Equality California will honor actors Sharon Stone and Conrad Ricamora together with longtime LGBTQ allies and community advocates Laurie Hasencamp and Mike Lurey at its Los Angeles Equality Awards on Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff will deliver the keynote address. The evening will be hosted by actress Kirsten Vangsness with comedy from comedienne Dana Goldberg.
Stone, an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner, will receive this year’s Equality Activist award. “Stone has campaigned tirelessly for more than two decades on behalf of the LGBT community and people living with HIV,” EqCa said in an announcement of the award.
“Sharon Stone has used her visibility as an actor to become an indefatigable ally of the LGBT community and of people living with HIV,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “She has been a powerful force for HIV research and against stigmatization of people living with HIV for more than 20 years. Her work helped support research that has led to the lifesaving HIV treatments available today.”
Conrad Ricamora will receive this year’s Equality Visibility award. An openly gay actor, Ricamora plays the openly gay, HIV positive attorney Oliver Hampton on ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder.” He also played the role of Lun Tha in the 2015 Broadway revival of “The King and I” and won a Theatre World award for his portrayal of Ninoy Aquino in “Here Lies Love.”
“Characters like that portrayed by Conrad Ricamora change lives and attitudes,” Zbur said. “One evening a week, Ricamora delivers an honest, sympathetic portrayal of an openly gay, HIV-positive, Asian-American man to living rooms across the country. Seeing someone similar to themselves affirms the lives and struggles of LGBTQ people – and encourages understanding and acceptance in non-LGBTQ audiences.”
Laurie Hasencamp and Mike Lurey will receive this year’s Ally Leadership awards. Hasencamp and Lurey are retired attorneys who spend most of their time on community service work. Lurey spent his career at the law firm of Latham & Watkins. Hasencamp clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Warren Ferguson, practiced at Latham & Watkins and Irell & Manella and was a research director at a start-up legal research company before retiring in 2002.
Lurey has served on the Legal Council of the Williams Institute. In addition to acting as treasurer of Equality California, Hasencamp is a current member of the Founders Council and Legal Council of the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School and of the board of councilors at USC Law School, and a former chair or co-chair of each. She currently serves on advisory or fundraising councils for LA HLPP, Alliance for Housing and Healing and Lambda Legal.
This year’s Los Angeles Equality Awards will take place from 6 p.m. to midnight at the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live, located at 900 W. Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles. Individual tickets are $500 and up, with event sponsorships opportunities beginning at $5,000. For tickets or sponsorship information, contact Naseam Alavi at naseam@eqca.org or by calling 323-848-9801.
