Greg Owen

An investigation by a Florida school into charges that a teacher “groomed” a student “to transition and to be gay” resulted in the school district ending her contract, despite a recommendation to only reprimand her. AP English teacher Melissa Calhoun is the first known Florida educator to lose her job as a result of a 2023 Florida Board of Education rule stating parents must provide written permission before an educator can use any alternative to a student’s legal name. The rule is part of a wave of “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and policy enacted in Florida over the last several years. The […]

A Christian school in Georgia has forced a student to withdraw for bringing a transgender date to prom, just weeks before the senior was scheduled to graduate. North Cobb Christian School in the Atlanta area recently held their prom off campus. But 10 days later, the principal called senior Emily Wright into their office. “I was asked, ‘Is there anything we should know about the guest you brought to prom?’ Emily told Fox 5 News. “And I knew exactly what they were talking about, so I said, ‘Yes, he’s transgender.”   Her mother Tricia continued: “I got a call from the […]

In a setting where LGBTQ+ people already face disproportionately high rates of sexual violence, the Department of Justice has defunded a key resource combating prison rape through the congressionally mandated Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). PREA was passed unanimously by Congress in 2003 and sought to document and curtail the incidence and effects of prison rape in federal, state, and local institutions. Part of the legislation’s mandate was the creation of the National PREA Resource Center, which provides federally funded training and technical assistance to states and localities and serves as a “single-stop resource for research and tools for all […]

In January, the president’s executive orders purging trans and queer identity and diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) efforts from the federal government began their devastating cascade through the federal bureaucracy. One consequence speaks to the frightening authoritarian tactics deployed by the president and his MAGA loyalists: rewriting or erasing history not aligned with their Christian nationalist vision for the United States. That vision doesn’t include trans people — now or ever. The most egregious example may have been removing all mentions of the trans women who instigated the Stonewall Riots in 1969, a watershed moment in the history of LGBTQ+ rights. Once reported […]

In their poignant new documentary, Outliers and Outlaws, director Courtney Hermann and producer Judith Raiskin tell the (mostly) untold story of the hundreds of women who migrated to Eugene, Oregon in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, making the small town home to the greatest number of lesbians per capita in the United States. At the dawn of Eugene’s identity as a lesbian refuge, America was defined by college protests, opposition to the Vietnam War, collectives and communes, a new back-to-the-land ethos, and the nascent women’s and “gay rights” movements. At the center of it all for many women was Eugene. About […]