The Pride LA 2.4.22

the pride

ISSUE NUMBER 73, VOLUME 44 | FEBRUARY 4 – FEBRUARY 17, 2022 02.04.2022 – 02.17.2022

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THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER

Los Angeles City Attorney Leads California Coalition Seeking Answers from Uber over Treatment of Transgender Drivers “Uber tries to talk a good game when it comes to LGBTQ equality, but we have serious questions about whether it is failing transgender drivers,” City Attorney Feurer says

By Sam caTaNZaRo City officials are taking aim at Uber, saying the company blocks trans drivers from signing up.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced February 3 that his office, partnering with the offices of San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliott and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, has called upon Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) to detail its verification and naming protocols for transgender drivers following the publication of a discouraging Los Angeles Times article titled, “Uber blocks transgender drivers from signing up: ‘They didn’t believe me.’”

The article, published December 10,

detailed numerous alleged instances in which transgender and nonbinary people lost work as drivers and delivery people after their photos and documents were deemed fraudulent and multiple efforts to appeal were unsuccessful.

“Uber tries to talk a good game when it comes to LGBTQ equality, but we have serious questions about whether it is failing transgender drivers,” said Feuer. “We intend to find out if reported incidents are isolated mistakes or part of a larger pattern that locks some transgender drivers out of rideshare opportunities.”

Trans drivers also reported being deadnamed on the UberEats app, raising

Uber, see page 10

Photo: Sam Catanzaro

Green Qween, a New Queer-Owned Cannabis Shop Will Open Downtown 4/20 opening for shop

By TimoThy michael Green Qween, a new queer-owned and queer-driven cannabis shop, will open in downtown on April 20th.

The shops owners, Andrés Rigal and Taylor Bazley, have been struggling to make this happen for years in L.A. Now with help from the pubic and tenacious attitudes their dreams of opening a cannabis shop that caters to the LGBTQ+ community will finally become a reality.

Green Qween is set to hire unhoused LGBTQIA+ individuals through a local workforce development partner to support LGBTQIA+ BIPOC small businesses by stocking their products on their shelves.

The shop is inspired by the first medical dispensaries in the Castro which provided

cannabis to those suffering from HIV/ AIDS which alleviated the suffering that came from the disease itself as well as side-effects from the medications being prescribed at the time.

Green Qween will be a necessary safe space using cannabis as a vehicle and economic engine for change by donating 10% of our yearly profits to the local LGBTQIA+ Pride Organization, DTLA Proud, to fund the construction of the DTLA Proud Community Center.

Eric Solis, a founding Board member of DTLA Proud told LA Weely, “this will be a huge boom for the local community and positively contribute to the burgeoning LGBTQIA+ populace that lives, works and plays in DTLA. We are thrilled to be in partnership with a first of its kind queer cannabis dispensary of the modern age built on principles of diversity, inclusion, and investment in the local community.”

Rigal and Bazley hope their shop will serve as a prototype for others who want to do the same thing for their community.

Green Qween will be the first queerowned cannabis shop in DTLA and was

made possible by over 3,000 supporters in the community who signed the petition on change.org recognizing that this addition will make Downtown Los Angeles a safer more inclusive place.

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IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY®

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

(bik-TAR-vee)

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:  Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. Your healthcare provider will test you for HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking BIKTARVY. Do not stop taking BIKTARVY without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months, and may give you HBV medicine.

BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including:  Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section.  Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that may have been hidden in your body. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.  Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.  Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.  Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death.

Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.  The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%).

These are not all the possible side effects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults and children who weigh at least 55 pounds. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements.

BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains:  dofetilide  rifampin  any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY Tell your healthcare provider if you:  Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.  Have any other health problems.  Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY.  Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take:  Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.  BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other.

Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

HOW TO TAKE BIKTARVY Take BIKTARVY 1 time each day with or without food.

GET MORE INFORMATION  This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.  Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5  If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, GILEAD, the GILEAD Logo, and LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies.

Version date: February 2021 © 2021 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0369 04/21

BVYC0369_BIKTARVY_B_10X11-7_ThePrideLA_Hugo_r1v1jl.indd 1

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HUGO LIVING WITH HIV SINCE 1995 REAL BIKTARVY PATIENT

KEEP CONNECTING. Because HIV doesn’t change who you are.

BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you.

See Hugo’s story at BIKTARVY.com.

Featured patient compensated by Gilead.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the previous page and visit BIKTARVY.com.

5/21/20 3:33 PM

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New CA Law Helps With Transgender Deadnames Law goes into effect 2023

By Timothy Michael

A new California law requires public colleges to update diplomas and records for transgender students who have changed their names.

The new law, which took effect on Jan. 1, requires the state’s public colleges to update records for students who have legally changed their names. It also allows graduates to request an updated copy of their diploma at no cost to them.

Then, starting with the 2023-24 class, it will require institutions to allow students to self-identify their names on diplomas, even without legal documentation of a name change. (The legislation does not specifically require colleges to let students self-identify their names on educational records besides diplomas without legally changing their name. It also does not affect how people are identified on legal

documents used for tax, immigration status and other purposes.)

California is the first state to enact such a law. A previous version failed in the Legislature in 2020.

The right to self-identify one’s name on a college diploma helps protect transgender and gender non-conforming students, advocates say. Research shows that transgender people are at higher risk of discrimination and violence.

More than one in four trans people has experienced a “bias-driven assault”, with rates even higher for trans women and trans people of color, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Academic records listing a student’s name and gender as assigned at birth could potentially “out” that student’s identity, which can put them at a significant disadvantage when seeking housing and employment, said David Chiu, who authored the bill while representing San Francisco in the state Assembly. Chiu, now the San Francisco city attorney, said he was asked by Equality California and other transgender activist groups to draft the bill.

LA Street Will Potentially be Named After Anti-LGBTQ Singer Bailey Street renaming leads to backlash

By Timothy Michael A portion of Bailey Street may be renamed to the late Mexican Mariachi singer ” Vicente Fernandez Street’ – a motion that was being considered by Councilmember Kevin DeLeon.

However, the Planning and Land Use Committee came out with a Community Impact Statement opposing Councilmember Kevin Deleon’s proposed motions after hearing about Fernandez’s sordid past.

The singer has multiple sexual allegations against him as well as stating some homophobic remarks. Fernandez once said that he did not want to receive any organ transplant from an “addict or “homosexual” Councilmember DeLeon only informed immediate stakeholders on this small stretch of street and did not do any outreach to a significant number of stakeholders nor the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council.

The Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council made a decision to oppose the renaming.

“Vicente Fernández is a beloved figure of music,” said David Silvas, the council’s vice president. “[But] we’ve heard comments that this would deeply affect and hurt members of

Photo: Wikimedia Commons Fernández at Denver’s Pepsi Center in 2011.

the LGBTQ community.”

In a letter to De León’s office, the neighborhood council wrote that they do “not feel it is appropriate to rename a street within the community after Vicente Fernández, nor any other civic memorialization.”

Community activist Carlos Montes –who is a board member of the Neighborhood

Council not on the committee– said that he had informally polled a number of musicians who work at Mariachi Plaza and found no one who opposed the renaming. Montes said that if the full Neighborhood Council were to approve the statement it would be an embarrassment for the neighborhood.

Instead, the council requested that public spaces be named for “non-living, historic

figures who have had tangible and direct ties to the community of Boyle Heights.”

Pete Brown, a spokesperson for De León, said that despite the council’s letter, there’s been an outpouring of support for the street name change.

The L.A. City Council will make the final decision about the proposal.

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California Trans Child Molester Gets 2 Years In Juvenile Facility Hannah Tubbs sentenced in connection to 2014 incident

By Timothy Michael

A Los Angeles County judge ordered Hannah Tubbs, a transgender California woman, to serve two years in a juvenile facility after she pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 2014 while she herself was still a minor.

Tubbs, 26, recently pleaded guilty to molesting the girl in a women’s bathroom eight years ago when Tubbs was two weeks away from turning 18. At the time of the crime, she identified as male and went by James Tubbs. She did not identify as female until after she was taken into custody, according to prosecutors.

“Tubbs is 26 years old. Unlike George Gascon’s false narrative, she is not a ‘kid,’”

L.A. Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami, assigned to the Complex Child Abuse Unit, told Fox News Digital.

“There was evidence presented at the juvenile proceedings which showed that Tubbs sexually assaulted two young girls in different incidents in the past. The child victims will suffer lifelong trauma. Tubbs also has prior violent convictions and conduct as an adult.”

Prosecutors say Tubbs walked into the bathroom of a Denny’s in 2014 and grabbed the 10-year-old by the throat, locked her in a stall, and put her hand down the girl’s pants. Tubbs stopped when another person walked into the restroom, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Because Tubbs began identifying as female after she was taken into custody, and Gascon refused to try her as an adult, Tubbs was sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility. In L.A. County, juvenile facilities can house both females and males, but in separate areas. Tubbs will be housed with the females.

Two years is the maximum sentence for any juvenile in the new program over the age of 25, according to Deputy District

Attorney Shea Sanna.

The sentencing sparked criticism of Gascon, who had vowed to “immediately stop prosecuting children as adults.”

Gascon has cited studies showing brain development isn’t complete until a person is 25 and contends juvenile detention can rehabilitate young offenders.

Judge Mario Barrera also criticized Gascon saying he has been left with no option but to give a simple sentence in a juvenile detention center to Tubbs that also included not having to register as a sex offender. “I want to be clear. The filing of a transfer motion is entirely within the discretion of the district attorney. Because of George Gascon’s blanket policy against transferring any juvenile to adult court, even if the 17-year-old rapes or murders an innocent child, James [now Hannah] Tubbs will not have to register as a sex offender, will not spend any time in county jail or state prison, will be 26 and housed with juveniles for a very short period of time, and will be released with no probation or parole monitoring.”

LA Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami also noted: “Tubbs is 26 years old. Unlike

George Gascon’s false narrative, she is not a ‘kid’. There was evidence presented at the juvenile proceedings which showed that Tubbs sexually assaulted two young girls in different incidents in the past. The child victims will suffer lifelong trauma. Tubbs also has prior violent convictions and conduct as an adult,” before adding: “’The victims will get no justice. The public will get no safety. It’s an injustice against all of us, especially the young victims.”

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Homeless Initiative Meeting In West Hollywood Up to 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ

By Timothy Michael

The City of West Hollywood’s Homeless Initiative works to address homelessness with a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, collaborative response.

It’s estimated that up to 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, according to local estimates.

The City partners with funded social service agencies, with the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, with the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, and with Los Angeles County agencies to provide a wide variety of services that reduce homelessness and support people who are experiencing homelessness.

As part of this work, the City of West Hollywood will host a virtual Community Update Meeting about the West Hollywood Homeless Initiative on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 6 p.m. The meeting will take place via Zoom. Advance registration is requested and community members are encouraged to submit questions in advance when registering for the event via Zoom.

The Community Update Meeting will

provide community members with an opportunity to learn about the latest information about the City’s Homeless Initiative, including recent outcomes from City-funded organizations that directly assist people experiencing homelessness in moving from the streets into housing.

Meeting attendees will get a preview of new projects in development that respond to community needs and make significant progress toward the goals of the City’s Five-Year Plan to Address Homelessness in Our Community.

The meeting discussion will also include a special focus on current efforts the City is taking to secure Homekey financial support from the State of California, which could create an opportunity to provide an interim housing site in West Hollywood where community members could access resources, connect to services, and move off the street. The event will provide insight into next steps for this effort and will offer community members details about other ways to get involved in the Homeless Initiative.

At the Community Update Meeting, attendees will hear from a variety of speakers including members of the City Council of the City of West Hollywood – Mayor Lauren Meister and Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne, who comprise the City Council’s Subcommittee on Homelessness – as well as City staff members and

representatives of the City’s contracted services providers. Outreach teams who work with unhoused community members will share about how they do their outreach work and about the challenges faced by housed and unhoused community members as a result of the nationwide housing and homelessness crisis.

The West Hollywood Homeless Initiative is overseen by the City of West Hollywood’s Strategic Initiatives Division in coordination with the City’s Social Services Division; both Divisions are part of the City’s Human Services and Rent Stabilization Department.

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2022 ‘WeHo Reads’ Series Celebrates the ‘Road to Joy’

Find Your

Happy Place!

Book By March 22, 2022

The City of West Hollywood invites community members to celebrate literature and local authors with its 2022 WeHo Reads literary series.

Featured authors and poets of the WeHo Reads 2022 season include: • Ryka Aoki, author of the new science fiction novel Light from Uncommon Stars who was honored by the California State Senate for her work with Trans/Giving, a performance series for trans and genderqueer individuals; • Patrick Nathan, a Lambda Literary Award finalist and author of the nonfiction book Image Control and debut novel Some Hell; • Lynell George, whose book A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky delved into the creative life of cherished local author Octavia Butler; • Lynne Thompson, current City of Los Angeles Poet Laureate, whose book of poetry, Fretwork, won the Marsh Hawk Press poetry prize; and • Cassandra Lane, whose memoir, We Are Bridges, won the 2020 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize.

Together, these and other poets and authors are embarking on a journey of healing and creativity in the midst of sorrow.

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating a reckoning with injustice that has animated the literary scene for decades, and is highlighting the importance of creative work in shaping our ability to live through difficult times.

This year’s theme for WeHo Reads is Road to Joy. The Road to Joy will invite guest poets and authors to discuss how they create joy in their writing and in their lives and invite readers to participate and find their own paths

to healing and contentment with moments of guided meditation, art appreciation, writing prompts, a photography contest, and other creative projects.

There will also be a special October 2022 event featuring a selection of poets from the Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship Program. These poets laureates were all chosen by the Academy to receive a $50,000 award to help support creative work and community engagement projects, and several of them will gather to share about the projects they created.

WeHo Reads 2022 launches on Tuesday, January 25, 2022 at 6 p.m. with poets and writers sharing songs, poems, and reflections on healing and hope. Shonda Buchanan will open the event with a song and discuss her memoir Black Indian, which explores her family’s legacy of being African Americans with American Indian roots and how they dealt with not just society’s ostracization but the consequences of this dual inheritance.

Peter J. Harris will discuss the Black Man of Happiness Project’s See You campaign, which excavates historical photos of Black men “emanating a sense of joy.” Imani Tolliver will recount her intersectional and sacred journey as a Black queer woman and share excerpts from her memoir-in-verse Runaway.

Imani has worked with the justice system and its intersection with the arts for more than a decade.

The series will be presented live online on the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Arts YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ wehoarts and is produced by BookSwell, LLC.

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WeHo Premieres the ‘Moving Image Media Art’ Exhibition Series Program on view through May 31

By TimoThy michael

The City of West Hollywood announces the premiere of the Moving Image Media Art (MIMA) program and the worldwide debut of BLACK.ECO, a film from director and choreographer Shauna Davis.

The film will be displayed for ten-anda-half minutes at the top of every hour on the Netflix Invisible Frame billboard, located at 8743 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip from Wednesday, February 2, 2022 through Tuesday, May 31, 2022.

The MIMA program will be an ongoing exhibition series of moving image media artworks on multiple digital billboards at various locations along Sunset Boulevard.

Shauna Davis’ original film BLACK. ECO is a multidimensional Afrofuturist journey through space and time. Using movement and positivity as battering rams to destroy tired oppressive tropes, Davis spreads magical light and reveals the exquisite hope of abundance. By subverting Black existential narratives, Davis resets racist fictions with images that should be within the cultural lexicon (intimate, happy, unremarkable moments in Black lives), but

Uber, from page 1

concerns for their safety. (Deadnaming is the practice of calling a transgender individual by their birth name after they have changed their name as part of their gender transition.)

“Undermining the ability of transgender and nonbinary individuals to secure work is unconscionable. I expect Uber to take

aren’t. Pulsating through these stories are images of love, history, and connection; demonstrating the powerful gravitational pull that joy creates.

Shauna Davis is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, dancer, and choreographer who creates cinematic dance experiences.

Spanning both the commercial and concertdance realms, she has worked with artists such as Olivia Rodrigo, Snoop Dogg, and Kanye West, and has performed works by Bill T. Jones, Ohad Naharin, and Gustavo Ramirez Sansano. Davis’ pieces have been performed at the Dallas DanceFest and Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, and she has created work for Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Encore! Opera Omaha, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and the LA Chamber Orchestra, among others.

The Moving Image Media Art (MIMA) program is a City of West Hollywood exhibition series administered by the City’s Arts Division as part of its Art on the Outside Program and is presented as part of the City’s Sunset Arts and Advertising Program. Curation of the MIMA program offers artists the opportunity and the funding to create immediate, remarkable, and ambitious works of art that engage with the unique visual landscape of the world-famous Sunset Strip and experiment with the state-of-the-art technology of

high-definition digital signage. The MIMA program enables artists to occupy, contest, and play with the boundaries and uses of public space and manifest moments of connection and awe.

The MIMA program assembles a list of prequalified moving image media artists using a rolling open-call opportunity.

Applications are reviewed bi-annually by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission in November and May. Curation of the MIMA program fosters cultural equity, expands accessibility, inspires communication, creates public space, and ultimately enhances the human experience of the

Sunset Strip. MIMA prequalified artists include a diverse array from all career levels, emerging to prominent, including Doug Aitken, Candace Breitz, and Diana Thater.

swift action to reverse course and commit to treating all drivers with dignity and respect,” Elliott said.

The letter, issued to Uber’s General Counsel, Head of Global Public Policy and Director of Public Affairs, asks detailed questions in four distinct areas and states that Uber could face potential legal ramifications if it is determined that its policies endanger or disadvantage transgender, nonbinary or gender

nonconforming drivers.

In a broader effort to support workers in the gig economy, in 2018, Feuer sued three trucking companies servicing the Port of Los Angeles alleging that they were exploiting drivers. The City Attorneys of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco also joined the Attorney General in 2020 in suing Uber and Lyft over the companies’ alleged misclassification of drivers as independent contractors and not employees.

“Transgender and gender nonconforming drivers should not have to put themselves in danger or navigate a bureaucratic nightmare just to make a living,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “Shielding drivers from workplace violence and ensuring equal opportunity to work are nonnegotiable. We look forward to engaging with Uber to ensure that the company has adequate protections and policies in place for transgender drivers.”

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