PHOTOS: WeHo City Hosts Two Events Celebrating Inaugural West Hollywood Day

The City of West Hollywood hosted two events to celebrate its inaugural West Hollywood Day recognizing the City’s 38th year of Cityhood, on November 29, 2022. City elected officials and staff kicked off the day from 8-10am at the City Hall Courtyard. Then there was a State of the Community Reception and 38th Birthday Celebration from 6-8pm at the West Hollywood Aquatics and Recreation Center.

“In Decembre of 2022 the City Council approved establishing an annual celebration on November 29th for West Hollywood Day,” said City Manager David Wilson at the daytime event. “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we didn’t have it until this year, so this will be the inaugural annual event…I just want to thank all of you community members and staff for making West Hollywood what it is. I’d like to specifically thank City Staff for all of your hard work and dedication over the years, especially during the hard pandemic years.”

West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister, Mayor Pro-Tem Sepi Shyne, and council members Lindsey Horvath and John Erickson took turns acknowledging the birth of the City, looked back at its history and the progress the city has made over the past 38 years (council member John D’Amico was not at the event).

The morning gathering was a smaller group of residents, community members and mostly City Staff. Donuts, coffee drinks, and teas were served. Attendees reminisced on West Hollywood where they live, work, and/or play. Speeches were brief, but the event lasted roughly two hours.

The State of the Community Reception and 38th Birthday Celebration later that evening was a much larger affair and very well attended. The event was catered, there were alcohol-free mocktails by Firefly Bartending offering a Moscow Mule, Rosemary Lemonade, and Raspberry Mojito.

Photos by Paulo Murillo for WEHO TIMES (click to enlarge).

The evening event included Mayor Meister and council members Horvath and Erickson who reiterated some of the points they made in the earlier celebration.

Former council member and mayor Abbe Land was at the event, along with John Heilman and Steve Schulte who were both elected to West Hollywood City Council on November 29, 1984, also attended the 38-year celebration. Heilman will possibly return to City Council if he manages to stay in third place in the current General Municipal Election set to conclude on December 5, 2022.

The State of the Community presentation included the following:

• Organizational Structure
• City Financial Position
• Business Community
• Capital Improvements Projects
• Infrastructure Projects

The star of the night was the 38-year cake from Cake and Art, with a colorful surprise inside.

The event It ended at roughly 9 p.m.

The City of West Hollywood was officially incorporated as an independent City on November 29, 1984. A coalition of LGBT activists, seniors, and renters proposed a Cityhood with progressive policies and strong tenant’s rights protections.

And here are some highlights of the past 30+ years in West Hollywood:

• The first West Hollywood City Council established West Hollywood as the first City in the nation to have a majority openly gay governing body.  This was a landmark development in LGBT rights in the United States as well as globally.
• The ordinances adopted by the West Hollywood City Council within the first year of Cityhood included landmark legislation such as the City’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (which, upon its adoption was one of the strictest rent control laws in the country); Ordinance prohibiting discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS; Domestic Partnership Ordinance; and Ordinance prohibiting discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation. Today, many of the City’s landmark ordinances have been duplicated and have become mainstream policies nationally and globally.
• In 1985, the City Council established its Social Services program to provide much-needed services to residents. Over its history, the City has provided millions of dollars in grants to fund programs for people in need.  These services have included services for seniors; people with HIV and AIDS; members of the LGBT community; people with disabilities; alcohol and drug use recovery programs; support programs for Russian-speaking immigrants; services for people who are homeless; food programs; and health care services for people who are uninsured. Today, the City’s Social Services Division budgets approximately
  $5 million per year in funding critical support to programs that impact thousands of people in West Hollywood; City residents live longer and have lower rates of chronic diseases than residents of L.A. County as a whole.
• The onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic had a significant impact on the City of West Hollywood due to the disease’s elevated infection rate among gay men which caused a devastatingly high number of deaths in the City. The City of West Hollywood was one of the first government entities to provide social services grants to local AIDS and HIV organizations. The City sponsored one of the first AIDS awareness campaigns in the country in October 1985 and the City’s response to the AIDS crisis has been recognized as a model for other cities, nationally and globally. Today, 12 percent of households in the City have a person living with HIV/AIDS.
• The City has been one of the most outspoken advocates for the legal rights of LGBT people. In 1985, the City of West Hollywood was one of the first cities in the country to adopt a Domestic Partnership Ordinance. In October 2014, the City marked an exciting milestone as the City Clerk’s office at West Hollywood City Hall filed its 10,000^th couple as registered Domestic Partners. The City also created the nation’s first municipal Transgender Task Force in 2001; in 2009 this became the City’s Transgender Advisory Board.
• West Hollywood was one of the first cities in the country to pass a resolution in support of marriage equality, paving the way for same-sex marriage initiatives all over the county. In a monumental moment in U.S. history, the City, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Register-Recorder Clerk, began to issue marriage licenses and perform civil ceremonies for same-sex couples in June 2008, following the Supreme Court of California ruling on Proposition 8. After a legal stay, in June 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an appeal in Hollingsworth v. Perry and the City of West Hollywood launched a marriage celebration. West Hollywood City Councilmembers and City Officials performed hundreds of civil ceremonies. On June 25, 2015, West Hollywood hosted a community rally at West Hollywood Park attended by thousands of jubilant revelers celebrating the Supreme Court declaring marriage between same sex couples legal.
• Following the election of President Trump in 2016, the West Hollywood City Council affirmed the City of West Hollywood’s commitment as a Sanctuary City and reaffirmed the City’s commitment to its core values, which includes Respect and Support for People.
• In 2017, the West Hollywood City Council approved a Resolution that calls on the U.S. House of Representatives to initiate proceedings for the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump. This came as a response to numerous violations of the Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution, multiple violations of federal law as it relates to the employment of relatives, serious national security concerns resulting from potential interference with federal elections in 2016, and amid investigations of obstruction of justice.
• The City of West Hollywood is one of the first municipalities to form a Transgender Advisory Board, which addresses matters of advocacy on behalf of transgender people in the areas of education, community awareness, and empowerment, and makes recommendations to the West Hollywood City Council. Through its Transgender Advisory Board, the City of West Hollywood regularly co-sponsors programming and recognizes Transgender Awareness Month and Transgender Day of Remembrance each November. For more information about the City of West Hollywood’s Transgender Awareness Month events.
• The city was a soap box for the Black Lives Matter movement with several marches and demonstrations calling for racial justice taking place on Santa Monica Boulevard in 2020.
• In 2021, The city begins recovery from a long COVID-19 Shutdown.
• in 2022, the City hosted its inaugural WeHo Pride event, completed the Aquatic and Recreation Center at West Hollywood Park, installed inclusive Pride Crosswalks, responded to the monkeypox outbreak with vaccine clinics and a town hall, urged COVID-19 vaccination boosters leading to more than 87% vaccinations rate amongst residents, provide more than 1.7 million dollars in COVID-19 rental assistance, expanded the City’s Block by Block program with 30 new security ambassadors and more than 100 businesses opened since 2021.