News

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Sonoma County Pride Returns to Downtown Santa Rosa

Sonoma County Pride is excited to announce plans to return to Downtown Santa Rosa for the annual Sonoma County Pride Parade and Festival.  The event will be held on Saturday, June 4, 2022, and includes a morning parade through downtown, as well as a daytime festival in Courthouse Square, with entertainment, booths, and activities.  We are grateful for the support of our Santa Rosa partners. Santa Rosa Metro Chamber’s CEO, Peter Rumble, states, “The Santa Rosa Metro Chamber, Downtown District and Visit Santa Rosa are thrilled that Sonoma County Pride has decided to bring their events back to Downtown Santa […]

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Namibian Court Rules It Cannot Require Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages

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Namibia’s High Court ruled last week that it could not require that the marriages of two same-sex couples conducted outside of the country be granted legal recognition. The couples, legally married in South Africa and Germany, had been unable to obtain a work permit and residency permit, respectively, for their non-Namibian spouses and so launched a court case against Namibia’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages. In its decision, the court expressed sympathy with the couples’ position and emphasized that discrimination based on sexual orientation is unacceptable under domestic and international law. Nevertheless, it concluded that the court was bound by a decades-old Supreme Court […]

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Two gay men executed by Iran’s cruel regime for the ‘crime of sodomy’

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Two men have been executed in Iran after they were imprisoned for six years on anti-gay “sodomy” charges, according to human rights groups and reports. Mehrdad Karimpou and Farid Mohammadi are said to have been killed in the Maragheh prison in northwestern Iran, according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA). According to HRANA, the two men were arrested six years ago on charges of “sodomy by force” and have been in prison ever since. LGBT+ people in often face horrific violence and discrimination just for living their truth. Sex between people of the same gender is illegal in the country and can […]

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Guatemala: Anti-Trans Bill Threatens Rights

A group of lawmakers in Guatemala has advanced a bill that would stigmatize transgender people and curtail children’s and adolescents’ rights to education, information, and health, Human Rights Watch said today. Congress should reject the bill and instead address the violence and discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people face in the country.   Bill 5940 uses the rhetoric of protecting children and adolescents from “gender identity disorders” to justify a patently discriminatory measure that would ban the dissemination of any information about transgender identity in school sex education curricula. The bill would also require media outlets to label programs with transgender […]

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February Sonoma County Library Events and Classes.

The Sonoma County Library offers virtual events throughout the month of February. We have programming for all ages, including yoga, African American folktales, book clubs, and more! All events are free and you don’t need a library card to attend, however registration is required. See a selection of our February events below! Kids & Families Join us for a very special virtual storytime on Saturday, February 5, at 10:30 am with Drag Queen Story Hour! This fabulous event, featuring the ultra glamorous PerSia reading favorite children’s stories, will inspire a love of reading and teach deeper lessons on diversity, self-respect, and appreciation of others. […]

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French lawmakers outlaw conversion therapy

In a vote hailed by French President Emmanuel Macron, lawmakers in the National Assembly unanimously voted 142-0 on Tuesday to ban the discredited practice of so-called gay conversion therapy. In a reaction to the vote, Macron tweeted: “The law prohibiting conversion therapy is adopted unanimously! Let’s be proud, these unworthy practices have no place in the Republic. Because being yourself is not a crime, because there is nothing to be cured.” The law had already been passed by senators in December. Those found guilty of so-called gay conversion therapy could face two years imprisonment and a €30,000 ($33,714.45) fine. The […]

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LGBTQ Afghans face surge of rape, torture after Taliban takeover, report says

LGBTQ Afghans have increasingly been threatened, beaten and raped since the Taliban took control of the country in August, a new report found. The advocacy groups Human Rights Watch and OutRight Action International compiled a snapshot of how the freshly reawakened Taliban regime has targeted Afghans based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. And while LGBTQ Afghans have long lived in peril, the groups concluded that the situation has “dramatically worsened” following the Taliban’s takeover. “The thing that I think we heard most commonly from people who we interviewed, who are still in Afghanistan, is that they don’t leave […]

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Equality California Endorses Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia For Congress

Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, was the first organization to endorse Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia for an open Congressional seat Friday, after U.S. Representative Alan Lowenthal announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of the 117th Congress. Garcia made history in 2014 when he was elected as Long Beach’s first openly LGBTQ+ mayor, first Latino mayor and youngest mayor in the city’s history. He would be the first openly LGBTQ+ immigrant and the second openly LGBTQ+ Latino elected to Congress — and the first LGBTQ+ Latino elected to Congress from California. “Mayor […]

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Election in India’s most popular state seen as crucial LGBTQ rights test

India’s most populous state and a battleground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold the election in seven phases in February as the Election Commission of India has announced. The Uttar Pradesh election is the key prize in India’s parliamentary election as the state holds 80 parliamentary seats, the most in the country. Uttar Pradesh’s LGBTQ community and LGBTQ people from across the country have been eyeing this election because it can play a crucial role in policy changes for the community in India. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing nationalist party, is ruling Uttar Pradesh. The party is also ruling […]

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UK’s first national LGBT+ museum to celebrate Queer Britain

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The UK’s first ever national LGBT+ museum is set to open its doors in Kings Cross, London, later this year. The museum – called Queer Britain – will explore the stories, people and places that are central to the LGBT+ community in the UK and beyond. It will be located at 2 Granary Square in Kings Cross, which is owned by Art Fund, the UK’s national charity for art. Organisers have been putting plans in place to open an LGBT+ focused museum since 2018. They have promised that Queer Britain will be “an inclusive place that promises to welcome everyone regardless of sexuality or […]

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