LA Gay & Lesbian Center’s inspirational gala

CORRECTED:

Confession time: I really had no idea Wanda Sykes was a lesbian until she came out. I thought of her as a snarky comic character actress – I loved her in “Down to Earth,” the Chris Rock version of “Heaven Can Wait”/”Here Comes Mr. Jordan” for instance.  And I look forward to the Nov. 7 launch of her new talk show on Fox. I think she got it right when she said at last night’s LA Gay & Lesbian Center 38^th anniversary gala:

“I almost feel like Obama accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. What the hell have I done?…..But I am aware of the importance of being out and proud and vocal. That’s what I’ll continue to do.”

Greg Hernandez over at Greg In Hollywood has a terrific round up of all things celebrity – including Sykes’ friend Jay Leno giving her the Center’s Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award, fun with late night talk show host and emcee Chelsea Handler,  and a nice note about Zachary Quinto, of Heroes and Star Trek who gave the Center’s Board of Director’s Award to Clinton Leupp, aka Miss Coco Peru. (More about Miss Coco Peru in a moment.)

I also cracked up over the Bruce Vilanch-written “corporate” video for American Airlines, which received the Center’s Corporate Vision Award. I was also among those who applauded to give recipient George Carrancho, AA’s sale and marketing guy for the LGBT community, encouragement as he struggled with the teleprompter.  He was so nervous, and human and real – I think most of us in the audience saw something of ourselves in him.

And fortuitously, I was seated next to a charming British actor named James Frain and his insightful writer/director wife Marta Cunningham. Frain plays Thomas Cromwell on the Showtime hit “The Tudors.” Together they have a production company Brit Out Productions and For the past 18 months they’ve been working on a documentary about the February 2008 murder of 15 year old Larry King in his Oxnard classroom allegedly by then-14 year old classmate Brandon McInerney. McInerney is being tried as an adult, which has been of concern to the LGBT community. (I hope to have more on the Frain/Cunningham documentary in a later post.) ADD: The documentary is called It Takes A Village with Cunningham as the driving force behind the film and Frain playing a supporting producer role.  If my short but intense conversation with Cunningham is any indication, this film should go from the theater to Showtime to required viewing in the classroom.

But the surprise “hit” of the night was the appearance of two young emerging leaders from China who are participating in a pilot Leadership program sponsored by the Center in conjunction with an organization in China called Aibai, lead by Damian Lu. The Center has hosted 7 interns, finding them housing plus a stipend and then putting them through a month-long emersion program in which, CEO Lorri Jean said, “they learn how to effectively manage an organization as well as how to implement powerful activist strategies. Not to mention some socializing along the way.”

Jean said that Center intern graduates from previous trainings “are already making a big difference” – including the founding in Beijing of China’s first LGBT Equality Ride, modeled after the Center’s AIDS LifeCycle.  The two interns – Amior Zhao and BeiBei Ye - spoke in broken English and sometimes seemed to offer contradictory information – such as how many LGBT people there are in China. But the audience didn’t care: we were enthralled with their courage and their determination – and the common bonds we share.

Amior Zhao spoke first, noting the millions of LGBT people in China. Then bringing their reality home:

“But where are we? Who are we? We could be anyone – teachers, students, drivers, officers, actors, soldiers, grandpa, grandma, or even police.  But during daytime,  we all wear a mask – which meant straight person. We can only act as a straight person. But when night falls, we don’t even have one minute to think through our selves. Then comes the next day.

So some of us already pass away. Dies – without knowing that there could be a opportunity to change.  We could be like – I am a lesbian. Without the LGBT people – there could be one day – we could just stand among people, friends and just say something out –  loudly – that’s ‘I am gay and lesbian.’

(Sustained applause_

I am really touched by the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center and also Aibai because without them – I don’t know how long you should struggle to achieve a goal.

But the good news is we already started ….I want to thank everybody here because it’s you who created history. It’s you who created this remarkable and historical moment…The Center created a very important and remarkable project. I’m so glad to be there. Thank you everybody.”

BeiBei Ye spoke next. He explained that he worked in an HIV/AIDS organization with gay men. He also said his grassroots group is under tremendous pressure from the government.

“We are a new movement but I’ve learned many great lessons here – like West Hollywood. And there are so many different departments at the Center that I can’t imagine before. Homosexual organization can be like Microsoft!

The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center offers us a blueprint for Chinese grassroots groups of the future.”

The other most powerful moment of the night – for me and gauging by the sustained cheers, the audience – was Miss Coco Peru.  I have long known of this seemingly ageless funny drag queen and have interviewed her briefly over the years at different events. She seems to be at as many as I am – or maybe even Bruce Vilanch. But I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t know how inspirational she really is until last night when she told her story during her acceptance speech.  Here’s an excerpt:

“Being recognized by the Center is very meaningful to me and it brings up a lot of emotions. First of all, I want to acknowledge all of the drag queens out there in the world and the world beyond who, despite being the first to start the queer movement at Stonewall and who were also first to respond to the AIDS crisis by organizing fundraisers – are often dismissed and their contributions are rarely recognized.

(Sustained cheers and applause)

That’s why I enjoy the Center and the people who keep it alive because from the moment I first made contact with them, the Center has always respected me, valued me, and they’ve given me a home to create my shows and to fulfill my need not only to be an entertainer – but to be an activist as well.

Because you see, drag for me was born out of a calling to be an activist. I was living at home in the Bronx and although I was fortunate to be out, it was the late 80s and it was a scary time for a young gay man in New York City. (Coco chokes up) it was a time when walking down the street you could see the effect of AIDS on people walking towards you.

People you knew were suddenly unrecognizable and it scared the hell out of me.

It also made me feel like I had to DO something. So I decided I was going to join ACT UP. And I went to my first meeting and I sat in a room full of people who were literally fighting for their lives. I was overwhelmed as they screamed and raged – desperate knowing that their days were limited. My head swirled and when I left that meeting, I knew in my heart that I wouldn’t be returning. I felt so guilty – but I was too frightened and immature to take on their anger.

But it did get me thinking – well, what can I do? And I know you all might be thinking – so you became a drag queen? (Laughter) Well, I always felt that the way to educate people who didn’t understand me was to tell my story.

But I took it a step further and I made the choice to embrace everything I have ever been taught to hate about myself and instead glorify it. Celebrate it. I would embrace my two-spirit nature with the intention that people would listen to my story and forget all this (illustrating her drag) – they would realize that despite appearances, it is what is on the inside that matters. And what every human being really wants and deserves – is love, respect, equality and justice.

(Cheers)

With that in mind, I created Coco Peru and it became my mission to empower my community while letting the world know that drag queens empower a powerful law of Mama Nature’s – and that is: if you transform the outer, you can transform the inner and vice versa. If you transform the inner, you can transform the outer.

Yes, we gender-benders understand that if you have the balls to change yourself, you have the power to change the world. And I was going to save the world. I was very young.”

And Miss Coco Peru is still young and may still, one day, win that Academy Award her mother envisions. Or a Grammy, at least with that voice and style. What an inspiration.

It was up to Lorri Jean, though, to deliver the powerful political punch. Here’s an excerpt from her speech:

“Some things are laughing matters, but anti-gay ballot measures are not.  And, the people who put Prop 8 on our ballot are doing the same thing in Maine, lying every step of the way.   Such tactics are not new.  The right wing has vilified us for years, calling us deviants, a threat to national security, a danger to children, sinful, and more.  How fortunate we are to have them as our moral compass.

“Moral, family values” leaders like Republicans Senator John Ensign of Nevada and Governor Terry Sanford of South Carolina.  You remember Ensign—he was caught cheating on his wife with one of his former staffers, who was also married to another of his employees.  And who could forget poor Governor Sanford?  He gave a new meaning to “hiking the Appalachian Trail.”  If you’re going to use that as a cover story, don’t pick the week-end of Naked Hiking Day!   I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

I admit I’ve been happy to see so many self-proclaimed moral guardians fall on their own hypocritical swords.  Their exposure may be amusing, but there is nothing funny about the damage they do with their unrelenting slander of LGBT people.  Every time we take a kid off the streets whose family rejected him because of religion, we see tangible evidence of the harm these bigots do.  Every day the Center treats countless examples of the ravages of self-hatred and low self-esteem caused by bigotry and ignorance.”

Jean also noted that the Center recently received an historic $1.2 million dollar grant from the federal over 3 years for services to LGBT seniors.!

“That money will enable us to expand our senior services, to better help people like Alice.  Alice is 73 and her partner of 44 years, Sylvia, recently died.  Sylvia had been the primary wage earner and together they lived mostly on her social security.  But our federal government discriminates against same-sex couples in social security.  So Alice wasn’t entitled to Sylvia’s benefits.  This meant that Alice could no longer afford their apartment.  By the time she finally called us she was on the verge of eviction, desperate and in distress.  We swung into action and helped her get into affordable housing.  But what she experienced is a travesty of justice.

President Obama has promised us equal federal benefits and we’ve got to insist that he deliver!   And soon!  Of course, we must be strategic in advancing our cause.  But we also must push and be impatient.  We are right to be impatient.  Because for every day that passes when we are not treated fairly, people get hurt.  Really and truly hurt.  People like Alice.  People like the youth you saw in our video.  And too many more.

Only if we hold our leaders accountable and demand speedy progress can we finally put a stop to the harm that so many in our community suffer.  And I know we CAN do it.  I believe we WILL triumph over bigotry and ignorance.

Yes, I’m an optimist.  I’m much happier that way.  But anyone who has listened to me over the years knows that I’m more than that.  This word may surprise some of you, but I’m also a Patriot.  I love this country.  Not for what it is—which I sometimes hate.  But for its aspirations and what it actually has the potential to be.  A nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal.   A nation where each of us is entitled to certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These are America’s greatest ideas–our greatest inspiration and our greatest promise.  And the most shameful chapters in our nation’s history have been when we failed to live up to those ideals.  Prop 8 is just one of many examples.

In spite of the challenges that do lie ahead, we are closer today than we’ve ever been to the final tipping point in our quest for justice.  That’s why our opponents are fighting so hard.  We must fight hard too.  We must continue to build our community’s health and power.  We cannot slow down, we cannot let up, we cannot forget that no matter how comfortable our lives may be, the most vulnerable in our community—those who almost never make it to gatherings like this–are counting on us.  With your help, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center will be there for them.  With your help, we will be there for all of us.   Thank you for making that possible.”

Here are some fun photos of other folks who attended the gala – plus that butch shot of Wanda:

Tagged as: American Airlines, Bruce Vilanch, Chelsea Handler, Events, gay Chinese, HIV&AIDS, James Frain, Jay Leno, LA Gay & Lesbian Center, Lorri Jean, Los Angeles, Marta Cunningham, Miss Coco Peru, Wanda Sykes, Zachary Quinto