Bee Opinionated: The show must drag on + Funds fuel Latinos + End of ‘Valleycrats’? | Opinion
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Hi friends, it’s me again, Robin Epley with The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board.
Opinion Assistant Hannah Holzer wrote last week about a canceled drag show in Placer County — an area of California that seems to be set on bucking the trend of inclusivity and kindness that most Californians pride themselves on.
“The Roseville Joint Union High School District originally granted permission to use district facilities for the drag show, but district leaders ultimately bowed to community pressure from conservative and religious groups,” Holzer wrote. “The drag show was set to take place on March 31 at Roseville High School until the district pulled the plug on it. District officials claim that it wasn’t political pressure that caused them to change their minds. They say drag show organizers misrepresented key details of the event and that once district officials learned more about plans for the show, they determined it would violate district policies.”
Except, that’s pure bunkum, as Holzer found:
“There have been recent efforts by some conservatives to brand drag shows and drag culture as inherently ‘predatory,’ while others have claimed that drag ‘grooms’ or ‘sexualizes’ children. This is patently false,” she wrote. “The Landing Spot’s drag show was planned as a family-friendly event and would have featured performers between the ages of 14 and 18. Drag allows performers to express themselves — and, in a conservative community like Placer, a safe space to be unabashedly queer, passionate and artistic is a rare and beautiful experience for so many of our young queer and trans neighbors.”
As of right now, the show remains canceled, but organizers hope the show will go on at a later date. Tickets are eligible for a full refund, but ticket buyers can also opt to donate the money directly to Camp Fruitloop, a summer camp for LGBTQ+ youth that was set to be the recipient of funds raised by the show.
The Path To Recovery
“Regardless of the political rhetoric that the American Rescue Plan was the primary driver of inflation, it was actually vital for Latino families across the state.”
In an op-ed for The Bee last week, Christian Arana wrote about the Latino grassroots activism that has sprung up in California thanks to the $16 billion in flexible funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, passed just two years ago.
Arana is the vice president of policy at the Latino Community Foundation in San Francisco, and with ARPA, he wrote, “Local Latino residents saw an opportunity to play an important role in the reimagination and redesign of their communities.”
In Los Angeles, the Immigrants are Los Angeles Campaign successfully pressured the county board of supervisors to provide $30 million to immigrant residents for items like food assistance and legal services.
In Mountain View, a group of immigrant Latina mothers advocated for direct financial assistance for their neighbors with nearly $2 million in city-granted ARPA resources through the Mountain View Solidarity Fund.
And in Half Moon Bay, site of the recent mass shooting of seven farm workers, local government and community came together to approve nearly $1 million in ARPA funds to house the farm worker families affected by the tragedy.
“According to (The Brookings Institute), approximately one-third of local American Rescue Plan funds are unallocated and still eligible for use. With California ending its COVID state of emergency, the remaining opportunities to uplift Latino communities are as innumerable as they are urgent to address,” Arana wrote. “From mental health support to affordable housing and job training, Latino leaders have waited for this moment to activate and resource the long-term visions for their communities.”
Opinion of the Week
“I accepted the advice in 2010, and I lost. I discounted the advice in 2018 and won.” — California State Senator Anna M. Caballero in an op-ed last week about how the California and national Democratic parties must shift their playbook tactics away from the moderate swing voters known as “Valleycrats” and look toward the growing, young, Latino community instead.
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Stay dry my friends,
Robin Epley
