NEW YORK - POZ's second annual fund-raiser, Love Out Loud, will descend upon East West Lounge in West Hollywood Oct. 16. Scheduled for 6:30-9:30 p.m., the party will include special guest appearances by Kevin Spirtas and Ilene Kristen of One Life to Live and Sherri Lewis of here! Network's podcast Straight Girl in a Queer World.
Giovanni Vitacolonna, POZ's circulation supervisor, and Christopher Landavazo, a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and president of Cops 4 Causes, will host the event.
A $20 donation is requested at the door.
The previous event, hosted at New York's Prohibition restaurant last May, raised $14,500 for AIDS Walk New York, Vitacolonna said.
"Some of the area's favorite personalities attended to meet, greet and encourage those who made the effort to come, some from as far away as Albuquerque and Toronto," he said. "Through gatherings such as this, POZ is able to raise awareness of current issues facing the HIV/AIDS community as well as raise funds. POZ editor in chief Regan Hofmann took the stage in new York to speak to those who came out, as did Guiding Light's Marj Dusay, who lost a son in 1993 to AIDS.
"The entertainment industry has lent overwhelming support through their efforts to help those with HIV/AIDS," Vitacolonna continued. "POZ events seem to get bigger and brighter every year. Cops 4 Causes is just coming off a very successful fund-raiser with a kick-off party for their AIDS/LifeCycle team - the first law enforcement team to do so, raising $16,715."
Vitacolonna said POZ hopes to attract additional celebrities to the Los Angeles incarnation of Love Out Loud.
"We are reaching out with the hope that more performers from television, music and film will lend their names and presence to help promote this event," he told GAYVN.com. "You can well imagine that an adult film star's participation would be important to this kind of endeavor - not to mention the kind of impact you might have on the West Hollywood crowd. It would not be the first time members of [the adult] industry have taken a responsible stance. It is a good and healthy trend to keep going. Of course, [everyone's] participation can take any form [they] feel comfortable with and that is logistically possible."
POZ is a lifestyle, treatment and advocacy magazine for people living with, and those affected by, HIV and AIDS. The award-winning magazine and website provide complete and expert HIV/AIDS information, together reaching more than 70 percent of all of the people living with HIV/AIDS who are aware of their status.
The website provides opportunities for both public and private social networking and represents one of the largest communities of openly HIV-positive people in the world. Poz.com offers exclusive web-only content including a summary of daily national and international AIDS news, daily treatment news and special reports about a wide variety of cultural, social, political and medical topics.
Cops 4 Causes is an organization of peace officers engaged in raising funds and awareness by bringing together members of the law enforcement community, musicians, artists, celebrities, civic leaders, financial benefactors and others to raise funds in order to make a difference in lives. Cops 4 Causes provides foundational support to grassroots law enforcement fund-raising events in Southern California.
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