Soap operas may be best known for their melodramatic hetero love stories, but sometimes the world of amnesia and long-lost twins is a little bit gay. General Hospital star Adrian Anchondo and Days of Our Lives actor Colton Little hard launched their relationship on Dec. 30 with a sweet Instagram post of their vacations in Florida and Puerto Rico over the holidays. The carousel of photos includes a shot of Little kissing the side of Anchondo's head, shirtless photos of the two men on the beach, and video clips of the couple together, and one of Anchondo doing a sexy little dance."This Christmas made my heart pop," Anchondo wrote in his caption. "Thank you Puerto Rico and Florida.See on InstagramOn his Instagram Stories, Anchondo also included a video of himself and Little sharing a New Years Eve kiss at midnight, according to People. Little reposted the photo of their kiss on his Instagram Stories with the adorable caption, Magic @ Midnight with the sweetest boy.Both Little and Anchondo are not only out and proud gay men in real life but also play LGBTQ+ characters on their respective shows. Anchondo stars on General Hospital, where he is in a romance with Lucas, played by Van Hansis. And on Days of Our Lives, Little plays Andrew Donovan, who married Paul Narita (Christopher Sean) in the shows history-making first same-sex wedding.Im very grateful that this show has given me steady work for three years, Little wrote in an Instagram post in June 2025. Im also grateful, as a gay man, I had the chance to show LOVE in a way that is authentic to my experience.

The dynamic duo is back together!Kit Connor and Joseph Quinn became fast friends filming the upcoming A24 film Warfare, slated to come out this April.The besties are now enjoying some relaxation time by soaking up the sun in a steamy new vacation pic and fans are going berserk online. Check out the highlights below! (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@)

One of the most iconic couples in womens soccer just tied the knot!Soccer stars Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis surprised fans when they announced they got married on New Years Eve, years after an online flirtation started their love affair. Kerr shared photos of what fans have dubbed soccers royal wedding on Instagram, including two photos of the happy couple together on the day the wedding bells rang, with the caption, "Wifey."The first photo shows the lovebirds sharing a kiss, with Mewis in a white wedding gown and Kerr in a black tuxedo. The second shot features Mewis in a party dress riding on her new wifes shoulders during their reception that lasted into the night.See on InstagramThe couples son, Jagger, who was born in May, walked Kerr down the aisle wearing a matching black suit.Matildas players Steph Catley, Alanna Kennedy, Emily van Egmond, Caitlin Foord, and Mackenzie Arnold, as well as Irish footballer Katie McCabe, all joined in the festivities to celebrate Kerr and Mewiss wedding.We wanted it to feel warm and fun with lots of good food and comfort, the couple told Vogue Australia. Oh, and its New Years Eve, so we wanted it to be a great party.Kerr, captain of the Australian womens national football team and a striker for Chelsea, and Mewis, midfielder for the United States national team and West Ham United, knew each other from the football world, but officially started dating after they began flirting with each other over social media in 2019. It wasnt until the two shared a hug on the pitch after Mewis beat Kerr at the Tokyo Olympics that rumors started swirling about their romance. Soon after, Kerr officially hard-launched their relationship when she posted a photo of the couple kissing on Instagram, and then they announced their engagement in November 2023 on Instagram after Kerr proposed to Mewis.We didnt expect it to look so perfect and beautiful It was exactly what we imagined and more, Mewis said of her special day. "Seeing each other for the first time down the aisle it was the most special moment.

Matt and Ross Duffer, the co-creators of the popular Netflix supernatural action series Stranger Things, defended the recently aired and long-awaited coming-out scene of its teenage character Will Byers after online commenters criticized the scene for seeming rushed and awkwardly written.A few minutes before the end of the shows penultimate episode, released last Christmas evening, the character Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) gathers all of the shows protagonists and tells them that he needed to come out so that the seasons villain, a superpowered demonic humanoid named Vecna, cant use his secret against him. Related Drag superstar Priyanka announced her engagement in this heartwarming video Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today I had this crush on someone, even though I know theyre not like me, Byers says while looking at his best friend. Byers then recounts all the things he has in common with his closests friends and adds, I just dont like girls. His fellow protagonists praise and hug him, and the scene ends.Online commenters negatively review the episode, making it one of the lowest-rated episodes on the Internet Movie Database, according to Variety. While some of the episodes online critics made homophobic comments about Byers coming out, other viewers said that the scene which has been five seasons in the making seemed awkwardly crammed into the final minutes of the series second-to-last episode, somewhat out of place in the seasons otherwise do-or-die pacing, and excessively sentimental. Others noted that Byers never actually utters the words Im gay and that the other characters unanimous acceptance of his news seemed unrealistic considering the anti-gay sentiment that permeated U.S. culture during the shows 1980s time period, which coincides with the start of the AIDS epidemic.Inan interview with Variety, the shows co-creators Ross and Matt Duffer said that they had been building towards the scene for a very long time and added, [We] are many things, but subtle is not one of those things! They also praised Schnapp, who came out as gay in 2023, for his vulnerable performance in the scene.The coming out scene is something weve been building to for nine years now. It was a really important scene for us, and a really important scene for Noah not just from a thematic point of view, but also a narrative point of view, Ross Duffer said. This show has always been about our characters overcoming evil, and in order to overcome this evil, Vecna, in so many ways, represents all the dark thoughts and the evil of society. And for our characters to overcome that, it really becomes about embracing themselves, and then also embracing one another and coming together, Ross Duffer added.The scene was the final step in Wills journey, and Will is, in so many ways, the key to defeating Vecna, saidMatt Duffer. Volume 1 is reallyabout self-acceptance, right? I mean, thats sort of step one. And then step two is Will is talking to [a lesbian teen character] Robin its something that he wants to do. Hes trying to figure out how to come out, and he knows that he needs to do that, and that thats the final step for him. And he finds the courage to be able to do it. And its really the ultimate f**k you to Vecna. That was the intention.Matt Duffer continued, We were so concerned about getting it right. There were a lot of things that went into it. I mean, were definitely nervous about how its going to go over with everyone. But not as nervous as we were handing it over to Noah. Because ultimately, it needed to resonate and be truthful for him. We really were writing it to and for Noah. He wrote us sobbing after he read it. So it really worked and resonated for him, which was great. On the day, frankly, there wasnt really much direction at all. Noah spent a long time I mean, months prepping for that scene, that moment. Luckily, that script was done well in advance. I know he did a lot of work himself, Matt Duffer said. And most of whats in there is the first take.Matt Duffer said he and his brother spent longer writing the coming out scenethan any other.I think thats where Ross and I were most sensitive, was Noah because of how close to home this hit for him, Matt Duffer said. And our goal was to make sure that he was comfortable and happy with the scene. And when he was, we felt good about it. Ive been texting with him a lot, but texting with him specifically after that scene and after that episode aired. And hes in a really good place. Hes very proud of the scene, and were proud of the scene.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

The surprise of the newly released Heated Rivalry is not that it is erotic, or even that it is romantic. It is that it feels stabilizing. In a media environment saturated with spectacle, trauma, and moral urgency, this series has inspired a response that borders on reverent. Viewers are not merely watching it. They are returning to it, lingering with it, and talking about it in the language of emotional recognition rather than entertainment.That kind of response usually signals that a show has tapped into something collective.At the center of the series are Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, rival hockey superstars whose connection begins in secrecy and is sustained over time through repetition, tension, and refusal to fully name what is happening between them. On screen, their dynamic lands with a particular potency because it resists many of the familiar shortcuts of television intimacy. There is no grand seduction arc, no manipulative power play disguised as chemistry, no clear emotional superior.What unfolds instead is desire rooted in equality.Shane and Ilya meet each other as peers in every sense that usually destabilizes relationships. They have equal status, equal ambition, and equal capacity to walk away. Neither needs the other in order to function, and that is precisely what gives their encounters their charge. The show understands something that contemporary audiences are acutely sensitive to in the post-MeToo era. Desire is most compelling when it is mutual, chosen, and uncoerced.On screen, this equality is palpable. Shanes steadiness is not submissive, and Ilyas bravado is not controlling. Their scenes together work because neither is trying to extract something from the other. There is no sense that one persons desire comes at the expense of the others autonomy. Instead, attraction emerges from recognition. They see each other clearly, and neither looks away.This is where Heated Rivalry distinguishes itself from so many other prestige romances. The show does not eroticize imbalance. It eroticizes attunement.What is especially striking is how emotionally regulated the relationship feels beneath the surface conflict. There is rivalry, avoidance, and frustration, but there is also consistency. Ilya shows up again and again. Shane does not collapse in the face of uncertainty. The show allows intimacy to develop through behavior rather than confession, which gives it an unusual psychological realism.For therapists and engaged viewers alike, this is immediately legible. Shane and Ilyas connection reads not as chaotic attachment, but as something closer to earned security. There are ruptures, but there is also reliable return. The nervous system never senses that desire will be punished with abandonment or humiliation. Even when the characters themselves resist language, the show communicates safety through pattern.This is one reason the series resonates so strongly with clinicians and audiences steeped in attachment theory and relational thinking. Heated Rivalry portrays intimacy that is not performative. There are no monologues explaining feelings into existence. Instead, the show trusts the viewer to notice what the characters notice. Tone shifts. Timing changes. Presence deepens. Love grows quietly through attention.In an era where emotional fluency is often conflated with constant verbal processing, this restraint feels radical. The fantasy the show offers is not that one must articulate every internal state to be loved, but that someone is watching closely enough that words are not always required.The series also arrives at a moment when audiences are actively renegotiating what healthy masculinity looks like on screen. Shane and Ilya are competitive, physically dominant, and sexually confident, yet neither is emotionally reckless or cruel. The show refuses to equate masculinity with conquest. Tenderness does not undermine power. Vulnerability does not feminize desire. Instead, strength and care coexist without irony.For queer viewers, the impact of Heated Rivalry is quietly profound. The series acknowledges the realities of homophobia within professional sports, but it does not frame desire itself as a moral conflict. There is no sense that Shane and Ilya must suffer in order for their relationship to be taken seriously. The tension comes from context and timing, not from shame.This matters deeply in a media landscape where queer love has so often been narratively punished. Heated Rivalry allows joy, eroticism, and commitment to exist without requiring devastation as proof of legitimacy. It presents queer intimacy not as transgressive tragedy, but as ordinary and extraordinary at once.Perhaps the clearest sign of the shows cultural power is how viewers talk about returning to it. Not to catch plot points, but to re-experience a feeling. The series becomes a kind of emotional reference point, a reminder of what desire can feel like when it is mutual and unthreatening. It offers intensity without instability, passion without pathology.In that sense, Heated Rivalry is not simply a successful adaptation or a compelling romance. It is a corrective experience. It models a form of intimacy many people want but rarely see reflected back to them on screen.And that is why it has taken such a hold. With that, Ill see you at the cottageLeor Ram is the founder and lead clinical psychotherapist at the Beverly Hills-based Integrative Psychotherapy Group. Learn more at ipgtherapy.com.Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit out.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of Out or our parent company, equalpride.

Travelling is one of those things that can either leave you feeling refreshed or completely drained afterwards. The difference often comes down to how much thought you put into all the small details. Whether you are heading to a new city for the first time, revisiting a favorite place, or just trying to make the most out of a weekend away, making a few simple choices can make your whole trip a hell of a lot smoother and more enjoyable. Heres how to travel smarter: pack lighter and fear at home wherever you go.Stay Where You Feel ComfortableThe best trips start with finding a place that fits your mood. For some people, that means having a quiet boutique hotel; for other people, its heading somewhere a little bit more lively where conversation can happen over breakfast. When you are choosing, make sure you duck past just the photos and have a look at reviews too. Words like friendly, welcoming, and helpful staff usually say a lot more than what you will read from having a star rating. If youre in a big city, try neighborhoods that are just outside the main tourist areas; you will usually find that you get a much better price. There are local cafes nearby and a calmer pace without actually missing out on whats nearby.Travel Light and Move FreelyPacking light isnt just about saving on space; its all about freedom. Fewer things mean that it is easier for you to adapt when your plans are changing. You can move between activities easily, hop on public transport, or stay out longer without having to worry about dragging luggage everywhere with you. And when you do have bags to store before checking in or after check-out, services like Radical Storage are a lifesaver. You can drop your luggage at trusted local spots such as hotels, shops, cafes, train stations, and more, and then explore the city without being weighed down. It is something that is quick, affordable, and available in most major cities.Explore Like a LocalThe best part of travelling is feeling connected to the place that youre heading to. Skip having a strict itinerary in place and leave room for you to wander around. Walk instead of taking a taxi, stop for coffee while locals gather, and visit things like small museums and markets. These little moments are often the ones that end up being the highlights that you remember more than anything that is strictly planned. If youre travelling solo, chatting with people such as guides, shop owners, and baristas can help you to have a brilliant trip and see things that dont show up online.Keep It SimpleGreat trips arent about doing everything; they are all about making sure that you have some time and space to enjoy what you do. A little planning goes a long way when it comes to going away, but try not to overthink it too much. Choose comfort when you can, store your bags when you need to, and leave room for you to have spontaneity. When travel feels a little simpler, it feels like you are living rather than just being somewhere new.The post How to Make Every Trip Feel More Effortless and Enjoyable appeared first on LGBTQ and ALL.

Travelling is one of those things that can either leave you feeling refreshed or completely drained afterwards. The difference often comes down to how much thought you put into all the small details. Whether you are heading to a new city for the first time, revisiting a favorite place, or just trying to make the most out of a weekend away, making a few simple choices can make your whole trip a hell of a lot smoother and more enjoyable. Heres how to travel smarter: pack lighter and fear at home wherever you go.Stay Where You Feel ComfortableThe best trips start with finding a place that fits your mood. For some people, that means having a quiet boutique hotel; for other people, its heading somewhere a little bit more lively where conversation can happen over breakfast. When you are choosing, make sure you duck past just the photos and have a look at reviews too. Words like friendly, welcoming, and helpful staff usually say a lot more than what you will read from having a star rating. If youre in a big city, try neighborhoods that are just outside the main tourist areas; you will usually find that you get a much better price. There are local cafes nearby and a calmer pace without actually missing out on whats nearby.Travel Light and Move FreelyPacking light isnt just about saving on space; its all about freedom. Fewer things mean that it is easier for you to adapt when your plans are changing. You can move between activities easily, hop on public transport, or stay out longer without having to worry about dragging luggage everywhere with you. And when you do have bags to store before checking in or after check-out, services like Radical Storage are a lifesaver. You can drop your luggage at trusted local spots such as hotels, shops, cafes, train stations, and more, and then explore the city without being weighed down. It is something that is quick, affordable, and available in most major cities.Explore Like a LocalThe best part of travelling is feeling connected to the place that youre heading to. Skip having a strict itinerary in place and leave room for you to wander around. Walk instead of taking a taxi, stop for coffee while locals gather, and visit things like small museums and markets. These little moments are often the ones that end up being the highlights that you remember more than anything that is strictly planned. If youre travelling solo, chatting with people such as guides, shop owners, and baristas can help you to have a brilliant trip and see things that dont show up online.Keep It SimpleGreat trips arent about doing everything; they are all about making sure that you have some time and space to enjoy what you do. A little planning goes a long way when it comes to going away, but try not to overthink it too much. Choose comfort when you can, store your bags when you need to, and leave room for you to have spontaneity. When travel feels a little simpler, it feels like you are living rather than just being somewhere new.The post How to Make Every Trip Feel More Effortless and Enjoyable appeared first on LGBTQ and ALL.

A far-right political action committee says it has collected enough signatures to potentially get a trans sports ban onto Washington states ballot in November, and that ban would require girls to undergo physical examinations to participate in school sports.As the Washington State Standard reports, Lets Go Washington collected 445,187 signatures in support of Initiative Measure No. IL26-638, exceeding the 386,000 needed to advance the measure. The initiative would ban transgender girls from competing in girls school sports statewide. Related Colorado state sports association settles lawsuit by allowing schools to ban trans athletes IL26-638 interprets existing state law as requiring students to undergo a routine physical examination prior to participation in interscholastic sports, which includes documentation of the students sex assigned at birth. It would require school districts and nonprofit entities to prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students in athletic activities with separate classifications for male and female students.Under the proposed measure, students who want to participate in girls sports would be required to provide a health examination and consent form or other statement signed by the students personal health care provider that verifies the students biological sex, relying only on one or more of the following: The students reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today As journalist Erin Reed notes in her newsletter Erin in the Morning, trans sports bans with similar requirements have been highly controversial, as they could potentially result in minors being subjected to invasive physical exams simply to participate in school sports. Reed cites the failure last March of the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would have amended Title IX the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in government-fundedschools and education programs to prohibit schools from allowing trans female athletes to participate in athletic programs or activitiesdesignated for women or girls.The Congressional Equality Caucus noted that the bill could have forced any student to answer invasive personal questions about their bodies & face humiliating physical inspections to prove that theyre a girl. Along with the signatures in support of IL26-638, Lets Go Washington also submitted 416,201 signatures in support of a measure repealing changes to another of the PACs recent initiatives. The Lets Go Washington-backed Initiative 2081, approved in 2024, codified the rights of the parents of public school students into law. As Reed notes, however, state lawmakers watered down provisions that would have reportedly mandated that schools out trans students to their parents.According to Reed, Lets Go Washingtons IL26-001 would restore language to the 2024 parental rights law that would effectively require the forced outing of trans students to their parents.As the Washington State Standard reports, Lets Go Washington submitted signatures in support of both measures to the Washington Secretary of States office on Friday. The Secretary of States office told the outlet that it may take up to four weeks to verify the signatures for the initiatives. Once verified, the initiatives will go before the state legislature, which can either approve them or reject them. If the state legislature rejects them, they will either appear on the November ballot on their own or alongside alternatives proposed by lawmakers. Brian Heywood, the millionaire hedge fund manager and Republican megadonor who leads Lets Go Washington, claimed that roughly half of the signatures the PAC had collected in support of the initiatives were from independent voters and Democrats. This is not a partisan issue, this is a common sense issue, Heywood said, according to the Standard. This has broad support.However, in a statement issued by WA Families for Freedom, Gender Justice League board member Sophia Lee accused Lets Go Washington of playing political games with the lives of vulnerable trans and queer kids.Reed, meanwhile, notes that the trans sports ban is likely to face constitutional challenges should it become law. But its unclear whether the measure would succeed on the ballot. Reed notes that anti-trans messaging from Republicans last year coincided with significant GOP losses across the country in Novembers off-year elections.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Donald Trump ranted about wiring allegedly installed by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in an attempt to make Buttigieg sound dumb, but instead, everyone pointed out how ignorant Trumps accusations were. Theres Pete Buttigieg, he spent billions of dollars on fixing the air traffic control, Trump said during comments to Republican senators at the newly paved-over White House Rose Garden yesterday. Related Lauren Boebert brags about giving birth in a truck in repulsive anti-gay rant about Pete Buttigieg They used copper wire going into glass wire. Any union electrician here or any non-union electrician would say you cant hook copper into glass. It doesnt work. They spent billions of dollars, they turned on the system, and it was stone cold blank.It seems that Trump was referring to how some buildings use both copper and fiber optic wiring to handle internet connections, a widespread practice that has been made trivial by converters. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Copper wiring has caused problems for air traffic controllers recently. A piece of burnt-out copper wire caused a blackout at the Newark Airport earlier this year, for example, which is why plans to modernize the equipment that controllers use involve replacing that wiringoften installed in the 1970s and 1980swith fiber optic lines.However, the copper wiring was installed well before Buttigieg was at the Department of Transportation, and the issue is not that it has to interface with fiber optic lines. The issue is that the copper wiring is aging poorly and supports limited bandwidth.On X, people mocked Trump for his claim that copper and fiber optic lines cant interface. the key fact about Donald Trump is that in addition to being infinitely self-absorbed and having no morals whatsoever, he is an almost impossibly stupid man https://t.co/cqv1Sk1szk Will Stancil (@whstancil) October 21, 2025Union av tech here,You can absolutely convert a fiber optic (glass) wire and signal into a copper one using one of these handy converter boxes. https://t.co/h5OPug3t5g pic.twitter.com/GroXLciMcG Matt Kimball (@Matt_J_Kimball) October 21, 2025This is patently absurd. Every person with fiber optic internet switches from "glass" fibers to copper wiring https://t.co/I8oZJIVYyo MaxJones (@MaxPi314) October 22, 2025I almost did a spit take at how dumb this is. But it's also projection I'm sure for the lousy job they're gonna do on this ballroom https://t.co/wsK9xlmdYP Nick Hauselman (@CanYouHearMeSMH) October 21, 2025 He suggested a unique treatment for Covid all those years ago, too! https://t.co/LpGXE2u673 Grace and Favour (@GracenFavour) October 22, 2025Famously tech-illiterate 79 year old man attempts to explain fiberoptics to a patio full of mostly elderly Senators. And they'll all treat every word as genius. https://t.co/h6hx7eZ68y Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd on blu sky) (@rothschildmd) October 21, 2025Completely moronic statement.And every electrician would say the same thing. Coming from an electrician btw. https://t.co/fjw0v5OsE3 Corey Day (@CoreyDayHCA) October 21, 2025Imagine sitting around, not getting paid, working with people lives at stake. And this guy is up there telling the American people some BS about why your systems are terrible. Systems you have been complaining about for decades, long before Pete was even voting age. https://t.co/pXsI9Hdqjz Mike Pelletier (@mikepell33) October 22, 2025Our president is a complete fucking moron. https://t.co/fKCJ5oF1Ui Steven DeKnight (@stevendeknight) October 22, 2025As an electrical engineer, I am appalled at this nonsense, but not as appalled at knowing half of American voters thought Trump was some sort of genius. HiHoSteverino (@SteveJaf) October 21, 2025We literally do this EVERY DAY! It's called a Media Converter. Every Office has network cabling, these cables are made of COPPER. Many offices use FIBER Internet. These cables are made of GLASS. We connect the Fiber to a Media Converter / and extend to a network via COPPER. pic.twitter.com/KpvUeJ0Fug Eric Swain (@eswain) October 21, 2025Never a good move to summon Buttigieg to explain things to MAGA and refute Trump. I'm looking forward to his smackdown of Trump Fifteen Minutes Late (@15minslate) October 21, 2025Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Gay fraudster and former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has claimed that he has fled New York City to avoid the administration of the citys newly sworn-in Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Santos has also claimed that he will soon visit Caracas, Venezuela to help aide people oppressed under the countrys dictatorial President Nicols Maduro, who the U.S. illegally abducted last weekend.On January 1, Santos wrote via X, I am officially no longer a New York City resident. He then published a follow-up video the following day, claiming that he will still live nearby and regularly pass through the city. Related MTG parties at George Santos bash while Lauren Boebert begs to be let in Guess what? A lot of wealthy, high-earning, seven-figure New Yorkers, like myself, are leaving too I wanna see whats gonna happen when they run out of everyones money to spend and start taxing the s**t out of you f**kers who voted for [Mamdani].As usual, Santos claims should be viewed skeptically. New York City realtors have said theres no evidence that millionaires are fleeing the city in response to Mamdanis mayorship. Also, Santos own campaign treasurer said he has a habit of lying about his wealth to appear more attractive. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today When another X user commented, 7 figures yet youre on [the paid video appearance app] Cameook girl. You should be in prison, Santos replied that he has made 6 figures ever year since Ive joined [the app] and also has multiple sources of income.XOXO https://t.co/ocY7Lp1wZ1 pic.twitter.com/1vPA1WrMjr George Santos (@Georgesantos) January 3, 2026In a January 4 post, Santos wrote that hes doing to be headed to Caracas, Venezuela, in the coming days to help with Aide.Many people need help and for far too long it was impossible to bring them any relief, Santos wrote on X. I look forward to being part of the solution and ending the problems of a people oppressed for far too long. Viva la libertad! Viva Venezuela!President Donald Trump invaded Venezuela and arrested the Latin American strongman Nicolas Maduro on January 3 in an operation that resulted in at least 80 peoples deaths. Trump then said that the U.S. is now in charge of the country. Going to be heading to Caracas in the coming days to help with Aide many people need help and for far too long it was impossible to bring them any relief.I look forward to being part of the solution and ending the problems of a people oppressed for far too long.Viva la George Santos (@Georgesantos) January 4, 2026While Santos didnt explain how exactly he plans on helping oppressed Venezuelans, its worth noting that the U.S. Department of Justice said of Santos last April that he has a history of callous theft of money from elderly and impaired donors.LGBTQ+ Congress members have said that the invasion was illegal because Congress wasnt consulted, the invasion risks destabilizing the region and getting the U.S. involved in a protracted military operation, and that Trump is using the invasion to draw attention away from domestic issues like the cost of living and health care. George Santos went to prison for financial fraud & identity theftLast August, Santos admitted to using campaign funds, another persons identity, and their credit cards for his own personal benefit. A November 16, 2023, House Ethics Committee reportaccused Santos of illegally spending campaign fundson luxury goods,OnlyFanssubscriptions, and cosmetic Botox treatments. Immediately after, the Housevoted to expel Santos in a 311-114 votethat included 105 Republicans and surpassed the 290 votes needed for expulsion.Santos originally faced23 federal charges of campaign finance fraud, including wire fraud, identity theft, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making materially false statements to both the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. House of Representatives.Santos has since admitted that he lied about graduating from Baruch College and New York University, working directly for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and living at a fake address in his congressional district. He provided no additional proof to back up claims that he founded a charity called Friends of Pets, that he lost four employees in the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, and that his mother died in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks. After his expulsion, Santos began making moneycreating personalized videos on the Cameo platform. Santos claimed that his largely fake campaign biography which hepreviously admitted fabricatingdue tostupidityandinsecurity was actually falsified by an unnamed former campaign staffer.From his creation of a wholly fictitious biography to his callous theft of money from elderly and impaired donors, Santoss unrestrained greed and voracious appetite for fame enabled him to exploit the very system by which we select our representatives, Department of Justice prosecutors wrote in their request for a seven-year prison sentence.The disgraced former congressmanstole and used another mans checksin his home country of Brazil (and lied about it),appeared in public as a drag queen(and lied about it),lied about extensive parts of his campaign biographywhile running for office includingabout being Jewish and then professed complete innocence of the charges against him until he accepted a plea deal to avoid more prison time.After joining Congress, Santoscosponsored a bill to roll back LGBTQ+ civil rightsand one toban LGBTQ+ books from schools. He also made public statementsagainst transgender peopleand the so-calledradical rainbow mafia.Additionally, he said thatLGBTQ+ families create troubled individuals.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

A gay California man has died due to injuries from a November assault that authorities believe was a hate crime. The alleged attacker, 25-year-old Sean Wesley Payton Jr., now faces homicide charges.58-year-old Alvin Prasad had been enjoying a Halloween night out with his adult daughter and friends in Lavender Heights, Sacramentos LGBTQ+ district. After exiting the Badlands nightclub and heading for their car, a man approached Prasad and insulted his flamboyant costume. Related 10 people found guilty of cyberharassment for claiming Frances first lady is secretly transgender He calls my dad weird, Prasads daughter, Andrea,told KXTV in December. He says it in a very rude, aggressive way like he wants to hurt my dad.Prasad who was dressed in an 18th-century coat and hat, with knee-high platform boots, a pink wig, and large white wings strapped to his back tried to speak with the man. But the man punched Prasad in the forehead, causing him to fall backward and strike his head on the pavement. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Hes lying flat on his back, and hes, for lack of a better expression, hes breathing like a fish out of water, family friend Jonathon Wisinski said. He seemed like he was seizing up. Before I rolled him, I noticed that he was bleeding from the back of his head.Prasad had been hospitalized in a coma ever since and succumbed to his injuries on December 28. Before Prasads death, Payton, the alleged attacker, was already facing felony assault charges with a hate crime allegation and great bodily injury allegation. The Sacramento County District Attorneys Office takes every hate crime seriously, including those targeting members of our LGBTQ+ community, the office told USA Today.Throughout Prasads hospital stay, his daughter maintained a GoFundMe page to raise funds for associated medical bills. She updated the page when he died, writing that when the nurses told her, she immediately started to cry and dropped to the floor.I thought I had a little more time, she wrote. I just wanted to say I love you one more time before he passed. Prasad describes himself in his Instagram bio as Gay & proud. His posts include several countdowns to his retirement. The attack occurred when he had less than a week to go.David Heitstuman, CEO of the Sacramento LGBT Community Center (which is near the scene of the assault), said in a December statement that the brutal attack is part of a string of anti-LGBTQ+ attacks in the area.Weve also learned of several other bias and hate-related incidents in the neighborhood, from an attempt to tear down the Centers Pride flag and broken windows to multiple attacks targeting LGBTQ+ people over the last several months, Heitstuman said. These acts harm our community and threaten the sense of safety and belonging in the place we call home.He said the center is in contact with the Sacramento Police Department and intends to talk with local leadership, law enforcement, and community advocates about how to make the area safer.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

As justifications for Donald Trumps invasion of Venezuela proliferate and change, a video of former Fox host Tucker Carlson in which he claims that the U.S. wants Venezuela to legalize marriage for same-sex couples has resurfaced.We can safely discount democracy as a reason for effecting regime change in Venezuela, Carlson said on his podcast, The Tucker Carlson Show, in late 2025. Its possible were mad that he doesnt allow gay marriage. That is a distinct possibility, but no one will say that out loud. Related Tucker Carlson wants to ask Pete Buttigieg very specific questions about gay sex Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Perhaps one of the reasons that no one is saying that out loud is because Trump himself doesnt support marriage equality, so its unlikely he would have launched an invasion that has already killed 80 people and arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in order to impose it on another nation. Another reason would be that the majority of nations around the world have not legalized marriage equality, and Trump hasnt invaded any of them. Last, while the Trump administration has offered a variety of justifications for the invasion including drugs, oil, an arrest warrant, and human rights marriage has not been mentioned by anyone. Carlson then praised Venezuela for not legalizing marriage equality.Not defending the regime, just sayin, one of the most conservative countries in North or South or Central America, he continued. The U.S.-backed opposition leader who would take Maduros place if he were taken out is, of course, pretty eager to get gay marriage in Venezuela.He was likely referring to Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient who was once a member of the Venezuelan National Assembly. She led the opposition to Maduro and would have run for president in 2024, but the government barred her from running in 2023. She supports marriage equality.So those of you who thought this whole project was globohomo, youre not crazy, actually, Carlson concluded. Globohomo, originally short for global homogenization but often used to refer to gay people, is a rightwing conspiracy theory that states that there is a vast conspiracy to destroy traditional cultures and replace them with a corporate global uniculture, often portrayed as including an LGBTQ+ agenda. The conspiracy theory is also antisemitic. Tucker Carlson believes its a distinct possibility that the U.S. captured Maduro to *checks notes* bring gay marriage to Venezuela. Yes, hes serious. pic.twitter.com/TmrrwWYgTH Nathan Livingstone (MilkBarTV) (@TheMilkBarTV) January 5, 2026The clip resurfaced over the weekend as the Trump administration bombed and invaded Venezuela and arrested Maduro, with Trump saying that the U.S. will be running the Latin American nations government in order to nurse the country back to health before it can return to being self-governing.Anti-LGBTQ+ pundit and Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro criticized Carlsons claims this weekend.People who have in the past, for example, suggested that the only people who would be against Nicols Maduros continued regime are globo homo for example, something Tucker Carlson said, Shapiro said in a reaction video posted to social media. Only globo homo would want Maduro ousted because hes supposedly a social conservative, which is not actually true.Well, I suppose the administration may have to explain to people like Tucker Carlson that in fact it was not globo homo that ousted Nicols Maduro, it was a conservative Republican president. A gutsy president who makes the calls to preserve Americas national security and her foreign interests. Homosexuality is legal in Venezuela, but the countrys constitution bans marriage for same-sex couples. Workplace discrimination against gay and bi people has been banned since 1996. Trans people there do not have the right to update the gender markers on their IDs. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

"What are your fool-proof strategies for consistent journal use? Help me, the fool."The post I Desperately Want To Be Person Who Journals But Keep Failing. Help! appeared first on Autostraddle.

Connor Storrie is coming to late-night!The Heated Rivalry star will be making his late-night debut next week when he appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers.To see Storrie chat with Meyers, fans can tune into NBC on Monday, January 12, at 12:35 a.m. Eastern/Pacific. The interview will appear the following day on Peacock.Storrie plays Ilya Rozanov in Crave/HBO Max's popular hockey romance Heated Rivalry. Hudson Williams, who plays Storrie's rival and love interest, Shane Hollander, will also make his late-night debut soon. Williams is guesting on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, January 7.Heated Rivalry has been one of the most popular shows on streaming platforms since its November debut. Based on Rachel Reid's Game Changers novels, the series follows two pro hockey players who are rivals on the ice but develop a steamy, intense romance off it.The first season had six episodes, and the show has been renewed for a second season.Storrie is a 25-year-old actor, enjoying his breakout role in Heated Rivalry. Previously, he appeared in the film Riley, about a queer high school athlete, and in Joker: Folie Deux, where he played an Arkham Asylum inmate who is implied to become the "real" Joker at the end of the film. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Late Night with Seth Meyers (@latenightseth)

Cher opened up about living with a gay roommate after leaving her parents' home, being 16 years old when she started dating Sonny Bono, and having a "special arrangement" with then-closeted David Geffen who's made headlines recently for divorcing his husband of two years.Check out our comprehensive breakdown of standout quotes from Cher during her latest interview on the Armchair Expert podcast, cohosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, below.Cher lived with a gay roommate after leaving her parents' house.Cher recalled living with a "gay" woman after leaving her parents' home."She worked for my mom for a while. When my mom knew I was going, they said, 'You have to live with her,' like she was somebody that was going to really keep a rein on me," the popstar explained. "We moved into this apartment, and when my parents left, we smoked a cigarette in every room. We just put in ashtrays everywhere and smoked a cigarette in every room."At first, Sonny Bono wasn't into Cher he was into her roommate.Shepard asked, "So you're living with her, and then you meet Sonny.""Yeah, but he likes my girl friend," Cher noted, "And my girl friend is gay."Eventually, Cher's roommate left their apartment, prompting the singer/actress to find another place to live. The solution? Well, Sonny Bono!Cher got kicked out of her pervious place and moved in with Sonny.Upon getting kicked out from her previous apartment, Cher "went next door to tell" Sonny Bono about her situation, adding: "I was very forlorn, and we were best friends by that time. Well, not best, but we were good."According to Cher, Sonny invited her to move in with him but straight-up told the pop star that he didn't find her attractive. "He said, 'Will you come in with me?' I was like, 'Okay, good.' And then he said, 'I have single beds. To tell you the truth, I don't find you particularly attractive.'"For context, Sonny was 27 at the time. The singer was 16 years old, but told Sonny that she was 18 all along.Overall, Cher and Sonny were "friends" before engaging in anything romantic or sexual, she recalled. "I would do stupid things with him [that] the girls his age would never do. I was happy to just do nothing."Everyone started to notice that Sonny was screwing over Cher.After years of already being married to Sonny Bono and allowing him to run the entire business side of her career, Cher met David Geffen who, at the time, was a closeted gay man on his way to becoming the music industry mogul he's known to be.Shepard remarked, "You're touring like crazy when you're not doing the show. The marriage is not great. And, at some point, you become friends with David Geffen; he enters your life."Cher recalled being asked by the guitarist in her band, "Why do you live this way?" in relation to her marriage and business partnership with Sonny.Cher explained David Geffen's role in helping her leave Sonny as a husband and as a business partner.Cher recalled meeting Geffen "at Lou Adler's Christmas party."Shepard noted from reading Cher: The Memoir that it "isn't until Geffen looks at this contract and says to you, 'Do you realize 100 percent of this money goes to a company called Cher Inc., that is owned 95 percent by Sonny and 5 percent by his lawyer?'""It was like [I was] born yesterday," Cher said. "They would bring me a bunch of Cher Enterprises contracts to sign, and it was always when I was getting ready to go on stage."Geffen eventually chimed in on what was going on between Cher and Sonny. "[Geffen] said, you got to get out of this," the singer recalled. "So I went to Sonny and I said, 'I'll stay if we're partners.' And he said, 'No.'"The pop star added that Bono "hated" Geffen. "I mean, he hated him with a vengeance," she underscored. "None of the others," just Geffen.Cher and David Geffen had a 'special arrangement.'Cher dated Geffen in the 1970s which, in hindsight, was a weird pairing given that Geffen was already gay (but closeted). When asked about their relationship, though, Cher was protective of Geffen.It was "a different thing; he never had been in love with anybody," Cher explained. "I was the first person that he had real feelings for, so we had a special arrangement."Cher insisted that she would've never been able to get out of that situation with Bono had it not been for Geffen. The pop star also noted that she's still friends with Geffen to this day.Armchair Expert is available on all podcast streaming platforms. Cher: Part One: The Memoir is available everywhere books are sold. Cher: Part Two is scheduled to drop on November 17, 2026 and can be preordered now.

Ricky Gervais, the English comedian known for his roles in the U.K. version of The Office and his many successful stand-up specials, was recently interviewed by BBC's This Cultural Life. During that conversation, the host asked him about controversial jokes he made in the past, including his bits about trans people. The interviewer, John Wilson, told Gervais that he felt the comedian hadn't "changed in parallel with the times" and "doubled down" on his "anti-woke" crusade."Thats probably true, but thats because I think Im right," Gervais responded. The interviewer asked him to clarify what he felt he was right about, to which he said, "I have a right to talk about those things. And there are jokes I certainly stand by. I cant look back and say, Oh, sorry about that, I said that when I was only 50. He continued, "As you do get more progressive, maybe, and milder and change, what usually happens is, the things you used to do look worse."Gervais then cracked a joke saying, "What I do is I try and get more offensive, so when I look back, I go aw wasnt I kind when I was 45.'"One of his more controversial jokes about trans people came in his 2022 Netflix special called Special Nature, in which he mocked trans people, saying, "I love the new women. Theyre great, arent they? The new ones weve been seeing lately. The ones with beards and cocks." Gervais goes on to say in the same special that he "supports trans rights," and added, "I support all human rights and trans rights are human rights," before saying, "But meet me halfway, ladies. Lose the cock. That's all I'm saying."During his conversation with This Cultural Life, the comedian also said that he wouldn't want to rework any of his past material, saying that he's open to putting a trigger warning on some of his older work.

Out MS Now anchor Rachel Maddow eviscerated the Trump Administrations flailing logic for its invasion of Venezuela and suggested a much simpler reason the president decided to arrest Venezuelan president Nicols Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores: Because he can. Maddow opened her segment by debunking the administrations shifting explanations for the invasion, outlining how the presidents initial claims it was motivated by drugs didnt make sense, considering the drug trade out of Venezuela does not actually affect the United States all that much. Related Trump may have invaded Venezuela because Maduros dancing hurt his feelings Besides, she said, Trumps recent pardon of the former president of Honduras who was convicted of trying to transport over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States pretty much negates the idea that he cares at all about drug trafficking. She also slammed claims that Trump invaded because Maduro is a dictator, considering the president has long praised foreign autocrats. Even his claims that he invaded for Venezuelas oil make no sense, Maddow said. She called attention to a report from Reuters that U.S. oil executives say Trump has never spoken to them about his plans, despite claiming he has kept them in the loop.Donald Trump likes the sound of Lets take the oil,' Maddow said. He thinks that sounds cool and transgressive and tough. He thinks it makes him sound like, kind of a king, a military conquest kinda guy. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today But she isnt sure he understands what it actually means to take the oil. Its not just sitting in barrels at stores, she pointed out. Its under the earths surface and requires a massive and functional industry not to mention billions and billions of dollars to be drilled out. Oil isnt a thing you just mug someone for and then take it to the pawn shop for cash, she said. If youre Exxon, Maddow added, Do you think that because Trump just invaded and took away their president, now Venezuela is a great place, an excellent and stable place, to make Multibillion-dollar investments that wont pay off for years, if not decades? And if oil companies did recoup the investments, she said, they probably arent donating the proceeds to the U.S. Treasury, even though Trump seems to think the United States can pay for running the country through oil profits. Exxons just gonna give us the money? Maddow asked, confirming that taking the oil is not a sensical reason for invading the country and arresting its leader. The real reason for the invasion, Maddow said, may just be the simplest thing imaginable. What this is is a president who can barely bother with coming up with some barely false pretext because what he really wants is totally, unilateral, totally unaccountable, unquestioned ability to use the U.S. military anywhere for any purpose against anyone, even if it is inexplicable or unpopular or even illegal. He wants to break the perceived connection between public legitimacy for military action and the use of the United States military. He wants the ability to use the U.S. military with the consent of no one, she said. In December, Maddow similarly warned that Trump is increasingly exhibiting dictatorial behavior. Were no longer at the point where we need to be warned about whats coming, she said. Were now at a point where what we need is understanding whats going on, knowing what our options are in terms of how to preserve our democracy, to make sure that were not going to be the generation that lost the republic, she said.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

This weekend, Donald Trump announced that the U.S. had captured Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during a military operation. Maduro has served as president since 2013.In 2023, Daniel Arzola, born in Maracay, Venezuela, created the artwork for Juanita MORE!s annual Pride party, which also serves as a fundraiser for local queer causes. Related Rep. Emily Randall is fighting the atrocious conditions in Trumps immigration facilities His work was visually striking, political, and colorful, all the things I look for in presenting my yearly event.Arzola is not just a creator. He is a Venezuelan-born visual artist, human rights advocate, and lecturer. He popularized the term Artivism as the creator of No Soy Tu Chiste (Im Not a Joke), a series of posters that became the first LGBTQ+ campaign to reach the media in Venezuela.Maduro al de la Muerte by Daniel Arzola | Daniel Arzola, used with permission Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Im Not a Joke was also translated into twenty languages and retweeted by Madonna, among others. The Im Not a Joke project continues to be exhibited in cities worldwide, including a permanent installation at the Carlos Juregui subway station in Buenos Aires. (On June 5, 2026, Arzola will have an art exhibition at STRUT in San Francisco.)I talked to Daniel about the dramatic events of the last few days by phone to get the perspective of a Venezuelan queer person.Daniel Arzola | Daniel Arzola, used with permissionJuanita MORE!: I love your work. You have used both your voice and art in compelling political ways. Tell me about growing up and coming out in Venezuela.Daniel Arzola: Thanks. You represent San Francisco, and San Francisco is my favorite city in the United States because it offers healing and a sense of belonging, especially for those of us who have been persecuted for our gender or sexuality.That was my experience in Venezuela in the 1990s. I grew up in a homophobic society that made it clear from a young age that people like me were expected to be mocked and harmed. I saw my name written on walls alongside homophobic slurs, lost friends after coming out as gay, was physically attacked by neighbors, and was eventually forced out of my home by my family at the age of 16. Even so, I always knew they were the ones who were wrong. Through the internet and through art, I learned that gay people had civil rights in other parts of the world and that our contributions to society had changed the world more than once. Unfortunately, this homophobia is also reflected in state policy. Nicols Maduro, whose political background includes Soviet influences and alliances with evangelical leaders in Venezuela, has repeatedly used homosexuality as an insult to discredit his opponents.In 2014, as large-scale protests unfolded, human rights activism began to be criminalized in Venezuela. While denouncing state-sponsored homophobia through the I Am Not a Joke (No Soy Tu Chiste) campaign, I was forced to flee the country. Since then, I have not been able to return. This weekend, President Trump announced that the U.S. had captured Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during a military operation. Maduro has served as president since 2013. What does this say to you as an immigrant in the United States?It is not easy to be Venezuelan in this century. The absence of justice has defined our history for the past three decades, and that same absence has brought us to this worst possible scenario. Even so, Venezuelans around the world, myself included, are celebrating the capture of Nicols Maduro, who has committed crimes against humanity since coming to power. Since 2014, he has used military, police, and paramilitary forces, known as colectivos, to repress and massacre the civilian population. Thousands of Venezuelans have been tortured and killed by state forces. Venezuela is home to the largest torture center in Latin America, El Helicoide, where the most cruel and systematic forms of torture are carried out. It is misleading to call Maduro president. What exists in Venezuela is a military and police dictatorship. In 2017, after the opposition won a majority in the National Assembly, Maduro dismantled all checks and balances by creating a parallel assembly loyal to him. He then escalated repression, killing, imprisoning, and kidnapping civilians again in 2017, 2019, and 2021.Finally, in July 2024, Maduro stole the elections by refusing to acknowledge his overwhelming defeat to Edmundo Gonzlez. When Venezuelans attempted to protest, the response was repression, prison, and torture. Venezuelas prisons are full of political prisoners.For more than 26 years, Venezuelans have warned about the dismantling of our democracy, yet much of the world chose not to believe us while looking the other way. It took nearly 20 years for parts of the Latin American left to acknowledge that Venezuela is a bloody dictatorship, mainly because it aligned with their ideological views. Even now, some still dismiss it by saying, Its too complex, an apologetic euphemism that ignores reality, despite prisons full of political prisoners and the most significant humanitarian and migration crisis in the Americas, with more than eight million Venezuelans forced to flee the country.We live in a time when critical thinking has been undermined and activism reduced to a social media performance. Within this performative activism, Maduro is portrayed as a good guy simply because he once said Free Palestine, as if slogans now grant moral superiority. This ignores the fact that he is the same leader who poses next to rainbow flags while denying civil rights to gay and trans people in Venezuela, and who repeatedly uses homophobic slurs to attack the opposition on national television. Now we see many of the same people who ignored our suffering expressing outrage over the capture of one of the worst dictators on the continent, a leader of a military dictatorship, without understanding Venezuelas history. No one wants to see their country invaded by the United States, and it is deeply troubling that this is happening under one of the least democratic leaders the U.S. has had. But Venezuelans are desperate. We exhausted every democratic path, and the response was fire and blood. If anyone believes that Venezuelans did not try to fight this through our own means, those opinions are at least ten years late to the conversation.This is, without question, the worst possible scenario. But the executioner has been captured, and only Venezuelans truly understand what that means. For the first time in 26 years, we are seeing the Chavista dictatorship tremble; for Venezuelans, it is simple. Someone finally stopped philosophizing while we were being massacred. Unfortunately, that someone was Trump.Cese a la Usurpacin by Daniel Arzola | Daniel Arzola, used with permissionHe also stated that the U.S. would temporarily oversee Venezuelas governance. He emphasized that U.S. oil companies would invest in Venezuelas infrastructure, aiming to revitalize its oil sector. Once again, all I hear is money. What do you hear?Venezuelan oil is suddenly on everyones lips, often without any fundamental understanding of the history of the Venezuelan oil industry. It is as if some people had only just discovered that the worlds largest oil reserves are located there. The reality is that the United States was not only Venezuelas main client but, from the very beginning of the oil industry around 1920, invested in oil infrastructure for obvious strategic reasons. This brought benefits to both countries. By the 1950s and 1960s, Venezuela was the wealthiest country in Latin America. Today, we face the highest inflation in the world, and the minimum wage in Venezuela is about $1.50.Some people mistakenly believe that Chvez nationalized the oil industry, but that actually happened in 1976 under Carlos Andrs Prez. Chvez expropriated the oil infrastructure, firing thousands of highly trained PDVSA experts and replacing them with loyalists. He applied the same approach across many sectors of the country, leading to a severe breakdown in resource distribution and a major humanitarian crisis. Many try to reduce Venezuelas entire modern history to oil, but the truth is that Venezuelans have not benefited from that oil for decades. Instead, countries like Russia, Iran, and China have benefited, while Venezuelas electrical grid and healthcare system have collapsed. Since 2013, shortages of cancer and HIV medications have created a deadly reality, where at least 5,000 people die from AIDS due to a lack of access to antiretroviral treatment.Some people conveniently ignore the fact that Maduro recently offered Trump all of Venezuelas oil in exchange for being allowed to remain in power, an offer that was rejected. The truth is that many seem more concerned about our oil than Venezuelans themselves, and they feel entitled to explain our own history to us. I believe Venezuelans should have the authority to decide who to negotiate with once democracy returns to the country.What is clear is that the transition to democracy in Venezuela should be led by the president elected in July 2024, Edmundo Gonzlez Urrutia, not by Donald Trump.How do we move forward? It is difficult to know what comes next. The actions taken by the United States in Venezuela will have consequences beyond the country itself. One can condemn Trumps actions while also acknowledging the suffering of Venezuelans and the way Maduro destroyed our future and the future of millions.This is a nightmarish scenario, but Venezuelans have endured worse. For years, it seemed there would never be justice. And although Maduro has been detained, the rest of the Chavista leadership remains in power.Delcy Rodrguez is not a moderate figure. She has been directly involved in maintaining El Helicoide, Venezuelas main torture center. Inside Venezuela, people are now forbidden from celebrating Maduros capture. State forces and pro-regime paramilitary groups are patrolling the streets, intimidating civilians, and checking phones and social media accounts. Delcy Rodrguez has announced that possessing any content that celebrates Maduros capture will be punished with up to 20 years in prison. Only Venezuelans living abroad have been able to speak freely.How can the LGBTQ+ community support you and our Venezuelan brothers and sisters?Ask your Venezuelan friends how they are doing, and listen before offering your opinion. Understand that the struggle in Venezuela is not about left versus right; it is democracy versus dictatorship.Remember that we are living in an era of post-truth and extremism, where some will try to turn the perpetrator into the victim. There is overwhelming evidence of crimes against humanity. More than eight million of us were forced to leave our country, roughly 30 percent of the population.Some of us may be able to return one day, but only when democracy is restored.Above all, remember that the Venezuelan struggle is humanitarian before it is partisan.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz (R) says his Republican majority intends to permanently ban gender-affirming care for minors this year. The move comes more than seven months after the release of a Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) report, mandated by a Republican-backed state law, which found that medical evidence actually supports access to gender-affirming healthcare for minors, a different result than many conservatives were hoping for.Utah already has what former state Rep. Mike Kennedy (R) who now represents the states third district in Congress described to Deseret News as a permanent ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Passed in January 2023, S.B. 16 banned gender-affirming surgeries for minors despite such surgeries being exceptionally rare and instituted an indefinite moratorium on providing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to minors for the purposes of gender-affirming care. Related Trans sports ban that could require genital exams will appear on the ballot in Washington Kennedy, who co-sponsored S.B. 16, admitted to Deseret News that characterizing the laws ban on puberty blockers and HRT as a moratorium was essentially a tactic to win over lawmakers who wanted more data on the effects of such treatments. The ban, he said, is already effectively permanent unless Utah lawmakers act to lift it.S.B. 16 also ordered the state DHHS to commission a review of medical evidence around puberty blockers and HRT prescribed for the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors, with the goal of lawmakers using the reports findings to inform future policy decisions. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today That review, conducted by the University of Utahs Drug Regimen Center, was released last May, and as Mother Jones reported at the time, its conclusions unambiguously supported the benefits of gender-affirming care for trans young people.However, Utah Republicans, including Schultz, Kennedy, and state Rep. Katy Hall who co-sponsored S.B. 16 have dismissed the report. Common sense is common sense, Schultz told Deseret News. I dont need a report, one way or the other, to tell me that. I just firmly believe that minors should not be transitioning.At the same time, however, Schultz told the outlet that he agrees with a separate review of the DHHS report by anti-trans advocacy group Do No Harm. The groups review, published early last month, claims that the DHHS report does not meet the standards of a true systematic review of medical evidence, according to Deseret News.Unlike true systematic reviews, it does not assess the reliability of studies and whether the research can provide guidance for weighing the risks and benefits of medical intervention for children with gender dysphoria, Do No Harms report claims. Deseret News which is owned, through a subsidiary, by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also notes that the Utah DHHS reviews findings contradict those in both the Cass Review and one released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last year. Both of those reviews have been widely criticized.A spokesperson for University of Utah Health defended the Utah DHHS review, telling Deseret News in a statement that it was based on an extensive body of research regarding the safety and efficacy of these treatments.Our review also found that the consensus of that evidence is that the treatments are safe in terms of changes to bone density, cardiovascular risk factors, and metabolic changes; and they are effective in terms of positive mental health and psychosocial outcomes, the statement read, according to Deseret News.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Jake Lang a Republican candidate for Floridas U.S. Senate seat who was jailed for allegedly assaulting U.S. Capitol police officers during the January 6, 2021, riots recently threw a Nazi Sieg Heil salute during a racist and antisemitic rally that he held outside of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) headquarters in Washington, D.C.At the rally, Lang declared, Congressmen and women that have been taking AIPAC money, we suggest you stop now before the crusaders really start. Treasonous traitors will be hanging from the gallows, rightfully and justly prosecuted and hung for treason. He also said, White Christian men are not gonna sit around while [AIPAC and pro-Jewish activists] turn our children into a bunch of [n-word]-lovers. Related Trump reposts Nazi-era gay symbol 10) Lang threw a final Sieg Heil salute outside and declared "white Christian men are not gonna sit around while you turn our children into a bunch of n****-lovers" before leading his group away. pic.twitter.com/H2kwt7hwCi Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) January 4, 2026 Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Neo-Nazis have become increasingly comfortable publicly associating themselves with the Republican Party. In January 2024, billionaire transphobe Elon Musk threw a Nazi salute at an inauguration event celebrating the presidents second term.Last October, Republican leaders nationwide were caughtproclaiming I love Hitlerand discussing killing opponents in gas chambers in a private chat. Around the same time, U.S. Border Patrol shared a video that showed its agents working to a 13-second clip of Michael Jacksons 1995 song They Dont Care About Us, which contained an antisemitic slur antisemitic social media accounts celebrated the video.Then, MAGA Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH) was caught witha swastika on his congressional office wall. In November, numerous staffers resigned from the massively influential right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation after its president called neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes a friend of Republicans in response to influential right-wing media figure Tucker Carlson platforming Fuentes in a softball interview that challenged none of Fuentes extremist positions.Neo-Nazis also attended the New York Young Republican Clubs 113th annual gala in December.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

In a speech to Republicans during a House GOP retreat, Donald Trump expressed his fears about what mean Democrats will do if they take control of Congress after the midterm elections. But you got to win the midterms, because if we dont win the midterms, its just going to be I mean, theyll find a reason to impeach me, he said. Ill get impeached. Related Rachel Maddow says real reason for Venezuela attack may be the simplest thing imaginable We dont impeach them. You know why? Because theyre meaner than we are. We should have impeachedJoe Bidenfor 100 different things. They are mean and smart. But fortunately for you, they have horrible policy, he continued.He then went on to espouse that Democrats love open borders, men in womens sports, and transgender for everyone. He yelled his latter comment and went on to share a string of lies. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Bring your kids in, were gonna change the sex of your child, he said, In some cases, like in Minnesota, they dont even tell the parents The kid comes back, they keep the kid, they operate on the kid, they dont tell the parents, he said, adding, quite ironically, Its not believable.Thats because its not true. Nowhere in America do children receive any kind of gender-affirming surgery or any surgery for that matter without parental involvement.He then spoke about being impeached during his first term and admitted that when he found out, he asked, What does that mean? Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Cardi B spotlighted her transgender glam squad after appearing as a guest judge on the January 2 premiere of Season 18 of RuPauls Drag Race.These are the dolls. I cant live without them literally, she said on Untucked, a spinoff showcasing what happens on Drag Race behind-the-scenes. Related Cardi B says that homophobes are just ugly Cardi lavished praise on her hairstylist, Tokyo Stylez, and makeup artist, Erika LaPearl, while the three of them sat with the Drag Race contestants. She said she has learned a lot from both the drag and trans community. I dont care if people feel uncomfortable or whatever, she emphasized. Like, I do not care. These are my dolls, and dont ever get it twisted. The men be looking. Im not going to spill tea, you know what Im saying? Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Stylez said watching Drag Race in part helped her career blossom. She said the show taught her how to do makeup when she first began her transition. Just seeing all the looks and stuff, it always inspires me, she said. Even with [Cardi], Ill be like, We should do this, recreate this and do it a different way. You know, sometimes we bring the culture into a more mainstream, hip-hop field.The Drag Race contestants thanked Cardi for celebrating trans women of color. To have an artist of your caliber incorporating our community into what you do, thank you, one said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by RuPaul's Drag Race (@rupaulsdragrace) On social media, contestant Jane Dont called the moment major. There are not a lot of women let alone women in hip hop who would take an opportunity to give credit to the dolls for their undeniable cultural impact, she said.I do have to take a sec to say that @iamcardib taking a moment to highlight two trans women of color is SO major. There are not a lot of women let alone women in hip hop who would take an opportunity to give credit to the dolls for their undeniable cultural impact Jane Dont (@Heyjanedont) January 3, 2026 She followed up in two more posts, adding, Cardi admitting that the dolls are her teachers is so refreshing and important SORRY.Drag comes from the dolls! Period point blank!The moment came as another rapper who was also once a guest judge on RuPauls Drag Race, Nicki Minaj, continues her abrupt public pivot toward MAGA, including making anti-trans comments.In a recent sit-down with Erika Kirk, Turning Point USAs new CEO and the widow of the conservative youth organizations founder, late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, Minajshared her advicefor Americas young men.Boys, be boys, she said. Its okay, be boys. Its nothing wrong with being a boy. How about that? How powerful is that? How profound is that? Boys will be boys, and theres nothing wrong with that.Minaj didnt elaborate further. Nonetheless, many have interpreted her comment as transphobic.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

A mild-mannered gay guy in sweatpants and a hoodie was verbally attacked and abused with his own grocery cart on Christmas Day, by a woman who clearly woke up with coal in her stocking. The supermarket meltdown has gone viral on TikTok.Just got hate-crimed in the grocery store. TikTok do your thing, the man posted with video of the ugly encounter. Related TV anchor claps back at grinchy viewer who complained about gay Christmas coverage The victim was TikToker @deonteiy, who was strolling a Maryland market cereal aisle when he started recording the assault. The foul-mouthed perpetrator seemed to have a problem with his look.Get that s**t outta my muthaf**kin face, the woman yells while tossing the Christmas shoppers cart.I dont even know you, he replies.Boy get outta here with your gay ass! Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today @deonteiy just got hate crimed in the grocery store, tik tok please do your thing. Please help me find her. #gaytiktok #dmv #maryland #viralvideo #fyp original sound D. The buff TikToker was wearing a black hoodie and grey sweatpants. Screenshots in his TikTok videos replies showed that his low-cut outfit prominently revealed his muscular pectorals.When hes not loading his cart for Christmas dinner kale, bananas, and Brussels sprouts were among items in his cart Deonteiy works as a fitness entrepreneur and glutes are one of his specialties.The pathetic display continued and was joined in the mostly deserted store by a companion of the aggrieved woman. She did her best to separate the shoppers, but her friend was having none of it.Whats up? Whats up, gay boy? she taunted the male shopper. You need to cover that s**t up. Im sick of this gay s**t, bro!I dont like you, the TikToker tells his attacker calmly. Why you up on me?What you donna do? What you gonna do? she threatens him.Im about to call the police, he replies, fairly unflappable under the circumstances.Its Christmas, her friend reminds her.F**k the Christmas! the aggrieved woman yells more than once.The confrontation continued back and forth down the aisle for more than a minute, with the attacker only growing more agitated.B**ch, get outta here! she says.Why are you still following me? he asks.Things finally got physical when the attacker pushed up on him and he pushed back. Dont touch me n**ga with your gay a**! she says.I really want you to back up, he advises her.His restraint was clearly in the Christmas spirit. TikTok commenters said that the muscle-bound trainer could have taken the unhinged woman down easily, and the commenters wouldnt have blamed him if he did.Ill just say this . Most of us wouldve understood if you handled this another way replied TikTok commenter @Honey Bee.According to @Nickys World, the holiday harridan changed her name on her own TikTok account in the viral aftermath, and set it to private.Said @Austosterone of the gay-bashing Christmas Krampus, I think she was jealous of that cake.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Heated Rivalry fans really, really, really, really would like it if Carly Rae Jepsen would write them a song!Jacob Tierney, who created the popular Canadian hockey romance show, has expressed interest in working with Canadian pop idol on the upcoming second season."I have a list of dream songs that I would like very much to find a way [to include]," Tierney said on the podcast What Chaos!, per Vulture.When asked if that list of dream songs includes anything by iconic "Call Me Maybe" singer, Tierney said he "didn't even try" to get her for the first season due to budgetary restrictions, but "she was on my playlist for when I wrote."Tierney added that he "will definitely be asking next time.""I was even gonna ask her to write a new song, that's what I was gonna do," Tierney said. "I was gonna be like, 'Is there a world in which you'd like to do a new song?'"After a successful first season on Crave and HBO Max, Heated Rivalry has been renewed for a second season.Now, fans of both Jepsen and Heated Rivalry may have even more reason to get excited, as Jepsen has followed Heated Rivalry's official Instagram account. (@) While Jepsen following the account is not a guarantee that she will collaborate with the show, it does show that she is aware of it, and likely has heard that Tierney wants her music for the show.Fans are already expressing their excitement on social media."OH GODLY RAE JEPSEN PLEASE TELL ME THEY OFFERED YOU ENOUGH MONEY," wrote one X user."Canadian gay icon on the soundtrack of a Canadian gay series just makes so much sense," wrote another.Recently, Miley Cyrus also made headlines for saying she is "so in" for recording music for Heated Rivalry if given the opportunity. Though star Franois Arnaud, noting the show's limited budget, responded by saying he hoped "she might give us a discount.

Will 2026 be one of the hottest years yet?After Kit Connor and Joseph Quinn broke the internet for their recent vacation photo, Agustn Della Corte is now stripping down in his own sexy spread for GQ Mxico y Latinoamrica.The new pictures feature the handsome Olympo actor wearing very little clothing poolside in a series of seductive poses. Fans went wild for the alluring new shots, so check out the highlights below! (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@)

Five years after a mob of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn a democratic election, President Donald Trump addressed some of the same lawmakers who were terrified that day on Tuesday. But, instead of marking the dark moment in U.S. history, Trump used a phrase that inspired violent acts in Washington, D.C., that day this time to attack transgender people.Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.Some of his supporters, many of them violent January 6 insurrectionists whom he pardoned upon taking office for a second time in January 2024, gathered along the Ellipse and marched through downtown Washington as he again turned one of his most reliable political cudgels into a centerpiece of his message: transgender people.Related: 11 times Donald Trump has randomly brought up his transgender for everybody obsessionSpeaking to House Republicans at a closed-door party retreat at the Kennedy Center, Trump repeatedly invoked what he derisively described as men in womens sports, telling GOP lawmakers that Democrats fight like hell to allow transgender women to compete in womens athletics, and that the issue remains among the most politically potent weapons in his arsenal.They have a policy with, uh, men in womens sports, men in womens sports, and they fight like hell for it, Trump said, repeating the phrase several times. They still are.Related: Donald Trump signs new executive order affecting transgender military membersWhat followed was a familiar Trumpian riff: a cascade of anecdotes about marathon runners, weightlifters, boxers, and swimmers, delivered with a mix of mockery and grievance. He called trans-inclusive sports policies so demeaning to women and so ridiculous, asserting, without evidence, that transgender women were smashing long-standing records and overwhelming competition podiums.Then Trump admitted that he treats the issue not just as a belief but as a political instrument. He said he avoids talking about it too often so Democrats will not correct themselves before elections, calling it a 982 issue in his favor.On an anniversary freighted with the memory of political violence and democratic rupture, the message was unmistakable: transgender people remain a central foil in Trumps campaign to define his enemies, animate his base, and frame the stakes of the coming midterms.Related: Trump rants nonsense about transgender people instead of fixing affordability crisis at Pennsylvania rallyThe emphasis fits a broader pattern. Over the last several years, Trump has increasingly injected transgender people into speeches and appearances that otherwise have little to do with LGBTQ+ policy, often invoking the phrase transgender for everybody as shorthand for what he portrays as a broader collapse of social order. Transgender lives have become, in his rhetoric, a kind of cultural weather vane a symbol onto which larger anxieties about change, power, and belonging are projected.Imara Jones, founder and CEO of TransLash Media, told The Advocate in an interview that Trumps fixation on transgender people also reveals what he is not talking about.Jones, a transgender woman, noted that at the retreat, Trump spent more time attacking trans inclusion than he did addressing affordability and the rising cost of living a silence she said is deeply revealing. The room, she noted, was largely quiet when Trump touched on everyday economic pressures, but responded most strongly to his anti-trans rhetoric.Related: Six key takeaways from Trump's speech to the nation, including 'transgender for everybody'They know hes disconnected on affordability, Jones said. Thats why this is what he leans on. Its what gets the reaction. Its what theyve got.Jones said anti-trans rhetoric has become a core element of MAGA political identity and one of the most reliable tools for mobilizing turnout. We cant dismiss these as greatest hits, she said about Trumps mentions of transgender people in random conversations. They [the MAGA base] view them as essential and vital political positions. This is an essential part of their political affiliation.Related: Transgender NSA employee files discrimination lawsuit against Trump administrationThe political implications could be severe. Jones warned that 2026 is shaping up to be a year of maximum danger for transgender people, predicting that federal policy levers will increasingly be used to target trans communities and trans-led organizations. Last January, on the day Trump was inaugurated, he issued executive orders targeting trans identities. In the year since, he has stripped transgender people of the ability to serve in the military, curtailed access to gender-affirming care for transgender veterans and young people, and made it harder for transgender people to get valid identity documents.I dont think there are any limitations on what they will do, Jones said. This is perhaps going to be the most dangerous year for trans people so far.Trumps remarks on transgender athletes came alongside a sweeping grab bag of other grievances and proposals, from renewed attacks on election integrity to meandering comments on health care, abortion funding, and insurance markets even as millions of Americans face disruptions to coverage following the expiration of tax subsidies.But it was the anti-trans rhetoric that drew some of the loudest reactions in the room, Jones pointed out, reinforcing its status as emotional oxygen for Trumps base.In a statement to The Advocate, Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, turned Trumps language back on him.HRC is also ready to fight like hell against the President and any candidates who want to scapegoat our communities instead of actually helping American families live safer, healthier lives, Wolf said. Pro-equality candidates, backed by over 75 million Equality Voters, are ready to turn the page on this Congress in the midterms.'Watch Trump's remarks at the Kennedy Center below - YouTube www.youtube.com

Ex-gay minister and gospel singer Donnie McClurkin has been accused of sexually abusing a younger man for years.Giuseppe Corletto made the accusation in a lawsuit filed Friday in state court in New York, according to NBC News and other media outlets. McClurkins attorney said the claims are categorically false.Corletto, who was interviewed by NBC News, was 21 when he first attended services at McClurkins church on Long Island in 2003. Corletto was motivated by reading McClurkins autobiography, in which the singer said his religious faith helped him overcome the curse of being gay.Related: Journalist Clay Cane Slams Antigay Preachers in New BookAt the service, McClurkin talked about being raped as a child, which resonated with me because thats similar to my story, Corletto told NBC. McClurkin claimed the abuse made him gay. Corletto met McClurkin after the event, and the two became friends. McClurkin hired Corletto as his assistant, and Corletto at first saw the other man as a mentor.But soon McClurkin began to grope Corletto as they prayed together for Corletto to be cured of homosexuality, the lawsuit says. The groping also occurred during services at McClurkins Perfecting Faith Church, according to the suit. And Corletto further alleges that McClurkin raped him.Corletto tried to quit his job, but McClurkin used guilt to persuade him to stay, the suit claims. Corletto finally took a position with an airline in 2008. But McClurkin continued to contact him, according to the suit, and in 2013, sexually assaulted him in a hotel room in Niagara Falls.After that, the suit alleges, McClurkin sent Corletto an email saying, I am the actual epitome of a desperate dirty old man, pawning and groping a young man who is just looking for a friendship and close plutonic relationship with someone he wants looks to for help, guidance and spirituality.Corletto said he attempted to take his life after the incident, then returned to McClurkins church for a brief period. But he soon decided to cut McClurkin out of his life.Corletto just discovered the 2013 email last year, he said. That convinced him I didnt make this up. I wasnt crazy, he told NBC. I felt vindicated in some ways. ... Hes literally admitting to his guilt. He said he has now embraced his sexuality and stopped trying to change it.His lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, said McClurkin took advantage of his client, who was confused and had problems accepting his sexuality coupled with his religious beliefs.But McClurkins attorney, Greg Lisi, issued a statement saying, At no time did Pastor McClurkin engage in any form of sexual abuse, assault, or sexual coercion of Mr. Corletto. The claims set forth in the lawsuit grossly mischaracterize their interactions, which occurred over a decade, and some accusations over 2 decades, ago. All these allegations are contradicted by the real facts.McClurkin has been popular in the gospel world, winning three Grammys and the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey. But he has been controversial elsewhere.In 2007, in his first run for president, Barack Obama featured McClurkin on a campaign tour. LGBTQ+ activists urged Obama to disinvite him, but the Obama campaign instead expanded the lineup, adding gay minister Andy Sidden.Obama told The Advocate that McClurkin was not vetted to the extent that people were aware of his attitudes with respect to gay and lesbians, LGBT issues at least not vetted as well as I would have liked to see. But Obama added that McClurkin wasnt serving as a spokesperson or surrogate for him.Related: Obama Talks All Things LGBT With The AdvocateIn 2013, McClurkin was scheduled to appear at a concert in Washington, D.C., for the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s March on Washington. But then-Mayor Vincent Grays aides decided to drop McClurkin from the event because of the singers homophobic views. McClurkin said the city officials were using bully tactics and infringing on his civil rights.

After starring in countless intense gay sex scenes in Heated Rivalry, constantly being freakier than his fans, and starring in gay fairy erotica, youd think there isnt anything Hudson Williams could do to surprise fans, but youd be wrong. Williams latest exploit is starring in a music video that finds him dressed up as Nosferatu and stalking and sucking the blood from a beautiful young woman. Williams, who portrays gay hockey star Shane Hollander in Heated Rivalry, is currently going viral on social media, not for another sexy shirtless photoshoot, but for starring in Love Lucilles new music video for the song Lights on On, which was released on Monday. (@) Fans have been talking endlessly on social media about Williams co-star Connor Storrie needing to be in the next season of Interview with the Vampire because of his physical and spiritual resemblance to Lestat actor Sam Reid, but it turns out, Williams is the first Heated Rivalry star to become a bloodsucker on screen.But far from taking the role seriously, the internet took one look at Williams as a Count Orlok-like vampire and dubbed him Draculas gay cousin iarchmybacula and Yaaaaassferatu.Keep scrolling to see the internets funniest and thirstiest reactions to seeing Hudson Williams as a vampire! (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@) (@)

CNN cut off President Donald Trump during a speech he gave earlier today at the Kennedy Center because he was rambling incoherently about things he saw on TV, Nicolas Maduro dancing, trans women in sports, selling Boeing planes, and the anniversary of January 6 (which is today), which prompted Trump to again falsely claim that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election from him.Many of the anecdotes Trump recounted he has used in previous speeches, but here they were chained one after another with no context, few details about any of them, and no apparent reason for him to be telling these stories. Related Trumps lesbian niece explains presidents mental decline in just 4 words Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today My wife hates when I do this, Trump said at one point in the speech, doing his bizarre impersonation of a trans weightlifter. She said, Its so unpresidential.'She hates it when I dance, he continued, referring to how he dances to YMCA at his rallies. She said, Its so unpresidential.'Could you imagine FDR dancing? he said, referring to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down.Trump called himself the king and then claimed he won an award called Salesman of the Year for selling Boeing planes though a quick Google search turns up no stories about this award before switching tracks to talk about tariffs. He claimed there is a tariff shelf where extra money for the federal government appears, that the people who work for him dont know about it, and that he has to remind them to check it regularly.Trump was rambling about auto-pens when he started talking about a general, and CNN just cut off its broadcast of his speech.Were going to continue to monitor the president of the United States, CNN host Wolf Blitzer politely cut in. Hes going all over the place, speaking on a wide range of issues. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Data from hundreds of public bodies in England shows only four complaints about transgender women in womens single-sex spaces over a period of three years, according to advocacy group TransLucent.As SceneMag reports, on January 3, the organization released the results of six separate investigations conducted in recent years. Between 20222024, TransLucent submitted Freedom of Information requests to major public bodies in England including NHS hospitals, domestic violence shelters, and local authorities that maintain public restrooms and changing facilities to see how many official complaints about trans women in women-only spaces had been documented. The investigations specifically examined whether cisgender women patients or service users had formally objected to sharing spaces with trans women, according to the report. Related Trans people banned from single-sex spaces based on their appearances in leaked UK guidance Across local authority toilets, hospital wards, and domestic abuse refuges, the evidence demonstrates that political and media rhetoric about trans women threatening women in single-sex spaces is unsupported by actual complaints, the report reads.Of 40 usable responses from authorities that maintain public toilettes and changing facilities (at public pools and leisure centers), TransLucent found no reported complaints about trans women in 2022. In 2024, the organization found only two complaints documented by the 47 authorities they surveyed one about policy, one based on perception rather than confirmed identity, according to TransLucent. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today When it came to NHS hospital wards, FOI requests to 102 NHS foundation trusts between April 2020 and June 2022 turned up no complaints from cisgender women patients about the presence of a trans woman on their ward. Subsequently, out of 157 substantive responses from NHS trusts to a December 2023 survey, only one reported an incident with the was not treated as serious, according to the report.As for domestic abuse refuges, TransLucent notes that a May 2024 Womens Aid survey on single-sex services and policies received only a 23.7% response rate, suggesting a lack of a problem. The groups own research, according to the report, has found that the domestic abuse refuge sectors established risk-assessment procedures, mixed models combining communal refuges with the independent living model, and national placement systems enable services to accommodate trans women without compromising other residents safety. Claims of trans women invading refuges are contradicted by sector practices, which focus on individual risk assessment rather than blanket exclusions, according to the report. The investigation concluded that where exclusion occurs, it typically reflects the stance of explicitly trans-hostile providers rather than any pattern of problematic behaviour by trans women seeking refuge from violence.TransLucents FOI investigations, the group says, demonstrate that trans womens presence in womens single-sex spaces doesnt generate the wave of complaints that gender-critical and culture war rhetoric suggests.With 382 public bodies reporting only four relevant complaints, the evidence is overwhelming: trans womens access to appropriate single-sex spaces is not creating documented safety or dignity problems in Englands major public services, the report concludes. The numbers are clear: this is a manufactured controversy, not a documented crisis.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Despite what he claims, human rights in Venezuela aren't what Donald Trump cares about, according to the president's critics.U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Saturday in an unprecedented military operation ordered by Trump without congressional approval. The two appeared in U.S. District Court in New York City Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses.Venezuelas Supreme Court has appointed Maduros vice president, Delcy Rodrguez, as interim president. Trump said that the U.S. will remain in charge of Venezuela and warned Rodrguez that she must cooperate or she will fare probably worse than Maduro and Flores.Related: 'Reckless and illegal': LGBTQ+ politicians blast Trump's military strike on VenezuelaThe U.S. takeover of Venezuela has ignited debate over the country's human rights record, though Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware noted in a post on Facebook that "while Trumps decision would be reckless and illegal regardless of the motivation, its clear that this isnt about fostering democracy for the Venezuelan people or combating drug trafficking.""If this was about democracy, then Donald Trump would not be willing to keep Moduros vice president in power nor would he have dismissed and disrespected Mara Corina Machado," McBride wrote. "If this was really about drugs, then Donald Trump would not have pardoned a former Honduran leader for drug trafficking crimes."In Venezuela, while LGBTQ+ people do have some protections, Outright International reports that queer Venezuelans "continue to face systemic discrimination.""The erosion of democratic institutions and the rule of law [in Venezuela and under Maduro] has enabled the government to impose increasing restrictions on civic space, including harassment and criminalization of organizations working on human rights and equality," the organization writes on its website. Here's everything to know about Venezuela's record when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights. Marriage equality in VenezuelaVenezuela does not have marriage equality, nor does it offer legal recognition for same-sex couples. Same-sex adoption is also not legal, though single adoption is.The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice points out that Article 77 of the country's constitution states, "Marriage, which is based on free consent and absolute equality of rights and obligations of the spouses, is protected. A stable de facto union between a man and a woman which meets the requirements established by law shall have the same effects as marriage."Same-sex sexual relations are not and have never been formally criminalized in the country, though LGBTQ+ people have often been targeted under decency laws.Venezuela's LGBTQ+ protectionsThe Venezuelan Constitution protects against hate crimes, with offenses motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity considered aggravating circumstances. Legal protections exist in employment, banking, and housing based on sexual orientation, but protections based on gender identity only exist in housing. "No discrimination based on race, sex, creed or social standing shall be permitted, nor, in general, any discrimination with the intent or effect of nullifying or encroaching upon the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on equal terms, of the rights and liberties of every individual," Article 21 states.Men who have sex with men are still banned from donating blood in Venezuela, but the Supreme Court of Justice annulled section 565 of the Military Justice Code in 2023, which banned armed forces members from engaging in consensual same-sex sexual activities.Transgender rights in VenezuelaVenezuela does not currently allow citizens to change their gender on identification documents, though few cases have been granted following medical and psychological examinations. From 1977 to 1998, the country permitted transgender individuals legal recognition so long as they had undergone surgery, though this ended when Hugo Chavez imposed a new constitution.Gender-affirming care such as hormone replacement therapy is not widely available in Venezuela. A 2023 report from the Department of State under Joe Biden found that "transgender and intersex persons [are] not provided adequate medical services, including hormone therapy and psychological support.""Maduro representatives systematically denied recognition to transgender, intersex, and nonbinary persons by refusing to issue them identity documents in their preferred gender," the report stated. "As identity documents were required for access to education, employment, housing, health care, and other services, these discriminatory actions often led transgender and intersex persons to become victims of human trafficking."Venezuela's first transgender legislatorTamara Adrian, an out trans woman who worked as a lawyer and university professor, was elected to the National Assembly of Venezuela in 2015 at the age of 61, becoming the first out trans elected official in the country and the second out trans legislator within the Americas. She is a member of the progressive pro-LGBTQ+ Popular Will party, which stands in opposition to Maduro's PSUV.After traveling to Thailand in 2002 to receive gender-affirming surgery, Adrian appealed to the Venezuelan Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court to recognize her gender identity in May 2004. She has yet to receive a reply to her appeal."Despite the euphoria of being part of such a historic moment, to be a politician transgender or not in the new Venezuela can be described in one word: frustrating," Adrian wrote in a 2017 essay for The Advocate. "As a human rights activist and now an elected leader, I find it endlessly frustrating that no single legislative advancement regarding LGBTI rights has been achieved during the 17 years of Chavist domination of the National Assembly. And given the state of the country today, it has been impossible to push forward the much-needed laws granting equal rights to our communities."LGBTQ+ activists targeted in VenezuelaDespite same-sex sexual relations being legal in Venezuela, authorities have used vagrancy laws to disproportionately target the LGBTQ+ community. One notable example is the 2023 raid of popular queer sauna Avalon Club, which resulted in 33 being arrested on noise level and public indecency charges.Multiple LGBTQ+ activists were detained by Venezuelan authorities in 2024 without charge. Yendri Velsquez, coordinator of the Venezuelan Observatory of LGBTIQ+ Violence, was arrested at an airport in August and held incommunicado for six hours after being told his passport was nullified. The same month, activist Kody Campos was almost arrested when officials conducted a warrantless search of his home, leaving only after they realized he was live-streaming the raid.What LGBTQ+ legislators are saying about Trump's takeoverLGBTQ+ U.S. lawmakers have been among some of the most vocal in condemning Trump's abduction of Maduro and invasion of Venezuela. Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first out trans member of Congress, continued to say that "I fully support a renewed and urgent push for new War Powers Resolutions to prevent further military action in Venezuela and to forbid the expansion of this reckless pursuit of other countries' natural resources.""Health care premiums are skyrocketing, housing is too expensive, groceries and prescription drugs too often break the bank and now Donald Trump wants to put American lives and money on the line so that his billionaire buddies can get even richer off of other countrys oil and minerals," McBride wrote. "The American people do not want another generation of forever wars and neither do I."Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California, co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said in a post online that "this war against Venezuela is unconstitutional and a dangerous action from an out of control President.""Trump has now made it clear: this is about the oil, and he intends for the United States to run the country," Garcia wrote. "Maduro is a brutal dictator, but that does not justify these actions without Congressional approval. Instead of focusing on costs and affordability here at home, Trump wants more foreign wars. Congress must vote on a war powers action immediately."Democratic Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont said in a statement that the decision "brings us further down the dangerous path of abandoning our democratic principles, consolidating power, and destroying our Constitution."Nicols Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator, and Venezuelans have suffered greatly under his regime. That does not diminish the fact that President Trump has zero authority to use military force to remove the leader of another sovereign country," Balint said. "This unilateral military action was reckless, illegal and taken without any congressional briefing, approval or oversight."

If Heated Rivalry taught us anything, its that we love a sweet and steamy gay love story. For many, it felt like that series came out of nowhere, but for fans of the BL genre, weve known that these kinds of gay romanticand often very sexyseries are plentiful, if you know where to look.For those unfamiliar with BL (aka Boys Love) dramas, they are a subgenre of manga, anime, series, and movies that originated in Japan but have become extremely popular across Asia and focus on romance, relationships, and sex between male characters.And there are a tonand we mean a TONof them out there. The question is, where can you feast your eyes on them? The good news is theyre everywhere, including Tubi, Netflix, and some specialized streaming services.Curious? Here are some 11 BL dramas ranging from charming and sweet to super spicy, and where to watch them.All series descriptions are courtesy of their respective streaming services.My Personal WeathermanSynopsis: A beloved TV weatherman hides a tyrannical side, secretly supporting a manga artist in exchange for unwavering obedience.Romantic or spicy?: Spicy! Where to watch: TubiThe New EmployeeSynopsis: "A late-blooming virgin lands his dream internship where he meets his handsome, but distant boss. Can they resist temptation while working together?"Romantic or spicy?: Romantic Where to watch: TubiLove is Like a PoisonSynopsis: An elite but socially awkward lawyer takes in a genius con artist. Together, they secretly solve complex legal cases using unethically obtained evidence.Romantic or spicy?: Romantic Where to watch: NetflixMr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss!Synopsis: Tensions sizzle when a student with horrible luck joins forces with another boy with chronic good luck in this charming romance based on a hit manga.Romantic or spicy?: Romantic Where to watch: TubiLove SeaSynopsis: Tongrak is a good-looking and hot guy from a wealthy family who is also a writer of popular romance novels. While travelling in search of inspiration for his most recent novel, he chances to meet Mahasamu, a young, irritating and dorky southern man. When they end up in bed together, however, Tongrak finds himself hooked.Romantic or spicy?: Spicy Where to watch: iQIYIThe End of the World With YouSynopsis: Ten days before the worlds end, former lovers are reunited, leading them to wonder if it isnt too late to reignite an old flame.Romantic or spicy?: Both! Where to watch: VikiTakara-Kun & Amagi-KunSynopsis: With one clumsy slip of the tongue, a secret crush evolves into a hush-hush romance between an unassuming high school boy and his popular classmate.Romantic or spicy?: RomanticWhere to watch: TubiI Cannot Reach YouSynopsis: Longtime friends and total opposites, Yamato and Kakeru always stick together. When the reserved Yamato admits his feelings, can everything change?Romantic or spicy?: Romantic Where to watch: NetflixOnly FriendsSynopsis: Mew, Ray, Boston and Namchueama group of business students running a hostel togetherblur the lines between friendship and romance.Romantic or spicy?: Where to watch: YouTubeBad BuddySynopsis: Two young men from rival families who despise one another form a close bond. Can they help deep-set ill-will turn into romance and ensure love triumphs over hate?Romantic or spicy?: Romantic Where to watch: VikiMy Stand In (Uncut)Synopsis: Joe, a stuntman, is killed in an accident and mysteriously wakes up in the body of another man, now determined to avoid the same fate. Ming, an actor unaware of Joe's predicament, has plans of his own to keep Joe by his side.Romantic or spicy?: Spicy, definitely spicy Where to watch: iQIYI

Following his desperate and failed bid to save his sinking mayoral campaign by cozying up to the current presidential administration and just months after denouncing trans students using city public school bathrooms outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams allocated $2 million in emergency funds to trans organizations suffering in the wake of sweeping federal aid cuts.The former mayors final day in office was December 31. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was sworn in the following morning. Related MAGA explodes over Zohran Mamdanis choice of a lesbian to head NYCs Fire Department Randy Mastro, First Deputy Mayor for Adams, called the outgoing mayors support of essential services for trans and nonbinary people an imperative.We saw a need after federal budget cuts, and we are responding to it, he said in a statement reported by the Gothamist. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The citys health department will administer the emergency funds, with up to $92,000 awarded to each of roughly 20 community-based organizations.The majority of award applicants clients must be transgender, gender-nonconforming or nonbinary, officials said. The money will go to nonprofits offering health care, housing, legal advocacy, community-building, and crisis response services.The emergency allocation comes after intense criticism of Adams in September, when he curried favor with the president by slamming New York City school policies allowing trans students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.I dont believe that should happen, Adams said then of trans-inclusive school bathrooms. I believe that we have become so politically correct that we are incorrect. Adams vowed he would use whatever power I have to roll back such policies.But after becoming the first New York City mayor to be charged with crimes while in office among them bribery, misuse of public funds, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, as laid out in federal charges in 2024 that power quickly disappeared. With record-low poll numbers, Adams dropped out of the mayors race days after his bathroom bow to the president.The Democrat had already curried favor with the White House with his public ambivalence over the presidents return to office. He was rewarded with the Justice Department dropping all charges against him in February.The emergency funding aligns with Adams previous public support for the transgender community, before jumping on the presidents anti-trans bandwagon. In June 2023, Adams declared New York City a safe haven for trans people, barring city agencies from cooperating with investigations or prosecutions initiated by other states over gender-affirming care, and denying the use of city resources to detain anyone for providing or receiving it.Mamdani haspledgedto spend $57 million on medical centers that provide gender-affirming care and $8 million more to develop new and broader resources. While campaigning, he attended a Trans Day of Visibility rally and a trans community town hall in May.Mamdani whose campaign heavily focused on making the city more affordable also vowed his administration would expand and protect gender-affirming care, make the city an LGBTQ+ sanctuary city, and create an Office of LGBTQIA+ affairs.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been gaining a reputation for spicy comebacks amid President Donald Trump's second term and this latest may be his zestiest yet.A conservative influencer named Benny Johnson, who was fired from Buzzfeed after an internal investigation found that he plagiarized at least 40 stories, taunted the governor Tuesday on X, saying that he would be traveling to California to "investigate fraud.""The fraud uncovered in Minnesota was very bad and led to the destruction of Tim Walzs career. But Gavin Newsoms California is far worse," Johnson's post on X reads. An account for the governor's press office responded to the post, saying, "Well make sure Grindr servers are ready" (@) This joke may refer to alleged outages of the gay hookup app at Charlie Kirk's funeral that cited the website Downdetector, which provides real-time reports of online outages. The fact-checking website Snopes later noted that Downdetector is "crowdsourced and any user can report an outage," and a representative for Grindr told Out at the time that no outages were reported on Grindr's status page.It may also refer to December remarks from far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who claimed to know on Tim Pool's podcast that Johnson, despite his conservative family-man image, had a reputation for sleeping with "younger men." Following Yiannopoulos's claims, Johnson said on X that he is "duty bound" to sue those who "maliciously defame" him.The replies to the governor's post were mostly positive, with people leaving comments like "Okay, that's funny." Newsom has largely vocalized support for the LGBTQ+ community though in 2025, he complicated this support by calling trans women competing in women's sports "deeply unfair." Some commenters felt the new joke to be off-color and called it "homophobic." This isn't the first instance of liberals employing gay jokes to undermine conservatives. Notably, Jennifer Welch of the I've Had It podcast cracked a joke about Vice President JD Vance being a "failed drag queen" and said he couldn't do it because he "wasn't fabulous enough." This comment was mostly well-received by listeners, but it also found dissenters, as many people felt that queer people were being made out to be the butt of the joke.Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota and Kamala Harris's running mate in the 2024 presidential election, dropped his bid for gubernatorial reelection Monday following intensified scrutiny over fraud in his state's safety-net programs. Following the news over Walz, President Trump announced on Truth Social that "Fraud Investigation of California has begun," providing no details.

A video of ESPN anchorperson Scott Van Pelts shocked reaction to an on-air same-sex kiss received over 8.2 million views by Tuesday evening. The same-sex smooch occurred during the sports networks coverage of New Years celebrations in New York City shortly after midnight.When the network began broadcasting a different-sex couple kissing, the 59-year-old anchorperson said, Yeah Live makeouts on SportsCenter. Get into it. However, when the camera captured a male couple kissing, Pelt groaned, Ohhhhhhhh! What are we.?? and began shaking his head. Related Smooching for equality: A brief history of kiss-ins He then caught himself, threw his arms open while still shaking his head, and said, What do we got? We got love in the air! Numerous commenters on X empathized with Pelts shock, while others noted that he may have been professionally disciplined if he had expressed any disapproval of the kiss. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today NEW: ESPNs Scott Van Pelt visibly disgusted after two men making out popped up on his screen during New Years coverage.Yeah Live makeouts on Sports Center. Get into it, he said in response to the normal couples.Ohhhhhhhh! What are we. he said in response to the gay pic.twitter.com/gkPFmJA9ng Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2026Of course, this isnt the first time that a male same-sex kiss on New Years Eve has caused a stir.At the start of 2024, anti-LGBTQ+ TV viewers were upset by CNNs New Years celebration footage of two men kissing in New York Citys Times Square, which occurred a few seconds after the new year began.The moment happened during the cable networksNew Years Eve Livecoverage, hosted by out media personalities Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper. CNNs first shot after the ball drop appears to be an interracial gay kiss. The outrage will be hilarious,Joe My Godblogger Joe Jervis predicted shortly after the kiss aired.The couple, Jake Erikkson and Corin Christian, said they hoped their kiss had a bigger impact than a few seconds of airtime allowed. They want to spread the love. I had the amazing opportunity to share a New Years kiss with my partner in front of the whole world.We appreciate the positive feedback we received and hope that our experience can inspire youth to always be themselves, ErikksontoldPinkNews. Hate and anger are secondary emotions.At the end of the day, me and my partner are happy and in love, no matter where the backlash comes from, Christian added. Be who you are for your pride and know that you are not alone Love your partner with everything you have because theres nothing better than having comfort to fall back on when you need it.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

New year, new queer books!The post Our Most Anticipated Queer Books for January 2026 appeared first on Autostraddle.

Kazakhstans President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a set of amendments that includes a ban on LGBTQ+ speech on December 30.The bill, modeled on Russias ban on LGBTQ+ speech,included fines and jail timefor people found to have spread pro-LGBTQ+ messages in the media (including education and advertising materials) or on social media. The bill bans the use of media, literature, entertainment, and other events that promote non-traditional sexual relations and pedophilia, linking LGBTQ+ identities with child sex abuse, an old negative stereotype used to drum up support for homophobia. Related Russia fines Apple for violating anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda laws Children and teenagers are exposed to information online every day that can negatively impact their ideas about family, morality, and the future, Kazakh Education Minister Gani Beisembayev told lawmakers before the vote.LGBTQ+ advocates denounced the new law. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Any attempt to ban visibility, discussion, or support of LGBT people is not the defense of traditional values; its a rejection of elementary human rights, said activist Abdel Mukhtarov at a press conference.The bill stipulates that fines for supporting LGBTQ+ people in the media will be 150,000 Kazakh tenge (about $290), with a 300,000 tenge ($580) fine for subsequent offenses. The bill was inspired by a 2024 citizens petition that garnered over 50,000 signatures. It was passed by the lower chamber of parliament in early November and by the countrys Senate in December. President Tokayev, who has a history of making anti-LGBTQ+ comments, signed it later that month.For decades, many countries have had so-called democratic moral values foisted on them, including LGBT, Tokayev said in a speech in March 2025, according to eurasianet. Supporters of the law werent able to point to many examples of the type of speech that they would consider propaganda, and critics of the law say that it will be used to stamp out any pro-LGBTQ+ speech in public. One member of parliament who supported the law showed a video of local activists who made a large image of a vagina for a public event and said that this is an example of something that the law would ban. This here is an indecent photo, he said. How can you put this on social media?At around the time that the petition was submitted, a Ministry of Health committee of experts issued a report on the effects of LGBTQ+ people on youth and found no evidence of negative influence. Rather, according to our research, the influence of the LGBT movement on the sexual identity of minors has a positive character, the report stated. Teenagers belonging to [sexual] minorities can learn about their rights, receive support, and avoid isolation. The report was removed from the ministrys website just after the process to pass the anti-LGBTQ+ bill was started.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Out is again nominated for Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage in the 37th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Nominations were announced Wednesday.Out won the Overall Coverage award in 2024. In 2020, its "Trans Obituaries Project" won for Outstanding Magazine Article.The Advocate, a sister publication of Out, won the Overall Coverage award in 2025, 2023, 2022, and 2020, and won for Outstanding Print Article in 2021. It is nominated in the Overall Coverage category again this year.Other nominees in the Overall Coverage category are Cosmo, Gaye Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, People, Poz, Rolling Stone, Time, and Variety.The Advocate is also nominated in the Outstanding Online or Print Journalism Article category for Christopher Wiggins's story "As the first out trans person in Congress, Sarah McBride is ready to fight for us."The awards recognize fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ+ people and issues across a wide swath of media, including television, film, music, theater, podcasts, journalism, Spanish-language media, and more. There are 291 nominees across 32 categories, honoring work published, released, or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2025. The awards will be presented March 5 in Los Angeles.Related: LGBTQ+ celebs stand up for trans equality: 'Don't listen to these hateful losers'The Outstanding New TV Series category reflects a wealth of LGBTQ+ stories, with Boots, Chad Powers, Clean Slate, The Four Seasons, Heated Rivalry, The Hunting Wives, I Love LA, Long Story Short, Mid-Century Modern, Overcompensating, and Pluribus.Among the other TV and Film nominees are Amy Bradley Is Missing, Abbott Elementary, Hacks, Hedda, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Kiss of the Spider Woman, On Swift Horses, Palm Royale, Pee-wee as Himself, Severance, Stranger Things, The Gilded Age, The Last of Us, and Twinless.Related: Heated Rivalry actors, characters, and gay storylines (updated guide)The podcasts categories include many LGBTQ+ stories, with nominees such as Call Her Daddy, Good Hang With Amy Poehler, Handsome, House Guest, Ive Had It, Las Culturistas, Shut Up Evan, and We Can Do Hard Things.LGBTQ+ music superstars Conan Gray, Elton John & Brandi Carlile, Frankie Grande, Lady Gaga, KATSEYE, Maren Morris, Wet Leg, Young Miko, and others are nominated in the Outstanding Music Artist and Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist categories.Related: How Jennifer Lopez and Tonatiuh brought Kiss of the Spider Woman to the screenThe most popular series and media appear on this years list of nominees because LGBTQ stories are a winning strategy for a global audience who demands bold and original storytelling. As the media landscape shifts, gaming, local news, and podcasts have also emerged as proud homes to LGBTQ talent and narratives, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a press release. In the face of rising anti-LGBTQ disinformation, GLAAD remains relentless in our mission to work across all forms of media and to tell the fair and accurate stories that protect values of family, fairness, and freedom for all.Ellis is executive producer of the awards ceremony, alongside GLAADs Rich Ferraro and Anthony Allen Ramos. GLAADs Jose Useche will serve as producer. The ceremony is produced in partnership with STAMP Event Co., and the official sponsor is Hornitos Tequila.In addition to the competitive awards, each year GLAAD presents noncompetitive honors to projects across entertainment and media that do not fit into existing or traditional GLAAD Media Awards categories. GLAAD has chosen four people and projects to receive this honor this year for spotlighting the strength, resilience, and ingenuity of the LGBTQ+ community.The Special Recognition honor will go to Andry Jos Hernndez Romero, the gay makeup artist and Venezuelan refugee wrongly deported from the U.S. to a brutal prison in El Salvador; Before We Forget (Twenty Nine Palms Entertainment), a gay coming-of-age film set in Italy; The Drowsy Chaperone in Concert (Breaking the Binary Theatre), a one-night event that took place October 20 at New York Citys Carnegie Hall with an all-transgender, nonbinary, and Two-Spirit cast; and Gaydar With Anania, a TikTok show in which host Anania has interviewed people ranging from local New York City stand-up comics to A-list artists like Chappell Roan, Bob the Drag Queen, Rene Rapp, and Lucy Daucus.Here is the full list of nominees:Outstanding Film Wide Theatrical ReleaseBlue Moon (Sony Pictures Classics)Christy (Black Bear Pictures)Clown in a Cornfield (RLJE Films/Shudder)Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (Focus Features)The History of Sound (Mubi)I Know What You Did Last Summer (Sony Pictures Releasing)Kiss of the Spider Woman (Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions/LD Entertainment)On Swift Horses (Sony Pictures Classics)Twinless (Roadside Attractions)The Wedding Banquet (Bleecker Street)Outstanding Film Limited Theatrical ReleaseCactus Pears (Strand Releasing)Fairyland (Lionsgate/WILLA)Griffin in Summer (Vertical)I Wish You All the Best (Lionsgate)A Nice Indian Boy (Blue Harbor Entertainment)Plainclothes (Magnolia Pictures)Ponyboi (Fox Entertainment Studios)The Queen of My Dreams (Product of Culture/WILLA)Sorry, Baby (A24)Young Hearts (Strand Releasing)Outstanding Film Streaming or TV10Dance (Netflix)The Christmas Baby (Hallmark Channel)Echo Valley (Apple TV)Hedda (Amazon MGM Studios)A Keller Christmas Vacation (Hallmark Channel)Noah's Arc: The Movie (Paramount+)Oh. What. Fun. (Prime Video)The Old Guard 2 (Netflix)The Parenting (HBO Max)Queen of Coal (Netflix)Outstanding DocumentaryAmy Bradley Is Missing (Netflix)Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV)Enigma (HBO)Heightened Scrutiny (Fourth Act Film)I'm Your Venus (Netflix)In Transit (Prime Video)Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf (Peacock)"A Mother Apart," POV (PBS)Pee-wee as Himself (HBO)Sally (National Geographic)Outstanding New TV SeriesBoots (Netflix)Chad Powers (Hulu)Clean Slate (Prime Video)The Four Seasons (Netflix)Heated Rivalry (HBO Max)The Hunting Wives (Netflix)I Love LA (HBO)Long Story Short (Netflix)Mid-Century Modern (Hulu)Overcompensating (Prime Video)Pluribus (Apple TV)Outstanding Comedy SeriesAbbott Elementary (ABC)Big Boys (Hulu)Ghosts (CBS)Hacks (HBO)Hazbin Hotel (Prime Video)Loot (Apple TV)Palm Royale (Apple TV)The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)Survival of the Thickest (Netflix)The Upshaws (Netflix)Outstanding Drama SeriesBrilliant Minds (NBC)The Buccaneers (Apple TV)Doctor Who (Disney+)The Gilded Age (HBO)The Last of Us (HBO)Power Book III: Raising Kanan (Starz)The Sandman (Netflix)Severance (Apple TV)Stranger Things (Netflix)Yellowjackets (Showtime)Outstanding Limited or Anthology SeriesThe Beast in Me (Netflix)Chief of War (Apple TV)Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (Peacock)Hal & Harper (Mubi)"Hotel Reverie" Black Mirror (Netflix)Lost Boys and Fairies (Britbox)Mr Loverman (Britbox)Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu)Prime Target (Apple TV)Wayward (Netflix)Outstanding Reality ProgramBack to the Frontier (Magnolia Network)House on Fire (BET+)Jay & Pamela (TLC)June Farms (Prime Video)Love on the Spectrum (Netflix)Next Gen NYC (Bravo)Selling Sunset (Netflix)Southern Charm (Bravo)Southern Hospitality (Bravo)The Ultimatum: Queer Love (Netflix)Outstanding Reality Competition ProgramAmerican Ninja Warrior (NBC)The Boulet Brothers' Dragula: Titans (AMC+/Shudder)Dancing With the Stars (ABC)Finding Mr. Christmas (Hallmark+)I Kissed a Boy (Hulu)I Kissed a Girl (Hulu)Project Runway (Freeform)RuPaul's Drag Race (MTV)The Traitors (Peacock)The Voice (NBC)Outstanding Childrens ProgrammingBe@rbrick (Apple TV)Firebuds (Disney Jr.)"Ghost Town," Mermicorno: Starfall (HBO Max)"No Wrong Way to Be You," Sesame Street (HBO Max)Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (Disney Jr./Disney+)Outstanding Kids & Family Programming - Live ActionGoosebumps: The Vanishing (Disney+/Hulu)Jane (Apple TV)School Spirits (Paramount+)"Selamiut," Washington Black (Hulu)XO, Kitty (Netflix)Outstanding Kids & Family Programming - AnimatedAdventure Time: Fionna and Cake (HBO Max)The Bravest Knight (Hulu)Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (Netflix)Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Disney Channel)The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder (Disney+)Outstanding Music ArtistConan Gray, Wishbone (Republic Records)Durand Bernarr, BLOOM (Durand Bernarr / DSING RECORDS / Create Music Group Inc.)Elton John & Brandi Carlile, Who Believes in Angels (Interscope Records)Ethel Cain, Willoughby Tucker, Ill Always Love You (Daughters of Cain)G Flip, Dream Ride (G Flip / AWAL Recordings)Lady Gaga, MAYHEM (Streamline / Interscope Records)Maren Morris, DREAMSICLE (Columbia Records)Rene Rapp, Bite Me (Interscope Records)Ty Herndon, THIRTY, Vol. 1 (Club44 Records)Young Miko, Do Not Disturb (The Wave Music Group / Capitol Records)Outstanding Breakthrough Music ArtistAmaarae (Golden Angel LLC / Interscope Records)Chris Housman (Chris Housman)Destin Conrad (Above Ground Ent / EMPIRE)Eli (Zelig Music & RCA Records)Frankie Grande (Republic Records)Guitarricadelafuente (Sony Music Entertainment)KATSEYE (HYBE x Geffen Records)Shygirl (NUXXE / Because Music)Snow Wife (SNOWGLOBE)Wet Leg (Domino Recording Co)Outstanding Broadway ProductionLiberation, by Bess WohlOedipus, by Robert IckePurpose, by Branden Jacobs-JenkinsRedwood, book by Tina Landau, music by Kate DiazSmash, book by Rick Elice and Bob Martin, music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott WittmanOutstanding PodcastBald & The Beautiful (Studio 71)Las Culturistas (iHeart)The Daily Beans Podcast (MSW Media)Handsome Podcast (Headgum)Outlaws With TS Madison (iHeart)The Read (Loud Speakers Network)Shut Up Evan (Acast)So True With Caleb Hearon (Wave)Tactful Pettiness (PodcastOne)We Can Do Hard Things (Audacy)Outstanding Podcast Episode"All-American Grift: We Investigated Trump's Favorite Sports Troll," Pablo Torre Finds Out (Meadowlark Media)"Carl Nassib," The Pivot Podcast (Shots Studio)"Chappell Roan: Are People Scared of Me?," Call Her Daddy (The Unwell Network / SiriusXM)"Dispatches From the Living Memory of Trans People of Color," Code Switch (NPR)"Matthew, Daniel, & Islan, Crime Junkie (Audiochuck)"Niecy Nash-Betts Opens Up About the Love That Changed Everything," House Guest (Scott Evans/Spotify)"The Paper Doll: Dylan Mulvaney," Between Us With Heather and Terry Dubrow (iHeartPodcasts)"Rachel Maddow: Trump's Alaska Summit With Putin Is an 'Abject Humiliation'," Pivot (New York Magazine / Vox Media)"Rene Rapp," Good Hang With Amy Poehler (The Ringer / Spotify)"Straight Panic, Gay Excellence," I've Had It (PodcastOne)Outstanding Video GameAmbrosia Sky: Act One (Soft Rains)Assassin's Creed Shadows (Ubisoft)The August Before (Silly Little Games/Catoptric Games)Cabernet (Party for Introverts/Akupara Games)The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily (One or Eight/Alliance Arts)Hades II (Supergiant Games)Lost Records: Bloom and Rage (DON'T NOD)Old Skies (Wadjet Eye Games)Road to Empress (New One Studio)The Roottrees are Dead (Evil Trout Inc.)Outstanding Comic BookAbsolute Green Lantern, by Al Ewing, Jahnoy Lindsay, Jason Howard, Riley Rossmo, Sid Kotian, Iaki Azpiazu, Pressy, Lucas Gattoni (DC Comics)Avengers Academy: Marvel's Voices, by Anthony Oliveira, Elsa Sjunneson, Carola Borelli, Bailie Rosenlund, Pablo Collar, Charles Stewart III, Alti Firmansyah, Minkyu Jung, KJ Daz, Ruth Redmond, Dono Snchez-Almara, Ariana Maher, Joe Caramagna (Marvel Infinity Comics)The Department of Truth, by James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds, Letizia Cadonici, Aditya Bidikar, Jordie Bellaire, Dylan Todd (Image Comics)Exceptional X-Men, by Eve L. Ewing, Carmen Carnero, Federica Mancin, Nolan Woodard, Travis Lanham (Marvel Comics)Minor Arcana, by Jeff Lemire, Patricio Delpeche, Letizia Cadonici, Steve Wands (BOOM! Studios)The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos: Children of the Night, by Tate Brombal based on an idea by James Tynion IV, Isaac Goodhart, Priscilla Petraites, Miquel Muerto, Aditya Bidikar (Dark Horse Comics)Poison Ivy, by G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Brian Level, Atagun Ilhan, Mark BuckinghamArif Prianto, Lee Loughridge, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Tom Napolitano (DC Comics)Runaways, by Rainbow Rowell, Elena Casagrande, Roberta Ingranata, Lee Ferguson, Dee Cunniffe, Travis Lanham (Marvel Comics)Secret Six, by Nicole Maines, Stephen Segovia, Cian Tormey, Roger Cruz, Rain Beredo, Steve Wands (DC Comics)Wynd: The Power of the Blood, by James Tynion IV, Michael Dialynas, Andworld Design, Nancy Mojica, Madison Goyette (BOOM! Studios)Outstanding Original Graphic Novel/AnthologyCannon, by Lee Lai (Drawn & Quarterly)Dan in Green Gables, by Rey Terciero, Claudia Aguirre (Penguin Workshop)First Kiss with Fangs, by Marker Snyder (Holiday House)Gaysians, by Mike Curato (Algonquin Books)Hey, Mary!, by Andrew Wheeler, Rye Hickman, Hank Jones, Frank Cvetkovic (Oni Press)It Rhymes with Takei, by George Takei, Steven Scott, Justin Eisinger, Harmony Becker, Jos Villarrubia (Top Shelf Productions)Low Orbit, by Kazimir Lee (Top Shelf Productions)A Song for You and I, by K. O'Neill (Random House Graphic)Spent, by Alison Bechdel, Holly Rae Taylor, Jon Chad (Mariner Books)Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, by Alex L. Combs, Andrew Eakett, Tif Bucknor (Candlewick Press)Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode"Greg Mathis Jr. Opens Up About Living as His Authentic Self," Tamron Hall (Syndicated)"Guest Host Alan Cumming on Attacks Against the Trans Community & Bringing Kindness Back in America," Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)"JHud Surprises Black Gay Weddings Founders with Special Anniversary Gift," The Jennifer Hudson Show (Syndicated)"Kelly Clarkson Celebrates Trans Day of Visibility With 'TRANSA' Creator Massima Bell," The Kelly Clarkson Show (Syndicated)Las Culturistas Culture Awards (Bravo/Peacock)"Laverne Cox and George Wallace Star In Norman Lear's Final Show, 'Clean Slate,'" The View (ABC)"Max Salvador and Victoria SanJuan," Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen (Bravo)"New York Pride Week and Corporate Sponsors Pull Back by Trump," The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS)"Trans Athletes," Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)"Transgender Soldiers Explain Why Trumps Military Ban Is Bogus," The Daily Show (Comedy Central)Outstanding Magazine Overall CoverageThe AdvocateCosmoGaye MagazineThe Hollywood ReporterOUTPeoplePozRolling StoneTIMEVarietyOutstanding TV Journalism Long-Form"Heart of Pride" (CBS 7 Philadelphia)"HIV Unwrapped" +Life (Hulu / ABC Localish)"Late to the Party: Coming Out Later in Life" (ABC)"Living in Pryde" (GBH Boston)"Living Proof" (Hulu)"Pride 2025 - Rise Up: Pride in Protest." (ABC 7 New York)"Pride Edition 2025 | Storytellers" LatiNation (LATV)"Shaye & Amanda Scott" Its Ok To Ask Questions (NBC 5 Chicago)"Still Marching: A NY1 Pride Month Special" (Spectrum News NY1)"A Transgender Marine Speaks Out" (NBC 7 San Diego)Outstanding TV Journalism Segment or Special"Community during fascism: Actress Laverne Cox on the importance of WorldPride in Trumps D.C.," The Weekend (MS NOW)"Final ride from SF to LA for AIDS/LifeCycle, but the fight to end HIV/AIDS continues," (ABC 7 San Francisco)"High Stakes at the Supreme Court: Conversion Therapy," ABC News Live (ABC)"How life is changing for trans Americans under the Trump administration," PBS News Hour (PBS)"'I still want to serve': Transgender servicemembers face uncertain future under Trump admin," Meet the Press NOW (NBC News NOW)"LGBTQ-inclusive mass held in Rome, Good Morning America (ABC)"Meet Harper Watters, the barrier-breaker at the Houston Ballet," TODAY with Jenna & Friends (NBC)"Minnesota Rep. Leigh Finke reacts to backlash against trans community," Talking Points (CBS 4 Minnesota)"Transgender man speaks out after passport lists wrong gender under Trump policy," CBS Evening News (CBS)"'Violation of due process': Lawyer of gay makeup artist deported speaks out," MS NOW Reports (MS NOW)Outstanding Online or Print Journalism Article"As the first out trans person in Congress, Sarah McBride is ready to fight for us" by Christopher Wiggins (The Advocate)"Detransition is rare, but its driving anti-trans policy anyway" by Orion Rummler (19thNews.org)"He fled Iraq after he was jailed for being gay. Now Donald Trump is making his life hell." by Daniel Villareal (LGBTQNation.com)"I Spent Eight Years in Conversion Therapy Mistaking Shame for Faith" by TImothy Schraeder Rodriguez (Time)"King of Olympus" by Robert W. Fieseler (64 Parishes)"Queer in present danger: Richmond's LGBTQ+ community finding safe spaces in difficult times" by Justin Lo (Richmond Times-Dispatch)"The Rainbows They Tried to Erase" by David Clarke (OutSmart Magazine)"Tramell Tillman on His Emotional Coming Out Story, 'Severance' Delays and Acting With Tom Cruise the Day After He Got 'Mission: Impossible' Script" by Clayton Davis (Variety)"Trans people didnt ask to get pulled into any of this" by Mel Woods (Xtra)"Vivian Jenna Wilson on Being Elon Musk's Estranged Daughter, Protecting Trans Youth and Taking on the Right Online" by Ella Yurman (Teen Vogue)Outstanding Online Journalism Video or Multimedia"12 days of pride" [series] (BET.com)"Being Out" [series] (OutSports.com)"Decades in, these women's love was 'Hidden Once, Hidden Twice'" (NPR.org)"Extended interview: Oh, Mary! Tony nominee Cole Escola" (CBSNews.com)"From Struggling With Psoriasis to Becoming Soraya Sis: How This Drag Artist Learned to Embrace Their Skin" (EverydayHealth.com)"Logo Legend Jinkx Monsoon" (LogoTV.com)"A Mother and Her Trans Teen Decide to Leave the U.S." (NewYorker.com)"Pride 50 2025: Celebrate Queer Changemakers" [series] (Queerty.com)"Transcestors & Trailblazers: 30 Lives, 30 Legacies" (TransLash.org)"Viral video of her torture shocked Colombia. The killings didnt stop there" (CNN.com)Outstanding Independent Journalism (formerly Outstanding Blog)Assigned MediaBuckeye FlameCharlottes Web ThoughtsErin in the MorningImpact MediaQueer KentuckyQueer ReviewTrans News NetworkUnder the Desk NewsXtra MagazineSpecial RecognitionThe Drowsy Chaperone in Concert (Breaking the Binary Theatre)Gaydar with AnaniaSPANISH-LANGUAGE CATEGORIESOutstanding Scripted Television Series // Serie de Televisin con Guin SobresalienteEl fin del amor (Prime Video)Mariliendre (Atresplayer)Mujeres con hombreras (HBO Max)Olympo (Netflix)Serpientes y Escaleras (Netflix)Outstanding TV Journalism // Periodismo Televisivo Sobresaliente"Brasil: iglesias promueven la detransicin de gnero," En Foco (FRANCE 24 Espaol)"De maquillar reinas de belleza a preso en El Salvador," Noticias Telemundo (Telemundo)"La historia del Stonewall Inn y la importancia de Nueva York para la comunidad LGBTQ+," Noticiero Univision 41 (Univision)"Ni hombre, ni mujer: Intersexual," Noticias Telemundo (Telemundo)"Ola arcoris recorre Amrica: en qu punto estn los derechos LGBTIQ+ en el continente?," Ellas Hoy (France 24 Espaol)"Orgullo 2025 Avances, Desafos y Caminos," Spectrum Noticias (Spectrum)"El Orgullo, colores de libertad." (CNN en Espaol)"Ral Gonzlez revela por qu call sobre su orientacin sexual," Despierta Amrica (TelevisaUnivision)"Spirit Day una fecha para combatir el bullying a la comunidad LGBTQ+," Hoy Dia (Telemundo)"Wendy Guevara, la sexta desigual," Desiguales (TelevisaUnivision)Outstanding Online Journalism Article // Artculo sobresaliente de periodismo digital"10 conos LGBT+ que marcaron la historia de Mxico" por Yet Akatzin Almazn (Homosensual.com)"Las cosas positivas de la masculinidad que descubr al transicionar como hombre trans" por Ronald Alexander vila-Claudio (BBC.com)"Cuando la rebelda perdura: envejecer siendo LGBTIQ+" por Mariana Escobar Bernoske (ElEspectador.com)"El largo camino de las familias diversas para adoptar en Mxico: 'Lo que se busca es que los nios tengan un hogar'" por Paola Aln (ElPas.com)"Latinas trans denuncian que administracin Trump 'envalentona' ms ataques y discriminacin en NYC" por Edwin Martnez (ElDiarioNY.com)"My Coming Out Story" Quin [serie] (Quien.com)"La Niez Trans Existe" por David Cordero-Mercado"La realidad de muchos jvenes de la comunidad LGBTQ en Mxico: poca aceptacin familiar e ideas de suicidio" por Karen Esquivel (CNN.com)"Que Nadie Te Diga Que noEl cine transfeminista de Gaby Castillo" por Andrea Dominguez y Andrs Camilo Gmez (sentiido.com)"Un tercio de los mexicanos ha presenciado algn acto de violencia contra el colectivo LGTBIQ+" por Elena San Jos (El Pas.com)Outstanding Online Journalism Video or Multimedia // Periodismo digital sobresaliente: vdeo o multimedia"Amor y crianza diversa: la historia de cmo Sergio y Juan Pablo adoptaron a Amalia" (El Espectador)"Hemos Estado. Nuestra historia nunca se detiene" (Pride Mx)"Hombre o mujer, y nada ms? Historia sobre el gnero y la identidad" (DW Espaol)"El Nuevo Reggaeton Sin Censura" DOSIS Con Michelle Galvan (Univision)"Tienes HIV, Mijo? A Mothers Journey" Living y Ready (LatiNation)Reconocimiento EspecialAndry Jos Hernndez RomeroBefore We Forget (Twenty Nine Palms Entertainment)

Genocide experts are sounding the alarm to warn that the U.S. is in the early stages of a larger campaign to literally, physically destroy transgender people as a specific gender group, according to the Lemkin Institute, a U.S.-based multinational non-governmental organization dedicated to ending genocide.Lemkin Institute President Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey said the U.S. is now in the early-to-mid stages of a genocidal process against trans and nonbinary and intersex people. She added that Republicans are using trans people to generate fear particularly surrounding children, family, and their ideal concept of masculinity to prime their base for genocide, the institute reported in a recent article. Related Trans sports ban that could require genital exams will appear on the ballot in Washington Dr. Gregory Stanton, president of the group Genocide Watch, agreed, saying that Donald Trumps executive order denying any recognition of any gender outside of the male-female binary is a totalitarian idea that is driven by Nazi ideology. Dr. Stanton also noted that such strict male-female binaries neither exist in nature nor in many other cultures.The Trump administration and its bases have identified a set of enemies or objectionable people and have stirred up public prejudice against them in a way that is escalating toward violence, said Dr. Henry Theriault, who served as the International Association of Genocide Scholars from 2017 to 2021. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Former genocide researcher Haley Brown said that the 20 U.S. states with anti-trans bathroom bills effectively give non-state actors tacit approval to commit violence against trans people by essentially deputizing people to police gender expression down to the very physiological characteristics of every person.Brown also noted that Trump and his cronies anti-trans rhetoric has often invoked the conspiracy theory of so-called cultural Marxism (which is the modern incarnation of the Nazi antisemitic conspiracy theory of Cultural Bolshevism, or the idea that there is a concerted international campaign led by Jewish people to undermine traditional Western culture). The rhetoric includes the ideas that leftists, feminists, Marxists, and LGBTQIA+ people are trying to destroy Western civilization and that these immoral, inferior groups should be destroyed. Dr. Theriault said that trans Americans may be more vulnerable due to their small population. They make up only about 1% of the adult population a size equivalent to Jews in 1933 Germany and violence against trans people has been rising. Dr. von Joegen-Forgey called the situation terrifying, adding, No one goes to war on behalf of the victims of genocide.Theriault said the U.S. would increase policies to make life intolerable for trans Americans, something that will cause the trans suicide rate to rise dramatically. Indeed, Republicans have already instated policies nationwide to defund any trans-inclusive research or policies, force trans kids and adults to medically detransition, and force trans people into sex-segregated spaces where theyre likely to face more discrimination and violence. Were already at the point for trans folks, for immigrants, where the damage is being done, Dr. Theriault said. So its not so much will genocide happen? as we got to stop it from happening. Dr. von Joegen-Forgey warned, You dont have a democracy thats committing genocide against one group. That is not a democracy anymore, once genocide is in the mix. The state in question will commit other mass atrocities.If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at988lifeline.org. TheTrans Lifeline(1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth viachat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Frederick Crist Trump Jr. (Fred Trump Jr.) was born on October 14, 1938, in Queens, New York City. The eldest son of Mary Anne MacLeod Trump and real estate developer Fred Trump Sr., as well as the older brother of Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) and sisters Elizabeth and Maryanne, Fred Trump Jr. became an airline pilot rather than enter his fathers business like his younger brother, Donald Trump.Fred Jr. struggled most of his life with the disease of addiction, largely with alcohol, a condition that contributed to his fatal heart attack at the young age of 43. On several public occasions, Donald Trumprelatedthe tragic story of his brothers life as an alcoholic. Related Rachel Maddow details stunning Trump disapproval ratings: Were gonna need a bigger boat He said in a 2017 speech that his brother had a tough life and told him many times not to drink or smoke. And to this day, Ive never had a drink, he said. I have no longing for it. I have no interest in it. To this day, Ive never had a cigarette. The president seemed to believe that in heeding his brothers advice, he has escaped thedestructiveeffects of addiction. But as we know from medical and psychological research, the disease of addiction expresses itself in many ways. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today As one definition of the word makes clear: Addiction is when you have a need or urge to do something or use something, even if it causes harm. If continued over time, addictions cause long-lasting changes in brain structures, thus making the disease of addiction both a brain disorder and a mental illness.The types of addiction include substance addiction (such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and food) and non-substance addiction or behavioral addiction (such as compulsive shopping, gambling, sex, social media, or video games). The risk of developing an addiction depends on a combination of genetic, environmental, and developmental factors. The more factors a person has, the greater the chance of developing an addiction.Signs of an addiction include obsessive thoughts and compulsive use or engagement in the rewarding stimuli (substances or behaviors) for immediate gratification. It is also characterized by increasingly continued use or engagement, even after experiencing negative consequences.What is power?In a 1968 speech given to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. defined power as the ability to achieve purpose and effect change.A dictionarydefinitionviews power (a noun) in general as: The ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something. In this definition, capacity is seen as a synonym of power.Another definition of power is as a great or marked ability to do or act;strength;might;force. In this definition, energy is a synonym.A third definition is the possession of control or command over people, with the synonyms ofauthority and influence.A final definition for our purposes here defines power as the political ascendancy or control in the government of a country, state, etc. by overthrowing the legal government with the synonymssovereignty,rule,sway,and ascendancy.We can place how leadersusetheir power on a spectrum from With on one side to Over on the other. Power With refers to a leader or leaders utilizing their power collaboratively to empower those they lead. It involves a mutual appreciation and respect for autonomy to accomplish shared goals. For the leaders, getting it right has priority over being right.By contrast, Power Over refers to an undemocratic or authoritarian approach where the leader or leaders exert their dominance by dictating the actions to be taken, often using coercion or fear in which power is gained at anothers expense. Leaders give the orders, and they expect to be obeyed without challenge. For the leaders, being right has priority over getting it right.Power as addictionHistory has shown a vast array of leaders and ordinary people who have become addicted to power. While people are initially attracted to power for a variety of reasons like promoting social change, seeking personal admiration, or wanting to control others as they accumulate power, some experience euphoria or a sense of fulfillment.Over time, as in all forms of addiction, people develop dependency, with a need to maintain and even increase their power. This dependency dominates other aspects of life, including personal relationships and previously held values. Addictions in general, and in the case of power addiction, often lead to unethical behaviors, isolation, and even paranoid thoughts that others are coming to take what is yours. Enabling the addictEnabler is the term given to those who fail to act to help addicts and stop them from harming themselves and others around them. Passive bystander or bad Samaritan is the name for someone who is conscious of bad actions developing around them but fails to intervene.Enabling and passively standing by take many forms, including literally offering an addict substances, conspiring with an abuser in a sinister plot, contributing to denial by asserting that they dont have a problem, downplaying the seriousness and making excuses for their behaviors, translating for others what the person really meant, downright lying, and so on.How many times have we heard, He didnt mean it that way. What he really meant to say was and You are misunderstanding her or I got this black eye by walking into a door. The Trump enablers Though Donald Trump has followed the warning of his elder brother to refrain from addictive substances like alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, one can make a strong argument by observing his behaviors that he certainly displays the classic signs of addiction in Trumps case, non-substance addictions.These include wealth, power, and sex. He stakes his personal value on the amount of wealth and power he can accumulate, and by how many notches he can carve on his bedpost representing his sexual conquests.Trumps enablers include members of the Republican Party in Congress and Republican politicians in state governments, in addition to the six Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices who seem to have relinquished their constitutional roles to serve one man.They have, therefore, aided and abetted Trumps need to consume as much power as he can and to act on his compulsive paranoid need to persecute his supposed enemies. An all-consuming lust On January 9, 1961, then-President-elect John F. Kennedy addressed a joint convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In his speech, he presented a touchstone by which history should evaluate a leader.Beginning with his now-famous statement that For of those to whom much is given, much is required (a paraphrase ofLuke 12:48),Kennedy enumerated four essential criteria in assessing a leader.And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us, he stated, recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions. First, were we truly men of courage.the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?Secondly, were we truly men of judgment.with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?Third, were we truly men of integrity. men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust? Finally, were we truly men of dedication with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest?I have enough conclusive evidence to rank Trump as a true danger to our nation and to the world community in his all-consuming lust for material riches and sexual conquests over the common good of the people who trusted him with their vote.How do you judge him? How do you think history will judge him?Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out the current administrations imperialist ambitions.White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was on Jake Tappers CNN show on Monday, where he discussed how the U.S. is now in charge of Venezuela and may use military force against NATO to take Greenland. Related Pete Buttigieg sums up why Trump invaded Venezuela in just one word We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, Miller said. But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.These are the iron laws of the world that existed since the beginning of time. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today This flies in the face of the whole point of what we have learned as a country and as a species, especially in the 20th century, Buttigieg responded. One of Americas greatest accomplishments was leading humanity out of that, into a world where values and rules matter, at least as much as brute force.Dragging us into the past with that kind of ideological bulls**t will make Americans less safe. It doesnt have to be this way."Iron laws of the world"? Some of America's most important national accomplishments are about leading humanity away from this kind of bullshit. If we let ideologues like Stephen Miller drag us back into a world where brute force is all that matters, all of us will be less safe. Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T21:17:16.659Z Later in the CNN interview, Miller appeared to say that the U.S. is ready to use military force to take Greenland and that the administration is not expecting European powers to follow through on their threats to use military force to defend the territory.Tapper asked Miller if military force was off the table when it came to the administrations desire to annex Greenland. Miller tried to dodge the question, but Tapper pressed him. Greenland has a population of 30,000 people, Jake, Miller said, getting the population wrong by half. The real question is, by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland?The United States is the power of NATO, he continued. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States.Tapper again repeated his question, asking whether the U.S. would use military force to take Greenland, and Miller tried to laugh it off. No ones going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland, he said. European leaders have said that they will defend Greenland from a potential U.S. military operation.The United States this is sort of foundational the United States is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. Were a superpower, Miller said in the same interview, discussing why the administration does not support allowing Venezuela to have an election to decide its own future. We are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Gender affirming care actually means something, and telling me the procedures I fought for in my transition are the same as a cis woman getting lip filler, is frankly, insulting.The post Cis People Dont Get Gender Affirming Care appeared first on Autostraddle.

Tessa Thompson's go-to karaoke song, Hannah Einbinder's big sleeves, and more!The post No Filter: Watch Tessa Thompson Sing Fiona Apples Criminal appeared first on Autostraddle.

When Amaka Agwus little brother was three years old, he turned to his darker-skinned father one night and warned that his lighter-skinned grandmother was coming to get him. Thats what white people do to Black people, the little boy said.It was a very funny thing to hear a three-year-old say, Agwu reflected, and very interesting to tell him, Thats not how that works.' Related Restoring the rainbow: How cis white gay folks must show up for trans & queer people of color Agwu, an 18-year-old gay student activist at George Washington University in DC., laughed at the recollection, but who could blame a young person today for thinking that white people are coming after people of color? Or, perhaps, that the so-called normal gays are targeting trans folks? Its on screens everywhere from the couches and kitchens where three-year-olds roam, to the college campuses targeted by the likes of Turning Point USA and the young conservatives enchanted by its mission.Dinner conversations like the one her brother sparked are what spurred Agwu to activism. My parents were always very cognizant about teaching us about different political systems and inequalities that exist in the United States, she said. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Nowadays, Agwu feels disappointed that her fellow students arent rising to the moment that Trump has forced upon them.We just need to do better, she said.Since the Civil Rights movement, young people have been at the vanguard of political protest in the U.S., from North Carolina college students launching nationwide lunch counter sit-ins, to the death of four Kent State undergraduates who were shot by National Guard troops while demonstrating against the Vietnam War, to encampments on college campuses across the country protesting Israels invasion of Gaza. In all of these, students came to symbolize not just the causes they were fighting for but a generational struggle for change.But those and other iconic protest movements, like nuclear disarmament, the invasion of Iraq, apartheid in South Africa, and Occupy Wall Street, involved single issues or ideas to rally around. This time, its been harder for students to focus amid Trumps flood-the-zone strategy. Add to that attacks on higher education (including student visa restrictions) explicitly designed by Trump advisors like Stephen Miller to undermine a liberal worldview on college campuses, and you have a successful effort to divide and conquer dissent.Agwu saw the writing on the wall during the Biden administration, with the slew of anti-trans state legislative attacks and the passage of Floridas notorious Dont Say Gay law that inspired copycat legislation around the country. I was seeing all that, and I was like, Wait, theres now a president in office who actually isnt going to fight against it, but on all that will actively support those types of things?'She describes Donald Trumps inauguration one year ago as scary.I just felt like this deep-seated fear entangled with how the country would go. Hes kind of exposing underlying currents of conservatism that have already existed in the United States that just havent been fully addressed, she said. Now we have a president whos willing to exploit those to get power.I think hes just making us fully aware and the people who werent aware of it to begin with that these deep-seated, hateful notions still exist, and that we just need to do better to fight back against them.Rise Up Students protest the presence of ICE agents on campus at Arizona State University on April 3, 2025, in Tempe. | Megan Mendoza/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Agwu is fighting back as the head of logistics for the startup activist group Revs Rise Up, a play on the schools revolutionary school mascot.Basically, were trying to fight against authoritarianism with the Trump administration, she said.Their latest action was a banner signing and letter drop demanding that GW refuse to join Trumps so-called university compact dictating anti-diversity initiatives and assaulting academic freedom.No ones really gone out and rejected it, right? And were saying our school should preemptively reject it before you start requiring that all schools start to accept it.For Agwu, Trumps requirement for sex assigned at birth on passports ranked as his most egregious attack on the LGBTQ+ community, a literal manifestation of his effort to erase trans identity from American society.In a very legal sense, it delegitimizes someones transition journey, and its inherently harmful to thousands upon thousands of trans people who have gone through the process of medically and/or legally transitioning, she said.Its one example, Agwu explained, of Trumps thirst for power.Asked if change can be effected on screens, Agwu, whos studying international affairs and English, replied, Not entirely.Social media is a very easy and very powerful tool to help people learn more about issues, and to see themselves as though theyre being involved, Agwu said.But she cautioned against hashtag activism. If people only engage in that, it doesnt enact effective change, she said. You still need to get people who are going out onto the streets, or who are lobbying to their Congress members and going and saying, We need this to change, because this matters to me, and this is hurting thousands of people. So I do think its a great tool, but its not entirely what will generate change.The cost of caring People hold signs during a protest and march supporting the graduate assistant that graded Samantha Fulneckys essay on the University of Oklahoma (OU) campus, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. | DOUG HOKE/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Cailey Chin, a freshman studying economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says Trump has dominated her history and politics education since elementary school.My first memory, I guess, was my library elective, and they made us debate the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump race, and we had a fake election about it, which I think was a little bit too advanced for third graders, but nonetheless, it was still a debated topic within my school.Chins activism started several years later, in high school, with a failed effort to expand sex education in her Pennsylvania school district. By that time, a previously bipartisan issue had become contentious in her swing state county.The growing red-blue divide definitely affected her efforts, Chin said. I was pushed back. I was ignored oftentimes. At Penn, she works with a group called Our Space, which connects Philadelphia-area high schoolers and her schools LGBT center through educational sessions focused on comprehensive sex ed, like healthy boundaries, communication, and things targeted specifically at queer youth.Thats a segment of the population under direct attack by the Trump administration and its allies, with executive orders attacking gender beyond the binary, bans on queer content in school libraries, and federal funding slashed for gender-affirming care.Just being able to connect and having a safe space to talk about these topics and educate our youth ensures theyll be well-equipped to fight back, she said.Chin called Trumps first year back in office harrowing and cited cuts to HIV funding and his failure to acknowledge World AIDS Day as two of his most grievous actions. HIV is a very bipartisan issue that obviously does not just affect the LGBTQ community, but disproportionately affects it, she said. Cutting these funds only harms the entirety of our nation and really hurts the health of not just queer people, but people in marginalized communities, people of color, people in poor communities.Chin said theres a clear understanding among students at Penn of the harm caused by the Trump administration, but thinks the Ivy Leagues competitive culture is holding students (including herself) back from public protest, both IRL and online.UPenns pre-professional culture, alongside just like fear in general, makes people very quiet in terms of political issues, she said, and I can relate to that. Sometimes Im hesitant to talk about my activism or just do simple things like this interview, because of my digital footprint.If employers see that Im outspoken and that Im passionate about the things that I am passionate about, it might lead to me losing a job.Ironically, though, Chin has a large online presence focused on another cause thats been caught in the Trump administrations crosshairs: equity in education.She counts over 34,000 followers on Instagram and hundreds of thousands of likes on TikTok for her content advising high schoolers on how to ace college admissions applications. Chin said her work online is a matter of accessibility.Social media, obviously, is accessible to a large amount of people with their phones. Via my content creation, Im able to provide information at no cost to anybody following me, and those people following me and viewing my content come from a very diverse set of backgrounds. So that really helps in spreading information and getting things out there, whether it be advocacy or not.Red pill or blue pillIowa State students carry a coffin while marching to the university Free Zone to protest against closing the universitys Center for LGBTQIA Student Success on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Trans student-activist Amber Va describes Trumps worst actions as legion, and defined by the tragic flaw in his Make America Great Again slogan.Truth be told, it was never that great in the first place, Va said.And now you have this great big bill thats enacted, along with attacks on trans people and the trans community, and the passport recognition, and right now, especially, with the ICE raids you know, its just really insane.For Va, a 24-year-old sidelined from school by the pandemic and now a freshman at Valley College in Los Angeles, The [anti-trans] stigma thats been going on in the media that were forced to believe is personal. She was already facing it among her Cambodian family.Its all intertwined, she said. The intergenerational trauma and now the political climate.Her own experience living as a trans woman and queer person of color inspired her advocacy work. She serves on the queer youth advisory committee for the Foundation for California Community Colleges and partners with nonprofit organizations to get resources to young people in her work as a grassroots community activist.She wants to parlay a communications degree into a queer-focused public relations specialty. Regarding the attention economy, Va agreed that young adults and teenagers are focused on social media but need to exercise discretion in who they listen to.Theres a bunch of social influencers who will do it just for clout, you know, just for attention, she said of some influencers advocacy. It depends on who you talk to and whos a credible source.But community is where you find it, she said.Theres a lot of people throughout the nation who cant attend protests because of the era were in, or where they are. Well take as much support as we can for the rallies, the marches, for protests, for sit-ins and all of that, you know? I mean, thats what I count as community. Theres only so much you can do within your power and for your safety.Va likened the choice to resist Trumps onslaught to Neos in The Matrix, before the right-wing manosphere co-opted that movies message.You have the red pill, or you have the blue pill, take your pick. Either way, You dont know what youre getting yourself into.Then Va turned to a more definitive movie analogy.Like, in Star Wars terms, Ill join the resistance, right? Never surrender Liz Kelly, left, hugs fellow Furman University student Bex Herlong after each spoke during a protest of President Trump policies against education, immigration, and diversity issues, at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. April 2025. Each spoke about inclusion. | Ken Ruinard / USA Today Co / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesHowever young people may choose to resist, Va advises them, Everything takes time.Something I learned from my activism is that patience is a virtue, she said.Students may be in some kind of interregnum right now, caught between the rise of the #metoo, Black Lives Matter, and trans rights movements and Trumps broad assault on everything woke, along with the overall radicalization that historically follows similar illiberal backlash.If young people like Va are looking to movies for their cultural cues, One Battle After Another is another more contemporary example, drawing on militant groups of the 1960s and 70s, like the Black Panthers, the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army all armed in deed or simply rhetoric to depict a level of resistance equal to the assault theyre confronted with; orthodoxy on both sides of the political spectrum comes in for a critical beating. The message, like Vas, is that the struggle is never-ending.Despite a portion of Agwus student body who seem a bit jaded, like theres nothing we can do, she does see fresh evidence of young people stirred to action. An appearance by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on campus in December inspired a huge protest against Trump administration policies, even during finals.We are the closest school to the White House. I can see it from my dorm, she said. Because theres such a large population of students who came here specifically because they want to study political science or international affairs in the capital of the US, its a very politically charged environment.While there hasnt been enough protest and action, fellow students are willing to fight for or against whatever they personally believe, she said. Its her role as an activist to empower and inspire other people to enact change and participate in their own way.So many students are very energized to fight back. Chin considered whether the Trump era is a blip in history or an enduring turn to authoritarianism.In the face of resistance, you still have the ability to make change in your local community, in your state, at the national level. Its not impossible, she said after cataloguing her own efforts and disappointments. I think that its important to remember that this is just a temporary wave.You might feel discouraged, and you might feel like youre helpless, but there are still people that want to connect with you. They want to fight back with you, and they want to unite to make change.Va reached back to words spoken by Black Panther Party member Assata Shakur from prison in 1973, a call to action for those ready for a reckoning.It is our duty to fight for freedom, Va said, quoting Shakur. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

As part of LGBTQ Nations January issue, we asked readers to tell us how one year of the second Trump administration has affected their lives and what they hope LGBTQ+ leaders and allies do differently in 2026. We received dozens of submissions and will be sharing them throughout the month (you can also still submit). Here is what Grace Hansen, a 60-year-old pansexual transgender woman, had to say. Related 2025 was horrific for trans people. Heres how 2026 could be much better. How has living under the second Trump administration affected you personally over the last year?From the vantage point of January 1, 2026, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the answer to how the second Trump administration has affected me is simple: It has turned my existence into a logistical problem I must solve daily. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Professionally, the impact was absolute. For decades, I managed complex IT projects for global giants and, most recently, for Sanford Health. I am a builder of systems. But this year, I watched the federal government systematically dismantle the data structures that acknowledge LGBTQ+ people exist. When the administration stopped collecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) data, it wasnt just a policy change; it was an erasure. I found myself in meetings discussing how to retrofit systems to comply with mandates that essentially deleted my community from the healthcare record. The cognitive dissonance of building the digital closet I might be forced to inhabit became too much. The pressure on corporate DEI initiatives silenced our employee resource groups and dimmed the lights on authenticity. Consequently, on November 1, 2025, I left Sanford Health. I traded the safety of a corporate paycheck for the uncertainty of a writers life because I could no longer remain silent in a system designed to mute me.Culturally, the stage, my sanctuary for 38 years with The Rude Band, has become a minefield. The passage of federal and state obscenity laws, which weaponize the presence of trans bodies as prurient, has cast a shadow over every performance. Venue owners are nervous; they fear losing liquor licenses if a concerned citizen reports a trans woman in a sparkle dress as a danger to minors. Furthermore, South Dakotas HB 1259, the Bathroom Bill, criminalized my presence in public restroom facilities. Now, when I play a four-hour set at a civic center, I have to plan my hydration and bathroom breaks with military precision, terrified that a simple biological need could lead to an arrest. Personally, the toll is measured in fear. With Kristi Noem now at the Department of Homeland Security and Governor Larry Rhoden (R) executing the anti-woke agenda in Pierre, the state-federal pincer movement is complete. My wife and I have updated our wills and powers of attorney, fearing that a hostile Supreme Court might dissolve our marriage rights. We have a Go-Bag fund liquid savings set aside not for retirement, but for emergency relocation to Minnesota should the state attempt to detransition adults or further criminalize my healthcare.Yet, despite the Red status of this project called survival, I am still here. They have made it harder to work, harder to play music, and harder to breathe, but they have not made it impossible. I left the corporate world not to hide, but to speak louder. I am bruised, but I am still playing.What do you hope to see from LGBTQ+ leaders and allies in 2026?As a project management professional, I evaluate the current strategy of the national LGBTQ+ movement and see a project in critical failure. The strategies of the last decade, visibility, assimilation, and corporate allyship, did not survive the first year of the second Trump administration. Moving forward, I need leadership to execute a formal Change Request. We must pivot from public advocacy to operational insurgency.First, we need a massive redistribution of resources. For too long, national organizations have hoarded resources in coastal strongholds like D.C. and New York, while red-state outposts are starved. Here in South Dakota, organizations like The Transformation Project are the only thing standing between trans youth and total erasure, yet they operate on a shoestring budget while facing the full weight of the state government. I want to see national leaders liquidate the galas and funnel that capital directly to the front lines. We need to buy buildings to serve as safe community centers that cannot be cancelled by a nervous landlord or a hostile city council.Second, we must build a logistics network for survival. With the federal government erasing SOGI data and threats to use the Comstock Act to restrict mailed pharmaceuticals, we are facing a healthcare blockade. Leaders must stop relying on the law to protect us and start building the Underground Railroad of the 21st century. We need secure, encrypted supply chains for hormone delivery and funded travel networks to move refugees from South Dakota to sanctuary states like Minnesota for care. This is not dramatic; it is logistics.Third, we need a narrative pivot. The language of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has been effectively weaponized against us. In the Midwest, arguing for validation does not win votes. I want leaders who can speak the language of the prairie: freedom, privacy, and limited government. We need to frame gender-affirming care as a parental rights issue and bathroom bills as government overreach. Stop trying to teach gender theory to farmers; start showing them how the government is invading their privacy. Finally, I need leaders to weaponize economic hard power. My departure from Sanford Health in November 2025 taught me that corporate allyship vanishes the moment the political heat turns up. We need to stop applauding corporations for changing their logos in June. Instead, LGBTQ+ pension funds and shareholders must ruthlessly punish companies that comply with state mandates to discriminate.I am tired of leaders who tell us to hold on. I want leaders who hand us the tools to dig in. We are the firewall. Reinforce us.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

The first time Donald Trump took the oath of office, I felt an overwhelming sense of doom. My whole body somehow felt both impossibly heavy and utterly empty at the same time, like it couldnt decide whether itd be safer to sink into the ground or float away into the clouds.Ill forever remember when Sean Spicer Trumps first in what became a revolving door of White House press secretaries stormed up to the podium, red-faced and fuming, to declare in his first-ever meeting with the American people that no inauguration crowd had ever been as large as Trumps. Related 2025 was horrific for trans people. Heres how 2026 could be much better. I already knew the country was in trouble, but that was the first time I really, deeply felt it, the first time it was clear Trump would not be rising to the occasion. This time around, it felt different. In January 2025, when Trump laid his hand on the Bible to begin his second term, it wasnt heaviness or emptiness or darkness or doom that consumed me. It was resignation. None of this was unbelievable anymore. In fact, what made it so hard was just how believable it had become. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today One term could have been a fluke, a voting bloc gone off the rails by a professional con artist promising roads paved with gold. But two terms? Thats a movement. Maybe this really is just who we are, I thought. Maybe its time to accept that.I didnt watch Trumps second inauguration. I was too deflated, too beaten down, too exhausted by years of clinging to a childlike optimism that America would right itself in the future. But then, LGBTQ Nation spent a year covering the folks who refused to surrender as I had. We covered No Kings protests, relentless lawsuits, fed-up politicians, powerful declarations of identity, solidarity statements, and the fiercely protective parents of transgender children. We covered cities paved in rainbow, the launch of new organizations, creative fundraisers, and blue waves. We covered trans beauty queens and surprise proposals by folks who refused to let this administration steal their shine.Despite decades of oppression, the queer community has always had an enduring dedication to joy. Take the moment police raided a Pittsburgh queer bar in the middle of a drag event last May. The crowd was forced to wait outside as authorities inspected the premises, but the performers and patrons refused to let the cops quash their spirit. Video captured during the wait shows the crowd belting Chappell RoansPink Pony Clubwhile the drag queen Indica dances up and down the sidewalk, collecting tips.Every day, as more stories like this one found their way to us, I was reminded how much inherent good exists in the world, and how determined people are to drown out hate. Slowly, I allowed hope to creep back in. The January Issue of LGBTQ Nation isnt about hope, per se, but it is meant to inspire it. It is meant to remind us that no matter how dire things seem, there are always good people trying to make it right. The stories in this issue examine what LGBTQ+ activism has looked like during the first year of the second Trump administration, what needs to change moving forward, and how our leaders can do better. It will also cover that enduring joy, in itself a form of resistance.I hope the pieces in this issue inspire you, as theyve inspired me, to rise above that resignation that can seem so hard to resist at times. I dont know what will happen to this country or to democracy or to the world as a result of the second Trump presidency, but I do know that as much as it has revealed the worst of humanity, it has also revealed the best.Mr. Rogers once told us that in scary times, look for the helpers. I am choosing to not only look for them, but also to look to them, for guidance on how to stay engaged in this endless fight.The queer resistance lives on, and nows the time to give it all weve got.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

A Boston judge has ruled in favor of a Massachusetts dad who sued his local school district to ensure his five-year-old son is never exposed to books featuring LGBTQ+ characters.As the Boston Herald reported, the father, identified in court documents as Alan L., is described as a devout Christian who objects to the inclusion of certain childrens books featuring LGBTQ+ characters in the kindergarten curriculum of Joseph Estabrook Elementary School, where his son, identified as J.L., is enrolled. Related Supreme Court let parents opt kids out of learning about LGBTQ+ people. Almost no one is doing it. As Hemant Mehta explains in his Friendly Atheist newsletter, Alan L.s son is already on an Individualized Education Program and spends most of his day outside of his general-education Kindergarten classroom. It is unclear whether J.L. was ever actually exposed to the two books with which his father took issue Suzanne Langs Families, Families, Families! and Alexandra Penfolds All Are Welcome that are part of the schools kindergarten curriculum. (Eight additional books Alan L. cited in his lawsuit do not appear to have ever been used in classrooms at Joseph Estabrook Elementary, according to Mehta.)Nevertheless, Alan L. sued the school and Lexington Public Schools, claiming that his son had been compelled to participate in classroom instruction that promote[s] sexualized and ideological messages directly contrary to his familys faith and that he has the right to both be notified before his son is exposed to such material and to opt J.L. out of any lessons or activities that normalize or promote LGBTQ identities or lifestyles. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today According to Mehta, the districts lawyers argued that the materials in question merely acknowledge and teach the existence of LGBTQ+ people, and insofar as they contain a moral lesson, it is geared toward mere tolerancei.e., the acceptance of those who are different from us as being part of our world. They are not the tutorials on the moral equivalency of ones gayness that Plaintiff would have this Court believe. They also argued that Alan L. had failed in his complaint to describe how J.L. had been impacted by the books being read aloud in class if, indeed, he was ever present when they were read. But in his December 30 decision, U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV noted that the case falls squarely under the precedent set by the Supreme Courts June 2025 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which established parents First Amendment right to opt their children out of classroom instruction that includes LGBTQ+ characters and themes. As in that case, a parent has objected to his child being shown certain materials at school concerning LGBTQ+ relationships or values on the ground that the materials pose a threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices the parent wants to instill in his child, Saylor wrote. As in that case, the school has indicated that it intends to continue showing the child at least some of the materials to which the parent objects. And as in that case, the parent seeks a preliminary injunction on the basis that the schools failure to provide him notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt his child out of classroom instruction utilizing those materials violates his free-exercise rights.The question presented here is not whether the viewpoints of plaintiff, or those of the school officials, are correct as a matter of religious faith or political or social belief. Nor is it whether the materials should be part of the kindergarten curriculum for other students, Saylor, a George W. Bush appointee, explained. Instead, this case presents a narrow question: whether these specific defendants have provided the required notice and opportunity to review materials that this specific plaintiff may find objectionable, so that he may opt his child out of classroom instruction that violates his religious beliefs.In granting Alan L.s request for a preliminary injunction, which will remain in place while the case proceeds, Saylor ordered the school and district to make reasonable efforts to ensure that J.L. is not taught or otherwise exposed to the content of the Identified Books, whether in the classroom or any other school setting and to ensure J.L. receives reasonable age-appropriate alternative instruction. In a statement responding to the ruling, the Massachusetts Family Institute, one of three right-wing groups representing Alan L., said that Public school districts will now be on notice that playing fast-and-loose with parental rights will expose them to significant liability, according to the Boston Herald.Lawyers for Lexington Public Schools, however, said the district looks forward to aggressively defending against these claims. In a statement, attorneys Douglas I. Louison and Alexandra M. Gill noted the districts existing religious-based opt-out program and that the Supreme Courts Mahmoud decision made it clear that depicting the mere existence of potentially-offensive values or lifestyles is not enough to warrant an opt-out, and that it is the messaging associated with those potentially-offensive materials that determines whether an opt-out is warranted.In this case, the materials are not associated with any LGBTQ+-focused curriculum or paired instruction, nor was the student even exposed to the two books at issue, Louison and Gill added, according to the Herald. Louison and Gill also noted the burden opt-out demands like Alan L.s place on schools.This is not like a student with a peanut allergy, where the implementation of an accommodation to protect the student is reasonably clear, they wrote. Schools are burdened enough without having to scour the pages of a storybook for potentially gay-appearing characters. At what point, for instance, is a characters haircut too short to presume they are a woman? Are two men sitting together at a restaurant presumed to be gay, or might they just be friends? There are innumerable scenarios like these, and schools are now being forced to make near-impossible judgments.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

On the five-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, the White House revealed a horrifying microsite filled with lies about what went on that day. The site includes a timeline that declares as fact that the 2020 election was stolen (almost all the lawsuits filed by the 2020 campaign claiming that an election was stolen in 2020 were dismissed due to a lack of evidence or standing). Related Trump says mean Dems will impeach him & force transgender for everyone if they win midterms After law enforcement clears the Capitol, Congress reconvenes late that night and certifies Joe Bidens electoral votesvotes from battleground states marred by massive mail-in ballot fraud, hidden suitcases of ballots, exploding water pipes, voting machine irregularities, and unprecedented pandemic-era rule changes that bypassed state legislatures, the site states. 2020 is considered the greatest election theft in U.S. history, with widespread fraud deliberately ignored by courts, officials, and the media.The timeline also repeatedly claims that the current president encouraged peaceful protest (in fact, he stoked rage among rioters) and calls the insurrectionists patriotic protestors. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Every part of the timeline and website is riddled with falsehoods and fascist propaganda.Words fail at the brazenness of the dishonesty in the White Houses new January 6 timeline, wrote journalist Aaron Rupar on social media.words fail at the brazenness of the dishonesty in the White House's new January 6 timeline: https://t.co/PzqdjERpsy pic.twitter.com/Px8JFpb1wn Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2026 Others who responded to Rupar called the timeline reverse reality, insane, and f**king dangerous. One even called it enough to make you weep.Goebbels would be blushing, one person wrote, referring to the chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Many also compared the language to that of George Orwells dystopian novel1984, about a totalitarian superstate. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Hello Out readers!Is Ricky Gervais still funny and relevant in 2026? English comedian Gervais was once known as one of the most provocative comedians in the business, but has he fallen behind the times?Of course, Gervais has his history of offensive jokes, including anti-trans jokes, like making fun of Caitlyn Jenner's transition and saying he's going to undergo "species realignment" because he's "always identified as a chimp" in 2018.In his 2022 special Special Nature, he brought up trans women again, saying he loves the "new women" who have "beards and cocks." He said he supports trans rights, "but meet me halfway, ladies. Lose the cock. That's all I'm saying."Now, he's been asked about his anti-trans jokes on BBC's This Cultural Life, and if his unwillingness to change makes him behind the times."That's probably true, but that's because I think I'm right," Gervais answered. "I have a right to talk about those things. And there are jokes I certainly stand by. I can't look back and say, 'Oh, sorry about that, I said that when I was only 50."It seems Gervais has taken the Dave Chappelle route of deciding to see trans people as an easy joke instead of real people. While they're busy yelling about how things are changing, why don't you watch one of these hilarious queer stand-up specials instead?Keep reading to find our Woman Crush Wednesday and all the best pop culture news!Out is again nominated for Outstanding Magazine at the GLAAD Media AwardsGavin Newsom preparing 'Grindr servers' for MAGA fraud seekerIs Carly Rae Jepsen writing a song for 'Heated Rivalry'?Agustn Della Corte strips down to a tight yellow Speedo in spicy new photoshootDonald Trump uses the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection to attack transgender peopleEx-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin accused of sexually assaulting another man in new lawsuitFans are feral for 'Heated Rivalry' star Hudson Williams as a vampire in new music video'Heated Rivalry's Connor Storrie to make late-night debutCher recalls 'special arrangement' with David Geffenand gay roommateRicky Gervais doubles down on anti-trans joke: 'I think I'm right'Woman Crush WednesdayActor and director Kristen Stewart is our Woman Crush Wednesday! After directing her first feature film, The Chronology of Water, last year, Stewart has said she would "love to re-adapt" the Twilight films as a director!Get Out / The Advocate in your physical mailbox, too!Get print issues of Out Magazine / The Advocate in the mail for just $9.95 a year!

Ex-gay Grammy-winning gospel singer and pastor Donnie McClurkin, who rose to fame with an early endorsement by Oprah Winfrey and appearances at the Republican National Convention and with then-candidate Barack Obama, allegedly raped his male assistant, according to a new lawsuit filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.The alleged victim, Giuseppe Corletto, was 21 when he met McClurkin (who is now 66) at his Long Island church in 2004. Corletto said he felt drawn to the charismatic preacher and singer after reading his memoir, Eternal Victim, Eternal Victor, which described how God helped him overcome the curse of homosexuality. Related Ex-gay Milo Yiannopoulos regrets mainstreaming homosexuality in the GOP: Nobodys gay McClurkin talked about being raped as a child, which resonated with me because thats similar to my story, Corletto told NBC News.McClurkin gained greater national notoriety when, in 2007, the campaign of then-candidate Barack Obama included McClurkin in a Gospel Tour in South Carolina to appeal to Black evangelical voters. After LGBTQ+ activists complained about McClurkins anti-LGBTQ+ views, Obama admitted that the singer hadnt been vetted as much as he wouldve liked; the campaign added an out gay pastor on the tour in response to criticisms. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today McClurkin and Corletto met after an unrelated church event, and Corletto says McClurkin took an immediate interest in him. The singer hired him as his assistant.At first, it was all very innocent and what I thought [was] mentoring, Corletto said in the interview.McClurkin began to molest Corletto during pray the gay away spiritual sessions, the lawsuit says. The abuse escalated over several years.During a trip to Niagara Falls in 2013, Corletto says he was raped.Last year, Corletto discovered an email from McClurkin apologizing for the incident. That email prompted Corlettos lawsuit, and freed the victim from years of blaming himself for the alleged abuse.I didnt make this up. I wasnt crazy, Corletto said. I felt vindicated in some ways. Hes literally admitting to his guilt. I know I apologized for my wrong attitude from wednesday.but I want to apologize for all of my behavior that has been wrong and put you in a wrong place, McClurkin wrote in the email, according to the lawsuit.I am the actual epitome of a desperate dirty old man, pawning and groping a young man who is just looking for a friendship and close plutonic relationship with someone he wants looks to for help, guidance and spirituality. I feel so foul so stupid, McClurkin added.As well as another allegation of rape that took place in a hotel room in California McClurkin told Corletto at the time that he was on medication and didnt remember anything the suit details incidents of alleged abuse at McClurkins house of worship. The preacher would secretly grope Corletto before speaking to his congregation, causing McClurkin to cry during the service, according to the lawsuit. He would then use those tears to encourage other congregants to openly express emotion, the suit claims.An attorney for McClurkin called Corlettos allegations categorically false.At no time did Pastor McClurkin engage in any form of sexual abuse, assault, or sexual coercion of Mr. Corletto, attorney Greg Lisi said in a statement. The claims set forth in the lawsuit grossly mischaracterize their interactions, which occurred over a decade, and some accusations over 2 decades, ago. All these allegations are contradicted by the real facts.Corletto says over the course his relationship with McClurkin, I was brainwashed to think that my deliverance was wrapped up in him.Throughout, McClurkin would justify his actions based on Biblical examples like Elisha and Elijah, who also had mentors guiding them. There was a lot of biblical manipulation, Corletto said. His lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, said he hopes the lawsuit will provide Corletto with compensation, closure, and some measure of justice for what happened to him.McClurkin took advantage of someone who was confused and had problems accepting his sexuality coupled with his religious beliefs, Giuffra said. Its really very sad.Corletto says hes come to terms with the abuse, and hes married now.Ever since I did embrace my sexuality and stopped trying to change it, the weight of suicide has left me, he said.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.