SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Dalila Ali Rajah will be in San Diego May 19 headlining the next engagement of LGBTs In The News with Thom Senzee.
With roles on Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, NCIS – not to mention her Best Actress performance in Quiet as Kept – and too many others to name here, Rajah is delighted to be a part of this engagement.
“I am so excited to back in San Diego especially to talk about something so important to me,” said Rajah. “The ‘b’ in LGBT often evaporates because of fear in both the hetero and queer communities.”
Kicking off its second nationwide touring season in San Diego, the May 19 engagement of LGBTs In The News is sponsored Dr. Bronner’s, Urban Mo’s, Gender Illumination and All4U Apparel. The live-discussion panel series, sponsored by SAG-AFTRA, was first launched at the studios of ABC-10 in San Diego June of 2013 at very moment when the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 striking down bans against marriage equality.
“The original purpose of the panel series was to help the media understand more about how we can do better work as journalists covering the emerging issues of the LGBTQ community,” said Thom Senzee, founder and moderator of the live-discussion panel series.
Senzee, who is a regular contributor to San Diego LGBT Weekly and other media outlets, said that while the panel series has grown to appeal to the general public as well as journalists, the core message remains. Whereas the in-person panels used to be comprised mostly of journalists and activists from the LGBTQ community, they now also include entertainers and celebrities. But, says Senzee, there’s one qualification all panelists must have.
“They have to also be advocates who are actively engaged in the fight for equality,” he told LGBT Weekly. “They have to be doing something. They can’t just be an LGBTQ actor or singer. They have to have led protests, be educating people or doing research on discrimination or stopping it, or marching or have written powerful books or done something that’s measurably contributing to helping people of diverse genders and sexual orientations winning and keeping the same rights straight people take for granted.”
Three other panelists will join Rajah, who among her many equality-activist pursuits is her work as a member of the SAG-AFTRA LGBT Actors Committee. They are: Heather Corliss, Ph.D. of SDSU’s LGBT Research Consortium, Ariel Vegosen, writer, professional gender-inclusivity trainer and founder of Gender Illumination and Blake Mitchell, equality activist and adult film actor.
“We [as bisexual people] have higher depression, suicide, and domestic violence rates,” Rajah said, adding that she’s excited to learn what fellow panelists, including Dr. Corliss will bring to the conversation on those and other topics.
“We’ve taken the series from San Diego, to Los Angeles, to San Francisco and to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and back again – twice. I’d like to think we’ve helped improve the media’s understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people as people…not just letters in an abbreviated community,” said Senzee.
The event is from 6-8 p.m. at Urban Mo’s at 308 University Avenue in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood. The public is invited; attendees will receive a special gift bag from Dr. Bronner’s. RSVP’s are not required but appreciated. The suggested cost is $10, half of which will be donated to the San Diego LGBT Community Center. Visit LGBTsInTheNews.com for more information or to RSVP.
“I’m looking forward to being in San Diego, it’s been too long since our last visit,” said Rajah. ”I love the city and San Diegans. As a member of the LGBTQ community, a member of SAG-AFTRA’s LGBT Actor’s Committee, a mother and a bisexual woman I couldn’t be happier to be headlining a panel of other advocates for equality. So come out and join us May 19.”
