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+…
Our People: Lupe Silva
With a warm heart, an easy smile, and two green thumbs, Lupe Silva cultivates…
Trump officials criticized over Christian nationalism
Several top Trump administration officials are scheduled to appear at a Washington, D.C., religious…
Wanna-be Governors and LGBTQ+ Issues in SC
Three men are on the ballot for the office of Governor in the upcoming…
From Foreign Aid to Foreign Shame
House Republicans are advancing a federal funding bill that LGBTQ+ advocates warn would use…
A long awaited positive step for LGBTQ+ Catholics
Catholic LGBTQ+ folks have had a long, often toxic, relationship with their Church ever…
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
Q-Music: Pride 2026 Playlist
In 2024, queer singer/songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan released “Stellar Evolution,” one of the best and most underrated albums of that year (or any year). The songs were personal (“The Drugs Did Me”), political (“I Love America Better Than You”), and had a distinctive sense of humor (“Pants”), many delivered in a modern, electronic-driven, pop style.…
IN TRIBUTE
Honoring a Lifetime of Changing Hearts and Minds
Ian Palmquist was still in high school when he first started handing out pamphlets promoting tolerance for LGBTQ+ people. Decades later, what began as accidental activism with five friends grew into a lifetime of grassroots organizing, advocacy and community building — work that has now earned Palmquist recognition from both his peers and the state…
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.
A $40 gift in honor of 40 years is a simple way to support the next chapter of Qnotes. Monthly and annual options are also available.
Join the Press Club today and invest in the future of trusted, local LGBTQ+ journalism.
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‘Jesus-Centric’ mobile service blocks LGBTQ+ content
HRC’s Welcoming Schools Book of the Month: ‘I Can Be… Me!’
No endorsement for Nancy
Qnotes Democracy: why two incumbent Mecklenburg County Democrats lost their primaries
Tennessee to place trans women inmates in male prisons, collect personal data on trans individuals
Barry Walters makes us feel ‘Mighty Real’
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