North Bay LGBTQI Families is hosting training opportunities on LGBTQIA+ youth, family, and community inclusion, cultural responsiveness, and safe spaces with your local early childhood education providers, including daycares, preschools, TK/kindergarten teachers, and schools.
There will be a 2-part virtual training series in February (on the 12th and 26th from 10a-12p) and another one in March (on the 10th & 24th from 6p-8p) with the same content, and both will be offered in English and Spanish. See the flyer images above for further details, and please circulate widely! You can also access or forward the registration link here.
North Bay LGBTQI Families is working with First 5 Sonoma County, First 5 Napa, Rainbow Action Network, the Solano County Office of Education, and The Quality Counts CA Region 1 HUB for their work in making these critically important resources available our local providers, youth, and families.
A great deal has changed for LGBT+ people in the United States since Joe Biden came into office one year ago today – but there’s still a long way to go.
The dark days of the Trump presidency aren’t quite as distant a memory as we might like. The far-right still holds a great deal of influence in the United States, and queer people continue to face disproportionate levels of violence and discrimination.
Since inauguration day on 20 January 2021, Joe Biden and Kamala Harrishave strengthened legal rights, they have rolled back Trump-era attacks, and they’ve created a more hospitable environment for LGBT+ people to exist in. The feeling among LGBT+ rights activists and advocacy groups is clear – it’s a good start, but there’s still plenty more to achieve.
One year on from inauguration day, we take a look at some of the issues Biden and Harris need to focus on over the next year to ensure that LGBT+ people’s lives are improving in tangible ways.
Joe Biden needs to end the epidemic of violence against trans women
Trans people, particularly trans women of colour, continue to face shocking levels of violence in the United States and across the world. We wish we could say things were getting better – but Biden’s first year in office was also the deadliest year on record for trans people in the United States.
One thing is clear – something needs to change, and it needs to change fast. The problem is that a political solution isn’t entirely clear or straightforward, according to Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign.
It’s a regressive policy that is not based in science, and it’s a cruel hangover from the worst days of the AIDS epidemic.
“The American Red Cross just announced a blood donation crisis,” Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO and president of GLAAD, tells PinkNews. “Our nation’s blood supply is drastically, dangerously low. One way to alleviate the shortage and advance equality would be to urge the FDA to eliminate the discriminatory deferral period for gay and bisexual men to donate blood, and lead all agencies to revise donor screening processes to focus on current science rather than outdated notions and stigma.”
“We applaud the administration’s efforts to enforce nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ young people in schools, particularly transgender, nonbinary, and intersex students who are experiencing ongoing attacks and attempts to sanction discrimination in state legislatures across the country,” they say.
“GLSEN will continue to partner with the US Department of Education and other federal agencies to strengthen these protections and promote inclusive data collection practices that will help increase the effectiveness of programs and services.”
Over the next year, GLSEN would like to see the Biden administration expand on its current efforts to advance equality for LGBT+ people who face marginalisation in the education system. They would also like to see the administration “continue to se a tone that encourages classroom teachers, families, principals, administrators, state leaders and everyone who is part of K-12 learning communities to affirm and meet the needs of all students”.
The federal government must focus on LGBT+ mental health
Numerous studies have shown that LGBT+ people are more likely to experience mental health difficulties, and they’re also at a greater risk of suicide than their straight and cisgender peers.
Preston Mitchum is director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, an organisation that works to prevent suicide among LGBT+ people. He says Biden “deserves credit” for prioritising LGBT+ representation in his cabinet and for reversing the trans military ban, among other measures.
However, more has to be done to protect the mental wellbeing of LGBT+ people in America.
“We will continue to push the administration to take action at the federal level to protect young people from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy, to expand access to mental health care for all, to improve the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data across federal agencies, and to allocate the resources necessary to make [crisis line] 988 a success come July, including specialised services for LGBTQ youth,” Mitchum says.
Adam Polaski, communications director with Southern Equality, says the Biden administration needs to challenge those laws. He notes that Biden “has followed through on many of his commitments related to LGBTQ+ equality”, but it’s now time to look towards the future.
“We’d like to see him continue to use the ‘bully pulpit’ now to call for passage of federal non-discrimination protections – and, what’s more, work specifically with legislators on both sides of the aisle to pass meaningful federal protections,” Polaski says.
“He and his Department of Justice can also dive into challenging anti-LGBTQ laws, including the anti-trans healthcare discrimination law in Arkansas and myriad anti-trans student athletics laws. And we’d like to see him continue nominating out LGBTQ+ people and allies to federal judgeships and other government positions.”
The brilliantly funny queer comedian Robert White who made it to the finals of Britain’s Got Talent flippantly explained his Asbergers away by claiming he is a genius. He played the line for laughs although, by the time he finished his act, I had totally come to agree.
White’s appearance on TV is part of a visible dialogue about the sheer potential that people on the spectrum can achieve if their parents refuse to accept the traditional medical advice of just writing them off at childhood. Up to very recently once a child had been diagnosed with Aspergers they were actively encouraged to place them in a special residential home and literally walk away knowing that their child could never amount to anything.
Luckily for six-year-old Kyle Westphal when his parents learned he was on the Autism spectrum they went against all medical advice and refused to accept they could never develop a real connection to him. As they watched him withdraw from their world and all that was around him they desperately searched for an alternative means to enable Kyle to start to relate them
They are the real heroes of this heart-string-pulling film that documents the journey the entire family , and a host of volunteers undertook for Kyle to have a real connection with them. They came upon an experimental project which they soon embarked on which immersed them all in an intense one-on-one program with them joining Kyle in his unique behaviors The emphasis was not to punish or forbid him from constantly wrapping himself up in blankets and his favorite piece of fabric but to join him and encourage him and to slowly develop him to adopt other activities that would path a way into some more social behavior.
The documentary tracks this exceptional journey and the sheer patience and commitment to the lengthy process which is a story of extraordinary love the like of which is way too rare.
Now twenty years later and Kyle has achieved his lifetime ambition of becoming a fashion designer in which his tutors acknowledge how very talented he is at. It’s an art form that encourages individuality and uniqueness that so suits a very happy Kyle and gives him a sense of fulfillment none of us could have imagined at the start if his journey
Except maybe his parents as they look back and see how by ignoring the traditional medical advice and let the Kyle who always found comfort in his favorite fabric to making it his real purpose in his life.
We viewed this fascinating and eye-opening documentary by Dan Crane and Kate Taber recently at DOC NY Festival,and the new good news is that Greenwich Entertainment will be giving it a full release in February 2022. Make a note as you really shouldn’t miss it.
A lesbian member of the National Guard is suing the US Army and Air Force after her boss allegedly pressured her to “appear more feminine”.
Kristin M Kingrey of the West Virginia Air National Guard (WVNG) said she lost out on two jobs after repeated comments that she should grow her hair and wear make-up, according to a report by the Daily Beast.
Technical sergeant Kingrey, 37, filed a lawsuit on 23 November 2021 against the army she has worked in for nearly 14 years over comments made by a senior male leader.
Kingrey told the Daily Beast that a job she had successfully applied for was withdrawn after the comments were made, and that in another instance she was not hired for a position she was more than qualified for.
She said: “From 2016 to 2018, I was constantly being pulled into my seniors’ offices being told my hair was out of regs [non-regulation].
“It crossed a line into harassment, and I carried on my person a copy of our regulations in regards to female hair length because I was not breaking any rules.”
The lawsuit claims that the sergeant was subject to “continued harassment, discrimination, and retaliation based upon her sex, including her sexual orientation and perceived gender nonconformity.”
Kingrey alleged the incident that sparked the lawsuit happened when a senior leader, vice wing commander colonel Michael Cadle, asked a female lieutenant colonel to encourage Kingrey to begin appearing more feminine.
Kingrey said it was implied she should “grow my hair out and start wearing makeup because if I didn’t, it would be detrimental to my career in the West Virginia Air National Guard”.
She added: “I had heard of other females with short hair having issues with people saying things, but I don’t know that progressed to the extent mine did. My hair length has nothing do with my work ethic or job performance.
“Initially I was embarrassed. I could not believe that not fitting their mould of how I should look would truly impact my career. It was devastating.”
After the comments were made, the lesbian sergeant said that a job that had been verbally offered to her was suddenly longer no longer available because of an alleged funding cut.
The role was then re-advertised.
Mike Hissam, Kingrey’s attorney, said she is seeking the job offer back, as well as an apology from colonel Cadle.
He said: “We would want reinstatement and back pay… Kristin should get the position she applied for and would have gotten had it not been for the unlawful discrimination she suffered. That’s the outcome she wants.”
Kingrey told the Daily Beast: “The whole thing has made me feel that I don’t belong, and that my career will be hindered. But I have not considered quitting. I will not be defeated.
“They are not going to make me leave something that I truly love, and I truly love putting on the uniform every single day. I love my country, and I love my state, and I have served them both honourably for over 14 years.”
Holli R Nelson of the West Virginia Air National Guard told PinkNews in a statement: “The WVNG is fully committed to an inclusive and diverse workforce free from harassment.
“As a matter of policy, the WVNG does not comment on matters that are currently pending in litigation. But generally, the WVNG advised an outside agency who is charged with conducting investigations that are prompt, fair, and impartial in matters like this one.
“They produced a report with the factual record, and it was determined that no discrimination and/or harassment occurred. As such, we are continuing the process to present the facts to fully resolve this matter in the court system.”
A US Army spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “As a matter of policy, the Army does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
Kingrey told the Daily Beast that she is still “committed” to her career in the military.
“I just want to go through my career on a fair basis,” she said.
“I’ve never asked for favouritism just because I am from the LGBTQ community. I just want to be allowed to continue my military career based on my own merits and off my work ethic.”
Queeriosity Corner Friday, February 4 6:00–7:30 p.m. PT Online program $5 | Free for members
GLBT Historical Society archives staff members will present a veritable treasure trove of hidden LGBTQ history gems from the archives vault. Curatorial specialist Ramón Silvestre, reference archivist Isaac Fellman and project archivist Megan Needels have selected some of the most unusual and surprising material objects in the archives, and the trio will discuss their historical significance. The program culminates with the unveiling of a recently acquired artifact from the Tool Box Bar, SoMa’s most influential leather bar of the early 1960s, that has never been seen by the public.
“Queeriosity Corner” is a quarterly program series led by Silvestre that showcases treasured physical objects from the archives. Each program in the series explores a few such select items, including paintings, sculptures, objects, costumes, drawings, posters, photographs and ephemera, most of which have never been on public display. The series also features conversations with other museum professionals on display and curation best practices, institutional partnerships and related topics, all in delightfully entertaining queer show-and-tell format. Tickets are available online here.
The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil-rights investigation into how LGBTQ students are disciplined at Brigham Young University, a private religious school.
The complaint under investigation came after the school said it would still enforce a ban on same-sex dating even after that section was removed from the written version of the school’s honor code, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Students can be punished for holding hands or kissing someone of the same sex, harsher discipline than that faced by heterosexual couples at the school operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
BYU removed its written ban on “homosexual behavior,” in early 2020, prompting students to publicly come out as members of the LGBTQ community. But the school clarified a few weeks later that same-sex dating is still prohibited, even if it’s no longer expressly written in the honor code. It also bans things such as alcohol consumption, beards and piercings.
Students protested the apparent reversal, saying they felt tricked into coming out. The federal investigation from the department’s Office for Civil Rights started late last year under Title IX, the law that protects against discrimination on the basis of sex in schools.
A university spokeswoman acknowledged the investigation but said in a statement that BYU is within its rights to enforce the church’s policies against same-sex relationships and does not anticipate any further action.
“BYU is exempt from application of Title IX rules that conflict with the religious tenets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Carri Jenkins said in a statement.
The church has softened its approach in recent years but maintains doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage and sex outside of marriage.
A Department of Education spokesperson confirmed an investigation was opened in October, but declined to comment further. As a private religious school, BYU does have religious exemptions from Title IX related to sexuality and gender expression.
Federal scrutiny like this is rare at church-owned schools, and typically happens only in places where there are believed to be potential systemic or serious issues, said Michael Austin, a BYU graduate and vice president at the University of Evansville, a private Methodist school in Indiana.
“It’s really significant that investigators are stepping in now,” he told the newspaper. The new investigation appears to be about whether those exemptions allow faith-based discipline for LGBTQ students even if the behavior is not directly related to education or expressly prohibited in its written honor code.
The school’s president argued those exemptions do apply, and everyone who attends or works at BYU agrees to follow the honor code and “‘voluntarily commit to conduct their lives in accordance with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ,’” according to a letter Kevin Worthen wrote to the Department of Education in November 2021.
In a response obtained by the Tribune, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights affirmed the school does have some religious exemptions but the department had to investigate whether the complaint it received falls under those exemptions.
LGBTQ rights have been a major issue in recent years at the school located in Provo, Utah. A lawsuit filed by several students last year alleges discrimination, with one recent graduate who is a lesbian alleging she lost her job at the school because she didn’t look “feminine enough” to her boss.
The institution has also banned protests near its large letter “Y” posted on a mountainside after protesters lit the letter with rainbow colors. Last fall, a top-ranking church leader publicly criticized faculty members and students who challenge the faith’s teachings on same-sex marriage.
The National Football League (NFL) has filed to dismiss former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit regarding the leak of his homophobic, misogynistic and racist emails.
In one of them, Gruden called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a “f****t” and “clueless anti-football p***y”.
He also criticised Goodell for supposedly pressuring the St Louis Rams – which drafted openly gay player Michael Sam in 2014 – to hire “queers”.
Jon Gruden was working as an ESPN commentator at the time before rejoining the Raiders on a 10-year deal in 2018. He had previously worked as coach of the Raiders, who were located in Oakland at the time, from 1998 to 2001.
A new filing in Nevada state court saw the NFL argue that Gruden’s lawsuit shouldn’t go to court because they claimed to have evidence that the disgraced coach sent messages featuring hate-filled language to at least six people.
It had previously been reported that offensive language had only been used in the messages sent to former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen.
The NFL’s legal team suggested that league commissioner Roger Goodell would have unilaterally fired Gruden due to the messages if the former coach hadn’t resigned.
A hearing will be held on the motions filed by the NFL and Jon Gruden on 23 February.
According to The Athletic, the filing read: “Jon Gruden sent a variety of similarly abhorrent emails to a half dozen recipients over a seven-year period, in which he denounced ‘the emergence of women as referees’ and frequently used homophobic and sexist slurs to refer to commissioner Goodell, then-vice president Joseph Biden, a gay professional football player drafted in 2014, and others.”
However, Gruden filed to sue the league in November and claimed that the emails were leaked in order to hurt him because of offensive things he had written about Goodell.
The NFL fought back again this claim in their filing as they wrote: “This action – brought by Jon Gruden to blame anyone but himself for the fallout from the publication of racist, homophobic and misogynistic emails that he wrote and broadly circulated – belongs in arbitration under the clear terms of Gruden’s employment contract and the NFL’s constitution and bylaws to which Gruden is bound.”
Long-running “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider lost in an episode that aired Wednesday, ending the second-longest winning streak in the quiz show’s history.
Schneider, an engineering manager from Oakland, California, was defeated by Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago, who raked in $29,600 in the latest game, besting Schneider, at $19,600.
She left the show with nearly $1.4 million in winnings and had no regrets about the streak’s end.
Almost all of Schneider’s wins had been in 2-to-1 blowouts going into Final Jeopardy, meaning the final questions figured only in how much prize money she would score.
But Wednesday’s game was unusually close. Schneider led Talsma by $27,600 to $17,600 heading into the last question, under the category “Countries of the World.”
The show wanted to know which is the only nation that ends its English spelling with an “h” and is also among the world’s top 10 most populous countries.
Talsma correctly asked, “What is Bangladesh?” while Schneider came up blank. His winning bet of $12,000 and her losing wager of $8,000 meant a new champion was suddenly crowned.
“It’s really been an honor,” Schneider said. “To know that I’m one of the most successful people at a game I’ve loved since I was a kid and to know that I’m a part of its history now, I just don’t know how to process it.”
Talsma’s quick trigger was key to his staying close throughout the game, Schneider said.
“I had thought that Rhone was going to be tough going into it,” she said in a statement released by the show.
“I loved hanging out with him, we had great conversation before the taping, but I could tell that he was here to play and that he was going to be good. I still came very close to winning, but I did feel like maybe I was slipping a little bit. And once it was clear that he was fast on the buzzer, I knew it was going to be a battle all the way.”
Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago, finished in first place with $29,600.Casey Durkin / Sony Pictures Television
For much of the Double Jeopardy round, it looked as though Schneider would cruise to another easy win. At one point, she was up by $24,400 to $5,800 over Talsma.
But then Talsma nailed a late Daily Double, correctly naming the Greek goddesses of vengeance, the Furies. He doubled up from $7,800 to $15,600 and put himself in position to overtake Schneider in Final Jeopardy.
Just after the game, Schneider praised Talsma for taking the huge gamble on that Daily Double.
“It’s the right thing to do but I’ve seen several contestant not be able to pull the trigger on that,” she told the winner.
With nothing to lose, Talsma said he didn’t think twice.
“I’m just playing for fun, I was just going to go big. Wow,” he said.
When Talsma, sporting distinctive neon-framed glasses, took the “Jeopardy!” stage in Culver City, California, he had no idea he’d be facing down one of the winningest contestants in the show’s history.
“I’m still in shock,” Talsma said of his victory. “This is my favorite show. … I was so excited to be here, and I just wanted to do my best. I did not expect to be facing a 40-day champion, and I was excited to maybe see someone else slay the giant. I just really didn’t think it was going to be me, so I’m thrilled.”
Schneider’s success was particularly celebrated by the transgender community, as she became the first transgender contestant to make it to Tournament of Champions, which will be played this fall, and is now the highest-earning female competitor in “Jeopardy!” history.
She won $1,382,800, good for No. 4 all time in regular season play, trailing only Jennings ($2.5 million), James Holzhauer ($2.4 million) and Matt Amodio ($1.5 million).
Jennings, who splits “Jeopardy!” hosting duties with former “Blossom” and “Big Bang Theory” actor Mayim Bialik, presided over Schneider’s winning streak.
“It was just so amazing to watch; like I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” Jennings told Schneider on stage after the game. “It was an honor to be here.”
San Francisco police on Thursday revealed a sixth victim may be linked to the 1970s serial killer who targeted the city’s gay community and doubled reward money in hopes of ramping up efforts to solve the decades-old cold case.
The “Doodler” was previously suspected in at least five homicides of gay, white men between January 1974 and June 1975, police said in 2019. But police said Thursday that a potential sixth victim has been tied to the killer, exactly 48 years after the first victim was killed.
The possibility of a sixth victim was raised during a series in the San Francisco Chronicle last year, which followed cold case detectives Dan Cunningham and Dan Dedet as they investigated the death of Warren Andrews. The department confirmed it now believes Andrews is connected to the serial killer case. https://iframe.nbcnews.com/ZXkiMl1?_showcaption=true&app=1
“On April 27, 1975, Andrews was a victim of an assault at Land’s End,” the department said in a release. “Andrews was found unconscious and never regained consciousness dying several weeks later.”
Investigators have spent years attempting to identify the killer, who they believe targeted men at gay clubs and restaurants around San Francisco and often had sex with them before attacking them. Four bodies were found around Ocean Beach, a fifth at Golden Gate Park.
Andrews was attacked near Lands End, a popular hiking spot north of Golden Gate Park and about a 1.5 mile walk north from Ocean Beach.
But while the other victims were stabbed to death, Andrews was bludgeoned with a rock and a tree branch.
Cunningham told the Chronicle that he had to reconsider Andrews’ murder as part of the case given the location, “the victimology” and time period.
“I’d be a fool not to consider him as a Doodler victim,” he said.
Two years ago, San Francisco police released a sketch of what authorities believe the killer would look like after being aged 40-years. A suspect has never been charged in the case, though someone was detained in 1976 in connection with the murders.
The sketch is based on the original descriptions given by two white men who survived assaults in July 1975, both stabbed with a knife and injured in a similar manner to the victims.
Authorities dubbed the suspect the “doodler” after a surviving victim told police that he was drawing caricatures on a paper while the two spoke in an all-night truck stop diner. He had told the victim that he was a cartoonist.
“The SFPD has increased the reward from $100,000 to $200,000 for information leading to the identification, apprehension, and conviction of the serial homicide suspect,” police said in the Thursday statement.
Giggle, a social media app designed for “females”, has come under fire for excluding trans women with its use of artificial intelligence.
The app is marketed as a female-only space that allows women to find roommates, engage in freelance work, find friendship groups and more.
The Verge reported that Giggle, which first launched in early 2020, uses facial recognition to determine if new users are male or female, however it has allegedly failed to properly recognise women of colour or transgender women.
Jenny, a 23-year-old trans woman from California, told The Verge: “The way the app works is when you install it, you have to take a picture of yourself and it uses AI to analyse your face.
“And if it decides you’re a woman, it will let you in. If it decides you’re a man, it will reject you. But if it rejects you, you can just submit another picture.”
Jenny said she first tried to sign up for Giggle two years ago, however she claims she was removed from the app without warning when she tweeted about joining. A Twitter user tagged Giggle’s founder and CEO Sall Grover, claiming that Jenny was “transgressing women’s boundaries” by using the app.
Grover told PinkNews: “Giggle is a social networking app for females. Males are excluded from the user base. There is no other specific demographic that is excluded from the app other than males.
“Like how Grindr is an app for gay men and therefore not for women, Giggle is an app for a specific demographic. In our case, females.
“Giggle is clearly stated as being for females. It would be lovely, however, if male people respected female spaces and left them alone.”
Taking to Twitter, Grover shared PinkNews‘ comment request pertaining to the exclusion of trans women, suggesting she considered trans women to be males, remarking: “In case anyone was wondering whether or not misogyny is alive and f**king well.”
When asked if trans women were encouraged to join Giggle, she replied: “No males are ‘encouraged’ to join Giggle.”
Grover also failed to acknowledge that Grindr is not just an app exclusively for gay men, but instead a space that’s welcoming of trans and non-binary people, as well as bisexual and questioning cis men.
PinkNews has contacted Grover for clarification.
Giggle has also been criticised for its use of AI to open an account; the app works with facial-recognition AI company Kairos, which was found to misgender women of colour in a 2019 report.
The way the app works is that a user sends off a selfie to Giggle. If the Kairos AI is 95 per cent certain the person is female, they are allowed to create an account.
In the 2019 report on Kairos, however, Joe Buolamwini, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, found that the technology misgendered darker-skinned women 22.5 per cent of the time.
Melissa Doval, then-CEO of Kairos, told the New York Times that it had since made changes to its algorithm to improve its accuracy.
Grover denied that the platform’s AI prevented women of colour from using it, saying “women of every race are not just welcome on Giggle, women of every race are on Giggle”.
