Iowa
A Mason City church was vandalized with anti-LGBTQ graffiti for the second time this year, the Globe Gazette reports:

A sign posted by a Mason City church as a reminder of God’s unconditional love after a contentious election has been vandalized with spray paint.
Again.
The message outside First Congregational United Church of Christ reads: “We are a sanctuary for the least, lost, gay & straight, female, Muslim…For all! God’s love wins!”
On Friday morning, Pastor Chuck Kelsey learned someone had sprayed red paint on the plastic sign covering over the word “gay.”
“I’m so sad for people who can’t get beyond hate,” Kelsey said, sighing. “What it is in their lives that causes them to hate so much? Everyone has a different story. I’m more than willing to listen to their story, but I’m not, you know, I’m not willing to give in to the hate.”
It was the second time this year that the sign outside the church at 100 First St. N.E. has been vandalized.
In March, someone sprayed red paint all over a sign promoting an appearance by the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus.

One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBTQ group, has hired a new executive director, Iowa Public Radio reports:

Iowa’s largest LGBTQ organization has selected a new executive director.
Daniel Hoffman-Zinnel will become the head of One Iowa, beginning in January. He grew up in Pomeroy and now lives in Bondurant.
Hoffman-Zinnel says he isn’t looking to make any rash changes, but one top priority is legislation that bans youth gay-conversion therapy. Many teens are forced into treatment to change their sexuality or gender.
“What therapists have found is that it actually can do more harm than good,” he says. “In order to protect our young people in such a pivotal time in their lives it’d be better to provide more support in discussing sexuality in a positive realm, rather than trying to suppress those thoughts and feelings.”
Currently Hoffman-Zinnel is director of education and leadership at Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. He replaces Donna Red Wing, who announced she was retiring from One Iowa in August.

Communities across Ioa are remembering transgender people killed by anti-trans violence, including in central Iowa, Iowa Public Radio reports:

Sunday is Transgender Day of Remembrance, and people in central Iowa will gather at 6:00 pm at the steps of the state capitol for a vigil to remember those in the global trans community who have been lost to violence in 2016.
Sophia Stone of Transformations Iowa, a support group for transgender and non-binary people, says Sunday’s vigil will honor people who have been murdered because of their gender non-conforming identities.
“No matter how many of us that we lose, no matter how many of use that are killed, we will not be giving up,” says Stone. “We will always be around, and we will always be fighting for our right to exist.”
Stone says in particular she’ll be remembering a 16-year-old Burlington teen.
Kedarie Johnson, who also used the name Kandicee and identified as gender-fluid, was murdered on March 2. Police say the homicide was not a hate crime, though Johnson’s mother disagrees.

The University of Iowa held its second annual Trans Awareness Week last week, the Daily Iowan reports:

The University of Iowa Trans Alliance will host its second UI Trans Awareness Week from Monday through Friday. This is a week of events meant to encourage a sense of togetherness among transgender individuals on campus and to further educate others about transgender people.
Events include educational workshops for students and faculty, a game night, a potluck, and a candlelight vigil.

One of the biggest goals for the week is to reach as many people as possible, said Sean Finn, the president of UI Trans Alliance.

“We have events tailored for students, and we also have a staff and faculty workshop, as well as larger community events,” Finn said. “It’s built for different people with different experiences so that anyone who’s interested can take part.”

All of the events are meant to build a sense of solidarity in the transgender community and also to encourage others to become better allies.

“This week is a great learning tool for people to realize how they can better interact with the trans community,” said Daniel Solon, LGBTQ constituent senator in the UI Student Government. “The educational portion talks about a vast array of things, from what to say if someone comes out to how to call out people when they’re being transphobic. It’s very basic, but basic is good for people who are just learning.”

Wisconsin
A new book about LGBTQ history in Wisconsin is in the works, Capitol Times reports:

Dick Wagner is technically retired, but he’s never shied away from civic involvement, and he’s not about to start now.
The first openly gay member of the Dane County Board of Supervisors, Wagner served on the board for 14 years, including four years as the chair. He helped create the Period Garden Park in downtown Madison, and pushed along the Monona Terrace and Olbrich Gardens projects. He’s currently the secretary of the Botanical Society and chair of Madison’s Urban Design Commission.
Much of his work has centered around activism in the LGBT community. He was instrumental in creating a 1980 county nondiscrimination ordinance protecting gay and lesbian individuals, which helped build support for a later statewide nondiscrimination bill. He was co-chair of the Governor’s Council on Lesbian and Gay Issues in 1983 and one of the co-founders of UW-Madison’s LGBT Alumni Association and the Harvest Foundation, the LGBT foundation for southern Wisconsin. He served on the board for Madison Aids Support Network, and he’s currently on the committee to form an LGBT archive at UW-Madison.
He’s not done. He’s currently writing a book on the gay history of Wisconsin, covering the 1890s to 1980s. With 18 chapters down and about two chapters to go, he’s planning to complete his manuscript this winter. He hopes to finish his 10-year project in time for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City. The riots were a response to a police raid of a gay bar and kickstarted the fight for LGBT rights.

Milwaukee may get rainbow crosswalks, On Milwaukee reports:

During a recent visit to Vancouver, British Columbia, George Schneider was inspired by how deeply the city celebrates the diversity of its people.

Then he saw something really incredible.

Bright, rainbow-striped crosswalks, representing the city’s support for LGBTQ pride, stand loud and proud at the intersection of Davis and Bute in Vancouver’s West End. These visuals really impressed Schneider, owner of This Is It, 418 E. Wells St., and long-time advocate for LGBTQ causes, so much so he decided to bring the idea home to Milwaukee.

North Dakota
The State of North Dakota is suing the federal government over transgender-inclusive healthcare guidelines. It’s using the religious right legal outfit Becket Fend to do it, Jurist reports:

North Dakota ranked second in the nation in number of hate crimes per capita, the Fargo Forum reports:

OnMonday, The Becket Fund announced [advocacy site] it had filed suit [text, PDF] challenging a new Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation [text, PDF] on behalf of North Dakota and several Catholic organizations. The suit, filed in federal district court in North Dakota, alleges the new HHS regulation, which went into force July of this year, requires doctors to perform “controversial and sometimes harmful medical procedures ostensibly designed to permanently change an individual’s sex- including the sex of children.”

Of the 36 hate crimes reported in North Dakota last year, 29 were based on race or ethnicity, three were based on religion and four on sexual orientation, according to the FBI.
At the Fargo Police Department, there isn’t an official process for gathering hate-crime statistics, Deputy Chief Joe Anderson said. If an officer or records clerk believes a hate crime took place, they alert a supervising officer who decides whether to count it as a hate crime, Anderson said.
In 2015, Fargo police received nine reports of hate crimes: eight based on race or ethnicity and one based on religion. Bismarck police fielded eight reports, all related to race or ethnicity, the FBI said.
The bureau’s stats don’t say which groups were targeted locally. Though, at a national level, there was a 67 percent spike in hate crimes against Muslims, as well as increases in hate crimes against Jewish, black and LGBT people.
“These numbers should be deeply sobering for all Americans,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement Friday, Nov. 18.

South Dakota
The SDSU Collegian covered the university’s third annual drag show:

Putting on makeup and getting on stage helped Logan Hof become the person he is today.
Hof, known as Jessica on stage, is a student performer for the Drag Show.
The senior electrical engineering major, became interested in drag during his freshman year after seeing Brandonna, one of the regular performers, at the Drag Show.
“You put on the makeup and you put on the wigs and most of the people here don’t know who I am in the first place, so if I make a fool of myself, they don’t know me and it’s fine,” Hof said.
SDSU held the third annual Drag Show on Nov. 3, sponsored by the Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA).
There were three to four professional entertainers who came from surrounding states and two to three student performers.
The term “drag queen” comes from a mash up of “drag,” which started back in the theatre era with men dressing in women’s clothing — the term stands for “dressed resembling a girl.” And the term “queen” comes from an anti-slang word for an effeminate gay man, according to the web article “How Drag Queens Work.”