Calling all zine lovers: Santa Rosa Zine Fest(#SRZF2024) is back for its fourth year! Join the Sonoma County Library and the Santa Rosa Zine CollectiveApril 17-20for a celebration of zines, creativity, art, and community. From an intro to zines with Luminescent Squid and zine bingowith Jordan Sea at BREW, to live screen printing with P.O.P. (PRINT | ORGANIZE | PROTEST), Zine Fest invites all ages to explore a world of DIY and self-expression. The week tops off in an all-ages, outdoor festival at the Northwest Santa Rosa Library on Saturday, April 20, 1-5 pm, featuring hands-on workshops, tabling by local artists and organizations, and the Sonoma County Library’s BiblioBus! Find out more here.
Meraxes Medina, a 24-year-old transgender Latina, was shot to death March 21 in Los Angeles.
Police responded to a call about 4:30 a.m. that day and found her on the street on the city’s south side, having been shot in the head, the Los Angeles Timesreports. She had been dumped from a car. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
The Times story did not state Medina’s name, but her identity was confirmed by friends on a GoFundMe page. Another woman, apparently cisgender, was fatally shot in the same neighborhood two days earlier. The area is known for sex work, and police have said the women had been engaged in sexual encounters that led to violence. The deaths remain under investigation.
Medina, who turned 24 in February and recently begun hormone therapy, had worked as a makeup artist at Universal Studios. She was undocumented and had experienced homelessness. But friends were predicting great things for her.
“She left an impression on everybody,” her longtime friend Alejandro Fernandez told officials at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “She was someone you weren’t going to forget. She had this aura about her, and everywhere we went, people would turn around. She had so much potential. I was waiting for her to be an influencer and blow up. I would tell her, ‘Girl, I’m waiting for your moment because you’re already the bomb.’”
Another friend, Alisha Veneno, told the center, “We were just trying to make it in life. We didn’t know what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go, but we wanted to go somewhere.” Veneno said she knew something was wrong when she didn’t see any recent activity from Medina on Instagram, where she normally posted several times a day, displaying her skills with makeup.
“Meraxes was a young woman who deserved to live out a long and fulfilling life,” Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative,” said in a press release. “At just 24 years old, she had so much more to give. Yet again, we find ourselves honoring the life and mourning the loss of someone from our transgender community killed by gun violence, and that alarming reality should emphasize our collective need to fight against lax gun laws. We need to come together and remind everyone, especially lawmakers and politicians, that our lives are worth saving and worth living.”
“Violence against transgender and gender-expansive people is a gun violence issue,” the groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Students Demand Action posted on Instagram. “In 2023, 80% of homicides of trans people were with a gun, and 60% of victims were under 30. … Trans people deserve to live freely without fear of gun violence. They deserve to grow old. We can and must #DisarmHate by simultaneously fighting discriminatory anti-LGBTQ+ policies and attempts to weaken gun laws.”
“A predator stalking sex workers is something we must attend to with all haste,” added Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents.“It is far too easy for these women (in this case) to be overlooked because of society’s practice of dehumanizing sex workers.”
A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a law in Florida that barred a transgender teacher from using pronouns that don’t align with her birth sex.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted transgender teacher Katie Wood a temporary injunction against the law, writing in a strongly worded opinion that it violates her First Amendment rights.
“Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem,” Walker wrote. “Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it.”
“This time,” Walker continued, “the State of Florida declares that it has the absolute authority to redefine your identity if you choose to teach in a public school. So, the question before this Court is whether the First Amendment permits the State to dictate, without limitation, how public-school teachers refer to themselves when communicating to students. The answer is a thunderous ‘no.’”
The Florida Department of Education did not immediately return a request for comment.
Wood and two other teachers, one who is also a trans woman and one who is nonbinary, filed a lawsuit in December in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida over the state’s Parental Rights in Education act, or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bars teachers from using pronouns or titles that don’t align with their birth sex.
When Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis initially signed the law in March 2022, it prohibited “classroom instruction” on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate.” DeSantis signed an expansion to the measure in May 2023 that prohibits such classroom instruction from prekindergarten through eighth grade, restricts health education in sixth through 12th grade, and bars teachers and students from using pronouns and titles that don’t align with their birth sex.
When DeSantis signed the expanded law, he said that Florida would not do “the pronoun Olympics” and that teachers and students would “never be forced to declare pronouns in school or be forced to use pronouns not based on biological sex.”
Wood, who has taught math at Lennard High School in Hillsborough County since the 2021-22 school year, said in the lawsuit that her district was supportive of her identity and that her students knew her by “Ms. Wood.” However, under the new law, she was prohibited from asking students to call her Ms. Wood because she was assigned male at birth, and she couldn’t correct them if they misgendered her and called her “Mr.” or by “he” and “him” pronouns. As a result, she asked students to call her “Teacher Wood,” which she said made her feel stigmatized, since no other teachers at the school use that title.
Hillsborough County Public Schools did not immediately return a request for comment.
Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, AV Schwandes, was fired in October 2023 for using the gender-neutral honorific “Mx.” The third plaintiff, Jane Doe, came out as trans in 2021 and has been working as a teacher in Lee County Schools since the 2017-18 school year.
The three plaintiffs argued that Florida’s law discriminates against them on the basis of sex and violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
They also argued that it violates their First Amendment free speech rights, and Wood and Schwandes asked the court for a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the law while their case is ongoing. Walker granted the injunction for Wood in part because Walker said her free speech rights were violated and the violation was ongoing. He denied the injunction for Schwandes since they had been fired from their job and were not facing a continued violation of such rights.
“I am hopeful that this ruling will encourage those who feel powerless to stand up for themselves,” Wood said in a statement Wednesday. “Where there is pain, there is power. And anything can happen when good people stand up together.”
Walker, a Florida native who was appointed to the court by President Barack Obama in 2012, quoted Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” in his opinion granting the injunction for Wood.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, pictured left at a swearing-in ceremony, is expected to rule on the state’s motion to dismiss the case brought by the three plaintiffs.Colin Hackley / U.S. Attorneys Office Northern District of Florida
“In sharing her preferred title and pronouns, Ms. Wood celebrates herself and sings herself—not in a disruptive or coercive way, but in a way that subtly vindicates her identity, her dignity, and her humanity,” Walker wrote. The section of Florida’s law that prohibits her from using the pronouns of her gender identity “has silenced her and, by silencing her, forced her to inhabit an identity that is not her own.”
“The State of Florida has not justified this grave restraint, and so the United States Constitution does not tolerate it,” he wrote. “Ours is a Union of individuals, celebrating ourselves and singing ourselves and being ourselves without apology.”
Walker is expected to issue an additional decision soon on the state’s motion to dismiss the case.
C.J.*, a volunteer with the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Auxiliary Officer program, says fellow officers and supervisors subjected him to homophobic harassment, including an off-duty assault, vandalism of his departmental locker, and retaliation for complaining about how he was being treated.
Officers in the NYPD’s auxiliary program supplement the regular police force and perform limited duties like foot patrolling, traffic, and parade control. Auxiliary officers get a uniform and a modified badge and aren’t given a gun, pepper spray, or allowed to arrest anyone. Auxiliary officers can also join “special units” that patrol specific transport areas like the subways, highways, or ports.
C.J. moved from Dallas, Texas to New York City in 2012. He worked a full-time job and began volunteering for the NYPD’s auxiliary unit that same year. But because of his negative experiences in the military, he hadn’t planned on coming out in the NYPD.
However, in 2014 the coordinating officer of his auxiliary unit informed Jimenez that his fellow officers all knew he was gay. C.J. didn’t know how they found out or who began telling others, but the outing made him feel very uncomfortable. He decided he wouldn’t “broadcast” his homosexuality at the department, but he could sense that others were gossiping about it.
C.J. told LGBTQ Nation that he endured a lot of mistreatment in the military because of his perceived sexual orientation. He served in the U.S. Army from January 2000 to January 2005, joined the U.S. Army Reserves in 2007, and served in Iraq from 2008 to 2009.
At the time, he didn’t report his mistreatment to his superior officers for fear of being forcibly discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. military ban on homosexual service members. He retired from the reserves as a Sergeant First Class in June 2022.
However, his old fears about homophobic mistreatment materialized in October 2014 when fellow Auxiliary Officer David Jones* allegedly assaulted him while off-duty. C.J. already disliked Officer Jones, seeing him as a narcissist whom he never saw eye-to-eye with. While the two were being driven from a Halloween party, they got into a drunken verbal argument.
Jones began yelling and belittling C.J., to which C.J. responded, “You’re just pissed off because I’m gay and I have more balls than you, and you haven’t been in Iraq.”
When C.J. exited the vehicle to take a subway home, Jones allegedly shoved him out of the car onto the ground, began kicking and choking him, and called him a “wetb**k,” a “queer,” and a “dirty fa***t.” C.J. said he felt stunned and surprised to see Jones’ “true colors.”
The attack didn’t leave C.J. with any serious injuries, but he felt emotionally shaken. Despite this, he didn’t report the attack because it happened off-duty and because he thought things at the NYPD would be better if he didn’t.
C.J. C.J. wearing his military uniform
In 2015, Jones was transferred to a special auxiliary unit. In November of that same year, C.J. asked Sergeant John Smith*, the coordinator overseeing all auxiliary special units, for a transfer to another special unit patrolling the borough of Queens. C.J. spoke with that unit’s coordinator, Sergeant Tim Jackson*, and went on rides with two unit sergeants who seemed to like him.
But by February 2016, neither Smith nor Jackson had returned C.J.’s calls asking about his transfer. “At that point, I began to realize something wasn’t right,” C.J. told LGBTQ Nation.
By July 2016, C.J. spoke with Detective Robert Brown*, an officer overseeing the special unit Jones had transferred to. C.J. confided about the assault, and Brown reportedly told him that Smith and Jackson weren’t processing his transfer request because he didn’t get along with Jones.
Tired of the stonewalling and mistreatment, C.J. reported Jones’ assault to NYPD Internal Affairs in October 2016. Nine months later, in July 2017, C.J. tried filing another transfer request to the special unit where Jones no longer worked. Brown, the unit head, seemed reluctant to accept C.J.’s transfer request, C.J. said.
In November of that year, C.J. filed a complaint with the NYPD’s Equal Opportunity (EO) office about the lack of responses to his transfer requests. In response, Smith then allegedly ordered C.J. not to contact him or anyone in auxiliary special units anymore. C.J. felt that his order was a retaliation for filing a complaint.
In June 2018, C.J. filed a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights that he was being retaliated against for his EO complaint. However, C.J. didn’t pursue it because he couldn’t afford a lawyer.
C.J. unsuccessfully filed another transfer request in October 2018. He then filed a Human Rights complaint with the City of New York in September 2019 to address the ongoing stonewalling. The COVID-19 shutdowns of 2020 delayed any handling of his complaint, and it was administratively dismissed in September 2021. Yet again, C.J. chose not to pursue the matter because he couldn’t afford a lawyer.
C.J. C.J. marching at Stonewall 50: World Pride NYC 2019 with the NYC Veterans Alliance
Despite the stonewalling, C.J. continued volunteering with the auxiliary program. However, in December 2020, someone broke into his departmental locker, cutting the lock with bolt cutters. Whoever had broken in had removed his duty belt, baton, flashlight, uniform cap, road guard vest, tie, and other various uniform items that he kept in a blue IKEA bag. The vandal hadn’t touched any items belonging to his locker mate. He later found what he believes to be his broken lock on top of the lockers while deep cleaning the area in May 2023.
“I was hesitant to say anything because I was burned out,” he told LGBTQ Nation. He felt like hehad been targeted for filing complaints and that no one would really care or do anything about the locker break-in. He alerted the EO office about the vandalism, but nothing came of it, just as nothing came of his repeated transfer requests, the most recent of which he filed in late 2023. C.J. says his transfers seem to keep disappearing with no explanation.
C.J. says he has had no disciplinary actions filed against him for any misconduct on the force, meaning that his on-duty behavior doesn’t seem to be the reason for his mistreatment. He feels his experience at the NYPD shows that some in the department are acting like a “good ol’ boys” club at the taxpayers’ expense, basing their workplace decisions on who he gets along with rather than his actual qualifications.
LGBTQ Nation contacted the NYPD for comment but they did not respond by the time of publication.
“Following the locker incident, I have been reluctant to do any auxiliary police patrols because, at this point, I feel very uncomfortable because of everything that has happened,” C.J. told LGBTQ Nation. Despite this, he said he has stayed in the NYPD because he refuses to be scared away.
“NYC prides itself on being a safe haven for LGBTQ [people] and NYPD says it is here to protect the LGBTQ community,” he added. “However, look at what happened to me after I felt safe to open my mouth about a problem in a place that is supposed to be a safe haven — I am getting the runaround.”
C.J. said he missed out on his longevity ceremony and because of his reluctance to do hours due to the runaround. He is telling his story now in hopes that the NYPD might finally live up to its standards and address his ongoing issues, not only for himself but for future officers who might otherwise face similar mistreatment.
“I know from military experience that all it takes is one or two people with ulterior motives … to make things difficult for [someone], especially if they have power over them such as rank or authority,” he said. “My goal isn’t a lawsuit, or another investigation — all I want is the wrong righted.”
*The officer in this story asked LGBTQ Nation to use aliases for fear of violating department policies as his official complaints move through the system.
The Vatican has issued a declaration listing “gender theory,” gender-affirming care, and even surrogacy as “violations of human dignity” alongside war, poverty, human trafficking, and other actual atrocities.
On Monday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department in charge of religious discipline for the Catholic Church, released its “Dignitas Infinita.” The 20-page document has been in the works for the past five years and was approved by Pope Francis in March, according to the Associated Press. It calls for unconditional respect for human dignity regardless of “the person’s ability to understand and act freely,” reiterating Catholic teachings opposing abortion and euthanasia.
Notably, it denounces “as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.” It quotes Pope Francis’s 2016 “Amoris Laetitia” (“The Joy of Love”), in which he stated that “every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.”
At the same time, it quotes a January 2024 address in which Francis described “gender theory” as “extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal.”
“Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes,” the document asserts, “amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God.” It also claims that “gender theory” denies “the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference.”
It quotes Francis’s “Amoris Laetitia,”, stating, “It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,’”
In a section on “Sex Change,” Monday’s declaration asserts that gender-affirming care “risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” However, it endorses surgical intervention for intersex people, which it describes as people “with genital abnormalities.”
As for surrogacy, it claims the practice violates a child’s “right to have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin,” and “also violates the dignity of the woman, whether she is coerced into it or chooses to subject herself to it freely,” because she “is detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others.”
LGBTQ+ Catholic groups have already slammed the declaration.
Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry told the Associated Press, “While it lays out a wonderful rationale for why each human being, regardless of condition in life, must be respected, honored, and loved,” the document “does not apply this principle to gender-diverse people.”
“The suggestion that gender-affirming health care — which has saved the lives of so many wonderful trans people and enabled them to live in harmony with their bodies, their communities and [God] — might risk or diminish trans people’s dignity is not only hurtful but dangerously ignorant,” said Berlin-based activist Mara Klein. “Seeing that, in contrast, surgical interventions on intersex people — which if performed without consent especially on minors often cause immense physical and psychological harm for many intersex people to date — are assessed positively just seems to expose the underlying hypocrisy further.”
With Republican lawmakers across the U.S. continuing to push restrictions on access to gender-affirming care, Klein slammed the Vatican’s declaration at a time of “rising hostility towards our communities.”
Ella Matthes, the longtime publisher and editor of Lesbian News Magazine, died March 16 at a hospital in Norwalk, Calif. She was 81 years old, and the cause was a heart attack, according to a press release.
She ran Lesbian News Magazine, commonly known as the LN, from 1994 until 2022. The LN was North America’s longest-running lesbian publication. When it was founded in 1975 in Southern California by Jinx Beer, it was the lone voice for lesbian issues (The Ladder, published by the Daughters of Bilitis, had ceased publication three years earlier) and evolved throughout the years under Matthes’s leadership. The press release calls it “the nation’s foremost voice for lesbians of all ages.” It carried cover stories on Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, Ellen DeGeneres, Marlee Matlin, Hillary Clinton, Toni Braxton, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Judith Light, Janet McTeer, and more.
Matthes, a native of Los Angeles, bought a printing company, Superior Printers, when she was in her 20s, and ran it for several decades. However, she wanted to support lesbians and iacrease their visibility, so in 1994, she bought Lesbian News Magazine from Deborah Bergman, who had acquired it from Beers.
This was her mission statement: “The editorial vision of the LN has always been to inform, entertain, and be of service to women who love women of all ages, economic class, and color. We hope women from all walks of life will not only find something of themselves in the LN, but also be accepting of those with differing opinions. Lesbian News is our small contribution to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender liberation movement.”
She received several awards for her work, including the 2002 Women’s Night Gay & Lesbian Center’s Lesbian & Bisexual Women Active in Community Empowerment Award, the 2002 Business Alliance of Los Angeles Community Involvement Award, the 2003 Southern California Women for Understanding Community Service Award, and the 2012 Vox Femina Los Angeles Aria Award.
Matthes and Gladi Adams had been together for 26 years and were married July 13, 2013. Matthes’s survivors include Adams and a brother, Carl Matthes.
Memorial donations in her name may be made to the June Mazer Archives in West Hollywood.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed a law on Monday that adds crucial protections for LGBTQ+ couples using fertility treatments to build a family.
The Michigan Family Protection Act includes a series of provisions to protect families of all kinds. Most notably for the LGBTQ+ community, it changes “outdated state law to treat LGBTQ+ families equally and eliminate the need for them to go through a costly and invasive process to get documentation confirming their parental status,” as a press release from the governor’s office explains, adding that “Even if they move to a state that does not respect these basic rights, these bills help ensure they cannot be denied their relationship to their child.”
The law also repeals a law that made Michigan the only state in the country to criminalize surrogacy contracts; increases protections for surrogates, parents, and children; ensures equal legal treatment of children born through surrogacy and assisted reproduction; and streamlines the process for families to establish legal connections to their children.
“The Michigan Family Protection Act takes commonsense, long-overdue action to repeal Michigan’s ban on surrogacy, protect families formed by IVF, and ensure LGBTQ+ parents are treated equally,” Gov. Whitmer said in a statement. “Your family’s decisions should be up to you, and my legislative partners and I will keep fighting like hell to protect reproductive freedom in Michigan and make our state the best place to start, raise, and grow your family.”
Stephanie Jones, founder of the Michigan Fertility Alliance, called the legislation “an incredible victory for all Michigan families formed through assisted reproduction, including IVF and surrogacy, and for LGBTQ+ families.
The press release also acknowledged the attacks on reproductive rights taking place across the country, most notably the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and the 2024 Alabama Supreme Court’s declaration that embryos created through IVF have the same legal rights as children.
“As other states seek to restrict IVF, ban abortion, and make it harder to start a family, Michigan is supporting women and protecting reproductive freedoms for everyone,” the release stated.
One fierce advocate, Tammy Myers, has been fighting for the decriminalization of surrogacy in the state for the past four years. She told7 Action News, “The tipping point, I think, is seeing that rights are being taken across the nation and we all need to fight for reproductive freedom.”
Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), added in a statement, “Michigan has shown us what strengthening families should look like in 2024: making it more possible for people to fulfill their dreams of building a family and more accessible for all families, including LGBTQ+ families, to obtain the safety and stability that comes with legal parentage.”
“Amid efforts to restrict Americans’ reproductive freedom and roll back protections for LGBTQ+ people and their families, the Michigan Family Protection Act is an inspiring example for other states where gaps in parentage laws leave families vulnerable.”
New York state officials may continue to take legal action against a county outside New York City that has banned transgender players from women’s and girls teams, a judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury denied Nassau County’s request for a temporary restraining order against state Attorney General Letitia James, saying the Long Island county “falls far short of meeting the high bar for securing the extraordinary relief.”
Among other things, Choudhury said the county failed to “demonstrate irreparable harm,” which she said was a “critical prerequisite” for such an order.
The ruling, however, doesn’t address the legality of the county’s ban or James’ request that the lawsuit be dismissed. Those issues will be decided at a later date.
Last month, James, a Democrat, issued a “cease and desist” letter to the county demanding it rescind the ban because she said it violates New York’s anti-discrimination laws. The ban also faces a legal challenge from a local women’s roller derby league, which has asked a state court to invalidate it.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, responded to James’ action with a federal lawsuit asking a judge to affirm that the ban was legal and to prevent James from taking action against it.
Blakeman’s February order, which affects more than 100 public facilities in the county just east of the New York City borough of Queens, states that any female sports organization that accepts transgender women or girls will be denied permits to use county-owned parks and fields.
Echoing the arguments of officials who have taken similar actions in other Republican-led cities and states, the county says women and girls will be discriminated against and their constitutional rights to equal protection will be violated if transgender athletes are allowed to compete alongside them.
James and Blakeman’s offices did not respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.
The American Library Association has released its list of the 10 most challenged books of 2023, and seven of the 10 were challenged — that is, subject to ban attempts — at least in part for LGBTQ+ content. Several of them are by or about people of color.
“In looking at the titles of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQIA+ people and people of color,” ALA President Emily Drabinski said in a press release. “At ALA, we are fighting for the freedom to choose what you want to read. Shining a light on the harmful workings of these pressure groups is one of the actions we must take to protect our right to read.”
The top 10 list, released Monday during National Library Week, consists of these books:
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe; reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson; reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson; reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky; reasons: claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQ+ content, rape, drugs, profanity
Flamer by Mike Curato; reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; reasons: rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, equity, diversity, and inclusion content
Tricks by Ellen Hopkins; reasons: claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQ+ content
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews; reasons: claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity
Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan; reasons: claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQ+ content
Sold by Patricia McCormick; reasons: claimed to be sexually explicit, rape
“These are books that contain the ideas, the opinions, and the voices that censors want to silence — stories by and about LGBTQ+ persons and people of color,” ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said in the release. “Each challenge, each demand to censor these books is an attack on our freedom to read, our right to live the life we choose, and an attack on libraries as community institutions that reflect the rich diversity of our nation. When we tolerate censorship, we risk losing all of this. During National Library Week, we should all take action to protect and preserve libraries and our rights.”
Attempts at book censorship took a giant leap in 2023, with 4,240 titles targeted in schools and libraries nationwide — a 65 percent increase from 2022’s record of 2,571, according to the ALA. There were 1,247 demands to censor books, with many targeting multiple titles, as documented by the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom.
Monday is the second anniversary of Right to Read Day, a day of action launched by the ALA’s Unite Against Book Bans initiative, which takes place the Monday of National Library Week. This year’s theme is “Don’t Let Censorship Eclipse Your Freedom to Read,” and anyone who supports the right to read is encouraged to take action by contacting Congress.
The Top 10 Books are featured in Unite Against Book Bans’ Book Résumé resource. Launched in February, these résumés support librarians, educators, parents, students, and other community advocates when they defend books from censorship. Created in collaboration with the publishing industry and library workers, each book résumé summarizes the book’s significance and educational value, including a synopsis, reviews from professional journals, awards, accolades and more. Where possible, the book résumés include information about how a title has been successfully retained in school districts and libraries after a demand to censor the book.
Also Monday, ALA announced the theme for Banned Books Week 2024, “Freed Between the Lines,” which honors the ways in which books bring us freedom and that access to information is worth preserving. Banned Books Week will take place September 22-28.
Cardiff has been chosen to host the EuroGames in 2027, marking the first time the LGBTQ+-inclusive event has been held in the UK.
LGBTQ+ sports development and inclusion organisation, Pride Sports Cymru, has been successful in ensuring that Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ sporting event would be staged in the Welsh capital.
The first EuroGames, governed by the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation, was held in The Hague in The Netherlands in 1992 and this year’s event will be staged in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in July.
Up to 10,000 athletes, including transgender sportsmen and women, are expected to descend on Cardiff in 2027.
The chairperson of Cardiff Dragons – Wales’ first mixed gender LGBTQ+ football club – Charlotte Galloway told the BBC: “People are allowed to identify and play in their authentic gender. That means trans women can play in the women’s category and trans men can play in the men’s category.
“I think it’s really important that we’re able to do this because there’s no other competition this big in Europe that allows gender-non-conforming people, trans people and non-binary people to compete this way.”
It shows that sport is for everyone, she added.
Duncan Cameron, the chairperson of gay and inclusive rugby union club Cardiff Lions, said: “One of the greatest things about the EuroGames is that it’s open to anybody, no matter how they identify, no matter who you are.
“A lot of people don’t know that there are inclusive rugby teams or football teams [and lots of other] sports that are going to be highlighted. It’s a great chance for us to show what we can do on a national and global stage.”
And Neil Roberts, from LGBTQ+-inclusive badminton club the Cardiff Red Kites, responded to the news by saying the games could help “embed the culture that sport is something everyone should enjoy, regardless of who they are, who they love, what race or what background they come from”.
Meanwhile, Pride Sports director Lou Englefield said: “We’re delighted to be bringing a EuroGames to Wales. It is a huge privilege. [It’s] an opportunity to highlight Wales’ commitment to become the most LGBTQ+-friendly nation in Europe.”
Pride Sports team member Jess Williams, added: “A EuroGames in Wales will be transformative for LGBTQ+ people in sport, and indeed the whole community. The legacy the games will create, and opportunity for positive change, is enormous.”
The chief executive of the Welsh Sports Association, Andrew Howard, congratulated Pride Sports Cymru on its successful bid. “The event will undoubtedly prove a celebration and awe-inspiring showcase of inclusive sport, in a first for Cardiff and the UK,” he said.
