Before there was Ilene Chaiken and The L Word, there was Donna Deitch and Desert Hearts. In their mind's eye, most of the lesbians in the 500-plus crowd attending the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Women's Night May 21 revisited with relish Patricia Charbonneau's famous love scene in that now classic lesbian film as the actress took the stage.

Though she is now a highly successful TV director, including Oprah Winfrey's Emmy-nominated mini-series The Women of Brewster Place, Deitch has a place in lesbians' hearts and history as the woman who dared explore the nuances of lesbian love in Desert Hearts. For that landmark film and her body of work, The Center honored her with the Creative Integrity Award at ceremonies at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Also honored were LGBT business mavens and heralded "lipstick lesbians," Girl Bar's Sandy Sachs and Robin Gans, who were honored with the Board of Directors' Award. Founded in November 1990, Girl Bar is the largest dance and entertainment club for lesbians in the United States. The audience cooed in wonder at how, after 17 years, the couple still appears to be deeply in love.

Women's Night also presented Lesbian & Bisexual Women Active In Community Empowerment (LACE) Awards to six incredible local lesbian leaders: HIV positive and cancer activist Mary Vigil; Dr. Ronni Sanlo, director of the UCLA LGBT Campus Resource Center; stunning visual artist Alma Lopez; Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Donna Groman; attorney and co-founder of United Lesbians of African Heritage (ULOAH) Lisa Powell; and a posthumous award to Sandy Kennedy, a nationally recognized public gardens expert.

Extraordinary director Sue Hamilton staged song samples of a new musical she wants to produce (and for which she is seeking funding) entitled The Break-Up Notebook: A Lesbian Rock Musical, with exquisite singers who surely would have won American Idol. For more information, go to: www.thebreakupnotebook.com.

However, the evening was not all fun and moving tributes. Center Executive Director Lorri Jean issued a "call to arms" (see Op-Ed, page 18) to the LGBT community to get engaged in the battle against the religious right and their most recent attack, an amendment to the California state constitution that would ban same-sex marriage and invalidate domestic partnership laws. For more info, go to www.voteforequality.org.

-- Karen Ocamb