23.THE PRIDE LA, JULY 29, 2016

the pride

ISSUE NUMBER 18, VOLUME 2 07.29 — 08.11.2016

WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM

| JULY 29 - AUGUST 11, 2016

LOS ANGELES

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THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER

Stronger Stronger Together Together

“You have to stand up to bullies, even when the odds are long and the opposition is fierce.”

— HILLARY CLINTON

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07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

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07.29 — 08.11.2016 LOS ANGELES HEALTH

LOS ANGELES

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MENINGITIS OUTBREAK

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

Meningitis outbreak escalates as CDC warns all SoCal gay men at risk, vaccinations urged Los Angeles County Department of Public Health seems to have responded in a guarded manner, frustrating some LGBT health agencies The Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging all gay and bisexual men in the Los Angeles and Orange County area to get vaccinated against Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD). The recommendation comes as the agency undertakes a local area ground investigation into a continued outbreak that is affecting men who have sex men disproportionately.

Previously, LA County Department of Public Health had emphasized HIV positive gay men should be vaccinated.

Beyond urging all gay men to get vaccinated there is no information available as to whether the CDC continues to investigate the outbreak.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation had earlier reported that since the initial alarm was sounded there has been difficulty in obtaining supply of vaccine.

In a statement provided to The Pride LA by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the agency now says supply is being provided.

“Public Health is working in close collaboration with AHF (and other community based organizations) in different capacities. Public Health is providing vaccine both to their day clinics and Wellness Center(s) which are open in the evenings. As of this week, AHF will have received 400 doses of vaccine, in addition to more that will be provided to AHF, who will be providing vac-

You should know: What are the symptoms of meningococcal disease?

The symptoms of meningococcal disease vary, but include: High fever (more than 104°F) Headache, Vomiting, Stiff neck, Rash, Sensitivity to light, Confusion, Sleepiness

How does meningococcal disease spread?

Meningococcal disease is spread by contact with spit, phlegm, or other fluids from the nose or mouth of someone who has the disease. Someone who has had close contact with an infected person can become infected, but taking the correct antibiotic right away can prevent illness.

Close contact includes: Kissing, Sneezing, or coughing on someone, Living in a crowded space, such as in dormitories, Sharing eating or drinking utensils or other items placed in the mouth or nose A person with meningococcal disease can spread infection to others for several days before they feel sick, and while they are sick until 24 hours after the start of antibiotics.

What should I do if I have been around someone who is infected?

People who have been in close contact with an infected person should get antibiotics to prevent illness. If you are a close contact, your medical provider can give you a prescription for the right antibiotic.

Close contacts include: Household members, Other kids at the same daycare, Someone who has been kissing or sharing eating utensils or beverage containers, Someone who has been directly sneezed or coughed on Close contacts should also watch for fever or other symptoms. Casual contacts, such as classmates or officemates, do not usually need to take antibiotics unless they feel sick. Classmates are different from kids at the same daycare because kids at daycare are more likely to share things they have put in their mouths, and more likely to sneeze or cough on each other.

How soon after their first MCV4 dose should people who remain at risk for meningococcal disease be vaccinated again?

The time between the primary (initial) doses(s) of MCV4 and the first booster varies. Children who received their primary MCV4 dose(s) before their seventh birthday should get their first booster 3 years after their primary dose(s). Children who received their primary MCV4 dose(s) at or after age 7 years and all adults should get MCV4 boosters 5 years after their primary dose(s).

cine at the Bienestar East LA clinic,” the statement says.

Bienestar has mobile facilities and

can reach the Latino community more effectively than other agencies.

The demographics beyond men who

have sex with men show that a majority of those affected so far are Latino.

Of 15 cases in LA County, eight were among Latino, two African American, two White, one Asian/Pacific Islander, and two are other or unknown race/ ethnicity.

17 of the 23 cases reported in LA County (including Long Beach) and Orange County were reported in May and June alone. 9 of those cases were among men who have sex with men.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, and Orange Public Health were previously recommending vaccinations only for individuals who were considered high-risk, primarily people who are HIV positive.

“We acknowledge this broadens our prior recommendations, but, after careful consultation with the CDC and health officers in other affected jurisdictions, we consider that this expansion of the vaccination recommendations is a necessary step to suppress this outbreak,” according to Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, L.A. County Interim Health Officer, who posted a statement today (Tuesday, July 26).

L.A. County has reported 13 cases of IMD this year. One person has died and 7 of the 13 cases were reportedly men who have sex with men. Recommendations for men who have sex with men are posted here.

Statewide the numbers seem even more alarming, but in reality the only cluster or outbreak that has been acknowledged is in SoCal.; more than 50 cases have been reported statewide.

CDC investigators feel that because it is unclear why gay men and men who have sex with me are being infected in greater numbers than the general public, the outbreak requires a community wide response.

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COMMUNITY WEHO

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07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

LA PRIDE

⚫ BY HENRY SCOTT for WeHoville

Christopher Street West’s board under growing pressure, public forum erupts into anger West Hollywood will now require open accounting from LA Pride and other events before providing tax-payer funded support

Members of the LGBT community, representatives of local non-profit groups and people living in the West Hollywood West neighborhood turned out tonight for the first of two public meetings about L.A. Pride.

The meeting, organized by the City of West Hollywood, was intended to elicit feedback on the Pride parade and festival in June, with attendees noting what they liked and what they didn’t like about the event. But it quickly turned into criticism of the direction in which the new management of Christopher Street West (CSW) has taken the event and of CSW’s lack of transparency and engagement with the community. CSW is the non-profit group that puts on the annual L.A. Pride.

Several of the speakers talked about their disappointment that CSW had decided to change the weekend of events in West Hollywood Park into what it called a “music festival” whose goal was to appeal to Millennials. That involved adding a number of music performances and an initial CSW decision, later partially reversed, to reduce the presence of the transgender, lesbian and leather community events at the festival. One speaker, who identified himself as having been a volunteer with CSW for several years, said that Chris Classen, named CSW’s president last year, told him that he wanted the Pride festival to be the “gay Coachella” and that it wasn’t intended to appeal to every LGBT community. Classen said he didn’t recall saying that.

Representatives of several non-profit groups complained about problems communicating with CSW. A representative of the L.A. LGBT Center’s addiction center said he had trouble making

CSW PRESIDENT CHRIS CLASSEN (FOREGROUND) QUESTIONED BY IVY BOTTINI. (PHOTO

BY JON VISCOTT)

contact with the right people at CSW to plan the center’s involvement with the festival. Jamie Baker of Being Alive, an HIV service organization, objected to CSW’s decision to segregate non-profit organizations from booths paid for by corporate sponsors. “We should not be placed outside the festival or placed on ‘non-profit’ row,” he said. Baker also said representatives of Being Alive were treated rudely. “We should not be yelled out, threatened with sanctions and in our case being called a bitch.”

Classen also was criticized for making important decisions, such as turning the Pride event into a music festival, with a small cadre of fellow board members rather than allowing the full 12-member board to vote on them.

While Classen said all major decisions were presented to the board for approval, several speakers said other board members had told them that wasn’t true.

Manny Rodriguez, who lives in the

West Hollywood West neighborhood several blocks from the festival, complained about the festival’s impact on parking in residential areas.

“Because of the way it’s going, and the direction that it’s taking away from its original intent, why should we as a neighborhood have that burden?” he asked. “Our residents are unfairly inconvenienced by having to be the parking lot for this music festival.”

Rodriguez also criticized the festival’s programming. “The only relevance to the gay liberation movement I think is the parade,” he said. “Everything else is just a show …. Why does it have to corrupt the gay liberation movement by having it be so commercial?”

Several speakers brought up the cost of tickets to the festival, which were increased initially by 40% for admission on Saturday and on Sunday (CSW lowered the increase to 17% after complaints by the community). Eric Gonzales of the Los Angeles Volleyball Or-

ganization said that the festival looked impressive with its array of large LCD screens and props and decorations.

“But was it really necessary?,” Gonzalez asked. “Could reducing that reduce the cost and the tickets?”

Ivy Bottini, a prominent lesbian activist, pressed Classen to explain what she said were efforts to make the festival exclusionary. She cited CSW’s effort to market private cabanas in an area of West Hollywood Park from which regular festival goers would be excluded. “You could rent one for $2,500 a day,” Bottini said. (CSW did attempt to market expensive private cabanas with unobstructed views of the main music stage but dropped the effort for lack of response.)

In response to other questions and criticism, Classen said CSW is updating its website, which currently focuses only on the Pride music events and doesn’t list board members, its mission statement or its financials. He also said CSW would soon be releasing its 2015 tax return, which the Internal Revenue Service requires to be made public for non-profits. Asked whether CSW had lost money on this year’s event, Classen said they was likely. He said CSW wouldn’t know for sure until it actually collected the revenue its corporate sponsors had agreed to pay for floats in the parade and booths at the festival.

Classen also was pressed on opening up the board of directors to new members. Several current board members who have been excluded from some major CSW decisions say they have been threatened with being booted off the board if they speak publicly about their concerns about CSW’s management.

Mayor Lauren Meister, who attended the event along with City Councilmember John D’Amico, has asked for another community meeting on Aug. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the West Hollywood Park Auditorium, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd. south of Santa Monica. Meister said that event will focus not on problems with the past event but on the next one.

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LOS ANGELES

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DEMOCRATS HISTORY

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LOS ANGELES

CONVENTIONS

⚫ BY MICHAEL LAVERS AND WASHINGTON BLADE

Transgender Speaker is a first and so trans delegates caucus meeting at DNC Sarah McBrida becomes the first transgender person to address a major national political convention; transgender delegate hold historic meeting The first-ever formal meeting of transgender delegates to the Democratic National Convention took place on Thursday in Philadelphia.

Many of the 28 openly trans delegates to the convention attended the Transgender Caucus meeting that Mara Keisling, a long-time trans activist who sits on the Democratic National Committee’s platform committee, convened at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

“I am so blown away by this delegation,” said Keisling.

Pennsylvania Physician General Rachel Levine and Misty Snow, who is running against U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) in November, both attended the meeting. Gay U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) spoke to the delegates before the Democratic National Committee’s LGBT Caucus meeting began.

“I’m almost speechless…at the turnout,” said Barbra Casbar Siperstein, a trans activist from New Jersey

TRANS ACTIVIST SARAH MCBRIDE MADE HISTORY AT DNC, ADDRESSING THE CONVENTION ON TRANSGENDER SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES. PHOTO BY ROBIN TYLER.

who is a member of the Democratic National Committee’s Executive Committee. “It’s such a sea change.”

The delegates who attended the Transgender Caucus meeting are among the 515 openly LGBT delegates or alternates to this year’s Democratic National Convention.

They met hours before Human Rights Campaign National Press Secretary Sarah McBride will become the first

openly trans person to speak at a major party convention.

Rev. Merrick Moise of Baltimore, who is a pledged Hillary Clinton delegate, told the Pride after the meeting that he is “honored” and “blessed” to attend the Democratic National Convention.

“This is a very profound moment in our history, in our community in general,” he said.

Charlotte Loses All-Star game over Anti-LGBT Law

“I’m talking to people about our challenges and our successes in Baltimore,” added Moise. “I’m here on a mission for our community.”

Anita Green, a Bernie Sanders supporter from Missoula, Mont., is one of 21 pledged delegates from Montana.

She told the Pride after the Transgender Caucus meeting that she is “so honored to be here on behalf of Montana” because it shows that her state is “incredibly progressive.”

Green also described the Democratic Party’s platform as “great.”

Trump described as ‘demagogue’ Caitlyn Jenner on July 20 criticized North Carolina’s House Bill 2 and other anti-trans laws as she spoke at an event the American Unity Fund held in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention. The Olympian who came out as trans in April 2015 has also spoken in support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“He seems very much behind the LGBT community because of what happened in North Carolina with the bathroom issue,” Jenner recently told STAT, a medical publication in Colorado.

Both Levine and Green described Trump as a “demagogue.”

“He is the three-card Monty guy from 42nd and Eighth Avenue,” Moise told the Pride, noting he grew up in New York. “He can’t be trusted.”

Ever since North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) enacted the anti-LGBT law HB2 in the spring, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has threatened to move the 2017 All-Star Game away from Charlotte.

On Thursday, after months of failed talks with the state to make satisfactory changes to the legislation, Silver backed up his words with action. The Vertical reports that the NBA has officially pulled the All-Star

Game from the Queen City.

This is a significant statement from a league that has frequently preached diversity and inclusion, and a big blow to the city of Charlotte. The Charlotte Observer previously reported that the All-Star Game was projected to have a $100 million impact on the host city.

Many close to the NBA, including basketball legend NBA continued on p. 7

07.29 — 08.11.2016 BUSINESS

TECHNOLOGY

LOS ANGELES

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West Hollywood

⚫ BY HENRY SCOTT for WeHoville

Will Grindr find a pokemon at it’s new PDC digs?

Grindr is growing.

The gay hookup app is expanding its presence in the Pacific Design Center’s Red Building in West Hollywood by 44%, taking over the entire 14th floor.

Grindr, founded in 2009 by Joel Simkhai and Scott Lewallen, moved to the PDC from its former headquarters at 6725 W. Sunset Blvd. earlier this year.

Also earlier this year Grindr’s owners sold a 60% stake in the company to China’s Beijing Kunlun Tech, a gaming company. The New York Times said the purchase valued the company at $155 million.

Grindr is one of the first mobile phone apps created for gay men to meet one another and is widely regarded as the most popular. While the gay men who use it see it as a way to meet others for dates and sex, Grindr has been trying to position itself as

a way for its users to “find a job and keep up with professional contacts, for real-time communications with friends and followers, or connect for other social activities.”

In an interview with the Real Deal, Ryan Harding of Newmark Knight Grubb Frank, who represented Grindr in the lease deal, said it “is broadening their services. They’re adding staff across the board.” Grindr currently has 14 job openings posted on its website, where it lists its headquarters as Hollywood instead of West Hollywood.

Grindr’s new owner was founded in 2008 by Zhou Yahui, a married heterosexual man who is onForbes’ list of the world’s billionaires. Kunlun also is a partner of Finland’s Rovio Entertainment, the company that owns the online game Angry Birds. It is one the biggest web game developers in China.

NBA continued from p. 6

undergo gender reassignment surgery, an extremely expensive and invasive procedure.

The NBA was not impressed.

“We have been engaged in dialogue with numerous groups at the city and state levels, but we do not endorse the version of the bill that we understand is currently before the legislature,” the NBA and Charlotte Hornets said in a statement. “We remain committed to our guiding principles of inclusion, mutual respect and equal protections for all.”

The NBA has stressed its support for LGBT rights over the past few years, and in June became thefirst pro sports league (along with the WNBA) to have a float in the New York City pride parade. Silver had hoped to work with North Carolina to change the bill, especially considering the fact that there is an NBA franchise in the state.

But unfortunately, McCrory and other North Carolina legislators simply would not budge on this issue, instead insisting that the bill was

Charles Barkley, have been vocal supporters of the NBA pulling the game from Charlotte.

“It’s my job, with the position of power that I’m in and being able to be on television, I’m supposed to stand up for the people who can’t stand up for themselves,” Barkely said in April.

“So, I think the NBA should move the All-Star game from Charlotte.”

Among other discriminatory measures, HB2 mandates that transgender individuals use restrooms that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates, not their gender identities.

Last month, the pressure from the NBA caused North Carolina Republicans to take another look at the controversial bill, but the changes they proposed did not fix HB2’s most problematic features. The new draft bill gave transgender individuals the option to obtain an official certificate that would recognize their gender reassignment. However, that step still required transgender individuals to

Check out thepridela.com for up to date 2016 campaign news as it affects the LGBTQ community. “common sense.”

This is far from the first time that HB2 has cost North Carolina dearly.

In April, PayPal announced that it was cancelling plans to build an operations center in Charlotte because of the law, costing the state 400 jobs.

Currently, the NBA is focused on moving the All-Star Game to New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center, though other cities are still trying to vie for the opportunity to host the high-profile weekend of events.

The NBA has released a statement confirming its decision and reiterating its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and fairness.

“While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state, and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2,” the league said.”We understand the NBA’s decision and the challenges around holding the NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte this season,” The Charlotte Hornets and

Chairman Michael Jordan said in a statement. “There was an exhaustive effort from all parties to keep the event in Charlotte, and we are disappointed we were unable to do so.”

McCrory, meanwhile, released a statement of his own, blaming the NBA’s decision on the “sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media.”

North Carolina has been maligned “simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present,” the governor added.

“Left-wing special interest groups have no moral authority to try and intimidate the large majority of American parents who agree in common-sense bathroom and shower privacy for our children. American families should be on notice that the selective corporate elite are imposing their political will on communities in which they do business, thus bypassing the democratic and legal process.”

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ANALYSIS POLITICS

07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

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GAY REPUBLICANS

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

Who cares? Peter Thiel’s bad art of the deal Thiel gave antigay forces a pass on their hostility toward LGBT people and emblodened their determination to reverse our social and political gains.

I can’t stop thinking about it.

When Peter Thiel declared “I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American,” the billionaire founder of PayPal received a standing ovation from the ultra-conservative crowd.

It was a made for TV moment that was possibly the most carefully engineered and disingenuous audience manipulation of the entire convention.

Only seconds earlier Thiel had whipped the audience into a frenzy by trans-bashing and throwing LGBT rights under the ultimate antigay bandwagon.

“Fake culture wars only distract us,” he said referring in part to North Carolina’s recent anti-LGBT laws preventing the use of public bathrooms by transgender people.

“Who cares,” he shouted.

Applause was wild and then he delivered his declaration that he was a proud gay man....an oratorical strategy that worked to give the absurd impression that the G.O.P. was somehow pro-gay.

You saw that. I saw that. But most of America, not as educated about gay issues or aware of the extreme animus of the party’s official positions against the LGBT community, did not see it that way. They saw the GOP applaud a gay man for saying he is a proud gay man.

You and I were offended by the bashing of transgender people but most of America did not understand what he was referring to. They heard Thiel suggest that LGBT rights issues

PUBLISHER & EDITOR TROY MASTERS

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PETER THIEL TRIED TO MAKE FRIENDS BY BEING A BASHER. PHOTO WASHINGTON BLADE.

are, in the scheme of things, a less important matter, “a distraction.”

Thiel gave the party a pass on their hostility toward LGBT rights despite the party’s avowed determination to reverse all social and political gains LGBT people have made. He spoke on the same stage on the same night as our communities most ardent haters, whose not so thinly veiled attacks against us were a constant theme of the entire convention.

The business man made a spiteful short sale on LGBT rights, his version of an ‘art of the deal.’

Thiel, a Facebook investor and board member who was recently revealed to be waging a secret legal battle against Gawker Media, funding a spate of lawsuits for others in retaliation for Gawker allegedly publishing articles about his then closeted sexual orientation, was the first openly gay person to speak at a Republican National Convention since 2000, when then-Rep. Jim Kolbe of Arizona addressed the gathering in Philadel-

phia.

Thiel is famous for his anti-multiculturalism beliefs, so his declaration of “WHO CARES” is not all that surprising. Thiel co-authored with conservative David O. Sacks a treatise on the subject called “The Diversity Myth.” In the name of “diversity,” the book argues, many leading academic and cultural institutions are working to silence dissent and stifle intellectual life. The book takes particular aim at the “politically correct” and what he calls a decline of higher education, using Stanford University as an example. “The Diversity Myth” argues that educational institutions are bogged down in a world of speech codes, “dumbed-down” admissions standards and curricula, campus witch hunts, and anti-Western zealotry that masquerades as legitimate scholarly inquiry.

Urvashi Vaid, the legendary LGBT advocate and pioneering author of “Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming THIEL continued on p. 11

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07.29 — 08.11.2016 LGBT RIGHT POLITICS

LOS ANGELES

REPUBLICANS

⚫ BY CHRIS JOHNSON,WASHINGTON BLADE

Chelsea Clinton on GOP’s ‘Exgay’ support

CHELSEA CLINTON ADDRESSES THE DNC LGBT CAUCUS, PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY.

Chelsea Clinton said Wednesday the “most offensive” thing about last week’s Republican National Convention was the embrace of widely discredited “exgay” conversion therapy in the party platform.

“I think what I found most offensive really has to be, as a mom, the open embrace of conversion therapy in the Republican Party platform,” Clinton said. “In other words, child abuse.”

Although Clinton called Republican remarks in Cleveland as a whole “divisive, degrading, demeaning,” she said language in support of conversion therapy should itself be a “clarion call” to elect her mother, Hillary Clinton, as well as Democrats up and down the ballot.

Chelsea Clinton said the 2016 election is the most important in her lifetime, first because it’s the first election in which she’s voting as a mother, and second because of the risk to recent accomplishments on LGBT rights.

“When I think about the world that I hope for my children, when I hope

that they can be safe and secure and loved and supported and be whomever they want to be and whomever they feel called to be with whomever they want to love in their lives, that vision is at risk given what Trump and Pence are currently campaigning on,” Clinton said.

Clinton made the remarks before an estimated 300 attendees at a lunch event for LGBT delegates co-hosted by the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Institute at the Hilton Philadelphia.

Taking the podium to a standing ovation, Clinton urged the audience to sit down, saying if they didn’t she would start crying. Reflecting on the speech from former President Bill Clinton on the previous night, Chelsea Clinton said not crying has been a challenge for her throughout the convention because she “almost cried many times when my father spoke last night.”

Clinton touted the number of openly CHELSEA continued on p. 11

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ORLANDO PULSE

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07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

CONVENTION

⚫ BY MICHAEL LAVERS

Mother of gay Pulse nightclub massacre victim speaks at DNC His mother described Drew as a happy man with a big heart; he would have turned 24 later this month.

The mother of a gay man who died inside the Pulse nightclub spoke in support of “common sense” gun control at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday.

“I’m glad common sense gun policy was in place the day Christopher was bor n, but where was that common sense the day he died,” said Christine Leinonen in an emotional speech. “I never want you to ask that question about your child.”

Leinonen’s son, Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, and his fiancé, Juan Guerrero, were among the 49 people who died inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June 12. Brandon Wolf, who survived the massacre, and José Arriagada, who is Christopher Leinonen’s best friend, stood alongside Christine Leinonen and comforted her as she spoke through tears.

“It takes about five minutes for a church bell to ring 49 times,” said C h ris t in e Le in on e n . “ I kn o w t h i s because last month my son Christopher, his boyfriend Juan and 47 others were murdered at a club in Orlando.”

Christine Leinonen noted that Christopher Leinonen was her only son.

“As I used to tell him, you can’t do better than perfect,” she said.

Christine Leinonen said that her son won an award named in honor

CHRISTINE LEINONEN, MOTHER OF CHRISTOPHER “DREW” LEINONEN, ONE OF THE 49 VICTIMS OF THE PULSE NIGHTCLUB MASSACRE, SPEAKS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION IN PHILADELPHIA ON JULY 27, 2016. (WASHINGTON BLADE PHOTO BY MICHAEL KEY)

of Anne Frank for starting his high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. She also noted that his paternal grandparents met and fell in love while they were living in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. “It was in his DNA that love always trumps hate,” said Christine Leinonen.

Christine Leinonen added that her

son was “a big Hillary supporter.”

“That’s why I’m here so that I can tell you about the day he was born,” she said, noting that she too supports Hillary Clinton.

Christine Leinonen was a Michigan state trooper when her son was born.

She said that hospital personnel put her gun into a safe once she went into labor.

“I didn’t argue,” said Christine Leinonen. “I know common sense gun policies save lives.”

“The weapon that murdered my son fires 40 rounds in one minute,” she added.

The Pulse nightclub massacre, which is the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, prompted the Human Rights Campaign and dozens

of other LGBT advocacy groups to back gun control measures.

“Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, why does this keep happening?” said President Obama on June 16 after he and Vice President Biden placed flowers at a makeshift memorial to the massacre victims in downtown Orlando. The two men had just met with their families. “They pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage.”

Christine Leinonen spoke at the Democratic National Convention five days after Clinton visited the Pulse nightclub.

The former secretary of state placed a bouquet of flowers at a makeshift memorial. She also met with some of the family members of the victims and took part in a roundtable with GLBT Community Center of Greater Orlando Executive Director Terry DeCarlo and other local activists and officials.

Donald Trump in response to the massacre once again called for a temporary ban of Muslims from entering the country. He highlighted the Pulse nightclub shooting during his speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week.

“Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Fla., 49 wonder ful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic ter rorist,” said Trump. “This time, the terrorist targeted the LGBTQ community. No good, and we’re going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.”

07.29 — 08.11.2016 CHELSEA continued from p. 9

LGBT candidates running in the 2016 election, saying the country must “elect people who reflect our values” to ensure her mother can make good on her campaign promises.

The goals around LGBT rights Clinton said her mother plans to achieve are signing the Equality Act into law, signing legislation barring widely discredited “ex-gay” conversion therapy nationwide, clearing military records for gay troops discharged because of their sexual orientation and helping LGBT youth obtain needed services and support.

“I will do everything I can between now and November to ensure that as many people I can reach know what’s really at stake in this election, and how mom is fighting for and how she has fought for a better life in stark contrast to what Trump and Pence are proposing,” Clinton said. “And I hope that all of you will continue to be part of this effort.”

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has denied the party platform endorses “ex-gay” therapy. The language says, “We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children.”

Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) a gay lawmaker, referred to Pence’s campaign platform in 2000 as a U.S. House candidate, which said he wouldn’t back federal HIV/AIDS funds unless money was cut to initiatives “that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus.”

THIEL continued from p. 8

of Gay and Lesbian Liberation,” said on her Facebook page, “Peter Thiel is the new Roy Cohn.”

Republicans needed to put a smiley face on LGBT rights. They seem to have realized a need to diffuse the obvious political advantage the Democrats have gained as proponents of gay rights. But since the party can’t possibly lose the political power of antigay forces they chose to craft a “love the sinner, hate the sin” message and found a Billionaire conservative gay man to deliver the message for them.

Thiel allowed Trump to deliver his ilquetoast utterance of defense of “LG. BTQ” folks, though his words were a tired retread of his flawed terrorism theme: “Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted LGBTQ community. No good, and we’re going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me,” said Trump.

His words were the first mention of LGBT or Q people in a Republican Convention acceptance speech, but

LOS ANGELES “This is a man who cut HIV funding and then put all that money that he took out of HIV funding into gay conversion therapy,” Takano said. “What kind of person does that?”

Attendees hissed when Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said the Trump-Pence ticket was the biggest threat to LGBT people ever posed by a presidential ticket.

“The true test of all our success will be whether we’re able to protect and build on the progress that we all made under President Obama, or whether we will allow it all to be stripped away, stripped away by the gravest threat our community has ever faced in a presidential election,” Griffin said.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, the first openly gay state attorney general, said the Republicans are being “downright scary” by proposing an anti-LGBT platform, an anti-LGBT governor as vice president.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), another gay lawmaker, accused the GOP of being “more worried about who’s in our bathrooms than who’s buying guns” in the United States, referencing the party’s anti-trans bathroom measures and lack of support for gun safety.

Pocan also chided Trump for stumbling over the LGBTQ acronym during his acceptance speech at the Republican convention and for his use of the phrase “ask the gays” to compare himself to Clinton.

“Whenever you put pronouns in front of the word gays, you’ve lost any positive connotation,” Pocan said. they were short on standing up for the rights of LGBT people. Trump stood against “hateful foreign” ideology while offering nothing to challenge the hateful ideology of his own party on American soil.

He did add “and I have to say as a Republican it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said. Thank you,” breathing a sigh of relief perhaps.

The National Review reported that “while a two-thirds majority of Republicans oppose the Supreme Court’s ruling in last summer’s Obergefell v.

Hodges, there is absolutely no credible case to be made that Republicans as a whole have shown themselves indifferent to protecting LGBT citizens from terrorists or other physical harm.”

“For Trump to insert that last line is beyond demeaning to conservatives and Republicans, not to mention incredibly misleading to the rest of the country. Such a comment only reinforces the misimpression among left-leaning citizens, in particular LGBT people themselves, that Republicans couldn’t care less what happens to them. It perpetuates the myth that anyone opposed to recognizing samesex marriage must be an irrational bigot who hates LGBT people.”

They don’t get it, not in the least.

That’s why Thiel’s willingness to sell short cuts so deeply.

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⚫ 11

⚫ 12

POLITICS COMMUNITY

>

07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

ORLANDO

⚫ BY KAREN OCAMB

Hillary Clinton visits Pulse, condemns act of hate on Latino LGBT community No matter how many times Donald Trump spat out the letters LG.BTQ during his historically long acceptance speech at the Republican Convention Thursday night, it is beyond the imagination to picture him posing with a bouquet of flowers at the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the scene of the worst mass shooting in US history, as his opponent Hillary Clinton did on Friday.

The Washington Post editorial board

was so shocked by Trump’s rhetoric, they declared that Trump is unqualified to be president and a “unique threat to American democracy.”

Trump seemed to bear that out when the GOP nominee spent considerable time during his first post-convention press conference resurrecting his beef with former opponent Sen. Ted Cruz and praised The National Enquirer as a “credible” publication in citing their photo of Cruz’s father with JKF killer

Lee Harvey Oswald.

Clinton didn’t mince words either.

Just hours before she announced her choice of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her choice for the Democratic Vice President, Offering herself as the calm, non-shouting, more humble alternative to the bombastic GOP nominee, Clinton dissected Trump’s speech with a mixture of contained rage, humor, and an appeal to optimism and unity.

“The last thing we need is somebody

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running for president who talks trash about America,” she said at a rally in Tampa, Florida.

Clinton dismissed the vitriol aimed at her during the convention — including one Trump supporter who said she should be tried for treason and shot — as “kind of perversely flattering” and decried Trump’s speech as a “dark and divisive vision.”

CLINTON PULSE continued on p. 13

07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

⚫ 13

IN A VISIT TO PULSE NIGHTCLUB’S MAKESHIFT MEMORIAL THAT WAS UNPUBLICIZED AT THE TIME, HILLARY’S EXPRESSION IS REMINISCENT OF THE FAMOUS PHOTO OF HER DURING THE RAID ON OSAMA BIN LADEN’S COMPOUND. CLINTON MET PRIVATELY WITH SURVIVORS AND FAMILY MEMBERS.

“Last night’s speech took it to a whole new level. He offered a lot of fear and anger. And resentment but no solutions about anything that he even talked about,” she said.

But, after joking “where do I start,” Clinton singled out two of Trump’s two main messages: “I alone can fix this” and “I am your voice.”

Clinton almost seemed gobsmacked

by Trump’s pretentions to the throne, as if he alone can fix what ails America—a lot from his perspective. “That’s not a democracy, my friends. As I recall, we had a revolution to make sure we didn’t have someone who said, ‘I can fix it alone,’” she said.

Clinton also blasted Trump’s claim that he will be the voice for workers, immigrants, people with disabilities, veterans, women—and LGBT people.

The prospective Democratic nominee mentioned the LGBT community several times during the rally in Tampa, often touching her chest, putting hand to heart, obviously still moved by her stop by the Pulse nightclub to lay a wreath of flowers.

In an unpublicized stop, Clinton met with the families of the victims of last month’s shooting at the Holden Heights Community Center then held a roundtable discussion with local law enforcement, emergency medical workers and other first responders before paying her respects at a memorial for the mostly gay young Latinos murdered by a man with alleged ISIS sympathies.

“We need to acknowledge and be very clear who this attack targeted — the Latino, L.G.B.T. community was the target that was most severely impacted by this terrible attack,” Clinton said.

Equality Florida CEO Nadine Smith, who provided the stunning photo of Clinton’s stop at the memorial, said she got to thank Clinton for taking the time to visit and acknowledge the Pulse victims and the strong, united Orlando community. Equality Florida colleagues, Ida Vishkaee Eskamani and Carlos Guillermo Smith were part of the roundtable and Gina Duncan was

in the room. (Click here to see video of the roundtable discussion with community leaders.)

Later the Clinton campaign released a transcript of her remarks at that intimate gathering, emphasizing, as she did again (without a teleprompter) the need to pull together to stand against bigotry and hatred. “We have to stand against hate and bigotry. I was really

moved by everyone who stood in solidarity with the victims and families here in Orlando, with the LGBT community, the Latino community, the Muslim community, with law enforcement and others, who have been truly tested and tried in the face of such horror and evil. People from all walks of life came together to help and support one another.”

Michael Feinstein on Grand Avenue October 22, 2016

An intimate concert celebrating film composer David Raksin (Laura, The Bad and the Beautiful) Seating is very limited VIP Package includes private post-concert dinner

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Ginny Mancini Barry Manilow Liza Minnelli Johnny Mathis

Maria Ferrer Murdock Judge Judy Sheindlin Jean-Yves Thibaudet Betty White

Photo by AJ Mast

CLINTON PULSE continued from p. 12

⚫ 14

POLITICS DEMOCRATS

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07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

CONVENTION

⚫ BY CHRIS JOHNSON,WASHINGTON BLADE

Obama leads heavy hitters in speeches praising Clinton “There has never been a man or woman, not me, not Bill, nobody more qualified than Hillary” to be president, he said.

PHILADELPHIA — On the third night of the Democratic National Convention, President Obama led a series of heavy hitters who delivered speeches praising Hillary Clinton as the right candidate to lead the country.

Obama’s speech, which was about 40 minutes long and the final speech of the night, marked his retur n to the Democratic convention stage 12 years after his keynote address propelled him to the national spotlight.

“Tonight, I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me,” Obama said. “I ask you to carry her the same way you carried me. Because you’re who I was talking about 12 years ago, when I talked about hope – it’s been you who’ve fueled my dogged faith in our future, even when the odds are great; even when the road is long.

Hope in the face of difficulty; hope in the face of uncertainty; the audacity of hope.”

Reflecting on his administration, Obama recognized achievements on LGBT rights, including the U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage. The line gener ated significant applause from the audience.

“And thr ough countless acts of quiet courage, America learned that love has no limits, and marriage equality is now a reality across the land,” Obama said.

Obama made an allusion to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal after saying “when we change enough minds; when we deliver enough votes, then

progress does happen.”

“Just ask the Marine who proudly serves his country without hiding the husband he loves,” Obama said.

“Democracy works, but we gotta want it – not just during an election year, but all the days in between.”

Cheering throughout his speech were attendees waving blue “Obama” signs reminiscent of campaign materials from his presidential bids. After Obama finished, Clinton made a surprise appearance at the convention.

The two embraced on stage before jointly waving to attendees.

As for Donald Trump, Obama contrasted the Republican candidate’s proposed policies to Clinton’s. In one standout line referencing T rump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, Obama said, “The American Dream is something no wall will ever contain.”

“Ronald Reagan called America ‘a shining city on a hill,’” Obama said. “Donald Trump calls it ‘a divided crime scene’ that only he can fix.

It doesn’t matter to him that illegal immigration and the crime rate are as low as they’ve been in decades, because he’s not of fering any real solutions to those issues. He’s just of fering slogans, and he’s of fering fear. He’s betting that if he scares enough people, he might score just enough votes to win this election.”

Also speaking on Wednesday night was U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who formally accepted his party’s nomination as the vice presidential nominee. Speaking in Spanish, Kaine said Clinton is right for the job because she is “listo.”

“Because what listo means in Spanish is this, it means prepared, it means battle-tested, it means rock solid, up for anything, never backing down,” Kaine said. “And, friends, Hillary Clinton, she is listo!”

Enumerating leaders who’ve moved America forward, Kaine referenced

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SPEAKS AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION ON JULY 27.

the slain gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, saying, “Martin had a dream and Cesar y Dolores said, ‘Si se puede’. And Harvey gave his life. Bill, Bill built a bridge into the 21st Century and Barack gave us hope. And now Hillary is ready.”

Vice President Joseph Biden also made the case for Clinton by refer encing her work seeking to help the disadvantaged.

“Let me say this as clearly as I can,” Biden said, “if you live in the neighborhoods like the ones Jill and I grew up in, if you worry about your job and getting a decent pay, if you worry about your children’s education, if you are taking care of an elderly par ent, then there is only one person in this election who will help you, only one person in this race who will be there, who has always been there for you, and that is Hillary Clinton’s life story.”

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Mara Keisling, a D.C. transgender

advocate and member of the platform committee, said she couldn’t decide who delivered the best speech on the third night of the convention.

“I don’t know if we have ever seen two speakers in one evening as good as Joe Biden and Barack Obama were tonight,” Keisling said. “I’m not sure I could pick one over the other.

They were both incredible.”

Toward the end of his speech, Obama admitted he’s essentially relinquishing his role as head of the Democratic Party, but believes he’s leaving it in good hands.

“America, you have vindicated that hope these past eight years,” Obama said. “And now I’m ready to pass the baton and do my part as a private citizen. This year, in this election, I’m asking you to join me – to reject cynicism, reject fear, to summon what’s best in us; to elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States, and show the world we still believe in the promise of this great nation.”

>

07.29 — 08.11.2016 NATIONAL LGBT

HISTORY

NATIONAL HEALTH

>

LOS ANGELES

BLOOD BAN

Navy to Name FDA opens to Ship After lifiting Gay Harvey Milk Blood Ban

The Navy is set to name a ship after the gay rights icon and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, according to a Congressional notification obtained by USNI News.

The July 14, 2016 notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, indicated he intended to name a planned Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T -AO-206). The ship would be the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif.

The Secretary of the Navy’s office is deferring releasing additional information until the naming announcement, a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday.

Mabus has said the John Lewis-class – named after civil rights activist and congressman Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) – would be named af-

15

⚫ BY KAREN OCAMB

⚫ BY SAM LAGRON

US NAVY PORTRAIT OF THEN ENS. HARVEY MILK.

⚫

ter civil rights leaders.

Other names in the class include former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren whose court ruled to desegregate U.S. schools, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, women’s right activist Lucy Stone and abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth.

Screen Shot 2016-07-28 at 1.10.13 PMMabus has also named ships in the past for other civil rights icons, including the Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ships USNS Medgar Evers (T -AKE-13) and USNS Cesar Chavez (T -AKE-14).

Milk came from a Navy family and commissioned in the service in 1951. He served as a diving officer in San Diego during the Korean War on the submarine rescue ship Kittiwake until 1955. Milk was honorably discharged from the service as a lieutenant junior grade.

Following his service, Milk was elected to the San Francisco board of supervisors and was the first openly gay California politician to be elected to office. He was killed in office in 1978. When Milk was shot he was wearing his U.S. Navy diver’s belt buckle.

Over the last several years, there have been pushes from California politicians to have a ship named for Milk since the 2011 repeal of the Department of Defense’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” policy.

Naming a ship after Milk, “will further send a green light to all the brave men and women who serve our nation that honesty, acceptance and authenticity are held up among the highest ideals of our military,” said Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk.

-- COURTESY U.S. Naval Institute’s online news

THEPRIDELA.COM

The Food and Drug Administration is reassessing its blood donation policy that now bans men who have had sex with men in the proceeding 12 months from donating blood. As part of the process, the FDA posted a request for comment in the Federal Registry on Tuesday.

“Specifically, the FDA invites comments on the feasibility of moving from the existing time-based deferrals related to risk behaviors to alternate deferral options, such as the use of individual risk assessment. The agency also invites comments regarding the design of potential studies to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of such alternative deferral options,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in an emailed statement to CNN on Wednesday.

“The FDA will carefully consider all of the information submitted as it determines the appropriate next steps, and we will continue to review the agency’s donor deferral policies to ensure they reflect the most up-to-date scientific knowledge,” he said. “We are committed to obtaining the needed scientific evidence to move to alternative donor assessment strategies in the future.”

After shirking its public health duties of testing and screening blood during the beginning of the HIV/AIDS crisis, as reported by Randy Shilts in “And The Band Played On,” many feel the blood industry and the FDA have gone over-board in maintaining an unscientific and discriminatory ban against gay men for too long.

Jason Silverstein, a lecturer in the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, says research indicates that the risk of HIV transmission is not increased by allowing gay men to donate blood.

“Italy implemented an individual risk assessment in 2001, and research shows that there was no increase in HIV infection,” he told CNN.

The FDA ban also limits the supply of blood available in the system, others argue.

“The 12-month figure follows the lead of seven other countries, particularly Australia, which reported that its 12-month deferral had no negative effect on the blood supply,” Silverstein said. “On the contrary, increasing the number of possible donors did exactly what you’d expect—it increased the number of donors and increased the amount of blood available to save lives.”

“There are experts who suggest that there are screening strategies that yield a safe blood supply but do not rely on blanket bans of segments of the population,” Gary Gates, former research director of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, told CNN. “Based on analyses I conducted with my co-author Ayako Miyashita about two years ago, we estimate that a complete lifting of the ban could add more than 360,000 new blood donors each year and increase the blood supply by 615,000 pints.”

LGBT advocates point out that the policy of banning a whole demographic instead of doing an individual assessment prevented grieving gay men from contributing their blood after the mass shooting at the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida last month.

“It’s appalling that a victim of the shooting in Orlando can be outed by the media one day and lose his job the next for being gay in the state of Florida and still can’t donate blood. The Los Angeles LGBT Center is the largest LGBT organization in the world and we have been calling for the lifting of the ignorant and bigoted ban on gay blood donations for years. The ban has no scientific merit and only serves to further stigmatize the gay community. It is long past time that this asinine policy be changed,” says Dave Garcia, Director of Policy and Community Building at the LA LGBT Center.

⚫ 16

MOVIES

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07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS

MOVIE KING

⚫ BY JOHN PAUL KING

An “Absolutely Fabulous” treat for the fans

“…Saunders and Lumleywhose interplay is always a sheer delight- lead a cast which is clearly having a blast… even those who have never seen an episode of the TV show might find it hard to resist…”

When reviewing the latest entry in a popular movie franchise, such as the “Star Wars” saga or the various offerings from the Marvel “Universe,” a critic is faced with a serious dilemma.

Should the usual tools of film criticismprinciples of cinematic theory, analysis of script and direction, interpretation of thematic elements, and so on- even be applied?

Or are we to accept that these movies are instead designed to satisfy the specific criteria of their legions of fans? Although it’s not exactly “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” or “Captain America: Civil War,” “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” presents the same challenge.

As anyone reading this is likely to know, “AbFab” (as it has been lovingly abbreviated by its fans) is a BBC cult comedy series following the misadventures of P.R. guru (and wannabe fashionista) Edina “Eddy” Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) and her best chum, fashion editor and perennial party monster Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley).

These two self-absorbed, socially inept, politically incorrect survivors- or more accurately, relics- of “swinging” sixties London have spent more than two decades pursuing one ludicrous scheme after another- and delighting their (mostly gay) audiences by simultaneously skewering and celebrating the absurd whirlwind of popular culture.

Now this whole crazy circus has finally made its long-anticipated leap to the big screen, with a story that owes as much to the farcical cinema of Eddy

THOSE WHACKED OUT BRITS ARE BACK.

and Patsy’s sixties heyday as it does to the “new/now/next” world of the show itself.

Having hit rock bottom (yet again) in her career, Eddy is feeling irrelevant.

When Patsy lucks onto an insider tip that supermodel Kate Moss is seeking a new P.R. rep, it looks like a chance to help her friend regain her mojo. The two women hatch a plan- but, as usual, things don’t go smoothly, and Moss ends up in the Thames, presumably drowned.

The pair is soon on the run from the law, fleeing to the South of France with one last-ditch strategy to achieve the glamorous life of leisure for which they have always thirsted.

As penned by Saunders, the series’ star (and co-creator, with former comedy partner Dawn French), the “AbFab” movie follows the same formula as most of the small-screen episodeswhich means the plot is little more than a wispy premise upon which to drape a wickedly irreverent blend of satire and slapstick.

Essentially, it’s an extra-long installment of more-of-the-same, with Eddy and Patsy stumbling through an over-inflated crisis of their own creation and lampooning the world of fame, fortune and fashion.

They are accompanied, of course, by such long-suffering bystanders as

Eddy’s uptight daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha), dotty assistant Bubble (Jane Horrocks), coyly subversive mother (June Whitfield), and a host of other returning faces from the show’s long run.

To spice things up, there are also some new characters- like Eddy’s uber-gay stylist Christopher (Chris Colfer, from “Glee”) and Saffy’s daughter Lola (the gorgeous Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness)- as well as a sea of celebrities doing good-natured cameos in which they spoof their own personas.

Yes, it’s all constructed around a now-familiar formula, and no, none of the characters seem to have changed or grown throughout their twenty-plus years of madness-on-a-loop. That is, of course, entirely appropriate.

Nobody needs a softer, wiser version of these two champagne-guzzling anti-heroines, nor a mellower Saffy, nor a smarter Bubble.

So Saunders and director Mandie Fletcher have shrewdly delivered the movie that any “AbFab” follower might expect, and their only concession to the new format is that they spend a lot more screen time taking advantage of gorgeous location scenery in London and on the timelessly elegant French Riviera.

This means that “AbFab: The Movie” is not exactly a stand-alone experience.

Anyone unfamiliar with its endearing-

ly awful characters and their terrible behavior will probably find much of it going over their head.

The dialogue is characteristically rapid-fire, many of the cultural and celebrity references are specifically British, and there are some regional dialects which will be an obstacle for the uninitiated. On the other hand, Saunders and Lumley- whose interplay is always a sheer delight- lead a cast which is clearly having a blast; their sheer enjoyment is infectious, and even those who have never seen an episode of the TV show might find it hard to resist.

Ultimately, though, this movie is blatantly, unapologetically, for the fans.

Fortunately, I count myself among their number, so I enjoyed every second of it. I also appreciated its many subtle references to the comic cinema of the past; any movie that caps itself with a nod to one of the greatest film comedies of all time is okay in my book.

So yes, I highly recommend “AbFab: The Movie.”

To borrow a phrase from Patsy, “don’t question me!” After all, I’m a film critic, sweetie.

ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS DIRECTOR: MANDIE FLETCHER WRITER: JENNIFER SAUNDERS (SCREENPLAY) STARS: JENNIFER SAUNDERS, JOANNA LUMLEY, JANE HORROCKS PLAYING: ArcLight Hollywood 6:30pm, 8:10pm, 10:20pm Sundance Sunset Cinema 6:30pm, 7:45pm, 9:00pm, 10:00pm The Landmark 7:45pm, 9:55pm

07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

⚫ 17

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07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

18

TALKING POINT ON YOUR MIND

⚫ BY ROBERT WILLIAMS

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Hopefully by now you know we are in the midst of a deadly Meningitis outbreak in Los Angeles and public health officials are urging gay and bisexual men, especially those with HIV, to get meningitis vaccinations.

I knew about the outbreak and I also knew someone who several years ago was foaming at the mouth at Equinox Sunset Plaza and few hours later died of Meningitis, so I decided to hightail it to my doctors office to get the vaccine.

My HIV specialist and infectious disease doctor doesn’t stock the vaccine in his office.

Instead he writes a script and the vaccine is to be administered by a pharmacist.

My top-dollar UnitedHealthcare insurance plan completely excludes the vaccine if dispensed by a pharmacist.

My doctor wants me to get the vaccine and then a second booster shot 8 weeks later at a total out of pocket cost of close to $400.

This got me thinking.

What kind of public health policy restricts access to a vaccine for a deadly, extremely contagious disease in the midst of an outbreak to a highrisk person with a compromised immune system?

Without a vaccine and if infected, I could be like a Meningitis torpedo contagion, spraying my sick all over the chest press at Equinox Sunset Plaza and communicating death to some of the most beautiful people in Los Angeles- Fabio and Taye Diggs

work out there and losing either of them would be a national tragedy and I would be to blame.

That would be bad and definitely not a cute way to go.

I definitely need this vaccine.

It makes no sense my expensive health plan won’t cover the vaccine.

What makes even less sense is The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to cover preventive services like vaccines, yet it is not covered. Insurance companies have found a nice little loop hole by only covering the vaccines if stocked by the doctors office while most doctors offices are no longer stocking many injectables.

I could have paid the $400 but as a HIV-positive man with out of pocket health costs, not including premiums, of $5000 this year.

I instead went to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which provides health care regardless of the ability to pay, and after a 3 hour long wait (it sounds worse than it was as I used their free wifi to watch Transparent on my iPhone), I was able to get the shot at no charge.

In 8 weeks, I’ll go back for my booster shot.

While waiting, I wondered about the people being turned away after all 30 of the first-come, first serve appointments for the evening were taken.

Did they have an expensive health plan like me or were they needing basic care?

07.29 — 08.11.2016

LOS ANGELES

⚫ 19

THE MOST IMPORTANT POLITICAL MOMENT OF ALL OUR LIVES: ROBIN TYLER AND DIANE OLSON PHOTOGRAPHED THESE AMAZING MOMENTS AS LGBTQ ISSUE ROSE TO THE FRONT OF THE BUS AND LGBTQ PEOPLE HELPED PROPEL HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON TO THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. FIND MORE ONLINE AT THEPRIDELA.COM

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