and then the designation “L.A.” slowly disappeared into the mists and it became WeHo Pride with the names “CSW” and “Los Angeles Pride” largely invisible.  The CSW Committee and L.A. Pride were no longer the shot callers.

1971: Poster for second L.A. Pride printed by Peace Press, a radical anti-Vietnam War printer, because other printers refused to print it.

Today, WeHo Pride is controlled by the City of West Hollywood and the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and is organized by a well-paid event planner with no community involvement whatsoever, not a single blade of grassroots to be found anywhere.  The City of West Hollywood advertises WeHo Pride worldwide as an LGBTQ destination of importance in order to fill its luxury hotels and high-end restaurants, clubs, dance halls, and bars.  In 2017, a research study indicated that Pride weekend in WeHo generated about $5 million for businesses and the city there. In 2024, it will probably be double that figure.

In June 2019, when Pride events across the U.S. were celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the beginning of the Gay Liberation movement, WeHo Pride made no mention of Stonewall, as if the event had never happened.  When I confronted the Executive Director of Pride about its advertising not mentioning a word about the 50^th anniversary of Stonewall, she condescendingly replied that one of the revenue concessions at the Pride festival, a beer tent, would be called “Stonewall” and I could sit in it and talk about Stonewall if I wished.

L.A. Pride: The Micro Historical View

As Pride in Los Angeles entered the 21^st century more LGBTQ people criticized and were dissatisfied with WeHo Pride, feeling like it really didn’t represent them or look like the LGBTQ community in Los Angeles.  Attendance was slowly decreasing each year.  The event had become apolitical and turned into a largely commercial hospitality and entertainment event.  The city of West Hollywood, rolling in cash, paid little attention to community feedback and did exactly what it wanted to do because it could.  Then two seismic Pride revolts shook and shook up the celebration.

In 2017, after the election of Donald Trump, an LGBTQ community uprising took over Pride, with CSW’s cooperation—whites and people of color working together politically—and returned the event to its historic origins on Hollywood Blvd.  It was renamed an LGBTQ Resist March, not a Pride Parade.  One of its hashtags was #Own Your Pride.  The march ended with a political rally in West Hollywood whose speakers included Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Adam Schiff, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.  The celebration looked like L.A. for a change.  In 2018, Pride  reverted to the same old same old.

The second seismic jolt with Pride resulted in the aftermath of the May 25, 2022, murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police when the U.S. erupted in outrage with Black Lives Matter as a catalyst.  When West Hollywood announced a march about Floyd’s murder co-sponsored with BLM without a consult or the consent of BLM—Whites telling Blacks what to do—then the shit hit the fan, as they say.  Outrage prevailed.  People of color and their allies exerted CSW control and quickly and radically separated Los Angeles Pride from WeHo Pride. 

In June 2022, Los Angeles Pride returned its original home on Hollywood Blvd. and has marched there ever since, adding an entertainment event called Pride in the Park located in the Los Angeles State Historic Park in downtown L.A., adjacent to Chinatown.  This year Ricky Martin, a gay man, will be the headliner.

A Proposal for LGBTQ Pride Unity in Los Angeles

The old radical call out is historically true: “A people united will never be defeated.”  No one talks about it publicly; however, right now there is fragmentation, disunity, and political apathy in the LGBTQ community in L.A. and elsewhere, with political performance art reduced to mere show biz entertainment. 

An LGBTQ movement has largely disappeared as assimilation rules. The extreme Right is skillfully organized and coordinated, even Supreme Court judges openly opining about it, toward rescinding every civil right LGBTQ people have struggled to achieve since Stonewall.  Disunity is something LGBTQ people simply cannot indulge right now, including the bifurcation of one of the central political and spiritual organizing ceremonies unifying the LGBTQ tribal (“tribal” used positively) community—Los Angeles Pride.

As a Gay Tribal Elder, I respectfully make the following constructive suggestions to the L.A. LGBTQ community.  My sole intention is the united forward movement of Pride and the welfare of LGBTQ people in Los Angeles.

    [1.]  That there will be one Sunday afternoon Pride celebration in Los Angeles            

            on Hollywood Blvd. that will be the centerpiece of Pride weekend, that     

            would integrate WeHo Pride into the event, that would be called a march,    

            and that a serious political message would be included.

    [2.]  That the Saturday before the Sunday Los Angeles Pride march be turned     

            over to West Hollywood to do what WeHo does best.

    [3.]  That the Los Angeles Pride march convene at 10 a.m., march at noon, and   

              end up in WeHo with a community Pride celebration with all the    

              multitudinous ways LGBTQ people know how to have a good time.

It’s all achievable if the best interests and wellbeing of LGBTQ people, united, becomes the central organizing principle of community Pride and homeless Stonewall is welcomed back into the circle of community.

Will the circle be unbroken?

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Don Kilhefner, Ph.D., is a pioneer Gay Liberationist and for 55 continuous years a gay community organizer in Los Angeles and nationally.

HAVANA — Wednesday marked five years since the Cuban government detained me at Havana’s José Marti International Airport.

I had tried to enter the country in order to continue the Washington Blade’s coverage of LGBTQ+ and intersex Cubans. I found myself instead unable to leave the customs hall until an airport employee escorted me onto an American Airlines flight back to Miami.

This unfortunate encounter with the Cuban regime made national news. The State Department also noted it in its 2020 human rights report.

Press freedom and a journalist’s ability to do their job without persecution have always been important to me. They became even more personal to me on May 8, 2019, when the Cuban government for whatever reason decided not to allow me into the country.  

‘A free press matters now more than ever’

Journalists in the U.S. and around the world on May 3 marked World Press Freedom Day.

Reporters without Borders in its 2024 World Press Freedom Index notes that in Cuba “arrests, arbitrary detentions, threats of imprisonment, persecution and harassment, illegal raids on homes, confiscation, and destruction of equipment — all this awaits journalists who do not toe the Cuban Communist Party line.” 

“The authorities also control foreign journalists’ coverage by granting accreditation selectively, and by expelling those considered ‘too negative’ about the government,” adds Reporters without Borders.

Cuba is certainly not the only country in which journalists face persecution or even death while doing their jobs.

• Reporters without Borders notes “more than 100 Palestinian reporters have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces, including at least 22 in the course of their work” in the Gaza Strip since Hamas launched its surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Media groups have also criticized the Israeli government’s decision earlier this month to close Al Jazeera’s offices in the country.

• Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Washington Post contributor and Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Alsu Kurmasheva remain in Russian custody. Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who contributes to the Post, was kidnapped in Syria in August 2012.

• Reporters without Borders indicates nearly 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico since 2000, and 28 others have disappeared.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his World Press Freedom Day notes more journalists were killed in 2023 “than in any year in recent memory.”

“Authoritarian governments and non-state actors continue to use disinformation and propaganda to undermine social discourse and impede journalists’ efforts to inform the public, hold governments accountable, and bring the truth to light,” he said. “Governments that fear truthful reporting have proved willing to target individual journalists, including through the misuse of commercial spyware and other surveillance technologies.”

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, who is a former journalist, in her World Press Freedom Day statement noted journalists “are more essential than ever to safeguarding democratic values.” 

“From those employed by international media organizations to those working for local newspapers, courageous journalists all over the world help shine a light on corruption, encourage civic engagement, and hold governments accountable,” she said.

President Joe Biden echoed these points when he spoke at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner here in D.C. on April. 27.

“There are some who call you the ‘enemy of the people,'” he said. “That’s wrong, and it’s dangerous. You literally risk your lives doing your job.”

I wrote in last year’s World Press Freedom Day op-ed that the “rhetoric — ‘fake news’ and journalists are the ‘enemy of the people’ — that the previous president and his followers continue to use in order to advance an agenda based on transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, islamophobia, and white supremacy has placed American journalists at increased risk.” I also wrote the “current reality in which we media professionals are working should not be the case in a country that has enshrined a free press in its constitution.”

“A free press matters now more than ever,” I concluded.

That sentiment is even more important today.