Gay Choirs, Trans Cafes And Social Justice Art: What LA Spent Money On While Cutting Its Fire Budget | The Daily Caller

The City of Los Angeles cut funding for its fire department and allocated thousands of dollars to various progressive programs, including a “Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe” and a Gay Men’s Chorus. - Eireann Van Natta 

Bass claimed in a press conference that none of the reductions made “would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days.” 

She added that the city is “in tough budgetary times.”

• Los Angeles allocated $100,000 to the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department for a “Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe,” according to its 2024 to 2025 budget. The funding’s purpose is to “support a safe haven for unsheltered transgender individuals in Hollywood,” the document noted.
• Similarly, the Cultural Affairs Department Special Appropriations budget allocated $100,000 for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Awards.
• The budget also appropriated $8,670 for the “One Institute the International Gay and Lesbian Archives.” The ONE Archives at the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries currently has an exhibit titled “Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation,” which focuses on the occult and “the LGBTQ movement.” 
• The budget also allocated $13,000 for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Heritage Month Programs” and $14,010 to the “Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles.”
• Los Angeles’ African American History Month, American Indian Heritage Month, Latino Heritage Month and Asian American History Month Programs were each allocated $13,000.
  The budget also appropriated $170,000 in total for “Social Justice Art-Worker Investments.