Remembering 2022 through the pages of Qnotes

Much has happened that impacted the LGBTQ community in 2022. Here’s a look back at the most significant events, some groundbreaking, others poignant, sad and comedic. They all appeared on the pages of our print edition and on our website. While this list does cover most of the year, there are a few other historic moments covered in this edition you’ll want to explore, too.

The North Carolina Courage, a professional women’s soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina was founded in 2017 and is part of the National Women’s Soccer League Franchise. It maintains a sizable lesbian fan base. They’ve been welcoming to LGBTQ+ team members and fans since their inception in 2012.That’s why a number of people in the community were left scratching their heads when news broke during the last week of December that former player Jaelene Daniels had been rehired. Daniels created a stir in 2017 when she declined to wear a rainbow themed jersey for gay pride month, citing religious beliefs as justification. Fans were outraged and many simply stayed home after Daniels’ return to the team. Her triumphant return, however, as short lived. In an October 22 story from the pages of Qnotes, the headline read as follows: Jaelene Daniels cut by the Courage after her continued anti-LGBT actions. Awh, Too bad.

She had a professional career in radio, film, stage and screen that spanned eight decades. In late December of 2021, she was still appearing on television and social media, touting her upcoming 100th birthday and the release of a one-night only screening of “Betty White: A Celebration” on January 17 at 900 theaters around the country. Only, she didn’t make it to her 100th birthday. Likely best known for her roles in the television series “Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” longtime LGBTQ ally Betty White left us on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2021.

North Carolina resident Clay Aiken hit the big time with American Idol. Although he never won first place in the television program, he did manage to snag a recording contract and went on to have a successful singing career powered by a following of middle-aged and older women, as well as teenage girls, who often referred to themselves as “Claymates.” Aiken rode his tidal wave of success until it all came crashing down when he was outed by a gay man he had connected with on the internet. After he made the decision to own his sexual orientation, he was approached by Al Gore, who suggested he take a shot at politics. Likely because of his closet for money behavior, Aiken has never been fully embraced by the LGBTQ community. He continues to have a somewhat successful recording career and a lukewarm following. He announced his second attempt at a run for political office, but once again, he was unsuccessful.

If you live in Charlotte, or Raleigh this came as no surprise. Both cities were included on a list released by Zillow as top contenders in the United States real estate market. Raleigh came in at three, Charlotte placed at number five.

As reported by Qnotes in February, a group of individuals got together in Charlotte back in 1979 with a vision of forming a Metropolitan Community Church in Charlotte. It was formally granted a charter in 1981. By 1986, MCC Charlotte leased part of the third floor of the historic Varnadore Building on Independence Blvd. Within a few years, it occupied the entire seventh floor. By 1999, the church purchased a building at 1825 Eastway Drive and continued to flourish. Churchgoers describe those years that followed as some of the most exciting in its history. But by 2014, attendance had dwindled and the congregation was forced to sell the church and move into a leased property. Since this article, the church has closed its doors. Funds left behind by the church were distributed among various LGBTQ organizations and the entire contents of their food pantry was passed along to Sacred Souls Community Church. As recently as December 11, however, Saint John’s Metropolitan Community Church of Raleigh is maintaining a Facebook page in an effort to reach out to those who wish to be involved with a MCC congregation and live in the Charlotte area.

Best known for his roles at Vogue as creative director and editor-at-large, which spanned from the 1980s to 2013, Andre Leon Harry died January 18. He was long considered one of the fashion industry’s most prominent figures. His career led him to work with iconic figures like Andy Warhol, Diana Vreeland, Oscar de la Renta and Michelle Obama. Beyond his work at Vogue, he was the Paris bureau chief of Women’s Wear Daily, a judge on America’s Next Top model, artistic director for Zappos and also worked for Vanity Fair, Interview and Ebony, among others. He was also the subject of a 2017 documentary, “The Gospel According to André.”

One of the more trendy rallying calls for anti-democratic conservative Republicans both in and out of office captured mainstream as locally and nationally. What was it? Old-style book bans. The call for book bans with LGBTQ contents spread like wildfire throughout the rural areas and small towns of North Carolina during February and continued throughout the year.

Charlotte’s place in the United States and in North Carolina as one of the top metropolitan areas to see an exploding growth in population and a constant need for housing goes beyond an exciting opportunity for buyers. As investment companies from around the globe creep into the market, they begin snatching up practically any single-family house available by outbidding the average Joe looking for a place to call home and turning most of the city into a high price rental district. Charlotte has a serious problem: now there is a lack of affordable housing.

The radio station Hits 96.1 welcomes new personalities Miguel Fuller, an openly gay man and his co-host Holly O’Connor, an LGBTQ ally as morning drive-time hosts.

Charlotte and North Carolina’s best known documented drag history of stage performers dates back to the 1960s. The region has long been a hot spot for gender-bending stage personalities, so it comes as no surprise a bevy of Carolina girls took part in Miss Gay America held in late January, at Robinson Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Among those in attendance, Shelita Bonet Hoyle (Cary), Ivy Carter (Greensboro), Aria Russo (WinstonSalem), Paris Brooks-Bonet (Raleigh) and Charlotte’s own Buff  Faye.

The number of American adults who identify as LGBTQ rose to a record 7.1 percent, and younger people are at the forefront of the increase. The statistics for the estimate come from a Gallup Poll, and place the increase at double the percentage from 2012 when Gallup first explored sexual orientation and gender identity and above 2021’s poll that showed 5.6 percent of adults identifying as LGBTQ.

The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld a Court of Appeals decision March 11, establishing that people in same-sex dating relationships cannot be excluded from domestic violence protections. The opinion in M.E. v. T.J was issued after the defendant appealed the December 2020 Court of Appeals decision holding that it was unconstitutional to exclude LGBTQ couples from domestic violence protections. North Carolina was the last state in the nation to deny certain domestic violence protections to those in same-sex dating relationships.

As reported in Qnotes in March, Ukrainian men aged 18-60 were not being allowed to leave the country – whether they wanted to or not – because they were being detained to create a larger defense force in the effort to fight the advancing Russian invasion. While more than one million women, children and others have been allowed to cross borders to neighboring countries and beyond, transgender women like Zi Faámelu are finding themselves stuck because they still have a male designation stamp.

Disagreements in the United Methodist Church have been going on for years. For some, it is reminiscent of a long, messy divorce. That separation is nearing its finality with feuds over land, money and 12.7 million children (or congregants). In 2019, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. voted to keep and strengthen its ban on same-sex marriage and forbid members of the LGBTQ community from serving as clergy. For many, it was a heartbreaking decision. “I cannot be a member of a church where my son doesn’t have the same rights as I do,” said Beckie McCall.

It turns out there’s science to support the idea that those who supported and/or continue to support Donald Trump likely possess substantially lower intellectual capacity than those who don’t. While controlling for education, gender, geography, income, age, and more, Southern Illinois Professor of Sociology Darren Sherkat found that almost 73 percent of people who didn’t get any of the questions right would vote for Trump, compared to 35 percent of people who got all ten questions right. Other research from Sherkat explains that there is a difference between education level and “cognitive sophistication,” and it is the latter that more greatly affects our political leanings. “Low levels of cognitive sophistication may lead people to embrace simple cognitive shortcuts, like stereotypes and prejudices that were amplified by the Trump campaign.”

Steve Nichols and his partner, John Winn, were sitting on their couch one weekend when they saw a news story about a North Carolina dog facing the same ignorance and bigotry they’ve encountered as an openly gay couple for 33 years. The dog, previously named Fezco, was surrendered by former owners because they thought the dog was gay. “It was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard,” Nichols said about Fezco’s previous owners. Once Fezco’s adoption paperwork was completed, the couple renamed him Oscar, after Oscar Wilde, a gay Irish poet and playwright from the early 1890s. The attention generated by Oscar’s initial abandonment led to a media frenzy and calls from around the world after going viral on the internet and social media.NBC News, TMZ, The Today Show, Good Morning America, USA Today, and a plethora of other media outlets barraged [the Charlotte] SPCA with requests to contact Nichols and Winn.

There certainly were a lot of surprises on Oscar night, but none quite as exciting as Ariana DeBose’s Academy Award win for her role in “West Side Story.” DeBose, 31, made history when she became the first queer woman of color to win an Academy Award. The North Carolina native, who is of African, Cuban and Caucasian heritage, won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic film.

Boone and parttime Charlotte resident Franklin Graham – the son of Billy Graham and one of the most famous and powerful Evangelical leaders in the country – spent the weekend on social media railing against transgender people and demanding “regime change” in the U.S. because, he said, the Biden administration’s take on trans health policies are “evil” and “wicked.”

After over eight hours of debate and filibuster, HB 4608, which bans transgender students from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, was rushed through the South Carolina House of Representatives. Although the Bill is titled “Save Women’s Sports Act,” the South Carolina House has done everything except create an equal footing for women in sports. The bill – which passed in the House  with a vote of 82 to 48, now heads to the Senate for consideration.

For the first time in Charlotte-Mecklenburg history, five individuals from the LGBTQ community ran for Charlotte City council. Among them, Dante Anderson (D-District 1), Kendrick Cunningham (D-District 2), Kyle Luebke (R-At Large), Billy Maddalon, (D-District 1) and LaWanna Mayfield (D-At large). Come election day July 26, only two winners were left standing: Dante Anderson and LaWanna Mayfield were both elected to their council positions.

Winston-Salem native Jared Carmichael is no stranger to success: he’d already appeared in a handful of movies and mastered the art of stand-up comedy, as well as a major prime time win with the television series “The Carmichael Show” (set in Charlotte), which was wellreceived and notable for its approach to such subjects as the Black Lives Matter Movement, LGBTQ issues, gun rights and multiple aspects of politics. But Carmichael still wasn’t exactly happy because he wasn’t being honest with himself or his followers: he was a gay man living his life in the closet. That all changed with his HBO comedy special “Rothaniel,” where he he officially went public about his sexual orientation.

Companies claiming to be supportive of their LGBTQ employees, customers and community, yet make political contributions to lawmakers who harm and demonize LGBTQ people find themselves in hot water. Among the biggest offenders? Disney.

The ACLU of North Carolina and Patterson Harkavy LLP file a complaint on behalf of Kanautica Zayre-Brown, a transgender woman incarcerated at Anson Correctional Institution who is being denied essential gender-affirming health care. As of December 2022, the case is still pending.

Hearts Beat as One Board uncovers financial irregularities

Such an odd little quandary. The founder and former director of Hearts Beat As One resigns. Turns out there may be some potential financial shenanigans going on. At first they want to talk about it. Then they don’t want to talk about. Then they just change their name altogether to Hearts United for Good. (With an acronym like HUG how can you not feel all warm and fuzzy?) And the issue, reportedly one numbering in a high five figure sum, goes away with the old name and any connection to the founder and former director. Poof!

Is there ever a good time to rejoice in someone else’s defeat? Probably not. At least, not too much. But when that someone is your enemy, and they’ve had their sight set on limiting or ultimately ending your civil rights, culture and your livelihood, you deserve a pass, some time to gloat a little and let out a hefty sigh of relief. The LGBTQ community and progressives across the Carolinas did just that when it became clear two particularly unpleasant far right wing politicians, former Charlotte mayor turned failed one-term governor, turned radio talk show host and wannabe senator Pat McCrory; and NC Representative/boy-child and Trump fave Madison Cawthorn had both pulled the plugs on their political campaigns. Yay!

A bad man does a bad thing: South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed into law HB 4608, which bans transgender students from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity. HB 4608 is a discriminatory attack on transgender students who have said themselves they play sports for the same reasons all kids do: to be part of a team, to learn discipline, and above all, to have fun with their friends. 

Perhaps it was a slow news day or there just wasn’t going enough going on in the world, but the story of Oscar the Gay Dog exploded across media here in the United States and around the world in places like England, Japan, Ireland, Malta, India, Australia and others. Oscar was lucky enough to end up with two loving pops, John Winn and Steve Nichols – who stuck with him, even when the flurry of media attention suddenly vanished. “It’s funny – I remember at one point John looked at me and said, ‘When is all of this going to end?” Nichols recalled. “I thought about it for a moment and said, ‘When the next big thing comes along the media can run with.’” And that did happen. In front of millions of people around the globe on April 8, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards for a perceived slight against his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Just as quickly as the attention had risen, it almost immediately disappeared, with television programs like “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” offering and then rescinding invitations to Oscar and his two dads. “It just shows you what their

Urvashi Vaid, a powerful longtime influential attorney and LGBTQ activist whose career spanned from the early days of the AIDS pandemic to contemporary battles over equality for the LGBTQ community died May 13 at her home, after a bout with cancer in New York. She was 63.

At the time of the report, SCOTUS had not yet officially overturned Roe v. Wade, although a leaked document implied the decision to reverse a woman’s right to choose was on the horizon. When the decision was finally made, North Carolina became one of the few Southern states where abortion would remain legal after six weeks.

In the beginning stages of a strange illness that worried many in the gay male community as a possible repeat of something similar to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic, scientists at the CDC were collaborating with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to investigate a single case of Monkeypox in a Massachusetts resident who had recently traveled to Canada. Within a matter of weeks of the first identified American case, the CDC quickly identified 24 additional cases in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.

Within another month it had spread across the country. While it made a number of gay men quite ill, it wasn’t fatal and it turned out to be easily preventable by a smallpox vaccine.

With spring comes change, and such was the case when Carolinas Care and Transcend Charlotte announced their merger. Carolinas Care confirmed they would be handling organizational, administrative and fundraising support and Transcend would offer expertise in gender equity and transfocused programming, while continuing to provide high quality peer support groups, case management, community education and special services like an expression space and name change workshops.

Dancer Justine Simone Lindsay, 29, recently demolished a sports world barrier, becoming the NFL’s first ever openly transgender cheerleader.“You are looking at the newest member of the Carolina Panthers TopCats,” she wrote in a celebratory Instagram post back in March announcing her membership on the team’s cheerleading squad and officially coming out publicly as trans. “This is a moment I will never forget and I cannot wait to show you all what this girl has to bring.”

In an effort to protect LGBTQ youth and all who could be victimized by so called “conversion therapy,” President Joe Biden signed an executive order to fight the misguided practice. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will issue rules that ban the use of federal funds for programs that offer conversion therapy which claims through potentially harmful techniques it will turn gay and bi people straight and trans and non-binary people cis.

LGBTQ advocates demanded officials in Gaston County reverse their decision to remove a photo showing two men recently engaged, kissing, from a museum exhibit. The photograph, taken by Charlotte freelance photojournalist Grant Baldwin, shows Justin Colasacco and his husband Bren Hipp kissing after Colasacco dropped to one knee and proposed in front of the crowd at the 2019 Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade. They married Oct. 4, 2020.

The number of bars and clubs catering specifically to the gay male population is declining nationwide, according to a new study examining the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on LGBTQ spaces in the United States. The study’s author, Greggor Mattson, a professor of Sociology at Ohio’s Oberlin College, who also curates the Who Needs Gay Bars project on Twitter, found that between 2019 and Spring 2021, the number of gay bars in the country dropped by about 15 percent. Compared with a similar decline between 2017 and 2019, Mattson writes, this indicates a steady rate of decline in recent years. Mattson and his researchers studied historical data from the Damron Travel Guide and compared it to an online census of gay bars taken from February to May of 2021.“[Over] 36 percent of gay bar listings disappeared between 2007 and 2019,” Mattson said in an an interview with ABC News. “So more than a third of gay bars closed in a 12-year period.”

James Ijames (pronounced like times without the letter T) grew up in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. He’s a native of Bessemer City in Gaston County. These days, Ijames makes his home in Philadelphia and his resume reads like the driven man he is. During his career he has worked as an actor, writer and director. Currently he is a professor of theater at Villanova University just outside of Philadelphia. Perhaps his most notable achievement to date? He recently captured a Pulitzer Prize in literature for his play for his play “Fat Ham,” an updated retake on William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established abortion as a constitutional right, although it will have no impact on Nort Carolina, where a woman’s right to choose is protected by the state. “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his opinion, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Parents who attended an LGBTQthemed story time at a Wilmington, North Carolina public library say members of the Proud Boys protested outside and entered the building during the event to antagonize them. Around 10 parents and children gathered at the New Hanover County Public Library Pine Valley Branch to hear a reading of two LGBTQ children’s books, “Heather has Two Mommies” and “Daddy and Dada,” and make crafts for Pride Month. Fun and excitement soon turned to fear when demonstrators entered the library and intimidated those on hand for the presentation, attendees said.

Sasha Rodriguez-Mason, 45, a transgender woman who was previously misidentified as a cisgender male by local authorities and media, was murdered in her home earlier this year on May 13 in the town of Zebulon, North Carolina. Within a week, two men were arrested in connection to the robbery and murder. According to a report from HRC in July, Rodriguez-Mason is the 16th trans individual to be murdered in the United States so far at that time.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported the first case of monkeypox virus infection in the state June 23. Mecklenburg County, home to the state’s largest city and largest concentration of LGBTQ individuals, announced Charlotte Metro’s case just four days later. By July, the number of cases in the state and county’s Gay/MSM community continued to grow at an alarming rate.

Two guys North Carolina can always count on to be embarrassing: Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson and (now former) House Representative Madison Cawthorn. Robinson: with no previous political experience and a talent for mouthing off endlessly, he defends his continuing barrage of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric as religious freedom and is oblivious about connecting with or representing anyone he doesn’t agree with. Cawthorn: his career started a downhill spiral when he appeared with Donald Trump at the Jan. 6, 2020 “Stop The Steal” rally ahead of the US Capitol insurrection on that same day. Since questioned, he has made it clear he has no regrets about his involvement. Check out the full story on both wingnuts at the qnotescarolinas website.

Take a young cisgender twink and place him in a restaurant that specializes in cookies. Add a flashy young trans woman with a thirst for fame and a desire to get there fast. Both of them are clever with a sharp wit, an even sharper tongue, a hot temper and a decided lack of patience. Underpay them, overwork them and you’ve got a recipe for disaster served up as a blend of harsh words, slapping, striking, punching, kicking, biting and rolling around on the ground, just in time for the police to show up.

“The Supreme Court ripped away the constitutional right to reproductive freedom that women have relied on for five decades,” said Governor Roy Cooper. “For now, it’s up to the states to determine whether women get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina they still can, thanks to my veto and enough legislative votes to sustain

HB 4776, aka “The Medical Freedom Act, finally makes it to the desk of South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, who approved and signed it into law. The legislation negatively impacts the medical care of all South Carolinians, including the LGBTQ+ community by limiting access to critical services like gender-affirming care, contraceptives, HIV medications, fertility care, end of life care and mental health services, as well as allow insurance companies and employers to refuse to reimburse, pay, or contract for medically necessary services. Why? Cuz they get to use their religion as an excuse to discriminate.

The LGBT Center of Raleigh appoints Patricia R. Corbett as their new executive director. Corbett brings to the table over 20 years of professional non-profit experience and most recently served as Deputy Director of District and School Partnerships with Citizen Schools. She has led teams, organizations, and projects in and around LGBTQ+ and BIPOC movements, including Metro DC PFLAG and the Richmond Organization of Sexual Minority Youth (now known as Side by Side).

The headline says it all: five years after marriage equality, same-sex couples are now allowed to receive spousal benefits. And that includes everyone, even if the relationship you shared with your long-term, cohabitating partner came to a close (because of death) prior to Marriage Equality.

A North Carolina Republican, Thom Tillis, says he supports and does eventually vote in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which officially repeals the Defense of Marriage Act and requires all states to recognize interracial and same-sex marriages.

Before another hot headed, mentally unstable billionaire decides he should take his first step into world domination through Twitter, there was original Twitter, and they cared about LGBTQ folks. Who knows where the social media app is headed now?

Equality NC holds its annual gala on Saturday, August 27 in downtown Durham. It’s the first time in three years that the organization has held an in-person event of this size because of the the COVID-19 pandemic. 

After a two-year pandemic hiatus, Charlotte Pride shatters records on with a successful return to the city’s center city district. An estimated 275,000 people are in attendance.

A special two page section looks at the way the Monkeypox outbreak is impacting the state: The numbers in Mecklenburg County continue to climb, the smallpox vaccine appears to provide immunity and lab techs refuse to draw blood from patients.

Corporate sponsors donating to local Pride events are still contributing to antiLGBTQ campaigns.

As anti-drag queen story hour protests reach a fevered pitch, an entire county tries to put a lid on a presentation during a local Pride celebration. Organizers balk and move forward as planned.

North Carolina congressional candidate Tyler Lee said he plans to attend the Charlotte International Arts Festival Drag Queen Story Hour in a Charlotte park to “ensure the safety of any children” after referring to drag queens as pedophiles and predators. More hot air.

The national LGBTQ organization Human Right Campaign announces its new president is Kelley Robinson, and she’s the first Black woman to lead the organization. “I’m honored and ready to lead HRC and our more than three million member-advocates as we continue working to achieve equality and liberation for all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people,” says Robinson.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans would still be alive if every eligible person had gotten vaccinated against COVID-19. Now new research strongly suggests that many more of those “excess deaths” were among people with Republican voter registrations. Why? Because they were far less inclined to be vaccinated. So far, the virus has killed more than 1 million in the United States and more than 6.5 million worldwide and a Cornell University study found that former President Donald Trump was the “single largest driver” of misinformation about the disease.

LGBTQ+ Americans are projected to become one of the fastest growing voting blocs in the country, growing at a scale, scope, and speed that will fundamentally reshape the American electoral landscape, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign and Bowling Green State University.

A year of homophobia can really take a bite out of your career. Hired for a one year contract, The North Carolina Courage declined to renew for 2023. Many lesbian fans say they’ll return to the games they’ve boycotted over the past year.

Experts attribute the drop to a variety of factors. The monkeypox vaccine, with an 85 percent efficacy rate, helped slow the virus down. Gay men and others who identify as MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) reduced their partners following the rise of cases in the wake of large gatherings around Pride month in June. And, the virus, spread by close skin-to-skin contact, was self-limiting, unlike the airborne coronavirus, finding fewer places to spread as potential hosts reduced their exposure.

A friend and community contributor leaves us. In the early 1990s Dan Van Mourik served as associate editor for Qnotes. From 1992 to 2000 he would take on the dual roles of editor and graphic designer for another local gay publication known as Blue Knights, which has since ceased publication. During the final years of Blue Knights, he would also return to Qnotes, this time offering his talents as a graphic designer from 1998 to 2000. Born in 1948, he was just a few weeks away from turning 74.

According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 2022 has already seen at least 32 transgender people fatally shot or killed by other violent means. The phrase “at least” is used because far too often their stories go unreported or reported incorrectly as the victims are misgendered.

During the early morning hours of November 21, five people were shot dead and more than 25 had been shot or injured in some manner during a terrorist style anti-LGBTQ shooting that took place at a popular community bar known as Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Among the injured was Charlotte resident Barrett Hudson, who had only recently moved to Denver and was visiting Colorado Springs for the weekend when the attack occurred. Despite eight bullet wounds, he survives and continues to recover.

New polling released November 17 shows the 2022 election defied pre-election predictions of a massive “red wave” in no small measure because equality-minded voters pushed back against extremism and voted to protect commonly held values and our democracy.

Maura Healey is elected governor in Massachusetts and immediately makes history as the first out lesbian governor to be elected in the United States.

Disturbing news hits too close to home as we learn North Carolina and Texas tie for the top spot on a list from GLAAD, both with ten reported incidents in the current calendar year so far.

Qnotes proudly announces the Charlotte Trans Health Group is Organization of the Year. Coincidentally, it comes in the same year they’re celebrating their monumental tenth anniversary.

Special thanks to our media partners LGBTQ Nation and The Charlotte Observer.

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