losangelesblade.com - 736 Showbiz News and Updates

LOS ANGELES – Data collected in fall 2020 finds that LGBTQ people—in particular LGBTQ people of color—have disproportionately experienced the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.

The issue of transgender athletes has come to the forefront of the culture wars again, as it does whenever the right needs a wedge issue. In this case, it is because president Biden signed an executive order affirming that the Administration will comply with the rulings in Bostock, Zarda, and Harris, and treat discrimination against LGBT people as a form or sex discrimination.

In such hard times, it’s always nice to show a little love to the ones you care about! Los Angeles Blade has a plethora of lovely, exquisite gifts for everyone on your Valentine’s Day shopping list. We have thoughtful gifts for him, gifts for her, and them! (And if you want to show some love to Mom too, we have some great gift ideas for her too!)

LOS ANGELES – Only those Angelenos with proof of getting the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be inoculated starting Tuesday.

Editor’s note: Presentes is a media outlet that covers gender and human rights in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador as a way to fight discrimination. The Los Angeles Blade received permission to republish this article that was published on their web site on Jan. 18.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Thursday announced his administration will issue a memorandum that commits the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ rights abroad.

LOS ANGELES – Public Health and elected officials across the nation are asking their constituents to refrain from gathering on Super Bowl Sunday. More than 25,000 fans will be attending in-person the game in Tampa, Florida with the NFL and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers imposing strict coronavirus restrictions and safety measures including issuing N95 masks.

SAN JUAN – Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi on Friday clarified his state of emergency declaration over gender violence on the island includes LGBTQ people.

‘Eleanor’By David Michaelisc.2020, Simon & Schuster$35.00 / 698 pages

American cinema may finally have entered an era when there are more LGBTQ stories on our screens, but it must be acknowledged that, as much of a hard-won blessing this may be, an entire generation (or two) of our community’s older members are still being left out of the picture.

SAN FRANCISCO – During Black History Month, the National AIDS Memorial honors Black lives lost to AIDS with a specially curated selection of 56 blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt (the Quilt).  The exhibition uses the beauty and power of the Quilt to bring to light stories of the countless men, women and children who have died, and the impact AIDS has had on Black Americans.

LOS ANGELES – Approved by almost 70 percent of Los Angeles County voters, Measure H provides funding for proven strategies to prevent and combat homelessness.

Another celebrity has joined the ranks of those who have made the decision to come out publicly, and this one represents an important milestone.

WASHINGTON – With his left hand on his mother’s bible held by his husband Chasten, Pete Buttigieg was sworn in as the nineteenth Secretary of Transportation by Vice-President Kamala Harris Wednesday morning, in the Vice-Presidential Ceremonial Office suite in the Eisenhower Old Executive office building.

WASHINGTON – Speaking via teleconference in Washington Wednesday morning, President Biden’s Coronavirus Task Force COVID19 Czar Jeff Zients announced a new partnership with the State of California to launch two pilot mega-vaccine community centers in underserved minority communities devastated by the pandemic.

LAS VEGAS – On January 22, just two days after a new presidential administration began to make good on their pledge to Make America America Again, drag and recording artist Rhea Litre made a public declaration of her own, with the release of “BuckBonkey.”  

The U.S. has joined the growing calls for the Venezuelan government to release five HIV/AIDS service providers who were arrested on Jan. 12.

Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned on Thursday after their neighbors caught them having sex.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 78-22 to confirm Antony Blinken as the next secretary of state. The vote took place a day after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced his nomination.

HOLLYWOOD – Twenty-eight years ago the Los Angeles LGBT Center moved from a rather dilapidated old motel and into a newly renovated 4400 square foot building in Hollywood. Along with that newly operational space came a new Executive Director and the promise of a new future and direction for the Center which since 1969 had cared for, championed, and celebrated LGBTQ individuals and families in the Southland.

SACRAMENTO – After considerable criticism at the roll-out of coronavirus vaccinations in California, in a system beset with shortages of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at a national level and confusion in the state’s coronavirus vaccine delivery system, it was announced that health insurance giant Blue Shield of California will be the outside administrator. 

WASHINGTON – After a brief but tumultuous term comprised of funding freezes; an ignored House subpoena and criticism from Democrats and Republicans; the CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media resigned at President Biden’s request on Jan. 20.

SACRAMENTO – Filing his first piece of legislation as a member of the California Senate, Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) introduced SB 258, the HIV & Aging Act, which would update the definition of “greatest social need” in the Welfare and Institutions Code to include older people living with HIV.

2020 may have presented some serious disruptions to the process and presentation of GLAAD’s annual Media Awards, but the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization is geared up and ready to handle the continuing challenges of the pandemic as it prepares to announce the nominees for this year’s honors.

After decades of films in which LGBTQ people were so often victims of tragedy (it became known as the “kill your gays” trope) it’s nice to see more movies being made where we don’t have to suffer so much.

SACRAMENTO – California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Monday that he was cancelling the stay-at-home order that had been reimposed on residents of 51 of the state’s 58 counties last month as a state-wide shortage of ICU and hospital beds crippled California’s healthcare systems.

MEXICO CITY, D.F. – Juan Antonio Carmona, 17, did not come home from school on Feb. 14, 2020. 

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — El primer Código Penal colombiano fue el de 1837, inspirado en el napoleónico y sin delito de sodomía. (…) En 1890, en el contexto de la Regeneración, se expidió un nuevo Código Penal. En el artículo 419 decía: “La persona que abusare de otra de su mismo sexo, y ésta, si lo consintiere, siendo púber, sufrirán de tres a seis años de reclusión” (República de Colombia/Consejo de Estado, 1890:376).

LONDON, UK – Pioneering AIDS researcher and clinician Joseph Sonnabend, 88, died January 24, 2021 at London’s famed Wellington Hospital after suffering a heart attack on January 3, 2021.  

BREAKING: WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order reversing the ban on Transgender military service Monday, January 25, the Los Angeles Blade learned Sunday.