January 2011 Archives

The Long Beach Community Business Network, also known as the Long Beach Gay Chamber of Commerce, holds its next lunch mixer Wednesday at the Paradise Piano Bar and Restaurant.

The admission, $15-$20, includes lunch and soft drinks. To pay in advance, www.lbcbn.com/payments

All gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender businessowners and gay friendly businessowners are welcome to attend.

The mixer takes place from 11:20 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 1800 E. Broadway, Long Beach. For more information, contact Paul Duncan, LBCBN, 562-590-0808.

Kevin Alejandro joined the cast of HBO's "True Blood" at the start of Season 3, and as his role as "brujo" Jesus Velasquz on the sexy vampire hit expands, so does the pressure to get fit to compete with the boys of Bon Temps, according to an interview with AccessHollywood.com.

"I'm sharing the screen with somebody like Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse)," says Alejandro, 34, about feeling the pressure to get ripped for those shirtless and racy nude scenes that have come to be routine on the hit show. "We all look within ourselves for inspiration [to lose weight, get fit] but he's obviously the poster boy of a physique."

On "True Blood," Alejandro's Velasquez is a long-term care nurse, who happens to be a witch. He's also relationship with Merlotte's resident short order cook-vampire blood dealer LaFayette Reynolds (Nelsen Ellis), and Alejandro tells AccessHollywood.com the new couple's bond will grow stronger in the coming season, which premieres this summer.

"My relationship [will grow] with not only him but other characters in show as well," Kevin says. "They are really moving us around and balancing it out in all these crazy, strange ways and it works, man. It works really well this year."

"Pariah," a coming-of-age film about a 17-year-old black lesbian in Brooklyn, N.Y., was purchased by Focus Features after its screening at the Sundance Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film is about the girl finding herself and learning about her sexuality.

Focus Features, which paid less than $1 million for the film, has also backed "Brokeback Mountain," "Milk" and "The Kids Are All Right," which is nominated for four Academy Awards.

"Pariah" stars Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker, Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell, and Aasha Davis. It was directed by Dee Rees, executive-produced by Spike Lee and produced by Nekisa Cooper.

For a review of the film, click here.

Brannon Braga says he wishes the "Star Trek" franchise had boldly gone where it hadn't gone before.

Braga, the producer of more than a dozen feature films and 700 episodes in the franchise, regrets not featuring any openly gay characters, he says in an interview with AfterElton.com.

"It was a shame," Braga says. "I'm talking about the 'Next Generation,' 'Deep Space Nine' and there was a constant back and forth about well how do we portray the spectrum of sexuality. There were people who felt very strongly that we should be showing casually, you know, just two guys together in the background in 'Ten Forward.'

(He should regret it. It's hard to imagine in more than a dozen feature films and 700 episodes, not one or three openly LGBT characters could have been portrayed. Sounds more like a conscious effort to exclude them.)

Drawing on G.I.s' wartime letters, extensive interviews with gay veterans and declassified military documents, Allan  Bérubé's "Coming Out Under Fire" examines  the struggle of gays and lesbians in the U.S. military during WW II.

They found themselves fighting on two fronts -  against the Axis Powers and against their own authorities who took extreme measures to stigmatize them as unfit to serve their country.

First published in 1990, this 20th anniversary edition, which includes a new foreward by historians John D'Emilio and Estelle B.Freedman argues that although gays were specifically barred from the armed forces from 1942 onward, homosexuality and military service were not incompatible.

At the start of World War II, the military, desperate to meet enlistment quotas, quietly admitted gay people with the tacit understanding that they would be discreet about their sexuality. For many gay men and lesbians, Bérubé wrote, military service was actually a godsend: It took them away from small-town life and gave them their first opportunity to meet other gay people, according to the New York Times.

On the whole, Bérubé found, gay service people who did their jobs ably were treated well by comrades and superiors. (Conditions worsened toward the end of the war, when the military stepped up its purges of homosexuals.) But those early war years, Bérubé concluded, were the wellspring of the gay-rights movement of the late 1960s and beyond.

Bérubé's book was the inspiration for the 1995 Peabody Award-winning documentary of the same name.

Since its founding in 1998, the Pop Luck Club has grown from a handful of fathers to over 300 families. It facilitates monthly "pot luck" play dates, discussions and support groups, online resources and news groups, family events and mentorship programs for prospective fathers.

Ricky Martin is getting ready to live la vida loca. He's hitting the road for his first tour in more than three years, including two Los Angeles dates, May 6-7, at the Nokia Theatre.

Martin is touring to support his new CD, "Musica+Alma+Sexo," which comes out Tuesday. It's his first new studio album in six years.

Based on pre-sales, the album is the #1 selling Latin album at Amazon.com.

A special deluxe edition of "Musica+Alma+Sexo" - featuring seven exclusive tracks - will be available only at Target and www.Target.com.

The first single from the album -"Lo Mejor De Mi Vida Eres Tú"- is the #1 Latin pop song in the country. The English version, "The Best Thing About Me Is You," has just been sent to radio.

Martin will perform "The Best Thing About Me Is You" on NBC's "Today Show" Tuesday. 

The pair of gay-themed Doritos ads that have been making the rounds on the Web Monday won't air during the Super Bowl, according to a spokesman for Frito-Lay.

The ads were two out of 5,600  submitted to the company for its "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, Frito-Lay director of public relations Chris Kuechenmeister told the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation 

He said the ads were not among the finalists chosen by a panel of judges and have no chance of airing during the Super Bowl or otherwise.

"Glee" creator Ryan Murphy is singing a not-so-happy tune about Kings of Leon, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Last year, the chart-topping band denied Murphy's request to use their Grammy-nominated hit "Use Somebody" on the show - a decision that mortally offended Murphy, who offers the magazine a profanity-laced response to their refusal.

Murphy also says the band insulted his smash show with a "hate on arts education" message. (However, Murphy comes off as sanctimonious with his "Won't Someone Think of the Children" remark.) 

"They missed that a 7-year-old kid can see someone close to their age singing a Kings of Leon song, which will maybe make them want to join a glee club or pick up a musical instrument. It's like, OK, hate on arts education. You can make fun of Glee all you want, but at its heart, what we really do is turn kids on to music." (Wait a minute. When did "Glee"'s target audience become 7 year olds? If that's who you are targeting -  that's creepy.)

In response to Murphy's anger, Kings of Leon tells THR: "This whole 'Glee' thing is a shock to us. It's gotten out of hand. At the time of the request, we hadn't even see the show. It came at the end of that record cycle, and we were over promoting ['Use Somebody']. This was never meant as a slap in the face to 'Glee' or to music education or to fans of the show. We're not sure where the anger is coming from."

Oprah Winfrey looks back at 25 years of covering gay guests and LGBT issues on her talk show today with special guests Greg Louganis and India's Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil.

Louganis, the Olympic gold medalist, appears on the show to discuss coming out at the 1994 Gay Games and revealing in 1995 his HIV positive status on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Prince Gohil appeared on the chat fest in 2007  - after his family disowned him for coming out. The show promises updates on the prince's relationship with his mother, who is India's queen.

Melissa Etheridge has a new girlfriend, according to People magazine.

The rock singer and former Long beach resident reportedly is dating "Nurse Jackie" creator Linda Wallem, who was reportedly the "best man" at Melissa's 2003 wedding to Tammy Lynn Michaels, according to the magazine.

"Melissa and Linda have been best friends for over 10 years," a source told People magazine. "They got together three months after Melissa and Tammy broke up."

However, in a blog post titled "speak, spread, walk the talk," Michaels says she's known about Melissa and Linda for months, suggesting the two were involved while she was still living there and that she's moved on and found new friends.

New federal regulations prohibiting hospitals from discriminating against visitors based on sexual orientation and gender identity went into effect last week.

"These new regulations require all hospitals participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs - virtually every hospital in the country - to permit patients to designate visitors of their choosing and prohibit discrimination in visitation based on a number of factors, including sexual orientation and gender identity," according to the Human Rights Campaign.

President Barack Obama announced the regulations last year in response to the horrible story of Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond. The Florida couple was kept apart at a Miami hospital by medical staff while Pond was dying.

A host of gay and LGBT-favorite actors - such as Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Kathy Majimy - take the stage Monday in West Hollywood for a performance of "Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays."

The readings of one-act plays will feature Gale Harold ("Queer as Folk"), Julie Hagerty ("Airplane!"), Mary Lynn Rajskub ("24"), among other actors.

The evening features short works by playwrights Jeffrey Hatcher ("Tuesdays With Morrie"), Moisés Kaufman ("The Laramie Project"), Neil LaBute ("Fat Pig"), Kathy Najimy, Paul Rudnick ("Jeffrey"), Doug Wright ("I Am My Own Wife"). 

"Standing on Ceremony" benefits the American Foundation for Equal Rights and Equality California. The limited engagement also will feature performances Jan. 31 and Feb. 7, with casting and plays to be announced.

All performances take place at The Largo at the Coronet Theater.www.largo-la.com/.

 

Now, Now, formerly known as Now, Now Every Children, which SPIN described as "fuzzy, synth-driven rock," play The Troubadour Saturday night in support of their latest release, "Neighbors."

The Minnesota-based trio also is an LGBT band - Vocalists-guitarists Cacie Dalager and Jess Abbott are lesbians and drum Bradley Hale is gay.

Filter magazine said, "Cacie Dalager and Jess Abbott's vocals blend perfectly with the indie-rock, guitar-laced, and anthematic tunes that seem to blast out your speakers on 'Neighbors'."

The Filter and SPIN sites also have album streams of "Neighbors." Give it a listen.
 

Want to stop bullying or make school a safer environment for LGBT students?

A free GSA leadership summit will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 22 at Long Beach City College, 4901 E. Carson St., Room P110 (English lounge).

The summit is open to middle and high school students, advisors, teachers and parents.

Several topics will be discussed at the summit:

* Understanding laws that protect LGBTQ youth in schools
* Taking action against slurs, harassment, and discrimination in schools
* Launching a campaign at school to create change
* How to run GSA meetings
* Outreach, membership building, coalitions and diversity
*How to run GSA meetings

For more information and to register, http://gsanetwork.org/events/trainings-and-summits

LGB2Network's January mixer for LGBT professionals is 6-8 tonight at the Museum of Latin American Art.

Guests will receive a private tour of the "Siqueiros Paisajista/Siqueiros: Landscape Painter" exhibition followed by a networking mix in the museum's Viva Café.

Admission and parking are free. Reservations are not required.

For more information on LGB2Network, click here.

Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, Kanye West and The Strokes are the headliners for this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which takes place April 15-17.

Three-day passes, along with camping passes, go onsale 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com, www.coachella.com and 800-745-3000. Passes are $269 plus surcharges and camping passes are $75.

Other musicians-bands on the bill include Axwell, Big Audio Dynamite, Bomba Estero, Caifanes, Cee Lo Green, Duck Sauce, Duran Duran, Erick Morillo, Fedde Le Grand, Ozomatli, Paul van Dyk, Robyn, Sasha and the list goes on and on and on.

Bayard Rustin, a leader of the civil rights movement, mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. and chief organizer of the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, struggled much of his life against racism and homophobia.

Openly gay, he remained in the background for the sake of the movement, only to be sacrificed by its leaders as a political liability. Nevertheless, Rustin made crucial contributions to the civil rights movement and emerged as a gay rights activist.


Here is a copy of a 2003 article I wrote on Rustin. It was tied to the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Hudson Taylor, a straight All-American wrestler and coach at Columbia University, is taking sports homophobia to the mat. He's launched AthleteAlly.com to combat homophobia in sports and ensure the locker room is a safe space for everyone

The web site's home page features an Athlete Ally Pledge: "I pledge to lead my athletic community toward respecting and welcoming all persons, regardless of their perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Beginning right now, I will do my part to promote the best of athletics by making all players feel respected on and off the field."

Users then enter their name, email and zip code and check one of five boxes - athlete, sports fan, parent, coach or advocate.

"I created the Pledge so that we, as an athletic community, can take proactive steps to end homophobia in sports," Taylor says in a statement on the site. "When we inspire entire teams and athletic departments to commit to a new standard of athletic integrity, we will change the environment in locker rooms and on playing fields. Adding your name to the growing list of supporters is the first step to make a difference."

Last year, Taylor emerged as a champion for gay rights, first with a much-read blog on homophobia in sports he wrote for Outsports.com and later by posting for the No H8 campaign.

The nation's first museum dedicated exclusively to LGBT history opened Wednesday in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The GLBT History Museum is located in the historic Castro district.

Pink-framed sunglasses belonging to Harvey Milk, manuscripts and sex toys, are on display at the 1,600-square-foot space.

With two exhibits and hundreds of articles, the museum is the world's second museum dedicated solely to gay and lesbian archives and materials, museum officials said. The only other one is in Germany, according to the article.

"Telling our stories transforms our lives and our society and takes us out of the margins," Don Romesburg, a curator and assistant professor of Sonoma State University's Department of Women's and Gender Studies, told the Chronicle. "The museum is at the heart of that project."

Country music star Chely Wright says her record sales dropped by 50 percent after coming out in May, but that's OK with her. She also says some of her old fans sent hate mail, according to an interview in Autosaddle via The Advocate.com.

In the interview, Wright also deflates the perception among the gay community that coming out helped her career in every way.

"They're wrong," she said. "There's the gay community that now knows my name and it's a long leap from the new demographic of people who will come to my Facebook page and hit the 'Like' button to them buying my record and coming to live shows. It's a big stretch from those new fans to make up for the fans I lost. It didn't help my career. My record sales went directly in half. If it appears from the outside in that it's helped my career, it could be because I haven't talked about the negative. You won't hear me bitching and moaning on my Facebook about the hate mail I've gotten. My life has been threatened. I get nasty letters every day, 'I'm through with you Chely Wright, you're going to hell.' There's a big difference between press and advocacy and.... sometimes people forget that people who sing or make movies, this isn't just a hobby for us. This is how I pay my bills. In coming out I had a feeling that it would diminish my wage earning, and that feeling was correct. And, I am fine with that."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow spoke with Daniel Hernandez, the gay congressional intern whose quick application of his nursing training is credited with saving the life of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after the Tucson shooting rampage that killed six people.

Earlier this week, Hernandez was honored for his actions during the State of the State speech by Gov. Jan Brewer.

Hernandez talked with Maddow about the history of threats against the congresswoman, his career ambitions and his ability to stay calm in a crisis.

California may look to the east coast for guidance in handling school-yard bullies, according to a report on San Francisco's KTNV.

State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) is expected to introduce a tough antibullying bill, one on par with legislation passed in New Jersey that youth advocates call the strongest of its kind, according to KTNV.

New Jersey's antibullying bill, which was signed into law in early January, mandates schools have a specific point person to run antibullying programs. The law also requires educators undergo training on bullying, stronger anti-bullying curricula and a system to monitor and report incidents.

The intern who helped save Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's life is Latino and gay, and it matters,  writes Mary Elizabeth Williams on Salon.com.

Daniel Hernandez (left) is the 20-year-old student who helped stanch Giffords's bleeding and stayed with the 40-year-old Arizona Democrat after she was shot in the head at point-blank range. After paramedics arrived, Hernandez stayed with Giffords and comforted her by assuring Giffords he  would notify her  husband and parents.

[Reporting that Hernandez is gay and Latino] "matters because guys like Arizona Sen. John McCain, who described the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' as 'a very sad day,' still think that orientation has an effect on whether or not a person can ably serve in the military," writes Williams. "It matters because the notion that two people of the same-sex can love each other and build a life together is still considered in many parts of the country, including Arizona, a threat to what is laughably referred to a "traditional marriage" -- as if heterosexuals have really mopped up the floor with this whole commitment thing."

(Photo: Associated Press)

Unless she gets "on bended knee in somewhere like Times Square on national television and begs me for forgiveness," Madonna is banned from Piers Morgan's new CNN chat show, Morgan told Access Hollywood.

(Good. That's one less boring, narcissistic interview to clutter the air waves.)

"Piers Morgan Tonight" premieres 9 p.m. Monday.

Apart from saying the Material Girl is "boring" and "annoying" (We couldn't agree more), Morgan says the 52-year-old singer is banned because her publicist lied to him.

"You know the worst thing Madonna did to me?" Morgan asks. "Madonna's publicist once said to me, 'Listen to me, Madonna is not pregnant,' when I was running a newspaper. And I said, 'Are you sure?' She said, 'Listen to me, Piers. Madonna is not pregnant.'

"The next day, they announced [the news] on a rival newspaper's website," Piers says.

That makes her boring and a liar.


What do you think: Did Piers make the right decision? Is Madonna "boring and annoying"?

In "My Queer War," (set 51 years before "Don't Ask, Don't Tell") James Lord tells the story of a young man's exposure to the terrors, dislocations and horrors of armed conflict.

The "Queer" in the title encompasses not only Lord's earliest gay adventures but also the queerness of war in the old sense of its strangeness, of all the ruptures, dislocations and horrors that turn normal life inside out, according to a New York Times Book Review.

Lord died Aug. 23, 2009. He was 86.

"My Queer War" begins in 1942. A timid, inexperienced 19-year-old Lord reports to Atlantic City and enlists in the United States Army. His armed forces career takes him to Nevada and California, to Boston, to England, and, eventually, to France and Germany, where he witnesses firsthand the ravages of war's annihilation on Europe's land and people.

Along the way Lord comes to terms with his own sexuality, experiences the thrill of first love and the chill of disillusionment with his fellow man, and  - in a moment of great rashness  - makes the acquaintance of the world's most renowned artist, Pablo Picasso, who shows him the way to a new life.

John Waters praised the book, saying, "Here's proof that all wars could be a tiny bit less brutal with gay people serving in the military."

For more than a decade, Julio Salgado lived in the shadows like thousands of other undocumented, gay young people.

But that was then.

Salgado says he's out and proud about his sexuality and immigration status.

"I'm from two oppressed minorities. I'm queer and I'm undocumented," says the 27-year-old Long Beach resident.  "For a long time, I was in hiding about my sexuality and my immigration status. But I'm proud to be out."

Despite the challenges of his immigration status, Salgado graduated from Cal State Long Beach in May with a journalism degree; however, that status has made it difficult for him to find work, Salgado told the Press-Telegram's Kelly Puente.

In December, it seemed like Salgado's wish for documentation was going to come through, thanks to the DREAM ACT.

For young people like Salgado, the DREAM Act isn't just a piece of legislation. It's a decision on their future.

Photo: Julio Salgado, of Long Beach, a journalism graduate of California State University, Long Beach, is unable to find a job because he is an illegal immigrant. At 11-years-old, Salgado legally cross into California from Mexico with a valid passport so that his 6-year-old sister at the time could recieve treatment for kidney failure. (Diandra Jay/Press-Telegram)

Kylie Minogue has announced North American dates for her "Aphrodite - Live 2011 Tour" with a date at the Hollywood Bowl May 20.

Pre-sale tickets for the U.S. leg of the tour begin Friday for American Express card holders and Kylie's fanbase with public tickets available Jan. 22.

The world tour starts Feb. 19th in Denmark and will play arenas throughout Europe and Japan before hitting Canada, the United States and Mexico. The North American leg of the tour begins April 28 in Montreal and closes May 22 in Las Vegas.

In other Minogue news, the single "Get Outta My Way" hit the top of the Billboard Club Chart, marking her second consecutive #1 Billboard Club single from "Aphrodite," following "All The Lovers," and her fifth career #1 club single to date.

Ricky Martin takes off his shirt to wave the gay equality flag in his new music video for "The Best Thing About Me Is You."

The song is the first single from his upcoming CD, "Music+Soul+Sex," which drops Feb. 1.

Debbie Friedman, a lesbian singer-songwriter  who achieved success with her songs and hymns of Jewish life and spirituality, died Sunday of pneumonia complications in Mission Viejo, Calif, according to the Advocate.com, via the New York Times.

A self-taught musician, Friedman was called "the Joan Baez of Jewish song" by the Forward newspaper in 1995. For a feminist and out lesbian, Friedman was surprisingly embraced by Orthodox and Reform Jews alike as well as some Christian congregations that performed her music.

The deadline is Jan. 30 for performers to apply for spots in the 28th annual Long Beach Pride Festival from May 21-22. Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Inc. will be accepting promotional kits from artists interested in performing on the 2011 Main Stage, Fiesta Caliente, Country, Spot Light, Dance or Urban Soul entertainment venues.

Promo kits should be sent to LBLGP Inc. Entertainment Committee (indicate stage preference), P.O. Box 2050, Long Beach, CA 90801. Packets will not be returned.

The committee also is looking for people interested in volunteering for stage crew, security and parking duties. Send details to the same address.

Writer-director Lisa Cholodenko and writer Stuart Blumberg talk about making "The Kids Are All Right" and their approach to writing tonight.

It's part of The Writers Guild Foundation's "Writers on Writing" series.

Proceeds go to the Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library and other foundation programs.

A male model confessed to torturing,  bludgeoning and murdering his older lover and castrating him with a corkscrew in New York City to rid the lover of homosexuality, according to the New York Daily News.

Renato Seabra, 20, is accused of murdering Portuguese columnist Carlos Castro, 65, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Times Square on Friday.

Castro paid for the couple's trip to New York to celebrate the new year, but detectives believe Seabra killed his gray-haired lover when he refused to take him on an expensive shopping trip, according to the Daily News.

An autopsy showed Castro died of strangulation and blunt-force trauma to the head.

Seabra took a wine corkscrew to mutilate his victim, plunging it into one of Castro's eyes and then using it to cut off his testicles, according to the New York Post.

"The mutilation was long and gruesome. 'It wasn't a two-minute thing,' "one source said, according to the Post.

George Takei joins the cast of Nickelodeon's new live-action comedy series, "Supah Ninjas," premiering on Nickelodeon in early 2011, according to a press release from Nickelodeon.

The half-hour series has been picked up for 26 episodes and is described as "comic book in tone and cinematic in style." It  follows three unsuspecting kids who are drafted into the secret world of crime-fighting  after Mike Fukanaga, an average high school student, discovers he is descended from a long line of ninjas.

Takei, 73, plays Fukanaga's deceased grandfather, whose spirit appears to Fukanaga and the team of "Supah Ninjas" as an interactive hologram who offers guidance, wisdom and training.

Nickelodeon will air a special preview of "Supah Ninjas"  9 p.m. Monday.

Ian McKellen has signed on to return as wizard Gandalf in "The Hobbit," the two-pic adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel being directed by Peter Jackson, according to The Hollywood Reporter via the Movie Talk blog.

Filming begins Feb. 14 in New Zealand.

Other actors from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy also have closed deals to appear in "The Hobbit" and reprise their roles: Andy Serkis as Gollum, Elijah Wood as Frodo and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, according to THR.

Elton John will perform an intimate concert Wednesday at Ron Burkle's legendary Green Acres Estate in Beverly Hills.  Proceeds from the concert will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the sole sponsor of the federal court challenge to California's Prop. 8, Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Ticket prices start at $1,000 and are available on AFER's website. AFER is a 501(c)3 organization, so ticket purchases (contributions) are tax deductible.

Host Committee and concert guests will include JJ Abrams and Kaity McGrath, Steve Bing, David Geffen, Ron Burkle, Norman Lear, Barbra Streisand, Rob and Michele Reiner, Dustin Lance Black, Chad Griffin and Yeardley Smith. Guests also include lead attorneys for AFER Theodore B. Olson and David Boies and Perry v. Schwarzenegger Plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier and Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo.

Other guests will include Barbara Bush (daughter of ex-President George W. Bush) and ex-Bush administration member Ken Mehlman, who publicly came out last year. Bush and Mehlman also are members of the host committee.

Sabato Fiorello is a painter and model whose career has spanned over half a century. Born in New York and raised in Redlands, Fiorello has worked since the 1960s with many Southern California artists, including Eleanor Antin, Rick Herold, Stephanie Farago, Louis Fox, Don Lagerberg and Steven Arnold.

A new Fiorello exhibit at the ONE Archives Gallery & Museum (626 N. Robertson Blvd. takes place West Hollywood) looks at Fiorello's career and his influence on the artists he has befriended with works by Fiorello and the artists who have painted and photographed him.

The opening reception is 5-8 p.m. Saturday. Exhibit runs through March 27.

Gallery Hours, 4:30-8:30 p.m. Friday; 1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Are you a closet poet or prose writer? Do you have a magic trick up your sleeve? Want to dust off a musical instrument?

Tonight, from 7 to 10 p.m., is open mike and coffee house night at the South Bay Center (16610 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance) complete with stage, sound system and hosts.

For performance information or questions, leave a message, 310-328-6550, or send an email, openmic@southbaycenter.org.

Kathy Griffin is leaving the D-list

The comedian is ending the six season - and Emmy Award-winning - run of her hit Bravo show, "My Life on the D-List," she tells People. 

"It was a really tough decision because I think of the D-List as pretty much my baby for the last six seasons and I also think it was really time to stop doing it," Griffin, 50, said by phone from L.A. "Reality is great, but I really didn't set out to be a reality star. So now it's time to spread my wings and show that I'm a little different than Kate Gosselin." 

"I'm not saying better," Griffin said, laughing, "but maybe separate myself from the pack a little bit." 

Not that Griffin is leaving Bravo. The network has enlisted her for four brand-new comedy specials, which will air quarterly in 2011, according to People.

Trailblazing lesbian-activist and renowned-attorney Renee Hanover died Wednesday. She was 84, according to the Windy City Times.

Hanover (right, with her daughter, Nancy) was a historic figure in the LGBT community. She opened the first women's law office in the U.S. and was the first "out" lesbian attorney in the county. Hanover was inducted into Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1991. Her tremendous contributions to Chicago's LGBT and mainstream communities includes work on dozens of non-profits, defending gay men against police entrapment, fighting to desegregate beaches in Chicago, helping overturn the Chicago anti-cross-dressing law, representing African-American lesbians protesting heavy carding at white lesbian bars and representing the Black Panthers.

She was a colleague of legendary Chicago-lesbian Pearl Hart.

Coming out for gay and lesbian teens has never been easier - on TV.

"Gossip Girl" has told a gay-teen coming-out story. So has "Glee," "Pretty Little Liars," "Degrassi." And out-at-home Calvin on "Greek" had to go through the process all over again with his frat brothers, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The CW's "90210," which returns Jan. 24, also is among the ranks of teen dramas showing young, gay characters. At the beginning of this season, Teddy Montgomery - a character some fans had written off as a rich playboy whose latest infatuation was an ex-girlfriend - hooked up with a male classmate and slowly accepted his truth.

"I felt like the world of '90210' was missing the gay characters that it would realistically have," "90210" executive producer Rebecca Sinclair told the Times. "If I had created the show, I would definitely have made one of the main characters gay... And honestly, in a genre that depends on the coupling, decoupling and re-coupling of its characters, it behooves us to find the most diverse ways to do that."

Palm Springs Police Chief David Dominguez resigned Wednesday after court documents revealed he'd made an antigay slur during a June 2009 sting operation targeting gay men in the city's Warm Sands neighborhood, according to towelroad.com via the Southwest Riverside News Network.

Nineteen men were arrested during the sting. Police alleged the sting was in response to complaints about drug use, public sex and prostitution, but critics of the sting said gay men were being unfairly targeted. 

During a pre trial hearing, a defendant alleged Domingez could be heard making disparaging remarks against gay people on a video recording in an undercover vehicle, according to court papers.

An attorney for some of the men arrested said Dominguez was in that particular car. The lawyer lodged a complaint, alleging Dominguez disparaged the arrestees to his officers.

"What a bunch of filthy mother (expletive)," Dominguez allegedly said. "You guys should get paid extra for this.

Victoria Kolakowski made history Tuesday - becoming the first openly transgender trial judge in the country at a special session of the Superior Court of California.

Kolakowski will be a trail judge in Alameda County. She was elected Nov. 2.

"It's been very hard as a transgender person," Kolakowski told Dot429.com before taking the oath of office. "We're a community that's chronically under- and unemployed and I've encountered that sort of discrimination in the past, but we're making so much more progress now. In terms of my career, I think part of it is hard work and perseverance, and part of it is good luck."

Kolakowski told the Oakland North, "When I started as an attorney over two decades ago, I encountered a lot of discomfort, subtle and sometimes invidious discrimination. I never gave up. I never forget the words Primo Levi said: 'If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, then what am I? And if not now, when?'"

Kolakowski's parents and wife, Cynthia Laird, were her guests of honor at the ceremony.  State Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro) introduced Kolakowski as "a friend, a colleague, a trailblazer," saying, "as we celebrate this new decade we mark our own start and our own first...We all know the tremendous hurdles that [Victoria] and the transgender community have overcome."

(Photo: Ye Tian/OaklandNorth.net)

In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly for its Oscar race cover story, James Franco addressed the rumor mill of his sexuality.

Franco is constantly bombarded with the gay question because his filmography is packed with gay characters: Allen Ginsberg in "Howl," activist Scott Smith in "Milk" and poet Hart Crane in Franco's just-wrapped feature "The Broken Tower."

Franco told EW - "There are lots of other reasons to be interested in gay characters than wanting myself to go out and have sex with guys," he says. "And there are also lots of other aspects about these characters that I'm interested in, in addition to their sexuality. So, in some ways it's coincidental, in other ways it's not. I mean, I've played a gay man who's living in the '60s and '70s, a gay man who we depicted in the '50s, and one being in the '20s. And those were all periods when to be gay, at least being gay in public, was much more difficult. Part of what I'm interested in is how these people who were living anti-normative lifestyles contended with opposition. Or, you know what, maybe I'm just gay."

In his controversial new book, Roman Catholic-turned-Episcopal priest Alberto Cutié accuses Catholic leaders of being hypocrites, and says they accept secret, homosexual relationships, according to a story in The Miami Herald via The Advocate.com

"There are so many homosexuals, both active and celibate, at all levels of clergy and Church hierarchy that the church would never be able to function if they were really to exclude all of them from ministry,'' Cutié writes in the just-published "Dilemma: A Priest's Struggle With Faith and Love."

Cutié also discusses for the first time his departure from the archdiocese of Miami and defends his decision to leave the Catholic Church. After paparazzi photos of Cutié kissing his now-wife on the beach in 2009 ignited a media frenzy about whether he had violated his vow of celibacy, he and the archdiocese parted ways.

"The Kids Are All Right" scored nominations for both Producers Guild and Writers Guild awards, while "I Love You Phillip Morris" was a nominee in the WGA's best adapted screenplay category, according to The Advocate.com.

Both guilds' awards are considered reliable harbingers of the Academy Awards.

The Producers Guild Awards ceremony will be held Jan. 22 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Winners of the Writers Guild Awards will be announced Feb. 5 at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.

Los Angeles actor-singer Ryan O'Connor will be a contestant on "Your OWN Show: Oprah Winfrey's Search for the Next TV Star," according to the Associated Press via Play Blog.

The reality contest will begin Jan. 7 on the OWN Network.

O'Connor - who says he wants to be "America's gay best friend"  and stars in "Ryan O'Connor Eats His Feelings," a musical solo show about overeating and finding love - is one of 10 TV-host hopefuls who were chosen from more than 9,500 audition videos submitted online, as well as from open casting calls. 

Dr. Phil McGraw, Gayle King and other judges will select the winner after a series of challenges related to hosting a television show are completed.

The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention  created a new task force to address suicide prevention efforts among LGBT youths, the group announced Thursday.

Kevin Jennings and Charles Robbins will lead the task force. Jennings is the assistant deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, running the department's  Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Robbins is the executive director of The Trevor Project.

"This task force will bring together the best minds in the country to combat suicide and make sure that every LGBT youth has the opportunity to grow up in a supportive, accepting community and to enter adulthood safely," Robbins said in a statement.

The suicides of several LGBT youth made headlines in 2010 and brought attention to the issue. Studies indicate that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths are anywhere from 1.5 to seven times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers, and transgender youths are believed to have higher rates of suicidal behavior as well, the alliance reports.

The alliance also created task forces to address suicide prevention in two other high-risk populations: American Indians and Alaska Natives, and military service members and veterans.

Depeche Mode's "Tour of the Universe" concert DVD - now available - is a black celebration of minor-key mayhem for the masses.