NEWS: June = (the first) LGBT Heritage Month in Los Angeles!

Thirty years ago, a newly identified cluster of symptoms and illness was first given the term 'Gay Related Immunodeficiency', or GRID, by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).  This first week of June 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of when these disease clusters became recognised as the first cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). 

You can listen to a fantastic account of this time in history in two parts - first with a doctor of infectious diseases, and next with a man living since the early 1980s with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV): on Dick Gordon's The Story on APR.

From the mayor's website

Perhaps coincidentally, June is also officially declared as LGBT Pride Month by President Obama's White House and by communities throughout the country.  On Friday, Los Angeles (finally) proclaimed June as LGBT HERITAGE MONTH.

According to the LA Times, Bill Rosendahl was the first openly gay candidate to run and be elected to the City Council in 2005.  On Friday, the Councilman, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck,  along with other city officials, honoured LGBT Angelenos and publicly celebrated the launch of June as LGBT Heritage Month.

The Times went on to say that the "City Council also passed several resolutions on Friday, backing state and federal legislation calling for LGBT equality, including a state bill that would add questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity to state demographic surveys", but when i tried to authenticate or source this statement, i couldn't find any proof.  (But i did find a very odd and somewhat disturbing comment thread...)

NEWS: Prop. 8 Protests, Petitions and Update

People protested Prop. 8 all over Orange County and Los Angeles this past weekend...

Here's a bit more disappointing news from the LA Times this weekend: "Even with 2.7 million outstanding ballots statewide -- some mail-in and some provisional -- the odds aren't in favor of beating out the gay-marriage ban's lead of more than half a million votes."

Also, here is a 'Tale of Two Votes', comparing the Prop. 8 and Prop. 22 outcomes.

As of late, i have been made aware of Equality California's petition, and Courage Campaign's petition to repeal Proposition 8.

Prop. 8 effects have already been felt by same-sex marriage based businesses, including my own wedding officiant business, A NON-DENOMINATIONAL CEREMONY. The New York Times is reporting on economic downturns in the same-sex wedding market.