Ryan Adamczeski

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Target dropped DEI, so Minnesota’s largest Pride festival dropped Target’s sponsorship — and raised even more

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After Target made the decision to drop diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Minnesota’s largest Pride festival decided to drop them as a sponsor. Now, Twin Cities Pride has more funding than they started with. Target issued a memo on Friday announcing the end of its three-year DEI goals, including its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) program and “all external diversity-focused survey’s including HRC’s Corporate Equality index.” The Human Rights Campaign effort, which provides benchmarks on corporate policies relevant to LGBTQ+ employees, previously gave Target a score of 100 percent, dubbing the company a “Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion.” In response, the largest Pride organization in Minnesota and the […]

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Olympia becomes Washington’s first sanctuary city for LGBTQ+ people

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Olympia is officially the first sanctuary city for LGBTQ+ people in Washington state.  The city council voted unanimously at a meeting on Tuesday to declare the state capital a sanctuary for the queer community, specifically outlining protections for transgender people and gender-affirming care. The resolution, introduced by Assistant City Manager Stacey Ray, mandates equal and dignified treatment under the law regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. “Declaring Olympia a sanctuary city means recognizing the inherent worth and equal rights of LGBTQIA2S+ people, and demonstrating a commitment to protecting and advocating for individuals by rejecting policies and actions that promote discrimination, harm and inequity,” Ray said […]

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Idaho Republicans’ resolution to repeal marriage equality is ‘foreshadowing’ for the U.S.

LGBTQ+ groups in Idaho have a warning for the rest of the nation — you could be next. Republican legislators in the state introduced a resolution earlier this month urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that established national marriage equality. The measure, House Joint Memorial 1, claims the Supreme Court overstepped its authority by requiring states to recognize same-sex marriages, and calls for a return to the so-called “natural definition” of marriage as being between one man and one woman. While the resolution is nonbinding — meaning it carries no legal weight — “it is harmful nonetheless because it is a […]

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Amazon removes ‘equity for Black people’ and ‘LGBTQ+ rights’ from company policies

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Amazon has quietly removed several policies from its public websites aimed at protecting workers, including “solidarity” pledges with its Black employees and health care benefits for transgender workers.  The pages were removed about a month ago, according to The Washington Post. The changes include several to policy, as well as department titles. A section previously called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” is now “Inclusive Experiences and Technology,” and the section “advance DEI through technology” is now a pledge to “advance the employee experience.” One of the removed policies includes an outline of the gender-affirming carebenefits provided to employees under Amazon’s health care plan, which it said […]

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Meet Bobbie Simpson: California’s first out trans school board member

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Bobbie Simpson made history Wednesday when she was sworn in as a member of the Shasta County Gateway Unified School District school board, becoming the first out transgender person to hold such a role in California. Simpson won her election on November 5 with more than 56 percent of the vote, beating out incumbent Elias Haynes, who had served on the board with his wife, Lindsi, who were both subject to recall votes. Simpson recently told local outlet KRCR that she was partially motivated to challenge Haynes because “having a married couple on the board really seemed like an improper representation of the district,” as one […]

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Texas City Council that targeted LGBTQ+ people gets voted out — and replaced with first gay member

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Voters in Odessa, Texas, rejected three incumbent City Council members just one month after they voted to implement a harsh anti-trans bathroom ban, replacing one with the city’s first out gay council member. Craig Stoker, the executive director for Meals on Wheels in Odessa, won his November election for at-large City Council member with 56 percent of the vote — in the same county President-elect Donald Trump won 76 percent of the vote.  Stoker beat Denise Swanner by campaigning on infrastructure — specifically roads and garbage pickup — in contrast to the incumbent, whose campaign sent out mailers comparing the two’s opposite positions by listing […]

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The 5 states with the smallest amount of LGBTQ+ people

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The hubs and duds of queer life in modern America have been revealed, thanks to a report from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. The good news: wherever you are, you’re not alone. Overall, 14.1 million people reported that they “identify as LGBT” between 2020 and 2021, making up a significant portion of the population at 5.6 percent. By state, there wasn’t a single area with an LGBTQ+ population of less than 4 percent.  However, compared to others, some states still have less than half as many queer people proportionally. While the report did not give any reasoning as […]

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Scared for the future and LGBTQ+ rights? Here’s how to cope with the election results

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It’s going to get worse before it gets better — but we’ve been there before.  With the results of the 2024 presidential election confirmed, members of the LGBTQ+ community are understandably distressed. Seeing as Donald Trump plans to rollback transgender rights and other protections for queer people, it’s clear why 86 percent of LGBTQ+ voters cast their ballots for Kamala Harris, and why 62 percent said they’d be “scared” for Trump to win. Many are also alarmed that the hateful policies are seemingly what the majority of Americans have endorsed, but Dr. Michelle Forcier, a clinician with LGBTQ+ digital healthcare platform FOLX Health, believes it better to interpret […]

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Intersex youth have worse mental health, and ‘harmful’ nonconsensual surgeries may play a part

Intersex young people struggle with their mental health at higher rates than their peers, and how they’re treated by their families and doctors seems to play a part.  Over half of intersex LGBTQ+ youth (55 percent) reported seriously considering suicide in the past year, according to a new report from the Trevor Project, compared to 39 percent of endosex LGBTQ+ youth — those who do not have an intersex condition.  There are several factors that could be contributing to this disparity, says lead author Jonah DeChants, including a “combination of stigma and misplaced shame and embarrassment among individuals and researchers as well.” “Historically, intersex identities have been […]

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LGBTQ+ people are at a higher risk of ‘adverse brain health:’ study

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LGBTQ+ people are at a noticeably higher risk of “adverse brain health outcomes” in comparison to their straight and cisgender peers — and discrimination could be having an impact.  LGBTQ+ adults are at a 15 percent higher risk of composite brain health outcomes, including dementia, strokes, and late-life depression, according to a new study published in Neurology. Transgender women in particular were found to have higher odds of having strokes. The study examined data from 393,041 participants with available information on sexual orientation and gender identity, of whom 39,632 (10 percent) identified as some form of LGBTQ+, with 38,528 (97 percent) belonging to a sexual minority […]

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