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On this day (May 17th) in 1968, nine Catholic activists went to the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, took 378 draft files, brought them to the parking lot in wire baskets, dumped them out, poured over them home-made napalm, and set them on fire. (x)

Reportedly, the Catonsville nine said: “Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.”

Learn more about the Catonsville nine at the Zinn Education Project!

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Culdesac Tempe, in Arizona, is completely car free, on purpose.

Drawing on the inspiration of Mediterranean small towns, Culdesac Tempe's mission is to create a community that enhances health, happiness, and climate friendliness.

Without cars or having to consider residential parking, the community could design buildings to maximize shade, breeze, and social engagement.

Electra Hug, 24, who works for the city of Tempe and is blind, wanted to be close to public transit and have a sense of community. It’s the first time she’s lived without the assistance of family and friends. “In order to have a good time or have fun, I do not have to cross the street,” Ms. Hug said. “It’s just super unique and really just homey.”

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Not to be outdone, Salt Lake City took the same approach to Utah's similar House Bill 77. In Salt Lake City, Mayor Erin Mendenhall unveiled three new city flag designs to members of the Salt Lake City Council.

The new flags add the sego lily logo from Salt Lake City's city flag to the Juneteenth, Progress Pride and transgender flags. 

"These city flags represent the ideas and principles Salt Lakers know as core tenets — belonging and acceptance, or better stated: Diversity. Equity. Inclusion," she said, sitting next to all four flags in a Salt Lake City Council work session chamber.

The motion passed unanimously.

Read more about Salt Lake City's response here!

The Boise City Hall has been flying the Pride flag continuously for ten years.

This year, the Idaho state legislature took aim at the practice by passing House Bill 96, which states that local governments and schools can only display "official" flags.

Refusing to back down, the Boise City Council has now adopted the pride flag, along with the organ donor flag, as official flags of the city of Boise.

(Also to note, when first asked to remove the flag, Boise Mayor McLean responded with a strongly-worded letter, which is also worth a read! If anyone has a link that's not Twitter, I welcome it.)

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The Boise City Hall has been flying the Pride flag continuously for ten years.

This year, the Idaho state legislature took aim at the practice by passing House Bill 96, which states that local governments and schools can only display "official" flags.

Refusing to back down, the Boise City Council has now adopted the pride flag, along with the organ donor flag, as official flags of the city of Boise.

(Also to note, when first asked to remove the flag, Boise Mayor McLean responded with a strongly-worded letter, which is also worth a read! If anyone has a link that's not Twitter, I welcome it.)

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The new firm also includes two former lawyers at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who resigned in protest after Skadden cut deals with the current administration to avoid Trump's crackdown on the legal industry.

Together, the newly formed Lowell & Associates will defend clients including individuals, institutions and others that are “facing politicized investigations, civil and administrative actions”, the firm said in a Friday statement.

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Following on the success of 2024, when grassroots opposition defeated 21 out of 22 anti-LGBT bills introduced in the Florida legislative session, this week Equality Florida celebrated that every single anti-LGBT bill introduced this year was defeated.

This victory came despite an overwhelming Republican supermajority in the Florida legislature, meaning that Republican legislators refused to advance the bills.

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Yet again, and entirely for the best, it appears that Canada will be smarter than us.

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On this day in history: April 22, 1970 - The First Earth Day

On April 22, 1970, more than 20 million people mobilized across the United States to demand action be taken on a variety of environmental issues. Representing 10% of America's population at the time, this protest is the largest day of protest by percent of the population in U.S. history.

The protest was effective; a few months later, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency, which is responsible for protecting human and environmental health in the United States. Congress also passed the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

It should be noted that Earth Day was not the birth of the environmental movement. While Earth Day was a majority white movement focused on protecting wild areas and natural resources, Black and brown environmental justice activists had been fighting against environmental disparities for years.

Read more at the Zinn Education Project!

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Thousands of trans and non-binary people thronged Parliament Square, alongside families and supporters waving baby blue, white and pink flags to demonstrate their anger at the judges’ ruling. The numbers seemed to take the organisers and police by surprise. Protesters from a hastily assembled coalition of 24 groups gathered in a ring against the barriers surrounding the grass and began speeches. But after the roads became clogged with people, a woman wearing a “Nobody knows I’m a lesbian” top ran across with her dog and soon the square was full. “It’s one hell of a turnout and there is a really strong sense of unity and solidarity,” said Jamie Strudwick, one of the organisers. “I think it’s impossible to compare it – it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

there's something so reassuring about seeing you so openly outspoken in the past few days

there's comfort in a queer protective front

We are all in this together and we have more support than you know. Check this out from today in London:

Theresa's a pretty well known trans woman around here. But when I arrived, the protest was already in all the roads. Busses couldn't go anywhere. The police were trying to kettle but they couldn't do it. In the end, we had to start marching. Legal observers were everywhere, and I watched two chase some CSPOs carrying a camera to intercept. (Big up to legal observers, it's a voluntary role taken to by solicitors, lawyers and barristers, and they are legends.) Trans people and their allies ground the capital city of the UK to a halt.

The media will blackout and minimise today as much as possible. But if you're ever feeling like the LGBT community has no support, I urge you to go to a protest.

I'm reminded of what historian Dominic Sandbrook said if the so-called 1960s sexual revolution in the UK, that it was "in the newspapers not people's bedrooms". That most people remained sexually and socially conservative despite what 60s and 70s media would have you believe. Evidenced in 1983 when a poll reported only 17% of people saw homosexual relationships as acceptable despite it being decriminalised in 1967 (as a product of the belief the state had no right to interfere in people's private lives, not an increase of social acceptance).

But anyway! My point is: the media crafts the narrative it wants in order to sell. It fucking lies about what is really happening and it always has. UK media would have you believe we are "TERF Island", which, ok, we have JKKK Rowling and Maya Forstater (barf), et al, but the British people? Not lost yet.

I never expected to get to thirty. The LGBT community helped me make it, so every year after I owe to them. I may not have all the right phrases, words, attitudes, whatever, but I will throw down in an instant for the community. No quarter. We got this.

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The resolution says it is in response to the Trump administration’s “legal, financial and political” attacks on academic freedom and the missions of universities. In the Rutgers resolution, it says schools that participate should be willing to make legal counsel, experts and public affairs offices available to any institution that is facing pressure from the Trump administration.  

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Among the new provisions are gender-affirming health care for staff, a trained Gender Support Coordinator in every school, codified protections for chosen names and pronouns, and a mandate that every school upholds inclusive curriculum standards and supports student-led Gender and Sexuality Alliances. [...] “We are the counterbalance,” Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers' Union, told The Advocate. “We are the resistance.”

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One of the most remarkable aspects of this development is the leadership role that Indigenous communities played in shaping it. “The whole process was established and developed by Indigenous people, which is very important,” said an Amazon Conservation Team spokesperson, who requested anonymity for security reasons. “It wasn’t the state that did the whole process and then set up the consultation with Indigenous authorities at the end. It was the other way around.” [...] The establishment of this territory is not only a protective measure—it is a call to action. Advocates hope it will prompt stronger government involvement in protecting both the uncontacted groups and the critical ecosystems they inhabit.

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After ten years of landlord neglect and enduring perpetual leaks, caving ceilings, cockroach infestations, rotting floors, and mysterious cracks in the walls, the residents of 2201-05 Davidson Avenue in the Bronx have had their absentee landlord removed.

Now, they are working to turn their building into a Housing Development Fund Co-Op with the help of property developer Lemle & Wolff. Lemle & Wolff has been going door-to-door assessing urgent repairs, and will then plan a major rehab to convert the building to permanently affordable, cooperatively-owned apartments for the current residents. 

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In a village of just 1,500, around 1,000 people showed up to protest the detention of a local family.

And on Monday, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul confirmed the family had been released. A statement from the ACLU said: "After mounting public pressure and a historic rally in Sackets Harbor on Saturday, ICE released the family, who are now on their way home.”

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The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally with four Republicans and all Democrats in support, would end Trump’s emergency declaration on fentanyl trafficking that underpins tariffs on Canada.

On Thursday, more Republicans joined in the fight by introducing a bill that would require congressional approval for new tariffs.

While neither bill is likely to pass the Trump-aligned House of Representatives, these moves demonstrate growing cracks in the GOP front.