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Happy Holidays!

Much like Santa, we've been busy this time of year. January 1st we'll have some very big changes to reveal. Until then, we would love just 30 seconds of your time to help us choose our new logo. Please click here and select the one you like best. No email, name, long forms, we promise.

Thursday, September 8, 6:30 PM - 8 PM

theSOURCE LGBT + Center, 208 W. Main St, Suite B, downstairs at the Montgomery Square building, Visalia

We ACCEPT, RESPECT, AND EMPOWER our LGBT+ youth and kids. Come see how!

Check out our Facebook event page, here.

Join us at theSOURCE for a new kind of Book Club. Instead of everyone reading the same book, the Bring Your Own Book Club is all about variety. Each month we pick a theme and each member reads a book of their choice on their theme to talk about.

This Month’s theme: “Required Reading.” What book did you love from college or hate in high school but have discovered again as an adult? Let's bring life to that old stodgy cannon. If you didn’t love “A Separate Peace” bring a book you think should take its place. 

Please RSVP here so we know how many we have coming. :)

Wednesday, September 7, 6pm till 9pm

208 W. Main St. Suite B, Downstairs in the Montgomery Square building, Visalia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfGPx4xJHvM

The Obama Administration's Department of Justice, Community Relations Service, has produced this twelve minute video aimed at the law enforcement community, to help them in their interactions with the transgender community.

An excellent video, aimed directly at cops, informs them on what they might encounter when contacting the transgender community, and explains the terms they need to understand.  While the video focuses on M to F transgender, the basics of how to interact apply to all members of the transgender community, as well as anyone who is LGB.

Good job, DOJ!  And thank you!

Well, this is insulting. "Lesbian and transgender hillbillies".  Rush Limbaugh has launched the right-wing media circus into a full foaming-at-the-mouth freak-out over the 15th Rural Pride Summit, held last Thursday, August 18, 2016, at Drake University Law School in Iowa.

Really, Rush? You're freaking out about this NOW?  We held the first west-coast Rural Pride Summit here in Visalia, the heart of the nation's number one agricultural producing county, last month, but it took Iowa to make you notice? Harrumph!

I think it goes to show you how far the mighty "El Rushbo" (as he calls himself) has fallen. After all, it took until the 15th summit for him to notice, and it was apparently the Drake University Law School's press release that caught his eye (or some staffer's eye, assuming he still has staffers. He's been losing advertisers at almost the same rate that Republicans have been abandoning The Donald lately. Staff salaries have to be taking a hit.).

Tulare County - crickets. Drake University Law School - OMG! They're trying to infiltrate rural America with lesbian and transgender hillbillies!!!!!!!!!!!

I suppose California doesn't evoke rural America like Iowa does.  It's only natural, after all. Say "California" and people from anywhere other than the Central Valley will think 'Hollywood' or 'San Francisco'.  The idea that the single largest dollar producer of agricultural products is a California county (yes, us. Tulare County) doesn't resonate with much of the country. Probably especially so with the narratives of the Farm Bureaus of the mid-west.

And to think, as I opened my article in the July 16-17 edition of the Visalia Times Delta's Inspire edition, "Lesbian farmer. Gay dairyman. Bisexual equipment dealer. Transgender farm worker." are people who really do exist. That seems to have come as a surprise to Limbaugh and his crowd, and you know how the right hates to be surprised with the truth. It really disrupts their thought processes, and throws their entire world-view into chaos.

While El Rushbo opened his segment with the freak-out about Rural Pride, he continued later in the same broadcast attacking homeless transgender individuals, ranting about attempts to end discriminatory practices at shelters.  It doesn't matter to the wingnuts (Limbaugh's primary but shrinking audience) that people are being attacked and killed for being transgender, it's more important to them and him that churches and shelters be able to discriminate. "So here comes the Regime, once again, with a full-fledged assault on religion." Yeah, which religion is it again that has as one of it's tenets to turn away the homeless and the poor?  And directing how Federal aid dollars are spent, and Federal law is enforced, is an "assault" on religion. Another harrumph here.

One sign you're winning the culture war is when the losing side starts using terms like "third-rate Iowa law school".  The Daily Wire's Amanda Prestigiacomo attempts to channel the late Senator William Proxmire and his Golden Fleece Award, focusing on alleged waste of government funds, headlining her post "This Might Be The Dumbest Thing Feds Have EVER Spent Your Tax Dollars On"!  Twitter users couldn't help but join in, as well. Search the hashtag RuralPride for some stellar observations.

I feel a bit like someone holding a raffle ticket, where I missed being the grand prize winner by one number.

Image: DonkeyHotey/Flicker H/T NCRM 

Originally posted to my Visalia Times Delta Community Blog, Alternating Currents, Aug. 21, 2016.

On Saturday, July 9, BlackLivesMatter demonstrators began a public protest action at the intersection of Blackstone and Shaw in Fresno.  Beginning at 5pm, people met at the intersection, and began blocking traffic at one of Fresno's busiest rush-hour intersections.  Marchers then headed towards Freeway 41, apparently intending to block traffic.  Officers from the CHP, Fresno Police, and Fresno County Sheriff's Office Deputies prevented the group from entering the busy freeway.  Marchers then made their way down various streets in the area, and ended up on Shaw Avenue, close to Fashion Fair Mall.  Eventually, after a walk through Fashion Fair mall's parking lot, and after a small contingent walked through the interior of the mall, marchers returned to Shaw Avenue, and headed east.  Law enforcement again prevented them from entering Highway 168 at the border with the city of Clovis.  Marchers continued to Clovis Avenue, turned north, and made their way, eventually, to Clovis Police headquarters, where a short street sit-in was held.  Several speakers addressed the crowd, a minister led the group in a prayer, and then they peacefully dispersed.

In the march were at least two people recognizing black transgender victims of violence.  Carrying a red banner that read "Black Trans Lives Matter", one of the marchers was adorned with a rainbow flag, and was briefly interviewed by a news reporter embedded with the marchers.  If anyone knows who the marchers are, please let me know at jim.visalia@gmail.com, and I'll update this post with their names and affiliation (if any).

The march was mostly peaceful, with minor skirmishes with law enforcement when they tried to enter Highway 41, and again when "anti-protesters" became involved in a scuffle with marchers at the border with Clovis.  Organizers and police quickly broke up the fight between several white individuals, one holding a sign saying he protested the protest, and some of the marchers.  The crowd quickly moved on past the small group of individuals.

The protest, which grew into a 5 hour, 7 mile march, was covered in real time on several Facebook live feeds.  Fresno TV stations had reporters and cameramen embedded with the march, using their cellphones to provide as-it-happened video to viewers.  Fresno PD was also watching from their command center, and at least two helicopters watched from overhead.

 Image ABC30 News screen capture.

In case you missed it, the news is out: Sulu is gay.

The next Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond, will include scenes that show Sulu raising a daughter with his (husband?) same sex partner.  Commentary from the actor, John Cho, indicates it will not be a major plot point, but rather a passing story item. 

Cho says writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung have revealed Sulu's orientation in tribute to George Takei, who played Sulu in the original series and movies.  Takei came out publically in 2005, and married his long-time partner, Brad Altman in 2008.

This will be the first gay character in Star Trek canon.  Famous for the first inter-racial kiss on American television, Star Trek breaks new ground for the franchise.  And to think... it only took 48 years to go from Kirk kissing Uruha, to a gay Sulu.  

I'm hoping Sulu's husband is black, just to freak out the few remaining folks who needed their fainting couches when that kiss flashed across their screens in 1968. That would be just too sweet. Bless their hearts. 

Star Trek Beyond arrives in theaters July 22.

On Thursday, July 21, 2016, the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) will host the California LGBT Rural Summit at Visalia's Convention Center. The latest in a series of such summits, "The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights, in collaboration with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and The True Colors Fund, will engage with LGBT rural communities across the country to host the LGBT Rural Summit Series. Each series will offer a unique opportunity for USDA and other federal agencies to share information relating to policies, programs, and services that exist to protect, promote and strengthen LGBT rural communities. Issues ranging from rural housing loans, community facility grants and bullying will be discussed. Each series will also include a strong presence from local nonprofit organizations, sharing USDA's dedication to serving LGBT rural America."  (USDA Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights website.)

Previous summits have been held in

• Greensboro, NC
• Lost River, WV
• Wayne, NE
• Dallas, TX
• Baton Rouge, LA
• Nashville TN
• Lexington, KY
• Jackson, MS
• Huntsville, AL
• Asheville, NC

As the #1 agricultural producing county in the United States, as well as an area with one of the largest number of gay couples raising children, per capita, the USDA has chosen Visalia as the latest community in which to hold a #RuralPride Summit.

"The centerpiece of the #RuralPride campaign is a series of day-long summits hosted by USDA, NCLR, the True Colors Fund, and a number of local partners based in rural communities across the country. These summits will give us a chance to focus on the unique needs of the rural LGBT community, highlight the important federal policy efforts underway to protect this community, and identify next steps to ensure all rural communities have access to the resources they need to thrive." - NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights)

What is "#RuralPride?"

The USDA serves a wide variety of populations as it carries out it's duties.  Whether you are a LGBT farmer, farm worker, ag related vendor or employee, consumer, urban or rural resident, USDA is dedicated to insuring the resources of the Federal government are available to all equally, and transparently.  You can't access programs if you don't know they exist.  #RuralPride Summits are designed to bring together agencies and the public, to insure access.  The summits target the LGBT community, who are often under-served in rural areas.

Contrary to widely held myths that the LGBT community is largely living in affluent metropolitan areas, studies show a very different and more realistic picture of the LGBT community. For a number of reasons, many people in the LGBT community choose to live, work, and raise their families in the rural communities that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proud to serve.

In fact, according to the Williams Institute, "almost 10% of all same-sex couples in the country live in rural America" and these couples are actually more likely to be families of color and raising children. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force also issued a report finding that these couples are more likely to be low-income and are almost twice as likely to receive public assistance. The transgender community is particularly vulnerable.

Transgender people, especially transgender people of color, experience disturbingly high rates of poverty across the country. Additional research conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality shows that they are four times as likely to have a household income under $10,000 and twice as likely to be unemployed as non-transgender people. The LGBT community in rural America has a number of particular needs and vulnerabilities that USDA is excited to target and address.

In an effort to elevate the voices of the LGBT community living in rural America, USDA and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, is proud to launch the #RuralPride campaign. The centerpiece of this campaign is a series of day-long summits hosted by USDA, NCLR, and a number of local partners based in rural communities across the country.

These summits will give us a chance to focus on the unique needs of the rural LGBT community, highlight the important federal policy efforts underway to protect this community, and identify next steps to ensure all rural communities have access to the resources they need to thrive.

"We applaud the USDA for celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people living in rural communities across the country with this important series of summits," said Cyndi Lauper, co-founder of the True Colors Fund. "LGBT youth comprise up to 40 percent of our nation's homeless youth population. Those in rural communities face incredibly unique challenges and are such an important and often overlooked part of this conversation. The True Colors Fund is proud to partner with the USDA and NCLR to highlight their stories as a part of the many experiences that LGBT people face in rural America." USDA

The Summit will be 9:30 am - 5 pm, and the public is invited.  This event is free, and lunch will be provided. Please register at:

https://RuralPrideCA.eventbrite.com

Visalia Convention Center, 303 E. Acequia Ave, Visalia

For questions contact:

(202) 720-3808

or: LGBTRuralSummit@ascr.usda.gov

theSOURCE LGBT+ Center will host a grief process gathering, Friday, July 1, 2016, at 6pm.  This event will be open to the public and will provide a forum for discussion, sharing, and healing, after the horrendous events in Orlando.

The tremendous turnout at the Sunday candlelight vigil, held in downtown Visalia after only a few hours of organization, demonstrates the need for the local LGBT+ community, as well as their straight allies, to come together to mourn the lives lost.  People are still working through the shock and grief of this tragedy, and this forum will provide further opportunities to manage the emotions that many are experiencing.

Everyone is welcome, whether you want to speak or simply be in communion and community with others.

theSOURCE LGBT+ Center is located at 208 W. Main St., Suite B, downstairs in the Montgomery Square building.

For the Facebook event page for this gathering, check here.

For theSOURCE LGBT+ Center's Facebook page, check here.

For theSOURCE LGBT+ Center's webpage, check here.

Regular hours are Tuesday through Friday, 3 pm to 6 pm. Saturday 12 pm to 3pm.  Closed Sunday and Monday.  Other hours by arrangement.