Category: Gender Equity - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Updated Anti-Trans map-Of Interest to Our Community

7/28/2026

Updated Anti-Trans Map

Gender Equity Forum

from Erin in the Morning

The situation continues to deteriorate for transgender youth care, and the risk profile for adults has shifted as well, with Kansas now added to the “do not travel” category. For adults, expanding bathroom bans are driving much of the change—Kansas has escalated due to establishing a bathroom bounty, while Indiana’s ID policy now places it among the harshest anti-trans states in the country. One state improves: Montana, where the state court system has repeatedly blocked or enjoined anti-trans laws under the state constitution. For transgender youth, however, the national picture has grown more unstable. Federal policy shifts, institutional capitulations, and ongoing legal battles have created a volatile patchwork even in states once considered protective. Rather than attempt to track an effectively real-time capitulation crisis, I have elevated every state previously rated below “moderate” to at least moderate risk. In the current environment, no state can reasonably be considered low risk for transgender youth.
Read the complete article and subscribe on Erin's Substack here.

Alta Price (she/her)

Read "A Resistance History of the US"-Of Interest to Our Community

7/4/2026

A Resistance History of the United States

This is a good book by historian Tad Stoermer that covers the real history of the resistance efforts that helped to build our current understanding of what a democratic republic should be. Here's the review from the publisher:

An urgent, bracing new look at American history that Ava DuVernay calls "deeply necessary for this moment."

Revisit the Salem Witch Trials, the Underground Railroad, and other resistance movements of American history to get a bold new understanding of how resistance shaped our past—and how its principles can change our future.

The United States was shaped by resistance—but not in the way we’ve been taught. The Revolution did not secure liberty; it opened the door to either liberty or oppression, where only white men enjoyed all of the benefits and protections of citizenship.

In A Resistance History of the United States, public historian Tad Stoermer shows how from the very beginning, that tension—between the ideals of resistance and the realities of power—has defined America more than the Enlightenment ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Utililizing powerful storytelling to focus on key—and often lesser-known—moments in American history, this book reveals the truth of how resistance movements from Colonial times have opposed the powers that be. Stoermer covers an impressive roster of pivotal movements, with each chapter identifying a key resistance movement and principle meant to inspire contemporary readers, including:

Bacon’s Rebellion/Metacomet’s War (1676)
Salem Witch Trials (1692)
The Black Loyalists (1783)
The Underground Railroad (1850)

Through these and many more examples, Stoermer dismantles the mythologies that pass for American history—exposing the curated nostalgia, moral evasions, and institutional silences that have long protected abusive power. What emerges is an essential look at how we can take lessons from the past to understand, and effectively respond to, the injustices we face today.

Cliff Day (he/him)

Read "On Courage"-Of Interest to Our Community

7/4/2026

On Courage - How to be a Dissident in an Age of Fear

PACG Book Club

As a group, we decide the books we will read throughout the year and On Courage is not on it at this point. However, this is the manual we need now in our resistance and work to regain our progressive values. It's well-written and encouraging in these difficult times. Read the publisher's comments (below) and learn about the authors at this link.

Book Club will not be meeting again until September when we will discuss The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.

On Courage is...a deeply reported manual about how anyone can defy an authoritarian – based on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists, and theorists across the world.

The United States is only the latest country to face a leader who wields fear as a weapon, punishes political enemies, disappears people off the street, and undermines free and fair elections. Today nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarianism, the highest rate since the late 1970s.

But even under repressive conditions, each of us holds the power to help defeat autocrats. Based on their acclaimed The New Yorker essay “So You Want to Be a Dissident?,” veteran reporter Julia Angwin and political strategist Ami Fields-Meyer give us a captivating – and profoundly hopeful – guide to courage in an age of fear.

Meet a student from Hong Kong who risked everything for democracy. A mom in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas who broke with the political movement that raised her. Cairo twentysomethings who staged a gutsy stunt to help bring down a dictator. A mild-mannered immigrant fighting to save a landmark U.S. civil rights law. People throughout the United States and across five continents who faced serious risks for dissenting in their workplace, their community, or their country. On Courage is the story of how they did it anyway – and how you can do it, too.

Blending rich, previously untold narratives with history, spirituality, and movement research, Angwin and Fields-Meyer deliver a highly accessible book full of practical lessons – an inspiring resource for anyone, anywhere, who feels the walls of history closing in on them. On Courage is a roadmap to political courage and a powerful case for how taking personal risks can help save the free world.

Alta Price (she/her)

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)

Pride in Motion-Of Interest to Our Community

6/9/2026

Discover Pride in Motion

Gender Equity Forum

Pride in Motion calls itself the QC LGBTQIA+ Rec League but it is so much more! Watch this short video explaining who they are. If you want to watch (or participate in) local sports click here. Check out QC June Pride activities here. Find information about their book club here. And they have a fantastic list of local LGBTQIA+ resources here.

Alta Price (she/her)

QC Pride Festival-Of Interest to Our Community

5/27/2026

QC Pride Festival
Friday, June 5th at 5 pm and Saturday, June 6th at noon

Schwiebert Riverside Park
101 17th ST
Rock Island, IL (map)

Gender Equity Forum

The Gender Equity Forum encourages you to attend the 2026 Quad Cities Pride Festival, sponsored by the QC Pride Alliance. The Festival returns to beautiful Schwiebert Riverfront Park in Rock Island. Celebrate two days of love, community, and unapologetic Pride with live entertainment, vibrant vendors, food trucks, family-friendly activities, and space for everyone to be their authentic selves.

Stay tuned to our Facebook page here for more details, announcements, and exciting updates.

Alta Price (she/her)

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.

Action Alert to Protect Care for Trans Youth

2/11/2026

Help Protect Care for Trans Youth Action Alert!

Gender Equity Forum

The federal government has proposed new rules that would effectively ban care for trans youth at hospitals across the country. We’re asking our community to make public comments in opposition to the proposed rules. The deadline for public comment is Tuesday, February 17.

You can get help submitting your comments here or here.

Relevant links:

RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz announce moves to ban gender-affirming care for young people

How To Submit Public Comments To Oppose Proposed Rules Restricting Transgender Health Care Access

Human Rights Campaign - Protect Trans Youth Healthcare

David Anderson (he/him)

ACLU Illinois and Indivisible Power to the People: Quad Cities, January 13, 2026

12/20/2025

Power to the People: Quad Cities
Tuesday, January 13 at 6 - 8 pm

Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council - East Moline
424 Carpenter Ct
East Moline, IL (map)

Illinois ACLU, Indivisible QC, and other organizations

The Civil Rights and Gender Equity forums of PACG urge everyone to attend this event!

Please join the ACLU of Illinois, Indivisible Quad Cities, Indivisible Illinois, Clock Inc, NAACP Rock Island County Branch, Quad Cities Alliance for Immigrant and Refugees (QCAIR), and the Quad Cities Alliance for Retired Americans for a community town hall on what the ACLU, Indivisible, and our partners are doing in response to the federal abuse of power and what role you can play in the fight ahead.

The event is designed to allow supporters to gather to express concerns about the Administration’s effort to wield all federal power without checks and balances of Congress or the courts – and the harm that the reckless and lawless policies are having on our communities. The program will include an update on the nationwide civil liberties landscape, highlight state and local responses, and explore the role we can each play in our communities in the fight ahead. And, you’ll have a chance to talk with others who share your concerns about the pivotal moment our country is in.

Light refreshments will be provided. We hope you can join us!

The event is free, but RSVPs are appreciated! Go to this site to register.

Questions? Please reach out to [email protected].

There is an attached flyer for your use at the end of this post.

Alta Price (she/her)

pttp_quad_cities_flyer.pdf
File Size:	14764 kb
File Type:	pdf

Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG)
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