Long Beach Wants Your Feedback on the New LGBTQ+ Cultural District

“We don’t know what’s going to play out in appeal or if states will find other kinds of laws they can get through to courts,” Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said in an interview before the bill’s passage. “It would be absolutely negligence for us to say we’re not going to do anything until one of these laws gets upheld and someone gets put in prison.”

“We can’t solve everything in one bill. We’re making sure that people who are being criminalized have a place to go,” Wiener said. “This bill is about giving people refuge.”

Forms of gender-affirming care include social, psychological, behavioral and medical interventions designed to support and affirm gender identity.

State Sen. Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), who is running against Newsom for governor, said that children “really don’t know what their identity is,” and that the legislation would insert the state into family custody battles, according to the LA Times.

“If one parent is for it and the other is against it, the state now will be in the middle of that decision,” Dahle said on the Senate floor before voting against the measure. “This bill is basically putting the state in your home.”

By Susan Payne

Long Beach’s LGBTQ history will soon be memorialized by the city with its new LGBTQ Cultural District.

Recommended by Mayor Robert Garcia, city staff were set to work with stakeholders to create the vision for the district along the Broadway corridor.

Last week, the city held a visioning event for the cultural district at Bixby Park Community Center.

LGBTQ+ community members who were unable to attend can participate in the visioning process through a survey that will be available until Nov. 9.

The session and the survey are designed to solicit feedback on LGBTQ+ priorities for the new district. Final recommendations and possible options will be presented to the council in the coming months.

Questions can be directed to LGBTQVisioning@longbeach.gov.