News
Napa Valley College Pride Learning Community Offering 2-Semester LGBTQ+ Program This Fall
The Napa Valley College Pride Learning Community promotes student success in college and life through an immersive communal experience in academics and college life. This two-semester program includes a cohort of students who work together with experienced faculty and college counselors with a focus on LGBTQ+ studies. These courses prepare students for transfer to a 4-year college or university or for entry to the workforce.
Careers this learning community can prepare you for include:
- Business
- Hospitality and Tourism
- Health Occupations
- Criminal Justice and Social Work
- Teaching and Education
- Any Career That Includes Working With People
Being part of this learning community will offer you special field trips, activities, and experiences beyond a regular college class. You will meet new people and make new friends!
If you are looking for an exciting way to earn valuable college credit while having what can be a life-changing experience, a learning community is for you!
HOW IS A LEARNING COMMUNITY DIFFERENT FROM JUST TAKING CLASSES?
As a student in a learning community, you will get much more than just the content of a class. You will experience all of the classes together with the same set of students who have similar interests and goals. You will get the opportunity to participate in one or two extra-curricular activities a month. These might include field trips, talking with guest speakers, doing group community projects, or watching movies and documentaries together with facilitated discussions.
As a member of this learning community, you will also have direct access to a college counselor to help you with education planning and preparing you for transfer to a 4-year college or university or graduation into the workforce.
WHAT KIND OF STUDENT SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THIS LEARNING COMMUNITY?
The Pride Learning Community is open to all LGBTQ+ students and allies interested in the LGBTQ+ community. If you are a student looking for more of a college experience than just coming and going to class, this is the program for you. Learning communities can offer you many more opportunities to learn, experience, and have fun while in college.
DOES IT COST MORE TO BE PART OF THIS LEARNING COMMUNITY?
No. Classes that are part of the Pride Learning Community cost the same as any other credit class. Napa Valley College is investing in your success and is funding the extra-curricular activities associated with the Learning Community. All you need to do is participate!
DID YOU KNOW?
Napa Valley College is one of only three community colleges in California with an LGBT Education two-year degree?
Our LGBT Education Program offers three different certificate programs:
- LGBT Education For Educators certificate – 9 units
- LGBT Education for Health Care Professionals certificate – 9 units
- LGBT Studies Certificate – 21 units
All three are impressive additions to your college transcript.
Learning communities are proven to increase student success in achieving academic goals. Whether you are interested in taking just a couple of classes or wanting to earn a certificate or degree, a learning community is an exciting immersive way to learn and succeed!
WHAT CLASSES ARE INCLUDED IN THIS LEARNING COMMUNITY?
The program spans one full school year starting with the fall semester.
FALL
- LGBT-120 Introduction To LGBT Studies – 3 Units (class transfers to UC and CSU and meets the social science requirement for graduation)
- COUN-100 College Success – 3 Units
SPRING
- LGBT-121 21st Century Issues In The LGBT Community – 3 Units (class transfers to UC and CSU and meets the social science requirement for graduation)
- COUN-105 Planning For Transfer Success – 1.5 Units
- COUN-111 Career Decision-Making – 1.5 units
HOW DO I SIGN-UP FOR THE PRIDE LEARNING COMMUNITY?
All you need to do is register for the LGBT-120 and linked COUN-100 class in the fall.
OUR TEAM
Greg Miraglia has been teaching college classes since 1986. He leads the LGBT Education program at Napa Valley College and is an LGBTQ+ advocate. He is passionate about education and teaching. Greg created the LGBT education program at Napa Valley College in 2012. . He is the vice-president of the board of directors for the Matthew Shepard Foundation also hosts an LGBTQ+ radio program on PBS station KRCB radio. He lives with his husband in Santa Rosa and loves the culinary arts and travel.
Gail Rulloda is a loving wife, mother of two beautiful kids, and a life-long learner of the world. Gail has found joy working, co-learning, co-creating with students in the early intervention, K-12, and higher education settings. She loves to learn through experiences, courageous conversations, and through food! She believes this work of social justice and equity needs to be worked not just within the institution but outside of it in her home, in her relationships, her kids, and with people she meets. She is grounded in love and often goes back to it when she is going through difficult times. Gail seeks to resist perpetuating trauma and hurt through healing, learning, and finding joy.
Faye Smyle has been teaching at Napa Valley College for 23 years, and is the program coordinator for Child & Family Studies and Education. Overall this is her 33rd year of teaching at the community college level. While in Connecticut she also taught infant, toddler, preschooler and kindergarten children. Teaching is truly a part of her soul. In addition to her love of teaching, Faye enjoys gardening, traveling, eating wonderful food, watching movies and being with her friends and family.
Bill would sanction perpetrators of anti-LGBTQ human rights abuses
Two U.S. senators on Thursday introduced a bill that would sanction those who commit abuses against LGBTQ and intersex people abroad.
U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced the Global Respect Act. U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) have sponsored an identical bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A press release from Shaheen’s office notes the Global Respect Act would do the following:
• Require the Executive Branch to biannually send Congress a list of foreign persons responsible for, or complicit in cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment of an individual; prolonged detention of an individual without charges or trials; causing the disappearance of an individual by abduction and clandestine detention of an individual; other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty or the security of an individual;
• Authorize the administration to deny or revoke visas to individuals placed on the list;
• Require the annual State Department Report on Human Rights to include a section on LGBTI international human rights, as well as an annual report to Congress on the status of the law’s effectiveness; and
• Require the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor to designate a senior officer responsible for tracking violence, criminalization and restrictions on the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms in foreign countries based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“It’s unconscionable that LGBTQI communities around the world face persecution, jail and murder because of who they love and how they identify. These communities should be free to express who they are, love who they love and enjoy all the same basic human rights as anyone else. The U.S. has a moral imperative to make clear to the international community that LGBTI rights are human rights, and that we will work to protect these communities regardless of where they are in the world,” said Shaheen. “That’s why I’m leading this bipartisan effort to empower the administration with enhanced authority to bring human rights violators to justice while expanding protections for LGBTQI individuals around the world.”
Murkowski further noted “members of the LGBTQI community” in countries around the world “are subject to discrimination and harm every day.”
“We should not tolerate violence against any group of people,” said the Alaska Republican. “By creating and strengthening consequences for those who carry out human rights violations, my hope is that we prevent it from happening in the first place.”
President Joe Biden in 2021 signed a memorandum that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s overall foreign policy.
Montana Man Sentenced To 18 Years After Using Assault Weapon In Crusade To “Clean Out” His Town Of LGBTQs
From the Justice Department:
A Montana man was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris to 18 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for shooting into a residence and attempting to shoot others with the intent of ridding a town of LGBTQI+ residents.
John Russell Howald, of Basin, was convicted by a federal jury on Feb. 17 of a hate crime involving an attempt to kill and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence for firing an AK-style rifle at the residence of a woman who was known within the town as lesbian and was home at the time, and then walking further into town intending to target others he perceived to be lesbian, queer, and gay. The trial lasted four days.
“This defendant is being held accountable for his horrific attempted mass shooting against the LGBTQI+ community in a Montana town,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Howald set out to rid the town of all LGBTQI+ members by killing them. He shot into the home of a lesbian resident, nearly killing her, with the hope of inspiring similar attacks around the country. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to be free from hate-fueled violence. This Pride Month, we affirm our commitment to using the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act to hold perpetrators of hate-fueled violence targeting the LGBTQI+ community accountable.”
According to court documents, on March 22, 2020, Howald went on a self-described mission to rid the town of Basin of its lesbian, queer and gay community.
Howald was armed with two assault rifles, a hunting rifle, two pistols and multiple high-capacity magazines that were taped together to speed reloading. Howald walked to the first victim’s residence and fired multiple rounds from an AK-style rifle into her property and home, all because of his belief regarding her sexual orientation.
Hoping he had killed her, Howald set off toward other houses occupied by people who identify as lesbian, queer or gay.
Local residents, who knew Howald and happened to be leaving church, stalled him long enough for a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy to respond and inadvertently recorded Howald yelling and firing more rounds with the same rifle, expressing his hatred toward the community’s gay and lesbian residents and his determination to “clean” them from his town.
When the deputy arrived, Howald pointed the AK-style rifle at the officer, nearly starting a shootout in downtown Basin, and then fled into the hills, firing at least one round as he went.
Law enforcement arrested Howald the next day and found him armed with a loaded pistol and a knife. In Howald’s car, officers found an AR-style rifle and a revolver. During a search of Howald’s camper, officers found an AK-style rifle, a hunting rifle, and ammunition.
Illinois Becomes First State to Ban Book Bans
Illinois has become the first state to enact what’s being called a ban on book bans.
House Bill 2789, signed into law Monday by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, will deny state funding to public libraries that ban materials because of “partisan or doctrinal disapproval” of the content.
“We are not saying that every book should be in every single library,” said Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, according to the Associated Press. “What this law does is it says, let’s trust our experience and education of our librarians to decide what books should be in circulation.” Giannoulias, who also holds the post of state librarian, led the effort to pass the legislation.
The law requires public libraries and library systems to adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which says that “materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation,” or craft a similar policy of their own in order to remain eligible to receive state funding. The measure passed along party lines, with Democrats in favor, Republicans against, and goes into effect January 1.
The legislation comes as attempts to ban or restrict access to certain books are spreading around the nation. The books most frequently targeted are those by authors of color or LGBTQ+ writers, or that deal with racial or LGBTQ+ themes.
2022 saw the highest number of challenged books in school and public libraries since the American Library Association started documenting challenges 20 years ago, 2,571 titles, up from 1,858 in 2021. There were 1,269 challenges, most of them involving multiple books, compared with 769 in 2021.
“While it’s true that kids need guidance, and that some ideas can be objectionable, trying to weaponize local government to force one-size-fits-all standards onto the entire community for reasons of bigotry or as a substitute for active and involved parenting is wrong,” the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Anna Stava-Murray, said at the signing ceremony at a children’s library in Chicago, the AP reports.
Call To Action: Protest Anti-LGBTQI+ Owners of Several Sonoma Businesses at General’s Daughter June 20
REMINDER – PROTEST ON JUNE 20TH, 5:30 – 7:00 IN FRONT OF THE PIZZA AND PINOT AT GENERAL’S DAUGHTER – OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE STREET. |
WE ARE WAKE UP SONOMAOUR MISSION IS TO:Promote equality of human and civil rights within our community, through research, education about threats to those rights, and to champion community-based solutions. We see THESE BUSINESSES in direct conflict with our mission.Stand with us, boycott LeFever/Mattson owned businesses! |
(If you don’t see the image above with list of LeFever Mattson businesses, be sure to show remote content in this e-mail.) |
Think about where your money is going—you would be supporting the following:Large property and land purchases in Sonoma which are being left to decay and become blight in the community affecting tourism, and jobs.A major business presence in the community with anti-LGBTQ and other hate policies (book banning, wanting “traditional family values” in public schools, etc.) – Consider the homophobic FB posts from Stacy Mattson on her Facebook Page – Consider the taking down of the Pride Flag Consider LeFever/Mattson ties to National political hate groups as designated by the Southern Poverty Law CenterBuying of local properties and elevated prices and selling them back to one of their own LLC’s. This destabilizes the local economy and property values. The regular Sonoma resident suffers – the community suffers.Buying up once thriving businesses and in some cases letting them go fallow, which contributes to a suppressed local economy.Stand together as a community that says no to the big money takeover of Sonoma Valley that is taking place RIGHT NOW! |
NO HATE SPEECHDO NOT OBSTRUCT THE SIDEWALKSTAY ON OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE STREETDO NOT SEEK CONFRONTIVE INTERACTION WITH PEOPLE ENGAGING IN PIZZA AND PINOTGIVE INFORMATION IF ASKED CALMLY AND RESPECTFULLY |
West Hollywood Drag-Themed Art Display Vandalized Days After Pride
A public photo art display celebrating drag queens and LA Pride history has become the target of vandalism in West Hollywood.
The life-size portraits come from an essay on the second West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval in the late 1980s, and have been on display along the Sunset Strip section of Sunset Boulevard since May 1. Now, more than a dozen of them have been burned, tagged with graffiti, stabbed, or slashed.
Local station KABC-TV spoke with the artist responsible for the displays, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of her personal safety.
“Some of the images were burned and they were gouged with some kind of instrument,” she said, “It just makes me sad.”
In video footage captured by KABC, defaced drag queen portraits can be seen with gouged or burnt faces. One is marked with a long vertical slash and the initials “VS” in graffiti.
“I just think the energy of the country just sucks. It’s like America needs to get it together, I don’t know why people have to be so nasty to each other,” the artist shared. KABC reports that she was brought to tears over the vandalism.
The artist also noted that she took the photos herself in the 1980s, and that she was thrilled to share them during Pride month.
“You know, I just remember that as a really fun time in my life and I wanted to share those images,” she said.
The artist has contacted the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department but has yet to file an official report because she is out town.
For China’s LGBTQ community, safe spaces are becoming harder to find
The space for China’s LGBTQ community just got even smaller.
Founded in 2008, the Beijing LGBT Center had played a prominent role in combating prejudice against sexual and gender minorities in China. On May 15, four days after its 15th anniversary and two days before the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, the center said on its official WeChat account that it was closing because of “force majeure,” which in China often refers to being shut down by the government.
“We were all shocked by the news,” said Marry Yang, a volunteer at the center. “It’s quite sudden. Most people don’t know what happened.”
It is not clear whether the closing of the Beijing LGBT Center, which declined a request for comment, was ordered by officials. The publicity department for Beijing’s Chaoyang district, where the center was, said it was not aware of the situation.
Considered the biggest and most well-established LGBTQ organization in China, the center, also known as Beitong, gave sexual and gender minorities a sense of belonging, supporters said.
“It’s quite shocking because I thought the Beijing LGBT Center has a very perfect policy with all kinds of support,” Yang said. “But even so, they still shut down.”
Jinghua Qian, a Chinese Australian writer who worked as a journalist in China from 2016 to 2018, said the center’s closure was “a huge loss for not only the LGBTIQ+ community in China but for the world.”
“We will be poorer for it,” Qian told NBC News via email. “We will know less, we will understand less, about people and ideas that are quite crucial to understanding China today.”
Shrinking safe spaces
The center’s closing comes as officials are trying to increase the birth rate to address demographic concerns in China, which reported its first population decline in decades this year and is being overtaken by India as the world’s most populous nation.
“LGBTQ+ is viewed as a malign foreign influence that is stopping youth from getting married and having children by the Chinese government,” said Darius Longarino, a senior fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School who focuses on LGBTQ rights.
Although homosexuality is legal in China and major cities can have thriving LGBTQ social scenes, same-sex marriage and adoption are not allowed and LGBTQ people are not legally protected against discrimination.
LGBTQ people in China say their safe spaces have been squeezed under President Xi Jinping, who has overseen a crackdown on advocacy groups since coming to power a decade ago. The pressure has only intensified under a 2017 law that increased regulation of international nongovernmental organizations, said Stephanie Wang, an assistant professor at St. Lawrence University in New York state who has researched LGBTQ rights in China.
In 2019, Chengdu Milk LGBT Service Center announced that it would cease operations. In 2020, Shanghai Pride, which held China’s only major annual LGBTQ celebration, said it was suspending all activities after 11 years in existence. LGBT Rights Advocacy China, which had led major legal cases, shut down the following year, months after dozens of LGBTQ accounts run by university students were deleted from the WeChat social media platform.
There has also been an increase in government censorship, including a ban on “effeminate” men on TV as well as shows about close male relationships known as “boys’ love” dramas. Last year, an LGBTQ storyline was removed from a version of the American sitcom “Friends” being streamed on the Chinese mainland.
Harvey Zhu, 24, a university student in Beijing who had participated in Beijing LGBT Center activities, said the center’s closing was part of an “irresistible trend” in China.
I know that queers & feminists in China know how to work a loophole, a cat door, a hairline fracture, a whisper, a metaphor, but soon that’s too subtle and quiet to reach the people who need it. A secret handshake can’t replace a lighthouse.”
JINGHUA QIAN, CHINESE AUSTRALIAN WRITER
“You don’t feel surprised because you’ve actually expected it,” he said.
Qian, the Chinese Australian writer, nonetheless expressed disappointment and alarm.
“It’s evidence of how much the government has turned on queer and feminist organizations as enemies of the state, where in the past the relationship between NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and the state was rocky but occasionally collegial as well,” said Qian, who uses gender-neutral pronouns.
Earlier, after hearing about the closure, they wrote on Twitter that “it just feels so utterly hopeless. I know that queers & feminists in China know how to work a loophole, a cat door, a hairline fracture, a whisper, a metaphor, but soon that’s too subtle and quiet to reach the people who need it. A secret handshake can’t replace a lighthouse.”
‘Homophobic social norms’
Zhu and others say conservative cultural values often keep them from sharing their identities with others.
“I haven’t told my parents about my sexuality because I’m afraid it’s not traditionally acceptable to them,” he said. “Although China is becoming more open to us now, it’s still difficult for sexual minorities to work in state organizations as rights-bearing officials because of traditional homophobic social norms.”
“Because you can’t just be open about your sexuality in there, you don’t know what that would entail,” he added.
Zhu sees a brighter future for sexual and gender minorities in China, albeit one that will take time to appear.
“Right now the upper echelons of the country’s leadership are still conservative older generations,” he said. “But I believe that in another decade or so when more open-minded people take up the role of policymakers, things will change.”
That makes organizations like the Beijing LGBT Center all the more important in the meantime, said Will Hai, founder of a queer group in the Chinese city of Changsha.
“It is especially obvious during the holidays,” Hai said, when single people returning to their hometowns face questions from family members about why they haven’t married and had children.
“I can see that straight people seem to be happy to go home for the [Lunar] New Year or something, but the LGBT group feels very depressed and suffocated,” he said.
“In this case, it is definitely important to have an organization for this kind of public discussion.”
Hai said he wanted to make his organization as meaningful as the Beijing LGBT Center.
“On the other hand, I can’t make it too meaningful,” he said, “because if it is too meaningful it will be censored.”
Queer teenager killed in Israel after death threats from family members for being LGBTQ+
Sarit Ahmed, an 18-year-old queer Druze woman, died after being shot multiple times while sitting in her car in Northern Israel, in a killing allegedly motivated by her sexual orientation.
Ahmed was found lying in the street near Yarka, with multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body on Friday (9 June), according to Israeli emergency services. After being taken to Galilee Medical Centre in Israel’s Northern District, Ahmed was pronounced dead.
The 18-year-old had previously received death threats from her brothers due to her queer identity. In 2020, Ahmed filed a complaint against two of her brothers, claiming they had made explicit threats on her life.
The two brothers were convicted of threatening her life and jailed for three and four months, while Ahmed was placed in a shelter for at-risk young women.
According to the verdict, her brothers found out that Ahmed was not heterosexual and knew about a relationship she had had which was “contrary to the family’s opinion and what was accepted”.
Tensions and threats reportedly came to head in October 2020, when Ahmed’s eldest brother returned home and took Ahmed’s mobile phone from her. It was on the device that he found information about her sexual orientation.
Walla reported that Ahmed’s eldest brother advised her to “drink poison, it’s better for you”, while the younger brother threatened to stab her “in the stomach with a knife, and then I will go drink beer – as if nothing had happened”.
Ahmed’s phone was confiscated by her father and oldest brother, and she was barred from leaving the house unless accompanied by a family member. This situation lasted for over a month, as outlined in the indictment, until Ahmed ran away and filed a complaint against her brother.
In the brothers’ sentencing, the judge wrote: “I have every hope that after this sentence the parents will find the best way to return their little daughter to the family, to take care of her in a natural way, with understanding and persuasion and not by coercion and threats.”
After a period living in a shelter for her safety, Ahmed decided to live with her sister, but just three weeks ago, she approached police and asked for protection, as she feared for her life once again.
Police have so far not made any arrests and no formal suspects have been identified.
Ahmed’s killing raises questions about the lack of protection for LGBTQ+ Arabs in Israel. During a recent Knesset hearing, it was found that the Welfare Ministry employs only one social worker dedicated to helping LGBTQ+ Arabs, Haaretz reported.
According to Arwa Adam, director of Arab LGBTQ+ organisation Beit Al-Mim, the Social Equality Ministry approved the opening of a shelter for the LGBTQ+ Arab community, but it had not been implemented.
Hila Par, chair of the Association for the LGBT, said: “It is difficult to describe the pain of the murder of the young woman after she received threats on the background of her sexual orientation. It is a sad day for the gay community and the entire Israeli public where such a murder takes place.
“When it comes to a girl who has been threatened in the past because of her sexual orientation, we demand that the police thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident,” Parr added. “This harsh reality cannot continue.”
Ahmed was part of the Druze community, sometimes described as a “minority within a minority” of around 120,000 people who form just two per cent of Israel’s population. Druze people practise a form of Ismaili Islam, identifying with the wider community in Lebanon and Syria, and some form of Arab nationalism.
Although the Druze community have historically pledged loyalty to Israel for purposes of protection, some identify as Palestinian and have begun to refuse mandatory conscription into the Israeli army.
Since the beginning of 2023, the number of murder victims in the Arab community has risen to 93, including seven women and two children.
Palestinian citizens of Israel have long criticised the discrimination they face and police inaction when it comes to crime and violence that disproportionately affects their community.
In April, Israel police commissioner Kobi Shabtai claimed that it is in the “nature” and part of the “mentality” of Arabs to kill each other in a phone conversation with in a phone call with far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“There is nothing that can be done. They kill each other. That is their nature. That is the mentality of the Arabs,” the Times of Israel reported Shabtai as saying.
Ahmed’s death follows the unrelated alleged crime gang-related shooting of five people at a car wash on Thursday (8 June) in the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye.
Most Americans OK Discussing Gender and Sexuality in Schools: Survey
Most Americans say that lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation should be discussed in schools, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute.
Of 5,000 adults surveyed, 65 percent agreed that it was appropriate to discuss the idea that someone may seek out romantic relationships with a person of the same sex in the classroom. However, it depended on the grades. Only 8 percent said it was appropriate to talk about in elementary school, 24 percent said it was for middle school, and 19 percent for high school.
Just 34 percent said that it is “never appropriate” to discuss romantic same-sex relationships in classrooms. Fifty-five percent of Republicans agreed to that statement — three times the amount of Democrats in agreement at 18 percent. Republicans were also more than twice as likely to say public schools interfere “too much” with so-called parental rights, with 79 percent compared to 31 percent of Democrats.
Twenty-four percent of respondents said it was “never appropriate” to talk about opposite-sex relationships in classrooms.
Only around one-third of respondents also said that lessons on gender identity are “never appropriate.” The report also noted that those who personally know a transgender person were less likely to agree, but only 11 percent of those surveyed said they have a close relationship with someone who is transgender. 63 percent said they did not know any trans people.
The study comes as GOP-controlled states attempt to enact versions of Florida’s infamous “don’t say gay” law. Those laws forbid discussions on gender and sexual orientation in classrooms but are too vague that advocates say talking about a teacher’s same-sex partner could be a violation. It’s also been used to justify book bans surrounding LGBTQ+ topics. Florida recently expanded the law to cover more than just elementary school grades.
Recent data noted in the report also found that the public’s perception of gender identity is shifting, with less people saying they believe that sex and gender are separate. Americans who believe in multiple gender identities fell to 34 percent in 2023 from 40 percent in 2021, with 90 percent of Republicans and only 44 percent of Democrats saying they believe in the gender binary.
PRRI researchers directly attribute the change in beliefs to conservative-leaning media.
“The definition of gender has become a high-profile and controversial topic in the public discourse in recent years, receiving significant conservative media attention,” PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman said in a statement. “We’re seeing a hardening of position in support of a gender binary nationally, informed largely by partisanship and news consumption.”