Over the last few decades, things have—thankfully—come a long way for the LGBTQ+ community, which is throwing its annual Pride Party this weekend. It's much easier for them to come out, get married and find general acceptance than it was for previous generations. In this issue, calendar editor and frequent contributor Emily Dieckman takes a look at how the LGBTQ+ community is helping older members who didn't find the current generation's societal acceptance in their youth.
That's the good news. But as part of our Pride package, we bring you a special report assembled by nonprofit journalism organizations News21 and ProPublica investigating how hate crimes still persist against the LGBTQ+ community. Attitudes are changing, but not fast enough.
Elsewhere in the book: Columnist Tom Danehy gives our local cops some ideas of where they should hand out traffic tickets; staff writer Danyelle Khmara finds out why a local trailer park hasn't had gas service—or hot water!—for the last two months; arts writer Margaret Regan looks at the heaven-sent artwork at PCC's Cielo show; feature writer Jeff Gardner interviews Johnathan Celestin, who is performing at Pride this week; movie critic Bob Grimm says the House With a Clock in Its Walls is built on a weak foundation; and there's plenty more, so start flipping through these pages and discover all we have to offer this week.
A final heads up: For the last few years up in Phoenix, my friend Amy Silverman has been organizing Bar Flies, an engaging evening of writers telling their stories onstage. Silverman is bringing the fun down to Club Congress—and two of your favorite TW writers will be there: Tucson Salvage columnist Brian Smith and yours truly. (Spoiler warning: I'll be telling the story of how I ended up behind bars at Pima County Jail.) We'll have more details in our next edition, but it's all happening on the night of Sunday, Oct. 7, and tickets are just $5, so don't miss it.
— Jim Nintzel Executive Editor
