Category: LGBTQ+ - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Free Films at the Figge for Pride month - Of Interest to Our Forums

5/17/2023

Free Film at the Figge - Holding the Man
Thursday, June 1st at 6:30 pm

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

Gender Equity Forum

In recognition and celebration of Gay Pride Month, the Figge Art Museum is presenting a series of four award-winning, independent films throughout June. The first in the series is Holding the Man from 2015. Based on the Australian memoir by Timothy Conigrave, Holding the Man is the true story about the fifteen-year love-affair that began in prep school in 1976 when Conigrave fell in love with the captain of the school soccer team, a relationship that endured disapproval, parental resistance, separation, and loss. Admission is FREE! Watch a trailer here.

PACG Webmaster

"Becoming An Ally" panel - Of Interest to Our Forums

3/26/2023

Community Forum: Becoming an Ally panel
Wednesday, April 26th at 6:30 pm

Moline Public Library
3210 41st St
Moline, IL (map)

Rooting Out Poverty Book Club

The Gender Equity Forum and the PACG Book Club are excited to invite you to a panel discussion on becoming an ally to the LGBTQI+ community. The panel arose from Project Now's Rooting Out Poverty book club's discussion of the book The Savvy Ally in March. You don't need to read the book to benefit from the panel discussion.

Alta Price

Project Now Book Club for March 2023 - The Savvy Ally

3/4/2023

The Savvy Ally - Project Now Book Club
Wednesday, March 22nd at 6:30 pm

Moline Public Library
Gold Room
3210 41st St
Moline, IL (map)

PACG Book Club and Gender Equity Forum

PACG Book Club members and members of the Gender Equity forum will be interested in reading and discussing The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Ally by Jeannie Gainsburg. This is the next book for the Project Now Book Club, which welcomes anyone to come to their discussions.

The book is only 150 pages long. The Moline Public Library has 5 copies of the book available for checkout at the second floor desk.

Alta Price

Health care discrimination for queer people - No Hate In Our States

2/21/2023

Queer people face discrimination in health care - Here are the people changing that

No Hate In Our States

LGBTQ Nation

LGBTQ Nation is an online news magazine, reporting on issues relevant to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community.

Many barriers exist for queer people and health care discrimination causes serious harm to the LGBTQIA+ community. Happily, things are changing for the better. This article dives into a range of queer people inspired by their experiences to become health care advocates and providers. Read it here.

Dee VanThournout

"Elite Capture" of Identity Politics - No Hate In Our States

12/6/2022

Confronting the “Elite Capture” of Identity Politics in Our Movement Spaces

Truthout

The Truthout mission statement includes: Truthout is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues. Kelly Hayes is the host of the Truthout podcast, Movement Memos, which she describes as: a Truthout podcast about solidarity, organizing and the work of making change.

From the podcast website:

"We have to be politically serious about how much agreement and how much alignment we’re going to require in a world of a resurging far-right fascist movement across the globe,” says philosopher and author Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Táíwò and host Kelly Hayes discuss the lessons of Táíwò’s book, Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else).

Find a complete transcript and listen to the podcast here:
https://truthout.org/audio/confronting-the-elite-capture-of-identity-politics-in-our-movement-spaces/

Dee VanThournout

Book Club November 21st at 4:30 pm - " This Is How It Always Is"

10/30/2022

PACG Book Club - This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Monday, November 21st at 4:30 pm (in person)

Davenport Public Library
Fairmount Street Branch
3000 N Fairmount St, Davenport, IA (map)

Book Club

We have decided to meet in person in November and go back to Zoom for the winter months. We will skip December since it is too close to the holidays.

Our November book will be This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. We will meet on Monday, November 21st at 4:30 pm at the Fairmount Street branch of the Davenport Public Library.

Here is some information about the book from Goodreads:

This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.

This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how children change…and then change the world.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.

You can RSVP at our Facebook Event (not required). Contact me with any questions.

Alta Price

Honoring Matthew Shepard - No Hate In Our States

10/7/2022

Honoring Matthew Shepard

No Hate in Our States

From the Matthew Shepard Foundation website:

On October 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally attacked and tied to a fence in a field outside of Laramie, Wyoming and left to die. On October 12, Matt succumbed to his wounds in a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado.

In the aftermath of Matt’s death, his parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, started the Matthew Shepard Foundation to honor his life and aspirations. Inspired by the tragedy they endured, the initial purpose of the Foundation was to teach parents with children who may be questioning their sexuality to love and accept them for who they are, and to not throw them away.

Our Mission
The Matthew Shepard Foundation’s mission is to amplify the story of Matthew Shepard to inspire individuals, organizations, and communities to embrace the dignity and equality of all people. Through local, regional, and national outreach, we empower individuals to find their voice to create change and challenge communities to identify and address hate that lives within our schools, neighborhoods, and homes.
Our work is an extension of Matt’s passion to foster a more caring and just world. We share his story and embody his vigor for civil rights to change the hearts and minds of others to accept everyone as they are.

The documentary Matthew Shepard is a Friend of Mine can be rented on Amazon for $2.99 or viewed on various other platforms.

PACG recently created a forum to work on LGBTQ+ issues. To get involved, contact our Gender Equity Forum.

PACG Webmaster

"Fight Injustice in Iowa" campaign goes live in August

8/14/2022

"Fight Injustice in Iowa" - OHF QCA billboard campaign goes live in August

One Human Family QCA

Our “Fight Injustice in Iowa” billboard campaign will soon be in place!

Here are the locations and dates of posting for our billboards:

2814 State Street, Bettendorf (map) – August 15
400 West 2nd Street, Davenport (map) – August 15
53rd Street east of Brady, Davenport (map) -September 12
621 East Kimberly, Davenport (map) – September 19

We do not as of now know which signs will be up at which locations. But as of tomorrow, you can start checking them!

Rabbi Henry Jay Karp
One Human Family QCA

Gender Equity Forum Meeting - After Action Report

7/24/2022

Gender Equity Forum First Meeting - July 19th - After Action Report

Gender Equity Forum

The Gender Equity Forum held its first meeting on Tuesday, July 19th at the Bettendorf Library. Thirty-five people were in attendance. While we normally won't share a forum meeting update as an After Action Report, this was our first one and we were very pleased with the turnout.

Although there were technical issues with hooking up the computer to the Gilbert Room's system, the forum facilitators were able to "wing-it" in fine form. We began with a discussion of what we had planned for the meeting and then broke into two meetings to brainstorm ideas for actions to be taken in both Illinois and in Iowa.

Here's the PowerPoint presentation that we had hoped to share. You will probably see something similar to this in a future meeting.

Alta Price
Carolyn Martin

2022.07.19_gender_equity_forum_meeting.pptx
File Size:	166 kb
File Type:	pptx

Introducing Hands Off! Happy Hour - PACG Event

7/17/2022

Introducing ✋ Hands Off Happy Hour🤚 !
Wednesday, August 10th from 5:00 to 7:00 pm

Rozz-Tox
2108 3rd AV
Rock Island, IL 61201 (map)

PACG Gender Equity Forum

One of our new forum's goals is education about issues impacting women and non-binary people. We have decided to follow in the footsteps of our very active and successful Environmental Forum and do a monthly educational, social gathering for the Gender Equity Forum. If you are unfamiliar with Green Drinks, the PACG Environmental Forum has been holding these monthly meetings since February of 2019. Green Drinks usually offers one guest speaker who discusses their particular area of environmental expertise at the meeting. You can see a complete list of all of the PACG-hosted Green Drinks meetings here.

With this inspirational group in mind, the Gender Equity Forum will host its first Hands Off! Happy Hour on Wednesday, August 10th at 5:00 pm at Rozz-Tox in Rock Island.

You can order a drink either inside or at the walk up window outdoors. If the weather permits, we will gather outside in the green space at the right side of the building, and, if it’s raining, we will meet inside.

This will be a social hour with no selected speaker. We will speak briefly about the importance of community, friendship and self-care during the difficult work ahead.

Please join us for the fun!

Alta Price and Carolyn Martin
Gender Equity Forum Co-Facilitators

Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG)
PO Box 544 Bettendorf, IA 52722
(563) 676-7580
[email protected]
PACG is a 501(c)(3) organization and your donation may be tax deductible.

© 2026 Progressive Action for Common Good