Local

Food For Thought, which provides nutritional support to those living with HIV and other serious illnesses in Sonoma County, is proud to announce our 22nd annual Spring Home & Garden Tour on May 28, 2017 from 10 am–5 pm. This highly anticipated event gives ticket buyers exclusive access to several stunning private homes, gardens, and properties within Sonoma County. The 2017 locations celebrate a range of architecture, native plants, unique trees, and succulents. Funds raised by the tour go toward fresh weekly groceries, nutrition education, and a congregate lunch program for FFT’s clientele. Highlights include:    The Manzanita Estate has […]

Seniors are invited to a free, kick-off reception for the countywide LGBT Senior Outreach Project, sponsored by Sonoma County Human Services Department Adult and Aging Division, on Friday, March 24, 2-4 p.m., at the Person Senior Wing of Finley Community Center, 2060 West College Avenue, Santa Rosa. One goal of LGBT Senior Outreach Project is to identify new opportunities for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors living in Sonoma County to socialize and form supportive connections. At the kick-off reception, the City of Santa Rosa Recreation & Parks Department will showcase current programs offered at local community centers and for […]

The City of Petaluma just passed an It Won’t Happen Here resolution – the only city to do so – as a result of active engagement by Petaluma residents. The City of Sonoma may get a resolution with good wording for the same reason. Undocumented immigrants have gotten some wording they wanted (though flawed) from other cities – because they showed up to demand it, despite the risks. But other threatened groups – religious minorities, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community and others – are missing from the wording of resolutions passed by Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Windsor and Healdsburg. When […]

The Sonoma County Trans community will hold a rally and march in solidarity with all trans youth from 2:30-7 p.m. March 18 at Santa Rosa City Hall. The Civil Rights of trans youth are now at risk after the Trump Administration on Feb. 22 rescinded Obama-era protections that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of their gender identity. Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex, was used as the foundation for President Obama’s executive order. By rescinding this directive, the Trump Administration has put the health, safety and well-being of some of our most marginalized communities […]

A second year of local programs to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors, the LGBT Seniors Outreach Project, has begun offering training and events at three local senior centers, while also planning the spring launch of the LGBTQI Senior Information & Assistance Program to increase elders’ access to social services for healthy aging. (LGBTQI = lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex) “While LGBT seniors face the same challenges of aging as all Sonoma County seniors, they have added concerns resulting from a lifetime of discrimination and lack of recognition of same-sex relationships,” says Sonoma County Board of […]

Support a great cause by joining Food For Thought and Rialto Cinemas for Academy Night as we present the 89th annual awards ceremony live and on the big screen Sunday, February 26 at 4 p.m. We have movie trivia contests, wonderful raffle prizes, prizes for best costume from a Best Picture nominee, and a grand prize for the audience member who correctly predicts the most winners! Tickets on sale starting February 1 at Rialto Cinemas. Buy in person, online, or by phone at (707) 525-4840. Tickets usually sell out, so be sure to buy soon! Tickets are $30 and include […]

A healthy democracy is determined not simply by what happens on voting day, but by what takes place between elections—the ongoing actions of citizens, neighborhoods and organizations working to build a better world. Ready to engage? Turn complaints into actions? Want to help secure civil liberties, protect the disenfranchised and empower a more equitable economy and resilient ecology, but not sure how or where to plug in? Join us on January 29th in Santa Rosa for a free Community Engagement Fair, a day-long exhibition of organizations and community groups from across the North Bay looking for volunteers and activists just […]

A new exhibition at the GLBT History Museum will feature the work of cartoonist Fran Frisch as a starting point for exploring the history of the bear community, a subculture that developed in the 1980s to celebrate older, larger, hairier, ruggedly masculine gay men who had been largely excluded from standards of attractiveness in gay popular culture. “Beartoonist of San Francisco: Sketching an Emerging Subculture” opens Jan. 27. “Fran Frisch’s bears are both cuddly and sexual, playful and laid back, yet radical and subversive; his cartoons epitomize what it means to be a Bear,” says curator Jeremy Prince. “Frisch was […]

The Sonoma County rally and march will include diverse music, inspirational speakers and a promised dance mob dance, followed by a  30 minute sidewalk march.  Local community leaders will present a variety of options for engagement and action as we move forward towards inclusion and unity.  This noon rally is a sister march of the DC Women’s March and these coordinated marches are being held on the eve of the anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Volunteers are reaching out to all corners of Sonoma County to encourage everyone — women, men, children and families — to join together for a […]