Activism

From a Wilton Manors Facebook group: I’ve got some neighbors in Fort Lauderdale who are total circus material. They’re super aggressive, ridiculously entitled, and have some seriously nasty mouths. They own four vehicles, but only have one parking space, so they just park their white Mercedes in our yard or on the grass, because who needs rules, right? Or consideration? …

NBC News reports: A sit-in at Trump Tower in Manhattan was underway Thursday as protesters gathered to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist detained over the weekend by federal immigration agents. The organization Jewish Voice for Peace livestreamed the sit-in, showing hundreds of demonstrators packed into the building’s lobby. Some held signs that read “Fight Nazis not …

Auto site Jalopnik reports: Apparently a national Cybertruck Club volunteered to run their trucks in a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade—technically a Lundi Gras as it happened on Monday night—as a way to transport parade marshals along the route. Reddit user jobles95 posted about his experience, claiming he was marshal from inside one of the trucks, saying, “I couldn’t believe …

Sports Illustrated reports: Former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who was recently arrested after protesting at a city council meeting in Huntington Beach, Calif., said on social media Thursday that he was fired from his job as a high school football coach. Kluwe was arrested on Feb. 18 after taking the podium at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting to …

Yahoo Sports reports: Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe was arrested on Tuesday while protesting during a city council meeting in Huntington Beach, California. Kluwe, 43, was protesting the city’s approval of a public library plaque that was designed to use words to spell out “MAGA.” “’MAGA’ is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, ‘MAGA’ is explicitly a Nazi movement,” …

Yahoo News reports: Demonstrators in New York City filled Manhattan’s Union Square on Monday afternoon, February 17, demanding Congress “uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach,” organizers said. Footage taken by Gili Getz shows the scene in Union Square on Monday afternoon. Demonstrators are seen holding various signs and chanting, “Stop the coup!” Protests had been organized by the 50501 …

CBS News reports: Protesters are expected at the Stonewall National Monument Friday after references to trans and queer people were removed from the National Park Service website. The protest will take place outside the monument where the LGBTQ+ rights movement was born decades ago. Trans flags are still  flying at Christopher Park near the Stonewall Inn, and after hearing from …

Reuters reports: A group of demonstrators gathered outside Trump International Golf Club on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies while he spent his leisure time at the venue. Holding signs, waving Mexican, Guatemalan, and American flags, and chanting “Immigrants Make America Great,” the protesters made their voices heard as Trump’s motorcade passed by. One protester held a sign …

Via press release from the Democratic Party: On Saturday, February 1, DNC members voted to elect a new slate of DNC Officers including positions for Chair, Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation, three Vice Chairs, Secretary, Treasurer, and National Finance Chair. Artie Blanco, Malcolm Kenyatta, and David Hogg will serve as DNC Vice Chairs. Representative Malcolm Kenyatta is …

USA Today reports: Brittany Martinez came to Washington with friends and their mothers to protest for women’s rights and immigration Saturday. The six women were waiting in a park for the People’s March, the largest anti-Donald Trump protest planned before his inauguration Monday, to begin moving. Martinez of Jacksonville, Fla. held a sign that said “Public cervix announcement. My body, …

Politico reports: It’s been a dozen years since the Stonewall Democrats, a once-prominent LGBTQ+ rights group, went defunct. But now, on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, a new coalition of state-level advocacy groups is reestablishing a national presence to gird against the incoming president and a Republican-controlled Congress. The group, the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats, comes together at …

The New York Times reports: Two prominent labor groups are joining forces in an attempt to expand union membership and protect members’ interests as they face the likelihood of a less union-friendly federal government under Donald J. Trump. The Service Employees International Union, which represents nearly two million workers in industries like home health care and janitorial services, said on …

NBC News reports: Like many who took up new hobbies during the pandemic, Austin Rivers found comfort in knitting. But his craft took on a larger meaning when he realized his scarves and hats could also support his New York City queer community. He was particularly eager to help homeless LGBTQ youths, who comprise up to 40% of the country’s …

ABC News reports: David Hogg, gun control activist, March for Our Lives co-founder and Parkland school shooting survivor, is running for vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, ABC News has learned. “I think this role is a great way of, for one, bringing newer voices into the Democratic Party,” Hogg told ABC News. “I just want to be one …

Carl Siciliano, the founder of New York City’s Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBTQ youth, sends us a memory of their first Thanksgiving: In 1994, I became the director of SafeSpace, a Times Square daytime drop-in program for homeless teens. At that time there was no safe shelter for LGBT youths in NYC, and most lived brutally dangerous lives out …

Via press release from GLAAD: Pride Month 2024 has come to an end, bringing with it highs and lows. On the upside, dozens of small towns from Alaska to Alabama held inaugural Pride events this June. Tens of thousands of attendees flocked to these celebrations focused on uplifting their local LGBTQ community. On the downside, bigots and extremists continued their …

The Associated Press reports: Operating out of a tiny room in Fabulosa Books in San Francisco’s Castro District, one of the oldest gay neighborhoods in the United States, Becca Robbins uses donations from customers to ship boxes of books across the country to groups that want them. In an effort she calls “Books Not Bans,” she sends titles about queer …

Action News Jacksonville reports: On Friday night, community members gathered to display their own version of pride — by lighting up the Main Street Bridge in San Marco with rainbow colors. This comes after the Florida Department of Transportation said all state bridges must be lit red, white, and blue all summer long for Governor Ron DeSantis’s Freedom Summer. Seventy …

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 …