News Briefs for 01.08.21
Beyond the Carolinas
News briefs from across the globe for 01.08.21.
Dec. 4, 2019 was my last official meeting on the Charlotte City Council. My closing remarks included words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” in which he highlighted his “shattered dreams.”
June Millington is the very definition of a living music legend. A founding member of celebrated all-female rock band Fanny in the early 1970s (one that was signed to a major label!), Millington and her bandmates, including sister Jean, paved the way for everyone from the Runaways to the Go-Go’s and the Bangles to Team Dresch and Sleater-Kinney to Ex Hex and Chastity Belt.
When Spectrum, the undergraduate LGBTQ student group at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, launched in 1983, it became a resource not just for those on campus but for queer people living in that part of the South.
Justin Clapp, more commonly known as J. Clapp, is the interim executive director at the LGBTQ Center of Durham in North Carolina. Clapp also holds two other positions: one as a director at Duke University in the university’s Office of Access and Outreach, and the other as founder and chair of Pride: Durham.
Way back when, during the early reign of George W. Bush (kind of miss him now, don’t we), musical country trio The Chicks (FKA Dixie Chicks) did the unthinkable. Not only did they speak their minds about Bush as POTUS, but also expressed their displeasure that, like them, he was also a Texan.
This past Pride Month, I recommitted myself to continuing efforts to ensure equal treatment for all those who call our state, and country, home — no matter who they love.
In March, we started documenting the lives of LGBTQ people who have died from COVID-19. With over 5 Million positive cases and over 180,000 deaths in the U.S., the pandemic continues to impact the country. A lack of LGBTQ-inclusive data makes it difficult to know the full impact of the coronavirus on our community.
In an alarming rate, transgender murders for 2020 have already surpassed the overall statistics for 2019, and this has happened in only half the time.
A redesign of the “Pride flag” has gone viral recently as protests for racial equity continue across the country, sparked by George Floyd’s violent death.