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Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, D-West Hollywood, has unveiled a series of bills aimed at addressing California’s homeless crisis.

With over 170,000 homeless people, California has a disproportionate 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population. At least 10,000 people newly experienced homelessness between 2020 and 2022, and 64 percent of low-income households are rent-burdened and at serious risk of losing their homes.

Last week, California State Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur visited Park La Brea for an informal chat with residents and members of the Park La Brea Residents Association.

Zbur, the freshman representative from the 51st Assembly District (a long, narrow strip stretching from Santa Monica northeast to Griffith Park, including the western 2/3 or so of our general Greater Wilshire area), was just elected to the office in November, so last week’s talk gave him and his field representative Sherwin Shamoeil a first chance to check in with a few local constituents after just a few months on the job.

In the wake of the Los Angeles Dodgers rescinding their invitation to The Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence (TSPI) yesterday, the team received sharp condemnation from the Los Angeles and greater California community. This decision occurred only two days after Florida Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to Major League Baseball complaining about the group’s inclusion in the ceremony where they would have received an award for their service to the community and then tweeted about it. His accusation, leveled from 2,577 miles away was joined the next day by a similar accusation from a group called The Catholic League which has headquarters in New York City and a group called CatholicVote.

Wednesday was the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. It was also the day that the LA Dodgers decided to disinvite a storied group of drag nuns from a planned Pride event in June.

“We are now aware that our inclusion of one group in particular — the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — in this year’s Pride Night has been the source of some controversy,” the baseball team said in a statement on Twitter.

WASHINGTON – Florida Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio issued a statement Monday that condemned the Los Angeles Dodgers Major League Baseball franchise for a scheduled “Community Hero Award”  to be given to the LA Chapter of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence drag group during Pride month in June.

The Florida Republican alleges that honoring the group “mock(s) the faith with the motto with “Go forth and sin some more!” Rubio sent a letter to Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Rob Manfred stating that he is questioning whether the League is “inclusive and welcoming” to Christians.

Two gay California lawmakers have told the Bay Area Reporter they plan to introduce legislation to address the issues impeding efforts to collect LGBTQ health data as detailed in a damning report by the state's auditor. Meanwhile, the state's health department is also working on a roadmap to address the findings of the audit.

Freshman gay Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-West Hollywood) plans to work collaboratively with gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) on a comprehensive bill aimed at fixing the myriad problems hampering the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, data by the California Department of Public Health.

California's Democratic supermajority wants to follow up its most ambitious year of environmental legislation by passing new clean energy incentives and measures that would accelerate greenhouse gas reductions and require billion-dollar businesses to disclose their emissions.

On the cusp of becoming the world's fourth-largest economy, California could influence global climate policy if it passes this new suite of legislation and other states and countries follow suit, the bills' authors argued earlier this month. They spoke at a gathering of hundreds of environmental activists, clean energy industry officials and other leaders in Sacramento for the California Climate Policy Summit.

Issues related to health and transgender individuals, particularly youth, are the main focus of the LGBTQ bills making their way through the legislative process in Sacramento this year. A flurry of hearings about the legislation is expected in the coming weeks, as lawmakers race to meet their first deadline later this month to pass on the various bills with fiscal implications.

Many of the 18 LGBTQ bills the Bay Area Reporter is tracking this legislative session build on LGBTQ laws previously enacted by state lawmakers that focused on issues impacting public schools and foster youth. Several relate to protecting HIV prevention efforts.