The month of June is dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride.

While the history of Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York, the LGBTQ+ community is still fighting for equal rights today.

Pride Month represents an opportunity to celebrate visibility and community, and to highlight important policies and issues that LGBTQ+ communities face in the U.S.  

For decades, West Hollywood has been home to one of the largest and most iconic annual pride events in the country. The Gay Pride Parade and Festival draws hundreds of thousands of people to the City of West Hollywood each year.

On this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” in honor of Pride Month, host Tanya McRae talked to West Hollywood Mayor, John Erickson, who shared the evolution and legacy of pride in the city and his work advocating for all communities.

“Pride lives in West Hollywood. And pride is not just during the month of June, it’s all year round. So it’s important now more than ever, to ensure that there’s not only a fabulous LGBTQ+ forward city but also one that can reach out to people across the interwebs to that kid in Montana, or Florida, or a state where their identity is banned, and know that there’s a place that they can call home and that will celebrate and love them.”

Queer line dancing has a long history in Los Angeles, rooted in the legendary Studio City Bar “Oil Can Harry’s.” But when the bar closed in 2021, two-line dancing regulars decided to carry on the legacy by launching a dance club called “Stud Country,” a queer dance night that honors the rich history of LGBTQ cowboy culture. 

Co-founder, Sean Monaghan, said: “For me, line dancing is just the feeling of being connected to everyone you’re dancing with on the floor. And I think that’s kind of the magic that hooks people.” He adds, “People might come to line dancing because they think it’s funny, or they don’t know what it is… the novelty of it. But then once you start doing those dances, and you’re connecting with the people on the dance floor, it becomes a spiritual sort of thing.”

In 2018, when Ahmad Zahra won a seat on the Fullerton City Council, he became the first openly LGBTQ+ Muslim elected official in the entire nation.

McRae spoke to Zahra about being an advocate for inclusivity and visibility for the LGBTQ+ community, and how he’s created city initiatives to do that.

“It’s a multi-prong approach. One, we have to look at our city policies. That really is a culture change that needs to happen in any local government or even state government. I brought forward — in collaboration with the Orange County LGBTQ Center — a training program for our police and fire command staff. We did that last year, and it was very, very successful in bringing awareness about what it means to be LGBTQ+. Especially when it comes to fire and police safety. Sometimes the response requires certain sensitivities. And I think it’s important for our command staff in public safety to understand those and be aware of those.”

Send us your thoughts to InFocusSoCal@charter.com, and watch at 9 a.m. and noon every Sunday.