DONOR PROFILE
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COUPLE WANTS TO INVEST IN THE CENTER'S NEXT 50 YEARS
GOING ALL IN mixed in with degrees of rejection from our families. For me, growing up in a small town in Central California, it was hell. That there is a central place offering refuge, information, and acceptance is so important. I did not have that coming out. I want to try to ensure that others do.” The pair have been particularly inspired by the 2019 opening of the intergenerational Anita May Rosenstein Campus because it brings together a multitude of youth and senior services. “I love that there are mature LGBT folks mingling with young, struggling kids,” Laib said. “That is a really beautiful thing.”
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VANGUARD | PRIDE
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t was 1977 and disco was all the rage. generous friends, I am pretty successful at Chris Laib and Lon Wahlstrom met at fundraising.” In addition to their support of AIDS/ a gay dance bar in San Diego called West Coast Production Company and, 43 LifeCycle, the couple has also included the years later, they are still together. “Chris and I are opposites in so many Center in their estate ways, but snatching him from across the plan through its Circle dance floor was the luckiest moment of of Life program. “We are so proud of my life,” Wahlstrom shared. “Thanks to him, our lives are never boring and sel- the Center—50 years of fighting for the dom slow.” The couple’s staunch support of the rights of all of us who Los Angeles LGBT Center began when are LGBT,” Laib said. Wahlstrom decided to ride in the sev- “We want to invest in en-day, 545-mile AIDS/LifeCycle several the next 50 years. We years ago. He raised more than $70,000 are all in and look as the top fundraiser for this year’s AIDS/ forward to being part LifeCycle@HOME event, which went of the Center in every way we can.” virtual due to COVID-19. “Personally, I find “I was captured by the ride’s ‘Love Bubble,’” explained Wahlstrom, a the Center to be the central square for us,” licensed contractor who owns Wahlstrom added Laib, an agent in the Los Feliz office Companies, Inc. “The staff, riders, and of Sotheby’s International Realty. “Many roadies are fantastic. And because of our of us went through a period of discovery,
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