LGBTQ COMMUNITY

PALM SPRINGS SHORTFEST

The Palm Spring ShortFest will be presented from Tuesday, June 21 through Monday, June 27. The largest short film festival in the U.S., ShortFest will returning with in-theatre screenings, panels and roundtable discussions. Alongside June’s Pride Month, ShortFest remains a touchstone for LGBTQ cinema worldwide, annually curating an LGBTQ short film lineup and awarding in their Best LGBTQ Short category. This year, another selection of 20 to 30 LGBTQ shorts will be shown at the Camelot Theatre at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, along with the always festive GAY!LA program. Last year, award winners in the Best LGBTQ Short category included Eggshells (directed by Slava Doytcheva) and F1-100 (directed by Emory Chao Johnson).

Can’t make it in person? Watch from the comfort of your home and at your leisure.

ShortFest will screen a selection of award winners and audience favorites online from Friday, July 1 through Sunday, July 10. A virtual pass will grant you full access to short film favorites from the 2022 edition.

psfilmfest.org

CELEBRATE THE LGBTQ CENTER LONG BEACH

This summer’s hottest ticketed charity event in Long Beach will be back with elegance, sophistication and entertainment to celebrate the achievements of the LGBTQ community. This year’s bash will be held on Saturday, June 25 at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. It will include a cocktail reception, dinner, a live and silent auction, a dance party, and a program of entertainment and recognition of notable LGBTQ locals. Stick around for the official afterparty with dancing, desserts and music by DJ Jovanah G.

Five awards will be presented at this year’s gala. Honorees include the Warrior Award to Alexandra Billings, the Political Icon Award to Tim Patton and the Community Icon Award to South Coast Chorale.

Black & White Ball is The LGBTQ Center Long Beach’s biggest annual fundraiser. 2022 introduces a theme for the first time in the event’s history: Wonderland. The attire for the ball is traditionally black and white. Still, attendees are encouraged to boldly bling up their outfits to capture the spirit of wonderland, a feeling of surprise caused by something beautiful, unexpected or inexplicable.

All proceeds from the ball will support the many programs and services of The Center, the largest publicly supported LGBTQ direct services organization in greater Long Beach, which supports more than 25,000 clients per year.

centerlb.org/bwball

SAN DIEGO WAVE FC PRIDE NIGHT

San Diego’s new women’s professional soccer team will sponsor Pride Night on Wednesday, June 8 at Torero Stadium. San Diego Wave FC stars two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist Alex Morgan. She is one of the greatest soccer players of all time and a fierce advocate for equality and reform in her sport. $1 from every ticket sold for Pride Night will benefit San Diego Pride. San Diego Wave FC will also have a Pride rally towel giveaway for attendees.

sdpride.org/event/san-diego-wave-fcpride-night

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S NEWEST LGBTQ COMIC CON

Prism Comics, the nonprofit championing LGBTQ visibility, diversity and inclusion in comics, graphic novels and popular media, will present Q Con: Southern California’s newest LGBTQ comic con. The event will take place on Saturday, June 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Fiesta Hall in West Hollywood. Q Con is family friendly and free, providing pre-teens through adults with the opportunity to find a wide variety of comics and graphic novels affirming LGBTQ representation at one exciting, colorful event. It will celebrate the fantastic diversity of LGBTQ comics, games and popular media today and feature creators from indie comics to major publishers. Meet creators, get autographs and sketches, and mix with other comics fans. Cosplay is encouraged and attendees can enter the costume contest for fun and prizes. Q Con is supported by a grant from the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division as part of the city’s WeHo Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival. prismcomics.org/q-con

OUT AT THE FAIR

Come one, come all to the San Diego County Fair on Sunday, June 12. Out at the Fair, the official LGBTQ festival of the fair, will return with a full day of family-friendly fun and entertainment. Gates will open at 11 a.m. and the Out at the Fair events are included with your general admission ticket. Performances on the Paddock Stage (Out at the Fair Central) will run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Get ready for Cheer San Diego Extreme, Story Time with Landa Plenty, the annual Out at the Fair Glam Show and San Diego Kings Club. Plus, Family Fit ‘Zumba Time, Who’s That Girl: The Ultimate DIVA Experience, The Family Jewels, 2022 Out at the Fair group photo and more. Enjoy musical entertainment by Snubby J, TeawhYB, Torrey Mercer and LA pop-rock band KingQueen. outatthefair.com/sdfair

GLOW WALK FOR LOVE

Riverside LGBTQ Pride will glimmer and shine up the night with a fun, new fundraiser that will be at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), on Saturday, June 18. The nonprofit encourages attendees to dress in costumes and glow novelties to illuminate the evening while walking to raise money for the charity.

The event will be co-hosted by the LGBT Resource Center of the University of California, Riverside. “We are thrilled that we can bring such an event to our campus and help support the Riverside Pride Event that has been missing from our vibrant community for years.” said Megan Rush, the center’s program director.

“This will be a Pride month event like no other,” said Troy Yu, the event organizer. “We’re so excited to partner with UCR and light up the campus for Pride month.”

After an opening ceremony, participants will be cheered by a drag cheerleading squad as they choose to walk or run their number of pledged miles for charity. Spectators are welcomed to cheer participants and mingle with the many vendors and food trucks that will be present at the event. Prizes will be given out at the night’s end to the highest donors and best and most outrageous outfits.

“This is a great opportunity to create and build a bigger and more connected LGBTQ+ community throughout Riverside,” Rush said. “Few things are as better than being in a community in a postCOVID-19 world, so wear all your neon favorites and join us for lots of fun and love.”

“We hope to bring together everyone to heal rifts and build bridges within our community.” Yu said. “In order to succeed against all the new forms of adversity we’re facing these days, we’ll need to work together.” riversideprideie.org

SAN DIEGO EQUALITY AWARDS

Equality California brings the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States. With over 900,000 members, it is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil-rights organization and California’s only LGBTQ civil-rights organization working locally and nationally. On Friday, June 17 the San Diego Equality Awards will honor the inspirational organizations and leaders whose selfless work helps create a healthy, just and fully equal world for all LGBTQ people. Celebrate with Equality California under the stars at one of the city’s most beautiful outdoor venues, Humphreys by the Bay. eqca.org

LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER

Celebrate Pride Month with your community at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s annual Pride event on Sunday, June 26. Picnic at Hollywood Forever and enjoy drag performances, live DJ, Pride giveaways and more. Benefiting the center’s programs and services, Pride night will feature picnic space on the Fairbanks Lawn, tunes by DJ Nico Craig, drag performances by Amber Crane and Lauren Banall, and vogue performances from Chauncey Dominique.

Available for purchase will be specialty cocktails from Tito’s Handmade Vodka and food from L.A.’s best food trucks including Vegan AF, Go Beyond the Bowl, and Go Fusion & Grill. Bring your own blanket, chairs, food and drink. Make sure to get the free swag and participate in various photo activations. lalgbtcenter.org

CONSTELLATIONS

CULTUREEDIT Gallery will display a solo exhibition of works by queer American multimedia artist Tyler Matthew Oyer. Titled CONSTELLATIONS, the exhibit will feature 20 analog portraits of friends, lovers, mentors and inspirations — a method of photographing that focuses on the tender connections and bonds we form as we orbit each other and move throughout this world. Oyer’s subjects include artists across disciplines: Ashley Huizenga, Barbara T. Smith, Casey Spooner, Christeene, Frederick Weston, Hayden Dunham, K8 Hardy, Kembra Pfahler, Robert Alfons and Sebastian Hernandez, to name a few, representing a community changing the art world’s status quo. Also on view are two ceramic wall-pieces of faces, serving as an extension of his drawings and made to represent portraiture through a different media.

Oyer has also released three original music albums: Release Deluxe (2017), No Temple (2020) and Tenderness (2022). The exhibition coincides with the launch of Tyler’s first book titled PORTRAITS. The exhibition will run through Thursday, June 23 at CULTUREEDIT Gallery in Los Angeles. cultureedit.com

DEAR QUEER SELF: AN EXPERIMENT IN MEMOIR

On Tuesday, June 7, queer Los Angeles author and UC Irvine professor Jonathan Alexander will read from his unconventional memoir at Book Soup in West Hollywood. Dear Queer Self is written in the second person and revisits the years 1989, 1993 and 1996. “I imagined striking up a conversation with my younger self who I discovered to be someone who needed far more care and concern than he got,” Alexander said. The memoir is an observation, a reflection on Alexander’s life so far, and his attempt to tell young Jonathan that he’s still working on it. When asked if the moral of his memoir is “it gets better,” he said, “Fuck that. For queer people, it doesn’t necessarily ‘get better,’ but viewed through our experiences, it does get more interesting, richer.” booksoup.com