Today, Christopher Street West (CSW) – the 501(c)3 non-profit that produces the annual LA Pride Festival and Parade – announced an official bid to host WorldPride in Los Angeles for 2025. As the first permitted pride parade in the world, LA Pride has been advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and progressive political change for 50 years in 2020.
“Los Angeles is a global city where we honor our unique past and work tirelessly to imagine a better future for all,” said Estevan Montemayor, CSW board president. “LA Pride celebrates the city’s diverse experiences ensuring all communities are represented and we are proud to announce our bid to host WorldPride Los Angeles 2025. We are confident that the vibrant infrastructure of Los Angeles is the perfect host city to welcome the world for WorldPride 2025.”
Los Angeles is a city of immigrants representing a diverse array of languages, ethnicities, religions, and cultures who have created the fabric of its dynamic and vibrant community. Together, the community champions human rights for all people, regardless of race, gender and sexuality. Viewed by many as the entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles is gearing up to host multiple monumental events over the next decade garnering exciting attention and spotlighting the trailblazing city.
“Given the transformation our city continues to undergo as well as a perfect score of 100 on the HRC Equality Index, Los Angeles stands out as the ideal global destination to host WorldPride 2025,” stated Don Skeoch, Chief Marketing Officer of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board.
There is a long history in Los Angeles of groundbreaking advancements in the LGBTQ+ movement. Landmark achievements began in the 1950s when activist Harry Hay started the Mattachine Society and, not long after, the first US pro-gay monthly magazine, ONE, was published. In 1959, the Cooper Do-Nuts protest became the first gay political uprising after police arrested LGBTQ+ patrons for congregating at the shop. By the 1960s, many LGBTQ+ bars and clubs opened and police raided these establishments resulting in protests around the city. Never giving up, fast forward to 2013 when the Supreme Court dismissed California’s Prop 8 appeal legalizing same-sex marriage in California.
The Pride movement’s storied history of pioneers and activists paved the way for the rights LGBTQ+ people have today, but the fight for equality is still far from over. LA Pride embraces this rich history as the fuel to inspire, motivate and drive the LGBTQ+ community to its next chapter. In 2019, LA Pride expanded the Festival grounds adding the first-ever free block party with programming and events promoting greater accessibility and inclusivity which resulted in much lauded celebration. As the organization prepares for its 50th anniversary in 2020, the footprint will continue to expand and unite the community.
WorldPride was founded by the non-profit LGBTQ+ rights organization, InterPride, which meets annually in different cities around the world where its members select the host city at the annual general meeting. The inaugural WorldPride was held in Rome in 2000 and other cities that have hosted the celebration include New York, Jerusalem, Madrid and more. WorldPride takes place every two years and in 2021, over 500 Prides from around the globe will attend the annual InterPride conference in Guadalajara, Mexico where the winning city for 2025 will be announced.
Rufus Wainwright made waves in the industry last week when he debuted his latest single "Trouble in Paradise," which Rolling Stone hailed as a "clever new pop romp." Today, Rufus shares his music video for the track, in which he morphs into a new personality, inspired by Anna Wintour, the legendary mainstay Editor-in-Chief of Vogue.
The video makes for a clever visual, beautifully set in black and white, as the creator behind the music evolves from the fashion icon into another version of himself, offering a commentary on the many faces that we put up in order to deal with and manipulate reality.
"Trouble In Paradise" is about the fashion world but also applies to the state of the planet. According to Rufus, it has "a sense of sophistication and an animalistic instinct."
He adds: "After the opera world and natural aging, I can now sing at the full power of my abilities, and this record really shows that off."
The Beetlejuice – Original Broadway Cast Recording is available everywhere today including on CD and all streaming partners. Beetlejuice – the new hit Broadway musical comedy presented by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures (Mark Kaufman) and Langley Park Productions (Kevin McCormick) – is currently in performance at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre.
The Beetlejuice CD release comes off the heels of the cast album’s continued digital streaming success. The album has seen exponential growth week after week, reaching over 60 million streams, one of the highest streaming Broadway cast albums of the 2019 season. The incredible growth is a result of user-generated content on TikTok, where smash songs like “Say My Name” have been used in over one million videos.
When Beetlejuice opened on Broadway, it was hailed as “an irreverent, funny roller-coaster ride to hell and back” by Newsweek, “a big, fantastical funhouse of Burtonesque magic” by People, and “a bold, shameless, nutty, brassy, rollicking piece of fun” by The Daily Beast. It was called “rowdy, cheeky and gleefully irreverent” by New York Magazine, “a morbidly magical new musical by Billboard, and “screamingly good fun, with off-the-wall humor and endless visuals and aural delights” by Variety.
On November 1, the Trump Administration announced that it would no longer enforce existing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations that prohibit discrimination in HHS-funded programs based on sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, and religion. The administration also announced that HHS-funded programs would no longer be required to recognize marriages of same-sex couples. In addition, it put forward a new rule that would allow most programs receiving HHS grants to discriminate based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion. This proposed rule and the administration’s notice that they are suspending enforcement of existing nondiscrimination provisions will have widespread and devastating consequences.
This means federally funded programs and agencies could, for example, deny services to foster youth, refuse admission to shelters, deny children homes with prospective foster or adoptive families, shut out families seeking emergency services, and more. Those who receive government funding wouldn’t even have to justify their discrimination: the Trump administration would simply allow them to do it, no questions asked.
HHS awards more than $527 billion of taxpayer dollars in grants and contracts each year. This dangerous rule would impact the ability of millions of people to access and receive services from billions of dollars of programs ranging from adoption and foster care services for children, family preservation services, STI and HIV testing and prevention programs, Head Start programs, supportive housing services, reproductive health care, and much more. For example: • Head Start grant recipients and other federally funded child care facilities could refuse to serve children with married same-sex parents or provide services to a transgender youth • Meals on Wheels and other community meal programs designed to support older adults could refuse to deliver food to older Americans who are Jewish, Muslim, or LGBTQ • Adoption and foster care agencies that receive federal funding could keep children in government care rather than allow them to be adopted by qualified same-sex couples or families with different religious beliefs from the agency Taxpayer dollars should not be used to advance discrimination and harm vulnerable children in foster care, older adults, those at risk for HIV, and more. The rule is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to undermine civil rights protections and harm people served by government-funded programs.
MAP, in partnership with other organizations like the ACLU, the Center for American Progress, and others, will continue to provide more information about what this proposed rule – and the notice of nonenforcement – means for the programs that millions of people count on.
While WHO you vote for is always private, whether you vote is public record. If you recently voted, thank you! If you haven't voted yet, it’s too late to put your ballot in the mail, but you can still drop it off or vote in person. It's people like you who will decide the future of our state by returning your ballot by 7 pm today.
This election is important – many contests will be so close that a very small number of votes will determine the outcome. Click here to find the nearest Voter Service Center in your county. If you have a mail ballot, you have to drop it off by 7pm. Click here to find out where. If you want to vote in person, you can go to any Voter Service & Polling Center in your county before 7pm tonight. This site will help you find one close to you & this FAQ page will help you figure out what kind of ID to bring. If you’re not registered to vote, you can still register and then vote at any Voter Service and Polling Center in your county before 7pm tonight. Click here to find the one nearest to you.
Make sure you make a plan to vote by 7 PM TODAY, Tuesday, November 5th, Election Day. It’s time to join the millions of Coloradans who will vote this year.
Every Wednesday since June 2016, 25 to 30 dogs and puppies are loaded onto the Peaceful Animal Adoption Shelter’s (PAAS) Ride to Rescue vehicle and transported to the Dumb Friends League Buddy Center in Castle Rock, Colorado.
In Colorado, there are times supply does not meet demand for adoptable dogs, while shelters in Oklahoma often have limited resources and more dogs than adopters. The partnership between the Dumb Friends League and PAAS, located in Vinita, Oklahoma, helps dogs that may otherwise spend years waiting for forever homes and fills the need to provide adoptable dogs for Coloradans looking for a new pet.
This Wednesday, November 6, the partnership will reach a milestone when the 5,000th dog, Homer, will arrive at the Buddy Center from PAAS.
Homer, an affectionate young dog, was found as a stray in Stephens County, Okla. He was never claimed by an owner and due to his large size, was being passed over by potential adopters in Oklahoma. Upon arriving in Colorado, Homer, like the 4,999 dogs before him will get a second chance at a new life, with a loving family.
All dogs are transferred with rabies and health certificates. Upon arrival, the transfer team examines and evaluates each animal. They are then spayed or neutered, if necessary, and brought up to date on vaccinations. Most dogs are available for adoption within days of arriving at the Buddy Center and typically wait less than six days to find new families.
In addition to placing these adoptable dogs, the Dumb Friends League invests a portion of each adoption fee for dogs transferred from PAAS to help fund spay/neuter and educational programs in the communities from where the dogs are transferred.
Check out the “Flash Pose” featuring Charli XCXfrom MTV EMA winner, Pabllo Vittar. “Flash Pose” is the lead single of her third studio album, “111”, and marks the first English track released by Pabllo Vittar – although she already has done international partnerships with renowned artists such as Major Lazer (‘Sua Cara’), Lali (‘Caliente’), Charli XCX (‘I Got It’), ‘Então Vai’ (Diplo) and Sofi Tukker (‘EnergÃa’).
In the past few months, Pabllo Vittar has been spreading her music and art in several markets, including an international tour across Latin America and Europe, in addition to her Pride Tour in the US and Canada that included Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Miami Parades.
A historic partnership between Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the Keith Haring Foundation will result in a medical innovation that will change the health care landscape: Announcing the first Keith Haring Nurse Practitioner Postgraduate Fellowship in LGBTQ+ Health.
This health care innovation — the first in the United States — will be made possible by a $2.5 million donation to Callen-Lorde by the Keith Haring Foundation. It is the largest private gift ever made to Callen-Lorde, and the largest donation made by the Keith Haring Foundation in its three decades of operation. The gift will establish The Keith Haring LGBTQ+ Health Equity Endowment, which will fund the Fellowship.
The Fellowship will be officially announced at Callen-Lorde’s Community Health Awards gala, to be held on Thursday, November 7 at Tribeca Rooftop in downtown Manhattan.
“Keith Haring was a visionary in the fight against HIV/AIDS, raising awareness, challenging stigma, and engaging hearts and souls through his art as a person living with HIV,” said Wendy Stark, Executive Director of Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. “The Keith Haring Foundation continues his legacy, and this landmark grant to Callen-Lorde will significantly impact culturally competent health care access for LGBTQ people for years to come.”
Callen-Lorde’s Nurse Practitioner Postgraduate Fellowship in LGBTQ+ Health will be the first in the nation. The project will address a lack of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) training for clinical providers at the national, state and local level. It will have large-scale impact by producing culturally competent providers who will then take the body of knowledge gained through their time in the program wherever they choose to practice after, and producing a guide that will assist other organizations to implement their own population-specific residency programs.
The Fellowship will have a home within Callen-Lorde’s brand-new site in Downtown Brooklyn, slated to open in 2020 at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension. The fourth clinical site will be designed specifically to meet the considerations for a successful residency program. The space will allow Callen-Lorde to nearly double its capacity with an additional 25,000 square feet of space to provide critically needed healthcare services to LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, people living with HIV/AIDS, and the uninsured.
The Nurse Practitioner Postgraduate Fellowship is a timely effort that directly responds to the need for entry-to-practice training for advanced practice nurses statewide, as well as calls from the Institute of Medicine, National Institute of Health, American Medical Association and others for LGBTQ+ healthcare training.
With ancient archeological sites, beautiful mountainside towns, and a bustling capital city, Peru offers an array of unforgettable experiences to gay travelers. Click the link to see the best gay-friendly places to stay!
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a proposed rule that would allow HHS to issue grants to social service agencies that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as religion and sex. The rule seeks to permit discrimination by HHS-supported social services ranging from foster care, adoption, HIV and STI prevention programs, to programs for seniors and people experiencing homelessness, and many other public health services.
Sharon McGowan, Lambda Legal’s chief strategy officer and legal director issued the following statement: “HHS is charged with protecting the health and wellbeing of all people, but its actions today demonstrate once again its complete disregard for its mission. Today’s proposed rule rolls back critical protections against discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and religion, and in doing so, puts at risk some of the most vulnerable members of our communities, including LGBT people who are poor or experiencing homelessness; LGBT seniors and LGBT youth in out-of-home care, including foster children in need of loving families, people living with HIV, and many others.
“Furthermore, HHS’s announcement that it will immediately cease enforcement of existing nondiscrimination protections, rather than adhering to the established procedures for changing regulations such as these, once again demonstrates the Trump administration’s utter disregard for the rule of law.”
Following the Trump administration’s move to allow adoption and foster-care agencies to reject LGBTQ families, DNC Chair Tom Perez and DNC LGBTQ Caucus Chair Earl Fowlkes released the following statement:
“Shame on the Trump administration for permitting discrimination against LGBTQ parents. The rules proposed by the Trump administration would roll back progress made under President Obama and pave the way for children to be denied loving homes and families. More than 100,000 children are awaiting adoption, and this move only reduces the number of families able to adopt them. This is just the latest in a long line of actions the Trump administration has taken to discriminate against LGBTQ people in health care, employment, military service, and housing. Trump promised to support LGBTQ Americans, but since taking office, his administration has done nothing but encourage discrimination and dismantle equality.”
It was announced today that, “The Zone,” a pop-up experience and retail shop dedicated to celebrating the iconic career of Britney Spears, will open in Los Angeles in January 2020. The one-of-a-kind exhibit, for Britney Spears fans and pop-culture aficionados alike, promises to immerse fans in the life and legacy of the star and redefine “It’s Britney, Bitch!”
“As devoted Britney fans, we created The Zone as a thank you for the years of joy she has brought to all of our lives. Britney loves her fans more than anything,” says Jeff Delson, lead producer for the Zone and CEO of Black Sky Creative, the production company behind the experience. “Nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to The Zone. The scale of the venue, the breakthrough technologies, the fashion, the surprises, the special access we were given, and the sheer fun of it all will truly blow people away. As it should be for the Princess of Pop."
Upon entrance, guests will experience shareable moments and first-of-a-kind exhibits in 10 rooms based on Spears’ most memorable music videos—including a “Britney High” from “…Baby One More Time,” a journey to Mars for “Oops…I Did it Again,” and a custom commercial airline attraction from “Toxic,” complete with interactive content on the windows and user-controlled activations, along with the “Circus” which will feature a 40ft tightrope photo walk, live ringmaster, tarot card reader machine and the actual jacket and bike from the “Circus” tour among other memorabilia and signature items throughout the venue. Guests will receive a RFID wristband upon entry, which will connect to an app they can download on their smartphones, providing a thoroughly interactive experience and non-stop sharable content throughout the space.
Additional exhibits will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Zone will also feature the retail storefront which will debut five different merchandise collections exclusive to the exhibit, including “Britney Army,” “Work Bitch,” “The Zone Collection,” “Britney Bitch,” and “Pride Collection” along with legendary merchandise from Britney Spears’ past tours. Throughout the experience, guests can peruse the exclusive retail offerings in each of the rooms, and upon the completion of the 60-90-minute attraction, have the opportunity to purchase any of their selections from the shop.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Lambda Legal, and the County of Santa Clara today argued before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that the Trump administration’s Denial of Care Rule should be ruled unlawful and blocked from going into effect. The organizations, along with pro bono counsel Mayer Brown LLP, are representing myriad health care providers and medical professionals, as co-plaintiffs with the County, in the lawsuit County of Santa Clara v. HHS.
The Denial of Care Rule, which was issued in May by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, invites any health care worker – including doctors, nurses, EMTs, administrators, janitors and clerical staff – to deny medical treatment, information and services to patients because of personal religious or moral beliefs. Health care facilities risk losing essential federal funding if they do not grant employees carte blanche to deny services. Because the rule is confusing and infeasible to implement, many health care facilities will likely be forced to eliminate services such as reproductive and LGBTQ care, leaving millions across the United States without access to critical health care.
Today, the civil rights organizations and the County argued that HHS exceeded its authority and arbitrarily and capriciously failed to consider the rule’s potential harm to patients and the health care system, in violation of the federal Administrative Procedure Act. They also argued that the rule is unconstitutional because it advances specific religious beliefs in violation of the First Amendment; violates patients’ rights to privacy, liberty and equal dignity as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment; and chills patients’ speech and expression in violation of the First Amendment, all to the detriment of patients’ health and well-being.
“For more than five months this rule has hung over women, LGBTQ people, religious minorities, and other already marginalized and vulnerable populations, threatening at any moment to cut them off from critical and in some cases life-saving care,” Lambda Legal Senior Attorney Jamie Gliksberg said. “Our attorneys today made it transparently clear to the court just how devastating implementation of this rule will be, and we look forward to the court issuing a ruling that the facts overwhelmingly support.”
“We have less than a month before patients nationwide may be denied care because of someone else’s religious beliefs. This is about health – for ourselves, our children, our grandparents, our communities. No one should be denied medical treatment because of who they are, who they love or what they believe,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. “The Denial of Care rule violates our nation’s fundamental promise of religious freedom – that we are all free to believe or not believe, so long as we don’t harm others. It is the definition of harming others when you refuse to provide health care to those in need. The court should recognize the danger this rule poses to everyone and block it from ever taking effect.”
“This policy invites unprecedented discrimination against healthcare recipients at hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country – HHS has said it is acceptable for a receptionist to refuse a patient care or for an EMT to refuse to transport a patient with a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy,” said Genevieve Scott, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “What’s more, hospitals and other healthcare facilities throughout the country will likely be coerced into eliminating abortion care, trans care, and other critical services to avoid loss of government funding that they depend upon to keep their doors open.”
“The argument today confirms that the rule has no legal or common sense basis and, if implemented, will undermine emergency services and medical care for the County’s nearly 2 million residents,” said James R. Williams, Santa Clara County Counsel. “The Trump Administration is purposefully stoking fear among already vulnerable communities and increasing barriers to critical health care. We are committed to healthcare for all—and that is why we will continue working to ensure this unlawful rule is blocked.”
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include the County of Santa Clara, which runs an extensive health and hospital system that serves as a safety-net provider for the county’s 1.9 million residents; the health providers Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, Pa., Center on Halsted in Chicago, Hartford GYN in Connecticut, Los Angeles LGBT Center, Mazzoni Center in Philadelphia, Trust Women Seattle and Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, D.C.; the associations AGLP, GLMA and Medical Students for Choice; and five doctors.
