分类: Gender - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Free Pride Month film series at the Figge-Of Interest to Our Community

6/9/2026

Free Pride Month film series at the Figge
Thursdays in June at 5 pm

Figge Art Museum
225 W 2nd ST
Davenport, IA (map)

Gender Equity Forum

The Figge Art Museum is offering their Free Pride Month movie series on Thursdays in June. Here are the movies in the series:

Thursday, June 11 at 5: Dallas Buyers Club
Thursday, June 18 at 5: Paris is Burning
Thursday, June 25 at 5: Angels in America

Check their complete calendar of events here.

Alta Price (she/her)

Book bans are on the rise in the US-No Hate In Our States

5/9/2026

They’re trying to narrow the worldview of young people: how book bans are on the rise in the US

Gender Equity Forum

From The Guardian

‘They’re trying to narrow the worldview of young people today’ … a pride parade with marchers protesting about banned books. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

Maia Kobabe wrote Gender Queer as a tender attempt to explain non-binary identity and the journey of sexual discovery to immediate family. “I tried to make it as sensitive and thoughtful as possible, especially given that I knew that my mother would read it,” the author says. “I was trying to build bridges, trying to connect with people, trying to be understood as my full authentic self by my family and my friends and my community.

...To the authors and advocates on the frontlines, book banning is not merely a debate about social taboos but a glaring symptom of democratic backsliding. Kobabe says: “This is no longer parents trying to defend the right of what their children can read. This is now large groups trying to implement social control and attack diverse voices and increasingly attack teachers, librarians, library funding and the freedom of public education in our country at a fundamental level. I definitely see book bans as the canary in the coalmine of the rise of fascism. Many authoritarian governments attack books, journalism, education and sources of information first because an uneducated and uninformed populace is easier to control."

Read the rest of this important article online at the Guardian here. And consider supporting independent journalism by subscribing here.

Good LGBTQIA+ news from Montana-Of Interest to Our Community

4/28/2026

Finally, some good LGBTQIA+ news!
Montana Supreme Court blocks state's anti-Trans ID policy

Gender Equity Forum

Them.us

The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that two state agencies violated the state constitution by not allowing trans residents to change their gender markers on identity documents, per the Daily Montanan.

In a 5-2 decision, the court blocked the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, as well as the Department of Justice, which runs the state’s Motor Vehicle Division, from refusing to update trans people’s identity documents, siding with two trans plaintiffs.

In its finding that anti-trans discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, the Montana Supreme Court has reinforced the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found in a 6-3 decision that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity was a form of sex-based discrimination. Read more at Them.us here.

PACG Webmaster

Trans author to speak in Davenport - What You Can Do Now

4/5/2026

Croken invites trans author to speak in Davenport
Saturday, April 25 at 1 pm

Metropolitan Community Church
2930 W Locust St
Davenport IA (map)

Gender Equity Forum

The Gender Equity Forum is very excited about this event organized by Iowa State Representative Ken Croken to bring in Sheryl Weikal, the author of I Was an Abomination: A Story of Trans Survival in Conservative America.

We encourage you to come meet this author. (Those of you in PACG Book Club may also want to read the book. Read more about the book at Goodreads.)

Read Ken Croken's news release below.

Alta Price (she/her)

CROKEN WELCOMES TRANS AUTHOR TO DAVENPORT

CONSTITUENT NEWS UPDATE
For more information, contact
Ken Croken at 563/940-8439

DAVENPORT, March 30, 2026 In conjunction with other Trans Visibility Day activities on March 31, Iowa House District 97 State Representative Ken Croken announced that he will host a speaking engagement by trial attorney and award-winning author Sheryl Melanie Weikal. The reading and Q&A will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 1:00 p.m. at the Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad cities, located at 2930 West Locust Street in Davenport, near the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds. According to Croken, Weikal’s 2025 release I WAS AN ABOMINATION: A Memoir of Trans Survival in Conservative America is a “must read” for all policy makers and people committed to social justice.

Approximately 1% of the U.S. population (2.8 million people aged 13 and older)
identify as transgender, according to a 2025 report from the Williams Institute at UCLA. Of these, it is estimated that about 7,100 live in Iowa. Croken said: “Generally, the majority of Americans support non-discrimination protections for transgender citizens in housing and employment. Yet, the Iowa General Assembly voted to remove these same civil rights protections from transgender Iowans, making Iowa the first and only state to do so. I can only attribute such draconian action to a lack of understanding of the underlying clinical condition, gender dysphoria.

Croken maintains that more exposure to transgender individuals and a greater appreciation of their stories of suffering, survival and success will increase understanding, compassion, acceptance and eventual recognition in the humanity of us all, including transgender neighbors, The April 25 event is free and all are welcome. Contact Ken Croken with questions by email at [email protected] or by phone or text at 563/940-8439.

Ruling allows trans bullying - No Hate In Our States

11/13/2025

6th Circuit Rules Cis Students May Bully Trans Students By Repeatedly Misgendering Them

From Erin in the Morning

The Circuit also seemed to suggest that trans students could not misgender their bullies in return.

In a devastating ruling for transgender students across Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has held that cisgender students may repeatedly and intentionally misgender their transgender peers in the classroom, striking down an Ohio school board’s policy that prohibited the practice. The court drew no distinction between accidental misuse and targeted, ongoing harassment, concluding that even that conduct does not “materially and substantially” disrupt school activities—the threshold that would allow schools to intervene. In doing so, the panel elevated what it called “biological pronouns,” a term with no prior grounding in U.S. caselaw. The decision also seems to bar transgender students from misgendering their cisgender bullies in return. The result is a newly recognized right to bully transgender students in the 6th Circuit, achieved by reframing their identities as a “political topic” rather than acknowledging the clear and harmful disruption this conduct causes.

Read more at the link: 6th Circuit Rules Cis Students May Bully Trans Students By Repeatedly Misgendering Them

Kat Fitzgerald (she/her)

LGBTQ Students Speak Out

9/24/2025

5 LGBTQ UVU Students Speak Out After Charlie Kirk's Murder

No Hate in Our States

From Uncloseted Media

5 LGBTQ UVU Students Speak Out After Charlie Kirk's Murder
“I am extremely disappointed with how the media has been approaching this.”

Kat Fitzgerald (she/her)

Anti Trans Legal Risk Assessment Map - No Hate in Our States

9/2/2025

Anti-Trans National Legal Risk Assessment Map: August Edition

Erin in the Morning

Short summary of updates: The risk level for transgender youth has sharply escalated in several states, with this month marking one of the most dangerous increases in years. The surge stems largely from mass compliance with Trump’s executive orders targeting gender-affirming care, leading many states to see some or all of their youth clinics shutter. State attorneys general could intervene by enforcing state equality protections—forcing clinics to fight the federal government in court rather than preemptively cut off care—but none have done so. For transgender adults, risk levels have risen significantly in only one state—Maine—though the broader increase comes through sweeping federal policy. Nationwide, risk now sits at its highest category, driven by a wave of executive orders targeting colleges, businesses, travel documents, and more.

Read the article here.

Kat Fitzgerald (she/her)

Support for your Trans child - No Hate in Our States

8/13/2025

How To Support Your Trans Child, According to Experts and Trans Kids Themselves

Gender Equity Forum

Them

Whether your child is a transgender girl, a trans boy, nonbinary, or anything other than cisgender, we live during a particularly difficult time for supportive parents of trans kids.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 40% of trans kids aged 13-17 live in states that have passed bans on gender-affirming care. Since states started enacting such bans in 2021, numerous families have uprooted their lives and moved to different states that protect access to such care — and some have even left the country altogether. That’s not even to mention the deleterious effects of anti-trans legislation and rhetoric on the mental health of trans kids. Read this important article here. And if you haven't already signed up for news from Them, do that here.

Medicaid cuts to gender-affirming care-No Hate in Our States

6/10/2025

Proposed Medicaid cuts to gender-affirming care

Gender Equity Forum

The Big Bucks for Billionaires Bill (aka the One Big Beautiful Bill) makes drastic cuts to Medicaid. A late night amendment before the bill passed the House also bans gender-affirming care for anyone on Medicaid or in the Affordable Care Marketplace. This affects an estimated 185,000 trans people on Medicaid.

The Gender Equity Forum joins the Healthcare Reform Forum in opposition to these Medicaid cuts. Read more about the specific cuts to gender-affirming care in this article from them.

Alta Price (she/her)

The Bathroom that Ends the World-No Hate in Our States

6/10/2025

The Bathroom That Ends the World

Rev. Sean substack.com/@civicgrace

How a Single Gender-Neutral Bathroom Revealed the Gentleness Hidden Behind All Their Fear
Our new church building has a gender-neutral washroom, and before we opened the doors, we held our breath. Would people accept it? Would they understand?

In many ways, this single room represents everything certain politicians claim to fear most: gender boundaries dissolving, children exposed to "confusion," traditional values under siege. Here, in one modest space with sinks and stalls, we've apparently built the apocalypse they've been warning about—a place where the rigid categories that once seemed natural and eternal simply... don't matter.

And you know what? They're right to be afraid. Not because our bathroom poses any actual danger, but because it reveals how unnecessary their fortress walls really are.

Read the rest of this article on Substack.

Kat Fitzgerald (she/her)