Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Boy Scouts Rethink Anti-Gay Rule: Los Angeles Scout Troops Lay Low as Conservatives React

The Boy Scouts of America's decision to let local chapters in Los Angeles and nationwide decide whether or not to continue a controversial ban on openly homosexual members is generating near-silence in Scouting in L.A., which has one of the nation's largest population of gay young people. The natio ... More >>

Gays Could Win Presidential Election for Barack Obama, Says Gallup Report

Guess ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and taking a strong pro-gay marriage stand could help President Barack Obama's re-election effort. According to the Gallup Report, with the presidential race running so tight, gays and lesbians overwhelming support for Obama could help him edge out Republican ca ... More >>

SoCal's Own Chris Kluwe Fights for Marriage Equality -- And Against Bigotry in the NFL

Walking across the Macalester College campus, Chris Kluwe passes unnoticed. As usual, the 30-year-old Vikings punter is dressed down: a pair of brown flip-flops, black basketball shorts, and a baggy zip-up sweatshirt. A backward World of Warcraft hat pins back his shaggy brown surfer haircut, a give ... More >>

Update: Defense of Marriage Act: Federal Appeals Court Says Anti-Gay Marriage Law is Unconstitutional

Update, 11:25 a.m.: California gay rights activists respond to DOMA ruling, after the jump. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act has been found unconstitutional by a federal appeals court in Boston, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in on the ruling. "Under current Supreme Court authorit ... More >>

Obama Totally Screws Up Gay Activists' Plans to Protest His L.A. Visit Tomorrow

The best part about President Obama's frequent ATM stops in L.A. are the myriad protesters who storm Beverly Hills and try to seek out his motorcade. Among them, always, are the LGBT activists, angry that the president still hasn't come out in support of gay marriage (perhaps in fear of further ali ... More >>

Susan SurfTone Is a Female Guitarist and Was a Gun-Toting FBI Agent. Boys Are Jealous

Watching the Republican debates recently, Susan SurfTone bristled at Newt Gingrich's revisionist history. "He said he and Ronald Reagan took down the Soviet Union," the female guitarist, who plays this Saturday at the Redwood Bar & Grill, says over the phone from her home in Portland. "No. Ronald Re ... More >>

Obama's Speech at Holmby Hills Mansion: President Admits 'It's Not Quite as Cool to Be on the Obama Bandwagon' as in 2008

While Occupy 90210 protested along Sunset Boulevard, Obama wooed a crowd of celebs and big Hollywood money at a $40K-per-plate fundraiser last night, hosted by some soap opera producer at his gorgeous mansion in the Holmby Hills. And, though we're generally on Occupy's side -- re: this whole corpor ... More >>

Prop. 8 Ruling: Los Angeles, West Hollywood to Host Celebration Rallies Tonight

Surely you've heard the good news by now: Proposition 8 was just overturned by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. And, though the religious zealots at ProtectMarriage will inevitably appeal that decision, it's definitely time to take this Internet party to the streets. LGBT advocates and city o ... More >>

TSA Officers Confuse Insulin Pump for Gun at LAX, Declare 'Security Breach'

This morning's big TSA blunder at LAX was kind of the opposite of cupcakegate -- call it diabetesgate. Here's what happened, according to the Los Angeles Times: A woman with an insulin pump on her person was screened with one of those privacy-infringing porn machines the TSA likes to call "advanced ... More >>

Gays, Asians Fight for Own City Districts in Los Angeles Redistricting Battle

Redistricting is so hot this season! California's doing it; L.A. County 's doing it; and, because the city charter requires we do it once per decade, L.A. proper is jumping on the redistricting train in 2012, too. Literally. Tomorrow at 9 a.m., the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission ... More >>

What Are You Listening to on Spotify? Guess What, Nobody Cares!

In the late aughts and the early teens, or whatever we're calling these decades, streaming music and social media began to merge; this, the geniuses of Silicon Valley, Alley, and Beach declared, would be utopia. Not only would it rain cash, but everyone's musical taste would improve. And thus soon, ... More >>

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal: West Hollywood Celebrates Gays Serving Openly in Military

Reilly T. Bates​A celebration of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" took place at West Hollywood Park on Tuesday night, in which some 100 people rejoiced over the end of the ban of gays and lesbians serving in the military. "I never thought I'd see this day," Tom Carpenter, board member o ... More >>

SLDN's Aubrey Sarvis Talks About Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and HBO Documentary

​Today, September 20, the repeal of the ban of gays and lesbians serving in the military, also known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," goes into full effect, with celebrations happening across the country, including in West Hollywood. HBO will also air the documentary The Strange History of Don't ... More >>

South L.A.'s Rampant Chlamydia Problem to Be Tackled by... Local Church Ladies?

South L.A. gets tested.​Another "don't ask, don't tell" policy is being trampled today in the Southland: The backward, Palin-vetted, abstinence-only approach to sex-ed that's long plagued popular Christian culture. About 18 churches throughout L.A. County Supervisor Mark-Ridley Thomas' STD-ri ... More >>

New York Legalizes Gay Marriage, LGBT Activists in California Respond

​On Friday night, June 24, the New York State Senate passed a bill that legalizes gay marriage in the Empire State. Governor Andrew Cuomo quickly signed it into law, which will go into effect in 30 days. LGBT activists in California and elsewhere quickly responded to the news. "We are beginn ... More >>

The L.A. DWP Wants You to Drink Recycled Sewage -- and Pay $20 a Year For It

Stuck in Customs via FlickrDelish.​Updated with a sewage endorsement from the L.A. County Sanitation District. The California drought may be temporarily on hold, but that doesn't mean Department of Water and Power problem-solvers have stopped scheming up new ways to keep your taps gushing and ... More >>

Andrew Johnson, Gay Prison Guard, Barred From Wearing Uniform in WeHo Pride Parade by Homophobic Dept. of Corrections

TMZAnthony Johnson with superlawyer Gloria Allred​We at the Weekly usually beef with the California Department of Corrections on more budget-related issues like the rich, powerful prison-guard union's ability to twist the state Legislature to its will and preserve bloated benefit packages in a ... More >>

How Gay Is America? UCLA Study Shows Only 3.5 Percent of U.S. Claims Rainbow -- But 11 Percent Are Tempted

The gay-rights movement: Only 9 million strong?​Measuring the gayness of our country has long proved a controversial task. Ever since pioneer sexologist Alfred Kinsey boldly claimed in the 1940s that 10 percent of Americans were gay -- based on his limited personal experience -- various polls ... More >>

Scott Schmidt, West Hollywood Candidate: Gay Republican Tried to Stop Prop. 8, Now Aims to Unseat Incumbent John Heilman

WeHo City Council candidate Scott Schmidt​In West Hollywood, City Council candidate Scott Schmidt is apparently getting the reputation as the guy who worked harder to try to defeat Proposition 8 than incumbents John Heilman, Abbe Land, and Lindsey Horvath -- combined. Schmidt sent out a camp ... More >>

Will Gay Republican Fred Karger Run for White House in 2012? Something Very Interesting Is Brewing

Gay Republican Fred Karger​Fred Karger, the openly gay Republican who battled Mormons and the National Organization for Marriage during the Proposition 8 campaign, was featured in the Washington Post yesterday, gaining major recognition for his possible run for the White House in 2012. If Ka ... More >>

L.A.'s Andrew Breitbart Announces 'Big Ol Gay Party' For 'These People' at Conservative Convention In D.C.

Andrew Breitbart welcomes the gay crowd. Sort of.​L.A.-based conservative pit bull Andrew Breitbart is about as right as it gets here on the left coast. But that doesn't mean he isn't down with the rainbow massive. To prove it Breitbart pulled out every musical stereotype in the book (declari ... More >>

Mission Drift at Gay Inc.

Is the most powerful gay lobbying group in California becoming irrelevant?

A MARINE STORY

Will Gays and Lesbians Put On a Strained Smiley Face for Barack Obama's Visit to Los Angeles?

Queers UnitedU.S. President Barack Obama​Christopher Street West, the group that organizes the Los Angeles Gay Pride festivities every year, has sent out a mass email, telling gay folks to attend President Barack Obama's rally at USC on Friday to show their "power, passion, and purpose." We ... More >>

Young, Gay Dreams of Matrimony

For 20-somethings, Prop. 8's demise is a barometer of equality, not a path to the altar

Was George Bush's AIDS Strategy Better Than Barack Obama's?

AIDS Healthcare Foundation​AIDS Healthcare Foundation founder Michael Weinstein came out swinging yesterday at a Washington D.C. press conference, offering up that President Barack Obama's AIDS strategy measures up poorly to his predecessor's, former president George W. Bush. "The New York T ... More >>

Admiral Michael Mullen Talks 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' at USC

Admiral Michael Mullen​Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" at a town hall meeting at USC this afternoon, reaffirming his "personal view" that the law that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military should be repealed ... More >>

From Obama to Gay Inc., 'Get Equal' Shakes Up Status Quo

Get Equal, the feisty, newly established gay rights group, has been shaking things up and making headlines for the past several weeks now, and a new feature story in The Advocate is one more example.Patrick Range McDonaldGet Equal co-founder Robin McGehee at a Fresno rally in 2009.​Titled "The Ris ... More >>

Screen Actors Guild Jumps into Newsweek Fray

Now the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the nation's largest labor union for working actors, has jumped into the Newsweek fray.Kevin ScanlonSAG rep. Jason Stuart​Yesterday, SAG National LGBT Actors Committee chair Jason Stuart condemned a recent Newsweek column that questioned gay actors' abilities to ... More >>

Queer Town: Chely Wright Tells Her Truth

Last week, Chely Wright, the country music artist who won the Top New Female Vocalist award from the Academy of Country Music in 1994, scored numerous hits, among them the number one song "Single White Female" in 1999, and found herself as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2001, ... More >>

Get Equal Interrupts, Annoys Obama at L.A. Fund Raiser

Five members of Get Equal, a newly-established grassroots gay rights group based in California, interrupted and annoyed President Barack Obama as he spoke at a Democratic fund raiser for Senator Barbara Boxer at the California Science Center in Los Angeles last night.Patrick Range McDonaldGet Equal ... More >>

Queer Town: Proposition 8, A Year Later

It's been a long year since Proposition 8 was passed on November 4, 2008, when the existing right to legally marry in California was shockingly taken away from gays and lesbians.Patrick Range McDonaldDays before Prop. 8 was passed, pro-gay marriage supporters took to the streets in West Hollywood.†... More >>

California Supreme Court Set to Consider Gay Marriage

Meet the L.A. four who started all the trouble