The announcement comes after the utility pledged to rebuild infrastructure damaged in the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that erupted in January, when high winds drove flames and forced SCE to implement public safety power shutoffs that lasted for days in communities across Southern California.

Changing climate patterns and below average rainfall, when combined with extended periods of high winds, increase the risk of fire, and SCE officials say they’re obligated to do what they can to mitigate those threats. Public safety power shutoffs are one way the utility can reduce the risk of fires from utility equipment.

“We know that any outage is a hardship, including public safety power shutoffs which we use because they are necessary for safety,” SCE spokesperson Jeff Monford said Thursday, July 3.

The utility issued its advisory days before multiple wildfires broke out across Southern California, underscoring concerns about dry vegetation as the region settles into summer.

Power lines have been linked to some of California’s most devastating wildfires.

In May, SCE agreed to pay a record $82.5 million to settle lawsuits related to the Bobcat Fire, which burned about 114,577 acres, mostly in the Angeles National Forest, in 2020.

In January, even as neighborhoods devastated by the Palisades and Eaton fires were still smoldering, SCE was hit by multiple lawsuits. “Despite knowing of an extreme fire risk, defendants deliberately prioritized profits over safety. This recklessness and conscious disregard for human safety was a substantial factor in bringing about the Eaton Fire,” one lawsuit read in part. More than 130 lawsuits had been filed by April.

SCE has acknowledged that its equipment and power lines may have triggered the Eaton fire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures. An official cause is still under investigation.

The company has attempted to get around the danger of active powerlines sparking wildfires by moving them underground, but it’s an expensive and time-consuming process. In April, the company unveiled a plan to rebuild the utility’s infrastructure in fire-ravaged Altadena and Malibu — areas hit by the Eaton and Palisades fires, respectively. The company estimated it would cost between $860 million and $925 million to underground 153 circuit miles, along with adding other improvements to increase the system’s reliability, especially during a crisis. No time table has been announced for the plan, as the company works to secure funding.

But potentially cutting off power to reduce wildfire risk is not without its downsides.

Extreme heat is the deadliest form of weather in the U.S., killing more than 2,300 people in 2023, although experts believe that number to be a severe undercount. High temperatures can trigger heat strokes and heart attacks. They can also exacerbate asthma, diabetes, kidney failure and other illnesses, including some infectious diseases.

According to environmental scientists, the Inland Empire region, for example, once the citrus belt of the nation, will have a climate similar to Phoenix’s by the middle of the century.

Temperatures over the Fourth of July weekend were expected to be below normal, but by midweek could reach triple digits in the Inland areas, according to the National Weather Service.

Even when the weather isn’t dangerously hot, there are consequences to turning off the power, sometimes for days at a time.

Though her Redlands neighborhood was spared the devastation the Eaton and Palisades fires wrought more than 60 miles from her home, Amanda Frye said SCE turned off her power for four days in January.

“Most people lost a lot of food. I mean, four days without power, what do you do?,” she said. “People lost hundreds of dollars worth of groceries. There was no reimbursement.”

Neighbors who didn’t have surge protectors had appliances destroyed when the power came back on, according to Frye. She was also frustrated SCE had shut off her power previously for 11 days to do maintenance on the lines and installed a weather station at that time.

“A lot of time, there wouldn’t even be wind!” Frye said. “Every time the wind blows, you’re going to shut off the power, because you didn’t bury the lines?”

In January, as the Eaton and Palisades fires blazed with high winds, communities in Villa Park in Orange County had sporadic access to power for three weeks.

Frustration led to a public forum with SCE in the spring, during which the utility said it made upgrades to part of Villa Park’s troublesome grid infrastructure.

“Although we can all understand why Southern California Edison feels the need to do these public safety power shutoffs, I think it’s, unfortunately, a mixed bag,” said Councilmember Crystal Miles.

The shutoffs hurt older residents in her district who rely on consistent electricity for medical devices, mobility and home security, she said.

“Providing power comes with inherent risks that need to be part of their operating budget, not mitigated onto my constituents,” Miles said.

The utility watches for specific conditions to assess whether a power shutoff is necessary, including considerably strong wind, dry vegetation on the ground and overall humidity.

SCE said it intends to notify affected customers about two days before potential power shutoffs, either by email, text or phone call. The company also updates its website and social media with power shutoff information.

In the meantime, Monford advised SCE customers to create an emergency plan and pack an emergency kit.

More information on SCE’s power outages and safety recommendations can be found at sce.com/outages-safety.

Staying safe in high temperatures

Safety tips from the Environmental Health and Safety office at UC Irvine:

• Drink water: Drinking plenty of water frequently is vital for those exposed to heat. An individual may produce as much as 2 to 3 gallons of sweat per day. To replenish that fluid you should drink 3 to 4 cups of water every hour.
• Take breaks: Taking breaks in a cool shaded area and allowing time for recovery from the heat during the day are effective ways to avoid heat-related illness.
• Avoid some beverages: Avoid or limit the use of alcohol and caffeine during periods of extreme heat. Both dehydrate the body.
• Stop and rest: If you start to feel symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, weakness or unusual fatigue, rest in a cool shaded area. If symptoms persist or worsen seek immediate medical attention.
• Clothing: Whenever possible, wear clothing that provides protection from the sun but allows airflow to the body. Protect your head and shade your eyes when outdoors.
• Be prepared: When in the heat be sure to pay extra attention to those you’re with and be sure you know how to call for medical attention.

For information about cooling centers operated by Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, see LAcounty.gov/heat/, OCgov.com/cooling-centers, CAPRiverside.org/cool-centers and DPH.SBCounty.gov/extreme-heat-information-and-resources.

More about wildfires and power lines

• Climate change will reshape the Inland Empire by 2048
• Lawsuits blame SCE, LADWP for Eaton and Palisades fires
• How to prepare your home for power outages, blackouts or loss of electricity
• Inland Empire faces significantly higher wildfire risk, Cal Fire says
• Edison vows to underground more power lines in wildfire zones
• Edison to pay U.S. a record $82.5 million to settle Bobcat fire lawsuit
• Southern California’s recent weather sets up for a dangerous fire season

That’s because the land, although privately owned by the Irvine Company, was designated as permanent open space in a 1988 conservation initiative backed by Irvine voters.

For the development proposal to move forward, city officials disagree on whether voters must approve an amendment to the open space plan or if the City Council can change the plan on its own. 

Putting the legal argument aside, however, councilmembers informally agreed recently that bringing the matter to a citywide vote is their preferred course of action. 

The seven-member City Council could vote on ballot language later this month.

The ballot measure would likely go in front of voters in November.

Irvine’s 1988 initiative was intended to help the city, over time, to accrue large, contiguous swathes of open space in exchange for permitting development opportunities elsewhere.

To facilitate its proposed development on the golf course, the Irvine Company has offered to transfer ownership of 315 acres of open space in northern Irvine to the city and also concede operational control of an additional 565 acres of orchards currently owned by the city, but on which the company maintains agricultural operations. The developer would also build a school in the new neighborhood.

Despite the addition of public open space, the company’s proposal requires an amendment to the city’s open space plan because the golf course is explicitly protected in it.

It’s the first time since the passage of the law 37 years ago that Irvine officials have considered a development on land designated as permanent open space.

The proposed amendment reflects changing times for a master-planned city that has expanded to the edges of its original 20th-century blueprint.

“Frankly, it’s a terrific open space agreement that has stood the test of time and has proven to be extremely valuable to the quality of life and community,” Irvine Mayor Larry Agran said in a recent interview. In 1988, he was a councilmember who supported the initiative. 

“While we’ve adhered to the master planning process and to the fundamentals of the master plan, it gets tougher and tougher as you go along,” Agran added.  “This development, even though it’s large, is kind of in the nature of what we sometimes refer to as infill.”

Infill is the process of making urban spaces denser instead of building outward.

For decades, Irvine had to deal with infill only rarely, as the city built toward its limits, one neighborhood at a time, according to the city’s master plan.

Since the 1970s, the Irvine Company alone has built 22 residential villages. 

Its neighborhoods stretch to the peripheries of the 66-square-mile city and push into the foothills of the Santa Ana mountains.

Now, the city has more than 315,000 residents and hardly any space left to grow outward. 

Infill is the city’s challenging new reality, especially as elected officials walk a tightrope between respecting the original designs of the master plan and meeting ambitious state housing mandates. 

They’re also juggling those goals with a promise to keep about 16,000 acres of parks, trails and wilderness areas — an area greater than one-third of the entire city — as “forever protected.”

“We adopted (the initiative) as a ballot measure with the understanding that it would make that open space locked away forever free of development,” Agran said. 

 “Certainly, as a matter of honest dealing with the public, it was made clear that nobody was interested in having the council tamper on its own with the open space agreement,” he added.

Since the Irvine Company announced its intentions to develop the golf course at a City Council meeting in May, hundreds of residents have submitted written comments to the city for and against the plan. 

Hence, councilmembers want the matter to come to a citywide vote.

So far, the council has only voted to begin analyses and technical studies of the Irvine Company’s proposal. 

Those studies will take almost a year to finish and will happen concurrently as voters go to the polls.

Only then, and should the amendment pass, will the City Council weigh the merits of the Irvine Company’s proposal.

An Irvine Company spokesperson said it’s premature for the company to comment on the prospective ballot measure, but it welcomes the city’s holistic review process.

In the meantime, Agran says the city must complete its due diligence.

“I think what has been submitted is a coherent, reasonable development,” he said. “We’ll have to await the analyses to see how much adversity this brings in terms of traffic and other adverse effects, whether those could be mitigated, and whether, on balance, it makes sense to go ahead.”

The City Council approved nearly $18 million in general fund budget cuts for the new fiscal year that starts this month, slashing public events, services and city staff positions, freezing hiring of public safety personnel, limiting overtime and deferring infrastructure repairs. 

Even still, the council fell short of passing a balanced general fund budget, something they said they intended to do at the beginning of this year’s budget cycle review.

Instead, the city will face another general fund budget deficit of nearly $2 million.

“The current uncertain economy and budget deficit continue to provide a challenge to the city’s long-term fiscal sustainability and the level of services residents and businesses depend on,” city budget manager Michelle Kresan told councilmembers before they passed the budget on June 24.

In a last-ditch effort to cut back a bit more spending, Councilmember Kathy Tavoularis forfeited more than $650,000 in capital improvement funds earmarked for her district. Councilmember John Gyllenhammer questioned spending from a designated parks improvement fund. Otherwise, the councilmembers seemed to grimly accept another year with a structural general fund budget deficit, making few comments on the item.

The deficit is a far cry from the $19.1 million shortfall Orange faced in May of last year. 

After making some cuts before fiscal year 2024-25, the council also supported a half-cent local sales tax measure on November’s ballot that would have raised about $20 million in city revenue over each of the next 10 years.

But voters narrowly rejected that ballot measure, leaving their elected officials in a position of needing to make yet more cuts.

The council has hired a new city manager, Jarad Hildenbrand, to try to right the ship when he takes the helm in August. An Orange native, Hildenbrand is the city manager of Laguna Hills.

In the meantime, Orange will cut its budget in fiscal year 2025-26 by eliminating seven vacant positions, freezing 16 vacant positions and reducing part-time staff hours. 

The city will also defer vehicle replacements, reduce spending on IT and continue to underfund its accrued liability, kicking the ball down the road on another multimillion-dollar issue while hoping that interest rates do not increase. 

This city did not host a fireworks show for the first time in nearly three decades.

The event, like all others traditionally sponsored by the city, has been cancelled due to budget cuts. 

But for the first time in at least that long, the city will allow the sale and use of safe and sane fireworks for celebrating Independence Day.

Just not everywhere. 

Fireworks are not allowed in any part of the east of Orange where authorities deem the fire risk too high.

Fines up to $1,000 may be imposed for violating the city’s fireworks ordinance. For more information, visit www.cityoforange.org/fireworks.

Otherwise, fireworks may be discharged from noon to 10 p.m. on July 4. 

They’ll be available for purchase from noon to 10 p.m. through July 3 and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on July 4 at eight locations across the western part of the city. Proceeds will benefit schools and nonprofit groups, which were chosen in a lottery system to host fireworks booths.

Here’s the groups affiliated with each stand:

• 1628 Lincoln Avenue — The Hub OC
• 1411 West Katella Avenue — Journey to Hope Ministries
• 2102 North Tustin Street — St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School
• 460 The City Drive South — Spirit and Truth Worship Center
• 222 West La Veta Avenue — Orange Plaza Rotary Club
• 123 East Collins Avenue — North Sunrise Little League
• 1888 North Tustin Street — Fletcher Elementary PTSA
• 1803 East Chapman Avenue — El Modena High School Vanguard Football
• 1411 North Tustin Street — Orange High School Panther Football
• 2222 North Santiago Boulevard — Orange Lutheran High School
• 305 South Main Street — Hub for Integration, Reentry & Employment
• 2139 North Tustin Street — Carter-Drenner-Kalms Foundation

Orange voters approved Measure AA in November by a wide margin, making the city the 12th in Orange County to allow the sale and use of safe and sane fireworks.

Proponents highlighted the fundraising aspect for community groups in those cities, which raise hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Other cities allowing legal fireworks sales include Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Santa Ana, Stanton, Villa Park and Westminster.

Anaheim also bans their use in the city’s eastern wildland area, everywhere east of the 55 and east and southeast of the 91 freeway, and in Huntington Beach they are prohibited at the coast.

The fireworks that are allowed by the 12 local cities to be sold and used are inspected by the state fire marshal and bear that seal; they can be purchased at the designated booths around these cities and only used in those cities. Other fireworks are still considered illegal and in most cities, their use comes with a hefty fine as local law enforcement try to crack down.

Fire officials still warn not to tamper with the legal varieties of fireworks or let children handle them.

A month ago, nearly 6 in 10 Californians disapproved of the governor’s job performance. His approval ratings looked nearly as bad as those for Trump.

By late June, nearly 6 in 10 Californians rated Newsom as “somewhat favorable” or “strongly favorable,” according to the latest UCI-OC poll, which in a first for the program, recently surveyed Californians across the state and not just in Orange County.

Trump, meanwhile, saw a moderate boost in favorability among Californian Republicans, but his support among Californian independents dropped by a commensurate amount. 

The poll data came from three statewide online surveys, two from late May and early June, plus another in late June, after the politicians’ immigration showdown. 

The surveys from late May and early June asked people about the politicians’ job performance, while the survey in late June asked them about their overall impressions of the figures.  

“It’s important to recognize there are two different questions being asked about Newsom because of how we did our polling,” Jon Gould, dean of the UCI School of Social Ecology, said. Nevertheless, Gould says he is sure that June was a good month for Newsom’s favorability among Californians. 

“There is no mistaking that Newsom’s battle with Trump has been good for his standing in the state, certainly among Democrats and also with independents,” Gould said.

“That comes immediately after his contretemps with the president, which does lead one to think that there is political value here for Newsom in being perceived as standing up to the president,” Gould added.

June was a flashpoint in the ever-tenuous relationship between the governor and president. 

From June 6-22, enforcement teams arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding regions of Southern California, according to Department of Homeland Security numbers reported by the Los Angeles Times.

The administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigration prompted protests in downtown L.A. that led to Trump summoning the California National Guard to the area. A small number were also later stationed at the federal building in Santa Ana.

On June 9, the governor sued Trump for nationalizing the California National Guard against his wishes. 

Later in the month, after surveys were collected for this poll, Newsom also sued Fox News over defamation claims related to how the network reported on phone calls he had with the president about the raids.

Democratic political strategist Orrin Evans said Californians are recognizing Newsom for his stance against the president.

“Americans are horrified by the forced separation of mothers from their children and brutal beatings of civilians that are being carried out daily by ICE agents and masked thugs on behalf of Donald Trump,” he said. “Any elected official who stands up against this domestic terrorism will be viewed favorably.”

Newsom’s recent ratings boost stands out in contrast to other data collected in the poll that suggest 2 in 3 Californians believe the state is “on the wrong, not right, track.”

“One way to interpret this may be that they think Newsom’s heart’s in the right place and they like what he’s doing as against Trump, but they are not satisfied with accomplishments in the state of California at this moment,” Gould said. 

GOP strategist Emily Sissell suspects that Newsom’s benefiting from a “temporary bump” in popularity while the GOP reconfigures its policies and messaging on immigration.

“The message has to be clear that you can’t come here illegally anymore, but the reality is California’s ag and hospitality industries are the largest in the country, and they rely heavily on (immigrant) labor,” she said. “That’s why you’re already seeing the shift in tone where Republicans are still tough on immigration. We have credibility on that, but we’re also acknowledging that we need to be pragmatic in our approach and solutions going forward.”

About two weeks ago, Trump floated the idea of exempting farms and hotels from immigration raids before quickly walking it back. This week, he said the administration is working on a “temporary pass” for immigrants in certain industries.

The poll also asked respondents about state funding priorities.

Democrats and independents named housing and health care as top priorities. 

For Republicans, the top-mentioned funding issue was law enforcement and public safety, followed by health care and housing. 

Republicans’ interest in health care and housing could present a challenge as Republican representatives at the federal level intend to make cuts to Medicaid (Medi-Cal, in California) as part of Trump’s sweeping budget bill. 

A couple California Republicans in the House of Representatives, David Valadao of the Central Valley and Young Kim of Orange County, recently reiterated their concerns about the proposed changes to Medicaid in Trump’s bill, approved by the Senate on Tuesday and now up to the House for a vote. 

The two voted for an earlier version of the bill that, while still including changes to Medicaid, were not as sharp as the cuts included in the Senate’s version.

Both have said they would support certain reforms, but could not back cuts to coverage for vulnerable populations or those that would threaten hospitals, nursing homes and safety net providers. A spokesperson for Kim said they were still reviewing the changes the Senate made when reached for comment Tuesday.

Should it pass, the bill could result in a loss of Medi-Cal coverage for up to 3.4 million Californians, according to Newsom.

Valadao and Kim represent districts with among the highest Medi-Cal enrollment rates.

Evans said that California Democrats can win over voters by calling out Republicans for voting on Medicaid opposite of what they’ve said they’d do and “telling the stories of Californians whose health care has been stripped away.”

“Those stories will play a central role in the 2026 midterms,” he said.

Sissell said that California Republicans must be vocal about standing for Medicaid funding and vote “based on who their constituents are because that’s who they’re serving, whether or not they have an ‘R’ next to their name.”

“California Republicans at the federal level understand that health care isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue,” she said, “and our members in purple districts have been very clear from early in spring that if federal funding puts Medi-Cal access at risk or rural hospitals at risk they’re not going to be silent on this issue.” 

UC Irvine joins 23 other colleges, including UCLA, Pomona College and Stanford in California, on the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ list of “hostile campuses.”

In a statement, a UCI spokesperson said the university “strongly disagrees with this designation and will continue to communicate about and appropriately apply policies and laws that support free speech and peaceful demonstration across the campus.”

“UCI denounces all forms of discrimination against any members of the community,” said spokesperson Mike Uhlenkamp. “The university has a long-standing commitment to fostering a welcoming environment for learning and conducting research where all members of the campus community can pursue their respective educational goals.”

CAIR officials said the designation comes in response to UCI’s crackdown on pro-Palestine protests, the suspension and criminal prosecution of students and faculty, and a “long-standing pattern of suppressing pro-Palestinian advocacy and academic freedom.”

“From criminal charges to indefinite suspensions and violent police crackdowns, UC Irvine has become a national symbol of how universities punish students who dare to speak up for Palestine and against genocide,” said Maryam Hasan, CAIR’s Research and Advocacy Specialist. 

Last spring, 47 people were arrested at UCI as police in riot gear from law enforcement agencies across Southern California responded to protests at a makeshift Gaza solidarity encampment that had stood for two weeks. The encampment was broken up during the response.

Several months after the protests, the OC District Attorney’s Office announced it was bringing misdemeanor charges against those arrested.

CAIR says UCI enabled the arrests of peaceful protestors. 

UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman, at the time, said he permitted the peaceful encampment to remain against university policy until protesters “dramatically altered the situation in a way that was a direct assault on the rights of other students and the university mission.”

On the day of the arrests, UCI issued an emergency campuswide alert stating that a “violent protest” was in the area. However, the alert did not detail the nature of the violence, and no one was arrested on violent charges.

Later, officials acknowledged some misstatements in school communications, but stood by the response that ended with the 47 arrests, including that of 27 students and at least one tenured professor.

CAIR, on Thursday, also denounced the ensuing suspensions of five undergraduate students who had participated in various pro-Palestine protest activities on campus. 

Last July, the five of them sued the UC Regents and UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman in state court, alleging the suspensions “constitute a clear violation of the university’s own rules and the minimum standards of due process applicable to public institutions.”

In September, the parties settled outside of court.

As some cities in Orange County struggle to stay out of the red, making cuts to public services and freezing hiring, Irvine plans to “maintain and even enhance” service and program offerings, city officials said.

“We have a wonderful city with a balanced budget, a great budget, a healthy budget,” said Councilmember James Mai of the recently approved budget.

Councilmember Melinda Liu added that the city is in “great financial shape.”

In the fiscal year beginning next week, Irvine anticipates an increase in general fund revenues of $20.5 million, representing a 7.5% growth rate.

The city owes its financial wellness to its status as one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets over the last year, a city budget analyst said.

“The strong housing market, especially in Irvine, has led to increases in overall sales and market value, which has helped increase the city’s assessed valuation,” Jonathan Nih, city deputy director, wrote in his budget report to the council.

Irvine’s general fund budget is equal to about $311 million.

Over one-third of that comes from property taxes, and the city expects a nearly 10% jump in property tax revenue relative to the current budget year.

Sales tax, hotel tax and various fees make up most of the remainder of the city’s general fund revenue sources.

This revenue is more volatile, Nih wrote, due to “external factors.”

Hotel occupancy rates, for instance, have still not fully recovered from the pandemic, Nih said.

Sales tax revenue, meanwhile, is at the mercy of uncertain macroeconomic conditions, with many U.S. economists predicting that the country might soon fall into a recession.

Nih reassured the council that the city took “a conservative approach when building the budget.”

“We stay mindful of possible upcoming challenges such as the market stability, global trade negotiations and increasing costs,” he said.

Because of increasing costs, even as Irvine’s budget increases, so will its expenditures.

“The city faces challenges associated with rising expenditures due primarily to inflation and cost increases,” Nih wrote.

The most pronounced impacts will be in construction, labor and material expenses, he said.

Still, buoyed by the housing market, Irvine finds itself in a strong enough position to add staffing next fiscal year.

The city plans to add five new public safety positions, including a police sergeant, police officer and dispatcher.

The city will also add two community services program coordinators, three positions in the clerk’s office and one HR position to support staffing of the city’s new public library system.

Camouflaged by the routine, many Iranian American shoppers moved through the straight aisles with a tangle of feelings stirred by Saturday’s U.S. airstrike on three nuclear facilities in Iran amid more than a week of missile strikes between Iran and Israel.

On Monday morning, Iran retaliated with missiles launched at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest American military installation in the Middle East, though Iran gave the U.S. advance notice of the attack.

By the afternoon, President Donald Trump announced a complete and total ceasefire between Iran and Israel was pending, adding to the swirl of emotions among Orange County’s Iranian American community.

“I have mixed feelings about the attack,” an Irvine woman said on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal against her son and mother, who live in Iran. “I want regime change, but I’m worried about them.”

“We all want regime change, but I don’t feel good at all about what’s happening,” added a woman from Trabuco Canyon who said her name is Zoey. She’s lost contact with her mother in northern Iran due to two days of internet blackouts across the country.

“I’m feeling great about the U.S. attack,” said a third shopper, an expatriate from Tehran. “People are suffering, and this sends a message to Iran.”

Touraj Daryaee, director of the UC Irvine Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture, said he expects that most of the 36,000 Iranian Americans in Orange County reacted favorably to Trump’s decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“Orange County, being what it is in terms of its politics, you tend to see more people who are anti-government and willing to see this type of bombing and punishment in hopes of rebuilding the country under a different regime,” Daryaee said.

For an Iranian couple visiting Irvine, however,  just returning — nonetheless rebuilding — home is their most immediate concern.

Just days before Israel started its war with Iran on June 12, Reza Arzanian’s parents flew in from the Iranian capital to visit their son and meet their newborn grandson, Kaveh.

“They don’t know if they’re going to have a home to go back to,” Arzanian said.

“I am, in no shape or form, supportive of the Iranian government or regime,” Arzanian said. “When I was inside Iran, I protested and was almost beaten to death while doing so.” Still, he’s unsettled by the U.S. attack.

“Now,” he said, “I live in a country where my tax dollars are directly supporting the bombs that are being dropped on my homeland.”

Behrang Borhani, a spokesperson for the California Society for Democracy in Iran, an advocacy group with an office in Long Beach, said the U.S. airstrike is a nuanced subject for many Iranian Americans.

“There’s no love lost for the regime’s (nuclear) infrastructure that has been destroyed,” she said. “Iranian Americans are happy about that specific component; however, at the same time, it is difficult because nobody wants to go to war.”

The situation for most residents in Iran is grim, said Karmel Melamed, an Iranian American freelance journalist based in Southern California.

Shortages of water, an electric grid “on the fritz,” an ongoing trucker strike and the regime’s response to the conflicts have people in Iran struggling to get the basic resources they need, he said.

“(Iranian people) are very worried,” Melamed said. “They are worried for their safety. Not that America is going to bomb them, but that the regime will clamp down on them because of this external war.”

“So, they’re in survival mode right now.”

Mahta Eslami, a 47-year-old Irvine resident who left Iran as a child, said she is “still kind of trying to wrap my head around all types of emotions going through us as we sit in anticipation, waiting.”

She has family in Isfahan, a city near Natanz — one of the three sites struck by the U.S. over the weekend.

“Everything is kind of just moment by moment,” Eslami said. “We’re all sitting by our phones waiting to see what is happening next.”

Sophia Lorey, from a Christian advocacy group that organized the rally, also delivered to the board a petition she said was signed by nearly 20,000 Californians in support of repealing a bylaw that allows students the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner consistent with their gender identity.

“We are here today to stand for truth, to speak for fairness and to fight for every girl who has ever stepped on a field, track or court with one goal in mind — a fair shot to compete,” Lorey said.

There was nothing scheduled on Friday’s CIF executive board agenda to discuss the bylaw.

The protesters, including Santa Ana Unified Trustee Brenda Lebsack, Placentia-Yorba Linda Trustee Leandra Blades and Chino Valley Unified board President Sonja Chaw, delivered their concerns to the CIF board during an open public comment period.

Lebsack’s Santa Ana board colleagues previously said her views were “not a reflection” of the district and the PYLUSD board majority voted down a resolution supporting policies to restrict women’s sports to biological female athletes. The Chino Valley school board adopted a resolution along those lines.

Female high school athletes and their parents also raised concerns about fair competition and sharing locker rooms with transgender classmates.

CIF spokesperson Rebecca Brutlag, present at the meeting, would not comment on the protesters’ remarks, but she issued a statement to the media to say the sports body is compliant with California law:

“The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences in compliance with California law [Education Code section 221.5. (f)] which permits students to participate in school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with the student’s gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student’s records.”

The already highly politicized issue came into the spotlight earlier in June as a trans athlete, AB Hernandez from Jurupa Valley High, prepared to compete at the CIF state track championships.

Days before the event, President Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding to the state if Hernandez competed.

After his remarks, CIF officials announced changes to the meet’s rules to allow for an additional cisgender female competitor in the three events with Hernandez, the only trans athlete participating.

CIF officials also said that, should Hernadez win, the second-place finisher in that event would share the top spot on the podium.

Hernandez ultimately shared first place in the triple jump and the high jump and shared second in the long jump.

His journey mirrors California’s own story of evolving attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community since the state legalized same-sex marriage 12 years ago — around the time Nguyen-Amigo came out to his parents.

“Over the last 12 years, we’ve seen a real cultural shift within Orange County,” OC Pride co-President Manny Muro said as rainbow flags fly around the county and events are held during this Pride Month. “Even in places that once felt unwelcoming, there has been growing openness to LGBTQ+ families.”

“It’s not perfect,” he added. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, and we’re living in a moment where LGBTQ+ people are under political attack.”

“Pride is not just about being celebratory,” Muro said. “It’s about being loud and confident and visible. That’s why Pride matters. That’s why coming out matters. The more visible we are, the harder it is to deny our humanity.”

Nguyen-Amigo distinctly remembers the moment he disclosed his sexuality to his parents, a recent high school graduate weeping between his mom and dad in their bed.

“It was Valentine’s Day, 2014. I remember it vividly,” he said. “Like it was yesterday.”

Nguyen-Amigo didn’t necessarily mean to tell his parents the truth right then and there. But a tidal wave of emotions pushed the words buried deep in his chest to the shores of his lips.

“Duy, you’re our son,” his father said, wrapping him in a warm embrace. “You can tell us anything.”

Except, it turned out, the forbidden words he was about to speak.

“Mom, Dad. I’m gay,” he said in Vietnamese between hyperventilating gasps.

At first, his parents said nothing as they quickly withdrew their hug.

“We were in shock,” his mom, Thuy Nguyen, recalled.

“Are you joking? What did I do wrong as a parent?” his dad, Hung Nguyen, remembers thinking to himself.

“The silence was deafening,” Nguyen-Amigo said. “I’m sure there was only about 10 seconds’ worth of silence, but it felt like an eternity.”

“I could see the look in their faces shifting from shock to confusion to anger,” he added. “I knew they would react that way, and that was the saddest part.”

Feelings of liberation and despondency clashed in Nguyen-Amigo’s chest like a head-on collision.

“I felt like a huge weight had lifted off my shoulders,” he said. “For the first time in 18 years, I could finally be free.”

“But, immediately, I had another burden to carry — my family’s reaction.”

Looking back, Nguyen described the moment like a “whirlwind,” a word the musician recently borrowed for the title of what he calls his “most vulnerable” single.

That emotional “whirlwind” is all too familiar to many LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and their families, said Uyen Hoang, executive director of Viet Rainbow Orange County. The grassroots group based in Little Saigon supports LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and their loved ones through research, education and advocacy.

“We kind of assume certain attitudes are held by the older generation, but you’d be surprised how many are open and want to learn,” Hoang said.

For the Nguyens, the learning process about Duy’s identity took more than a decade, including a complete break in communication with their son. In time, they reconciled their love for him with acceptance of his authentic self.

Now, Thuy and Hung Nguyen are at peace with Duy as a gay man.

“It’s normal being gay,” his dad said recently after taking photos with his son wrapped in a Pride flag. “If he’s happy, we’re happy.”

“You are who you are,” added his mom. “We love him for who he is.”

Both parents said it took research —  scanning the internet, reading the news, talking privately with extended family — to come to terms with Duy’s identity.

Mostly, they said, it took time.

“The coming-out process was not just for me, but also for them, too,” Nguyen-Amigo said. “It’s a learning experience that took some time. They slowly but surely came around.”

Still, his parents say their son’s identity is not something they bring up with their Vietnamese friends and family.

“We are very proud of him,” his mom said. “But it’s still not something we talk about in the community, even with other parents of gay children.”

Fighting for visibility

Gina Masequesmay, a sociologist at Cal State Northridge, traces the “emergence of queer Vietnamese America” back to the late 1990s.

“You could say the organizations, such as Ô-Môi and the Gay Viet Alliance, were started super underground,” Hoang said.

In her research, Masequesmay says that support for queer Vietnamese Americans differed from the support for LGBTQ+ people in the “American mainstream.”

It often lagged behind, Hoang agreed.

That divide came into sharp relief in 2013. As California legalized gay marriage, private organizers of the Tết Parade — the largest Vietnamese cultural gathering outside Vietnam — barred a gay rights group from marching.

Hoang refers to the event as “The Exclusion.”

The move drew backlash and led to the founding of Viet Rainbow.

The fledgling nonprofit, in one of the first open displays of LGBTQ+ support in Little Saigon, gathered 250 community members on the parade’s sidelines dressed in rainbows and wielding Pride flags.

But a year later, organizers of the 2014 Tết Parade doubled down, once again voting overwhelmingly to exclude LGBTQ+ participants.

“They had an opportunity to make what’s wrong right, and they chose the same path as last year, which is to exclude us from a cultural event that we are a part of. We are part of the Vietnamese community,” Hieu Nguyen, then co-chair of Viet Rainbow, said at the time.

By then, after a year of organizing, Viet Rainbow had momentum on its side.

“Folks came together to strategize,” Hoang said. “We went on media, ethnic media, to share our stories. We went to deliver public comments at Westminster City Council meetings.”

“We also went to the big companies funding the parade and told them that funding a discriminatory parade could violate their company’s nondiscrimination clause,” she said.

Ultimately, Viet Rainbow convinced sponsors of the parade to pull about $80,000 in funding, which she said forced the organizers’ hands.

“Money talks,” she said. “We’ve been able to march ever since.”

Viet Rainbow’s inclusion in the 2014 Tết Parade marked a public softening of attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community in Little Saigon.

“Pride Month reminds us every year that visibility is not only a celebration, but it’s a testament to survival,” Muro said.

Getting By

Within weeks of the 2014 Tết Parade, Nguyen-Amigo came out to his parents.

His relationship with his dad immediately calcified, and he ran away from home.

His Filipino boyfriend faced a similar fate from his parents, leaving the pair of 18-year-olds to navigate life pretty much on their own.

“In each other, we found the only other person who ever truly accepted our entire identity,” Nguyen-Amigo said.

So, they married.

But their love story did not end happily ever after.

They were two 18-year-olds, without college degrees or vocational training, trying to make ends meet in Orange County.

Their stress, their youth, their romantic inexperience — each other’s first boyfriends before they married — all took an exorbitant toll on their bond.

“We couldn’t catch a break,” Nguyen-Amigo said.

He dropped out of Cal State Fullerton to take a low-paying fast-food job.

He re-enrolled. He dropped out again.

He had been a promising student, he said, but “life happened.”

“If we stopped working, we feared that we would end up reverting back to where we were at the beginning, back to square one, and we didn’t want that for ourselves,” Nguyen-Amigo said. “We had no safety net. We felt, at the time, that we were each other’s safety net. It was us against the world.”

A decade ago, there were few resources to support the Vietnamese queer community with long-term financial or emotional distress, Hoang said.

Nguyen-Amigo thanks his godfather for lifesaving emotional support. He also saw a therapist, but not one who was Vietnamese or understood the nuances of his family and cultural dynamics, he said.

Even today, Viet Rainbow, with its six staff members, is the only organization in Orange County exclusively dedicated to educating the families of LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and advocating for Viet LGBTQ+ rights, Hoang said.

“There continue to be many places in Little Saigon that still feel too dangerous to go to as an openly queer person,” Hoang said.

“If you’re just standing in the corner of, say, a boba shop trying to blend in, it maybe isn’t as dangerous,” she said. “But it feels like you have to try to be stealthy.”

One place where Nguyen-Amigo said he began to feel safe as his full self was Garden Grove High, taking an AP psychology class.

“In that classroom, in that academic setting, I heard for the first time someone talk about being gay in a non-judgmental way,” he said. “I remember stepping outside of that classroom and breathing a sigh of relief. I guess I’m not weird. I guess I’m not crazy after all.”

His teacher ended up at his wedding.

More than a decade later, Nguyen-Amigo said he’s worried the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI, including the president’s threat to withdraw federal funding from schools with diversity initiatives, could eliminate safe public spaces for LGBTQ+ students in a similar position to his.

“It’s not like we talked about the LGBTQ+ movement in math class or science class,” he said. “Looking back, I think I signed up for psych because I knew that topic would be brought up and I wanted to learn more about who I was.”

Hoang says the political climate for LGBTQ+ rights is “fraught everywhere right now,” but especially at the federal level, which can have a big impact locally by reducing the safe spaces for young people.

“There are certain walls that are not worth climbing with the energy that we have,” Hoang said of her six-member team. “We can’t change everyone’s attitudes. But we can focus our attention on local, county and statewide issues that are important for us.”

In recent years, for instance, Viet Rainbow pushed back against parental notification policies in local districts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom later signed into law a bill making it illegal to disclose students’ gender identities without consent.

Now, the Trump administration is investigating that law and threatening to pull funding from the state over it.

“We’re still seeing dangerous surges in hate,” Muro said. “There are always laws targeting LGBTQ+ people and attempts to roll back our rights.”

“June will always be Pride Month, not because it was granted by any administration, but because it was claimed by generations of LGBTQ+ people who refuse to be erased,” he said.  “Pride is not a holiday that was handed down by politicians. It was born from protest. The White House’s attempt to reframe that is a distraction and a dangerous one.”

‘My way’

While Nguyen-Amigo sees a tempest brewing on the horizon for LGBTQ+ rights, in his personal life, at least, the soon-to-be-30-year-old is sailing on calmer waters.

After divorcing his ex-husband several years ago, the eddies of his relational whirlwinds have slowed, and the currents of his music career have gathered pace.

Today, Nguyen-Amigo’s teen marriage live on not only in his hyphenated name but in his music career. His solo artist stage name is theoneDNA — for Duy Nguyen Amigo. And, the lyrics of his music harken back to his trials and tribulations with love.

“Whirlwind — but, I know I’m stronger than this,” he sings in the track named for the storm that followed his coming out. “This is a battle I must win, though it feels I’m hanging by a thread.”

His authenticity has garnered him attention in the Southern California avant-garde, both as a solo artist and as part of his band, Neon Pacific (formerly known as New Tradition).

His career reached new heights earlier this year when Neon Pacific performed for a month in Disney California Adventure’s Lunar New Year festival.

Nguyen-Amigo stood in the Happiest Place on Earth as the frontman of his band and his heritage.

“I still get choked up thinking back on it,” he said. “There are certain things in my culture that I don’t necessarily agree with, but I choose to focus on the aspects of Vietnamese culture that strongly resonate with me.”

“For the most part, I love my culture,” he said. “It’s my culture. It’s such a beautiful culture. I’m so proud to be Vietnamese and to give back to my community through music.”

Music is also how he reunited with his parents, who own the Mon Amour banquet hall in Anaheim.

Occasionally, Nguyen-Amigo sings there, his lyrics activating his parents’ empathy in ways his spoken words never did.

“In his songs, you can hear his suffering. You can hear the obstacles he’s had to overcome,” his mom said. “But you can also hear his happiness. His inner peace.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of him,” his dad said.

For a long time, Nguyen-Amigo said he struggled to serenade the crowds at Mon Amour.

“I felt that, if anything, whenever I performed in front of a Vietnamese audience, I had to remove so much of myself,” he said. “And that didn’t make sense to me. Music is supposed to do the opposite of that, right? It’s supposed to complete me.”

His catharsis arrived recently when he decided to perform a bilingual rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

“I sang the majority of the song in Vietnamese, and the last chorus, which is probably the most impactful chorus, I sang it in English, in front of a predominantly conservative crowd,” he said.

As he gazed at the dancing couples, he made peace with himself.

“The message just hit me so hard,” he said. “I will live my life my way.”