Identity is a Universe, Not a Spectrum
My identity is vapor. It’s around me. I can distinguish something there, and though it may gently direct me, it continuously slips through my fingers.
Betty Dodson
“I get to spend most of my time now doing things that I love. That’s freedom. And everybody could do that,” Betty says. “But they feel like they have to suffer in life.”
(Gender) Binary Codes
Identity is relentlessly complex; there’s the person we feel we truly are, the person we present to those we deeply trust … and the versions that other people see.
Two Spirit
Long ago, so the Navajo legend goes, there was a separation of the sexes. It was the nádleehi — literally “one who changes”—that brought the sexes back together.
Tom of Finland
This organization, its history, and the revered house in Echo Park, serve an important role as pioneers for gay erotica.
Yvonne Faison
“I came to LA with no car, no job, and no place to live. And I got my first job out of the classified section of the Hollywood Reporter.”
Allee Willis
One of the most recognizable songs in music history, “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire, is just one of a multitude of feathers in the cap of legendary songwriter, Allee Willi
Alice Bag
If you ever get to meet Alice Bag in person, you’ll quickly realize two things about her: she’s as electric as her blue hair, and at 60 can light up a room like a strobe.
Church Boutique
Anyone can have a cool shop with wildly expensive clothes, jewelry and sculptures. But Rodney Burns and David Malvaney take it to the level of a fully immersive experience.