LGBTQ+

Peoria author and sensei Joe Chianakas appears Saturday at Bobzbay Books in downtown Bloomington.

Jan Lancaster is part of the 2024 class of McLean County History Makers that will be celebrated at the annual History Makers' Gala on June 18

The life of a 16-year-old nonbinary student was remembered at a vigil in Normal on Wednesday night. Nex Benedict, who had been the victim of bullying, was involved in a fight in a school bathroom on Feb. 7, and the next day collapsed and was declared dead at the hospital.

Nationally, about a third of foster care youth identify as LGBTQ+, and researchers say they are at significantly higher risk of experiencing homelessness and physical harm.

The LGBTQ+ community in Bloomington-Normal was loud, proud, and happy during Pride Fest on July 29 in downtown Bloomington. Attendees said the annual cornerstone event that draws thousands is important both to the LGBTQ community and to all of central Illinois.

Representatives were racing to beat a Friday deadline to get bills out of the chamber, with about 2 months left in the spring legislative session.

A controversy that ignited with a book entitled This Book is Gay available in an eighth grade classroom in Heyworth has led to a teacher's resignation. The book is a sexual education text focused on LGBTQ+ experiences. Some parents were strongly opposed to the book due to explicit material seen as inappropriate.

The Kappa Sigma fraternity can apply for reinstatement to Illinois State University when its suspension expires in December 2025.

Bloomington-Normal groups and institutions are decrying the shootings at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs over the weekend and calling for change in national culture and laws.

"Sometimes when things come to a head, if you will, and there's concerns, it becomes really an opportunity for the university to look at what we're doing well and what we're not doing well," said ISU Chief Equity and Inclusion officer Doris Houston.