At around 2 a.m. on March 9, a security camera outside of Precinct, a gay bar in downtown Los Angeles, caught two men dressed in black and carrying cocktail glasses walking around the corner from the bar’s main entrance. They entered an exterior hallway leading to the bar’s employee entrance.
The men set their glasses on a nearby railing, unzipped their pants, and appeared to urinate in a corner between the door and the entranceway.
In the video, two other men are seen passing by the entranceway but not entering it, just moments as the taller of the two men appears to zip up his fly and looks around furtively. The video cuts out shortly after that.
The video was posted to Precinct’s Instagram account, along with a clearer picture of two men — taken from inside the bar — whose attire appears to match those of the men urinating.
According to the Instagram post, the men then rounded the corner, where one of the managers spotted the drinks and tried to take them away. The larger of the two men “reacted by physically assaulting him, throwing him to the ground.”
It remains unclear if the employee was injured during the altercation.
“Precinct is a safe space for all; let’s have a good time. Don’t be a dick,” Precinct’s Instagram post reads. “Oh, yeah, we also have several bathrooms.”
According to Out, which first reported on the incident, several drag performers familiar with the bar began reacting to the post, with RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4 alum Willam, who hosts the Race Chaser podcast, tagging the private Instagram account of Crescenta Valley Town Councilmember Chris Kilpatrick.
Other commenters also identified Kilpatrick as the taller man in both the photo and video.
Kilpatrick was elected in 2020 to the Crescenta Valley Town Council, which represents the Los Angeles suburbs of Montrose, Sunland, and La Cañada Flintridge, along with sections of Glendale.
He ran on a platform of promoting public safety, supporting small businesses, and curbing “out of control” development, according to his old campaign site, a version of which can still be found on the Internet Archive.
Last Tuesday, Crescenta Valley councilmembers learned about the surveillance video and asked Kilpatrick for a statement.
By that time, however, he had retained an attorney, according to a letter detailing the council’s response obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Crescenta Valley Town Council President Harry Leon said in the letter that he had called a special meeting about the issue, but claimed that before it could take place, Kilpatrick “expressed his desire to resign from the council.”
Kilpatrick tendered his resignation, which was accepted by the Council, and became effective that day.
“While we do not condone any of the behavior we observed on social media, we appreciate his 3 years of commitment and dedication to the community while serving on the council,” the letter from the Council said of Kilpatrick’s departure.
Kilpatrick’s attorney, John Duran, said that, prior to the alleged assault, two bar employees approached Kilpatrick and his boyfriend and grabbed him, asking if he had been at the bar.
“My client instinctively pushed back in self-defense,” Duran said in a statement to the Times. “It was reasonable for him to believe that they were about to possibly be gay-bashed” by the men, who allegedly were not in uniform and did not identify themselves before putting their hands on his clients.
Duran added that public urination is not a criminal offense, and battery is a misdemeanor offense, including “unlawful touching as exhibited by individual one who grabbed my client first.”
Kilpatrick does not appear to face any criminal charges at this time.
Some Instagram commenters took shots at Kilpatrick’s political stances, criticizing him for “vague” social media posts or past policy positions that suggest he holds more conservative political beliefs — although there is no evidence of outright support for one political party. Council elections in Crescenta Valley are nonpartisan, although the area is more conservative than nearby areas of greater Los Angeles.
“Not the blue lives matter sympathizer being messy in public,” wrote one.
“He is a Trumper, but the gays don’t care because he is hot,” wrote another.
Landon Cider, the winner of Season 3 of Dragula, quoted a descriptor in Kilpatrick’s bio on his Instagram account, writing, “‘100% American in the profile is such a [red flag emoji].”
That Instagram account, and a separate account that appears to have been created to document his work as councilmember, both appear to have been deleted.
Instagram censored an image of two real-life husbands with their newborn as "sensitive" and "graphic" content.
The image was eventually restored.
Men Having Babies, a nonprofit that assists gay men in building families by pursuing surrogacy options, posted the image to promote an educational conference in Berlin in April.
But soon after the picture was posted, Instagram censored it with a black message screen that forced users to click to view the image.
"Sensitive Content," the message screen read. "This photo may contain graphic or violent content... images that some people might find upsetting."
Michael Shayan isn't himself the first time we meet, right before a performance of his solo show Avaaz at the Olney Theatre Center. Garbed in a gorgeous golden caftan, Shayan is, in that moment, wafting through the audience as Roya, Queen of Gays.
"The pre-show is so fun because I go around in character as my mother," Shayan says when we finally meet for a video chat about the one-person show, in which he portrays his larger-than-life Iranian-Jewish mom, Roya.
For the audience, that portrayal, in all its loving and scrutinizing detail, begins with the pre-show greeting. "I'm her, and I'm welcoming you into my home for this party," Shayan says. "That element has always been part of the show because I want it to feel like you're really being welcomed into a party. I want the play to feel like a party."
A Milwaukee school principal has been sued in federal court by a gay couple who allege he bullied, harassed, threatened, and assaulted their son for having two same-sex parents, violating the child's civil rights in the process.
The parents, referred to as M.P. and T.L. in the lawsuit, claim that Kasongo Kalumbula allegedly mistreated their son because of his family's makeup.
The lawsuit, filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, asks for a jury trial and seeks an undetermined amount in damages.
It alleges that Kalumbula, who served as the assistant principal, and later, acting principal, of the Milwaukee French Immersion School from September 2018 to October 2021, physically and verbally abused the child -- who was in first grade when the harassment started -- and routinely singled him out for discipline.
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