(image via Twitter/RobertGarcia) Some news items you might have missed: • Edge Media: Lawmakers in Hungary passed legislation Tuesday that prohibits sharing with minors any content portraying homosexuality or sex reassignment, something supporters said would help fight pedophilia but which human rights groups denounced as anti-LGBT discrimination. • NPR: The Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that would make Juneteenth, the date commemorating the end of chattel slavery in the United States, a legal public holiday. The holiday is celebrated on June 19, and it began in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas learned (years after the fact) they had been freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. • Out Music: In a loving tribute to Provincetown, Seth Sikes releases his latest music video, The Trolley Song. Sikes, a longtime interpreter of the songs of the great Judy Garland, performs this signature Garland song from her classic film Meet Me in St Louis. Backed by a full cast Sikes performs the much-loved song on location in Provincetown on the local trolley car. Sikes will perform live in Provincetown in July with his new show Seth Sikes Sings Judy and Liza and Barbra, etc. at the just refurbished Post Office Café and Cabaret.
• OUT: Country music fans should check out veteran journalist Hunter Kelly’s Proud Radio, a monthly two-hour show on the Apple Music Country channel highlighting queer artists, their evolution, and their influence in country music. • The Advocate: Arby’s management fired an employee in Lafayette, Indiana last week after the employee allegedly wrote the homophobic slur “fag” on a gay couple’s receipt. • Pink News: Long Beach’s iconic rainbow lifeguard tower (above) has been reborn after the original was burned down in March by vandals. Robert Garcia, the city’s first openly gay mayor, said the new tower provides an “immediate sense of pride and inclusion” for the city’s LGBT+ community.
We just dedicated the new Long Beach Pride Lifeguard Tower. Thank you to our community and lifeguards for this symbol of love and inclusion. Happy Pride 🌈❤️ pic.twitter.com/UT7xve7yKf
With 52% of the vote, Long Beach City Councilman Robert Garcia becomes the city’s first openly gay mayor. Garcia is also the city’s first Latino mayor and the youngest candidate ever elected to the office of mayor.
Speaking to NBC Los Angeles, Garcia had this to say about being “first”:
“I think you run, not necessarily to be the first, I know that there are certainly historical implications of my election,” Garcia said. “I’m in this to be mayor of everyone, no matter the age or the color of their skin or who they love.”
Garcia believes the city’s diversity is one of its assets. “We have one of the largest Cambodian communities outside of Cambodia, a large Latino community, a large LGBT population, and we have everyone. I really think that’s what makes Long Beach strong,” Garcia said.
