Top Stories
LGBTQ+ families face a harder school year — but they are not powerless
It’s back-to-school time, and for LGBTQ+ parents and their children — who remain on the front lines of the fight over whose families belong in the classroom — there are reasons for concern going into the new year, as well as reasons for hope. Two recent Supreme Court decisions have shaped a new reality for LGBTQ+ families in the classroom. The first, Mahmoud v. Taylor, challenged elementary school lessons that featured LGBTQ+ characters in storybooks. In this case, the Court gave some parents new grounds to seek exemptions from instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs, and school boards, administrators, and teachers now must […]
Texas Rep Forces College To Delete LGBTQ Archive
The Dallas Observer reports: After online attacks from a conservative state lawmaker, the University of North Texas removed a webpage for its LGBTQ archive over the weekend. He’s calling it a win. Ellis County state Rep. Brian Harrison posted screenshots of the archive’s webpage, which he said pointed to “TRANSGENDER INDOCTRINATION” at UNT. In 2025, Texas State University removed an LGBTQ+ Communication Studies course from its catalog after Harrison criticized it online for “literally indoctrinating” students. Most notably, Harrison used his social media presence in 2024 to pressure Texas A&M to remove a gender studies minor. The university eventually removed the minor, […]
For Lesbian Victims of Domestic Violence, Competent Care Is Scarce
Claire, a 25-year-old Los Angeles resident, distinctly remembers the night she and her ex-girlfriend broke up. “She was strangling me in a CVS parking lot,” Claire recalls, adding how she was gasping for air as bystanders looked on. “I made eye contact with one man who just kept walking, and we were right behind a car that was trying to reverse out of a parking spot. No one got out of the car. They didn’t honk; they didn’t do anything.” Claire, who asked to use a pseudonym due to safety concerns regarding her ex, says she managed to fight her […]
Local News
Tickets Now Available for Positive Images Big Fundraiser Queer Magic GAYLA 2026
You are invited to Positive Images’ 2026 QUEER MAGIC GAYla: Meet Me at the Disco! Join us for a night full of dancing, laughs, celebration, and unforgettable memories to support Sonoma County’s LGBTQIA2S+ Community Center. We’ll be joined by PRXZM for a live performance, a silent auction, and so much more! This is the dance party of the year you will not want to miss! Event Details Saturday, November 14, 2026 5:00-9:00 PM Sally Tomatoes (1100 Valley House Dr, Rohnert Park) Please note, this event is 21 and over. ID’s will be checked at the door. Tickets are now on […]
Free Online LGBTQI+ History Class Will Focus on Local Queer Counter Culture of the 1960s
LGBTQI History: A Sonoma County Timeline 1947-2000. Mondays 6-7:30pm. Online via Zoom. Join us on Monday, 9/21 for a segment on the 1960s Counterculture and early LGBT back to the land communities. Contact me to enroll and receive a Zoom link: cdungan@santarosa.edu
Arts & Entertainment
“Slave Play” Opens September 25 at The Left Edge Theatre
What happens when the past refuses to stay in the past?At the MacGregor Plantation, the old South lives on, in the cotton fields, in the master’s house, and in the complicated relationship between fear, desire, race, gender, and power. In SLAVE PLAY, acclaimed playwright Jeremy O. Harris rips open the history we think we know and brings it into conversation with 21st-century America. Provocative, explosive, and unflinching, this daring play challenges audiences to confront the ways race, gender, sexuality, and power continue to shape our lives. SLAVE PLAY has been recognized with the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, Lotos […]
Friday, September 25 @7 pm/Sunday Sept. 27 @ 3 pm : Acorn MusEcology Project: ‘The Earth Says’ at Occidental Center for the Arts
Friday, September 25 @7 pm/Sunday Sept. 27 @ 3 pm : Acorn MusEcology Project: ‘The Earth Says’ at Occidental Center for the Arts. Directed by Sarah Dupre, Acorn MusEcology Project is proud to present the Northern California premiere of Alex Berko’s Sacred Place, an immersive exploration of ecological spirituality set to the words of Wendell Berry, John Muir, William Stafford, and Rabindranath Tagore. Acorn’s 27-voice ensemble will be joined by violin, cello, and piano to offer up this song cycle of reverential texts within a richly-layered soundscape. Additional original music by co-directors Sarah Dupre and Robin Eschner includes a new setting of poetry by […]
State News
Teachers stage walk out in response to anti-trans activist outburst at chaotic school board meeting
A Davis, California school board meeting descended into chaos on Thursday night when teachers staged a walkout as Beth Bourne, a local Moms for Liberty chapter president and school board candidate, began speaking during public comment. Video of the meeting is available via the district’s school board meeting video portal. As Bourne approached the lectern, many district-area teachers stood up and left the room. Bourne shouted at the meeting chair: “Ask those teachers to stop interrupting my comment!” She then demanded: “I want my time back! I want my time back!” During the disruption, one attendee shouted “B*******!” at Bourne. Bourne […]
Newsom Signs New Restrictions On Social Media
The New York Times reports: California’s governor on Thursday signed into law restrictions on addictive social media technology and interactions with harmful artificial intelligence chatbots, ushering in some of the strongest online protections for young users in the United States. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a bill that prohibits social media platforms from providing addictive features to users under the age of 16, the first law of its kind in the nation. He also signed a new law mandating that A.I. companies disclose to young users whenever they engage with a chatbot, not a human, and restrict dangerous content on topics […]
