A Florida woman has been arrested on a felony child abuse charge after allegedly cutting a young family member with a knife upon discovering messages indicating he is gay.
According to South Florida TV station WPLG, police began investigating Grether Leidy Guadarramas Pena, 41, after the boy told a teacher what had happened at his home on March 14. The teacher then reported the incident to authorities.
An arrest report from the Florida City Police Department states that the boy -- whose age was not specified -- told detectives his brother discovered Discord messages about his sexual orientation and took the computer away. The brother then gave it to another family member, who "made him stand facing the wall" until Guadarramas arrived home.
The Kansas Division of Vehicles has sent letters to transgender residents ordering them to surrender their driver's licenses under a newly enacted anti-LGBTQ law.
The letters state that transgender individuals' current licenses -- those with gender markers matching their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth -- are considered invalid as of Thursday, February 26. Recipients are instructed to surrender their licenses to obtain new credentials reflecting their sex at birth.
First reported by transgender journalist Erin Reed on her Substack, Erin in the Morning, the letter cites a recently enacted law -- vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly and later overridden by the legislature -- requiring that all driver's licenses and state identification cards reflect the holder's "sex at birth."
The second half of the theater season always feels like the downhill rush of a roller coaster, a new hill coming into view just as you hit the dip, as local venues begin the time-honored ritual of announcing their upcoming seasons. Still, our focus here is on what's about to bloom -- and this year, that bloom is as big and bold as it gets.
A highlight is Shakespeare Theatre Company, showcasing Hamnet (no, not the movie), Suzy Eddie Izzard in a tour-de-force one-person Hamlet, and the great Wendell Pierce in the title role of Othello. (Pierce joins a notable Othello lineage at STC -- including, for those who remember, Patrick Stewart and Avery Brooks.)
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