North Shore Koʻolau Diversity Collective

06/01/2026

Lei Pua ʻAla Foundation, in partnership with Hawai'i Health & Harm Reduction Center,invites artists to submit proposals for a permanent historical mural to be installed in a new AIDS Memorial & Community Memory Site at Honolulu’s Kakaʻako Waterfront Park Overlook, a hilltop site with all-encompassing views of city, mountain, and sea.

The memorial will be an enduring place where people can gather to reflect, mourn, and honor those who have been lost or suffered from HIV/AIDS, other epidemics, and related forms of prejudice, oppression and erasure; uplift Hawaiian and other cultural traditions of diversity, inclusion and well-being; and celebrate those working toward a more just and pono (equitable) future for all.

Grounded in Hawaiʻi’s uniquely multicultural landscape, the selected mural design will be a visually inspiring depiction of the long arc of community history honored by the memorial.

Entry Deadline: July 31, 2026, 5:00 p.m. HST

Budget: Up to 4 semi-finalists will receive $500; artist of a selected design will receive $3,000 to finalize and prepare mural design concept for fabrication and installation (costs covered by Lei Pua ʻAla Foundation).

Size and Scale: The installation surface is a 15.5 feet long, 40-inches high, semi-circular stone wall at the mauka (mountain) side of the overlook facing the ocean.

Materials and Finishes: Preference will be given to artwork that can be delivered as a digital image to be printed on High Pressure Laminate panels, the same material for the site’s informational and interpretive plaques due to its proven durability and resistance to harsh environmental conditions, graffiti, and physical damage. Other similarly durable materials may also be considered.

Learn More & Apply at: queerhistoriesofhawaii.org/artistcall

05/25/2026

Mahalo Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam ...

05/24/2026

In the coming weeks you will see Latter-day Saints using social media to rally against Pride month.

They will quote scriptures that don’t exist.

They will choose to use a Proclamation that ironically leaves open the definition of what a family should look like by saying: “other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation”.

And as usual, they will spout their bigotry and cloak it in righteous niceness.

But for the record, here’s what one of Mormonism’s top leaders actually said about Latter-day Saints who support LGBTQ causes:

REPORTER: “If someone has a Facebook post that says, ‘I support gay marriage,’ does that put their membership at risk?”

CHRISTOFFERSON: “No… I wouldn’t see that, in itself, as an issue.”

REPORTER: “What about supporting groups like Affirmation (pro LGBTQ organization)?”

CHRISTOFFERSON: “Again, I think it depends on the extent to which someone is promoting opposition to the Church’s position… It doesn’t really become a problem unless someone is out attacking the Church and its leaders.”

REPORTER: So would supporting gay marriage threaten somebody's membership in the church if they went on Facebook or Twitter and actively advocated for it?

CHRISTOFFERSON: That's not an organized effort to attack our effort or attack our functioning as a church.

REPORTER: Can a [Latter-day Saints] hold those beliefs even though they're different from what you teach at the pulpit?

CHRISTOFFERSON: Yes.

https://kutv.com/news/local/lds-apostle-explains-church39s-evolution-on-lgbt-issues-says-members39-politics-may-differ-from-doctrine

05/04/2026

Lock this Māhū Extravaganza on your summer calendar!

On Saturday, July 11, at Hawaiʻi Theatre, there will be one more chance to see the incredible live performance of “The Return of Kapaemahu” hula show.

And thanks to the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, it will be paired with a screening of “MĀHŪ: A Trans-Pacific Lover Letter,” a powerful short film about an innovative theater production that aims to reclaim and celebrate the traditional place of honor and respect given to māhū in Hawaiʻi.

At just $10, tickets are gonna sell out fast, so stay tuned to HRFF.org for details on when they’ll be released.

Hope to see you at the most spectacular event of the summer!

More about the film at lehuafilms.com/mahu

04/29/2026

Our colleague in exploring hidden histories, DeSoto Brown, has another fascinating story up on our website, which you can check out here: https://www.queerhistoriesofhawaii.org/helenandalice

In it he writes: “Same-sex relationships, sometimes lasting lifetimes, have always existed – but our knowledge of them in the past is sketchy. Only rarely do descriptions and pictures of such connections survive to give us insight into these human interactions.”

In the case of Helen Richardson and Alice Perry, we’re fortunate that famed photographer and amateur historian Ray Jerome Baker happened to become their neighbor in 1910 and, in his passing, donated his trove of pictures and diaries to the Bishop Museum where DeSoto, as manager of the museum’s archives, found this incredible story.

Here’s as excerpt:

“The personalities of the two women were reflected in their relationship. In 1944, Baker described Helen (who appears to have been a member of the long-established Hawaiian-haole Dudoit family) as ‘deaf, good-natured, yet bombastic, autocratic, decisive and vigorous.’ Of the two, she was what today would be called ‘butch’ while Alice was certainly more of a homemaker, and definitely not as assertive. At a dinner one night in 1944, Baker described Alice’s role: ‘Alice did the preparing of the meal and the listening[;] also Alice did the explaining and the conveying of questions when Helen failed to hear. At times Miss Richardson put on men’s clothes, and acted like a plantation luna [boss]. When she became liquored up she acted silly and made drunken love to men, though ordinarily when sober she had nothing to do with men.’”

04/22/2026

04/12/2026

Can we get an amen?

And yet somehow, we keep hearing about the “gay agenda” and how it’s being “shoved in your face.”

A lot of us were former Mormon missionaries who literally knocked on doors, handed out pamphlets, and asked you to change who you are, how you live, and what you believe.

Mormons will never call THAT an agenda. It’s called missionary work (and something expected of you).

No one’s showing up at your house trying to recruit you into being gay. No one’s asking you to abandon your identity. No one’s organizing door-to-door campaigns to convert you to the gospel of RuPaul.

Where’s the real agenda?

04/04/2026