Activism

Melinda Gates writes for the New York Times: Many years ago, I received this piece of advice: “Set your own agenda, or someone else will set it for you.” I’ve carried those words with me ever since. That’s why, next week, I will leave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of which I was a co-founder almost 25 years ago, …

Back in February, I reported that Ali Forney Center founder Carl Siciliano had penned a coming book and today it has gone on sale. From the Penguin Random House press release: Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney—a Black nonbinary teenager overflowing with life—in 1994 while working at a daytime center for homeless youth in New York City. Nineteen years old and …

NBC News reports: The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ rights group in the United States, is launching a $15 million commitment to help Democratic President Joe Biden defeat Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 election. The spending blitz, shared first with NBC News, will cover the six key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. The …

Back in February, I reported that Ali Forney Center founder Carl Siciliano had penned a coming book. From the Penguin Random House press release: Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney—a Black nonbinary teenager overflowing with life—in 1994 while working at a daytime center for homeless youth in New York City. Nineteen years old and driven from home, Forney was the heart …

Brody Levesque reports at the Los Angeles Blade: Word came Monday afternoon that one of the most influential LGBTQ & HIV/AIDS activists and political strategists in the LGBTQ+ movement has died. David Benjamin Mixner, 77, was a longtime formidable presence in both Democratic progressive political circles and within his beloved LGBTQ+ community. In a Facebook post on his personal page …

Via press release from Penguin Random House: Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney—a Black nonbinary teenager overflowing with life—in 1994 while working at a daytime center for homeless youth in New York City. Nineteen years old and driven from home, Forney was the heart of the community, known for infectious laughter, fierce loyalty to friends, and an unshakeable faith in their …

Orlando’s ABC affiliate reports: Thousands of people packed downtown Orlando Saturday for the “Come Out With Pride” festival and parade. Two hundred thousand attendees came together to celebrate LGBTQ+ life and culture. Throughout the day, festival grounds at Lake Eola were filled with multiple vendors, live entertainment and family-friendly activities. A sea of people lined the streets around the lake …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: When San Francisco’s AIDS Legal Referral Panel was founded 40 years ago by a loose collective of gay attorneys desperate to help ill friends and loved ones, the vast majority of their work was crafting wills for young men, in some cases days before they died. Bill Hirsh, executive director of the nonprofit agency for …

The Daily Beast reports: A group of seven activists were arrested for unlawful entry on Monday morning after storming House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s office to demand the passage of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Capitol Police confirmed to The Daily Beast. The activists—which Health Global Access Project and Housing Works confirmed on Twitter belonged to their groups—chanted “pass …

The Associated Press reports: A Montana judge on Monday sided with young environmental activists who said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by permitting fossil fuel development without considering its effect on the climate. The ruling in the first-of-its- kind trial in the U.S. adds to a small number of legal decisions around …

Florida Politics reports: Fort Lauderdale will be the main stage for a multi-city event demonstrating against what advocates are calling “the slate of hate” they see Gov. Ron DeSantis chiefly promoting and importing to legislative bodies across the country. Among the well-known faces expected to be marching into that battleground of the nation’s soul: David Hogg, gun rights activist and …

The New York Times reports: Jubilant marchers are set to fill the streets of Manhattan on Sunday for the New York City Pride March, but the shadow of gathering storm clouds — both literal and metaphorical — was unmistakable. The march, which commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riot widely viewed as spurring the modern L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement, is the largest of …

The Wall Street Journal reports: George Soros, the legendary investor, philanthropist and right-wing target, is handing control of his $25 billion empire to a younger son—Alexander Soros, a self-described center-left thinker who grew up self-conscious of the family’s wealth and wasn’t thought to be a potential successor. The 37-year-old, who goes by Alex, said in the first interview since his …

Just in via press release: Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States for the first time in its more than 40-year history, following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping …

Pink News reports: Democratic representative and trans trailblazer Zooey Zephyr has proposed to her girlfriend, the independent journalist and LGBTQ+ activist Erin Reed. Reed told PinkNews that the couple had been “side by side through it all for the last several months” and they are “thrilled” to be “a source of happiness for our community”. The past few weeks have …

ABC News reports: Hundreds of drag performers and allies rallied in Florida Tuesday afternoon against recent legislation that organizers say is attacking the LGBTQ community. The rally drew advocates from across the state to Tallahassee for a march to the state Capitol, where speakers included state Sen. Shevrin Jones. “First of all, I want to acknowledge your existence,” Jones said …

The New York Times reports: Harry Belafonte, who stormed the pop charts and smashed racial barriers in the 1950s with his highly personal brand of folk music, and who went on to become a major force in the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was 96. The cause was …

The Independent reports: Kevin Bacon has gone viral with a video he made in protest of the drag bans. On Sunday, he posted a video of him and his wife, the actor Kyra Sedgwick, dancing to Taylor Swift’s song “Karma” and wearing t-shirts with the slogan “Drag is an art and drag is a right”. In the caption to the …

Via email from LGBTQ youth advocate Carl Siciliano: Since stepping down as the Ali Forney Center’s Executive Director in 2020, I’ve been overseeing our efforts to support programs housing LGBTQ youth across the country and around the world. One group that I’ve worked especially closely with is the Warsaw House Foundation in Poland. They have recently begun to offer housing …

Fort Lauderdale’s ABC affiliate reports: The LGBTQ community in Wilton Manors is preparing to march Sunday against new measures that Republicans in Florida are pushing forward. Christ Caputo, a Wilton Manors commissioner, said it’s time for the community to stand against “discriminatory” Florida bills. Caputo said he is especially concerned about House Bill 1011 and Senate Bill 668, which set …