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Hello’s robin epley with The Editorial Board of the Sacramento Bee. I hope you had a great weekend.
“On a recent warm spring day, in Roseville Royer Parkseveral groups of parents escorted shy children in rainbow and glitter tutus to meet drag performers Valshapero, Shadybee and Adriana Diamante. The queens, their faces full of makeup and dressed for the occasion from head to toe, smiled and waved.
“’It’s nice for them to see that queer people aren’t scary,’ said Valshapero, wearing white knee-high boots and a handmade purple and blue onesie. ‘We’re just people.’”
Opinion
opinion assistant Hanna Holzer attended last month Pride of Pleasure; It’s only the county’s second Pride event, and with LGBTQ+ Related hate crimes on the rise across the country, there was some legitimate fear that the event would be marred by bigotry.
But Holzer found a community in the midst of celebrating and spreading love.
“While California remains a bastion of inclusion and a champion of LGBTQ+ rights, in conservative sections of the state like Placer County, bigotry remains prevalent on school campuses, at public gatherings, at religious institutions and among elected leaders. she wrote.
To understand what Placer Pride means to the county’s LGBTQ+ residents, you need to understand what the community has been through in the past two months, Holzer wrote:
“At the beginning of March, a drag show that was scheduled to take place in Roseville High School it was canceled when local conservative and religious groups lobbied the Roseville Joint Union High School District (RJUHSD) to stop the event. After receiving hate messages and threats, the organizers of the event in the landing sitePlacer County’s only peer support group for LGBTQ+ people, decided not to reschedule the event.”
The current 2023 national legislative session alone has seen 491 anti-LGBTQ bills, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
But under the shade of one of Royer Park’s big trees, Holzer saw only love and pride in Placer County. A cardboard was filled with messages of hope from the attendees:
“Stay true to yourself”
“Love yourself”
“You are loved”
“This mom loves you all. You cool.”
Fears about Feinstein
“Diana Feinstein it has become an achingly sad sight, to be led around the Capitol as she so visibly struggles to perform the basic duties of a United States Senator. He has joined the ranks of formidable leaders who stayed in office too long. However, at this point, he fears his resignation more than his continuance in office”.
opinion writer tom philp shared his thoughts last week on the Feinstein situation bubbling up in the United States Capitol.
Since Feinstein effectively became the deciding vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee after the 2020 election, she wrote, the window closed for her to resign without potential consequences for the judicial system.
“Republicans blocked efforts to temporarily replace Feinstein after a recent hospitalization as they would now if he retired. The policy of maintaining a minimum majority in a committee moving forward of President Joe Biden judicial candidacies for the full Senate has an undeniable impact on the future government of the US Supreme Court. They dictate why the establishment democrats get in line behind Feinstein despite his frail condition.
“These high stakes are also why Feinstein should do everything he can to stay, even as it grows more painful to watch with each passing day.”
Make solutions, not wars
The federal government first declared a war on drugs in the 1970s and subsequently accelerated its efforts in the 1980s and 1990s, he wrote. emma sharif and daniel vine this week in a guest essay for The Bee. Sharif is the mayor of Comptonand Parra is mayor of Fowler and the first vice president of the California League of Cities.
“The policies that emerged from this ‘war’ disproportionately targeted and impacted communities of color, with devastating impacts on countless families. Now, our communities face a very different drug crisis: illicit fentanyl.”
Fentanyl overdoses kill an estimated 6,000 Californians each year.
Parra and Sharif say they are “incredibly frustrated with the lack of concerted and swift action from the Legislature,” and urge lawmakers to support state funding and current legislative proposals that seek to address this crisis through prevention efforts and intervention, educational campaigns and access to life-saving overdose treatment aids such as naloxone.
In addition, they call on the Legislature to pass measures that address the supply by going after manufacturers and support efforts to increase penalties to hold accountable drug dealers who kill innocent people.
“Informational hearings are not a substitute for concrete action, and while lawmakers hesitate, more Californians, including the youngest among us, are dying every day.”
opinion of the week
“Excellent reporting… is the backbone of a prosperous society, untamed by corporate interests, committed to integrity and uncovering truths, even painful ones.” — Trojan Mastersfounder and editor of los angeles sheet and Gay Town Newsin AB 866, California Prevention of Journalism Law.
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See you around,
Robin
