Daniel Villarreal

The mayor of Salisbury, Maryland has announced that three Pride flag crosswalks located in his city’s downtown area will be painted over in order to “maintain neutrality in public spaces.” The city is now soliciting artists to propose designs that “[embody] the character, history, or artistic vibrancy of the city,” WMDT reported.  One LGBTQ Nation reader has accused the mayor of “erasing” the local LGBTQ+ community amid Republican efforts to remove LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion in public life. “Our city is home to a diverse and vibrant community, and we want our public spaces to be welcoming to all. However, we also have […]

Christian nationalist Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) and state Rep. Jim Olsen (R) have filed a resolution asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Republican lawmakers in at least five other states have introduced similar resolutions, all of which are largely symbolic and non-binding. Senate Concurrent Resolution 8 claims that the 2015 high court ruling conflicts with the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution, the country’s founding principles, and “the deeply rooted history and tradition” regarding state regulation of marriage rights. It also notes that 75% of Oklahoma […]

Fearful Philadelphians began contacting Angela Giampolo immediately following Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. Though many queer locals knew about her LGBTQ+-focused law firm (which she established in 2008), she began wondering about people in rural areas and red states: Who would they contact to help protect their legal rights? That’s when she dreamt up Caravan of Hope, a way to offer mobile legal services to LGBTQ+ people in underserved areas. Using mostly her own money, she purchased an RV trailer, renovated it into a mobile office and planned a 30-day trip to 14 cities across the nation — an over 5,000 […]

Numerous colleges nationwide have shuttered their LGBTQ+ centers under political pressure to end all diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) programs, but not at Utah’s Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). Peter Moosman was hired at SLCC in 2019 to help open up its Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center, an office supportive of LGBTQ+ and female students. The center is open to all students: It has a drop-in lounge, offers connections to community groups and resources, and hosts events, programs, and trainings for affinity months like LGBTQ+ History Month or Women’s Heritage Month. Moosman, who currently serves as the center’s manager […]

The municipal government of Naples, Florida has refused to grant Naples Pride an event permit, citing increased security costs due to a probable rise in anti-transgender protests. The city also asked event organizers not to allow admittance to anyone under 18 years of age — so, Naples Pride is now suing the city government. The all-ages event is scheduled for June 7. The city told event organizers that they’d need to pay $36,000 for security, much more than what’s required for similarly sized events or what had been charged annually since the event began in 2017, Advocate reported. The city based its […]

The Department of Education (DOE) has directed its workers to end all transgender-inclusive programs and policies in accordance with President Donald Trump’s anti-transgender executive orders. Trump has pledged to eliminate the DOE, Elon Musk, a Trump campaign donor who has been acting as if he were co-president, has given his underlings access to the DOE and its data, and LGBTQ+ congresspeople were denied entry into the DOE last Friday. In an unsigned email sent last Friday from “ED Internal Communications,” DOE employees were told to end all programs, contracts, policies, outward-facing media, regulations, and internal practices that “fail to affirm […]