As of Jan. 1, laws affecting child booster seats, LGBT rights, handgun open-carry and liquor sales will be among many going into effect in California. Here are some of the highlights of what Californians – and Sacramentans – have in store for them in 2012. BOOSTER SEATS: Previously, children had to ride in approved child restraint devices – booster seats – until they turned 6 years old or weighed 60 pounds. As of Jan. 1, children must ride in booster seats until they are 8 years old or at least 4 feet 9 inches tall. Kids under 8 years who are taller than 4 feet 9 inches are allowed to use a safety belt instead of a booster seat. HANDGUN OPEN CARRY: Bans citizens from openly carrying hand

This past weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the Sacramento International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (SIGLFF) at the Crest Theatre. The festival ran selected film series each evening from Thursday to Saturday. Founder Alan Cole started the project in 1992 as a student-run film festival that received support from Sacramento State University, Gay and Lesbian Alliance students with grant funding from Associated Students Inc. , which is a official governing body which operates the sponsorship of programs and services to CSUS students. A bevy of sponsors and volunteers support the board of directors, programming and gala committees to prepare and organize the annual festival that takes p

Gay leaders in Sacramento are organizing an effort for their community to be considered in the city’s redistricting process.  The gay community has formed a redistricting committee through the Sacramento Rainbow Chamber of Commerce’s foundation.  Rosanna Herber, chair of the new committee, said the center of the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is in Midtown and downtown. “We would like to see those areas in one district,” Herber said. The LGBT population wants to be considered a “community of interest,” which is one of the elements the City Council will use to redesign its districts, Herber said. Steve Hansen, a member of the city’s advisory redistrictin

SACRAMENTO , CALIFORNIA - Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips issued a three-page worldwide injunction calling for the Department of Defense (DoD) to suspend all investigations and discharges related to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. This development comes weeks after Phillips’ ruling that the policy is unconstitutional, going against the First and Fifth Amendments. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is expected to appeal the decision which will carry the case up the Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit. Sacramento Valley Veterans (SVV) member, Anthony Loverde, provided testimony in the bench trial held in southern California in July this year. The Log Cabin R

Sacramento's PRIDE 2010 kicked off with Dyke Night, an evening of music and entertainment on the west Capitol steps to lead into the new location of this year's festivities on Sacramento’s Capitol Mall near between the Tower Bridge and the Capitol building. Here are some moments: Two women in the audience respond to the performers on stage. Allyn Pharo and her dog Sterling. The crowd filled the lawn in front of the west Capitol steps. Aurora (top and bottom) played to the crowd. Emcee and Organizer Hilary Hodge keep the pace going throughout the evening. Tina Reynolds, Equality Action Now, gave folks an update on Prop.8. Dancers from Hot Pot Studios (above) moved their bodi

With an iconic new location--Sacramento's scenic Capitol Mall, expanded marketing efforts and a growing roster of prestigious corporate sponsors and exhibitors, the 26-year-old Sacramento Pride Festival is expected to break attendance records on Saturday. The June 19 Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., attracting an estimated 10,000 visitors and bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of economic benefit to Sacramento’s downtown area. Festival admission is $10. After a number of years at South Side Park, the Festival will move to Capitol Mall in 2010, where a street-festival layout sandwiched between the Tower Bridge and the State Capitol dome is expected to add novelty

Let’s face it—a sawbuck just doesn’t go very far these days. But thanks to generous corporate sponsorships and a year's worth of robust volunteer effort to build the event, Sacramento Pride is shaping up to be the best value of the region's summer festival season! Sacramento Pride Festival, Saturday, June 19, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be held at Sacramento’s scenic Capitol Mall for the first time this year. To go along with its exciting new location, Pride's volunteer organizers are bringing in new attractions, star-power entertainment, and excellent swag--all for the price of a $10 admission ticket. Here is a list of the top 10 added values for guests attending Sacramento Pride: 1) $50

This is not your daddy’s Sacramento Pride! Sacramento Pride is making big changes in 2010, all aimed at transforming the annual regional celebration of LGBT culture and accomplishments into an event worthy of its new tagline, California’s Capital Pride. The list of changes begins with the day-long Pride Festival’s move this year to Sacramento’s Capitol Mall. The Festival will be held Saturday, June 19, from 10 am to 5 pm. Sandwiched between the State Capitol dome on the east and the golden spans of the Tower Bridge on the west, the Festival’s move to the scenic city gateway is intended to raise visibility and emphasize the important role of the LGBT community in Sacramento and statewide.

Chamber donates additional $500 to national gay youth suicide prevention organization The Rainbow Chamber of Commerce of Sacramento, a networking and advocacy organization for lesbian, bisexual, bisexual and transgender and LGBT-friendly businesses, has pledged a $10,000 contribution to the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center. The donation will be made in quarterly installments, with an initial $2,500 installment to be paid immediately. Established in 1986, the non-profit Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center provides programs and services for at-risk lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth, mental health services and support groups for LGBT youth and adults, a free weekly legal clinic

Following nearly a week's worth of silence and with over a dozen advertisers lost, a Sacramento-based radio program returned to the airwaves with an apology in response to some off-color comments that drew national attention and criticism. Rob Williams and Arnie States, two-thirds of KRXQ's "Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show," apologized Thursday morning for comments they made two weeks ago in which they referred to members of the transgender community as "freaks," "fruits" and as experiencing "mental defects" meant to "draw attention to themselves." The comments made during the May 28th broadcast angered child advocacy and transgender groups, the effect of which was the withdrawing or cancellation

Amid a sleugh of advertiser withdrawals and facing heat from the GLBT community, Rob Williams, one-third of KRXQ's "Rob, Arnie & Dawn" morning show, posted a statement on the show's website that can be summed up in four words:  "We have failed you." "We presented our opinions on a very sensitive subject in a hateful, childish and crude fashion," Williams wrote on his website, RobArnieAndDawn.com in a letter to listeners, "and then, given the chance to retract those remarks, we defended them." The response comes nearly two weeks following an on-air segment in which Williams and co-host Arnie States called members of the transgendered community "freaks," "fruits" and describing them as hav

In the wake of controversial comments made by morning show presenters Rob Williams and Arnie States on KRXQ 98.5 FM, nine companies have responded by either discontinuing or agreeing not to renew advertisement support on Sacramento's rock station. The nine companies -- Chipotle, Snapple, Sonic, Bank of America, Verizon Wireless, Carl's Jr., Nissan North America, AT&T and McDonald's -- all announced through the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) that they were withdrawing support from KRXQ, known on-air as "98Rock," which is the flagship station for the popular "Rob, Arnie & Dawn Show." "McDonald's has a proud legacy of diversity and inclusion," read a statement prepared

Three companies have decided to pull their advertisement support from KRXQ 98.5, better known on-air as "98Rock," following a controversial discussion about transgendered children on the station's breakfast show "Rob, Arnie & Dawn." During the May 28th discussion, show presenters Rob Williams and Arnie States read from a news article describing a male child in another state as being permitted to enroll in school as a female. "God forbid if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes," States quipped. Williams and States then took turns receiving listener phone calls, during which they called transgendered people "freaks," "fruits" and claimed that t