The New Jalisco Bar is Downtown LA’s sacred space for the Latinx crowd

The New Jalisco Bar is Downtown LA’s sacred space for the Latinx crowd

Photo taken by Jerri Johnson.

The New Jalisco Bar is Downtown LA’s best-kept secret.

This Latinx club has been around for over 30 years and honors every sense of the term “dive bar.” Its glamorous charm brings over queer Angelenos for drag shows and cheap drinks–just be sure to bring cash.

While West Hollywood is arguably the best LGBTQ destinations in the country, Downtown Los Angeles offers people a grungier, less-manicured ambiance that brings people from all walks of life to the scene.

DTLA Proud is an up and coming event that celebrates diversity and local LGBT businesses in the area. This non-profit group has a mission to “strengthen and empower the local LGBT+ & ally community in Downtown Los Angeles through visibility, volunteerism, partnerships, and events. This has allowed patrons to choose a variety of venues to check out that don’t necessarily involve making a trek through traffic to the Westside.

The proliferation of gay bars in downtown is a new trend that’s also been changing nightlife in the City of Angels. Bars like Precinct and the Redline are fairly recent establishments, but The New Jalisco Bar is most certainly the veteran of the bunch, and of course not forgetting Mustache Mondays back when it was at La Cita Bar (bit.ly/2LsBitf).

Jalisco Bar is your escape from Top 40 Billboard hits that only make it into mainstream radio stations. The drag queens at this bar give you the best of Gloria Trevi, Laura León, and Paulina Rubio. These fabulous Mexican divas resonate in the hearts of many queer Latinos. They sing about our heartbreaks and triumphs, and people feel their spirit when the drag queens get on stage. This is some of the reasons why people keep coming back to see performers, such as Azul Love.

Azul Love has been working at The New Jalisco Bar since 2011, back when they hadn’t remodeled the bar yet. The spot was so modest she recalls changing into her outfits and putting on her make-up in the bathroom to get ready to perform.

“It was very tiny and people would need to come in to use the toilet—we thought it was hilarious,” she recalls. “No one wanted to perform at the bar because they thought it looked ugly.”

This fierce Latina drag queen quickly became one of the hosts at The New Jalisco Bar for Wednesday, Friday and Sunday shows: “I started working with the bar regularly,” shares Azul. “I was in charge of the Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday shows, and in 2015 we came up with the idea of changing the bar’s look by adding sofas, a chandelier and red velvet curtains for the stage.”

Azul Love’s favorite impersonation is Gloria Trevi, one of Mexico’s fiercest divas. But this drag queen also impersonates Lady Gaga, which has given her the opportunity to travel to Hawaii, Chicago, and the Bay Area.

Azul Love battled substance abuse back in 2017 and needed to take time for herself. She now uses her lived experiences as a platform to bring awareness the problem of addiction afflicting some in the community. Her success with drag has given her the chance to host other gay clubs in the area, such as Corba in North Hollywood and Club Chico in East LA.

“Drag is my passion,” Azul says. “Describing what I feel when I am on stage would limit the sensation. I am alive. I am strong. Those are the feelings that come to mind when I think about performing.”

www.queerty.com/new-jalisco-bar-downtown-las-sacred-space-latinx-crowd-20190910?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

50,000 march in D.C. for gay rights: 1979

50,000 march in D.C. for gay rights: 1979

Washington Area Spark posted a photo:

50,000 march in D.C. for gay rights: 1979

Part of a crowd of more than 50,000 people from around the U.S. carry placards at a rally on the national Mall near the Washington Monument grounds October 14, 1979 calling for civil rights for gays and lesbians.

The march specifically demanded “an end to all social, economic, judicial and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people.”

The marchers demanded Congress amend the civil rights acts to protect lesbian and gay people against discrimination. They also hoped President Jimmy Carter would sign an executive order banning discrimination in the military and civil services and among government contractors.

Among the highlights of the demonstration were a 100-piece Great American Yankee (GAY) Freedom Band from Los Angeles and an 80 member gay chorus.

A small counter-demonstration of right wing Christian preachers led by Rev. Jerry Falwell branded the group sinners. Falwell asked the Lord to “deliver them from their lives of perversion.”

“God did not create Adam and Steve, but Adam and Eve,” said Falwell. He likened gay people to “bank robbers, thieves and other sinners.”

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskcVHcxD

Photo by Mark Reinstein. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.

50,000 march in D.C. for gay rights: 1979

We want to be neighbors with Officer Clemmons from ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’

We want to be neighbors with Officer Clemmons from ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’
The beloved actor looks back on his time working with ‘Mister Rogers,’ and shares why he thinks pride is important today

www.queerty.com/want-neighbors-officer-clemmons-mister-rogers-neighborhood-20190910?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

First Pride in Kharkiv, Ukraine Must Go On

First Pride in Kharkiv, Ukraine Must Go On

Post submitted by HRC Global Senior Manager Taylor N. T. Brown

The LGBTQ community in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, is holding its first Pride. Organizers are hosting a series of events that will culminate in a Pride march on Sunday, September 15. HRC is proud to support this Pride, including Women’s Sphere Association, through its 2019 Partnerships in Pride, as well as LGBTQ advocates in Ukraine through its Partnerships in Innovative Advocacy programs. 

In recent weeks, Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes has taken dramatic steps to restrict Pride activities in the city. He promoted a petition to the city council to ban Pride in Kharkiv, which is located near the still factious eastern region on the Russian border, and on September 2, released a statement that he would appeal in court to block Kharkiv Pride from taking place. 

In an effort to save Kharkiv Pride, organizers mobilized a domestic and international campaign to draw attention to and block the mayor’s actions. Six hundred participants have already registered, a reflection of the successful and safe Pride celebrations that LGBTQ communities and their allies have organized elsewhere in Ukraine this year, including in the capital Kyiv and port city of Odessa.

HRC spoke out against Mayor Kernes’ actions, providing support to local organizers and amplifying their demands on social media for the mayor to abandon his efforts to restrict Pride.

.@HRC is proud to support #KharkivPride through its 2019 Partnerships in Pride program.

We call on Kharkiv Mayor @GennadyKernes to respect the fundamental rights of LGBTQ people in Ukraine to free speech and assembly. ��️‍������ t.co/xIGOjLBrxO

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) September 5, 2019

HRC also sent a letter to the mayor, copied to the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S., calling on the mayor and his administration to respect the rights of LGBTQ community members and their allies, withdraw his court appeal and ensure the security of Pride participants.

The letter noted that these restrictions were in clear violation of the organizers’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed in the Constitution of Ukraine. They also violated the Government of Ukraine’s commitment as a member of the Equal Rights Coalition, an international consortium of more than 40 countries and dozens of civil society organizations, to uphold and protect the rights of LGBTQ people.

On September 9, Sphere Women’s Association and other organizers of Kharkiv Pride met with Kharkiv city officials who informed them that the city council would not support the mayor’s efforts to ban the Kharkiv Pride March and that they would work to ensure the safety of the participants.

HRC wishes all participants a successful and safe Pride and calls on Mayor Kernes, the Kharkiv City Council and all city officials to respect the rights of Pride participants and ensure the security of all Pride events.

www.hrc.org/blog/first-pride-in-kharkiv-ukraine-must-go-on?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

When a kiss is so much more than a kiss

When a kiss is so much more than a kiss

GLAAD was inspired this week by the way Brazilian activists stood up to anti-gay censorship. When Rio’s conservative evangelical mayor Marcelo Crivella tried to censor an Avengers comic that included a kiss between two men from a book fair, activists said ‘no way.’

Writer, actor and LGBTQ ally Felipe Neto who has 34 million YouTube subscribers bought 14,000 copies of the comic and gave them away. Rio biennial book fair organizers also fought the censorship attempts and Folha de S.Paulo, one of the country’s leading papers, featured the kiss on its front page.

Crivella once called homosexuality a “terrible evil” in his 1999 book “Evangelizing Africa,” according to a CNN story. Anti-gay forces have been emboldened in the past several years by the election of far right president Jair Bolsonaro. GLAAD was honored to help ensure Bolsonaro was not honored at a New York fundraiser earlier this year and we will continue to support Brazilian activists in their country and abroad.

The move comes after government agencies froze or slashed millions of dollars in funding for television and films to deny support to projects with LGBTQ themes.The government’s secretary of culture resigned over one of the decisions.

“Brazilian advocates show such creativity and fearlessness in speaking out against censorship, homophobia and transphobia, and we are with them always in the fight for equality for everyone in the beautiful country that is Brazil,” said Monica Trasandes, director of Spanish-Langauge & Latinx Media & Inclusion at GLAAD.

The kiss is between heroes and boyfriends Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) and Hulkling (Teddy Altman), who were introduced in the Young Avengers series in 2005. While that series has wrapped, Wiccan will return September 25 as a member of the new team Strikeforce in Marvel’s Strikeforce #1.

Read more about it in the Advocate

September 10, 2019

www.glaad.org/blog/when-kiss-so-much-more-kiss