EXCLUSIVE:
By Aaron Heier, Associate Editor

GLTNN Associate Editor Aaron Heier with Jason Mraz

Earlier today, Grammy winner and platinum selling singer-songwriter Jason  Mraz visited the San Diego LGBT Community Center for a tour. Mraz, along with friend Natalie, toured the facility and learned about the many programs and services the Center offers. Mraz was invited by long-time friend and fellow recording artist Abby Schwartz (aka MC Flow,) the Center’s Women’s & Seniors’ Resource Coordinator. Having been friends for several years, Schwartz and Mraz recorded music together including work on his Grammy-winning album, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things.

Currently between albums and not touring, Mraz is taking some time to explore new life skills, personal development and activism, all things he plans to fuse with his music on his next album. Mraz lives – and farms – in Oceanside where he’s a passionate advocate for green living and sustainable energy. He’s also an avid supporter of the LGBT community, particularly marriage equality. During this year’s Grammy awards, Mraz walked the red carpet in a tuxedo made entirely of sustainable materials and donned a Marriage Equality pin on its lapel. In his personal blog, Freshness Factor Five Thousand, he talks extensively about his commitment to supporting LGBT marriage rights in 2010.

A relative newcomer to activism, Mraz was eager to visit the Center to learn about what the organization is doing locally on behalf of marriage equality and other issues facing the LGBT community.

The Center’s Abby Schwartz, Carlos Marquez and Aaron Heier with Jason Mraz

“Jason is a really unique, warm and caring person committed to spreading love through his music and his travels,” says Schwartz. “He is surrounded by LGBT folk both personally and professionally and is passionate about issues that affect those he’s closest to. Jason realizes he has a platform that many do not and wants to use it to share a message of love, acceptance and equality for all.”

This weekend, Mraz has been invited to attend Sir Elton John’s Academy Awards Party where he plans to discuss a possible collaboration with the musical legend on what he describes as an “Ebony and Ivory of the times, for equality.” No specific plans to record a song have been set, but Mraz hopes that Sir Elton is keen to the idea and feels it would be a powerful anthem to help champion LGBT equality around the globe.