by Peter DelVecchio

Duran goes to China

During his tenure as mayor of West Hollywood, John Duran was invited to be part of a 10-member official delegation of California mayors to visit Beijing before the Olympics.

Duran accepted, but contacted the Chinese Embassy to make sure they were aware that he is openly gay, HIV-positive and would bring his partner, Mark Morris, for the duration of the trip, scheduled May 10-18.

Currently China has about 700,000 people living with HIV, in a country of more than 1 billion people. But while the prevalence of HIV remains relatively low, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS says the situation in some areas is “dire.”

That prompted the government to ease travel restrictions last November to allow people with HIV to enter the country to attend conferences and signal that the government opposes any stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

The United States still maintains its 15-year HIV travel ban, though some waivers are granted after a convoluted review.

Before he left, Duran told IN Los Angeles magazine that he hoped to meet with people with HIV/AIDS, as well as gays providing LGBT support services.

“I am grateful that the Chinese government has granted me an HIV travel waiver and look forward to speaking with members of the Chinese LGBT community about our common struggle,” Duran told IN. —Karen Ocamb

Court grants wronged gay partner equal status

Darrin Ellis was shocked to discover that even though he and his partner, David Arriaga, had met with an attorney and filled out estate planning and domestic partnership papers in 2003, Arriaga never sent the paperwork to the secretary of state.

So when Ellis tried to legally end the relationship in September 2006 and sought a fair division of the couple’s property, his ex-partner asked the court to dismiss the case since the couple did not actually have a registered domestic partnership.

The court agreed, and the case was dismissed in February 2007. Lambda Legal appealed and appeared before the California Court of Appeal on April 29.

Lambda Legal attorney Tara Borelli told the court that California’s “putative spouse doctrine”—which grants legal protections to heterosexuals who honestly believe they were validly married, but later discovered they were not—should be extended to Ellis under the state’s domestic partner law, since California does not recognize marriage equality.

On May 6, the court ruled for Ellis.

“We’re pleased the court found in Darrin's favor, but this case shows that domestic partnerships are not adequate to fully protect same-sex couples,” Borelli said. —K.O.

Anne Rice ball gown up for auction

In conjunction with the Lambda Literary Foundation’s much anticipated move from New York to Los Angeles this month, and their annual Lambda Literary Awards at the Pacific Design Center on May 29, Foundation board member and best-selling gay novelist Christopher Rice secured an auction item scheduled to be listed on eBay starting May 12.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Rice describes the item contributed by his famous mother as: “A retired ball gown, custom-made for best-selling novelist Anne Rice, and worn to multiple public appearances across the country. It also includes a headdress. We believe this is what she wore to the famous Memnoch Ball Halloween Party in New Orleans some years ago. However, this dress was custom made in China at a cost of $3,000, by Chinese dress makers who were thoroughly disturbed to be making one in all black, as they believed it was bad luck. And if I appear a little uncomfortable in the photos, it’s because drag ain’t exactly my thing.”

For more information on the item, go to www.lambdaliterary.org. —K.O.

L.A. Fire Department to sever ties with Boy Scouts affiliate

The Los Angeles City Fire Commission has voted unanimously to instruct the fire department to sever ties with Learning for Life (LFL), an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America, as of Oct. 1, states a May 6 Lambda Legal release. LFL is a national program providing career education for youth, which claims not to discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. LFL, however, “is essentially an arm of the Boy Scouts of America,” the release says, “which clearly does.” LFL “is a crystal-clear attempt by the Boy Scouts of America to avoid the anti-discrimination policies of cities like Los Angeles,” said Lambda Legal Senior Staff Attorney Brian Chase. Despite years of discussion, the L.A. Police Commission has still not ordered the LAPD to sever ties with LFL.

Lesbian sues LAPD

Shelby Feldmeier, a lesbian graduate of the Los Angeles Police Academy, says male officers made offensive remarks about homosexuality and asked if she was gay when she was a probationary employee at the LAPD’s Wilshire Station.

Feldmeier complained to her superiors but, according to her discrimination lawsuit against the LAPD, Deputy Chief Berkow “said that sexual orientation discrimination isn’t an issue in today’s LAPD.”

In court papers, Feldmeier said: “I believe that LAPD sat on my complaints of discrimination and harassment and failed to conduct a reasonable, thorough investigation.”

Feldmeier filed the lawsuit in 2006, saying that after she complained, she was wrongfully fired because of her sexual orientation.

Lawyers for the city tried to have the case dismissed. But Superior Court Judge Edward Ferns said the case could go to trial. As IN goes to press, the trial was scheduled for May 12. —K.O.

MCCLA tearfully leaves WeHo

Forty years ago, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. noted that “Sunday is the most segregated day in America.” Not at the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles. And especially not on April 27, when the packed LGBTQ church tearfully and with an abundance of love bid farewell to its 11-year home in West Hollywood to start anew in Los Feliz.

In song, sermon and prayer alternately rousing and sad, Rev. Neil Thomas inspired the congregation, recalling “what it took to get us here ... Many of us thought we would be a church in the wilderness. But God has provided a space for us.” And while they mourn the transition, they are “prepared for a glorious future ... [The move] is really about going on a journey with God and being led by the spirit ... God has gone ahead of us with a new vision and a new dream.”

For more information and directions to the new church in Los Feliz, visit www.mccla.org. —K.O.

Friends of Project 10 to hold Youth Prom

Friends of Project 10, a nonprofit organization that provides funding for programs and projects that support LGBT youth, will hold its annual Youth Prom on Friday, May 16, from 8 p.m.-midnight, at Friendship Auditorium in Los Angeles. The prom is open to all youth ages 14-23. Tickets at the door are $40 for youth, $50 for adult chaperones, and will include parking, dinner and nonalcoholic beverages. Only cashier’s checks and money orders will be accepted; no cash, credit cards or personal checks.

Visit www.modelsofpride.org to download a prom application.

Liberty Hill honors Rick Jacobs

Liberty Hill, the feisty social and economic change organization that espouses “change, not charity,” honored openly gay politico Rick Jacobs at their annual Upton Sinclair dinner, May 1, at the Hyatt Regency Plaza Hotel.

Jacobs was recognized for founding and spearheading the Courage Campaign, an online advocacy group that forced the state to count the “Decline to State” ballots cast in California’s Super Tuesday primary, among other grassroots efforts. Jacobs also co-founded Brave New Films with Richard Greenwald and co-executive produced their latest documentary, Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers.

“I knew I was different. I didn’t want to be different, so all I did was work,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs met lesbian activist Torie Osborn (a former executive director at Liberty Hill) in 1999, “and all hell broke loose after that,” and he became a progressive activist. Along the way, he discovered a lot about “difference” and that this is “really the only country where difference is OK.”—K.O.

California high court to hear case of lesbian denied infertility care

The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments May 28 in a case brought by an Oceanside woman, Guadalupe Benitez, who was allegedly denied infertility treatment by Christian fundamentalist doctors because she is a lesbian, states a Lambda Legal release. Lambda Legal is a national LGBT civil rights advocacy group.

Doctors at North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group refused to inseminate Benitez, claiming that they did not have to comply with state civil rights laws barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation because their denial of treatment was faith-based. In 2004, a trial court ruled for Benitez, holding that California’s anti-discrimination laws applied to for-profit medical providers, and that they must treat all patients equally, whatever the doctors’ personal religious beliefs might be. The doctors appealed, and a court of appeal in San Diego ruled in their favor.