Los Angeles deserves leaders who protect our rights, not ones who platform anti-LGBTQIA+ and anti-abortion extremism.

Women's and LGBTQIA+ Groups Denounce City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto's Support of Anti-LGBTQIA+, Anti-Abortion Extremist Festival

This past weekend, Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto spoke at Hope Fest LA, a festival organized by the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) - an extremist religious movement that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as "the greatest threat to American democracy that most people have never heard of." The program included speeches by Trump-aligned NAR leader Che Ahn, encouraging the crowd to vote for anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQIA+ candidates, and Lou Engle, founder of anti-abortion ministry Bound 4 Life, and advocate for criminalization of homosexuality.

As proud women's and LGBTQIA+ groups, it is profoundly disappointing to see the sitting City Attorney in attendance-but it is even more alarming to see her take the stage as a featured speaker and openly praise the event. She called it a gathering rooted in "our commitment to doing good for our souls, for our hearts, and for the cause of justice. That is what Hope Fest is all about."

We do not see good or justice in the harmful rhetoric and agenda of Hope Fest or NAR. We are in a time of rising fascism, with the Trump Administration and aligned efforts aggressively targeting the rights and safety of our communities: stripping access to gender-affirming care, encouraging conversion therapy, eliminating LGBTQIA+ youth support on the suicide hotline, banning instruction on LGBTQIA+ issues and gender inequality, rescinding dozens of prior presidential orders protecting women, denying women the right to access abortion care, gutting vital federal health programs, and more. NAR lends its full backing to this Administration's infringement on human and civil rights, and targeting of our most vulnerable communities..

The City Attorney claims she is a pro-choice feminist and an ally to women and the LGBTQIA+ community, but her active participation in this festival demonstrates how deeply out of step with our values she is.

Los Angeles, and California, cannot afford leaders who are passive in this moment, let alone actively endorsing threats to the safety of our communities. We need leaders who will protect our rights, stand up against corporate and right-wing interests, and fight against Trump's authoritarian attacks.

To our LGBTQIA+ communities and women, we stand with you always. We call on sister organizations and partners to join us in rejecting the hateful, antidemocratic vision promoted at Hope Fest and denouncing the City Attorney for her participation in it.

Signed,