On Saturday, February 21, The Charles Hotels celebrated the launch of its second location, The Charles Napa Valley, with a daytime grand opening event at the hotel and an evening after-party at the Q Restaurant and Bar downtown. The celebration featured live performances, a public toast, and remarks from partners Charles Gruwell and Ryan MacCarrigan, who spoke about the importance of inclusive, LGBTQ-friendly spaces in today’s political climate.
Many other distinguished guests spoke at the opening, including Napa Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Jeri Hansen, who praised the lively atmosphere of the event; Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley, who spoke passionately aboutthe property’s historic character; and District Representative Elizabeth Russell, who presented a certificate of honor on behalf of State Senator Christopher Cabaldon. Other notable speakers included Napa District 1 Supervisor Joelle Gallagher; Visit Napa Valley President & CEO Linsey Gallagher; Napa Valley Wine Train Marketing Manager Brittni McCorkle; Napa Pride Organizer Paul Thorp; and local business owners Kelly Sherman of The Q Restaurant and Bar, and Mark Casey of Deuce’s Market and The Dutch Door.
The grand opening also functioned as a fundraiser for LGBTQ Connection, a program of 501(c)(3) nonprofit On the Move Bay Area. It featured a silent auction with experiences donated by Raymond Vineyards, Napa Valley Wine Train, Gentleman Farmer, and Gay Wine Weekend. Fundraising proceeds totaled $2000. The Charles Hotels look forward to continuing to support local nonprofits that provide critical services to marginalized communities in wine country.
Located at 1301 Jefferson Street in the heart of downtown Napa, the property—formerly known as Cabernet House, an Old World Inn—builds on the success of The Charles Pacific Grove. It has received rave reviews since opening last year and will receive the Hospitality Excellence of the Year Award from the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce on March 13th. The recent Napa Valley expansion brings the brand’s signature blend of sophisticated design and heartfelt hospitality to the center of California’s celebrated wine country.
Gruwell and his partners selected the historic 1906 Victorian mansion built by renowned Napa craftsman E.W. Doughty as the setting for the brand’s next chapter. One of downtown Napa’s earliest inn properties, the building reflects the region’s longstanding tradition of welcoming travelers from around the world. With Napa Valley’s international reputation for wine, cuisine, and culture, the location provides a natural fit for The Charles’ values-driven approach to inclusive hospitality.
The design of The Charles Napa Valley carries forward many of the aesthetic elements that define its sister property in Pacific Grove. Gruwell incorporated the same fabrics, wallpaper, and carpeting as foundational design elements, while layering in repurposed antiques, artwork, and accessories sourced from consignment shops, antique stores, and estate sales. Sustainability played a central role in the design process, as did a commitment to creating “stylish interiors that reflect the timeless elegance of a bygone era—bringing design, art, and beautiful furnishings to the global traveler with an emphasis on approachability and comfort.” The result is a space that feels both familiar and distinctly rooted in Napa’s local character.
Partner Ryan MacCarrigan, an entrepreneur and UC Berkeley instructor with 15 years of experience in product innovation and service design, emphasized that authentic inclusivity is the foundation of The Charles brand. “From the beginning, we made a deliberate investment in inclusive hospitality training and scalable, replicable hotel operations,” said MacCarrigan, who has designed and facilitated training programs for dozens of companies and governments worldwide. “Our proprietary C.H.A.R.L.E.S. method provides a disciplined blueprint for growth. As we look ahead to future properties, our focus remains on thoughtful expansion that preserves the character, care, and sense of belonging that define The Charles.” This philosophy informs every aspect of the guest experience, ensuring that each traveler feels genuinely welcomed, comfortable, and seen.
Looking ahead, The Charles Hotels envisions adding properties in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with potential future expansion to New York City, Palm Springs, Provincetown, London, and Berlin. Gruwell hopes the brand’s growth will help set a new standard in hospitality—one where inclusivity and design go hand in hand. “Our main goal is to bring style and a safe, inclusive hospitality experience to the global traveler,” he said. “We want it to become a movement in the hospitality industry, inspiring others to create artfully designed hotels that celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
For two weeks, Ablé Sanchez didn’t leave their house in South Minneapolis.
“[I was] forced into survival mode,” Sanchez told Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group (RNG). “I felt like there was an invisible wall [to the outside world] that I couldn’t cross unless I really wanted to put myself in a place where there was a chance that I might not be able to come back.”
Queer and Mexican American, Sanchez was afraid of being targeted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence in their neighborhood, even though they are a U.S. citizen.
Photo by Liam James Doyle for Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group.
“Every day is a risk,” they say, adding that even if they have paperwork, if they fit the profile, they are a target, making it scary to go even to work or the grocery store.
Sanchez, a 30-year-old sexual health care educator, has been taking oral PrEP, the daily preventive medication for HIV, for over a decade. But the mounting stress of ICE raids has made it harder to keep up with dosing.
“A missed dose here and there pushed me to make the appointment [for something more sustainable],” they say.
Photo by Liam James Doyle for Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group.
Sanchez says they felt like somebody would have their back at their local clinic. It was only a 10-minute drive from where they worked, they knew its staff from previous visits and community outreach, and they could count on finding Spanish-speaking staff and providers of Latino heritage. But not everybody has had that same experience accessing care.
Photo by Liam James Doyle for Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group.
Since ICE’s Operation Metro Surge began in early December, an increasing number of Latino patients in Minnesota are delaying or canceling what can be lifesaving care for the prevention and treatment of HIV.
These findings are particularly alarming for Latino communities, who, as of 2023, are 72% more likely than the general U.S. population to be diagnosed with HIV. And while overall infections have decreased, cases among Latinos increased by 24% between 2010 and 2022.
“I’m very concerned that there is going to be a sharp uptick in transmission,” says Alex Palacios, a community health specialist in the Minneapolis area.
In a January 2026 declaration as part of a lawsuit seeking to end Operation Metro Surge in the days following Renee Nicole Good’s killing, the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health said HIV testing among Latino populations has “dropped dramatically” and that “although grantee staff continue to go into the community to promote and provide testing, people are not showing up.”
Local clinics are reporting the same thing. The Aliveness Project, a community wellness center in Minneapolis specializing in HIV care, told Uncloseted Media and RNG they have seen more than a 50% decrease in new clients. The clinic serves a large number of Latino and undocumented clients, and while it usually sees 750 people walk through their door each week, according to providers, it reported seeing 100 fewer people each week since December.
Red Door, Minnesota’s largest STI and HIV clinic, has had a “modest uptick” in no-shows and missed appointments since December.
What Happens When Treatment Stops
Today, there are multiple medications available that work to prevent HIV and dozens that treat it once a person tests positive. Many people who consistently take their medication have such low levels of the virus that they can’t transmit it through sex. But becoming undetectable requires patients to stay on their medication; otherwise, the virus replicates and mutates, weakening the immune system and increasing the risk of life-threatening infections.
“If patients aren’t on their medicines consistently, HIV can learn about the medication and become resistant to them. When this happens, the medicine will not work for the patient, and the new resistant virus could potentially be passed on to others,” says George Froehle, a physician assistant and provider at Aliveness Project. “Medication adherence is one of the most important aspects of HIV care.”
To maintain care and prevent dangerous, untreatable strains from spreading in Minnesota, providers at Aliveness Project have begun delivering medication to patients when possible, offering telehealth when they can, and pausing routine lab work to limit in-person appointments.
“The most important thing we can do from a public health perspective is to keep people undetectable so they don’t transmit HIV,” Froehle says, adding that providers in other cities targeted by ICE will need to make plans for missed injection visits, pivot to telehealth and prepare their teams for the “trauma that can occur.”
Sanchez understands the risks of inconsistent treatment, which is why they opted for the injectable preventative medication.
“I have a lot of risk [to HIV in my community],” Sanchez says. “With so much uncertainty about the future and whether HIV care will remain stable, I realized I couldn’t let this opportunity pass.”
But injectable HIV treatments are commonly dosed at two weeks to six months apart, and the medication must be administered in a clinic—a setting many patients are avoiding, according to providers.
“They have a two-week window” to get their shots, according to Froehle, who added that because patients are afraid to come in person, they have had to transition people off of their injectable HIV treatments. This has caused patients to return to oral HIV treatments without the testing they would normally receive had ICE not been in Minneapolis. “[Oral treatments] weren’t super successful [for these patients] to begin with and that’s why they were on injectables.”
Oral HIV medications, too, must be taken consistently to work. In response, providers have urged patients to have their pills with them at all times in case they get deported or detained.
The caution is not unfounded. Federal immigration facilities have a history of denying adequate medical care to people living with HIV, despite internal standards that require them to comply. Since 2025, at least two men living with HIV have been denied access to their medication in a Brooklyn jail, according to lawsuits obtained by THE CITY. One man said he was only given his medication after his lips broke open and he developed an open pustule on his leg. And in January 2025, another man died of HIV complications while in ICE custody in Arizona.
Beyond being detained without proper medication, patients are at risk of being deported to countries with limited access to HIV care, like Honduras and Venezuela, experts say.
“A lot of men [from Venezuela] told me they left because it wasn’t safe to be gay there and because they struggled to access HIV care,” says Froehle. “It’s a little heartbreaking to see new folks not only face the threat of deportation, but to places where they didn’t feel safe medically or identity-wise.”
“Some of these patients will die in their home country,” says Anna Person, the chair of the HIV Medicine Association. “It’s a death sentence.”
A ‘Cascading Disaster’
While ICE’s presence is threatening the infrastructure of HIV care that Minneapolis has built over decades, experts say there has always been a blind spot in HIV care for the city’s Latino community.
Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, executive director of the Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins University of Nursing, describes HIV in Latino communities as a “cascading disaster,” the result of years of compounding inequities.
“There’s been an invisible crisis among Latinos that hasn’t gotten traction,” he says. “The numbers have consistently gone up in terms of new infections, while nationally they’ve gone down. … That should be a big alarm.”
Numbers are rising because structural barriers and stigma are preventing Latinos from receiving care. A 2022 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2018 and 2020, nearly 1 in 4 Hispanic people living with HIV reported experiencing discrimination in health care settings. Lack of representation among providers, language barriers and deep-rooted medical mistrust further complicate access to care, according to Guilamo-Ramos.
Beyond the medical system, stigma within Latino communities can be equally damaging. According to Human Rights Campaign data, more than 78% of Latino LGBTQ youth reported experiencing homophobia or transphobia within the Latino community in 2024.
Sanchez outside of Aliveness Project. Photo by Liam James Doyle for Uncloseted Media and Rewire News Group.
Sanchez agrees that stigma and bias are already massive barriers to care, citing the strict gender norms and Catholic beliefs many Latino communities hold. They say ICE’s presence is threatening already delicate access to HIV care.
“This has caused so much damage to people,” Sanchez says. “Not being able to access your health care appointments is such a stab in the side. … Being able to navigate any of these things in normal circumstances already has so much difficulty to it.”
Palacios, who is Afro-Latine and living with HIV, says the heightened ICE presence is worsening barriers that have long undermined the Latino community’s access to HIV care.
“The horizon has always been stark and dim,” they say. “And this just feels like one more thing to address and to fight back against.”
Sliding Backwards
Navigating HIV care is becoming more difficult across the board, as the federal government has decimated HIV funding, compromising decades of progress made in the fight against the virus since Donald Trump retook office just over a year ago.
In February 2026, three months into Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration proposed slashing $600 million in HIV-related grants, targeting four blue states, including $42 million for Minnesota programs. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the cuts.
“This would completely decimate and gut all of our HIV prevention,” says Dylan Boyer, director of development at Aliveness Project. “That’s the reality that we live in.”
“We have all the tools, and yet we are staring down this rollback of infrastructure and research dollars, prevention efforts, treatment efforts, that are going to put us squarely back in the 1980s,” says Person, a national HIV expert who grew up in Minnesota. “[There] seems to be no other rationale for that besides cruelty, to be quite frank, since there’s no scientific reason for it.”
Person says that this mending will take time, especially between the medical community and patients, since HIV providers can have a “very fragile” relationship with their clients.
“It takes, sometimes, years to build that level of trust. And I do worry that folks are just going to say, ‘I don’t feel safe here anymore. The system does not have my best interest at heart, and I’m not coming back,’” she says. “This is not something that you can flip a switch and everything will go back to normal.”
“We need to hold our federal government accountable, particularly HHS, [and] we need to ensure that HIV funding remains intact,” Guilamo-Ramos says, adding that in order to lower rates of HIV in the Latino community, there should be more specialized efforts: such as bilingual and culturally aligned health care providers, community-based outreach programs co-located where risk is highest, trust-building initiatives to address medical mistrust, mobile clinics, and targeted programs to re-engage patients who have fallen out of care.
Aliveness Project’s patient numbers have increased in the last few weeks as the ICE operation has waned, but the clinic staff is keeping “a watchful eye” and is having “difficulty reaching folks who are understandably scared.”
“Our biggest focus right now is reconnecting with people through our outreach so no one has a lapse in their HIV medications or prevention care,” Boyer, of Aliveness Project, says.
For Sanchez, seeing providers who speak Spanish and are of Latin heritage at Aliveness Project built enough trust for them to reach out and make an appointment despite the risks. Sanchez feels optimistic about their new injectable prevention strategy with the support of their clinic.
“There’s many places where you can receive care here in the Twin Cities where you might not see your skin tone. … There’s still a lot of health care professionals that unfortunately carry bias. … Aliveness is the opposite of that,” they say. “Seeing that representation and knowing someone has that cultural context of how to meet you in moments of sensitivity, it’s crucial.”
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“We have transgender people in our program, and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward,” President and CEO Roger Krone told The Associated Press.
The statement contradicts Hegseth’s claims that the organization is rolling back participation rules amid the Trump administration’s dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across federal agencies.
In a social media video posted Friday, Hegseth said Scouting America would “modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” adding that “the application must match the applicant’s birth certificate.”
He also said the organization would ensure “biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together, toilets, showers, tents.”
Earlier in the video, Hegseth criticized the organization for having “welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership.” In a memo to members issued after the Department of Defense announcement, Krone wrote that “Scouting America will continue to welcome and serve all youth. That commitment is unwavering.”
The memo does not specifically mention transgender youth. Instead, it emphasizes that eligibility requirements are unchanged. Under a section titled “What Is Not Changing,” the organization states that “Scouting will continue to welcome and serve all youth,” and that existing registration and youth-protection policies remain in place.
“It is important that our leadership – every one of you – recognize and reinforce Scouting’s unwavering commitment to delivering programs that benefit all youth,” Krone wrote.
Several programmatic changes are coming. Scouting America will waive registration fees for children of active-duty, Guard, and Reserve service members beginning June 1. According to the statement, it will introduce a Military Service merit badge and discontinue the Citizenship in Society merit badge “to align with Executive Order 14173,” Trump’s “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” mandate. The organization will also dissolve its DEI committee to comply with the administration’s directive.
But the rules governing who can join, according to Krone, are not being altered.
The Advocate contacted Scouting America’s communications team for clarification on its policy regarding transgender scouts and how it reconciles that policy with Hegseth’s remarks. “Scouting America remains steadfast in our commitment to providing a place for all young people to learn, grow, and thrive. We will continue to welcome all youth into our programs,” a spokesperson responded.
In recent years, Scouting America, formerly the Boy Scouts of America, lifted bans on gay youth and leaders, opened its flagship program to girls, and, in 2024, rebranded as a coeducational organization. Those changes marked a significant shift for one of the nation’s oldest youth institutions.
“Importantly and unchanged, every family is welcome in Scouting,” Krone wrote. “Today, Scouting serves nearly one million youth from every corner of American life.”
Cynthia McKinney, who was a member of Congress and the Green Party’s 2008 presidential candidate, posted an antisemitic and transphobic infographic to social media that claims Jewish people are “behind the rise in transgenderism.”
The image shows a rainbow-colored Star of David with pictures of several trans rights leaders and points out that they’re Jewish, including NCTE founder Mara Keisling and GLSEN director Eliza Byard, who isn’t transgender. Non-Jewish trans rights leaders are not included in the image.
At the top of the star is Magnus Hirschfeld, the gay, Jewish, and German sexologist born in the mid-1800s who was a pioneer in researching LGBTQ+ identities. In 1933, his sexology research institute was looted by the Nazis, who beat up the institute’s staff and burned its books. The Nazi party revoked Hirschfeld’s citizenship, and he was forced to live the rest of his life in exile in France.
Hirschfeld was “a JEWISH ‘sexologist’ in Weimar Germany,” the infographic states. “Since then transgenderism has exploded in popularity.”
The image also contains several “facts,” like that the Talmud “recognizes EIGHT genders.” That “fact” – with a number that varies – is popular among antisemites online but is a simplification of hundreds of years of rabbinical commentary that sometimes mentions gender.
| Screenshot
McKinney ran for president with the Green Party in 2008 after having served in Congress for several years as a Democrat. Her platform focused on ending the war in Iraq, repealing the Patriot Act, and containing the national debt. She won no electoral votes and got fewer in the popular vote than five other candidates, including former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who ran as an independent in 2008.
A search of her account on X shows that she started posting about Jewish people in 2022, but she has been posting transphobic messages since 2018, when she posted a trans person’s deadname and called her “a celebrated TRANSgender.” In 2021, she called former Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, who is transgender and Jewish, a “transgender man.”
McKinney doesn’t appear to have a great opinion about gay people either, claiming in 2019 that “US television is running an ad to encourage people to come out as gay saying that they won’t believe the welcoming party waiting for them.” It’s not clear what ad she was referring to.
She also said in 2024 that the rapper Sean Combs’ “real crime was that he recorded the trysts of the aged Jewish homosexual owners of Hip Hop engaging in illicit acts” and not operating a sex trafficking operation, which is what his trial was actually about.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a significant blow to transgenderstudents in California, allowing parents challenging the state’s school gender identity policies to enforce a lower court injunction that restricts student confidentiality while the case moves forward on appeal.
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In an 18-page unsigned opinion in Mirabelli v. Bonta, the court vacated a Ninth Circuit order that had blocked a district court ruling against California officials, including Attorney General Rob Bonta. The justices concluded that parents objecting on religious grounds are “likely to succeed on the merits” of their claims under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
“We are disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision to vacate the Ninth Circuit’s stay of the district court’s injunction with respect to the parent plaintiffs in the case,” Bonta’s office said in a statement to The Advocate. “We remain committed to ensuring a safe, welcoming school environment for all students while respecting the crucial role parents play in students’ lives.”
The case centers on California guidance prohibiting school staff from telling parents if a student socially transitions at school, meaning they are adopting a different name or pronouns, without the student’s consent. State officials say the policy shields students who may face rejection or harm at home. Opponents argue it unlawfully cuts parents out of consequential decisions about their children’s mental health and upbringing.
The policies at the heart of the dispute stem from Assembly Bill 1955, signed into law in 2024, which was designed to protect transgender and gender-nonconforming youth by prohibiting schools from requiring educators to disclose a student’s gender identity or pronouns to parents without the student’s consent. Critics have labeled it “forced outing.”
According to a recent GLAAD fact sheet, such policies “run contrary to research showing transgender youth are at risk of extreme and harmful consequences of outing students to nonaffirming environments,” particularly when youth face familial rejection or violence after disclosure.
Supporters of the law argue that such protections are lifesaving for youth who might face rejection, abuse, or homelessness if their gender identity were disclosed to unsupportive families. California officials have repeatedly insisted that parents retain the right to request access to education records under federal law, but that the state’s nondisclosure law simply prevents compelled disclosure against a student’s wishes.
For LGBTQ+ advocates, the ruling revives a painful historical throughline. The Los Angeles LGBT Center has traced today’s “forced outing” efforts to earlier campaigns targeting LGBTQ+ people in schools, from 1978’s failed Proposition 6, which sought to remove gay teachers under the banner of “parental rights,” to attempts in the 1990s and 2000s to require parental consent for students to join Gay-Straight Alliances, effectively outing them. Advocates argue that such policies have long been used to sideline queer youth under the rhetoric of family control, even as schools became, for many students, the only affirming space in their lives.
But in his district court ruling later embraced by the Supreme Court, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez held that California’s policy erects an unconstitutional barrier between parents and children, granting parents a right to be informed about their children’s gender identity. After the Ninth Circuit put that injunction on hold, the Supreme Court’s action restored it for the time being, curtailing the state’s nondisclosure protections as applied to parents who object to them.
The majority cast the dispute as a straightforward question of parental authority. California’s policies, the court wrote, likely “substantially interfere with the right of parents to guide the religious development of their children,” triggering strict scrutiny. The justices also signaled that parents are likely to prevail under longstanding substantive due process precedent recognizing a right to direct children’s upbringing and education.
The decision drew a sharp dissent from Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Kagan warned that the ruling illustrates “how our emergency docket can malfunction,” accusing the majority of resolving “novel legal questions and arousing strong views” without full briefing, oral argument, or ordinary deliberation. She also criticized the court for acting while the Ninth Circuit was still considering the issue through its en banc process, writing that “regular order counsels” deferring to the lower court first. The majority, she said, was “impatient” in pressing forward despite “thorny legal issues” that warrant fuller consideration.
Kagan further flagged the doctrinal tension underlying the ruling. The court’s reliance on substantive due process to establish a parental right, she wrote, sits uneasily alongside recent decisions curtailing unenumerated rights, a contrast that “cannot but induce a strong sense of whiplash” when compared with the court’s repudiation of abortion rights in Dobbs.
“The Court resolves the issues raised through shortcut procedures on the emergency docket even though it has had—for months now—the option of doing so the regular way, on our merits docket,” she added.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, wrote separately to defend the court’s intervention, arguing that existing parental rights precedent controls and that withholding interim relief would risk irreparable harm to parents excluded from “highly important decisions about their child’s mental health.”
Opening this month: Directory of Dreams: Bay Area Lesbian Economies and Radical Care, 1970–1995. This new exhibition, curated and co-presented by the Bay Area Lesbian Archives (BALA), traces the everyday efforts of Bay Area lesbians who refused erasure and built community networks rooted in care, solidarity, and economic self-determination.
From women-run cafés and bookstores to credit unions and service businesses, these were more than small enterprises — they became networks of mutual aid sustaining entire communities.
Grassroots tools made these worlds visible to one another: self-published directories, maps, flyers, menus, and ephemera connecting people to jobs, housing, political spaces, and affirming services, in a society that often denied them all.
Directory of Dreams invites visitors to reflect on how these networks of radical care shaped lesbian life in the Bay Area — and what it means to build and sustain shared systems of care today.
March is officially here, and Sonoma County Library is buzzing with energy. This month, we’re leaning into the spirit of discovery, whether that’s exploring the microscopic world at the North Bay Science Discovery Day, uncovering the hidden ecological “gifts” of poison oak, or honoring the legacy of trailblazing women for Women’s History Month.Whatever your curiosity looks like this month, we have a seat waiting for you. Dive into the highlights below or check out our full events calendar to plan your next visit! Sincerely,
The Sonoma County LibraryChildrenCoventry & Kaluza ShowCoventry & Kaluza bring a variety of skills and thrills to their show, which features juggling, acrobatics, music, comedy, and lots of hula hooping. It’s interactive fun for the whole family! Windsor, Healdsburg, Northwest Santa Rosa, Sonoma ValleySeeds and Reads: The True Story of Poison OakIs poison oak a backyard villain or an ecological hero? Join naturalist Emma Rohleder (Vilda Nature) to uncover the surprising “gifts” of this misunderstood plant and create nature-based art. Registration is encouraged but not required. Grades K-6.Guerneville, Healdsburg, Northwest Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park Cotati, Sebastopol, WindsorTeensBilingual Paint PartyDevelop your painting techniques while practicing Spanish and English vocabulary in a guided, step-by-step session led by Napa Valley Painting. Advanced registration is required. Grades 7-12.Roseland,Northwest, HealdsburgFeminist Icons in Zine HistoryUncover the DIY world of feminist zines and the creators who used them to challenge the status quo. Explore the history of feminist self-publishing, then join a brainstorming workshop to help you start your own zine. Grades 7-12.SebastopolAdultsEnglish Conversation ClubImprove your English in a relaxed, supportive environment. These drop-in sessions are designed for adult learners of all levels to practice speaking and build confidence. No registration is required.Central Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Rohnert Park Cotati, Roseland, WindsorAfro Roots World MusicExperience the vibrant sounds of West African music with instrumentalist Keenan Webster. This performance brings traditional rhythms to life, using the power of music to bridge cultures and unite our community.Cloverdale, Sonoma Valley, WindsorIn the SpotlightCelebrate Women’s History MonthJoin us in celebrating the economic, cultural, and political achievements of women this month and throughout the year through events, displays, and resources.See detailsRincon Valley Library temporary closure Change is good! Rincon Valley Regional Library will be closed from March 16 to late June for significant updates. The Bibliobus will be available on Mon (10 am-1 pm) and Wed & Sun (1-4 pm).See details Eventos de marzoMarzo ya está aquí oficialmente y nuestras bibliotecas están llenas de energía. Este mes nos dedicamos al espíritu del descubrimiento, ya sea explorando el mundo microscópico en el North Bay Science Discovery Day, descubriendo los «regalos» ecológicos ocultos del roble venenoso o rindiendo homenaje al legado de las mujeres pioneras con motivo del Mes de la Historia de la Mujer.
Sea cual sea tu curiosidad este mes, tenemos un asiento esperándote. ¡Sumérgete en los aspectos más destacados a continuación y planifica tu próxima visita!NiñesEspectáculo de Coventry y KaluzaCoventry & Kaluza traen una variedad de habilidades y emociones a su espectáculo, que incluye malabares, acrobacias, música, comedia y mucho hula hoop. ¡Es diversión interactiva para toda la familia!Windsor, Healdsburg, Northwest Santa Rosa, Sonoma ValleySemillas y Libros: La verdadera historia del roble venenoso¿Es el roble venenoso un villano del jardín o un héroe ecológico? Únete a la naturalista Emma Rohleder (Vilda Nature) para descubrir los sorprendentes «regalos» de esta planta incomprendida. Para alumnos de K-6. Inscríbete para reservar tu plaza y recibir un correo electrónico de recordatorio.Guerneville, Healdsburg, Northwest Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park Cotati, Sebastopol, WindsorJóvenesFiesta de pintura bilingüeDesarrolla tus técnicas de pintura mientras practicas vocabulario en español e inglés en una sesión guiada paso a paso dirigida por Napa Valley Painting. Ya sea que seas artista con experiencia o simplemente quieras probar algo nuevo, te llevarás una obra maestra terminada y algunas frases nuevas para usar. Grados 7-12.Roseland,Northwest, HealdsburgÍconos feministas en la historia de los zines Descubre el mundo DIY de los zines feministas y a las creadoras que los utilizaron para desafiar el orden establecido. Esta sesión explora la historia de la autoedición feminista, seguida de un taller de lluvia de ideas para ayudarte a crear tu propio zine. Grados 7-12. Sebastopol
“That’s fine dude. I’m not mad at you.” Those are the first and last words I heard Renee Good say, seconds before she was brutally murdered on Jan. 7 by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.
I came across the video as I watched my fiancée scroll through her social media feeds while sitting in our Brooklyn apartment. We proceeded to scour TikTok to gather more information. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of videos of the shooting—all from various angles—I asked her to put the phone down.
We sat in silence as I interrogated the pit forming in my stomach. I was sickened by the ease of which we just witnessed violence, and began questioning my decision to try and build a life in the U.S. with my soon-to-be wife.
I was born in London to Black parents who migrated from Nigeria in 1990. It was a classic immigrant story: They were in search of a better life overseas, desperate to give their unborn children the opportunities they never had growing up in a country that was rebuilding after centuries of British colonial rule.
My immigration journey, however, is a classic lesbian love story. My fiancée, an American citizen from Los Angeles, met me at a party while she was studying in Europe. She moved back to the U.S. soon after our first date, and serendipitously, I’d just been accepted to grad school to study journalism in New York City. So, after a year of long-distance, I flew across the pond and she moved across the country, and we started a life together.
I was ecstatic to embark on this journey. I was raised on Black television, music and film from the U.S., feeling a strong affinity to African-American culture from a young age. I was always watching “My Wife and Kids” and “That’s So Raven,” and was obsessedwith listening to Beyoncé, Usher and gospel music.
Although I inherently knew that the American Dream was built on broken promises, my inner child still romanticized it. I watched women in New York City newsrooms and magazine offices build electric lives: Jenna Rink running through Manhattan in “13 Going on 30”; Andy Sachs surviving the chaos of “The Devil Wears Prada”; and Betty Suarez stubbornly proving she belonged in “Ugly Betty.”
I believed that I could be like them. That I could work in New York media and earn enough to live alone and write long, beautiful stories. The U.S. felt bigger than England. Like a place where a girl could arrive with nothing, but leverage her talent and hunger, and somehow make it.
But just three months after arriving in August 2024, Trump was elected for his second term. And a few months after that, my dream was punctured as he introduced a slew of executive orders attacking people like me: He ended DEI programs; he introduced harsh anti-trans policies; and he enacted some of the strictest immigration enforcement the country has ever seen.
Good’s murder was a consequence of Operation Metro Surge, which started in December 2025 as a supposed attack on illegal immigration. Yet many—mostly Black and Brown—lawful residents and U.S. citizens have been subject to violent attacks and unlawful detention.
This wasn’t the diverse country that enamored me. Unlike the media I’d consumed growing up, I’m now the intersecting face of the identities the federal government is targeting.
I am a Black. I am gay. I am an immigrant. I am a journalist. I am a woman. And I am scared.
Renee Good’s murder was a chilling development in an already dark time in the U.S. If white citizens are not safe, what chance do I really have to build a life here?
As a Black lesbian, my existence has always felt political. Wanting to exist on my own terms has required constant defense and justification. I left England because I could no longer handle living in the same country as my parents. After I came out to them at 22, they told me that I was a sinner in the eyes of their God. “She won’t be joining me in heaven,” my mom once told my sister.
Now, in the U.S., my resident status is under scrutiny too.
I’m working with an immigration lawyer, and will be submitting my supporting documents for a marriage-based green card in a few weeks. And even though I’m doing everything by the book, I’m still worried: ICE agents have shown up at court dates and immigration interviews.
My lawyer says I shouldn’t worry, but she can’t guarantee it won’t happen to me. And experts agree: “People are trying to follow the rules and they’re being arrested, detained and deported,” Rachel Kafele, director of programs and advocacy at Oasis Legal Services, told me. “There’s a sense that all the pathways for people are really closing, and that’s just created a huge climate of fear.”
I know that my situation isn’t as dire as it is for the many LGBTQ asylum seekers who fled countries where identifying as LGBTQ is a crime.
“[The federal government] is doing whatever they can to not give asylum to anyone,” Kafele says. “And that’s what really worries me, because LGBTQ people need asylum. It’s a human rights safety issue. People will die.”
And on Jan. 29, former CNN journalist Don Lemon—who is Black and gay—was arrested. After that, my fiancée and I contemplated whether I should be honest about my journalism career in my green card application, in case this increases my likelihood of running into ICE.
That’s why I decided to write this article anonymously.
I’ve had thoughts of terminating my immigration application out of fear of being in contact with such a hostile administration. What will happen if I get caught by ICE, with no proof of legal residency? What if my Blackness betrays me when I’m running errands? What if my extensive digital footprint exposes me as a “traitor”?
People on both sides of the aisle aren’t doing enough to stand up to the Trump administration, says Isa Noyola, director of programs at the Transgender Law Center. “We are lacking leadership in the Democratic Party around being pro-immigrant and pro-trans and pro-queer,” she says. Just recently, seven Democrats voted in favor of funding ICE.
Alex Brophy of Brophy Lenahan Law Group says immigration judges are also being targeted: “They’re creating this culture of fear not only amongst immigrants and their attorneys, but also amongst the judges, because there’s definitely the message that if you don’t follow the program, they’re just gonna fire you.” In 2025, more than 100 judges with a history of showing favor to asylum seekers have been fired in the U.S.
It’s terrifying for me to think that some of the judges who still have their jobs might be afraid of being let go and wanting to make the administration happy at my expense. We are all just in “survival mode,” Noyola says.
“What worries me is that the courts may become complicit in the breaking of the law,” says Aaron Morris, executive director at Immigration Equality. With less immigrant-friendly judges on the bench, those left behind might show more support of the government’s illegal activities, including its use of detention centers. “Unfortunately, now we’re seeing … people getting caught up in the immigration detention and deportation machine who are not even undocumented.”
Even as a New York resident, I’ve had to reckon with the possibility of being detained if I go through with the green card application. This isn’t me being overly cautious, but realistic: ICE has been knocking on doors in neighborhoods close to me.
“ICE and DHS generally do not provide adequate health care, particularly for people that are transgender or for people living with HIV,” Morris says. I’m on life-saving hormone medication to treat a long-term health condition, and not having access to it for a few days could be fatal. Detainees with diabetes have had access to insulin denied and others have had requests to visit cancer doctors rejected.
Brophy says most detainees whose immigration proceedings continue in detention don’t have access to their files and are not informed of their hearings. “It’s incredibly hard for lawyers to prepare a detained client,” he says. “[The detainees] are not getting enough time and access for counsel to be able to effectively present their case.”
As terrifying as this is for me to think about, Kafele says immigrants outside of big blue cities are arguably in greater danger. “In more rural areas and areas where the local government is very conservative and anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ, those people are more at risk. Their local governments, their police officers, the sheriffs, they’re working with ICE and Border Patrol to help detain immigrants and deport people.”
There was an acronym brought up in my conversations with experts: ACAs, or Asylum Cooperative Agreements, which are pacts made between the U.S. and other countries where asylum seekers are transferred to process their claims. Agreements have been made with countries like Uganda, whose 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act means that gay intimacy in some cases can lead to the death penalty. “You have people who are not only afraid to go to their home country, they’re being threatened to be removed to a country they have no ties to that may be even more hostile,” Brophy says.
While I feel incredibly lucky to hold an English passport, I can’t move back because I want to live far away from my parents. But even if my green card application is successful, my fiancée and I don’t feel safe under Trump: We’ve talked about moving to Europe or Canada once I am more financially stable.
Still, part of me wants to make it work. I’ve found my voice as a writer in New York. The events I attend, friends I’ve made and communities I’ve been exposed to have made my decision to move here worth it.
When I told Brophy I was afraid that my work as a journalist could put me at risk, he quickly responded, “Clearly your passion and your interest is in being a journalist. I wouldn’t want to tell you to stop doing what you’re doing any more than I would tell someone to change their gender identity or their sexual orientation.” Then he said something that really stuck with me: “Because once you do that, we’re all just giving into this.”
I think about that often. About what it would mean to shrink myself in order to survive. I’ve done that with my parents, and I don’t want to do it again. I will continue to follow the legal judicial process, not as a statement or act of defiance. Simply because, for now, I am choosing to stay for the woman I love.
In October 2025, Canadian politicians from British Columbia (B.C.) gathered in the provincial capital to vote on a motion to symbolically condemn the “intolerant” and “harmful” views of the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA), a far-right group that describes itself as a “Christian political advocacy organization.”
“They are an organization that wants to end the federal ban on the documented, harmful and sinister practice of conversion therapy,” Rohini Arora, a member of Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party, argued to her colleagues. “They’re the harassers in that story. The things that they stand for are about not letting people be who they are, not letting them love who they love.”
Every Conservative politician in the room refused to vote on the motion and instead walked out. This was likely due to former Conservative Party leader John Rustad asking his party members to “not participate in divisive politics.”
Despite the motion passing 48-3, ARPA is very active in Canadian politics. They’ve filed 322 communication lobbying reports with the Canadian government since 2012. Some of these include efforts to eliminate education around sexual orientation and gender identity in B.C.’s schools, as well as end access to gender-affirming care for minors. One of ARPA’s current fights is to overturn Canada’s ban on conversion therapy.
“Someone who struggles with unwanted same-sex attraction or sexual behavior … should be free to seek help to live their beliefs and identity, but this law forbids it,” ARPA states in an article titled “Changing Canada’s Conversion Therapy Ban.”
History and Leadership
Founded in 2007 as a national nonprofit, ARPA is associated with Reformed Christianity—a denomination that stems from the Protestant Reformation. The Christian Reformed Church states that “homosexual practice … is incompatible with obedience to the will of God.” Homosexuality is described as “a condition” for which Reformed Christians “must exercise the same compassion for same-sex oriented persons in their sins as [they] exercise for all other sinners.”
In an article published by a Reformed Christianity journal, pastors with trans congregants are advised that “the first line of response should be to call for confession and repentance.” The article encourages trans people to detransition by “correct[ing] or revers[ing] any steps that have been taken in the wrong direction (whether hormone treatment or reconstructive surgery).”
Since their founding, ARPA has grown significantly. According to their website, they have at least 12 employees, as well as main offices in southern B.C. and Ottawa, and chapters in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.
Many of ARPA’s lobbyists aim to push the Canadian government to pass anti-LGBTQ policies. Levi Minderhoud, ARPA’s B.C. manager—who has advocated for “the elimination of [sexual orientation and gender identity] in [B.C.] schools”—wrote an article in which he calls out “gender identity warriors.” In the piece, he quotes The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank that penned Project 2025.
“It’s time that the Ontario Progressive Conservatives live up to their name, listen to Ontarians, and remove gender ideology from the classroom,” Minderhoud writes.
Through the years, ARPA’s anti-LGBTQ push has been prevalent in their communications. In a 2020 letter to pastors of Christian congregations in Canada, ARPA’s former director of law and policy, André M. Schutten, urges recipients to push back against the country’s new conversion therapy ban.
“Brothers, as Christians, we recognize that same-sex sexual desires and conduct, like any sexual desires or conduct that do not conform to God’s norms, are wrong and we must repent of them. … If this bill passes unamended, aspects of your ministry (to youth in particular) in an age of sexual confusion would be criminalized,” Schutten writes, adding action items that include praying, praying again and writing a letter to their Member of Parliament (MP).
Current Lobbying Efforts
Fast forward to now and ARPA is continuing a push to overturn Bill-C4, Canada’s conversion therapy ban, which illegalizes the ineffective practice linked to poor self-esteem, substance abuse, anxiety, depression and suicidality.
Screenshot/ARPA Canada
In defending their critique of the bill, ARPA quotes the late American psychologist Joseph Nicolosi.
Nicolosi authored “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality” and was a founder of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, an organization that promotes conversion therapy.
ARPA is also working against the Combatting Hate Act, or Bill C-9. If passed, this bill would lower the threshold for what counts as hate speech and would removethe good-faith defense, which protects an individual from being found guilty of hate speech if their views are based on religious texts.
In a Facebook video, ARPA lawyer John Sikkema speaks out against Bill C-9 and asks for Canadians’ help in “preserving religious freedom in Canada.”
“Join us in calling on Members of Parliament to preserve religious freedom in Canada, and specifically, the freedom to share publicly what the Bible teaches about marriage and sexuality,” says Sikkema, adding that folks should write to and call their MPs.
Much like far-right groups in the U.S., ARPA’s anti-LGBTQ views are driven by their interpretation of Christianity. “These groups interpret these bills and laws as Christian persecution. It is an attack on both their Christian values and their religion, in their minds,” says Carmen Celestini, a postdoctoral fellow with Queen’s University School of Religion. “If they cannot preach and evangelize to save [LGBTQ people] then it is understood as a direct attack on their religious practice and worldview.”
Offshoot Organizations
On top of their lobbying efforts, ARPA runs anti-LGBTQ offshoot organizations. Let Kids Be, for example, is dedicated to ending gender-affirming care for youth. “Stop medical transition for minors” is the lead line on their homepage, followed by false or misleading statements about trans health care, including one that implies that trans kids are experiencing body dysmorphia because of school bullies: “A middle schooler doesn’t understand that a bully mocking her body will not stop if her body changes,” the website reads.
In the summer of 2025, Let Kids Be put up a billboard near a highway in Hamilton, Ontario, that stated, “Stop medical transition for minors.” In response, the city’s mayor, Andrea Horwath, ordered the billboard to be taken down, leading ARPA to challenge the decision. The legal battle is ongoing.
The organization is also defending the Christian Heritage Party in a lawsuit against Hamilton after they tried to run anti-trans ads on the city’s bus shelters.
Against Gay Marriage
In addition to opposing gender-affirming health care and trans rights, ARPA is also against gay marriage. On their website, they link to a 2004 article with the headline “FOUR STUPID ARGUMENTS AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE… AND ONE GOOD ONE!”
In the article, the author writes, “Since God created the institution of Marriage, He gets to decide what it is, and what it isn’t,” and goes on to describe gay marriage as a “poor, sickly imitation the world is proposing.”
And in a 2025 ARPA article titled “TWENTY YEARS OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN CANADA,” they describe gay marriage as a “fall into sin,” and the increase in Canadians’ support for marriage equality as “stark.”
Kayla Preston, Ph.D candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, says that using a pro-family model is a strategy used by far-right groups to mask homophobia. “Instead of saying, ‘We’re anti-LGBTQIA+,’ they’ll say, ‘We’re pro-traditional families. We’re pro-maintaining gender roles,’” she told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES.
Celestini says homophobia and opposition to gay marriage is common among many far-right organizations in Canada. “ARPA is one amongst many (Action4Canada, Liberty Coalition Canada, Save Canada, etc.) and they interact, sending out a cohesive message to their followers. Those followers are the electorate, and are also very active politically,” she says. “Religious values can be an umbrella term that erases dogma and denomination from the equation and simply creates a movement.”
Training the Next Generation of Anti-LGBTQ Conservatives
As ARPA continues their lobbying efforts, they’re also training the next generation by running programs in an attempt to provide young Canadians with the “confidence to apply [their] faith wherever God calls [them].” One of their offerings is ARPA Academy, a four-week program based out of Ottawa, Canada’s capital and political epicenter. According to ARPA, participants will “dig into the biblical foundation for political action,” and are encouraged to see the academy as “a stepping stone towards further work in politics or the non-profit sector.”
And in September, ARPA is hosting their Foundations Conference. The conference is designed “to equip thoughtful Christians with a deeper understanding of how faith shapes public life” and will host multiple anti-LGBTQ speakers, including Nancy Pearcey, an evangelical author who claims that “males and females are counterparts to one another. … To embrace a same-sex identity, then, is to contradict that design.”
Proximity to Canada’s Conservative Party
Above all, ARPA’s key goal is to influence Canadian politics. And they’ve already formed relationships with Canadian politicians, where they communicate on issues ranging from justice and law enforcement to health. Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament Sam Oosterhoff spoke at an ARPA event in 2020, and again in 2024. And ARPA Niagara chapter director Dave Broere has donated to Oosterhoff’s campaign.
In May 2025, B.C. Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) John Rustad—who, at the time, was the leader of the B.C. Conservatives—attended an ARPA event at the B.C. legislature, along with a dozen other members of his party.
The decision to attend this event drew criticism from Elenore Sturko, a lesbian MLA.
“I was angry, and I felt hurt. … I think a lot about the young people who are growing up right now and are part of the LGBT community. I think that some of the toxicity has never been worse than it is now … and I just felt like, ‘You know what? I have a duty as someone who’s visible to actually stand up for our community,’” Sturko told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES.
How Anti-LGBTQ Hate Thrives in Canada
While ARPA’s goals defy what most citizens want—as 75% of Canadians supportgay unions—the organization is still allowed to operate as a nonprofit because it is working towards the “advancement of religion.” This means that even though ARPA promotes homophobic and transphobic ideas, they are able to continue their work because they are a protected Christian organization. And while a 2024 report floated the idea of removing religion as a charitable cause, it does not appear the protection is likely to disappear any time soon.
When it comes to the kinds of issues that far-right groups in the U.S. and Canada are concerned with, Celestini says that there isn’t much difference. To her, the most prominent distinction has to do with the way Americans and Canadians think and talk about the far right.
“Most people don’t know that the Proud Boys were started by a Canadian, or that we have a lot of really right-wing extremist groups here in the nation. I think that we’re subtler about it and quieter about it,” she says.
She says being more discreet can come at a cost, however, in that it allows Canadian far-right groups to quietly grow more extreme. “That is problematic because a lot of Christian nationalist groups are actually engaging with American Christian nationalists and extremists and not seeing it as Christian America or Christian Canada, but Christian North America,” she says.
ARPA is getting noticed south of the border. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), one of America’s most powerful Christian legal organizations that has been designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is also concerned with Canada’s Combatting Hate Act. According to an article the ADF released in January, the act demonstrates what happens “once fear leads people to empower the state to impose its view on fundamental matters by labeling dissenting speech as ‘hate.’”
As ARPA gains momentum, Preston says Canadians can equip themselves to identify and respond to far-right rhetoric.
“Be critical of anyone who gives you a very simple answer to a very complex question. So if anyone’s saying, ‘The economy’s bad because of these individual groups or this set of people,’ that’s probably something to be more critical of,” she says.
Celestini suggests combatting extremism by taking an approach rooted in emotional connection and understanding: “When we’re talking to people who are involved in sort of extremist ideas or are on the edge of going into these groups, paying attention to what it is that they’re afraid of is very helpful,” she says. “You need to talk to them on an emotional level and try to find out what that fear is behind the beliefs.”
Windsor, Healdsburg, Northwest Santa Rosa, Sonoma Valley
