Homelessness is Down in California and Across the Country, Says New Federal Report

by Contributing Author

by Marisa Kendall/ CalMatters

The Trump administration downplayed the decline in homelessness, contending far more people are on the streets today than a decade ago.

The number of people with nowhere to call home decreased both in California and nationwide last year, according to a long-awaited federal report.

The data, showing the first decrease in homelessness in years, provided fuel for activists challenging the Trump administration’s narrative that current homelessness policies are failing and need to be overhauled.

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America, the New Banana Republic

by Contributing Author

by Paul Boden/Western Regional Advocacy Project

Let’s be real about what’s happening. The U.S. Government is endeavoring to solidify its long time quest of a fascist dictatorship rule. It’s moving incredibly fast because the structures needed to pull this off have been getting implemented piecemeal and with purpose since the Reagan Revolution in 1980. So now they are ready to rock and roll.

Dictatorships always rely on a militarized police force to rain hell on a scapegoated minority that are “blamed” as the cause of whatever the authorities decide is going to put fear into their base and use that fear to stoke division and prejudice amongst people.

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From Town Halls to Postcards, Budget Advocacy Mobilizes LGBTQ+ Community

by TJ Johnston

Some 250 people gathered inside North Light Court at San Francisco City Hall on May 12 to deliver about 1,500 postcards to Mayor Daniel Lurie, urging him to restore $100 million in proposed cuts to the upcoming City budget, including LGBTQ+, HIV and homeless services, among others.

The cards were strung together and held by members of the People’s Budget Coalition, who chanted and marched in procession up the stairs to the doors of Lurie’s office,

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Blast from the Past: The Gender-Neutral Bathroom Law That Could Only Happen In San Francisco

by Contributing Author

by Jordan Wasilewski

If you told me when I was a little and in the closet that I would eventually get a first-of-its-kind law passed that would help transgender and disabled people, I would have laughed in your face. However, that is what happened.

In 2015, I was placed into a permanent supportive housing SRO. I spent three months in a unit without a bathroom.

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Price of Prejudice: What is Lost When We Reject Trans Identity

by Contributing Author

by Monteque Pope-LeBeau

“What are you?”

These are words that another person felt they could say to me. I don’t know why they thought that was OK. Maybe it was the same reasoning that drove doctors to “treat” the “illness” of my gender, ravaging my body when I was an adolescent so many years ago. I still carry the injuries.

Countless others have had similar experiences that they didn’t deserve.

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