CITY OF CATHEDRAL CITY
COMMISSION/BOARD/COMMITTEE APPLICATION
Commission/Board/Committee
on which you would like to serve:
Public Arts Commission
NAME: Diane Anderson-Minshall
HOME ADDRESS:
HOME PHONE: CELL PHONE:
E-mail ADDRESS:
LENGTH OF RESIDENCY IN CATHEDRAL CITY: 1.5 years
IF EMPLOYED, PLEASE LIST WHERE YOU WORK AND POSITION YOU HOLD:
Please see attached
Diane Anderson-Minshall
May 5, 2026
Christina Burton, City Clerk
Cathedral City (commissions)
68700 Avenido Lalo Guerrero
Cathedral City, CA 92234
Dear Ms. Burton and the entire commission and committee selection team:
I would love to be considered for an appointment on the Public Arts commission. I’ve long wanted to serve in some capacity on the commission and now that I’ve been a resident for a year and a half. I feel like I have enough information about the city to ful
fill the duties.
I often explained to people that cathedral city is not merely a bedroom suburb of Palm Springs. It’s like Palm Springs is Manhattan and Cathedral city is Brooklyn. By that I mean, we might be scrappier, but we also make some really interesting choices and I love the community that we have here. I think that there’s a lot of opportunity for more live events, sponsored programming, and other public art development in partnership with businesses and developers, who can help foot the bill.
I have spent my career in life in LGBTQ media, leaving mainstream media in New York once I discovered the gay press in the late 1980s. I have been in this field since my first queer publication Crescent city star in New Orleans. I cofounded two women’s magazines, Alice and GIRLFRIENDS, spent 10 years at the largest lesbian magazine(Curve), and I’ve edited and written for dozens of others (as well as mainstream media like the New York Times and Cosmopolitan).
I retired in 2024, early retirement for a disability so I’m lucky enough to still be in my 50s and have the time and energy to do things. Most recently, was the CEO and editorial director at Pride Media, the largest LGBTQ media company in the United States. At my peak, I managed to serve both creatively while managing my fiduciary responsibilities as the leader of a $20 million company. There I was in charge of Out, The Advocate, Plus,, and Out Traveler Magazines, as well as eight different websites including pride.com. I was both the first indigenous and the first female CEO in the The Advocates 50+ year history.
In a volunteer role, I serve as executive Director of GALECA: the society of LGBTQ entertainment critics, the first woman in that role. I previously served on the Board of Directors as president and vice president. Prior to that I served on the Board of Directors for B Word, the for-profit company that published BITCH magazine in the 2000s.
I am an activist and I have been since the early days of ACT UP, Queer Nation, and No Nukes. My activism today is a little more armchair than it used to be, but it continues to be around protecting my community from anti-immigrant forces (I sponsored my niece and two nephews to immigrate from El Salvador Joyce when they were given their green cards—to imagine they might be booted now is horrifying). In addition, I’m always focused on LGBTQ issues (particularly trans issues, as that community’s rights are being legislated away), and conservation/sustainability.
I think Cathedral city looks like it’s at an interesting juncture where there’s a fair amount of gentrification happening and I do think that I may be part of that gentrification having moved into a house that had just been flipped. But I think that it’s incumbent on all of us to make sure that the city doesn’t lose its soul as we grow and develop and bring in new populations. I’m proud to say that my street I live on is largely Latino and my family is a combination of ethnic backgrounds.
I have now been married 35 years. My husband, a former journalist turned park ranger, is Transgender (we wrote about our experience of going from Lesbian wives to husband and wife in our memoir QUEERLY BELOVED: a love story across genders. I am a caregiver too. We are also guardians of Jacob‘s little sister Jennye; she is 48 and living with Down syndrome so it’s very much like having a perpetual 8 year-old in the house.
I’ve helped run large events from 100-person awards events to large touring film festivals, and 5,000 person dance parties with celebrities.
I’m levelheaded, familiar with the Baker Act, and eager to serve my community.
Happy to answer any questions you may have about my qualifications.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Best,
Diane Anderson-Minshall
PS Here’s a Wiki page on me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Anderson-Minshall