WeHo’s annual Rainbow Key Awards ceremony will take place Wednesday at the City Council Chambers at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., south of Santa Monica. There will be an informal reception at 6 p.m. to be followed by an awards program at 7 p.m. During the event, the names of the 49 victims who were killed in the recent Orlando mass shooting will be called out.
The first two recipients of the Rainbow Key Award, in 1993 — AIDS activist, comedian, writer and actor Bruce Vilanch, and AIDS activist and actress Carole Cook — will attend.
Nominations for Rainbow Key Awards are received by the city’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board, which makes recommendations to the West Hollywood City Council. The council selects award recipients. This year’s Rainbow Key Awards honorees are:
— Jay M. Kohorn, civil rights attorney.
— Mark Lehman, lawyer and board chair of the National AIDS Monument Foundation.
— Carol Taylor-DiPietro, one of the creators of the first Gay Nights at Disneyland.
— Ruth Williams, former director of advocacy for the National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles, longtime community volunteer.
— The West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, which provides housing for people with limited income, including those with HIV/AIDS who have special needs.
Past honorees have included activists, artists, civic leaders, educators and community organizations. Contributions, whether by an individual or a group, may be in many forms, including the arts, community action, humanitarian action, sports, medicine, armed services, leadership potential, benefit to the global gay and lesbian community or in other ways. More than 125 Rainbow Key Awards have been presented during the past 23 years.
