LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen Bass today issued the following statement:
“Today we honor the life of Ms. Jewel Thais-Williams – a matriarch to the community and a Black LGBTQ+ trailblazer in our city. Ms. Thais-Williams led with warmth and compassion in a time when acceptance was not always a popular act. But Ms.Thais-Williams met hate with hospitality, disdain with dance, and suspicion with celebration — a radical act of love found in Jewel’s Catch One Disco on Pico every night and in her work on behalf of so many.
“Catch One has always been more than just a club — it’s a home and a historic center in the community — one that hosted Reverend Jesse Jackson during his historic presidential run. Ms. Thais-Williams also co-founded the Minority AIDS Project and fought against the stigma of a disease disproportionately impacting the African American community in Los Angeles but also throughout the country. She will be missed here in Los Angeles but her legacy, undeniably, will live on forever.”