Las Vegas Sun
Paula Abdul, David Parks lauded for their LGBTQ advocacy
By Kelcie Grega
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019

Entertainment icon Paula Abdul remembers the helpless feeling as some of her closest friends died from the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. She also recalls how some of her backup dancers who contracted the virus were too afraid to talk about it.

So, she took action.

Abdul has spent the last few decades bringing attention to HIV/AIDS advocacy and LGBTQ issues, dedicating much of her tour proceeds to HIV/AIDS research.

Abdul was honored for those years of service on Thursday with the Ally Leadership Award at the inaugural Nevada Equality Awards at Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club located inside the Linq Promenade. It was hosted by Silver State Equality, the recently launched LGBTQ civil rights organization.

“I’m glad to be an advocate and an ally and I always continue to be. I consider this community very close to me and very special,” Abdul said.

Abdul was honored alongside Sen. David Parks, who in 2008 became Nevada’s first openly gay lawmaker. It wasn’t until 2012 that Parks would be joined in the Legislature with four other openly gay colleagues in Sens. Pat Spearman and Kelvin Atkinson, and Assemblymen Andrew Martin and James Healey.

“It’s a great honor to be named the recipient of the inaugural award,” Parks said. “I think it follows my career in the Legislature.”

Silver State Equality Director Andre Wade lauded Abdul for using her platform to advocate for the LGBTQ community and HIV/AIDS awareness.

“For someone like Paula Abdul to use her platform to be able to speak up for equality has really been essential for organizations like ours,” Wade said. “With her residency, and being here in Vegas, we thought it was appropriate that we recognize her.”

Including Parks in the inaugural event was also an easy decision, Wade said, as he has been a trailblazing advocate for LGBTQ Nevadans. This past legislative session, Parks sponsored a bill creating a task force to examine Nevada’s statutes on HIV transmission.

During the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, nearly 70 laws were enacted nationwide to criminalize people living with HIV. Since then, health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have pointed out that medications can now achieve an undetectable viral load, meaning no risk of passing the virus on to others.

“He’s done so much for us over the past several decades,” Wade said.

Wade said he hopes the event will grow in the future and honor even more Nevadans for their service in LGBTQ advocacy.

“Oftentimes, it’s advocates and activists who do a lot of the hard work of raising awareness and supporting causes that go unrecognized,” he said. “So as a movement, we like to recognize those who have taken the lead and taken the stand to support those less fortunate.”

One of the event’s hosts, comedian and actor Bruce Vilanch, said Nevada — particularly Las Vegas — has come a long way in its LGBTQ presence. He said he was happy to see the state take the plunge in advocacy.

“These movements didn’t come from all of us wanting to go shopping for Vera Wang wedding gowns,” Vilanch said. “People’s rights were being denied. It was born out of a need to get basic civil rights.”

The post Bruce Vilanch Hosts The Nevada Equality Awards first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES talks with Bruce Vilanch about hosting One Night Only Benefit Cabaret for the Richmond/Ermet AID Foundation on Monday Sept 12th at Marines’ Memorial Theater in San Francisco. Philanthropy and stellar entertainment take center stage as REAF presents a special one-night-only benefit cabaret with the Broadway Touring Cast of “Beautiful”(The Carole King Musical) in “Motown & More, An Evening of Music, Dance & Comedy” hosted by Bruce with Countess Katya Smirnoff-Skyy. Songs from “Beautiful” will not be performed. As we have been reporting, for over twenty years the Richmond / Ermet Aid Foundation has raised millions of dollars by producing Broadway quality entertainment events and galas to advance HIV treatments and support AIDS services until there is a cure. Recently REAF has expanded its fundraising focus to the Bay Area’s growing demand for two new areas by providing food for the needy and programs that support homeless, disadvantaged and disenfranchised youth. We talked to Bruce about this fabulous organization and his spin on our LGBT issues.

With the upcoming presidential election just months away, when asked what he would like to see happen for LGBT equality in the next few years Vilanch stated, “Well a lot depends on what happens in this election clearly. I mean if the Nazis actually win and I call them Nazis because they would like us to be eliminated. Read the Republican Party Platform, the reptilian party, as I call it, platform, you’ll see that they would like us to just shrivel up and die. They would like to enable us in that effort and I think if they win then we’re going to see a period of regression and of people feeling their oats so they can attempt to beat us into the ground. If the democrats win and Hillary is in charge I think we’re going to see a continued path towards complete civil rights. That means no rollback on marriage equality, which is what the republicans would like. We’ll see it extended and obviously the most important thing about this election is the next president will choose a bunch of Supreme Court Justices who will issue to the ultimate ruling on all things that affect our lives. So I think at the moment we have the coin in our hands and as a nation we’re going to toss it in November and we’ll see what happens. So I’m hoping it comes down on the girl side.”

Bruce Vilanch is one of the most sought-after jokesmiths in the entertainment industry. He began contributing to Academy Awards telecasts in 1989 collaborating with the likes of Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and David Letterman and graduated to head writer in 2000. Since then Vilanch has become a recognizable face in his own right thanks to the feature-length documentary “Get Bruce” and his one-time stint as a regular on “Hollywood Squares” for which he also served as head writer. One Night Only Benefit Cabaret is produced by the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation, founded by the late Barbara Richmond and Peggy Ermet in memory of their sons John Richmond and Doug Ermet who both lost their lives to AIDS. To date REAF has raised well over $3 million dollars for AIDS services and beginning in 2015 expanded to support hunger programs and programs for homeless and underserved youth.

For Info & Tix: reaf-sf.org

The post Bruce Vilanch Hosts “One Night Only Benefit Cabaret” September 12, San Francisco first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

WeHo’s annual Rainbow Key Awards ceremony will take place Wednesday at the City Council Chambers at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., south of Santa Monica. There will be an informal reception at 6 p.m. to be followed by an awards program at 7 p.m. During the event, the names of the 49 victims who were killed in the recent Orlando mass shooting will be called out.

The first two recipients of the Rainbow Key Award, in 1993 — AIDS activist, comedian, writer and actor Bruce Vilanch, and AIDS activist and actress Carole Cook — will attend.

Nominations for Rainbow Key Awards are received by the city’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board, which makes recommendations to the West Hollywood City Council. The council selects award recipients. This year’s Rainbow Key Awards honorees are:

— Jay M. Kohorn, civil rights attorney.

— Mark Lehman, lawyer and board chair of the National AIDS Monument Foundation.

— Carol Taylor-DiPietro, one of the creators of the first Gay Nights at Disneyland.

— Ruth Williams, former director of advocacy for the National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles, longtime community volunteer.

— The West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, which provides housing for people with limited income, including those with HIV/AIDS who have special needs.

Past honorees have included activists, artists, civic leaders, educators and community organizations. Contributions, whether by an individual or a group, may be in many forms, including the arts, community action, humanitarian action, sports, medicine, armed services, leadership potential, benefit to the global gay and lesbian community or in other ways. More than 125 Rainbow Key Awards have been presented during the past 23 years.

The post Bruce Vilanch Awarded WeHo’s Rainbow Key Award Wednesday, June 22, 2016 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

They know what tinsel-town skeletons are hanging in which closets, and are prepared to tell (almost) all in exchange for an elegant evening featuring tantalizing hors d’oeuvres, premium spirits and a gourmet dinner in the luxurious confines of an exclusive Palm Springs estate.

Sound interesting? It did to globally known celebrity photographer Michael Childres who once again thumbed through his well-worn Rolodex and is producing an evening called “Hollywood Dine & Dash II” in support of AIDS Assistance Program.

The event will be held on Saturday, Nov. 1, and feature a cast of characters who, we are promised, will border on the alliterative, i.e saucy, scandalous, sensational and salacious.

This event will feature a knowledgeable group of talkative Hollywood insiders. Present will be “love goddess” turned comedienne Judy Tenuta; entertainment/gossip columnist Ted Casablanca; Ruta Lee, one of the most accomplished performers in Hollywood … and also one of the brightest; and, cuddly Emmy-winning comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, who has single-handily made tee-shirts the go-to attire for any occasion. And, attempting to bring some order to the proceedings as the emcee: Emmy-winner Michael Corbett.

The purpose of the evening is fun; but the mission of AIDS Assistance Program is deadly serious. Since its founding in spring 1991, the nearly all-volunteer, organization continues to provide meals to members of the community with low incomes living with HIV/AIDS. Their client base has grown from approximately 20 to 500 persons.

A five-member volunteer board manages AIDS Assistance Program. Its primary purpose is to raise the funds to support the organization and its food voucher program, currently budgeted at $600,000, annually. Support for other operational expenses are generated through its private donor base.

To purchase tickets for Dine & Dish II, call AIDS Assistance Program’s executive director Mark Anton at 760-325-8481.

The post Bruce Vilanch Joins “Hollywood Dine & Dash II” For Nov 1 Benefit first appeared on We Got Bruce!.