One way to fight bias is visibility: putting faces on those harmed by stigma and honoring the brave shoulders who are lifting them up. Equality is achieved when marginalized communities collectively come together to overcome the obstacles ahead.
Family Equality’s LA Impact: A Night of Heroes was all about celebrating and supporting our real-life heroes: LGBTQIA+ families and those who have championed our rights. A part of the fight is celebrating triumphs and humanity–preferably with cocktails, fashion, and drag queens while raising over $400k for the families most at risk (with special thanks to the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies CARE WITH PRIDE® initiative for providing Guardian-level sponsorship).
With the rise in anti-LGBTQIA+ bills, it takes all of us to harness our individual and combined powers to fight for families across the country. Some of our favorite celebrity superheroes featured were Rosie O’Donnell, screen star Cheyenne Jackson, RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s Nina West, The Voice alum Rayshunn Lamar, TikTok sensation Kelechi, and singer Debby Holiday, among others.
It was a colorful night of superhero-inspired glam, impactful stories, and powerful performances at the Paramount Studios New York Backlot.
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Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The fundraiser kicked off with none other than drag superstar Nina West performing “Drag is Magic,” enchanting the crowd with a good time. Of course, we can’t snub her backup performers, the Los Angeles area youth from Upstage Theatre Schools, who proved you don’t have to be a drag queen to put on a show, honey.
Event co-hosts Alec Mapa and Melissa Peterman embodied every gay’s nightmare when they kept “accidentally” showing up on stage in the same outfit!
Cheyenne Jackson also joined the ladies on stage. But there was candy for the ears, too, with Kelechi getting the crowd to love him even more by singing “Forever Tonight” and Debby Holiday doing what only Debby Holiday knows how to do, bringing the house down with a powerful performance of “Help.” Then Jackson blew our theater wigs off with an acapella rendition of “A Song for You.”
Was the room spinning, or was that just the vodka sodas? It might have actually been the jaw-dropping fact that the evening raised over $400,000 for LGBTQIA+ families around the country.
Some much-deserved special recognitions were in order. The Visibility Award was presented to history-making entrepreneurs Jason Bolden and Adair Curtis. Violet Augustine was honored with the Murray/Reese Family Award for Bravery. Family Equality also honored Clockwork and its CEO, Nancy Lyons, with the inaugural Digital Impact Award to recognize the development of the first iteration of the Path2FamilyEquality online resource–developed in just two short months.
Needless to say, the night was decorated in queer excellence. Oh, hi, Rosie O’Donnell!
Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies CARE WITH PRIDE® Initiative has been helping queer people everywhere for over a decade.
Through the initiative, CARE WITH PRIDE® has helped raise over $1 million for nonprofits, including Family Equality, Avenues For Youth, and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, as well as many Pride and local grassroots organizations. Care packages have gone out to 700+ LGBTQIA+ families. The initiative has also partnered with these organizations to ensure this change becomes permanent with policy.
We’ll toast to that.
Check out the video of the memorable evening:
