15. THE PRIDE LA, APRIL 22, 2016

the pride

MOVIES: 04.22.2016 RE-READING “THE JUNGLE BOOK” ⚫ 20

WEST HOLLYWOOD NEW MAYOR FOR WEHO, LAUREN MEISTER ⚫ 11

WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM

POLITICS KAREN OCAMB ON 2016 PRESIDENTIAL RACE ⚫ 12

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ISSUE NUMBER 7, VOLUME 2 1 APRIL 22 — MAY 5, 2016

LOS ANGELES

THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER

FEDERAL ⚫ 8

Federal Court reinstates case that challenges anti-trans laws COMMUNITY ⚫ 18

Hollywood’s power players gather to strategize on anti-LGBT laws GOVERNMENT ⚫ 19

LA bans non-essential official business travel to NC & MS NEWS ⚫ 16

Stonewall Dems to Honor Garcetti, Prang, Eger, TRANSFORM CALIFORNIA: LOS ANGELES MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI SIGNED A Wishon, Rosendahl PLEDGE TO WORK TOWARD IMPROVING THE LIVES OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE (P 19).

Transgender bathroom battle comes to Los Angeles

⚫ The Los Angeles public high school at Santee has opened the school district’s first gender-neutral bathroom

⚫ Westboro Baptist Church, the anti-gay group protested the school’s new gender-neutral bathroom, using megaphones to denounce the students.

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LOS ANGELES

New Odefsey is now available ®

ODEC0005_OdefseyJrnlAd-B_Spread_10x11-7_ThePride.indd 1-2

04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

⚍ 3

Actual Size (15.4 mm x 7.3 mm)

One small pill contains rilpivirine, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF).

Ask your healthcare provider if ODEFSEY is right for you.

To learn more visit ODEFSEY.com

Please see Brief Summary of Patient Information with important warnings on the following pages.

3/30/16 11:09 AM

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LOS ANGELES

Brief Summary of Patient Information about ODEFSEY ODEFSEY (oh-DEF-see) (emtricitabine, rilpivirine and tenofovir alafenamide) tablets Important: Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with ODEFSEY. There may be new information about ODEFSEY. This information is only a summary and does not take the place of talking with your healthcare provider about your medical condition or treatment.

What is the most important information I should know about ODEFSEY? ODEFSEY can cause serious side effects, including: • Build-up of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis may happen in some people who take ODEFSEY or similar medicines. Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Lactic acidosis can be hard to identify early, because the symptoms could seem like symptoms of other health problems.

Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms which could be signs of lactic acidosis: – feel very weak or tired – have unusual (not normal) muscle pain – have trouble breathing – have stomach pain with nausea or vomiting – feel cold, especially in your arms and legs – feel dizzy or lightheaded – have a fast or irregular heartbeat • Severe liver problems. Severe liver problems may happen in people who take ODEFSEY. In some cases, these liver problems can lead to death. Your liver may become large and you may develop fat in your liver. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following symptoms of liver problems: – your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice) – dark “tea-colored” urine – light-colored bowel movements (stools) – loss of appetite – nausea – pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area • You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking ODEFSEY or a similar medicine for a long time.

• Worsening of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. ODEFSEY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have HBV and take ODEFSEY, your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking ODEFSEY. A “flare-up” is when your HBV infection suddenly returns in a worse way than before.

– Do not run out of ODEFSEY. Refill your prescription or talk to your healthcare provider before your ODEFSEY is all gone.

– Do not stop taking ODEFSEY without first talking to your healthcare provider.

– If you stop taking ODEFSEY, your healthcare provider will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months to check your HBV infection. Tell your healthcare provider about any new or unusual symptoms you may have after you stop taking ODEFSEY.

ODEC0005_OdefseyJrnlAd-B_Spread_10x11-7_ThePride.indd 3-4

What is ODEFSEY? ODEFSEY is a prescription medicine that is used to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years of age and older: • who have not received HIV-1 medicines in the past and have an amount of HIV-1 in their blood (“viral load”) that is no more than 100,000 copies/mL, or • to replace their current HIV-1 medicines in people who have been on the same HIV-1 medicines for at least 6 months, have a viral load that is less than 50 copies/mL, and have never failed past HIV-1 treatment.

It is not known if ODEFSEY is safe and effective in children under 12 years of age or who weigh less than 77 lb (35 kg).

When used to treat HIV-1 infection, ODEFSEY may help: • Reduce the amount of HIV-1 in your blood. This is called “viral load”.

• Increase the number of CD4+ (T) cells in your blood that help fight off other infections.

Reducing the amount of HIV-1 and increasing the CD4+ (T) cells in your blood may help improve your immune system. This may reduce your risk of death or getting infections that can happen when your immune system is weak (opportunistic infections).

ODEFSEY does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. You must keep taking HIV-1 medicines to control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses.

Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others. Do not share or re-use needles, injection equipment, or personal items that can have blood or body fluids on them. Do not have sex without protection. Always practice safer sex by using a latex or polyurethane condom to lower the chance of sexual contact with semen, vaginal secretions, or blood.

Who should not take ODEFSEY? Do not take ODEFSEY if you also take a medicine that contains: • carbamazepine (Carbatrol®, Epitol®, Equetro®, Tegretol®, Tegretol-XR®, Teril®) • dexamethasone (Ozurdex®, Maxidex®, Decadron®, BaycadronTM) • dexlansoprazole (Dexilant ®) • esomeprazole (Nexium®, Vimovo®) • lansoprazole (Prevacid®) • omeprazole (Prilosec®, Zegerid®) • oxcarbazepine (Trileptal®) • pantoprazole sodium (Protonix®) • phenobarbital (Luminal®) • phenytoin (Dilantin®, Dilantin-125®, Phenytek®) • rabeprazole (Aciphex®) • rifampin (Rifadin®, Rifamate®, Rifater ®, Rimactane®) • rifapentine (Priftin®) • the herb St. John’s wort or a product that contains St. John’s wort

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking ODEFSEY? Before taking ODEFSEY, tell your healthcare provider if you: • have liver problems including hepatitis B or C virus infection • have kidney and bone problems • have had depression or suicidal thoughts • have any other medical conditions • are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if ODEFSEY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking ODEFSEY.

04.22.2016

Pregnancy registry: there is a pregnancy registry for women who take HIV-1 medicines during pregnancy. The purpose of this registry is to collect information about the health of you and your baby. Talk with your healthcare provider about how you can take part in this registry.

• are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you take ODEFSEY. – You should not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby.

– At least one of the medicines in ODEFSEY can pass to your baby in your breast milk.

It is not known if the other medicines in ODEFSEY can pass into your breast milk.

– Talk with your healthcare provider about the best way to feed your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

Some medicines may interact with ODEFSEY. Keep a list of your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.

• You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for a list of medicines that interact with ODEFSEY. • Do not start a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider can tell you if it is safe to take ODEFSEY with other medicines.

How should I take ODEFSEY? • Take ODEFSEY exactly as your healthcare provider tells you to take it. ODEFSEY is • • • • •

taken by itself (not with other HIV-1 medicines) to treat HIV-1 infection.

Take ODEFSEY 1 time each day with a meal.

Do not change your dose or stop taking ODEFSEY without first talking with your healthcare provider. Stay under a healthcare provider’s care when taking ODEFSEY. Do not miss a dose of ODEFSEY. If you take too much ODEFSEY, call your healthcare provider or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away.

When your ODEFSEY supply starts to run low, get more from your healthcare provider or pharmacy. This is very important because the amount of virus in your blood may increase if the medicine is stopped for even a short time. The virus may develop resistance to ODEFSEY and become harder to treat.

What are the possible side effects of ODEFSEY? ODEFSEY may cause serious side effects, including: • See “What is the most important information I should know about ODEFSEY?” • Severe skin rash and allergic reactions. Skin rash is a common side effect of ODEFSEY. Rash can be serious. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get a rash. In some cases, rash and allergic reaction may need to be treated in a hospital.

If you get a rash with any of the following symptoms, stop taking ODEFSEY and call your healthcare provider right away: – fever – skin blisters – mouth sores – redness or swelling of the eyes (conjunctivitis) – swelling of the face, lips, mouth or throat – trouble breathing or swallowing – pain on the right side of the stomach (abdominal) area – dark “tea-colored” urine

LOS ANGELES

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• Depression or mood changes. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have

any of the following symptoms: – feel sad or hopeless – feel anxious or restless – have thoughts of hurting yourself (suicide) or have tried to hurt yourself • Change in liver enzymes. People with a history of hepatitis B or C virus infection or who have certain liver enzyme changes may have an increased risk of developing new or worsening liver problems during treatment with ODEFSEY. Liver problems can also happen during treatment with ODEFSEY in people without a history of liver disease. Your healthcare provider may need to do tests to check your liver enzymes before and during treatment with ODEFSEY. • Changes in body fat can happen in people who take HIV-1 medicine. These changes may include increased amount of fat in the upper back and neck (“buffalo hump”), breast, and around the middle of your body (trunk). Loss of fat from the legs, arms and face may also happen. The exact cause and long-term health effects of these conditions are not known.

• Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV-1 medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you start having any new symptoms after starting your HIV-1 medicine.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys before you start and while you are taking ODEFSEY. Your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking ODEFSEY if you develop new or worse kidney problems.

• Bone problems can happen in some people who take ODEFSEY. Bone problems may include bone pain, softening or thinning (which may lead to fractures). Your healthcare provider may need to do tests to check your bones.

The most common side effects of rilpivirine, one of the medicines in ODEFSEY, are depression, trouble sleeping (insomnia), and headache.

The most common side effect of emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide, two of the medicines in ODEFSEY, is nausea.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

• These are not all the possible side effects of ODEFSEY. For more information, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

• Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

This Brief Summary summarizes the most important information about ODEFSEY. If you would like more information, talk with your healthcare provider. You can ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist for information about ODEFSEY that is written for health professionals.

For more information, call 1-800-445-3235 or go to www.ODEFSEY.com.

Keep ODEFSEY and all medicines out of reach of children.

Issued: March 2016

ODEFSEY, the ODEFSEY Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, and GSI are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. © 2016 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. ODEC0005 03/16

3/30/16 11:09 AM

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LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS

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04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

TRANSGENDER

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

Transgender bathroom battle comes to Los Angeles The principal of the high school where a scuffle broke out with adults protesting gender-neutral bathrooms praised his students as “trailblazers”

T

he transgender bathroom battle that is the focus of anti-LGBT laws in Mississippi and North Carolina, and the focus of a United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruling, has come to Los Angeles.

Security was ramped up at Santee Education Complex in South Los Angeles one day after students clashed with anti-LGBT protesters who rallied outside the campus to protest the recent opening of a gender-neutral bathroom on the campus.

The confrontation was caught on cell phone video that made its rounds on social media. Rumors have circulated that protesters might return to the campus.

The protests have all the hallmarks of a Westboro Baptist Church action, the Kansas based church led by the infamous Fred Phelps who is famously provocative in his protests. The Phelps’ Family is known to picket funerals of US soldiers with signs that say the soldier is burning in hell and “God Hates Fags.”

In response to the protests school police have stepped up patrols. “`We will have extra police officers,” principal Martin Gomez said before classes began today. “Teachers will go over a PowerPoint presentation with students to explain the situation and to encourage positive behavior. We will also have extra counselors on hand.”

The gender neutral bathroom made Los Angeles Unified School District history last week when it dedicated a 15-stall gender-neutral bathroom, becoming the first campus in the district to have such a facility. The move is aimed at providing comfort to transgender students and preventing them from facing possible bullying from stu-

KWEEN ROBINSON, 17, (L) AND ALONZO HERNANDEZ, 16, POSE FOR A SELFIE IN FRONT OF THE FIRST GENDER-NEUTRAL RESTROOM IN THE LOS ANGELES SCHOOL DISTRICT

dents in bathrooms designated only for ``boys’’ or ``girls.’’

The new bathroom is the result of a campaign by the school’s Gay Straight Alliance, which got hundreds of petition signatures in support of the idea.

Students were startled by the protest because the protesters were adults who shouted that students will “go to hell.”

Waving “Homo Sex is Sin” placards and shouting at the students with a megaphones, protesters drew a return protest from students as they left school Tuesday afternoon. KABC posted video of students confronting the anti-LGBT protesters. Police were also called to the scene after someone reported a violent outbursts with objects being thrown but no arrests were made.

Alonzo Hernandez, 16, a transgender student at Santee told the LA Times he used to forgo using the bathroom the entire school day. He said that after he transitioned from female to male last fall he feared that students who had known him as a girl would feel uncomfortable with his presence in the boy’s room. His discomfort was exacerbated

after a custodian barred him from entering the girls’ room.

“Being questioned about my gender ... when I go to use the restroom makes me feel uncomfortable,” Henandez said. “I just want to be able to, you know, use the restroom without being questioned.”

The school’s Gay Straight Alliance pushed for gender neutral bathrooms since that incident, picketing the school and posting flyers that said “It’s just a toilet” and “Pee in peace.” The group met with students and school staff and gathered 700 signatures from students and staff in support of Hernandez.

The gender neutral bathroom is open to all 1,780 students and has 15 private cubicles. There are other facilities marked male and female. It was not clear what the school’s policy is if students like Hernandez wished to use a gender appropriate bathroom.

The solution is unique to Santee. At other L.A. Unified schools, transgender students can use private bathrooms in the staff lounge if they are uncomfortable

Los Angeles is the nation’s second-largest school district is leading a movement toward gender-neutral bathrooms. California state law and L.A. Unified policy specify that transgender students can use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify.

The Fourth Circuit ruled ruled that a transgender high school student who was born as a female can sue his school board on discrimination grounds because it banned him from the boys’ bathroom. The court pointed to the U.S. Education Department’s policy that students should be allowed to use the facility that matches their gender identity and that forces transgender students to use a bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex violates of Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination at schools that receive federal dollars.

“It was important for me and students to have a safe space on campus,” Hernandez, a student at Santee, told an NBC affiliate in Los Angeles. “There are [students] out there who are transitioning who don’t identify themselves as a gender.”

04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

Brian had his HIV under control with medication. But smoking with HIV caused him to have serious health problems, including a stroke, a blood clot in his lungs and surgery on an artery in his neck. Smoking makes living with HIV much worse.

You can quit.

CALL 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

#CDCTips

HIV alone didn’t cause the clogged artery in my neck.

Smoking with HIV did.

Brian, age 45, California

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LEGAL

NATIONAL

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04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

TRANSGENDER

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

Fed. Court reinstates case that challenges North Carolina’s anti-transgender laws In a case that may have national implications, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in favor of a transgender student fighting to use the boys bathroom at his Gloucester County Virgian High School. “The court’s ruling sends a strong message to schools and lawmakers that discriminatory restroom policies don’t just harm transgender students, they put Title IX funding at risk,” says the ACLU.

A

federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit filed by a transgender student in Virginia challenging a school district policy banning him from the boys’ restroom, noting that District Judge Robert G. Doumar had overlooked federal Department of Education policy that requires schools allow transgender students use of bathroom gender facilities students deem correctly match their gender identity.

The 2-1 ruling in Richmond-based Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled narrowly on whether the court should have deferred to federal Department of Education’s interpretation of a federal regulation. The case is particularly intriguing given the North Carolina law that requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate.

The ruling reinstates a legal claims by 16-year-old high school junior Gavin Grimm, of Gloucester County, Va., that the policy banning him from using the boys room violates federal law barring discrimination based on sex.

The ruling orders a federal trial judge to reconsider Mr. Grimm’s request to block the policy and to give consideration to evidence that shows he will suffer as a result of not being allow to use the boys’ restroom.

The Fourth Circuit hears appeals from courts in North Carolina as well as Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the transgender stu-

dent, says the ruling places North Carolina’s law in doubt, as it applies to students in the state.

“Today’s ruling makes plain that North Carolina’s House Bill 2 violates Title IX by discriminating against transgender students and forcing them to use the wrong restroom at school,” said ACLU spokesperson Allison Steinberg.

Title IX of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory said his lawyers were reviewing it the ruling and its impact on public schools in the state. “I strongly disagree with both President Obama and Attorney General Roy Cooper’s objective to force our high schools to allow boys in girls’ rest rooms, locker rooms or shower facilities. I think that’s bad precedent and I don’t think it’s the traditional way we do things,” the governor said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar had dismissed Grimm’s legal claims, writing in his September 2015 ruling that Title IX was does not address gender identity or sexual orientation.

In January 2015, the Department of Education clarified how regulations to maintain separate bathroom, locker rooms and showers for boys and girls, as long as they are comparable should apply to transgender students, saying that “a school generally must treat transgender students consistent with

GAVIN GRIMM: “I’M JUST A HUMAN. I’M JUST A BOY.”

their gender identity.”

Fourth Circuit Judge Henry Floyd said Doumar erred in not deferring to the Department of Education’s requirements and clarifications.

“The regulation is silent as to which restroom transgender individuals are to use when a school elects to provide sex-segregated restrooms, and the Department’s interpretation, although perhaps not the intuitive one, is permitted by the varying physical, psychological, and social aspects...included in the term ‘sex,’” Judge Floyd wrote.

Judge Floyd said Doumar held Mr. Grimm to “a higher standard than was warranted in declining to consider certain evidence the student provided.”

Judge Paul Niemeyer, the dissenting judge, said that his colleagues decision “completely tramples on all universally accepted protections of privacy and

safety that are based on the anatomical differences between the sexes.”

School officials initially accommodated Grimm by letting him use the boys’ restroom after his family informed school officials in 2014 that he was transitioning. The family provided them with documentation of a legal name change. Some parents later expressed alarm and threatened retaliation if they continued to allow Grimm to use the boy’s facilities.

One parent spoke out and called Gavin a “freak” and compared him to a person who thinks he is a dog and wants to urinate on fire hydrants.

“All I want to do is be a normal child and use the restroom in peace,” Gavin told a room full of grown adults. “This could be your child. I’m just a human. I’m just a boy.”

04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

If you’re living with HIV, you may face another clinical challenge to healthy aging

Help Curb Excess Abdominal VAT Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) isn’t regular fat. VAT is a hard fat that surrounds organs, may be associated with serious health issues, and can be difficult to control with diet and exercise alone.

EGRIFTA ® (tesamorelin for injection) is the only FDA-approved treatment for excess HIV-related abdominal VAT EGRIFTA ® was shown to reduce VAT in 2 clinical trials of 816 total adult patients who received 2 mg of EGRIFTA ® or placebo (26-week Main Phase and 26-week Extension Phase).a Trial 1: 18% average reduction. Trial 2: 14% average reduction.

For additional trial details, see the full Prescribing Information at EGRIFTA.com.

a

EGRIFTA® is not indicated to treat health issues beyond the reduction of excess abdominal VAT.

SELECTED RISK INFORMATION What is EGRIFTA ®?

• EGRIFTA ® is an injectable prescription medicine to reduce the excess in abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy. The impact and safety of EGRIFTA ® on cardiovascular health has not been studied.

• EGRIFTA ® is not indicated for weight loss management.

• It is not known whether taking EGRIFTA ® helps improve compliance with anti-retroviral medications.

EGRIFTA ® may cause serious side effects including: • Serious allergic reaction. Stop using EGRIFTA ® and get emergency help right away if you have symptoms such as a rash over your body, hives, shortness of breath or trouble breathing, swelling of your face or throat, fast heartbeat, and feeling of faintness or fainting.

• Swelling (fluid retention). EGRIFTA ® can cause swelling in some parts of your body.

• Increase in glucose (blood sugar) intolerance and diabetes.

• Injection site reactions. Change (rotate) your injection site to help lower your risk for injection site reactions. The following symptoms around the area of the injection site can occur: redness, itching, pain, irritation, bleeding, rash, and swelling.

The most common side effects of EGRIFTA ® include: joint pain, pain in legs and arms, swelling in your legs, muscle soreness, tingling, numbness and pricking, nausea, vomiting, rash, and itching.

Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

Please see brief summary of full Important Patient Information on next page.

Learn more at EGRIFTA.com A Transformation From Within

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LOS ANGELES

IMPORTANT PATIENT INFORMATION The following is a brief summary only. See complete Prescribing Information at EGRIFTA.com or request complete Prescribing Information by calling 1-844-347-4382. This information does not take the place of talking to your doctor about your medical condition or your treatment.

What is EGRIFTA ® (tesamorelin for injection)?

• EGRIFTA ® is an injectable prescription medicine to reduce the excess in abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy. The impact and safety of EGRIFTA ® on cardiovascular health has not been studied.

• EGRIFTA ® is not indicated for weight loss management.

• It is not known whether taking EGRIFTA ® helps improve compliance with anti-retroviral medications.

Do not use EGRIFTA ® if you: • have pituitary gland tumor, pituitary gland surgery or other problems related to your pituitary gland.

• have active cancer or are receiving treatment for cancer • are allergic to tesamorelin or mannitol.

• are pregnant or become pregnant. If you become pregnant, stop using EGRIFTA ® and talk with your healthcare provider.

Talk to your doctor to find out if EGRIFTA ® is right for you.

How should I use EGRIFTA ®?

• Swelling (fluid retention). EGRIFTA ® can cause swelling in some parts of your body. Call your healthcare provider if you have an increase in joint pain, or pain or numbness in your hands or wrist (carpal tunnel syndrome).

• Increase in glucose (blood sugar) intolerance and diabetes.

Your healthcare provider will measure your blood sugar periodically.

• Injection-site reactions. Change (rotate) your injection site to help lower your risk for injection-site reactions. Call your healthcare provider for medical advice if you have the following symptoms around the area of the injection site: • redness • bleeding • itching • rash • pain • swelling • irritation The most common side effects of EGRIFTA ® include: • joint pain • nausea • pain in legs and arms • vomiting • swelling in your legs • rash • muscle soreness • itching • tingling, numbness and pricking

• Read the detailed “Instructions for Use” that comes with EGRIFTA ® before you start using EGRIFTA ®. Your healthcare provider will show you how to inject EGRIFTA ®.

• Use EGRIFTA ® exactly as prescribed by your healthcare provider.

• Inject EGRIFTA ® under the skin (subcutaneously) of your stomach area (abdomen).

• Change (rotate) the injection site on your stomach area (abdomen) with each dose. Do not inject EGRIFTA ® into scar tissue, bruises or your navel.

These are not all the possible side effects of EGRIFTA ®. For more information, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

EGRIFTA ® may cause serious side effects including:

Manufactured by: Jubilant HollisterStier General Partnership, 16751 Trans-Canada Highway, Montreal, Québec, Canada H9H 4J4

• Serious allergic reaction. Some people taking EGRIFTA ® may have an allergic reaction.

Stop using EGRIFTA ® and get emergency help right away if you have any of the following symptoms: • a rash over your body • shortness of breath or trouble breathing • hives • fast heartbeat • swelling of your face or • feeling of faintness throat or fainting

Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

You may also report side effects to 1-844-EGRIFTA (1-844-347-4382).

®

toll-free at

For more information about EGRIFTA ®, go to www.EGRIFTA.com or contact toll-free at 1-844-EGRIFTA (1-844-347-4382). ®

Distributed by: Theratechnologies Inc., 2015 Peel Street, Montreal, Québec, Canada H3A 1T8.

EGRIFTA® and EGRIFTA ASSIST ® are registered trademarks of Theratechnologies Inc. © 2016 Theratechnologies Inc. All rights reserved. 190-01-12/15

04.22.2016 POLITICS

MAYOR MEISTER

LOS ANGELES

>

West Hollywood

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

New Mayor for WeHo, Lauren Meister

MAYOR LAUREN MEISTER (PHOTO PROVIDED BY MEISTER)

L

auren Meister, a 20 year veteran of West Hollywood politics is the city’s new Mayor.

Meister promises to focus on helping solve problems facing the city’s social infrastructure of aging people, she said in her speech. “Since the year 2000, our 55-to-64 year old age group has experienced the largest increase in West Hollywood demographics, growing over 36%, while 21 to 34 experienced the greatest decline (by 12%),” she said.

She noted that many member of the aging population are the very people who established WeHo; gay, lesbian, trans and AIDS activists, allies, community activists, creative people and other pioneers. She said the Sr. community in WeHo is dynamic and noted specifically the needs of the entrepreneurial residents.

In her April 19 speech the new Mayor

says: “Certainly, there will be challenges – and there will be many hearty discussions about housing and transit, about sustainability and livability…

As a city that’s only 1.9 square miles, with a density far greater than most others – 18,000 residents per square mile – we are unique.

“We have to do what’s right for our city. Together, we have to create our own destiny. Hash tag #We Are WeHo! “A few final thoughts… Whether we’re talking about our senior community, our community of young people, our LGBT community, our Russian-speaking community, our arts community, or our small business community, the key word here, is, in fact, community.

Meister replaces Lindsey Horvath as mayor.

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ANALYSIS POLITICS

04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

>

AFTER NEW YORK

⚫ BY KAREN OCAMB

California Primary: Here they come Even though California’s June 7 election is comparatively late in the presidential primary cycle, votes in the Golden State could be decisive in 2016.

TROY MASTERS

troy@smmirror.com CONTRIBUTORS MATTHEW S. BAJKO, CYNTHIA LAIRD, HENRY SCOTT, CHARLES KAISER, LISA KEEN, MAER ROSHAN, KIT WINTER, BRAD LAMM, DAVID EHRENSTEIN, STEVEN ERICKSON, ORIEL GUTTIEREZ, SETH HEMMELGARN, THOMAS LEONARD, KAREN OCAMB, STEVE WEINSTEIN, CHRIS AZZOPARD, DIANE ANDERSON-MINSHALL, ALLEN ROSKOFF, JOHN PAUL KING

COPY EDITOR MARIELLA RUDI

ART DIRECTOR

J

ames Carville, strategist for Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in his 1992 race against President George H. W. Bush, used the term “the economy, stupid” to keep the campaign focused on the theme that eventually helped them win the nail-biting election.

This year, there is no such dominant theme, except perhaps the sloganeering by populist candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump that the Establishment is “corrupt,” “the system is rigged,” and their respective opponents are unqualified and unworthy to be president.

This year the theme is: “it’s the math, stupid.”

And after the New York primary on April 19, no matter what the PR spin or wishful thinking, the delegate math says democratic socialist Bernie Sanders does not have a clear path to win the Democratic Party nomination over former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. And no matter how many states he might win or crowds he might draw, real estate mogul Donald Trump does not appear poised to secure the number of delegates he needs to win the Republican Party nomination on the first ballot.

The only options left for Sanders and Trump are to up-end the process and destroy their rivals, which apparently both have no qualms about doing.

“Our country is going to hell,” Trump told a huge rally in Indianapolis April 20 after his significant 61% victory over rivals Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in his home state of New York. (Inter-

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estingly, that “huge” Trump victory actually amounted to only 519,000 votes, smaller than his second-place finish in Ohio at 728,000 votes, according to NBC News).

Many pundits thought Trump had calmed down and turned professional after hiring convention expert Paul Manafort and calling Cruz “senator” instead of “lying Ted” during his celebratory remarks at Trump Towers.

But Trump quickly returned to form, giving the crowd the red meat they wanted the next day in Indianapolis, including a version of his famous “Apprentice” slogan: “Hillary, you’re fired!”

But while Trump continues his grassroots momentum, it is not clear that he will secure the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination on the first ballot and avoid a contested convention this July in Cleveland. Though neither Cruz nor Kasich have a chance at winning the required number of delegates either, they hope that by hanging in until

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the convention, the anti-Trump forces will rise up and pick one of them over Trump on the second or third or fourth ballot.

Trump has suggested that if he is denied the nomination he deserves, his supporters might become violently protest the GOP Establishment— which views Trump as an existential threat to the party—stripping him of victory.

Even with more states to go until the final major show down in Califor nia on June 7, Trump is positing his nomination as virtually inevitable, having won “millions and millions” more popular votes than his rivals.

Trump wants the Republican National Committee to essentially change the nomination rules to nominate the candidate who won the most votes in each state, rather than the candidate who won the most delegates based on what he considers to be each state’s whacky rules.

That’s not sitting well. “All they are PRIMARY continued on p. 15

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04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

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PIONEERS LOS ANGELES

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04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

PEOPLE

⚫ BY KAREN OCAMB

Phill Wilson still answering the Black AIDS call at 60 “I used to say that I didn’t believe that I would live to see the end of this epidemic. I don’t say that anymore.

I believe that it is entirely possible that I will see the end of this epidemic, but we are at one of those deciding moments. Whether we end it now or not is totally up to us.”

W

ell before the AIDS activist group ACT UP publicized the slogan “Silence=Death,” Black lesbian feminist poet Pat Parker wrote “Where will you be when they come?”

The 1978 poem holds a moral mir ror up to the LGBT world, challenging closeted gays and lesbians to forsake the pretentious protection of silence to speak out against the slurs, attitudes and actions that demean and dehumanize LGBT people.

For Phill Wilson—long-ter m HIV-survivor and founder of the highly-regarded Black AIDS Institute featured in the CNN docu-series, “The Eighties” who will celebrate his miraculous 60th birthday on April 23—the poem still holds profound meaning.

“Citizens, good citizens all/ parade into voting booths and in self-righteous sanctity/ X away our right to life,” Parker wrote.”

Unbeknownst to Parker, that late 70s political backlash against gay liberation was about to become an actual existential crisis for gay Americans, aided and abetted by a silent citizenry and an intentionally neglectful government as the first cases of what became HIV/AIDS hit the news on June 5, 1981. Wilson, then a 25-year -old, newly out college graduate, and his new boyfriend Chris Brownlie were both diagnosed with swollen lymph nodes, which their doctor suggested could be related to the mysterious disease. But

they were not afraid: the media widely reported that “GRID” (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) was a white gay disease on the East and West coasts, or was contracted through poppers or by contact with “sexual athletes”— none of which they thought pertained to their lives in Chicago.

“Our doctor didn’t know much. No one had any information,” says Wilson. But then members of their gay softball team got sick and died in a matter of weeks. “That’s when it became real.”

Wilson and Brownlie moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1982, started a Black giftware company and got involved in the organization Black and White Men T ogether. “That’s when it got scary,” he says. “We had four or five friends sick at a time and we realized that nobody gave a damn.

Either we were going to die or we were going to have to fight, and still we might die. Die or fight or both. I had just met Chris. I had just found myself. I wasn’t ready to let either go.

So, we fought to make sure we did whatever we could to not die—and to make sure our friends did not die.”

It was a jarring epiphany—but Wilson was spiritually prepared for the fight. “When you are a poor Black kid in the 1950’s living in a housing project on the south side of Chicago, there is a lot your parents can not do or provide,” Wilson says. “But what they can do is to make sure you know that you are loved and you matter. That is what my parents did for

PHIL WILSON, COURTESY BLACK AIDS INSTITUTE.

me, my brothers and my sister. They knew they could not shield us from a racist world. Eventually we would hear messages that we were not OK— that we were the wrong color, our hair was wrong, or our noses were too broad. So they made sure we had some internalized protection—kind of like ‘PrEP’ for the spirit.” He chuckled. “They wanted us to know our lives were worth fighting for.” Provided with a certain level of confidence, he was able to go out into the world “with a clearer idea of who I was.”

More importantly, Wilson says, his parents gave him a sense of responsibility for helping and understanding others, and an appreciation of his own “privilege.” When Wilson and his neighbor started kindergarten together, he already knew how to read and tie his shoes. His friend, the middle child of 8 kids, a girl and dark, was not as prepared and was ignored by teachers while Wilson was perceived to be “cute” and favored. “My friend couldn’t do a lot of things. So I took it upon myself to help her,” Wilson

says.

But the teachers disapproved and separated them. Wilson told his par ents how upset he was “It was the first time I realized that people could be treated differently because of the way they looked.” She eventually dropped out of school and became a teenage mother. “I blamed that kindergarten teacher,” he says. “To this day, I believe I could have helped her.”

Survival and mutual responsibility are at the heart of the message Wilson conveys in his fight against AIDS, starting in 1983 when he read Pat Parker’s poem at an AIDS Candlelight vigil he helped organize in Los Angeles. In 1986, Wilson volunteered to fight against the horrific Proposition 64 AIDS quarantine initiative sponsored by anti-gay right winger L yndon LaRouche—an initiative many feared would lead to branding, rounding up and putting people with AIDS into concentration camps.

After the initiative’s defeat, Wilson and Brownlie worked with Michael

04.22.2016 PRIMARY continued from p. 12

going to hear is that the RNC changed the rules,” Shak Hill, Cruz’s Virginia campaign chairman, told the AP, warning that even the hint of rule changes at the RNC’s Florida meeting over the April 23 weekend would alarm GOP activists.

Still, anything can happen before the July convention, though Trump so far has proved to be an almost teflon candidate.

New York proved to be a huge victory for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, as well. The former twoterm senator from New York defeated Vermont Sen. Sanders by 16 points, 58%-42%, bringing her pledged delegate support to 1,428 to Sander’s 1,151 pledged delegates. The magic number for the Democratic nomination is 2,383 delegates. But unlike the Republicans, the Democrats confer special status on their elected officials and party operatives, known as superdelegates. Adding them to the mix, Clinton’s strength grows to 1,930 delegates to 1,189 for Sanders.

According to AP, after her New York win, Clinton is now 81% toward clinching the nomination. Sanders, on the other hand, must overwhelmingly win 73% of the remaining delegates and superdelegates. “That means,” AP reports, “that Clinton can lose all remaining contests and still win.”

But while math-watchers say Sanders now has no clear path to victory after New York, the Sanders campaign stills believes that if he wins big in the remaining states, including California with its 475 pledged delegates, Sanders could convince super delegates to flip to him “to avoid over turning the will of the party’s voters,” AP reported. While superdelegates are free to switch their vote, “Sanders would need to flip dozens to catch up to her,” with Clinton’s overwhelming count of 502 superdelegates to 38 for Sanders.

“So far, none has switched to Sanders and there’s little indication many would defect,” AP reports.

And then there’s the matter of whether any of those superdelegates might consider themselves to be part of the very Democratic Establishment Sanders has upbraided throughout the campaign. Remember, Sanders lashed out at the Human Rights Campaign for being an “Establishment” group after HRC endorsed Clinton, though many LGBT politicos noted that while HRC might be considered “Establishment” within the LGBT community—no LGBT group can be considered part of any establishment as long as LGBT people are officially second class citizens in America.

Setting aside the contradiction of seeking the support of people previously vilified, Sanders’ operatives believe California’s June 7 primary is a good prospect for a win and accruing

LOS ANGELES delegates. Out math man Nate Silver disagrees, forecasting at FiveThirtyEight that Hillary Clinton has a 90% chance of winning the Golden State.

So, if New York was a tipping point that eliminated any realistic chance for Sanders to win, what will the popular independent do now and how will he do it? Sanders still has millions in campaign contributions and a commitment to stay in the race until the convention to give his supporters the chance to vote.

And some fans have suggested that he upend the convention if, like Trump, he winds up with millions of supporters but not enough delegates to win the nomination they think he deserves. One problem for that argument: Clinton leads in the popular vote, too, with more than 2.4 million votes.

So how will Sanders continue? Will he keep up his startlingly negative campaign against Clinton or return to challenging her on the issues, which most Democrats appreciated?

Questioning Clinton’s qualifications to be president cost Sanders a number of women voters.

On April 6, Sanders said that Clinton was not qualified “if she is, through her Super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special inter est funds. I don’t think that you are qualified if you get 15 million dollars from Wall Street through your Super PAC. I don’t think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq.”

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews pointed out to Sanders senior advisor Tad Devine—who argued that they were responding to the Clinton campaign—“That’s exactly what Donald Trump said! ‘He did it first!’ This is 5-year -old stuff,” Matthews said. “‘She did it first’ is exactly the Trump defense!”

But Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver went even further on CNN, saying Clinton was in league with the devil. “I think if you look at her record and campaign, her campaign is funded by millions and millions of dollars from Wall Street and other special interests. She’s made a deal with the devil, and we all know the devil wants his money in the end,” Weaver said.

“So that’s the kind of campaign she’s running. She supported the terrible trade deals, which have devastated American manufacturing in the country. She supported the war in Iraq. She continues to have a very, very hawkish foreign policy that has led to the rise and expansion of ISIS throughout the Middle East.”

Even Trump blames the ISIS debacle on President George W. Bush.

But with Sanders and his campaign jumping on the 23-year -plus anti-Hillary Republican bandwagon, openly calling Clinton unqualified, “corrupt” PRIMARY continued on p. 22

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POLITICS COMMUNITY

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04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

COMMUNITY

⚫ BY KAREN OCAMB

Stonewall Dems to Honor Garcetti, Prang, Eger, Wishon, Rosendahl Stonewall Democrats is is among the largest Democratic Clubs in California.

P

erhaps unbeknownst to many younger LGBT activists, Stonewall Democratic Club has been a strong grassroots political

force helping elect LGBT and allied public of ficials in Los Angeles for more than 40 years.

Those officials have ensured that anti-LGBT discrimination is rooted out and extinguished in every reach of government. And on April 30, Stonewall will honor five key politicos for their pro-equality achievements and as a visceral reminder of the importance of voting in the upcoming June 7 elections.

This year, Stonewall will honor L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, out County Assessor Jeffrey Prang, out Rabbi Denise L. Eger, longtime ally Jane Wishon and the late gay Councilmember Bill Rosendahl.

Gar cetti has been af fectionately dubbed L.A.’s “hipster” mayor for encouraging “out of the box” thinking and approaches to solving problems.

In fact, Garcetti, a close friend of marriage equality hero and Winning

Marriage author Marc Solomon, was an LGBT ally long before the community helped elect him to the L.A. city council. As mayor, he has been a strong LGBT advocate, including hiring LGBT staf f (out progressive Rick Jacobs is Garcetti’s deputy chief of staff) and standing for LGBT civil rights. On April 15, for instance, Gar c e t t i e nac t e d a no n-e s s e nt ial STONEWALL continued on p. 17

04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

STONEWALL continued from p. 16

travel ban to North Car olina and Mississippi in response to the recent anti-LGBT laws in those states. At a news conference, Garcetti said those laws betrayed “the basic rights to equal protection and self expression that all Americans are guaranteed by the Constitution. These bills are thinly veiled as actions to preserve religious freedom or protect against sexual violence, but will instead promote intolerance and discrimination against the LGBT community.”

Last month, Garcetti created a transgender advisory council for the city and on April 18, he participated in the launch of Transform California, a statewide movement founded by Equality Califor nia and the Transgender Law Center to promote respect, understanding and safety for the transgender community that includes a signed pledge to oppose anti-trans discrimination. “California and its residents are known around the world for standing up for the values of tolerance and equality,” Garcetti said. “Trans people should have the freedom to live their lives, to dream, and to plan for the future

MARRIAGE EQUALITY USA’S JANE WISHON , LA MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI

without worrying about their safety or basic rights. I am proud to add my voice to the broad coalition supporting Transform California, a new step in the march toward full inclusion for our trans brothers and sisters.”

Jeff Prang has been one of the more quietly effective LGBT leaders in the nation. Sworn in as L.A. County Assessor on Dec. 1, 2014, Prang oversees a budget of about $150 million and represents more constituents in L.A. County with its population of 321,418,820 (as of July 2015) than any other openly LGBT elected official in the country. Best known as a ubiquitous West Hollywood city councilmember during his more than 20 years of public service, Prang raised

LGBT issues wherever he worked, including as President of the California Contract Cities Association, a statewide education and advocacy organization representing California municipalities. He was also instrumental in encouraging other LGBT politicos to get involved in hyper -local politics and seeking positions on boards and commission, as well as running for public office. Prang has been in a relationship with Ray Vizcarra since 2004, whom he married in 2008 with his close friend L.A. City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl officiating at a small ceremony at West Hollywood City Hall.

Rosendahl, the beloved longtime out politico and media executive, died of cancer on March 30 at age 70, will also be honored. Stonewall created the new “Bill Rosendahl Courage Award” to be “given to individuals who, in accordance with their conscience, stand true to themselves, despite any risks to their career or reputation.” The first award will be given posthumously to Rosendahl.

Also honored will be Denise L. Eger, an ordained out Rabbi since 1988 and founder of the progressive Reform Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood. Eger’s practice of her

KNOWLEDGABLE

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faith is rooted in social justice activism, often joining Rev. T roy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Commu nity Church, and the late icon Episcopal Rev. Malcolm Boyd on the frontlines of LGBT and AIDS protests or public policy discussions. Eger has an extensive list of awards and “firsts,” including essentially bringing LGBT issues to the forefront of the Jewish Reform movement. In March 2015, Eger became the 60th President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the largest organization of Rabbis with more than 2000 Reform rabbis worldwide—the first LGBT person to hold that position.

Jane Wishon, a longtime member of Stonewall, is the kind of dream ally every minority might wish for. A socially conscious straight activist who matches her words with actions, Wishon has been Marriage Equality USA’s L.A. leader for years, concentrating on coalition building to right the wrong of inequality. Married for 34 years with three children, she is also an Elder of the Presbyterian Church. But Wishon brings smarts to her volunteer activism, as well, applying that MBA she earned as a Baker Fellow at the Anderson School of Management UCLA.

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POLITICS COMMUNITY

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04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

COMMUNITY

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

Hollywood’s power players strategize on anti-LGBT laws “The challenges we are all facing to bring equality to every person and state in our country is more timely than ever. We all need to know what is happening right now across the nation and what we can do as a far-reaching group to help.”

A

t presstime on April 20, Bryan Lourd, the head of Creative Artists Agency, the world’s leading entertainment and sports talent agency, along with his partner, Bruce Bozzi, were hosting a private reception at their Beverly Hills mansion on for some of Hollywood’s most influential entertainment figures.

The couple hope to enlist powerful allies in the fight against the growing tide of anti-LGBT laws across that are being enacted nationally, particularly in North Carolina and MississippI. Several laws have passed banning transgender people from entering public bathrooms and granting businesses the right to refuse service to LGBT customers. North Carolina had gone as far as prohibiting municipalities from enacting local ordinances that would protect LGBT residents.

Tennessee is considering a bill that would allow therapists and counselors to reject LGBT patients. And there are more.

A variety of entertainment figures — Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Ringo Starr, Pearl Jam and others — have cancelled appearances in states with anti-LGBT laws while others, like, Cyndi Lauper will perform but will donate the event proceeds to a local LGBT charity. Dozens of For tune 500 companies have also cancelled investments or made for mal protests to Governors in those states.

T h e H o l l y w o o d R e p o r t e r, w h i c h

first reported the meeting, says that Lindsay Rachelefsky, a Hollywood political consultant with Sky Advisory, wrote in the emailed invitation, “The challenges we are all facing to bring equality to every person and state in our country is more timely than ever. We all need to know what is happening right now across the nation and what we can do as a far-reaching group to help.”

“The needle is moving and now is the time for us to get together as a community and use our influence to help push those states that are openly discriminating against LGBT people,” Rachelefsky continues.

The meeting picks up on a plea made by Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campain, at the 2016 Los Angeles HRC dinner, held in March while a similar bill was passed in the Georgia legislature. Griffin denounced such bills as “wrong,” “un-American” and “an affront on all the values Hollywood prides itself on.” He called on Hollywood to be prepared to do battle.

Many prominent leaders, actors and personalities heeded his call and on March 28, the Georgia governor announced that a would veto of the bill, saying, “In light of our history, I find it somewhat ir onic that some in the religious community today feel that it is necessary for government to confer upon them certain rights and protections.”

North Carolina governor Pat McCrory that same week signed an even more draconian bill into law,

CAA’S BRYAN LOURD AND HIS PARTNER BRUCE BOZZI (PHOTO: LINCOLN CENTER)

enforcing a statewide ban on individuals using bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex.

Under pressure from a tsunami of reaction the Governor issued an executive order that blunted some parts of the law but reiterated parts of the bill related to bathroom use and biological gender.

Governor McCrory said today that gay rights groups are “more power ful than the NRA.” Mississippi gover nor Phil Bryan signed an even more onerous “religious liberty” bill just days later.

The law allows business owners to refuse service to LGBT customers — among other protections for actions condemned as discriminatory by gay rights groups.

And on April 11, the T ennessee legislature passed HB 1840, which allows private practice therapists and counselors to reject patients if their “goals, outcomes, or behaviors” violate the “sincerely held principles” of the provider. That bill is under consideration by the state’s

Governor.

The c o uns e ling c o mmunit y has r oundly denounced the law as so broad that it would allow counselors to tur n away patients for virtually any reason.

A T ennessee bathr oom bill that targeted transgender youth in public schools was pulled by it’s sponsors today after the Gover nor and his advisors became concerned the bill would violate T itle IX and jeopardize federal funding for the state’s schools.

T ens of thousands of T ennesseans; major national child welfare, medical, and education groups; country music stars, most recently including Billy Ray Cyrus; more than 60 CEOs and major business leaders; and HRC in partnership with local LGBT equality advocates at the Tennessee Equality Project, ACLU of T ennessee, and the T ennessee T ransgender Political Coalition, have been repeatedly calling on lawmakers to abandon all antiLGBT legislation.

04.22.2016 POLITICS

TRANSGENDER

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LOS ANGELES

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⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

Transform California launches

M

ayor Eric Garcetti signed a pledge Tuesday saying he will work to protect the rights of transgender people as a member of a coalition promoting awareness about transgender issues and challenges across the state.

“Our tax dollars won’t fund intolerance here,” he said at a rally outside Los Angeles City Hall to launch the Transform California campaign to oppose discriminatory practices against transgender people.

The Transform California coalition — founded by Equality California and the Transgender Law Center — will hold rallies around the state that include participation by civil rights groups, members of the business community and elected officials.

Other local leaders who have signed the pledge include Gary Toebben, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and state Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, who was not at today’s event.

The coalition was formed in response to violence faced by transgender people around the state, and

comes as a law was adopted in North Carolina that includes restrictions against people using bathrooms with gender labels differing with what was designated on their birth certificates.

“I am so excited that we are going to be a city that not only rolls back the hatred in other places, but to make sure that nobody lives with the threat of harassment, or intimidation or assault,” Garcetti said.

Garcetti recently supported a City Council ban on non-essential travel to the states of North Carolina and Mississippi until laws in those states discriminating against gay and transgender people are repealed.

The city is taking other steps, including making bathrooms gender neutral, “because there shouldn’t have to be a segregation of options based on your identity,” he said.

Garcetti spokeswoman Connie Llanos said 21 single-room restrooms at City Hall and other buildings in the Civic Center that had been labeled male or female will become gender neutral.

Garcetti and other speakers pointed to recent violence against trans-

gender people, including an incident in which a transgender teenager was allegedly run over by the driver of a car in Monterey Park, and the fatal shooting of a transgender woman, Quartney Yochum, in Skid Row last month.

He added that in addition to transgender people being the target of violence, “there is something wrong with society” when there are statistics showing more than 75 percent of transgender people contemplate suicide.

Nobody should hate themselves, nobody should consider taking their own lives, and today we will save lives we will never be able to count just by speaking up and standing up together,” Garcetti said.

One of the speakers at today’s rally was Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center Rabbi Becky Silverstein, considered one of the first rabbis in the Jewish religion’s Conservative movement who has identified as transgender.

Silverstein said it was important for people not to have to choose between their faith and their gender or sexual

identity.

People who are gay or identify as transgender in the faith community often face “pain and alienation and separation, fear and shame,” Silverstein said.

But the rabbi noted that “at the core of most, if not all faith traditions, there are a set of common values that drive how we interact with each other,” including maxims such as “respect for God’s creations …love your fellow as you love yourself … the idea that we are all created in the image of the divine.”

As a rabbi, I have made the decision to be out and proud about my transgender identity,” Silverstein said. “I have made the decision to be a role model, and to use my story, my body, my life as a tool for greater understanding, education and action.”

Other transgender leaders at today’s rally — which featured written signs in Spanish and Chinese — include amateur boxer Pat Manuel, actress and activist Maria Roman, youth activist Shear Avory and Transgender Law Center Executive Director Kris Hayashi.

⚫ BY TROY MASTERS

LA bans non-essential official travel to NC and MS T

he Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to suspend non-essential travel for city employees to the states of North Carolina and Mississippi after those states passed a spate of anti-LGBT measures that violate their civil rights.

North Carolina’s governor signed a law that bans transgender people from using the of public bathrooms.

The discriminatory law mandates that individuals must use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender of their birth.

Mississippi passed a law in that state which grants government employees the right to refuse issuance of marriage licenses or perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. The law also allows private business to refuse housing, jobs and

adoption services to people based on their sexual orientation.

City councilman Mike Bonin wrote the resolution, which claims the laws in both states forge a “climate of intolerance and a climate of violence.”

Bonin said under the boycott, the city would avoid doing business with the two governments and put a ban on city employees making official visits to the states until the two laws are repealed.

“When the state sanctions hatred and the state endorses discrimination, hatred and discrimination increases,” creating a “climate of intolerance and a climate of violence,” Bonin said.

People will be fired from their jobs, hate crimes will go up and young people who are “struggling with their

identity are going to be bullied and some of them will ponder suicide,” he charged.

“That’s not what Los Angeles stands for.”

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said he was proud to stand with the City Council banning travel for City employees to North Carolina and Mississippi.

Garcetti said: “I am proud to stand with the City Council today to enact a ban on non-essential travel for City employees to the States of North Carolina and Mississippi. In recent weeks, we have seen both of these states pass legislation that betray the basic rights to equal protection and self expression that all Americans are guaranteed by the Constitution.

These bills are thinly veiled as actions to preserve religious freedom

or protect against sexual violence, but will instead promote intolerance and discrimination against the LGBT community. With one stroke of their pen, Governor Pat McCrory and Governor Phil Bryant have jeopardized the safety and dignity of countless transgender, gay and lesbian people — who are already at an increased risk for violent crime.

As someone who has fought for many years on behalf of LGBT Americans and their right to equal protection under the law, I will continue to do everything in my power to keep L.A.’s tax dollars from supporting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”violence, but will instead promote intolerance and discrimination against the LGBT community.”

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MOVIES

THE JUNGLE BOOK

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04.22.2016

LOS ANGELES

MOVIE KING

⚫ BY JOHN PAUL KING

Re-reading “The Jungle Book”

“…a best-of-both-worlds crowd-pleaser which captures the serious tone and allegorical flavor of Kipling while still delivering the good-natured hi-jinks expected from a studio known for its fun-for-all-ages romps.”

R

udyard Kipling was a product of his era. An Englishman born in Colonial India, he grew into a prolific author and poet whose canon was informed by his childhood experiences there.

Though his literary gifts were undeniable, and much of his work is still widely read more than a century later, he has come to be seen as a champion of British Imperialism.

The world view of white-privileged conquerors, with their assumption of racial superiority over the indigenous populations they subjugated, is deeply embedded in the fabric of all his stories- including the much-beloved children’s tales for which he is most remembered today.

Needless to say, in a modern world keenly aware of the issues surrounding race, this makes him a controversial figure.

He is regarded by many as an unapologetic racist whose writing, even at its finest, was little more than propaganda for the cause of white supremacy. Others vehemently insist that he was a humanist working from within the system to illuminate both the noble and ignoble traits of all people and thus promote a more egalitarian mindset.

Arguments and evidence are plentiful in support of either side, as well as of the myriad viewpoints which lie somewhere between those two poles.

Of course, the majority of modern moviegoers are unaware of this literary debate, which is undoubtedly why two major studios have both developed

RAISED BY A FAMILY OF WOLVES SINCE BIRTH, MOWGLI (NEEL SETHI) MUST LEAVE THE ONLY HOME HE’S EVER KNOWN.

family-friendly blockbusters based on the most well-known of Kipling’s stories: “The Jungle Book.”

The first of these, directed by Jon Favreau from a screenplay by Justin Marks, is the Disney studio’s latest effort to remount one of their animated classics as a live-action film for the 21st Century generation.

Their previous version- the final film personally overseen by Walt Disney himself- was released in 1967, and though it has become a cherished favorite to those who grew up with it, at the time it was heavily criticized for taking Kipling’s rather solemn original and turning it into a rollicking, jazz-infused comedic showcase for a star-studded cast of voice talent.

This time around, Marks and Favreau have doubled down on that same approach, while also expanding the basic story framework to include elements from the Kipling tale (or rather, tales- what we have come to know as “The Jungle Book” is actually derived from several short stories concerning the man-cub, Mowgli, and his adventures in the jungle with his animal mentors).

The result feels like a satisfactory blend, a best-of-both-worlds crowd-pleaser which captures the serious tone and allegorical flavor of Kipling while still delivering the good-natured hi-jinks expected from a studio known for its fun-for-all-ages romps.

It’s also a technical masterpiece. The use of CGI and performance-capture technology has yielded a breathtaking visual experience, giving us a lush and majestic experience of the Indian wilderness as well as remarkably believable depictions of the animals which comprise most of the cast of characters.

This latter element also benefits from superb vocal portrayals by the likes of Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba, Christopher Walken, Lupita Nyong’o, and the always-welcome Bill Murray. Perhaps most importantly, newcomer Neel Sethi gives an on-point performance as Mowgli, a remarkable accomplishment for a young actor whose work took place on a soundstage far removed from the world on display in the finished product.

Yet for all its excellence, this new “Jungle Book” feels somehow overdone. There’s a “bigger-is-better” philosophy at play which detracts from its meticulously-constructed authenticity; a larger-than-life quality may be appropriate to the material, but is it really necessary, for instance, for King Louie to be the size of King Kong?

Although Marks’ screenplay does a good job of underlining the humanistic parallels with the animal kingdom, the sincerity of his intentions is steamrolled by heavy-handed execution, perhaps most tangibly in the manipulative orchestral swellings of John Debney’s

score.

And on the subject of music, the inclusion of the best-known songs from the 1967 film not only seems perfunctory, but also jarringly incongruous within the realistic environment created to evoke the period and setting of the story. .

These observations are, of course, likely to be immaterial to most of Disney’s target audience- perhaps rightly so. After all, whatever his socio-political philosophies may have been, Kipling wrote his Mowgli stories to entertain, and “The Jungle Book” certainly succeeds in doing justice to that purpose.

Still, one can’t help but wonder how much richer it could have been made by a subtler hand, one that might have allowed for a bit of reflection on how to reconcile our modern sensibility with the more troubling issues contained in an iconic tale that, like it or not, is deeply ingrained into our cultural consciousness.

Perhaps we will find out in two years, when Warner Brothers releases their take on it.

Until then, this one will do well enough.

THE JUNGLE BOOK DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau STORY BY: Rudyard Kipling SCREENPLAY: Justin Marks MUSIC COMPOSED BY: John Debney PLAYING: Pacific Theatres at the Grove Standard 10:05pm 10:45 3D 9:35pm CGV Cinemas LA 3D 9:30pm Rave Cinemas Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza 15 + Xtreme Standard 10:50pm XTREME 9:20pm

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WILSON continued from p. 14

Weinstein, Mary Adair and others to found the AIDS Hospice Foundation—later to become the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, launching what would become a spectacular thirty-year national career fighting for LGBT and Black civil rights and for people with HIV/AIDS. His first job was as the director of Stop AIDS Los Angeles, then director of public policy and planning for AIDS Project Los Angeles, co-founder of the Black Gay & Lesbian Leadership Forum, AIDS Coordinator for the City of Los Angeles, member of the President’s AIDS Advisory Council, renown guest on TV talk shows, including Oprah Winfrey, and today, the nation’s conscience as the founder of the Black AIDS Institute.

Few actually know how hard Wilson has personally fought to stay alive, taking every HIV drug as it became available (AZT, 3TC, D4T, and others), as did Brownlie, who succumbed to AIDS in 1989. In 1997, Wilson landed on death’s door but refused to believe it was his time to die. The miracle of combination drug therapy saved his life, as it did for countless others—leading some to believe that the AIDS epidemic

was over. But AIDS is still a crisis in Black and Latino communities.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2014, 44% of estimated new HIV diagnoses were among Black, who comprise 12% of the US population; an estimated 73% were men and 26% were women; 57% were gay or bisexual men, and of those, 39% were young men aged 13 to 24. “ O u r h o u s e i s o n f i r e , ” Wi l s o n trumpets at every opportunity, hoping his community will hear and fight back, asking as Pat Parker might: Where will you be when HIV comes?

The Black AIDS Institute is holding a fundraiser in celebration of Phill Wilson’s 60th birthday on Saturday, April 23. There will be enter tainment, surprise celebrity guests, and a roast. When asked what he wanted for his birthday, Wilson said: “I want to raise a lot of money for the Black AIDS Institute. I would like for all of my friends, family, and anyone who I’ve ever touched in anyway over the last 60 years to help the Black AIDS Institute finally end the AIDS epidemic in our community.” Go to http://60.eventbrite. com for tickets, or Phillwilson60.com to see photos of Wilson through the decades and make a donation.

PRIMARY continued from p. 15

and “dishonest,” Clinton’s favorable poll ratings have eroded. According to a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 56% of people surveyed had a negative view of her, an all-time high.

In addition to the personal attacks on Clinton, Sanders, like Trump, has openly assaulted the very apparatus he hopes to win over.

On April 18, on the eve of the New York primary which Sanders expected to win, his campaign sent an open letter to the Democratic National Committee and 32 state Democratic parties “to convey some extremely serious concerns” about the joint fundraising committee called the Hillary Victory Fund. The campaign alleges that the committee “may have committed ‘serious apparent violations’ of campaign finance laws by over -reimbursing the Clinton campaign,” according to the Washington Post.

The Fund, which raised $33 million in the first three months of 2016, can accept checks over $350,000 from individual donors.”

But the Fund is a structure by which money can be raised and funneled to state parties to help win down-ticket races through voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives and outreach programs.

“Democratic organizations in Ohio and Virginia quickly weighed in on the spat, emphasizing that their fundraising agreements with the DNC and Clinton’s campaign provide vital financial support, since their activities don’t tend to generate small-donor enthusiasm like Sanders’ campaign,” the Post reported.

“Based upon past interviews and this new situation, I’ve become skeptical of Sen. Sanders’ willingness to invest in building the infrastructure that is needed to win down-ballot races,” Rick Palacio, chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, told The Huffington Post.

Democrats noted that Sanders also has a joint fundraising agreement with the DNC—financial help that could advance the “political revolution” he espouses by returning the majority of Congress and state legislatures to Democratic rule. But so far, Sanders has only funded three candidates who’ve endorsed him.

Two of those candidates, the Washington Blade reported April 14, are pro-equality but running against openly gay congressional contenders at a time when only seven members of Congress are LGB, well below representation for the 3-5% of America’s LGBT population.

One of the candidates Sanders financially supports is Pramila Jayapal, a Washington State Senator running in Washington’s 7th congressional district. The other is Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor running in New York’s 19th congressional district.

“Teachout is running against Will Yandik, an openly gay farmer and Livingston deputy town supervisor who recently had a child with his same-sex spouse,” the Blade reports.

Jayapal, meanwhile, is competing against two openly gay candidates in a primary set for Aug. 2: Joe McDermott, a former member of the Washington legislature and now a member of the King County Council, and Brady Walkinshaw, a member of the Washington State House, per the Blade.

Both McDermott and Walkinshaw objected to Sanders’ direct interfer ence. “It’s sad that any national campaign would ignore the fact that multiple progressive leaders are running in competitive Democratic primaries like Washington’s 7th, where we have the chance to send our State’s first openly LGBT member to Congress and a first native Spanish speaker,” Walkinshaw told the Blade. “We’re seeing states and a radicalized Republican party around our country pursuing discriminatory policies with newfound fervor, and now is not the time to be closing doors on LGBT candidates.”

But most Democrats are concerned about the public attacks.

“The victory fund arrangement is all standard procedure for modern campaigns — Bernie could (and should) be doing this too if he wants to lead Democrats to victory this year,” a spokesman for a battleground state Democratic Party told HuffPost, the Washington Post reported, adding that the spokesperson “asked for anonymity to speak frankly about Sanders’ allegations against Clinton’s campaign and the DNC.” “The tone of these attacks is troubling for us long-term because he’s using his bully pulpit to turn his supporters against the Democratic Party,” the spokesperson said, leading some to question whether Sanders, a longtime independent who said ran for the Democratic Party nomination in order to get media attention, actually cares about the Democratic Party.

“Instead of trying to convince the next generation of progressives that the Democratic Party is corrupt, Senator Sanders should stick to the issues and think about what he can do to help the Party he is seeking to lead,” Clinton’s openly gay campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement.

Given the math of the Democratic primary race, the most important question after the convention and going into the general election becomes: will a solid number of Sanders supporters refuse to vote for Clinton and thus swing the election to tea party icon Donald Trump in November?

Perhaps Elizabeth Warren will step in and save Bernie Sanders from becoming this election’s Ralph Nader.

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LOS ANGELES

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04.22.2016

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®

FIAT 500X. ALL PRIDE. ZERO PREJUDICE.

34 HWY MPG

fiatusa.com Based on EPA estimated MPG. EPA EST. 31 HWY MPG on model shown. Actual results may vary. ©2016 FCA US LLC. All Rights Reserved.

FIAT is a registered trademark of FCA Group Marketing S.p.A., used under license by FCA US LLC.

JOB: 97583_CBC_LGBT Fiat_10x11.7_B TRIM: 10 in x 11.7 in

SPECS: 4C – CMYK LIVE: N/A

DATE: 03/30/2016 BLEED: N/A