André Carthen is an understated, but magnetic, man. The actor, dancer, chef, community activist and local hero is also the Celebrity Grand Marshall of the Palm Springs 2022 Pride week celebrations.
“Remember playing ding dong ditch as a kid?” Tony Marchese asks me as we steadily work our way through glass after glass of ice water on a hot Palm Springs summer day.
Growing up over the mountain in Temecula, Chad Allen Ortiz was lucky to have a much older brother who paved the way for him, both as a dancer and member of the LGBTQ community.
Renae Punzalan—who goes by the stage name Renae McPhearson—is currently the Director of Outreach at the Transgender Health and Wellness Center in Palm Springs.
At a time when testing positive for HIV/AIDS was a death sentence, a small, dedicated group of activists and health professionals created what would become the most successful program of its kind in the world.
