The first pop-up event is Sunday, June 8th at 11:00 am, and it will be a non-tap fun event.Who is the event for?
The event is open to anyone. You can be a current Pride League bowler, a previous Pride League bowler, interested in joining the Pride League in September, someone looking to make new friends, or someone who wants to have fun in an LGBTQA+ dominated space. There is no experience needed and it is just a fun pop-up event. Cost of the event?
The cost for the event is $20 per person, which includes 3 games of bowling. Bowlero is covering the cost of your shoe rentals, so you don’t have to worry about that extra expense. Consider bringing some extra cash ($5-$10) because we may have a couple of additional fun side things (like poker).
***No food or beverages are included, but available for purchase***Location?
Bowlero/Double Decker Lanes
300 Golf Course Drive, Rohnert ParkWhat to expect?
Each lane will have up to 4 bowlers. You can be part of a group you come with or we can help match you with some fun folks. The goal is for people to have a fun time and enjoy brunch bowling together.
For June, it will be a no-tap event, so if you get 9 pins on your first throw, you get a strike. Makes for fun high scores and lots of laughs. We will start at 11:00 am with 10 minutes of practice, then get into our 3 games. Sign-Up
To sign up, please respond to this email with your name and the number of people attending with you. This will help ensure we have enough lanes reserved. Bowlero is opening a little early for us on pop-up Sundays to make sure we have space. Please feel free to share this email and this event with others you think would enjoy it.
We look forward to seeing everyone in just a couple of weeks. Happy Pride Month!
In the early hours of Black Pride weekend in Washington, D.C., someone shattered the front door of Sinners and Saints, cut the power, stole bottles of alcohol, and spray-painted the slur “fa***t” on the wall.
The bar’s mission is in its name: defiance and sanctuary. It’s D.C.’s only venue created by and for queer and trans people of color. And on Friday, as revelers began arriving in the city for WorldPride, someone tried to send a message of fear. Instead, the response was community and clarity.
“We are heartbroken, but we are not broken,” the bar’s team posted on Instagram. “Sinners and Saints is resistance. We will rebuild. We will STAY OPEN. And we will keep our doors—and hearts—wide open for all who need refuge.”
Police are investigating the attack as a suspected hate crime. According toTheWashington Post, an employee at the restaurant above the bar discovered the damage midday Friday and called Blair Nixon, who co-owns and manages the space. Nixon told the Post he arrived to find shattered glass, the power cut, and the back door ajar.
“It’s really disheartening,” Nixon told the Post. “If you have somebody who’s in your space who isn’t supposed to be there, it’s scary.”
“This space exists to protect and celebrate Queer and Trans BIPOC communities,” the bar’s Instagram post read, “and this attack only strengthens our resolve. We will NOT be silenced. We will NOT be intimidated. We will NOT back down.”
According to The Post, D.C. police assigned multiple detectives and an LGBTQ+ liaison to the case. The mayor’s office also reached out to discuss protections. But as Nixon told NBC affiliate WRC, “The current political climate is really scary, and that’s one of the reasons why we care so much about the space, and we try and do everything that we can do to make sure it’s a safe space.”
The Advocate contacted Ryan Bos, executive director of the Capital Pride Alliance, for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Just hours after the break-in, Sinners and Saints reopened. The dance floor was packed that night for a planned D.C. Black Pride event. Nixon said that decision wasn’t optional.
“It was really important to us to stay open,” he told The Post. “We don’t ever want to send the message that we can be repressed. We don’t want to be shaken, we don’t want to be down, we want to be sure we stick to our mission.”
That mission, Nixon told WRC, is urgent—and still unmet. “What always happens is that the adoption of LGBT people comes first, and then the adoption of the QT-BIPOC. So talking about trans Black people, persons of color always lags behind.”
The Post reports that the damages are estimated to exceed $5,000. Within 24 hours, a GoFundMe launched by the bar raised nearly $1,500. By Tuesday morning, that total had surpassed $7,600. In the fundraiser, the team wrote: “Every dollar raised will go toward recouping what was taken and repairing our space so we can keep our doors open for those who need it most.” Fifteen percent of donations, they said, would be shared with local QTBIPOC support groups.
The response was swift. Neighbors offered to help with cleaning and repainting. Supportive comments poured in. RuPaul’s Drag Race star Laganja Estranja wrote: “Incredible response! I believe in you. Sending so much love and strength.”
The slur is still on the wall. Nixon told The Post the team may frame it as a permanent reminder of what someone tried—and failed—to do.
“To those who tried to harm us,” the bar wrote online, “hate fuels our defiance. To our community: we see you, we love you, and we will continue fighting for you.”
An investigation by a Florida school into charges that a teacher “groomed” a student “to transition and to be gay” resulted in the school district ending her contract, despite a recommendation to only reprimand her.
AP English teacher Melissa Calhoun is the first known Florida educator to lose her job as a result of a 2023 Florida Board of Education rule stating parents must provide written permission before an educator can use any alternative to a student’s legal name.
The rule is part of a wave of “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and policy enacted in Florida over the last several years.
The report was made public through a Freedom of Information Act request by the news outlet Florida Today.
In March, Brevard County school board member Matt Viser was contacted by a parent who accused faculty at Satellite High School of “influencing and grooming” her daughter to “transition and be gay,” according to the report.
An investigation was launched by school officials, who questioned multiple teachers and other staff. Calhoun was the only teacher who admitted to using the teen’s chosen name. She had taught the student since 2022, before the rule was enacted.
Calhoun immediately expressed willingness to abide by the nickname prohibition and told the student, a 17-year-old senior dual-enrolled at Eastern Florida State College, that she could no longer use it.
In subsequent meetings with the lead investigator for Brevard Public Schools, Calhoun said the student did well in class and didn’t suffer any behavioral issues, so she didn’t have occasion to speak with the parents. She hadn’t checked to see if the student had a completed parent permission form, calling it a “complete oversight,” according to the report.
Calhoun said she wasn’t using the student’s chosen name with any “political intent” and said she was “shocked” when she learned she was in violation of school policy.
The final report recommended that Calhoun receive a letter of reprimand stating that she had violated four separate Florida statutes and policies.
There was no recommendation that Calhoun be fired for the offense.
Despite that, Superintendent Mark Rendell made the decision not to renew Calhoun’s contract. The district reported Calhoun’s violation to the state.
Explaining why Rendell ignored the investigator’s recommendation, a district spokesperson said, “The decision was made by Dr. Rendell based on uncertainty surrounding the state’s response to the incident. We do not have any historical data to guide us on a FLDOE [Florida Department of Education] response to this violation. We do not want to start the 2025-2026 school year with a teacher whose license may be revoked by the state.”
Supporters of Calhoun have been out in force at school board meetings since she was severed in April. She showed up at a meeting herself this week and was given a standing ovation.
Retired teacher Bill Pearlman’s testimony was typical of the outpouring of support.
He told board members: “You showed no kindness, no compassion, no due process, and no recognition of the excellence that she has shared with the estimated 3,000 students in her career at BPS,” he said of Calhoun. “Many of us are really disappointed in our superintendent and our board.”
Every public speaker at the meeting expressed support for Calhoun, save a veteran and the chair of the local Moms for Liberty chapter.
The board took no further action on Calhoun’s case.
A “warm-hearted” London-based scientist was lured on Grindr before being killed and dismembered, police in Colombia have said.
Alessandro Coatti, 38, was last seen leaving his hostel in Santa Marta on 4 April.
The microbiologist, who had recently left his role at the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) after eight years as a senior policy officer, had told staff at his hostel that he wanted to learn about the local flora and fauna.
On 6 April, Coatti’s head, hands and feet were found in a suitcase near the Sierra Nevada Stadium. His other body parts were found the following day in a suitcase by the Minuto de Dios Bridge, the day after his legs were found a coffee bag in the Villa Betal neighbourhood.
Police, who initially thought Coatti’s death could have been linked to a violent war between two rival gangs in the city, now believe he was lured to his death by a group of thieves who target their victims on Grindr.
A coroner determined that he died of blunt force trauma to the head.
‘Loved by everyone he worked with’
The RSB remembered Coatti, who was also known as Ale, as someone who was “funny, warm, intelligent” and “loved by everyone he worked with”.
Tribute adds that he “will be deeply missed by all who knew and worked with him”.
A memorial page, organised for Coatti by RSB, features a memory wall of comments from people who knew him.
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One person wrote that he was a “delightful person toward with” and “warm-hearted”.
Another wrote: “He was knowledgeable, insightful and brought a warmth and humour to his role. Ale often had a mischievous twinkle in his eye before saying something that made me laugh.”
“Words cannot adequately express the profound sorrow I feel for a beautiful life cut so short,” someone else shared on the page.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, local human rights activist Vera Salazar said there have been 13 similar murders in the region in the last year.
In a statement posted on X, Santa Marta mayor Carlos Pinedo Cuello offered a reward of 50 million pesosfor information in the case.
The post was captioned: “The Santa Marta District Mayor’s Office emphatically rejects any act of violence and reiterates its commitment to defending public space and the safety of public officials who work towards a more orderly and safer Santa Marta for everyone.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Grindr has been linked to the death or harm of an LGBTQ+ individual. Last year, a 20-year-old was found guilty of bludgeoning an army veteran he met though Grindr to death with a hammer, as well as the attempted murder of another man he met on the gay app.
A Grindr spokesperson has previously told The Guardian that the company was aware of attempts to misuse its service but said they worked hard to ensure “a safe and authentic environment, free of harmful and fake accounts”.
In a major victory for lesbian couples, Italy’s top court ruled this week that the same-sex partners of women who conceive via in vitro fertilization (IVF) have the right to be legally recognized as their children’s parents.
As Reuters reports, in a ruling announced on Thursday, May 22, Italy’s Constitutional Court found that it is unconstitutional to deny legal recognition to the nonbiological mother of children conceived abroad via IVF. Doing so, the court said, violates the children of lesbian couples’ rights to care, education, and emotional continuity from both parents.
Prior to the court’s decision, a 2004 law prevented the nonbiological mom in a same-sex couple from being registered as their child’s parent. But as the judges noted in their decision, confusion over the 2004 law has led to a patchwork of interpretations across Italy, with some mayors allowing nonbiological moms to be listed as parents on their children’s birth certificates while others only list the birth mothers.
“These divergent outcomes reflect a shifting social reality to which the legislature has yet to respond,” the judges wrote, according to Reuters.
In 2023, under the leadership of far-right, anti-LGBTQ+ Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Interior Ministry began cracking down on cities that allowed both members of same-sex couples to be listed as “parents”— as opposed to “mother” and “father” — on their children’s birth registrations.
Thursday’s ruling, which strikes down part of the 2004 law, was hailed as “historic” by LGBTQ+ activists. Marilena Grassadonia, an advocate with the Italian Left opposition party, told Reuters that the decision “restores dignity and serenity to the many rainbow families who live in our country.”
However, the ruling did not extend the right to IVF treatment to single women or women in same-sex relationships. Under Italian law, only married heterosexual couples have the right to access medically assisted reproduction treatments like IVF. The court’s ruling only applies to women who seek IVF treatment abroad.
While same-sex civil unions have been legal in Italy since 2016, same-sex couples do not have the right to adopt, thanks in part to opposition from the Catholic Church. Surrogacy remains illegal as well, and restrictions preventing the adoption of “stepchildren” by nonbiological parents present major hurdles for gay fathers seeking to adopt children conceived via surrogacy abroad.
However, as Agence France-Presse reports, a court in northern Italy also ruled Thursday in favor of a nonbiological father’s right to adopt his child conceived abroad via surrogacy.
Chiara Soldatini, a lesbian mother who moved from Italy to Spain last year, celebrated the Constitutional Court’s decision. “I am happy no one will now be able to challenge the fact our son is our son,” she told Agence France-Presse. However, she noted that she would “only uncork the champagne when all those families with two dads can toast with me.”
Ugandan authorities have perpetrated widespread discrimination and violence against LGBT people in the two years since the Anti-Homosexuality Act became law.
The Ugandan authorities have spread misinformation and hatred against LGBT people, making existing discrimination even worse.
The Ugandan authorities should end their crackdown on LGBT people, repeal the bill, and introduce legislation barring discrimination and promoting equality.
(Nairobi, May 26, 2025) – Ugandan authorities have perpetrated widespread discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, their families, and their supporters in the two years since the Anti-Homosexuality Act was enacted on May 26, 2023, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 69-page report, “‘They’re Putting Our Lives at Risk’: How Uganda’s Anti-LGBT Climate Unleashes Abuse,” documents the actions by Ugandan parliament members, government institutions, and other authorities that culminated in the enactment of the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act. Human Rights Watch found that the law has ramped up already existing abuse and discrimination against LGBT people to unprecedented heights. They also detailed the rights violations enabled by the law and the devastating impact it has had on the lives of LGBT people, activists, allies, and their families in Uganda.
“For the last two years, LGBT Ugandans have suffered a range of abuses because of the government’s willful decision to legislate hate against them,” said Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Ugandan authorities need to urgently improve this environment, which enables a wide range of human rights violations and puts countless Ugandans at serious risk of abuse.”
During the months leading up to and following the law being passed, the Ugandan authorities, including high-profile political and government figures, used traditional and social media to spread misinformation and hatred against LGBT people, leading to an uptick in attacks and harassment against LGBT people and LGBT rights groups.
Researchers interviewed 59 people, including LGBT people, family members, representatives of LGBT rights organizations, activists, journalists, and lawmakers between August 2022 and April 2025. They reviewed the parliamentary records of the house debates about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, speeches by government figures and religious leaders, and media reporting in the lead-up to the passage of the bill.
Human Rights Watch found that in the lead-up to, and since the enactment of, the Anti-Homosexuality Act, the government has deliberately negatively shaped the public discourse about LGBT people in Uganda. This has encouraged attacks and harassment of individuals and independent organizations perceived as supportive of LGBT rights.
During this period, the authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained LGBT people, used entrapment via social media and dating apps, and extorted money from LGBT people in exchange for releasing them from police custody. LGBT people told Human Rights Watch they faced a range of physical attacks and online harassment because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or their LGBT rights activism. Many victims said they reported these attacks to the police, who took no discernible action.
The authorities, primarily the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations and the police, also led a crackdown against LGBT rights groups, shutting down organizations that provide vital legal, sexual, and mental health services, arresting and detaining their staff, and in some cases seizing equipment and soliciting bribes from their staff.
Many of the people Human Rights Watch interviewed said that while violence targeting LGBT people and anti-LGBT rhetoric existed well before the law was introduced, the hostility intensified during its adoption and since.
One LGBT rights activist said: “Before the bill was tabled [in February 2023], you would receive calls once in a while, where someone would say: ‘We know what you are doing.’… But when they started tabling the bill, that is when these calls started becoming a lot. Where people would keep on calling you [saying]: ‘We know where you stay. We know what you do.’”
On April 3, 2024, the Constitutional Court upheld most provisions of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, after a cross-section of human rights activists challenged the law on the grounds that it violates fundamental rights guaranteed in Uganda’s constitution. The court did, however, strike down sections that restricted healthcare access for LGBT people, criminalized renting premises to LGBT people, and created an obligation to report alleged acts of homosexuality.
Human Rights Watch wrote to the director of public prosecutions; the inspector general of police; the minister of health; the minister of information, communications technology, and national guidance; and the executive director of the Uganda Communications Commission, to provide a summary of research findings and to request information. None responded.
Ugandan authorities should end their clampdown on LGBT rights groups, refrain from engaging in anti-LGBT rhetoric and hate speech, and ensure that those responsible for incitement to hatred and other human rights abuses and crimes against LGBT people are held to account, Human Rights Watch said.
The government should repeal the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act and the Penal Code provisions criminalizing consensual same-sex conduct between adults. It should introduce comprehensive equality and nondiscrimination legislation that would protect everyone from violence and discrimination, including on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
“The state-sanctioned bigotry and discrimination that has only become more entrenched in Uganda over the past two years has no place in a society that upholds human rights and the rule of law,” Nyeko said. “Uganda should end its assault on LGBT people and choose a future of dignity, equality, and freedom for all those who live there.”
In a series of rushed hearings closed to the public at Apple’s request, a Moscow court on Monday fined the tech giant in three separate cases for violating Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda laws.
They’re the first cases brought against the company under the latest iteration of laws meant to erase LGBTQ+ identity, which President Vladimir Putin has called evidence of moral decay in the West.
Apple was found guilty of three administrative offenses related to “LGBT propaganda” and fined 7.5 million rubles, or about $93,500. A fourth case alleging Apple failed to take down unspecified non-LGBTQ+ online content that Moscow deems illegal earned a fourth fine for the company.
At the start of the first hearing, Apple’s representative, Elena Chetverikova, requested the proceedings be closed to the press and public because proprietary information about the company would be disclosed. It remains unclear precisely what Apple’s violation of laws related to “LGBTQ+ propaganda” was.
Adding to the confusion, the judge in the case, Alexandra Anokhina, rushed through her summary after the public was invited back into court following the first hearing.
Independent Russian news outlet Mediazona elaborated: “Our reporter notes that the judge read the decision at such a rapid pace it was virtually impossible to grasp the precise details of the claims. We then approached the court’s press secretary to request that a summary of the official court record be released for clarity. The response was terse: ‘The hearing is closed.’”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Apple has often yielded to Roskomnadzor, the country’s censorship agency, enabling the company to largely maintain its operations in Russia.
Based on research from digital rights group GreatFire and Apple’s own transparency report, the tech giant removed twelve applications at Russia’s behest in 2023. The apps allegedly violated laws enacted to silence dissent and counter “fake news” about the military, contrary to the state’s narrative about the war.
Amid a resurgent crackdown on dissent in 2024, Apple removed nearly sixty applications at Roskomnadzor’s request from the Russian App Store between July and mid-September, many without any public notification. Among them were several major VPN services, which enable secure, encrypted connections between servers and users.
In the aftermath, Amnezia VPN’s developers described Apple as “the largest provider of censorship in the world.”
Apple went on to restrict access to podcasts from BBC Russian, investigative news site The Insider, and Ekho Moskvy, a liberal radio station. In November, another fine was levied against the company for failing to delete unspecified “prohibited information.”
Apple was subject to Moscow’s first major punitive action around “LGBTQ+ propaganda” in August 2023, when a Moscow court fined the company for failing to remove “inaccurate” content concerning the war in Ukraine and accused it of targeting minors with LGBTQ+ content in a “destabilization” effort directed at the government.
That hearing was also held behind closed doors at Apple’s request, with company representatives citing “commercial confidentiality.”
Apps depicting same-sex couples were reportedly among the content in violation of “LGBTQ+ propaganda laws.”
President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if California did not stop a transgender girl in high school from competing in state track and field finals, and said he would discuss it with Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday.
Trump, in a social media post, appeared to be referring to AB Hernandez, 16, who has qualified to compete in the long jump, high jump and triple jump championship run by the California Interscholastic Federation at a high school in Clovis, California, this weekend.
The CIF is the governing body for California high school sports, and its bylaws state that all students “should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity.” California law prohibits discrimination, including at schools, based on gender identity.
Trump, a Republican, referred in his social media post on Tuesday to California’s governor as a “Radical Left Democrat” and said: “THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS.”
He said he was ordering local authorities not to allow the trans athlete to compete in the finals.
Under the U.S. and California constitutions, state and local officials and individuals are not subject to orders of the president, who can generally only issue orders to agencies and members of the federal government’s executive branch.
Trump threatened that “large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently,” if his demands are not met. Such a move would almost certainly lead to a legal challenge by California, which has already sued over multiple Trump actions it says are illegal or unconstitutional.
Trump also referred to comments Newsom made on his podcast in March when the governor also said he believed competition involving transgender girls was “deeply unfair.”
A spokesperson for Newsom declined to comment on Trump’s remarks, but referred to comments Newsom made in April when he said overturning California’s 12-year-old law allowing trans athletes to participate in sports was not a priority.
“You’re talking about a very small number of people,” Newsom told reporters. Out of the 5.8 million students in California’s public school system, there are estimated to be fewer than 10 active trans student athletes, according to the governor’s office.
A CIF spokesperson did not respond to questions, and Hernandez could not be immediately reached for comment.
Some local school officials and parents have sought to prevent Hernandez from competing; others have spoken in support of Hernandez and condemned what they say is bullying of a teenager.
In an interview with Capital & Main, Hernandez dismissed claims she has an unfair biological advantage in sports, noting that while she had placed first in a triple jump event this month, she came in eighth in the high jump and third in the long jump.
“All I thought was, I don’t think you understand that this puts your idiotic claims to trash,” Hernandez said of her mixed showing.
In a statement shared on X Tuesday afternoon, several hours after Trump’s social media post about California student athletics, the CIF announced it would be piloting a new “entry process” for this weekend’s track and field championships that will allow more cisgender, or nontransgender, female athletes to compete.
“Any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section’s automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships,” the statement said, in part.
The statement did not specify whether the new process would only apply to events for which Hernandez qualified.
A broad coalition of leading LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations including Equality California, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the California LGBTQ+ Health and Human Services Network, TransLatin@ Coalition, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, and more are calling on the Legislature to restore more than $31 million in proposed budget cuts to the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity (CDPH-OHE), which would eliminate dozens of programs serving LGBTQ+ communities across the state.
The Governor’s May Revise for the 2025-26 State Budget proposes to eliminate two major CDPH-OHE initiatives: the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) and the Gender Health Equity Section (GHES). The move would rescind funding already awarded through existing contracts to more than 68 contracted community-based organizations across California—more than half of which focus on LGBTQ+ populations, including trans, nonbinary, and BIPOC communities.
“The Governor’s proposal to eliminate funding for several vital programs at OHE is deeply troubling and would have devastating consequences for LGBTQ+ Californians, immigrants, and communities of color,” said Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang. “It would force Equality California and many of our LGBTQ+ partner organizations to shut down trusted, culturally competent programs that are already saving lives across the state. As a state that has long claimed national leadership on equity and inclusion, California must double down on that commitment, not abandon the people who need its support most.”
The proposed cuts include grant programs that were created with explicit legislative direction and funded by the Legislature in previous budget cycles. These include programs supporting LBTQ health equity, LGBTQ+ foster youth, and access to reproductive healthcare. The grants fund grassroots mental health services, trauma-informed care, peer support, and capacity-building in underserved regions and communities too often overlooked by mainstream systems.
“These cuts come at a time when LGBTQ+ communities are already facing national rollbacks, from Medicaid slashes and HIV treatment cuts to bans on gender-affirming care and shrinking access to mental health services,” said Dannie Ceseña, MPH, Director of the California LGBTQ+ Health and Human Services Network. “With trauma mounting from political attacks, California should be leading, not cutting lifelines. Slashing nearly half of the Office of Health Equity’s budget, the only state office specifically dedicated to addressing health disparities, breaks trust.”
During yesterday’s Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittee hearings, legislators asked CDPH for clarification on the rationale and transparency of these cuts. LGBTQ+ and reproductive justice organizations have also organized community members and health equity advocates to speak out at upcoming budget hearings and submit public comments in opposition to these harmful cuts.
“Governor Newsom’s proposed cuts to the LGBTQ+ Health Equity Fund are a moral failure and a betrayal of California’s most vulnerable,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO, Los Angeles LGBT Center. “Stripping lifesaving funding from over 68 community organizations—especially those serving LBTQ women, trans, and nonbinary people—is indefensible. These programs shouldn’t be viewed as budget relief; they’re staffed, trusted, and saving lives. California must fully restore and expand this initiative. Our state’s legacy of health justice is at stake—and our communities cannot be left behind.”
“In this critical moment, California must double down, not retract, its efforts to advance health equity and reduce health disparities,” said Jodi Hicks, CEO and President of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. “As proud providers of community based health education programs in under-resourced areas throughout the state, the Planned Parenthood affiliates in California are dismayed by this proposal to eliminate critical CDPH OHE programs. These proposed cuts would impact real lives and be a departure from California’s commitment to eliminating gender-based health disparities and improving the health and well-being of Californians.”
The coalition of LGBTQ+ and reproductive justice organizations is urging the Legislature to fully restore funding to the Office of Health Equity’s California Reducing Disparities Project and Gender Health Equity Section in the final 2025-26 State Budget. With more than 68 community programs on the line, legislators must act swiftly to prevent irreparable harm to California’s LGBTQ+ communities. Equity cannot be protected in name only; it must be backed by the resources to deliver real impact.
“These aren’t just cuts—they’re an act of erasure,” said Bamby Salcedo, President and CEO of The TransLatin@ Coalition. “The state is pulling funding from programs that were already promised, already contracted, and already making an impact in our communities. You can’t claim to champion equity while dismantling the only infrastructure built to support TGI people. These programs are lifelines and we need the legislature to restore and expand these services.”
The coalition’s full public letter and list of organizational signatories will be submitted to the Legislature this week
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a student’s challenge on free speech grounds to a Massachusetts public school’s decision to bar him from wearing a T-shirt reading “There are only two genders” due to concern about the message’s effect on transgender and other pupils.
The justices turned away an appeal by the student, who was 12 at the time of the 2023 incident, of a lower court’s ruling upholding the ban as a reasonable restriction and rejecting his claim that the school’s action violated the U.S. Constitution’s protections against government abridgment of speech.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. The court should have heard the case, Alito wrote, noting that “the school permitted and indeed encouraged student expression endorsing the view that there are many genders,” but censored an opposing view.
Lawyers for Morrison at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, say students were “bombarded” with messages promoting the view “that sex and gender are self-defined, limitless, and unmoored from biology.”
Morrison believes that view is “false and harmful” and responded in March 2023 when he was in seventh grade by wearing the T-shirt. After he was told to remove it, he later wore another shirt that said “There are [censored] genders.”
Morrison was not punished for wearing the shirts, although he was told he could not wear them in class and was sent home when he refused to remove the first one.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, you will recall, creates fake companies so that the person they chose to act as owner can challenge LGBTQ rights laws.
