Your Guide to 2026 Pride Festivals Across the Carolinas
As Pride season approaches, LGBTQ+ communities across North Carolina and South Carolina are preparing for another year of festivals, parades and community celebrations. While major events in cities like Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham continue drawing large crowds, smaller towns across the Carolinas are also hosting Pride gatherings throughout 2026, reflecting the growing visibility of LGBTQ+…
LGBTQ+ Film Festival returns to Wilmington
The last weekend of May will see the return of the Silver Pride Cinema…
Impact Center marks one year as LGBTQ+ hub
One year after opening its doors to the public, the Impact Center for the…
Ted Turner, long an LGBTQ+ ally, dies at 87
Ted Turner, an American broadcasting pioneer likely best known for founding CNN, the world’s…
Out trans actor brings joy to Broadway
In 2023, Dylan Mulvaney promoted Bud Light beer on her Instagram account. She held…
QNOTES History
40 Years of Qnotes Coverage
As a newspaper, Qnotes has served Charlotte for 40 years. In this edition we’ve collected here some of the most significant stories that have appeared on our pages and online during that time. There are more, so many more. We tried to keep it to one big story a year. And we did, mostly. Although…
live theater
Blumenthal announces theatrical lineup for 2026-27
Charlotte’s Blumenthal Arts Center recently released their list of stage productions that will headline for the 2026-27 PNC Broadway Lights Series. It’s a standout mix of drama, romance, spectacle and comedy, which includes the 40th anniversary return of “Phantom of the Opera” in a revitalized production featuring Maria Björnson’s original design. There’s also a new,…
ARTS AND CULTURE
Reel Out: Highlighting us on the big screen
This year, Reel Out Charlotte: The Queen City’s Annual LGBTQ Film Festival will kick off with a special opening event and free movie screening at Bar Argon on May 13, 2026 at 7 p.m. For this article, two Reel Out Charlotte organizers gave Qnotes some additional insight into what this year’s film screening has to…
local politics
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles announces surprise resignation
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles plans to step down less than halfway through her latest term leading the nation’s 14th-largest city. The five-term Democrat will resign June 30, spokesperson LaToya Evans said in a statement. “Serving as Charlotte’s mayor has been the honor of my life,” Lyles said in a statement. “I am proud of our…
Join the Qnotes Press Club
As Qnotes enters its 40th year, we are inviting readers to help carry this work forward. Qnotes is the only LGBTQ+ newsroom serving the Carolinas, and our reporting remains independent and community-centered because of reader support.
Joining or renewing the Qnotes Press Club helps sustain local LGBTQ+ journalism, amplify community voices, and preserve stories that might otherwise go untold.
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more news
HRC’s Welcoming Schools Book of the Month: ‘I Can Be… Me!’
Tennessee to place trans women inmates in male prisons, collect personal data on trans individuals
Barry Walters makes us feel ‘Mighty Real’
ICE agent responsible for fatal shooting of Renee Good back at work
Former US Representative Barney Frank, 86, in hospice care
GOP lawmakers launch an investigation on former NC Gov. Roy Cooper as midterm elections get closer
Qnotes marks 40 years and looks ahead to its next chapter
Instead of Pride, Tennessee will celebrate ‘Nuclear Family Month’ in June 2026
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