{"id":665297,"date":"2026-11-03T05:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665297\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T05:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:40:15","slug":"beloved-west-hollywood-lesbian-activist-nadia-sutton-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665297\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved West Hollywood Lesbian Activist Nadia Sutton Has Died"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nadia Sutton at the opening of Laurel Park (Photo by Karen Ocamb)<\/p>\n

That fiery red hair! Those twinkling eyes! That broad smile that signaled \u2018delicious, darling\u2019 before uttering a word! Nadia Sutton\u2019s charismatic, energetic joie de vivre \u2013 joy of life \u2013 preceded her into any space she entered in the world. And when she spoke, her seductive French accent coated her words with a light molasses so orders to take action seemed like a flirtatious invitation to dance.<\/p>\n

Nadia Sutton, actress, lesbian, West Hollywood community activist, people and animal lover, died peacefully in her sleep late Oct. 31 as Halloween \u2013 All Hallows Eve<\/a> \u2013 transitioned into el D\u00eda de los Muertos<\/a>, Sunday, Nov. 1. She was 88.<\/p>\n

\u201cNadia Sutton was, and always will be, an integral part of the fabric of West Hollywood. She was fierce, fearless, and fabulous,\u201d says her friend, former West Hollywood City Councilmember Abbe Land. \u201cNadia was always there. She never backed away from the issues she cared about, and she always showed up for her friends, her beloved animals, and anyone who needed a helping hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbe says she was \u201cinspired by her courage, her perseverance, her curiosity, and love of learning \u2014 and, of course, her love of all things French.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nadia Sutton, left, next to Jimmy Palmeri with Ruth Tittle in sunglasses on the right. (Photo courtesy City of West Hollywood)<\/p>\n

Ruth Tittle<\/a> chuckles remembering her own delight watching Nadia find someone who spoke French and diving into an animated conversation as if no one else existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved to be invited for things so any time I sponsored an event or a table for any fundraising activity, I always invited Nadia. I saved a seat for her,\u201d Ruth, a renown WeHo philanthropist and founding Board member for the Foundation for the AIDS Monument<\/a>, says by phone from her home in Lexington, Kentucky. \u201cShe was a social butterfly. I picture her now with a butterfly \u2013 a Monarch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born July 19, 1938 in Brussels, Belgium as Nadia Alice Blitzstein, she enrolled as a teenager in the Universit\u00e9 libre de Bruxelles<\/a> – Free University of Brussels – a French-speaking research university which for several years had been under German occupation and had students involved in the Belgian Resistance<\/a>. In 1956, at age 18, Nadia left to live on a kibbutz in Israel. A year later, she began hitchhiking through Europe, picking up new languages.<\/p>\n

Nadia landed in Paris in the late 1950s just as the City of Lights became the center of a post-war cultural and social revolution. She studied theater, sold The New York Times in the streets and led tour groups through La Ville-Lumi\u00e8re \u2013 all while surrounded by milestones: Black American singer and dancer and French Resistance fighter Josephine Baker symbolized the possibility of a life racism-free; Beat Generation<\/a> poets Allen Ginsberg<\/a> and Peter Orlovsky<\/a> turned the Hotel Rachou into the \u201cBeat Hotel<\/a>;\u201d and 21-year-old Yves Saint Laurent marketed youth and revolutionized haute couture<\/a> after taking over the House of Dior.<\/p>\n

Nada also got caught up in Algeria\u2019s civil unrest in the struggle to gain independence from France. She then moved to Southern Spain, despite the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, because she loved the poetry of Frederico Garcia Lorca.<\/p>\n

Nadia\u2019s next stop was England in 1967, where she lived for 12 years, working as an actor and getting into cause-related trouble, such as helping create a pirate radio station to protest censorship of a gay magazine by the government.<\/p>\n

This was \u201cthe Summer of Love\u201d in America; The Beatles released \u201cSgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band;\u201d BBC radio was restructured to cater to the counter-culture movement, just as BBC TV started broadcasting in color. A law legalizing specific safe and legal abortion was passed \u2013 and homosexuality was partially decriminalized for consenting adult men over age 21. But partial legalization does not equal acceptance and gays continued to face harassment and censorship under obscenity laws.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile offshore \u201cpirate\u201d radio stations that had broadcast popular countercultural music were shutdown for circumventing the BBC monopoly. Yup \u2013 and Nadia was part of this protest, too.<\/p>\n

Nadia came to Los Angeles in 1979 \u201cin search of palm trees and an acting career,\u201d she writes in clip sentences in a short autobiography. She eventually moved to West Hollywood and it seemed all her past experienced surged into activism and her life forever changed.<\/p>\n

In the mid-1980s, she was \u201closing the people I loved the most, my chosen family. In between, many days and nights at Cedars, holding our friends in my arms for comfort, got involved with ACT UP, protesting in the streets, demanding our rights for people living with AIDS including fast tracking medication. In 1989 co-founded PAWS LA [(Pets Are Wonderful Support] with friend Stan Rawlings, dedicated to help my friends living with AIDS keep their beloved pets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The founding of PAWS\/LA was incredibly impactful<\/a>. Even the late pioneering LGBTQ+ political activist David Mixner referenced Nadia and PAWS\/LA in our 2019 interview marking the end of his 60 years of activism. He was no longer interested in going to bars and preferred to have a dinner party with friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I realized I had no friends to do that with. I would guess that 85% of people my age died in the epidemic that I knew could share a history with,\u201d Mixner told me. \u201cI mean, it goes on and on and on and on. We needed to find homes for their pets. And there was that young woman that always we could turn to \u2013 Nadia with PAWS – to find homes for pets of people with AIDS. We\u2019d call her and say, \u2018someone has passed away and we\u2019ve got this pet\u2019 and she\u2019d place them in a good homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community response to AIDS in the 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s is hard to explain to those who were not eyewitnesses,\u201d says former West Hollywood City Councilmember and current candidate John Duran. \u201cIt was constant crisis and chaos interwoven with horror, sickness and death. Every day felt like an emergency and warriors were lost constantly. Into that darkness, Nadia stepped forward to fill a hole in the response: \u2018what was to be done with the animals left behind by those who died?\u2019 After all, these were the equivalent of family members to so many.<\/p>\n

\u201cNadia created PAWS \u2013 \u2018Pets Are Wonderful Support\u2019 – so that those who were dying could slip away without worrying what would become of the loved ones. Those animal companions did not have to be put down or abandoned because Nadia stepped in and filled that void.\u201d<\/p>\n

John also recalls another Nadia characteristic that was both oddly startling and secretly heartwarming \u2013 her cheeky French flirtations.<\/p>\n

\u201cNadia was one of the activists who believed that we did not need to leave our sexuality and sensuality outside of the movement,\u201d John says. \u201cIt was routine for her to come up to me and scream out loudly \u2018Duran \u2013 you sexy thing!\u2019 I used to turn beet red when it first happened \u2013 but then later I said it right back to her \u2018Nadia \u2013 you sexy thing! You don\u2019t even have to try because with that French accent \u2013 everything sounds sexy!\u2019 We would both laugh, love and embrace one another. I will truly miss my friend and fellow AIDS warrior Nadia\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the years continued standing up with my brothers and sisters for marriage equality and succeeding,\u201d Nadia says in her autobio snippets. \u201cAll these years later, still involved more passionately than ever, fighting for the rights of my LGBT community, Women\u2019s rights and equality, reproductive rights, just people and animal rights. As we are more vulnerable than ever, as we need to care about each other and be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nadia Sutton and Andy Sacher at An Evening With Women 2013 (Photo courtesy Andy Sacher)<\/p>\n

Andy Sacher agrees. The founder of The Lavender Effect<\/a> says he became aware of Nadia at a Rainbow Key Award celebration in 2012 where both were being honored. That night, Nadia agreed to join The Lavender Effect\u2019s advisory board.<\/p>\n

But Nadia didn\u2019t just join \u2013 she got involved, introducing Andy to \u201cdozens of movers and shakers without hesitation,\u201d explaining The Lavender Effect\u2019s mission. She also helped organize many of their Queer Culture Series events, like \u201cMaking Love Letters,\u201d which celebrated letters sent to the producer of the groundbreaking movie Making Love,\u201d Andy says.<\/p>\n

Nadia \u201cwas a fearless advisor and loved to connect me with political leaders. In June of 2013, we went to one of Antonio Villaraigosa\u2019s amazing LGBTQ+ garden parties.<\/p>\n

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Liliana Perez, Antonio Villaraigosa and Nadia Sutton 2013 (Photo courtesy Andy Sacher)<\/p>\n

Nadia also sent him personal emails including one in 2014: \u201cAndy treasure, I wish you a beautiful Valentine\u2019s Day. Take time to treat yourself fabulously and do what makes you happy. Thank you for your delightful friendship. Purrs and hugs, Nadia and Barnaby cat. Click to play sound: Cat Purrs.\u201d<\/p>\n

On The Lavender Effect\u2019s Oral Histories Committee, and knowing the organization\u2019s limited funding, she \u201calways prioritized other participants over herself,\u201d Andy says. \u201cI regret following her advice on that now. However, I will never forget her positive spirit and her love for both her community and animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nadia Sutton protests over Bill Cosby rape allegations 2016 (Photo screen shot of LA Times article photo)<\/p>\n

Nadia Sutton protested on numerous issues and sat on numerous boards, committees, panels, forums \u2013 wherever she was asked to be to share her wisdom and kindness. And she\u2019s received numerous honors and awards \u2013 including Hollywood NOW \u2018s 2020 HERStory Award during Covid. The program was led by Karen Eyres, President of Hollywood Now, member of West Hollywood\u2019s Women\u2019s Advisory Board and a longtime friend of Nadia\u2019s. (See Paulo Murillo<\/a>\u2019s report in the WeHo Times with lots of photos<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In 2015, then-Rep. Adam Schiff named Nadia Sutton \u201c28th Congressional District Woman of the Year\u201d and read the recognition into the Congressional Record<\/a> on March 16, 2015.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is an honor to pay homage to outstanding women who are making a difference in my Congressional District. I would like to recognize a remarkable woman, Nadia Sutton of West Hollywood, California,\u201d Schiff said.<\/p>\n

After reading about her life, her accomplishments, her causes and the boards she sat on, Schiff concluded with this:<\/p>\n

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Nadia with a feral cat at Catnippers (Photo via Nadia\u2019s Facebook)<\/p>\n

\u201cA devoted animal lover, she co-founded PAWS LA (Pets Are Wonderful Support), an organization dedicated to helping people living with AIDS keep their beloved animal companions, where she is currently serving as a Board member, and is a volunteer with Catnippers, an association that helps spay and neuter feral cats and kittens. Nadia resides in West Hollywood with her cat, Barnaby.<\/p>\n

I ask all Members to join me in honoring an exceptional woman of California\u2019s 28th Congressional District, Nadia Sutton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a woman of incredible energy and passion,\u201d Schiff told the Beverly Hills Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a father, Schiff said he wants his daughter to have positive women role models, such as Sutton,\u201d the Beverly Hills Press reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want her to have every possibility to reach her full potential and not be inhibited in any way because she\u2019s a woman. I\u2019m very grateful to these women,\u201d Schiff said.<\/p>\n

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Nadia Sutton – French Dyke (Photo courtesy City of West Hollywood)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not involved because we are do-gooders. We do it because it\u2019s about caring for and fighting for people that we love, that I love. There is no way that I could not be involved in activism,\u201d Sutton said.<\/p>\n

Nadia Sutton is survived by her cat Barnaby, who is the loving care of Karen Eyres.<\/p>\n

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