State

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California Library Gets Bomb Threat After Kicking Out Transphobic Group

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A caller used anti-LGBTQ hate speech to issue a bomb threat against a library in Davis, Calif., near Sacramento, on Monday. This forced the Mary L. Stephens Library and a nearby elementary school to evacuate.  The threat came the day after a right-wing group tried to have an event at the library that didn’t go as expected.  On Sunday, the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty — an anti-civil rights, anti-LGBTQ+ organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated an anti-government extremist group — held an event attacking transgender athletes’ inclusion in sports. At the ‘Forum On Fair And Safe […]

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California GOP opposes national party’s anti-same-sex marriage platform

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The California Republican Party has sparked a battle with the national GOP by proposing to remove the national party’s opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion from its state political platform. Supporters say removing these two items will help align the California GOP platform with the values of California voters’ values while helping Republican candidates win statewide elections. However, opponents say removing the items would betray the party’s conservative values and contradict the anti-abortion and anti-gay stances of the GOP presidential candidates. The 2020 — that is, current — national Republican platform continued the party’s opposition to same-sex marriage (even though the U.S. […]

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California store owner, mother of 9, fatally shot over a Pride flag displayed in her shop

A business owner was fatally shot Friday after someone allegedly took issue with a Pride flag she had displayed at her clothing store in Lake Arrowhead, California. Deputies responded at 5 p.m. to the shooting at the Mag Pi clothing store, where owner Laura Ann Carleton was pronounced dead, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. The suspect, who was not identified, ran away.  “Through further investigation, detectives learned the suspect made several disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store before shooting Carleton,” the news release said. The suspect was armed when confronted […]

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Transgender Woman Violently Attacked in Palm Springs

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A trans woman was stripped of her clothing and viciously attacked outside a nightclub in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday evening, and police are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. Video of the shocking incident obtained by KPLM-TV showed a crowd gathering as trans woman Skyy Perez, staggering and wearing only her underwear, was brutally punched outside the Village nightclub on Saturday night. Perez said she was at The Village with friends when her phone was stolen. She said she attempted to search the bag of a woman at a nearby table but security intervened and escorted her from the club. […]

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California investigates district’s parental notification policy on students’ gender identity

California’s attorney general said Friday he was investigating whether a local school district infringed on students’ civil rights by adopting a policy that requires teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender or wants to use a name or pronoun different from what’s on their birth certificate. Rob Bonta said the policy, approved by the Chino Valley Unified School District in July, could force schools to “out” their students, increasing a student’s risk of being bullied or committing self-harm or suicide. The policy also requires parents to be notified within three days if their child asked for access […]

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Equality California on Chino Valley USD Board Vote to Forcibly Out Transgender and Nonbinary Students

Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, released the following statement from Executive Director Tony Hoang after the vote by the Chino Valley USD Board of Education to adopt a policy that will forcibly out transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming students — who may use different names and pronouns at school than those they were assigned at birth — to their parents without the student’s consent: “Equality California is appalled and alarmed by the level of blatant homophobia and transphobia leveled against LGBTQ+ youth by the Chino Valley Unified School Board yesterday evening. With LGBTQ+ youth around the country […]

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Conservatives threatened to hold LGBTQ+ library books hostage. The plan blew up in their faces.

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When Amy Vance and Martha Martin checked out nearly all of the books from the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, they had a nefarious plan. The incompetent duo emailed the administrator that they would not return the “inappropriate” books. The duo thought they had the upper hand with the plan to hold the books hostage, but instead, their plan backfired spectacularly. They inadvertently raised $45,000 for the library to expand its LGBTQ+-themed programming and materials. “Minor children have the right to belong to a community that respects their innocence and allows families to have conversations about sex […]

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Trans man punched by L.A. County deputy, video shows, then asked to show genitals at jail

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating after a deputy threw a transgender man to the ground, punched him and held him down as the man called for help. During the encounter, which was caught on recently released surveillance video, the man could be heard telling the deputy that he couldn’t breathe and at one point said, “You’re going to kill me.”  Emmett Brock, 24, told NBC News he was driving home from his job as a teacher in February when he passed a deputy who appeared to be having a heated conversation with a woman on the side […]

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In a California First, Lesbian Toni Atkins Signs Bills Into Law as Acting Governor

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In a first for LGBTQ+ people in California, Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins has signed bills into law while serving as the state’s acting governor. Atkins, who is a lesbian, is “the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person serving as acting governor to sign bills into law while doing so” in California, according to The Bay Area Reporter. Atkins took the action last Thursday, when both Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis were out of the state. She signed three bills: Assembly Bill 354, updating membership on the Sacramento Regional Transit District board of directors; AB 410, upgrading […]

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