Day 55
We had an exciting day in West Hollywood! We got a tour of the city from my good friend, Marc Solomon. We zoomed around town in his convertible Mini Cooper. I worked for Marc for years when he was the Executive Director of MassEquality. He is now the Marriage Director for Equality California. Marc is changed with repealing Prop 8 and restoring marriage equality to the state of California.
After a whirlwind tour of the city, Potter and I took a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard. We checked out the Walk of Fame and paid our respects at Michael Jackson’s star. His star was covered with flowers and notes. The crowd around the star was a constant 50 people large. The star was roped off and two security gaurds tried to move people along the sidewalk. Check out my video of the chaotic scene here.
After being uber-tourists; taking pictures of the stars and the handprints of famous people, we headed back to the city of West Hollywood to interview Mayor John Duran. John has been a queer activist for over 30 years. This interview, his story, was one of the best of the trip. You can watch a brief clip below, but my blog camera battery died before we got to the really good stuff.
John started as an AIDS activist in the 1980’s. He is a lawyer and represented ACTUP in court. In 1992, he helped get Bill Clinton elected. The next year he was arrested for protesting in front of the White House when Clinton signed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” into law. He later ran for office and was elected to the West Hollywood City Council. John has been Mayor of West Hollywood twice and is up for the position again next year.
After interviewing the Mayor, we were invited out to dinner with Marc and his parents, who are in town for a visit. We had a great time at dinner. Marc’s parents are amazing people and are a LOT of fun. It was great to spend time with them and to hang out with Marc again.
After dinner, we headed down to Santa Monica Boulevard. The bars were teeming with queers. We did an interview with Marc right on the street, as queers of all kinds walked by. It was an exciting interview. Marc talked with us about the fight for LGBT equality, the repeal of Prop 8, and the best way to win our fight. Check out a clip of the interview below. (TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES! I’ll upload the video of Marc as soon as I can get it to work. It should be up by 6pm PST July 6th.)
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(This video was taken with the ‘behind-the-scenes’ blog camera and is not the actual footage for the documentary.)
This is a medical marijuana shop. Check out the sign in the widow! It is a campaign sign for the Mayor, John Duran, who we interviewed earlier.
Driving Equality 