The Pride LA 3.18.22

the pride

ISSUE NUMBER 76, VOLUME 47 | MARCH 18 – MARCH 31, 2022 03.18.2022 – 03.31.2022

WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM

LOS ANGELES

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THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER

WeHo Announces More Details on Pride Weekend 2022 The three-day celebration commences June 3-5 By susan Payne More details have been announced about WeHo Pride Weekend 2022 the largest Pride celebration in Southern California for more three decades.

WeHo Pride Weekend begins Friday, June 3 to Sunday, June 4 in and around West Hollywood Park at 647 N. San Vicente Boulevard, celebrating a diverse array of LGBTQ+ community groups as part of visibility, expression and celebration.

This year, the City of West Hollywood’s Pride Parade steps off at noon and will make its way along Santa Monica. More information on the route will be released in the coming

weeks, according to a release from the City of West Hollywood and The Los Angeles Blade.

Pride Weekend welcomes OUTLOUD: Raising Voices, the award-winning LGBTQ concert series produced by JJLA to sound the three-day weekend with headliners, artist lineup and ticket information to be announced in the coming weeks.

Formerly known as the One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, WeHo Pride LGBTQ Festival will take place during 40 days from Harvey Milk on Sunday, May 22 to June 30.

Festivities will be live throughout the City of West Hollywood at various locations along with selected online programming. This year’s festival theme is “With Liberty, Diversity, Inclusions and Progress for All.” Find newly announced information about WeHo Pride Weekend at www.weho.org/ pride.

Community groups are welcome to take

WeHo Pride, see page 7

LA Pride 2019 in West Hollywood.

Photo: City of West Hollywood

Anti-Transgender Climate Intensifies, Long Beach Proposal to Install Neutral Locker Rooms on Hold New aquatics center at Wilson High School would feature private stalls for students to change and shower By susan Payne

Instead of a traditional separate large space for boys and girls, the Long Beach Unified School District came to a decision on a new locker room after two years of research.

To ensure safe access to the facilities, the new aquatics center at Wilson High School would feature private stalls for students to change and shower.

In August 2020, parents and educators presented the initial plan concerned whether students would be able to return to school due to the pandemic. At the time, there wasn’t a vocal opposition to the locker room concept likely due to the commonality of genderneutral bathrooms, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Far-right website Breitbart picked up the story in November of 2020 turning heads to the nation’s culture wars. In an article headlined

“Parents Alarmed as California High School Unveils ‘All Gender’ Locker Room,” the author said parents feared boys and girls would be in “various states of undress” in the locker with a “possibility of sexual assault.”

Weeks later at a Dec. 1 board meeting, a group of community members opposed the new locker room concept, railing against the project and alerting news outlets to pick up the story, The Times reported.

In an effort to gather more community input, the district announced it would put locker room plans on hold.

Nationally, public trends over issues such as LGBTQ rights, vaccine mandates and curriculum have clashed with school officials, though discourse in Long Beach has been peaceful compared to most areas. In the heap of an unprecedented wave of legislation that seeks to restrict the rights of transgender youth, the situation caught wind.

Tiffany Brown, deputy superintendent for Long Beach Unified, told The Times she sees a connection between widespread anti-transgender rhetoric and the opposition of gender neutral facilities in her district.

However, students have supported this project.

“They’re like, ‘Why wouldn’t we be doing this?’” Brown said.

In 2013, California was the first state to

Wilson High School.

make law the right for students to choose the bathroom or locker room consistent with their gender identity. Three years later, California gave a two year notice, requiring all singleoccupancy public toilets to be gender-neutral.

Advocates say this was a step in the right direction, curbing some physical and verbal harassment many transgender kids endured in bathrooms. But students who had not shared their gender identities with classmates were often outed when they used these bathrooms, advocates told The Times.

Photo: lbschoolbonds.net

Many found the “quick fix” stigmatizing as if their desire to go to the bathroom was a medical issue. Advocates said some students resorted to avoiding the bathrooms entirely, leading to urinary tract infections. Supporting that detail, a national survey by the education organization GLSEN found that in 2019, 45% of LGBTQ students avoided gendersegregated school bathrooms and 44% avoided locker rooms because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.

Wilson High School, see page 4

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LOS ANGELES

Kristin Crowley Is Confirmed by City Council as First Female and Openly LGBTQ LAFD Fire Chief

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Left to right: Nury Martinez, Kristin Crowley, Eric Garcetti and Ralph Terrazas.

Former Deputy Chief takes the helm at LAFD

By Dolores Quintana Kristin Crowley, current Deputy Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, has been confirmed as the next Los Angeles Fire Department Fire Chief by the Los Angeles City Council as the first woman to be appointed to the position and also the first openly LGBTQ person to be chief. Crowley will officially take the position as of March 26 which is the day that the current Chief Ralph Terrazas retires from the LAFD. Crowley became the first woman to serve as an LAFD Fire Marshall in 2016.

“I’m truly honored to be considered the nominee for the next fire chief of the Los Angeles city fire department and I am humbled and proud to have earned the opportunity to represent each and every one of our 3,779-strong civilian and sworn personnel of our department,” Crowley said before the City Council prior to the confirmation vote Deputy Chief Crowley joined the LAFD in 1998 after taking the firefighter’s exam. Her scores ranked among the top fifty out of the applicant pool of 16,000 candidates according to the LAFD. She has served for 22 years and held the ranks of firefighter, firefighter paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain I, captain II, battalion chief, assistant chief, fire marshal and deputy chief.

LA City Council Nury Martinez said, as quoted by ABC Eyewitness 7, “I think it’s so fitting for this nomination to come to council today, on the first day of Women’s History Month. Our city’s fire department has gone 136 years without a woman in its highest office and today we’re going to finally be able to turn the page.”

Martinez also said that Crowley “made a name for herself in the department as a strong leader, a hard worker and someone who does not shy away from a challenge.”

This isn’t the first time that Crowley has changed LAFD history. She broke through the glass ceiling when she assumed the role of Deputy Chief in 2016. She was part of developing the LAFD plan to promote acceptance of change to the department and a new culture among firefighters. Crowley has vowed to continue this effort and facilitate

Photo: City of Los Angeles

equity and inclusion for all within the department.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “Throughout her distinguished career, Kristin Crowley has proven her brilliance, determination and bravery on the job again and again. She’s also shown this city her heart, with her tireless commitment to helping students access lifechanging educational opportunities. There is no one better equipped to lead the LAFD at this moment than Kristin. She’s ready to make history, and I’m proud to nominate her as the department’s next chief.”

Monica Rodriguez, Councilmember and Chair of the Public Safety Committee said, Deputy Chief Crowley is “well informed on every aspect of the job. It’s what earned her the respect of her peers, and it is what has continued to embolden her succession [sic] in the department to achieving this most prestigious and highest rank.”

Retiring Chief Ralph Terrazas said, “It was a privilege to serve as the fire chief of this world-class department. For nearly eight years, we made considerable strides in technology, implemented innovative ways to respond to emergencies, and became a model for other agencies.” Terrazas praised Crowley by saying, Crowley “is an exemplary leader and has a broad base of experience that will serve the department well … Chief Crowley has been successful at every position and I expect her success to continue as the next fire chief.”

Crowley is taking over a troubled department that has had a number of allegations of abuse against women within the department, racism, retaliation and sexism made against it in the recent past. Crowley noted that one of her first priorities when she takes over as chief is to address the problems in the LAFD work environment.

She said to the City Council members, “As the next fire chief, my priorities will be to ensure the LAFD stands ready and remains operationally efficient to serve our communities and this great city; that we enhance and support our firefighters’ safety, health and overall well-being; and that we promote and demand a work environment that is free of harassment, discrimination and hazing.”

“Our efforts will be maximized by making sure diversity is celebrated and valued, and that equity and inclusion are intertwined into every policy, procedure and practice.”

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LOS ANGELES

Wilson High School, from page 1 This was the case for Amber Va, who came out as trans while attending Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 2018, The Times stated. When she used the girls’ restroom, classmates would whisper and shoot her a dirty look. She would stand up for herself and try to talk it out with them, but the mental and emotional gymnastics of having to debate her humanity exhausted her, The Times continued.

Va opted to use the office bathroom instead but failed to make it back to class in time because of its complex distance.

“They didn’t want to believe me,” Va told the school district. So, the teen started an online petition to create gender-neutral restrooms, garnering support from the LGBTQ Center Long Beach and the American Civil Liberties Union. Va organized a task force of trans and gender-nonconforming students and spent months speaking to principles and parentteacher organizations within the district.

By 2020, the advocacy influenced quietly open multi-stall bathrooms at three schools.

Questions, yes, but little to no opposition and no press, Brown told The Times. Now, the district now requires all new school construction to include gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms and encourages middle and high schools undergoing renovations to install them.

Since this transition, Wilson’s aquatics center was the first new facility to be built.

Four focus groups of 60 students from four schools were conducted. Regardless of gender identity, participants consistently described

feeling uncomfortable in communal showers and changing areas stemming from body image and bullying issues. The study concluded that students wanted private stalls, good locks and supervision to monitor student behavior.

Now, Wilson High’s new locker room design reflects what the student body wants: Each new stall includes a shower, changing area, bench and storage nook with partitions from ceiling to floor. Additionally, lockers are set waist high to allow coaches to supervise easily. After the Breitbart story, opposition came to every December and January board meeting and didn’t cease until officials announced the project on hold, The Times reported.

A father of a sophomore swimmer at Wilson said that Lakewood High’s all-gender restroom had become a “cesspool” where students were having sex and using drugs, but the district told the Times that these claims were unfounded.

“By building coed locker rooms, you’ll be intentionally placing our children, my daughter in particular … at much greater risk of sexual assault,” he said, later adding, “This issue will indeed cost some of you your reelections if you’re unwilling or incapable of protecting ... the health and safety of our children.”

A 1985 graduate of Wilson, who does not have children in the district, said the locker rooms were “ludicrous and dangerous for kids.” He said he contacted USA Swimming, teachers, coaches and his local councilmember to complain. By the end of his speech, he was shouting into the microphone, The Times reported.

“We need to put a hold on this project and

get real input and not dictates from a woke group,” he said, rapping his knuckles on the lectern twice before stepping down.

Members of the Wilson swimming community, including three students and two coaches, admitted the stalls wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate dressing into “tech suits” that require two people to assist. Two members of the girls’ team said they wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing a locker room with teenage boys. Although some parents requested a gender-neutral locker area to exist alongside traditional boys’ and girls’ rooms, the district said that would be stigmatizing.

“We will lose winners to outside our district if we go by this plan. It’s guaranteed; I’m already hearing parents talk about it,” said assistant coach Katie Rowe.

Many LGBTQ students were absent from public comments because they “don’t want to be the face of the campaign,” said Christopher Covington, an organizer at Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network who works closely with students in Long Beach.

Covington said recounting experiences of harassment and bullying to strangers is emotionally exhausting, but these students have now lived through a pandemic. They are struggling to keep their grades up and get into college and are witnessing a nationwide assault against their rights. They are without capacity to join a combative conversation, he said.

In 2021, 149 bills were introduced in state legislatures that would restrict the rights of trans people, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. As of late February, 159 bills had been proposed in 2022, seeking

to ban trans kids from playing sports on teams that match their gender identities, or to criminalize gender-affirming care to minors.

Thirty-five miles east of Los Angeles, the school board at Chino Valley Unified School District defeated a resolution in November that would have excluded transgender students from using restrooms and locker rooms of their identified gender, a violation of the state’s education code, The Times reported.

In November, California’s superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thumond, announced plans to form a committee of students, educators, policymakers and advocacy groups to explore ways to expand the availability of gender-neutral bathrooms in K-12 schools.

Thurmond said he found that such access was lacking in October, when students on an LGBTQ History Month panel said they would go the entire day without using the restroom due to safety.

Increasing politicization of trans and nonbinary youth has made speaking up feel unsafe, said Carla Peña, manager of professional development at Gender Spectrum. More than two-thirds of LGBTQ youth say recent efforts by states to limit the rights of transgender and nonbinary people have negatively impacted their mental health, according to a poll released by the Trevor Project in January.

Ultimately, Covington told The Times, this is a public debate between adults.

“The things we want to see happen overnight will take years,” he said. “I personally believe that the district will make the right decision and move the plan forward.”

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LOS ANGELES

TrueVoice Helps Trans and Non-Binary Folx Find Their Voices, Feel More Joy

TrueVoice Development Program workshops offered through the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Trans* Lounge By susan Payne

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With intrinsically applied make-up and flowing blonde hair, Sonja Brenna will never forget the day she went to her local grocery store to pick up some items.

After a completed transaction, Brenna was caught off guard when the male cashier said, “Thank you, sir.”

“I wasn’t paying attention to my voice,” the transgender woman told LGBT News Now. “It was kind of a shock, and it was the first time I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do work on it.’”

For Brenna, that moment of being misgendered was painful, but it set off a ripple effect that led to a series of TrueVoice Development Program workshops offered through the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Trans* Lounge, according to LGBT News Now. Since 2018, the program has taught hundreds of gender expansive people to learn tools that develop their voices in ways that represent them in a more authentic and expressive way.

Not too long after the grocery store incident, Brenna met with a friend, Ryland Shelton, for drinks in 2017.

Shelton, a private vocal couch for musical performers, noticed Brenna holding her voice.

“She was barely able to be heard even in a one-on-one conversation,” Shelton told LGBT News Now. In terms of her gender identity, Brenna was afraid of undoing everything she’d work hard to present because of her voice. Shelton

wondered if his techniques to expand singers’ range and understand the uniqueness in their voices would have the same impact on Brenna.

“I thought maybe there was a crossover, something I could do that could help her by working with the language that I know, which is music,” he said. “We got into a groove and through musical technique, she started using a range of her voice that was totally unfamiliar to her and it still felt like it was coming from her. It didn’t feel like it was a cartoon voice or character.”

Through this work, Shelton saw an opportunity to help others benefit from voice work which uses music to speak to the brain in a different way and unlocks possibilities that aren’t entrenched in the habits of how a person has always used their voice, he said.

“For someone going through a gender transition, it’s hard to break those habits with just using your voice the same way you’ve always used it,” he said. “You have to have something to shake it up and get you thinking about your voice in a different way.”

The Trans* Lounge Actively, Brenna had been involved in Trans* Lounge groups and activities for years. She suggested Shelton meet with Gina Bigham, the program manager, to see if there was a need for a vocal coaching workshop.

“I was passionate about this and knew that trans people need to be heard and not just seen,” Shelton said. “If they’re not comfortable using their own voice, then how do we hear their stories? This is how I saw that I could help make change.”

Shelton met with Bigham to proceed and presented his first TrueVoice workshop to Trans* Lange members in February of 2018.

“Never have I met such a kind and passionate ally,” Bigham told LGBT News Now. “He is truly invested in our TGI/ENBY+ community and the mission of helping our folx find their true voice. His class has become a mainstay of our programming and he is definitely one of our most popular instructors.”

TrueVoice, see page 7

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TrueVoice, from page 6

their future selves might be capable of.”

Private sessions are awarded after each online workshop to nine attendees via lottery.

Amie Dorsey, who was losing her voice because of strain, was happy to be one of the recipients of that lottery.

“Relearning how to talk is not necessarily at the top of people’s mind when they think about transitioning,” Dorsey told LGBT News Now. “But I certainly like my voice a lot more now.”

Workshop participant Elyse Jackson said TrueVoice is effective because Shelton approaches voice in a way that isn’t highly technical, it’s accessible.

“I really wanted my voice to match who I am, and it had been a real struggle trying to learn from different guides online,” she says.

“I was really struggling with my voice before I started working with Ryland. I have found a remarkable difference both on the phone and talking to people in person. Just having that confidence in myself and in my own voice really helps.”

Liam Wang said being misgendered made

him feel awful, so he has attended three workshops.

“Ryland explains everything from highs to lows and I was able to learn to speak at a lower tone,” Wang shares. “He teaches you safety things and what to do to protect your voice while you are learning. I was practicing and a friend of mine thought I’d already started testosterone! Now I can speak at that lower tone and keep it there. People on the phone are calling me sir.”

Grace Browne, another participant said listening to herself talk is more joyful now than ever before.

Online Success Transitioning to an online workshop, Shelton found many participants preferred this format rather than in person.

“There is something so attractive about the comfort and the privacy, especially for people in a nascent period of gender transition,” Shelton said. “There’s something about the stability of being in your own home, of being in your space. I’ve witnessed that provide freedom for people.”

“We will go back to in-person workshops someday in some way but doing them online has helped in getting people feeling comfortable enough to use your voice,” Shelton added. “We’re there to break down the things that make you feel uncomfortable about your voice, that make you feel like you don’t want to talk. You get to be in your own space.

The comfort and the security has really meant a lot to people and it’s gotten them motivated to do work that is just for them which they could have a million excuses not to do.”

Outside of the workshop, Shelton continues with a busy clientele of professional entertainers, actors, singer/songwriters and musical theatre artists.

“I see how committed the community really is to caring for themselves and for each other,” he said. “It’s all been kind of amazing and unexpected. They are absolutely tireless and are constantly looking for ways that they can improve the community.”

To learn more about Trans* Lounge program and services, or to become a member go to translounge.org.

WeHo Pride, from page 1

LGBTQ community with its vibrant LGBTQ Arts Festival, which is now known, starting in 2022, as the WeHo Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival.

For more than three decades, the City of West Hollywood has been home to the largest Pride celebrations in Southern California, as hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ people and allies from around the world make West Hollywood their destination for the Pride season. Home to the “Rainbow District” along Santa Monica Boulevard, which features a concentration of historic LGBTQ clubs, restaurants, and retail shops, the City consistently tops lists of “most LGBTQ friendly cities” in the nation.

Since incorporation in 1984, the City of West Hollywood has become one of the most influential cities in the nation for its outspoken advocacy on LGBTQ issues. No other city of its size has had a greater impact on the national public policy discourse on fairness and

inclusiveness for LGBTQ people. More than 40 percent of residents in West Hollywood identify as LGBTQ and three of the five members of the West Hollywood City Council are openly gay. The City has advocated for nearly four decades for measures that support LGBTQ individuals, and the City is in the vanguard on efforts to gain and protect equality for all people on a state, national, and international level.

The City of West Hollywood is one of the first municipalities to form a Lesbian & Gay Advisory Board and a Transgender Advisory Board, which each address matters of advocacy. As part of its support of the transgender community, the City has a Transgender Resource Guide available on the City’s website, which provides information about a variety of resources including legal, health, and social services, available in the Greater Los Angeles area to enhance and improve the well-being of transgender people.

Contact Megan Reath, Event Services Supervisor, City of West Hollywood at (323) 848-6495 or mreath@weho.org or more information about WeHo Pride. Contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, City of West Hollywood at (323) 848-6377 or mche@ weho.org for more information about the WeHo LGBTQ Arts Festival. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.

City of West Hollywood coronavirus updates are available at www.weho.org/coronavirus and the City encourages community members to follow @wehocity on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and turn on notifications. For up-to-date news and events, follow the City of West Hollywood on social media, sign up for news updates at www.weho.org/email, and visit the City’s calendar of meetings and events at www.weho.org/calendar.

Workshops were initially held The Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza and were limited to 15 students per session. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Shelton and Bigham, along with Ash Nichols, a program supervisor, brainstormed a way to continue the workshops online.

“Suddenly, as many people who wanted to, could come to the seminar,” Shelton said.

“There was no longer a cap.”

One session has drawn an astounding 92 participants. During the two hours, he teaches vocal tools and explores resonance and range.

Nichols has personally benefited from the workshops.

“I hadn’t realized how much fear and tension I was carrying in until I started to work with Ryland, and that work completed changed the relationship I had to my voice,” Nichols said. “I continue to be impressed by Ryland’s ability to cultivate a space that invites folx to feel safe enough to bring their whole selves and vocal ranges to the table and learn what

part in WeHo Pride 2022 by filling out an online submission form here: w.eho.city/ applywehopride (note: link not working.

Groups can activate a designated space in the event area or request city funding for a separate event produced by your group. The deadline to receive funding for a special community event is March 31 at 5 p.m. A limited number of groups will be chosen.

Additional details about WeHo Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, including a full calendar of events and downloadable brochure with times and locations, will be made available in the coming weeks at www.weho.org/pride.

Some programs from 2021 are still available to be viewed online at bit.ly/OCOPYouTube.

Each year, the City of West Hollywood celebrates the artistic contributions of the

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