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23 hours ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
PEORIA – Tickets for Peoria’s annual River City Pride Festival are now on sale online. This year’s festival will take place on Saturday, July 19 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Peoria’s Riverfront Park, bringing a full day of celebration, visibility, and community to downtown. General admission tickets are $5 when purchased online in advance. Admission at the gate will be $10. As part of Peoria Proud’s commitment to accessibility and inclusion, the festival is once again offering the Love Ticket program.
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1 week ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
BLOOMINGTON/NORMAL – Illinois State University (ISU) launched an undergraduate queer studies certificate this month. The certificate is the first of its kind in the state. The certificate, launched by the school’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program, builds on the existing queer studies concentration. Current students in the concentration can transfer into the certificate.
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1 month ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
SPRINGFIELD – Downtown Springfield will once again host its annual PrideFest on Saturday, May 17. This is the fifteenth year for the celebration in the state capital. “PrideFest is now a Springfield tradition,” said co-chair Teresa Silva. “It is a place for the LGBTQ+ community to express our identity, share our stories and gather with friends.
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1 month ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Statehouse will host the annual LGBTQ+ Advocacy Day on Thursday, May 8. The event, organized by Equality Illinois, will bring LGBTQ+ advocate from across Illinois to the capital to lobby members of the state General Assembly. The statewide advocacy organization has organized busses from Chicago and Joliet, which are fully booked. People are encouraged from all parts of the state to attend the event and rally.
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2 months ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Oakland) last week filed two bills taking aim at the transgender community. “Defining Male and Female Act” was filed on March 26 and would codify the Trump regime’s executive order defining male and female as the gender assigned at conception.
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2 months ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
SPRINGFIELD – The next 50501 protest is set for Saturday, April 5, at the Illinois State Capitol. 50501 is a national grassroots initiative dedicated to advocating for equality, civil rights, and the preservation of democracy for all individuals. The focus is on opposing the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the current administration and resisting dangerous initiatives such as Project 2025. The name 50501 comes from the the goal of the original organizers on Reddit.
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2 months ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (D-Oakland) is calling on the Trump administration to cut funding for an Illinois school district over its policies for transgender students. Miller called for all federal funding to be stripped from Deerfield School District 109 in the northern suburbs of Chicago for violating the administration’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.
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2 months ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
WASHINGTON – The Veterans Administration (VA) announced Monday that it would phase out gender-affirming care for veterans. In its announcement, the agency said the ending of “medical treatment for gender dysphoria” was in line with Trump’s executive order that the federal government would only recognize gender assigned at birth. “I mean no disrespect to anyone, but VA should not be focused on helping Veterans attempt to change their sex.
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2 months ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
SPRINGFIELD – Black Lives Matter-Springfield (BLM-SPI) opened applications for its annual scholarship contest on Monday, March 17. The contest is open to Black high school seniors in Springfield. Students can submit creative and essay responses that answer the question “How have you used your voice to advocate for yourself or others?”! All submissions due by May 1 and should be submitted by email to [email protected].
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2 months ago | 
illinoiseagle.com | Tom Wray
SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield Police Department has disciplined one supervisor and three patrol officers for their mishandling of a drunk driving accident involving then just-retired sergeant Michael Egan in September 2024. The State Journal-Register reported in September that Egan was cited for failure to yield the evening of Thursday, Sept. 5.
