Since its conception in 1973, Lambda Legal’s work as an LGBTQ+ legal and educational resource has (perhaps unfortunately) never even skirted toward obsoletion. And in our current landscape, their work takes on a particular flavor of urgency.
The homepage of Lambda’s website currently offers a general call to action, a primer about how to have a productive conversation with family and friends about including transgender youth in sports, and legal guidance on the changing nature of gender markers on passports: the topics depressing, yes, but seeing them packaged this way — not as issues to be helplessly reported, but as something manageable and strategizable if you are able to find the right supports — imbues a sense of hope.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to Lambda Legal’s “Stand Up For Equality” event in Los Angeles, a night of comedy from a collection of popular queer comics including Matteo Lane, Margaret Cho, Tig Notaro, Guy Branum, Rachel Scanlon, Solomon Georgio, Roz Hernandez, Dana Goldberg, and Dina Martina.
I am soothed generally by both a large collection of gay people in the same space, and the active seeking of laughter, so “Stand Up For Equality” was, unsurprisingly, the place for me to be.
Much of the material presented at “Stand Up For Equality” ran alongside Lambda Legal’s general ethos: a hopeful (or at least comical) and unflinching confrontation of our current sociopolitical climate. Some of the comedian’s sets were directly political, others just plain old gay, and a notable amount of sets were spent honing the apparent current trend of Lesbian Wife Guy content. I was most delighted to see Dina Martina (in my estimation one of the best drag queens working today) who performed a song with her adaptation of a Britney Spears’ hands-free microphone — which is just a full-sized microphone attached to her head. (Much love to the Wife Guy Lesbians populating the stage, as I am also a Wife Guy Lesbian in many senses, but I’m more aligned with a shockingly overdrawn red lip and an exposed pantyhose line).
Lambda Legal’s “Stand Up For Equality” buys into perhaps one of the more sacred, bittersweet queer historical truths: sometimes if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. I’m just glad we’re all choosing to spend some time together. I’m just glad to see events where money is moving toward something earnestly helpful instead of vague and half-hearted.
