AIDS/LifeCycle

2013 AIDS/LifeCycle participants riding from San Francisco to L.A.

You want to attend an L.A. gay pride-related event that has more substance than other things happening around town?

Go to the always inspiring closing ceremony of the 2013 AIDS/LifeCycle in West Los Angeles, where nearly 2,200 bicyclists and 550 volunteer roadies will arrive after trekking 545 miles between San Francisco and L.A. to raise more than $13 million for AIDS-related services in both cities.

The AIDS/LifeCycle kicked off last Sunday in San Francisco, and the bicyclists have been on the road ever since. They've not only showed a lot of heart and true grit the past several days for a meaningful cause, but they've raised tons of money and awareness for HIV/AIDS programs.

Bravo!

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Patrick Range McDonald

L.A. Gay Pride parade on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood

Read L.A. Weekly's thought-provoking cover story "Gay Happiness, the New Frontier."

Muscled go-go boys shaking their booties on one parade float after another, cock-ring tosses to win a stuffed animal, Bud Light and Bacardi sponsoring an event for a community with consistently high rates of alcoholism and drug addiction -- and the same damn music with the same tweaker beat.

Does this make L.A. Gay Pride kind of stale and outdated? Are we celebrating some kind of pre-AIDS, 1970s version of the gay experience? When sexual liberation in gay culture was just as important -- and justifiably so -- as equality? Are we coming off passe and immature by still celebrating our gay heritage as if we're a bunch of horny, drunk 19-year-olds who came out of the closet a few weekends ago?

The short answer to those questions is an unqualified yes, but let's explain a little further...

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Ted Soqui for LA Weekly

California is a pioneer when it comes to certain liberties. We were legally selling marijuana out of storefronts before any other state.

But we really screwed up on same-sex marriage. Perhaps the Mormon church, which poured millions into the effort to ban it, hoodwinked us. But now we make amends:

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Kuehl campaign

Sheila Kuehl

It came as a surprise to no one following L.A. politics, but one-time TV actress, former state senator, and current and proud lesbian and gay rights icon Sheila Kuehl announced her run for Los Angeles County Supervisor on Thursday.

Kuehl, 72, could be the first openly gay person elected to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.

In an email to supporters, Kuehl wrote, "I will bring continuing stability to county government, as well as innovation and diversity, big picture thinking as well as attention to the daily lives of those who depend on us, an open door and an open mind, collaboration with anyone willing to work with me, years of experience and lots of energy."

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Michael Weinstein

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health says a meningitis vaccine campaign is not needed for gay men in the Los Angeles area, but AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein is still questioning the county's handling of meningitis cases among gay men.

On Friday, Public Health sent out a press release saying that it "has not identified any other cases of meningococcal disease associated with [West Hollywood resident Brett Shaad who tragically died from bacterial meningitis], nor identified any linkage between this patient and cases being reported in other areas of the country."

As a result, Public Health director Jonathan Fielding does "not recommend a vaccination campaign in response to the present situation of meningococcal disease in Los Angeles County." Weinstein, whose organization has been offering free meningitis vaccines to gay men in the L.A. area, serves up another opinion.

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UCLA

Public Health Director Jonathan Fielding

Updated at the bottom: Health experts say only some types of bacterial meningitis are spread person-to-person, these types are not as contagious as flu and are not sexually transmitted. The CDC says there is no increased risk among gays and no rationale for county officials to alter their approach. Brett Shaad's family, meanwhile, condemns media hysteria over his death.

Updated at the bottom: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services has announced today that it will be providing free meningococcal vaccines for low-income and uninsured residents in Los Angeles County.

The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center has released new figures for the total number of gay or bisexual men who have been recently infected with meningitis in Los Angeles County. The center received that information from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and its director, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, late yesterday.

Fielding and county health officials also disclosed to the Gay & Lesbian Center that they've only been tracking meningitis cases among gay and bisexual men since November 2012 -- five and a half months.

Yet in New York City, health officials have been tracking sexual orientation during their investigations as a matter of policy for years.

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Legacy.com

Rjay Spoon

WeHo News is reporting that another gay men in the Los Angeles area recently died of bacterial meningitis, heightening concerns that the widely publicized death of West Hollywood resident and gay man Brett Shaad is not an isolated incident.

Downtown Los Angeles resident and gay man Rjay Spoon died from bacterial meningitis on December 16, 2012, according to WeHo News. He was only 30 years old. Spoon would have turned 31 on April 27.

Casey Hayden, Spoon's boyfriend at the time of the death, wrote on Facebook: "If anyone has any information as to where he could have been exposed, the [L.A. County] health department needs to know to help with this case. And again thank you all so much for everything. I know your hearts are hurting too over the loss of our beautiful, sexy man who is now our angel."

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2013 Duran campaign

John Duran

West Hollywood Councilman John Duran offered an apology on Monday to the family of Brett Shaad, who died from meningitis over the weekend. Duran held a press conference on Friday about the Shaad tragedy, which sparked national media coverage.

"Please offer my deep condolences to the Shaad family," Duran wrote in a press statement. "Please communicate my apology for intruding into the family's privacy during this difficult time."

Earlier on Monday, Brian Shaad, Brett's older brother, released a statement on Brett's Facebook page condemning Duran's and the media's handling of the death. Also on Monday, more than 1,000 meningitis vaccinations were given at AIDS Healthcare Foundation's West Hollywood pharmacy.

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Facebook

Brett Shaad

Brett Shaad, the West Hollywood lawyer and resident who had contracted bacterial meningitis, was taken off life support on Saturday evening and died at 6:42 p.m., according to a Shaad family statement.

Shaad, a gay man, was being treated at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills. His tragedy has become a national story after a rash of meningitis cases in New York City have also involved gay men, reminding some in the gay community of the early days of the AIDS crisis when people had few answers and many questions about that life-threatening disease.

"Tonight our family made the incredibly difficult decision to remove my brother Brett from life support," says Brian Shaad in a press statement. "He died peacefully surrounded by our family and friends."

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Facebook

Brett Shaad

Updated at the bottom: Shaad family releases a statement about the tragedy.

Shock.

That's what a lot of people in West Hollywood were feeling after hearing the news that Brett Shaad, a gay man and lawyer in his early 30s, was announced brain dead after contracting bacterial meningitis. As of Friday night, the West Hollywood resident remained on life support.

In an eerie and emotional tribute, Shaad's friends were expressing their disbelief and sadness on his Facebook page.

"There are no words that can express what so many of us are feeling right now," wrote Christopher Adam Tobeck from Boston. "Just know that we love you and our love goes out to your family. I'm going to miss your devilish smile as we dance the night away or just pass the afternoon bouncing around the beach or down the street."

The Shaad tragedy and a disturbing meningitis trend among gay men have now become a national story.

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Ted Soqui

2009 Proposition 8 protest

After the U.S. Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments yesterday about the federal Proposition 8 lawsuit, movie director and American Foundation for Equal Rights board member Rob Reiner, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, and others weighed in about the historic proceeding.

"This case has always been about the love shared by two individuals and about the central promise from our nation's founding that all men are created equal and are endowed with inalienable rights, including the pursuit of happiness," says Reiner in a press statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court also released an audio tape of the hearing.

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HollywoodPimp/Flickr

When it comes to life-impacting stuff -- civil rights, political movements, or education reform, for example -- Los Angeles too often gets overlooked by snobby journalists and intellectual types in New York City and Washington D.C.

Let's just admit it: They don't take L.A. seriously and they hate to give the nation's second largest city credit for anything of value.

But as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8 on Tuesday, March 26, Los Angeles deserves major credit for the rapidly successful pro-gay marriage movement in the United States -- and we can tell you why ...

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Bloody Marty Mix/flickr

So apparently gay married guys live longer than unmarried or divorced men.

That's what Danish researchers recently found after going through decades of statistics, and something conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas should consider when ruling in a few months whether to overturn California's gay marriage ban in Proposition 8.

The justices literally have a life-or-death situation before them -- so they'd better not screw it up!

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Mike Bonin

While local media and L.A. political leaders are bemoaning the city's embarrassingly low voter turnout on Election Day, something quite positive, even historic, happened last Tuesday night: Gay candidates across Los Angeles kicked butt.

Many gay politicos can't think of an election in Los Angeles history in which so many gay men -- who aren't in the closet, anyway -- finished first in their respective races. In fact, longtime L.A. gay rights activist Miki Jackson, who worked closely with gay rights icon Morris Kight, calls it a "high water mark."

Mike Bonin won a City Council seat outright, Mitch O'Farrell placed first in his City Council primary and heads to a runoff, and Ron Galperin finished number one in the City Controller contest and goes to a runoff. In addition, many local Republicans embraced Kevin James' mayoral candidacy, with the gay Republican finishing an impressive third in a race filled with Democrats. With all this happening in the country's second largest city, their success is further proof of a developing "Gay Okay" trend in American politics.

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Eric Holder via the DOJ

The Obama administration today put its weight behind opponents of California's ban on same-sex marriage.

The office of Attorney General Eric Holder filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, which could be weighing whether the Golden State's Proposition 8 is constitutional.

In a statement today, Holder said:

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Kamala Harris / Facebook

In the state of California, same-sex marriage is illegal. You, the voter, made the law against gay unions happen. (Good move, people.)

So, of course, as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the constitutionality of the matter, the state Attorney General's office is defending your will. Right? Oh, hell no.

A.G. Kamala Harris today filed a brief arguing that the court should do the right thing:

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With all its gay equality laws and gay-friendly cities, you'd think California would have the gayest population by percentage in the nation. Not so, according to a new study from UCLA's Williams Institute. It appears Washington D.C. and eight other states are actually gayer.

According to research done by Williams Institute researcher Gary J. Gates and Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport, California ranks as the tenth most gay state in the country. Washington D.C. is number one.

The study of LGBT identification in each state is the largest population-based survey ever conducted in the nation.

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Some in L.A. are not Gaga for St. Petersburg

The ACLU wants L.A. City Hall to cut its ties with St. Pertersburg, Russia, an official sister city.

Why? The Russian metropolis hasn't exactly been gay-friendly. After passing a law last year making pro-gay "propagandizing" around youth a crime, St. Pertersburg targeted Lady Gaga with an investigation and sued Madonna.

The ACLU and gay L.A. city Councilman Bill Rosendahl have had enough:

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Harvey Milk

Update: Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin weighs in, after the jump.

One of the first openly gay men elected in the United States may now be one of the first -- if not the first -- openly gay men in the world to have an airport named after him: Harvey Milk International Airport in San Francisco.

Equality California, the statewide gay rights group, tipped the public earlier today in an email to supporters, saying that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is most definitely considering naming SFO after Harvey Milk, the former San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated in 1978.

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The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will hear oral arguments for the federal Proposition 8 lawsuit on Tuesday, March 26 -- followed up the next day with arguments on the constitutionality of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

So in a little over two months, the question of legalized gay marriage in California -- and possibly the entire country -- will be handed over to the highest court in the land.

Proposition 8 and DOMA have already been found unconstitutional by federal judges, and those rulings have been appealed by gay marriage opponents.

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