ROCK ISLAND — Queer Field Day, coming Aug. 19, is a chance to help raise money for the Quad Cities’ Clock Inc. LGBT Community Center — and to join in some inclusive moment and end-of-summer fun. Teams and players who need teams are encouraged to sign up for cornhole, speed-walking and kickball.
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Iowans and others seeking gender-affirming care for youth will have a new option at The Project of the Quad Cities in Moline by September, and fundraising started in July.
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DAVENPORT — In response to public demand, the Humane Society of Scott County in the Quad Cities is reopening for its “We Love Strays & Gays” shirts, first introduced during Pride Month.
The shirt sales help fund the shelter’s needs at a time when shelters nationwide are overloaded and short on resources, staff, space and funding.
In addition, half of all sales go to the Clock Inc. LGBT Community Center in Rock Island, which serves all of the Quad Cities and neighboring counties.
Proceeds from the shirt sales are divided between the Humane Society, and Clock Inc. LGBT Community Center.
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More than 69 businesses in Ankeny, the West Des Moines community of Valley Junction, and Des Moines’ East Village have all joined statements opposing the anti-LGBTQ legislation moving fast through the Iowa Legislature.
Plus, learn about the UNI Seven and the stance they took in March 1970 that led to the Cedar Falls university’s Cultural Center.
Coming up, Ames Pride offers a “Postcards with Pints” event and showing of a renowned documentary as part of the International Day of Transgender Visibility coming up.
It’s all in the new TRM Weekly Update for Central Iowa.
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Aime Wichtendahl, Iowa’s first-ever openly transgender elected official, shares shy she is putting herself at the forefront of efforts to stop a flood of anti-LGBTQ+ bills.
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One Iowa Action has a page tracking 29 bills that include measures considered anti-LGBTQ+ .
The page, an annual service by the lobbying arm of One Iowa, is gaining even more focus this year. Iowa is among 14 states noted by the ACLU as having a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed among state legislators.
Here’s a look at the One Iowa Action tracking page, some of the bills it’s tracking, and Iowa’s overall legislative process, including its “funnel weeks” — one of which ends this Friday.
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Kamrah is a trans-masculine belly-dancer from Chicago who defies stereotypes and will headline the Rainbow Variety Show in Carbondale tonight.
As someone who also studies microbiology and anatomy, and identifies as autistic and a “geek,” Kamrah also brings a new level to the term “intersectional.”
Read about Kamrah and other local performers who will take the Rainbow Variety Show stage tonight in Carbondale. The featured performers include author Rafael Frumkin, dancers Kimea Rhines and Darryl clark, vocalist and sound healer Pat York, and acoustic performers Shane Bruce, Jacqui, Elana Floyd-Kennett, Shane Bruce, and Curt Wilson.
The show raises money for the Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center and its work of LGBTQ support and social opportunities, HIV and AIDS testing, harm reduction, and more.
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You can take in an evening of music with singer/songwriter Namoli Brennet, or a night of poetry with Caleb Rainey and friends. Or, you can hear marriage equality “accidental activist” Jim Obergefell give a speech.
Learn, too, about Clock Inc.’s strong stance against the anti-LGBTQ moves in the Iowa State Legislature, plus a new name for the former Quad Cities Pride Festivals. It’s now called Quad Cities Pride Alliance.
It’s all part of the new TRM Eastern Iowa Weekly Update.
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Acclaimed sci-fi author Cheryl Morgan, the first-ever openly transgender winner of the Hugo Award for literary achievement, will lead an online talk Feb. 21 about Aleksandr Aleksandrov, a Ukrainian-born Russian war hero in the 19th century who lived as a man after being born a woman.
Historian Darrel Dexter will share his research Saturday into the “second-wave Klan” history of southern Illinois. Dexter’s talk at the Carbondale Public Library, also available online, will outline the rise and fall of the Klan during its second life in the early 1900s.
These two online events are part of TRM’s new weekly Online Event of the Week, highlighting virtual events that help present a more complete picture of society that includes marginalized identities.
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With new efforts to reach marginalized identities like the indigenous and people without homes, a national organization is conducting the U.S. Trans Survey, the largest-ever survey of transgender Americans.
The deadline to participate in the survey is Nov. 21, and this is the first time it’s happened since 2015. The survey is conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and will help activists, caregivers, and community leaders better understand the transgender experience across the country, organizers say.
“This is a trans survey by trans people and for trans people,” says Josie Caballero, the National Center’s special projects director.
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