NEWS AND EVENTS
- Spring Into Pride – Fundraising dinner at BackRoad Vines – Sunday March 1st
- St. Patrick’s Day potluck in Vacaville – Tuesday, March 17th
- New LGBTQ+ Network started in Vacaville
- Statement on Renee Nicole Good
- Letter from Brigid Reilly
- Meet the Folx – Community Congregational Church UCC in Benicia
- Red Cross Blood Drives
- Statement regarding Vacaville’s Pride Proclamation (2024)
Mission & Vision
Solano Pride Center builds community and provides services for Solano County’s LGBTQIA2S+ people and our allies.
Solano Pride Center envisions a community where all LGBTQIA2S+ people live freely and authentically.
Do you get our weekly eBlasts on Wednesday afternoons? If not, or if you need to update your email, follow this link to register for our weekly eBlasts. Look below for some of our latest eBlasts.
Can’t find what you are looking for? We no longer include much about our differing programs here on the home page. Go under the Program button in the menu or go to these links:
Mental Health Resources, https://www.solanopride.org/mental-health-resources/
Support and social groups, https://www.solanopride.org/social-and-support-groups
Senior Programs: https://www.solanopride.org/senior-programs/
Youth Programs: https://www.solanopride.org/youth-programs/
HIV Prevention & Support: https://www.solanopride.org/hiv-prevention-support/
Blood Drives: https://www.solanopride.org/blood-drives/
Volunteering: https://www.solanopride.org/volunteering/
Trainings & Presentations: https://www.solanopride.org/trainings/
Protests & Advocacy: https://www.solanopride.org/protests-advocacy/
Studies: https://www.solanopride.org/studies/
Regional LGBTQ+ Partners: https://www.solanopride.org/regional-lgbtq-partners/
Library: https://www.solanopride.org/library/
Food Resources: https://www.solanopride.org/food-resources/
Events:
Spring into Pride Dinner: https://www.solanopride.org/spring-into-pride-2026/
Suisun Pride 2026: https://www.solanopride.org/suisun-pride-2026/
Suisun Pride 2025: https://www.solanopride.org/suisun-pride-2025/
Suisun Pride 2024: https://www.solanopride.org/suisun-pride-2024/
Pride Center Events: https://www.solanopride.org/pride-center-events/
Community Events: https://www.solanopride.org/community-events/
See the new Trainings and Food Resources pages above under Programs, and our new Spring into Pride Dinner page and the Suisun Pride 2026 page under events! More info coming soon!
Letter from the Center:
Wednesday, February 11th, 2026:
Dear Friends,
On some level, each of us knows that coming out is a deeply personal, public, political act. It asks us to name our truths in a world that has not always welcomed them, to risk vulnerability in pursuit of authenticity, and to assert our place in communities that may or may not understand us. Coming out is never a single moment but an ongoing practice of choosing visibility, shaping identity, and claiming space – again and again – as we grow, heal and encounter new contexts.
That’s why listening to Stacy Lentz describe why they joined others in becoming stewards of the Stonewall Inn was so powerful. She said she and the other owners made the decision to purchase the Inn and Bar over two decades ago, and applying for National Monument status, so that this wouldn’t happen. This isn’t just any old form of erasure. They’ve already attempted to create a wedge in our community by removing the T, I, and any reference to Gender non-conforming people. Needling our community with the disappearing of our flags, which symbolize our resistance to those forces that have attempted to erase us over the years, is a macro-aggression against our place in society. It’s also another attempt to say our liberation is not complete.
I wish we could take over the former site of Compton’s Cafeteria (that is currently being used by ICE) for many reasons. The Compton’s Riot that is being re-membered in our lifetimes because Dr. Susan Stryker has brought it back to our memories by the play and documentary Screaming Queens. We don’t even know which date in August 1966 it occurred, but this West Coast resistance is just as much “Our Resistance Event” as Stonewall is for the whole community. As we tell these stories, it is another form of coming out, reminding all of our communities that we belong, and that we will fight for our place in society – by force if necessary. We will not accept being 2nd or 3rd class citizens of our own country.
Article about last night’s protest in the Advocate.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your sweeties.
Check out our new Donations Page, with links to the Dinner, Pride Sponsorships, and Regular Giving here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/organizations/solano-pride-center
If you want to perform, or be a vendor or sponsor of Suisun Pride, the links are below! News on upcoming Drag events, are on the Community Events page, under Events above.
Are you or your business interested in Sponsoring at Suisun Pride 2026? Follow this link to share your interest, or sign up to Sponsor today!
This year we’ve updated our website to include www.suisunpride.com for our May 31st Pride Festival! There will even be a new mascot for Suisun Pride, 2026! Do follow the Interest Form (here) to let us know what you’d like to share, perform, sponsor or sell your wares! It’s still under construction! Or, you can start signing up to be Sponsors, have a booth, food booth, or performers of every kind!
There will even be a new mascot for Suisun Pride, 2026! In the meantime, follow the Interest Form (here) to let us know what you’d like to share, perform, sponsor or sell your wares!
Stephan’s Corner
Stephan’s Corner
Hey Solano Pride Community!
So sorry! In Oregon!
Here ya go
Solano Pride Community!
I hope this finds you all well. This March 1st we have our first annual fundraising dinner Spring Into Pride! For $100, you will get a beautiful dinner at Backroad Vines, a winery in the Suisun Valley. The atmosphere is relaxing and the views beautiful. The food is absolutely luxurious and the entertainment will be filled by a community comedian and local drag entertainers! We hope that you will come and join us in community celebration and support. The funds from this event will help the Solano Pride Center fill the voids left by funding cuts for DEI and mental health prevention.
Please share the event details far and wide, as everything we make brings our free mental health therapy, case management and support programs to the center. Every dollar earned goes directly back into the center for community support and use.
Hope to see you there!
Stephan Clifford
Stephan@solanopride.org
Stephan L.T. Clifford
Special SPC Poetry & Writing Anthology Benefit Project Announced! Call for submissions extended to March 15th, 2026.
It was a dark and stormy night
When at my desk I began to write
Of things poetic and such
And things that might impress me much. (apologies to Shania Twain)
Of talents wasted or quite unknown
Of slighted authors we bemoan
Yet, what light thru yonder window gleams?
Groupings of stories, prose, and poems, it seems.
Solano Pride doth beg your submission
With cheery smile and signed permission
To share your works for published glory
Be they sweet or silly or even gory
Make haste to share your treasured text
With brains afire and muscles flexed
They be due by end of next January
So send them to us and do not tarry!M. West
If you’d like to submit an original poem, short story, haiku or other artistic representation by March 15th, 2026. If we have enough to create an anthology of all of our writing as a fundraiser for the Solano Pride Center.
Email submissions to spc@solanopride.org with a short written certification that the item is of your own creation, and that you give permission for it to be included in a fundraising anthology on behalf of the Center.
Want to help us raise funds for the Center?
Can you spare a few dollars to help keep the Center open during these trying times?
LGBTQIA2S+ Centers across the state are experiencing a drop in donations, and your support is crucial to help us continue delivering the life-saving services our community depends on.
We are recognizing that the uncertainty since then has definitely affected giving for our life-sustaining programs. If you are in a place to share financially right now, we definitely need your help right now. You can even set up a monthly donation of as little as $5 a month, which helps us more than you can know.
If you are giving to our General Fund to support all of our programming, you can give through our portal on Zeffy at https://tinyurl.com/Give2SolanoPride. Donate today!
Thanks to all of those who helped Solano Pride Center turn candy into cash!
Thank you for supporting the Solano Pride Center! We’ll receive profits from any items you purchase.
Solano Pride Center offers counseling and psychotherapy to the LGBTQ+ community of Solano County.
There are openings available for those who wish to be seen for counseling services right now! We can even talk to you if you just want to make sense of the times we live in. We are able to see clients for up to six months at no cost to clients, helping you make sense of life as a queer person, get support coming out, or deepening your self confidence by talking about your past. Please call our confidential line to make an appointment at: 707-389-4520.
In addition Solano Pride Center is accepting application from Associate Clinicians (AMFT and ACSW) in addition to trainees needing practicum sites who are interested in providing therapy to the LGBTQ community. Please contact our Clinical Director Colin Amato at colin@solanopride.org for more info.
Have you ever been near the end of your rope, and need someone to help you find the resources you need to survive? Solano Pride Center staff can help! Many of our staff know much about the County’s support system, and can help you sign up for food assistance, Medi-Cal, and even give you referrals to our sister organizations serving those in need around the county. Give Kacen Cosmos, our Associate Clinical Social Worker a jingle or email to learn more.
For more Mental Health Resources, https://www.solanopride.org/mental-health-resources/
See more VGN, Benicia LGBTQ+ Network socials and more at our Regional Partners Page here: https://www.solanopride.org/regional-lgbtq-partners/
We now have a Library page under programs above where you can see some of the books highlighted from our Library! Check it out here: https://www.solanopride.org/library/
LOUNGE LIBRARY RESOURCES:
We have the power to read books! We don’t need any expensive gadgets to read a book. We don’t need any cables, monitors or electricity for that matter. What we do need is the want to read. We might even have to change some gears so that we can get in the habit of reading. Now in the New Release section!
MARSHA: THE JOY AND DEFIANCE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON
By Tourmaline
Black Transgender luminary Tourmaline brings to life the first definitive biography of the revolutionary activist Marsha P. Johnson, one of the most important and remarkable figures in LGBTQIA+ history, revealing her story, her impact, and her legacy.
“Thank god the revolution has begun, honey.” Rumor has it that after Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, she picked up a shard of broken mirror to fix her makeup. Marsha, a legendary Black transgender activist, embodied both the beauty and the struggle of the early gay rights movement. Her work sparked the progress we see today, yet there has never been a definitive record of her life. Until now.
Written with sparkling prose, Tourmaline’s richly researched biography Marsha finally brings this iconic figure to life, in full color. We vividly meet Marsha as both an activist and artist: She performed with RuPaul and with the internationally renowned drag troupe The Hot Peaches. She was a muse to countless artists from Andy Warhol to the band Earth, Wind & Fire. And she continues to inspire people today.
Marsha didn’t wait to be freed; she declared herself free and told the world to catch up. Her story promises to inspire readers to live as their most liberated, unruly, vibrant, and whole selves.
TOURMALINE is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, writer, and activist whose work is dedicated to Black trans joy and freedom. She is a TIME 100 Most Influential Person in the World awardee and a Guggenheim Fellow. She has frequently appeared on ABC News, as well as in the New York Times and Vogue. Her art is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate, and the Getty Museum. She created the critically acclaimed film Happy Birthday, Marsha!, and she has directed Pride campaigns for Dove, Marc Jacobs, and Reebok. She previously worked with Queers for Economic Justice and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. She lives in Miami, Florida. Link.
We have a recording!
Did you miss some of the letters from Will this year? There are links near the end of the home page with links to every eBlast going back a couple of months, or you could find all of the 2025 Pride messages here on our Suisun Pride 25 link. https://www.solanopride.org/suisun-pride-2025/.
The recording of Will’s fall of 2024 presentation on the “Weaponization of Christianity” against our community can be found here: https://youtu.be/pVImrR6eFIc?si=vvMb8hX1I-9cdYdq
His Pride sermon at Community Congregational Church of Benicia UCC on Sunday, June 29th entitled “Expecting Diversity” can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYuvuRyUvhM&t=2s
His Christmastide sermon at Community Congregational Church of Benicia UCC on Sunday, December 28th entitle “Who is Fleeing” where he discusses the plight of the Trans community and others can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XecIJ8tjIlo
If you missed this conversation on stories and understanding for Grandparents of Trans folx, here’s the recording with Janna Barkin, author of ‘He’s Always Been My Son’ and ‘A Grand Love: Stories for Grandparents of Transgender Grandchildren.’
Attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett will be attending to answer questions and speak with people. Laura is an LGBT community member who wrote the LGBT platform of the Kids Online Safety Act which passed the Senate and failed the House due to ACLU and their big tech money claiming it would hurt Queer kids. She can address those concerns and any others. For more info on the act, visit: https://www.losangelesblade.com/2023/09/05/the-revised-kids-online-safety-act-protects-lgbtq-youth/
Need to contact one of our staff? Would you like to drop by to check out a book from our Queer Library? Contact us this way.
If you find yourself in crisis during this time, please call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or our partners at these crisis numbers!
• Trevor Project Crisis Line: 1-866-488-7386
• Trans Lifeline Crisis Number: 1-877-565-8860
• Solano County Mobile Crisis Number: 707-806-0866
• Solano County Crisis Stabilization Service Number: 707-428-1131
Weekly Eblasts
Do you get our weekly eBlasts on Wednesday afternoons? If not, or if you need to update your email, please register for our weekly eBlasts.
Archived eBlasts can be found on our newsletters page.
Food resources and other helps:
If you are hungry, please drop by our lobby and take what you need.
Or, if you have something to donate, you can drop by bags of un-perishable food for others. You can also bring something for the Interfaith corner of the lobby, leaving a decoration on the tree, or a Chanukah decoration or gift for those in need. If you need more resources, please look below on this homepage for where you can get food or help.
To see more, find out more about our Food Resources at the center.