The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

White House Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard and longtime ANGLE friends Chris Hershey and Susan Van Horn. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

That first April 20, 2012 New York Times article on Los Angeles-based politico Jeremy Bernard speaks volumes:

SOME months after Jeremy Bernard became the first man and openly gay person to be the White House social secretary, he visited an assisted living center in suburban Maryland. There, he and Letitia Baldrige, the 86-year-old legendary social secretary of the Kennedy administration, spent what Mrs. Baldrige fondly remembers as a convivial hour and a half over a French white wine chatting about guest lists and other secrets of the job.

Mrs. Baldrige said she also offered Mr. Bernard an important piece of advice: "Keep your mouth shut."

And so he has.

Indeed. And his friends help him keep that ethic in public. Ergo, everything that was said by anyone at the party Courage Campaign founder Rick Jacobs and his documentary filmmaker husband Shaun Kadiec (“Born This Way”) threw for Jeremy as he returned home to LA for a few days this weekend was OFF THE RECORD! As the instant-historian for LGBT LA, however, they OKed me snapping some photos – such as the one above with Jeremy and his old ANGLE buddies, Chris Hershey and her photographer wife Susan Van Horn.

I wish I could tell you who was telling what funny, irreverent, wise-cracking jokes and stories at the party – but I can’t so you’ll just have to imagine. But here are some snaps with hopefully acceptable photo-caps:

Jeremy Bernard hugs LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky as Mike Bonin, Chief of Staff to LA City Councilmember Bill Rosendhal, looks on. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Rick Jacobs presented Jeremy Bernard with a bag of surprises. Imagine this exchange. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Two gay guys keeping very straight faces. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Rick shows Jeremy some love. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

I can’t tell you what Jeremy said but we all laughed. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Human Rights Campaign and Obama bundler Dana Perlman (rt) with his husband Hugh Kinsellagh. They were married four years ago during that pre-Prop 8 window. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Rick Jacobs talks with Helene Brown, on the board of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, and former state Sen. Shelia Kuehl. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Rick Jacobs with LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who first asked for LGBT votes in 1975 at the LA Gay Community Services Center on Wilshire Blvd when he was seeking an LA city council seat. That’s when he met the late and legendary Morris Kight. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Jeremy hugs openly gay Associate Dean of the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California and LA Police Commissioner Rob Saltzman. (Photo by Karen Ocamb)