Greg Owen

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A gay weed activist turned dispensary owner is ready to pass the torch

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In 2021, Terrance Alan celebrated the long-anticipated opening of Flore, a well-appointed cannabis dispensary just across the street from the legendary and now-closed Castro hangout Cafe Flore, a victim of the COVID pandemic. Thirty years earlier, at the height of another devastating health crisis, Alan was a regular at Cafe Flore with his husband, who was HIV positive and slowly succumbing to the effects of the disease. “Cafe Flore was a stop on the underground railway line for experimental HIV drugs, and my husband and I would go and hang out,” Alan explained in an interview with Greenstate. “And certain people […]

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Rebel groups in Colombia are killing trans women in a “social cleansing” campaign

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In Colombia, armed groups are targeting transgender women along with other so-called undesirables in a violent campaign of “social cleansing” across the country. Paramilitaries in Colombia—still operating despite a peace agreement with the country’s largest rebel group, the Farc, in 2016—killed more than 40 transgender women last year, according to reporting in The Guardian. Eight more died between February and April this year, activists say, in an effort by armed groups to create a “parallel state” where trans women and others seen as damaging to society are punished or killed. In Caquetá, a sparsely populated department in southern Colombia and a rebel stronghold, […]

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Trump-appointed judge orders public high school to recognize anti-gay student group

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A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump has ordered an anti-LGBTQ+ student club in D.C. to be reinstated at a high school, ruling it violated members’ constitutional rights by barring the group from campus. The student club, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), asserts homosexuality is immoral and opposes sexual activity outside of marriage. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia issued the ruling earlier this month to reinstate the group at Jackson-Reed High School in Northwest Washington. The case followed complaints to school administrators in 2022 by an assistant coach at the school, who […]

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This church has two giant red ribbons to let “the community know they were loved and accepted”

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If you’ve ever driven into Hollywood south on the 101 freeway, following signs for the Hollywood Bowl and Highland Avenue, then you were met with the sight on your right of the iconic Gothic bell tower at the Hollywood United Methodist Church. Dedicated in 1930, as Hollywood boomed and Los Angeles stretched west to the Pacific, the church has been “a sanctuary of hope” since the first congregants started to organize in 1909. That tradition famously took the form of two enormous red ribbons hung on the bell tower in the 1990s. “Our church has been proud supporters of our LGBTQIA+ […]

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Most lesbian & gay parents face negative comments about their families

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A new report by the U.K. youth charity Just Like Us has found that many schools still don’t talk openly about diverse families, resulting in what the group describes as social stigma, discrimination, and poor wellbeing for the children and parents of LGBTQ+ families. The new research independently surveyed 1,012 LGBTQ+ parents across the U.K. and interviewed families about their experiences. More than half (56%) of lesbian and gay parents face negative comments about their families, while forty-two percent of their kids have experienced remarks about having LGBTQ+ parents, according to the research. “Every parent wants to send their child to school […]

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Aly Kim & her friends have been celebrating Pride in Monterey for decades

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For Aly Kim of Monterey, California, Pride in the seaside town famous for John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, and nearby Pebble Beach in Carmel offered an added attraction in 2022: a reunion among friends more than 40 years in the making. Aly, JT, and Gwen got to know each other in 1980 before the Monterey Peninsula had a Pride celebration. The only gay bar in the area, After Dark, hosted Monterey’s first Pride event in 1993 — behind closed doors. Three years later, the LGBTQ+ community came out for a public celebration. “Monterey’s gay community leapt into the spotlight during Monterey’s Gay […]

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Out legislators unveil plan to stop “heartbreaking” abuse of LGBTQ+ elders nationwide

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Legislation to create a new task force to combat LGBTQ+ elder abuse has been introduced by out Rep. Angie Craig of (D-MN) and fellow Equality Caucus member Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). Gottheimer announced the bill, dubbed the “Elder Pride Protection Act,” at an annual roundtable of North Jersey LGBTQ+ community organizations and advocates. “We know that elderly members of the LGBTQ+ community face abuse across our nation, but their voices aren’t being heard,” Gottheimer said Friday. “The reality is that organizations and government agencies aren’t tracking these heartbreaking attacks.” The bill would require the attorney general to establish a Department […]

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Gay men in France are facing wave of attacks after being lured into hook-ups

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A new report details a wave of attacks on gay men in France carried out by young perpetrators using hook-up apps to lure their victims before assaulting and robbing them. The report from the Fondation Jean Jaurès adds to data collected in a survey last year by French investigative site Mediapart. The Mediapart survey counted 300 homophobic ambushes across France between 2017 and 2021, or around one a week. That number likely underestimates the number of incidents grossly due to underreporting. The attacks analyzed almost always involved a robbery and were not necessarily motivated primarily by anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, the report’s […]

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Most brands are holding the line when it comes to their Pride season strategies

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Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light. Target and “tuck-friendly” bathing suits. “Satanic Pride propaganda.” Those were just some of the flash points in last year’s Pride merch madness that tested consumer brands’ relationships with the LGBTQ+ community. After all the boycotts and right-wing outrage, where do companies stand when it comes to this year’s Pride merch offerings and allyship? Pretty much where they’ve always been, according to a new survey. Data from corporate executives and Fortune 500 leaders gathered by Gravity Research and reported by PR Daily indicates that 78% of companies are not planning any change in their Pride strategy in 2024. Thirteen percent were unsure, while 9% […]

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How a trans sex worker from Paraguay became friends with the Pope

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On Thursday, Pope Francis presided over a ceremony that laid out his vision for the coming 2025 Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century event that will bring tens of millions of Catholic pilgrims to Rome. The papal bull, delivered in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica, laid out a vision of hope for the coming Holy Year, asking for gestures of solidarity with the poor, prisoners, migrants and Mother Nature. Since he rose to the papacy in 2013 and famously declared, “Who am I to judge,” hope for those neglected, disenfranchised, and ostracized people has been central to his tenure. Lately, those people […]

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