The latest news from local authors
For decades, the Fresno County Fairgrounds have stood at the center of public controversy. In 1942, the site served as an assembly center where more than 5,000 Japanese Americans were detained before being sent to internment camps, according to Central Valley News (Rodriguez, 2022). In 2005, a two-year-old girl contracted a severe E. coli infection […]
A House Divided: The Battle for the Future of LGBTQ Republicans The sight of LGBTQ community members supporting Donald Trump in the last election prompted a broader question about the evolution of the Republican Party. When did the party of John McCain and Mitt Romney become the party of Donald Trump? Conversations with members of
In the 1984 film Red Dawn, American teenagers in a Colorado town wake to Soviet paratroopers descending from the sky. Their community is suddenly under foreign control. The film, a product of Cold War anxieties, tells a story of ordinary citizens resisting an occupation that stripped them of their freedom. Four decades later, the imagery
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are — unsurprisingly — exploiting the recent school shooting in Minneapolis to target transgender people. On America’s Newsroom Friday, Fox News host Dana Perino asked Johnson if “there has to be some sort of accountability on the transgender front.” The
In a direct response to the Trump administration’s decision to end specialized support for LGBTQ+ youth on the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, California is reinforcing its commitment to providing life-saving services for young people in crisis. The federal cut, which officially ends the dedicated LGBTQ+ support option on July 17, is being met
On June 27, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, ruling 6-3 that public schools must allow parents to opt their children out of lessons involving LGBTQ-themed storybooks if those parents object based on religious grounds. This ruling stems from a heated case in Montgomery County, Maryland, where a
Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee’s Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for MinorsThree years after overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court has again allowed states to restrict a controversial form of healthcare. In a 6-3 decision in United States v. Skrmetti on Wednesday, the Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical treatments like puberty blockers and hormone
In recent years, the global LGBTQ+ community has experienced a painful paradox—legal progress in some areas coupled with a growing wave of regression in others. From military orders in the United States to violent hate crimes in Australia, LGBTQ+ individuals are once again finding themselves on the frontline of political and social conflict. One of
At the heart of Veteran’s Memorial Stadium on Saturday, 16-year-old AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley High School stood among her peers, a California track and field champion. Her presence on the podium, however, was framed by a national debate that sought to define her by her transgender identity, rather than her athletic prowess. In the
AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old transgender junior from Jurupa Valley High, excelled at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis, winning gold in girls’ triple jump and high jump, and silver in long jump. Her participation occurred despite intense pressure from President Trump, who had ordered state officials to block her and threatened
