The LA LGBT Center on Tuesday will host a gathering in remembrance of Ramon Estrada, a gay man whose brutal beating after leaving a bar in West Hollywood led to his death on Aug. 4.
Those participating in the event will include Cleve Jones, the longtime LGBT activist; Dave Garcia, director of Policy and Community Building at the LGBT Center; Rev. Rick Hoyt, First Unitarian Church, and friends and members of Estrada’s family.
Estrada, 36, left Gold Coast bar at 8228 Santa Monica Blvd. at La Jolla at around 1:30 a.m. on July 7. He called his partner, Michael Shutt, to say he was on his way home.
He was found a little after 2 a.m. lying unconscious between parked cars at Santa Monica Boulevard and Mansfield in Los Angeles. Estrada was taken to a hospital but didn’t have an ID on him and his cell phone had been stolen. His hands were too badly damaged to produce a fingerprint.
After a week, Shutt, Estrada’s partner of 14 years, and Estrada’s family found him at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Estrada died on Aug. 4. Los Angeles police officers have not yet found the assailants.
Estrada, who worked as a banquet server at the Loews Hollywood Hotel for many years, was a member of Unite Here Local 11, Southern California’s hospitality workers union. The union, the hotel and the Los Angeles LGBT Center are sponsoring Tuesday’s memorial.
Those interested in attending the remembrance event can RSVP at its Facebook page for the event. For more information, call Leigh Shelton at (323) 533-3864.
I am sorry to Learn this terrible news ill pray for justice for his family and for the detectives that are on the case as a union member i stand in solidarity with the LGTV community RIP Ramon Estrada.
May he rest in peace. This was probably a hate crime – but isn’t all crime hate? When it is a person who has struggled alone and in a group for equality it goes to a more vicious and more ugly degree of hate – this man was minding his business. I pass by the Gold Coast so often and think it is such a cool and established neighborhood bar. I have known so many friends who go there and enjoy its atmosphere (none!) and its open door. It is the home of the Red Dress Event and even for… Read more »