Conversations with KEELY FIELD

Today we’d like to introduce you to KEELY FIELD.

KEELY, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Keely Rene Field is a lifelong feminist and political activist. She is serving her sixth term as the Vice President of Outreach on the Board of the only Feminist Democratic Club in LA County, the Heart of LA Democratic Club. From 2021-2023, Keely served as Chair of the Women’s Advisory Board of the City of West Hollywood.

Since the age of 3 when she attended her first pro-choice rally with her political activist mother, she has been fighting on the front lines for women’s rights and social justice. Her father came out to her as a gay man when she was only 12 and that very moment, she became a dedicated LGBTQ activist, experiencing firsthand the struggle, rejection, pain, and fear that one can go through in the coming out process and stood by her father’s side when the world and those closest to him shunned him and she became a volunteer with him at the LGBTQ Center decades ago, changing his life. She has dedicated her life to fighting for justice and equality, healthcare, advocacy, and vital services for the LGBTQ community.
She is a Certified Paralegal graduate of UCLA Law and is currently an active member of 10 Democratic Clubs in Los Angeles County. She is the proud daughter of a gay man and a lifelong TB and public health nurse who worked on Robert Kennedy’s campaign, and both taught her from a young age what true activism is and how vital it is to our constant fight for equality in this country. As a lifelong volunteer and donor to the Los Angeles LGBTQ Center, fundraiser, and programming volunteer for Being Alive and Aids Project Los Angeles, she dedicates her time to advocacy, getting vital services to the LGBTQ Community, and electing women and Democrats to office.
She has worked on 10 presidential campaigns since the age of 6, as that is when she started canvassing for a young Democratic named Gary Hart for President. Keely is a decade long volunteer for many non-profits in Los Angeles, including Beauty Bus, which provides free beauty & care services for the chronically & terminally ill in our community, for which she won an award for “Volunteer of the Year” in 2015. She mentors foster youth who are moved from home to home as she gives them vital support and is a longtime volunteer for Together We Rise, which provides clothing, services, mentoring and support to foster children all over the US. Keely was elected as a Delegate from California to the Democratic National Committee in 2004 for John Kerry and a Precinct Captain in the Nevada Caucus for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Elizabeth Warren in 2019. She currently serves on the Community Engagement Subcommittee for the Human Rights Campaign-Los Angeles. Keely is a resident of West Hollywood, California and proudly dedicates her time to advocacy, volunteering, mobilizing activists, being a voice for the voiceless, and being the change in her community.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being an Assault Survivor is Life Changing. I learned in one night that I can’t trust people around me. And even though I went to a New Years Eve dance party at a well known club in Hollywood, California and went there with a group of friends I knew, I still was not safe from a man who was friends with one of my friends, even though I had never met him before. One drink on one night at one club or bar, even as a sober, alert, very woke woman, can still be violated with one bad act of a man pretending to be nice and buy me one drink (the only drink) I had that entire night. And when the bartender handed him the straw, then the new man (friend of a friend) handed that straw directly to me and I put it in my drink, after a few sips I felt dizzy. I went from starting to dance on the dance floor, eventually blacking out and hours later was found in a bathroom stall on the floor of the women’s restroom behind a locked stall door. A guardian angel literally found me and crawled underneath the stall door to revive me and came to my immediate aid. My wallet was gone, my purse was gone, and I had blood down my legs and I had vomited many times on the floor. If it wasn’t for this guardian angel (a women much younger than me) who happen to seed my feet from the other side of the stall and went above and beyond to save me, I don’t know what I would have done. She drove me all the way to Cedars Sinai Hospital, who refused to do a “rape kit” drug test, because they said, “we can get you fluids, but we Do Not Provide Rape Kits here, you will have to go to Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center-near the UCLA Medical Offices” for a full rape kit examination done on you.” I cried even more and was shocked even more that they couldn’t help me. If the same guardian angel who found me was determined to get me the treatment that I needed, and drove me an additional 20 minutes across town to Santa Monica near UCLA, to the Rape Treatment Center and that is where I got the physical exam, treatment and record of evidence that I needed. Unfortunately, in California, as in any state, it is the assault victim’s words against the assaulter and perpetrator and the Los Angeles DA’s office was not going to help me by prosecuting my case. I did everything I could to document what he did to me. A painful rape kit, multiple physical exams and filing an extensive police report. We live in a society where victims are not believed, especially if it is a woman (or LGBTQ person) standing before them, who had done everything possible to contain the evidence. I learned that night, that my lifelong mission would need to become helping to prevent this to happening to one more person. With the “test my drink cards” freely available at all bars, clubs, and college campuses, this will be the only way to ensure everyone has bodily autonomy over what they are about to sip from one cup, one drink, one bottle, one flask, one glass.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I was so excited when I finally got approved for an Education Loan in 2018. I had applied for loans many times and denied due to a low credit score. Even my employer at that time, Saban Capital Group, where I was already working full time for several years as a Legal Assistant, were so supportive in me supporting my application to UCLA Extension, in order to apply for admission to the one year Paralegal Certification Program, that they even offered to give me a small grant towards my tuition. This enabled me to start in the program the following quarter in the Spring of 2018. I worked full time during the day into the early evening and then drove over to UCLA Extension campus four nights a week to attend the amazing program. I really fell in love with the learning process of case law, labor law, real estate law, criminal law, civil procedure, and criminal law. I really excelled in the one year program month after month, and at the end of the very successful 12 month program, I graduated at the top of my class with pride. The UCLA Extension Program was beyond rewarding. The structure was very well managed. We had a different teacher each month, and they each were experts in different fields of the law. Getting to learn full time from prior LA County Superior Judges, the former Head of the Legal Dept at Walt Disney Studios, a former Assistant LA District Attorney, a former Forensic IT analyst in LA county, and many experts monthly to learn from was beyond rewarding.

Knowing all of California state laws now, both civil and criminal, is beyond helpful as I personally am a survivor that many assault survivors reach out to (both online, on social media) and even in person, and they confidentially want me to give them advice on their cases, but also know what legal options they have and how to detect Ketamine and GHB in any drink or meal, as these two very common (illegal) and life threatening drugs, not only ruined my body for an entire 36 hours, and endangered my life, it changed my life forever. And I will do all I can for the rest of my life to get a Federal Bill passed by our US Congress, which will require all businesses that serve alcohol to any and all customers to freely be given the life and assault preventing “test my drink” cards 365 days a year. These US businesses have to be held responsible to display, distribute and freely give these “test my drink” cards in their businesses and college campuses every day, and when it comes to the businesses with permits and licenses to serve alcohol, they will be in risk of losing these licenses from the state they reside in, if they do not comply. Thanks to UCLA and all the more than dozen wonderful legal teachers, attorneys, judges, prosecutors and legal experts, I have the legal confidence, the education conference, and truly the support of a wonderful community in Los Angeles, CA where I have the ability to help prevent drink drugging’s, roofies, and assaults prevention everywhere. That is the definition of the legacy and the determination from Shero, Coretta Scott King, which the GOP referenced as “Nevertheless She Persisted,” as truly this is my way of life and it’s literally the mantra I live by, and so much thrive in, that I now have tattooed on my left ankle, always proudly visible for people to see.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @imwithkeely
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keely.field/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keelyfield/
• Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/keely.field/
• Youtube: https://spectruminfocus.com/section/in-focus/in-focus/2024/11/25/date-rape-drug-testing-bradford-
• Yelp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U2AGh63UPU
• Other: https://spectruminfocus.com/section/in-focus/in-focus/2024/11/25/date-rape-drug-testing-bradford-