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by David Armstrong ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. The pain jolted me awake. It was barely dawn, a misty February morning in 2023. My side felt as if Id been stabbed.I had been dealing with pain for weeks a bothersome ache that felt like a bad runners cramp. But now it was so intense I had to brace myself against the wall to stand up.A few hours after arriving at the emergency room, I heard my name. A doctor asked me to follow him to a private area, where he told me a scan had uncovered something concerning. There were lesions, areas of bone destruction, on top of both of my hip bones and on my sternum. These were hallmarks of multiple myeloma. Cancer, he said.Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that ravages bone, leaving distinctive holes in its wake. Subsequent scans showed innumerable lesions from my neck to my feet as well as two broken ribs and a compression fracture in my spine. There is no cure.I walked out of the ER in search of fresh air. I sat on a metal bench and did what many patients do. I turned to Google. The first link was a medical review stating that the average lifespan of a newly diagnosed patient was three to five years. My stomach churned.I soon learned that information was outdated. Most patients today live much longer, in large part due to a drug with a horrific past. It was a doctor at the hospital who first told me I would likely take a thalidomide drug as part of my treatment.That couldnt be possible, I told him. I knew the story of thalidomide, or at least I thought I did. It represented one of the darkest chapters in the history of modern medicine, having caused thousands of severe birth defects after it was given to pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s. The drug was banned in most of the world, and the scandal gave rise to the modern-day U.S. Food and Drug Administration.It turns out the drug once relegated to a pharmaceutical graveyard had new life as a cancer fighter.That drug I take is called Revlimid. It is a derivative of thalidomide, a slightly tweaked version of the parent compound.Revlimid is now one of the bestselling pharmaceutical products of all time, with total sales of more than $100 billion. It has extended tens of thousands of lives including my own.But Revlimid is also, I soon learned, extraordinarily expensive, costing nearly $1,000 for each daily pill. (Although, I later discovered, a capsule costs just 25 cents to make.)That steep tab has put the drugs lifesaving potential out of reach for some cancer patients, who have been forced into debt or simply stopped taking the drug. The price also helps fuel our ballooning insurance premiums.For decades, Ive reported on outrageous health care costs in the U.S. and the burden they place on patients. Ive revealed the tactics used by drug companies to drive sales and keep the price of their products high.Even with my experience, the cost of Revlimid stood out. When I started taking the drug, Id look at the smooth, cylindrical capsule in my hand and consider the fact I was about to swallow something that costs about the same as a new iPhone. A months supply, which arrives in an ordinary, orange-tinged plastic bottle, is the same price as a new Nissan Versa.I wanted to know how this drug came to cost so much and why the price keeps going up. The price of Revlimid has been hiked 26 times since it launched. Some of what happened was reported at the time. But no one has pieced together the full account of what the drugmaker Celgene did, how federal regulators failed to rein it in and what the story reveals about unrestrained drug pricing in America.What I discovered astonished even me.My journey started with an indefatigable New York City lawyer on a quest to give her dying husband a chance. Tiny and Terrifying Beth Wolmers story begins on a moon-splashed beach in the Cayman Islands in the winter of 1995. She and her husband, Ira, were holding hands as they walked in the sand, enjoying a rare break from a hectic life as parents to a 1-year-old daughter and demanding jobs as 30-something professionals in New York City.They had met through friends and clicked from the start. On Sunday mornings, they sat together for hours, sharing sections of the newspaper and eating bagels. They planned trips to Europe and outings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Ira was an interventional cardiologist who followed his father into medicine. Beth was a lawyer at the high-powered firm Skadden Arps.We had a great life, Beth told me. I specifically remember coming home on the bus and thinking: My life is just perfect, perfect. Im not going to change a thing.As they walked that night in the Caribbean, Ira felt a sharp pain in his cheekbone. The pain flared several more times during the trip, becoming so intense that it brought tears to his eyes.When he got home, Ira made an appointment to figure out what was wrong. Imaging tests revealed multiple myeloma. The prognosis was grim. The couple was told Ira had two years to live.Specialists recommended treatments that would only provide a brief reprieve. The couple searched for someone who could offer something more. Thats when they found Dr. Bart Barlogie in Little Rock, Arkansas. Ive never been more scared of a spouse of a patient than I was of her. Dr. David Siegel, who treated Ira Wolmer Barlogie had been recruited to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences from the more prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In Texas, Barlogie had been frustrated by a medical culture that he viewed as too timid in its approach to multiple myeloma.He remembers working on a Sunday when a newly diagnosed patient was admitted to the hospital. With few options, Barlogie decided to put the patient on a taxing, four-drug chemotherapy cocktail used for lymphoma patients. It didnt work. The patient died from a sepsis infection, a known complication of the treatment.The attending physician later admonished him, Barlogie said, saying, Bart, we have to learn to treat myeloma gently. Barlogie said he thought to himself, Fuck you.In Arkansas, Barlogie was in charge. He quickly developed a reputation as a practitioner willing to try anything to fight the fatal disease. Patients from around the world including the actor Roy Scheider from the movie Jaws flocked to his clinic.Beth and Ira heard Barlogie before they saw him. The cowboy boots hed taken to donning since his time in Houston clacked down the linoleum hallway floors. A short, slight man, Barlogie had a booming voice with a German accent. He wore leather jackets and round, red-framed glasses on his bald head.When he strode into the exam room, he hugged Beth and Ira and told them they had come to the right place.Now retired, Barlogie recalls being struck by Beths intensity. He said she told him you must do something to help Ira.I met Barlogie at his home in Little Rock. We sat in his office, which is filled with photos of the red Ducati motorcycle he used to ride to work. An old license plate with the letters MMCURED sat on a shelf, reflecting his goal to find a cure for multiple myeloma.When Beth and Ira found him, Barlogie told me, he had been having some success with a novel approach that put patients through two stem cell transplants a few months apart, which he called a tandem stem cell transplant. With a transplant, a patient is bombarded with high-dose chemotherapy to kill the cancerous plasma cells. The patient is then infused with healthy stem cells that travel to the bone marrow.The intense chemotherapy can be grueling and poses a small risk of death.Ira underwent three transplants. Each time, he relapsed. By the fall of 1997, after two years of treatment, Iras thick black hair was gone. He was losing weight. Then he had a stroke. His kidneys failed and required dialysis. He developed pneumonia and had to be intubated.Beth was determined to keep him alive long enough for their toddler daughter to remember him. With a photograph of Ira smiling with their baby as motivation, she applied her lawyers tenacity to the case. She pored over medical journals and peppered oncologists with questions about why what they were trying wasnt working or quizzing them about a promising study. When doctors told her there was nothing more they could do for her husband, she refused to accept it.She is a tiny person, but she is terrifying, said Dr. David Siegel, part of the team that treated Ira in Arkansas. Ive never been more scared of a spouse of a patient than I was of her. He meant it as a compliment.By late fall in 1997, Ira was dying and Beth was desperate.A researcher told her about the work of Dr. Judah Folkman, a surgeon and researcher at Boston Childrens Hospital. Folkman believed the growth of cancerous tumors could be stunted by starving them of a supply of new blood vessels. Thank You, God Folkman was a workaholic who, when he wasnt in the operating room or the research lab, was traveling across the world to promote his novel theory of how to attack cancer. Peers had ridiculed his idea since he first proposed it in the 1970s. The prevailing belief at the time was that tumors didnt need a new blood supply to grow.A young researcher in his lab, an ophthalmologist named Robert DAmato, was at work on the top question Folkman had posed. Could they come up with a drug, in pill form, that blocks the growth of new blood vessels?Folkman has since died, but it wasnt difficult for me to track down DAmato. He still works at Boston Childrens Hospital, where he has his own lab and holds the Judah Folkman Chair in Surgery. Now in his early 60s, DAmato has a youthful energy and speaks in a rapid, matter-of-fact clip.DAmato told me that he had set out to find existing drugs that block blood vessel growth. He started by thinking of his own body and side effects caused by certain drugs. A drug that causes hair loss might be the result of the blood supply to hair follicles being shut off, for example. But this exercise wasnt producing any viable candidates.After giving it some thought, DAmato realized he had myopically narrowed his search. What about a womans body? There were drugs that stopped menstrual cycles. Then there were drugs that caused birth defects in pregnant women. In both of those cases, it was possible the drug was inhibiting blood vessel growth. He came up with a list of 10 drugs. At the top of the list was one with a devastating history: thalidomide.Beginning in the 1950s, pregnant women in Europe, Australia and other countries were frequently prescribed thalidomide as a treatment for morning sickness and to help them sleep. The drug was thought to be harmless and in Germany was sold over the counter. An advertisement for thalidomide in the United Kingdom claimed it could be given with complete safety to pregnant women and nursing mothers without adverse effect on mother or child.They were wrong.The drug was eventually linked to birth defects in more than 10,000 babies. Those babies were born without limbs or with shortened limbs, malformed hands, disfigured faces and damage to internal organs. Nearly half died within months of being born.By the early 1960s, the drug was widely banned, considered a shameful chapter in the history of pharmaceuticals. It was never sold in the U.S. thanks to the unwavering objections of a resolute reviewer at the FDA named Frances Oldham Kelsey. The close call, however, prompted Congress to require more rigorous safety and efficacy data from drug manufacturers and empower the FDA to monitor the industry more closely.DAmato theorized that the thalidomide birth defects were the result of the drug stopping the growth of new blood vessels that the fetus needs to develop. He walked me through his experiments: He cracked a fertilized chicken egg on a glass petri dish and placed thalidomide on the surface. After two days, if no blood vessels grow on the embryo, a halo should appear around the thalidomide sample, showing the drug worked. It didnt.Folkman told DAmato to move on. But DAmato couldnt shake the disappointing results. He did more research and realized thalidomide needs to first be broken down in the body to have an effect on humans. He purchased metabolites of thalidomide, repeated the test and this time found a halo around the sample.He kept experimenting and in 1994 published a paper finding that thalidomide had clear implications for treating tumors.So when Beth called three years later, Folkman told her they should try it.Barlogie told me he didnt think it would work. Beth said she had to convince him to try it.Barlogie agreed to test it on Ira and two other patients who were out of treatment options in early December. I wanted him alive forever. Beth Wolmer The drug did not work for Ira. Beth said just before he died, Ira sat up in bed, kissed her and smiled. It was March 10, 1998. He was 38.After years of frantically searching for anything that would help, the finality of his death was difficult to accept, she said. I wanted him alive forever.It is unclear what happened with the second patient. The third patient, however, started to get better.His name was Jimmy. Little more is known about him except that he was a patient of another oncologist at the hospital, Dr. Seema Singhal, and near death before he started the drug. I told him it might work, but at the very least it would help him sleep, Singhal said. Shortly after Jimmy took his first dose of thalidomide, Singhal left for a vacation. Dr. Bart Barlogie and Dr. Seema Singhal (Painting by James Lee Chiahan for ProPublica) When she returned two weeks later, her mailbox was full of lab results for Jimmy. He was still alive. She sat down to double-check the results, which showed declining amounts of a cancer marker. For 30 minutes, I was the only person in the world who knew this worked, she said.Singhal walked down to Barlogies office to give him the news. He took me by the hand, opened a window and shouted, Thank you, God, she said. Violent Arguments Word of Jimmys stunning recovery in Arkansas quickly made its way to the offices of Celgene Corp., located in a small corporate park in a rural patch of northern New Jersey.The company had just wrapped up a brutal year-end accounting, which showed losses of $27 million on revenue of just $1.1 million. Money was so tight that executives engaged in what one of them called violent arguments over whether to charge employees for coffee.Celgene had acquired the rights to thalidomide patents held by researchers at Rockefeller University in 1992. The company, which was new to pharmaceuticals, planned to use the experience of obtaining FDA approval for thalidomide to develop other drugs.It wasnt meant to be a blockbuster, said Sol Barer, who started at the company in 1987 and later became CEO.When Celgene announced plans to develop the disgraced drug for new uses, the only analyst following the company on Wall Street dropped coverage and told Celgene officials they didnt know what they were doing.The company thought the largest market would be as a treatment for AIDS patients experiencing dangerous weight loss. To win approval of the drug, however, Celgene selected a use that was already in practice in parts of the world for a small group of patients.In July 1998, the FDA approved thalidomide for the treatment of a painful complication of leprosy. It was a momentous decision, coming just a few decades after the drug caused so much harm.The market for leprosy was tiny, but what happened with Jimmy in Arkansas changed everything for the company. Blocked Exits The Arkansas doctors had been busy since first testing thalidomide on Ira Wolmer, Jimmy and the other patient. They quickly got approval to conduct a larger experiment funded by a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Now, in December 1998, they were ready to share their initial findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.It had been three decades since a new therapy for multiple myeloma had been approved, and there was a buzz among the oncologists gathered in Miami Beach for the conference. So many doctors crowded into the room for the presentation that the fire marshal had to intervene several times to clear exit ways. Word had already spread among multiple myeloma specialists about Jimmy. Now, the assembled doctors wanted to know whether it had been a fluke or a discovery that would fundamentally change how they practiced.Singhal was tasked with presenting the data. It was a big stage for the 32-year-old doctor, who had only been practicing in the U.S. for two years. It completely changed the treatment landscape. Dr. Seema Singhal The 89 patients in the study were high-risk cases who had undergone prior treatment. They were patients who, like Ira, had run out of options. Now, after thalidomide treatment, one-third had declines in myeloma activity.Those were stunning numbers, unlike anything seen before in the treatment of multiple myeloma. When Singhal finished, the room erupted in applause.It completely changed the treatment landscape, she said.I wasnt able to track down Jimmy, but I have a sense of how he might have felt when he realized the treatment was working.After my initial emergency room visit, it took time to confirm my diagnosis and do some additional testing. While I waited, the pain worsened. Painkillers barely made a dent. All I could picture was this cancer eating away at my bones, doing more damage every day. David Armstrong (Painting by James Lee Chiahan for ProPublica) Some patients wait months for care. I was lucky enough to meet my oncologist within weeks. He had a script for Revlimid ready to go, part of a regimen of four drugs I would take as standard induction therapy, and I was able to start it within days.The initial dose of Revlimid cost $18,255 for a months supply, and my insurance covered the cost.Within a month, my blood tests showed a massive drop in a key cancer indicator.My pain gradually subsided too. By the end of April, I wrote in my journal that the pain was a 3 or 4 instead of the usual 9 or 10. It doesnt hurt to get out of bed anymore, I wrote. A Piggy Bank The discovery in Arkansas made thalidomide, which Celgene sold as Thalomid, an instant hit.As a result, Celgenes revenue increased nearly sevenfold to $26.2 million in the year after the Miami presentation. It sold its thalidomide pills for $7.50 each.From those modest beginnings, Celgene took a slightly altered version of that pill and turned it into one of the bestselling and most expensive prescription drugs in history. Celgenes success with Thalomid was the result of remarkable good fortune, a case where the heavy lifting of discovery and initial testing had already been done, by Beth Wolmer, DAmato, Barlogie, Singhal and others.The development of the drug that would become Revlimid took me deep into the confounding, sharp-elbowed world of drug patents, which ostensibly protect drugmakers, allowing them to recoup the massive investments they made in developing a new product. Celgene drew on patent law, a drug safety system and even patient assistance programs to guard the exclusivity of its prized drug and the massive revenue it generated.Those tactics, detailed in reams of court filings, allowed Celgene to treat Revlimid like a piggy bank, tapping it whenever it wanted. There was a common internal theme at Celgene that cancer patients were willing to pay almost any amount Celgene charged. David Schmidt, a former Celgene executive Amid the early success of Thalomid, Celgene identified two potential threats: One was obvious. Thaldiomide caused birth defects, a looming risk that could result in it being pulled from the market. The other was that Celgene held limited patents on the drug. Patents are exclusive legal rights to inventions, and researchers file them on nearly every aspect of drug development as soon as they can, locking up everything from specific sets of ingredients to the way the drug is used and administered. The more robust patents a company has, the longer it can potentially ward off competitors.Thalidomide was an old drug and Celgenes patents did not cover the active ingredient, leaving it open to competition. The patents it did have, covering items such as the optimal dosages and its use in treating particular diseases, were considered weaker and open to a court challenge. If Celgene could create a new version of thalidomide ideally one that didnt cause birth defects the company could seek more and stronger patents that would extend beyond those of the original drug.So researchers at Celgene tested analogs of thalidomide, which are drugs that have a similar effect but are different from the parent compound in minor ways, such as having one less oxygen atom. The analogs are also more potent than the original, meaning they can achieve a similar effect at lower doses.Celgene was not alone in its efforts. DAmato was also studying thalidomide analogs and filing patents on their use, which he and Boston Childrens Hospital licensed to a Celgene competitor, EntreMed Inc.With dueling patents, the companies sued each other in 2002. Celgene was newly flush with cash from rising sales of thalidomide. EntreMed, on the other hand, was burning through money as it focused most of its resources on developing other drugs discovered in Folkmans lab.In December of 2002, the companies settled.Celgene agreed to pay Boston Childrens Hospital royalties from future sales of Revlimid. In exchange, the hospital and DAmato licensed their patents of thalidomide analogs to Celgene. Celgene also agreed to pay EntreMed $27 million.For Celgene, the fight with EntreMed was a valuable experience. It learned that competition can be neutralized. The Rise of Revlimid Celgene had kept the price of Thalomid low when it was initially intended for AIDS patients, CEO John Jackson told investors in 2004, as the company didnt want huge numbers of people demonstrating in front of its office.That wasnt a problem with cancer patients. There was plenty of room for very substantial increases in the price of the drug now, Jackson told investors. It is time for us to take Jimbo to the wood shed. A senior Celgene official discussing a doctor critical of Revlimid Just two days earlier, Celgene had hiked the price of Thalomid to $47 a pill.There was a common internal theme at Celgene that cancer patients were willing to pay almost any amount Celgene charged, wrote David Schmidt, a former national account manager at the company, in a whistleblower lawsuit he filed after his employment was terminated in 2008. The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed by Schmidt. (Jackson didnt respond to requests for comment; Schmidt declined to talk to me.)When Celgene launched Revlimid in December of 2005, it set the initial price at $55,000 a year, or $218 a pill, which was about double what analysts expected.Seven months later, when the FDA approved the drug for multiple myeloma, the price jumped to $70,560 a year, or $280 a pill. The Price of Revlimid Has Increased 26 Times Since FDA Approval Each dot indicates a new manufacturer list price per pill. (Source: AnalySource) The cost to manufacture each Revlimid pill, meanwhile, was 25 cents. I found a deposition marked highly confidential in which a top Celgene executive testified that the cost started at a quarter and never changed.Even on Wall Street, which cheered higher pricing, the initial cost of Revlimid prompted concern among analysts who tracked the company that such aggressive maneuvering would cause insurers to push back. In the U.S., that is one of the only real checks on the price of prescription drugs. That fear turned out to be unfounded, and Celgene would repeatedly test the bounds of how high it could go.At the same time, Celgene worked to mute any criticism of Revlimid.In 2005, Celgene received reports that Los Angeles oncologist Dr. James Berenson was bashing Revlimid in presentations sponsored by patient groups.In one email, a senior company official said, it is time for us to take Jimbo to the wood shed. The company discussed a range of options for dealing with the doctor, from taking legal action to arranging a sit-down with Celgenes chief executive.Ultimately, the company appears to have decided on a friendlier course of action. Berenson became a frequent paid speaker and consultant for the company, with payments totaling at least $333,000, according to Celgene disclosures. Berenson declined to comment.He wasnt the only doctor the company befriended. Payment records show that between 2013 and 2018, Celgene paid doctors $11 million for speaking engagements and consulting work related to Revlimid. At one point, Celgene rented a suite at the Houston Astros baseball stadium to throw a party for the entire multiple myeloma department at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, according to court testimony. The center said it was unable to verify any of those details. They remind me of an octopus with many, many tentacles, and at the end of each tentacle is a wad of cash. David Mitchell, president of Patients For Affordable Drugs Celgene went on to spread its largess across the multiple myeloma world. It funded patient groups, sponsored medical meetings and contracted with prestigious academic medical centers.They remind me of an octopus with many, many tentacles, and at the end of each tentacle is a wad of cash, said David Mitchell, a former Washington, D.C., communications executive who launched a nonprofit organization to fight for lower prices after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Everybody relies on the money. Mitchell said his group, Patients For Affordable Drugs, does not accept donations from any entity that profits from the development or distribution of pharmaceuticals.At the same time it showered doctors and patient groups with money, Celgene was shutting Beth Wolmer out. She told me that John Jackson, the CEO at the time, had promised her a paid board seat at the company as a way of compensating her for her role in the discovery before the company cut off communication.Wolmer sued Celgene in federal court in 2009, seeking $300 million or more for alleged misappropriation of her idea and what she termed the unjust enrichment of Celgene.Celgene said it never promised to compensate Wolmer. The company also suggested she greatly inflated her role in the discovery and, in any event, waited too long to take legal action.In 2010, a judge granted Celgenes motion for summary judgment in the case, agreeing that the statute of limitations had expired while at the same time expressing admiration for Wolmers contribution to the struggle against this terrible disease. Ira and Beth Wolmer in the Cayman Islands (Painting by James Lee Chiahan for ProPublica) Wolmer has remarried and changed her name to Jacobson. She remains disappointed about the way she was treated by Celgene. There was no ambiguity about who found the purpose of this drug, and Im thrilled that its helping so many people, she said. Why they treated me that way? I dont know. The Generic Threat After the FDA approved Revlimid in late 2005, it also granted Celgene something else: seven years of market exclusivity because the drug treats a rare disease. In those seven years, Celgene raised the price of the drug nine times, increasing the price per pill by 82% to $397 in 2012.The company also fended off challengers by claiming its patents protected the drug from competition until 2027.But by 2010 generic makers were already working on copies of the drug, preparing to challenge those patents and enter the market earlier. A government analysis has found that generics generally lower the price of brand name drugs by an average of 85% after just one year.Celgene was well aware of the danger generics posed and warned in a 2012 financial filing that their entry into the market could have a material adverse effect on its finances. At that point, Revlimid sales made up 70% of the companys revenue.Celgene needed another move.The drug still posed a risk of birth defects like the parent compound. In approving the drug, the FDA had mandated a strict safety program to control its prescription and distribution.Celgene realized early on that this could also be a tool to thwart competition. An internal company presentation at the time noted that the safety program could make it more difficult for generic companies to access thalidomide for testing.Generic drug makers are required by the FDA to test their version against the brand name drug, so they need to buy small amounts of Revlimid from the company.By 2012, at least six generic makers had requested to purchase Revlimid for testing. In every case, Celgene refused.Federal regulators took notice. The FDA had warned Celgene that it could not use the safety program to block or delay approval of generic competitors. Now, it appeared to be doing just that.The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces antitrust laws, had been investigating Celgene for years and in June of 2012 notified the company it was poised to take action.In a previously unreported letter, the FTC said that its staff had recommended filing a legal complaint against the company for refusing to sell to competitors, thereby keeping them out of the marketplace. The commissions patience is wearing thin. FTC official Richard Feinstein to a Celgene attorney In its letter, the FTC noted that while Celgene refused to sell its drugs to potential competitors, it routinely provided Revlimid to other third parties around the world, including researchers and universities studying the drug.Then, in August of 2012, the FDA directed Celgene to sell a small amount of Revlimid to a generic competitor.With both federal agencies bearing down on Celgene, a closed-door meeting was held at FDA headquarters at the end of August. The FTC sent five lawyers, and 11 FDA staffers attended. Celgene showed up with a large contingent that included in-house lawyers and outside counsel.Celgene started by denying it was using the safety program to block generics, according to minutes of the meeting. (The minutes were filed in a court case against Celgene, and it is unclear if they were prepared by the agencies or the company.) Citing the threat of birth defects, the company said that it had legitimate safety concerns about selling Revlimid to generic companies and that it needed to protect its investment in the drug.Jane Axelrad, an associate director for the FDA, told Celgene that it was raising safety concerns because the company does not want generics on the market, according to the minutes. She declined to comment.The meeting ended without a resolution. The FDA had no way of enforcing its directive to Celgene. The FTC staff, however, was still determined to act. The agency had spent more than two years investigating Celgene. It hired experts, deposed Celgene officials and obtained internal company documents.The staff drafted a complaint alleging the company engaged in unfair actions to maintain a monopoly, hoping either that it would push the company to agree to sell to competitors to avoid legal action or that Celgene would be forced to do so by the courts, according to a person familiar with the agencys stance.The commissions patience is wearing thin, FTC official Richard Feinstein wrote to the companys lawyer in February 2013. We have reached a point where the staff may be instructed in the very near future to commence litigation. (Feinstein did not respond to emails seeking a comment.)Celgene appeared to relent, telling the FTC that it would sell to generic makers, as long as the FDA approved their safety plan. In July, the FDA approved the safety protocols of generic maker Mylan.Still, Celgene refused to sell.Jon Leibowitz, who was the chairman of the FTC at the time, told me that Celgenes promise to cooperate, even if it didnt result in any sales to generic makers, lessened interest in the case among his fellow commissioners. Three of five commissioners need to vote in favor of commencing litigation. Now, in retrospect, he said that if we knew then what we know now about the delays, we certainly would have brought a case.The agency would close its case in 2017 without taking any action.With would-be generic competitors sidelined by Celgenes refusal to sell drugs for testing, the company continued to raise the price of Revlimid. They could raise their price any time they wanted to. Francis Brown, former Celgene sales executive On a Saturday morning in early March of 2014, Celgene President Mark Alles sent an internal email complaining of disappointing first quarter Revlimid sales. Revenue from the star drug, which had surpassed $1 billion the previous quarter, was down by about 1% or $11.4 million.I have to consider every legitimate opportunity available to us to improve our Q1 performance, he wrote. But the only idea he proposed was a familiar one: raise the price of the drug.Alles said he wanted a meeting the following Monday to discuss an immediate 4% price increase, followed by another increase of 3% at the beginning of September.The company implemented those hikes, along with a third in December. It brought the price of Revlimid to $9,854 a month, or $469 a pill, and helped boost Revlimid sales for the year to $5 billion. Alles didnt respond to my requests for comment.They could raise their price any time they wanted to, said Francis Brown, a former sales executive at the company, in a 2015 deposition. I wasnt able to reach Brown for comment.Celgene found a solution to the generic threat when it struck a deal to settle a lawsuit brought by generic maker NATCO Pharma in 2015. NATCO could bring a generic to market, Celgene agreed, but not for seven more years in March 2022. Even then, the generic would be limited to less than 10% of the total market for Revlimid in the first year, with gradual increases after that. The deal set the bar for deals with other rivals for limited generic sales, and it ensured that unlimited generic competition and lower prices would not arrive until 2026.The delayed entry of generics may have been bad news for patients and health care payors, but there was one constituency that was thrilled with the 2015 deal. Celgenes stock jumped nearly 10% the day after it was announced. Ridiculous, Ugly and Killer Revlimid turned out to be a unicorn for Celgene, a drug whose financial success proved impossible to replicate.In October of 2017, Celgene announced it was abandoning a once-promising effort to develop a drug for Crohns disease. Shares of Celgene declined by 11%.As it had done so many times in the past, Celgene tapped Revlimid to try to mitigate the damage. The day it announced the failure of the Crohns drug, it quietly raised the price of Revlimid by 9%.By the end of the year, Celgene had cumulatively raised the cost 20% to $662 a pill, the largest one-year increase in the drugs history.That made Revlimid the most expensive Medicare drug that year, with the government insurance program spending $3.3 billion to provide it to 37,459 patients.At Celgene, the brash increases triggered rare internal dissent. Betty Swartz, the companys vice president of U.S. market access, objected to the measures in a pricing meeting with the CEO, who at the time was Alles, and other top executives. She said her concerns were swiftly dismissed, according to a whistleblower lawsuit she filed and later dismissed.Why would you be afraid to take an increase on our products? she said the CEO told her. What could be the worst thing that happens ... a tweet here or there and bad press for a bit. Swartz declined to comment.The price increases added to the burden faced by many patients. In online groups, patients use words like ridiculous, ugly and killer when talking about the financial pain they have experienced related to the high costs associated with Revlimid. Some have taken out mortgages, raided retirement funds or cut back on everyday expenses like groceries to pay for Revlimid. Others have found overseas suppliers who ship the drug for pennies on the dollar, although doctors caution theres no way to guarantee quality. Some just decide not to take the drug.By increasing the price of Revlimid, Celgene executives in several instances boosted their pay. Thats because bonuses were tied to meeting revenue and earnings targets. In some years, executives would not have hit those targets without the Revlimid price increases, a congressional investigation later found.In total, Celgene paid a handful of top executives about a half-billion dollars in the 12 years after Revlimid was approved.Robert Hugin, who worked as Celgenes CEO and then executive chairman, received $51 million in total compensation from 2015 to 2017. Hugin retired in 2018 to launch an unsuccessful Senate bid. Even sales reps earned more than $1 million a year and were rewarded with trips to resorts such as the Four Seasons in Maui. That pay is more than two times what the average oncologist earns.I connected with Hugin just before Christmas while he was driving. He was ardent in his defense of the pricing of Revlimid. He told me the drug passes any cost-benefit analysis because of its impact on multiple myeloma patients like myself. People recognize when you have a breakthrough therapy and you have an opportunity to deliver that, you want to deliver that across the world, he said. And I think Revlimid is an example of a product that ends up to be a global lifesaver because of what it did.Hugin told me that when Revlimid has unlimited generic competition, the price will be cheaper than aspirin and patients will benefit from that low price for many decades.Celgene also cited the cost of developing drugs and its expansive research efforts as reasons for the high cost of Revlimid. Celgene said it spent $800 million to develop Revlimid and spent several hundred million more on additional trials to study the use of the drug in other cancers. Those combined figures represent about 2% to 3% of Revlimid sales through 2018. The drug didnt get any better. The cancer patients didnt get any better. You just got better at making money. You just refined your skills at price gouging. Former Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif. By the end of 2018, Celgenes stock was down 56% over the past 15 months amid development failures. Despite the raft of bad news, Alles total pay that year increased by $3 million to $16.2 million.Celgene tried desperately to boost its flagging stock price by buying back $6 billion of its own shares that year.Ultimately, the buyback was not enough. Just days into the new year in 2019, Celgene announced it had agreed to be acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in a deal valued at $74 billion.As part of a severance agreement, top Celgene executives stood to make millions once the deal closed. For Alles, that meant a potential estimated payday of $27.9 million.In the fall of 2020, Alles appeared before the House Oversight Committee, which was investigating the high cost of prescription drugs. He said pricing decisions reflected our commitment to patient access, the value of a medicine to patients and the health care system, the continuous effort to discover new medicines and new uses for existing medicines, and the need for financial flexibility.When it came time for questions, then-Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., quizzed Alles in rapid-fire style about Revlimid. Did the drug change as the price increased? Did it work faster? Were there fewer side effects? The drug was the same, Alles responded.So, to recap here, Porter said. The drug didnt get any better. The cancer patients didnt get any better. You just got better at making money. You just refined your skills at price gouging. The Drumbeat Continues High prices have consequences beyond individual patients. While there have been tremendous advancements in the treatment of my disease, there is still no cure. The specter of relapse hovers over every blood test, every new ache or pain.The day I learned I was in remission, in November 2023, was bittersweet. I wrote at the time that I didnt get to ring a bell the traditional sign that a cancer patient has finished treatment. Instead, my doctor explained the next step: maintenance treatment.This includes not only continuing Revlimid, but making monthly visits to my cancer center to get a shot of a bone-strengthening drug, have another drug injected into my stomach and blood drawn for lab tests.The visit, I wrote that day, only reinforced the fact that Im a patient, and I always will be.For most of us, cancer will return at some point after treatment. And for most patients, the drugs eventually stop working.Revlimid can also be difficult to live with. Some patients quit the drug after developing severe gastrointestinal issues, infections or liver problems. The drug also poses an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and secondary cancers.Those are the trade-offs for keeping multiple myeloma in check.Meanwhile, the drumbeat of price increases continues under Bristol Myers Squibb, helping the company bring in $48 billion in revenue from Revlimid since it purchased Celgene. Bristol said its pricing reflects the continued clinical benefit Revlimid brings to patients, along with other economic factors. The company said it is committed to achieving unfettered patient access to our medicines and provides some financial support for eligible patients. While BMS develops prices for its medicines, we do not determine what patients will pay out of pocket.Last July, the cost of my monthly Revlimid prescription increased by 7% to $19,660.At the beginning of this year, my insurer switched me to generic Revlimid. I didnt fight it, thinking it would result in a dramatic decrease in what ProPublicas health plan pays for the drug.It turns out it is not much of a savings: The generic costs $17,349 a month. Alec Glassford contributed research.

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In March, pop musician Jake Wesley Rogers performed a medley at the GLAAD Media Awards that was a mashup of Loser and Queens iconic We Are the Champions. Loser is fromhis forthcoming album titled In the Key of Lovewhich also includes God Bless and his new pop anthem Hot Gospel and the full album [...]The post WATCH: Jake Wesley Rogers Talks How Elton John Said he Found It With Debut Album In The Key Of Love and Touring with Cyndi Lauper first appeared on GLAAD.

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Overall, regardless of style, my goal was always to make my home a place I can come back to and feel at peace. I work a relatively stressful job and wanted to ensure that I go home to a peaceful, warm, and welcoming environment where I can relax and de-stress, this nurse practitioner writes.READ MORE...

Grammy winnerMaren Morris made headlines last Pride Month when she opened up on Instagram, sharing that she was Happy to be the B in LGBTQ+. As GLAADs 2023 Excellence in Media Honoree, Morris has long been committed to supporting the queer community. To talk about this and more, Morris spoke with Angela Melerofrom TZR Magazine! [...]The post Maren Morris Talks First Dates, Coming Out as Bisexual, and Upcoming Album Dreamsicle in New Interview with TZR Magazine first appeared on GLAAD.

For many queer folks, Disneyland and Disney World have offered a safe place to get away for a day from the struggles they face in everyday life. The mantra in the parks has largely been one of inclusiveness. Step into any merch shop and you will be greeted with rainbow-themed and gay honeymoon items, readily available. There are heavily attended and beloved Gay Days, Pride Nites and Clarabelle Cow has become a true gay icon. While Disneys track record on queer representation is, um, spotty, the parks have proven to be a refuge. So this week when Disney announced the plan to open its seventh global theme park, this time in the United Arab Emirates city of Abu Dhabi, well, Disney gays and allies had some thoughts. The new park, which is the first Disney property in the Middle East, is set to be built as a waterfront resort on Yas Island, which is already a popular tourist hub for visitors from around the world. Interestingly, Disney itself will not be building or operating the park, but rather have partnered with Miral, Abu Dhabis leading creator of immersive destinations and experiences. Disney Imagineering will lead the creative design and offer guidance regarding the experience, but its role will primarily be to ensure the magic is there and on-brand. This is similar to the way that Tokyo Disneyland, which is owned by The Oriental Land Company and licensed intellectual property from Disney, operates. (@) Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed this in a statement shared with PEOPLE. Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment at this crossroads of the world that will bring to life our timeless characters and stories in many new ways and will become a source of joy and inspiration for the people of this vast region to enjoy for generations to come, he extolled. Therein lies the problem for LGBTQ+ Disney fans and allies, who point to the UAEs strict anti-LGBTQ+ laws and restrictions for women as being opposed to the companys core values and key policies of inclusion. Even if another entity technically owns and operates the park.According to a Human Rights Watch report in 2024, the UAEs Federal Penal Code criminalizes vaguely defined acts, allowing the authorities to arrest people for a wide range of behaviors, including public displays of affection, gender nonconforming expressions, and campaigns promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. And while women can now drive, own property, work, and get an education, they must do so with permission from a male guardian. Is this really the vibe of the most magical place on earth? Critics of this move by Disney say no, and theyve taken to social media to share their unfiltered feelings. Disney I am trying my f*cking best not to give up on you but why the f*ck would you open up a park in Abu Dhabi where being gay and trans is illegal and women have to sometimes ask a male guardian for approval. How is that Disney magic? wrote one X user. As a rule, I don't like to go to countries where they wish death upon me or people I love, so will not be visiting a Disney Park in Abu Dhabi, wrote another. The actual opening of the park is still years away. "It typically takes us between 18 months and two years to design and fully develop and approximately five years to build, but we're not making any commitments right now," Iger told CNBC's David Faber. That being the case, who is to say how this will take shape in the years to come? But for now, many queer folks are understandably crying foul. (@) Bob Iger after announcing Disney Abu Dhabi (@) Single white women going to Disney Abu Dhabi completely unbothered while their LGBTQ+ friends are getting shaken down by Disney security (@) As soon as some Disney adults set foot in Abu Dhabi (@) "Disney I am trying my f*cking best not to give up on you but why the f*ck would you open up a park in Abu Dhabi where being gay and trans is illegal and women have to sometimes ask a male guardian for approval. How is that Disney magic? I hope your partnership has a loophole" (@) "why the f*ck would you open up a Disney park in Abu Dhabi a country where being gay and trans is illegal and women have to sometimes ask a male guardian for approval. How is that the Disney magic" (@) "This whole thing leaves an incredibly sour taste in my mouth, I can't lie. Half of this video is just a state-sponsored ad for Abu Dhabi...Disney should've stipulated an improvement in women's and LGBTQ+ rights before committing to this. The UAE's rights record is horrific." (@) "Taking notes on whos excited about Disney Abu Dhabi and judging you" (@) "As a rule I don't like to go to countries where they wish death upon me or people I love, so will not be visiting a Disney Park in Abu Dhabi" (@) "I have to say its fascinating watching the Disney-hating MAGA crowd twist themselves into knots over the Abu Dhabi deal.On one hand, theyve spent years raging against Disney for promoting equality and inclusion. On the other, theyre now unsure (rightfully) of Disney working with a country with a deeply authoritarian system built on religious fundamentalism and labor exploitation.Its almost like theyre beginning to realize that their ideology has more in common with theocratic control than with the freedom they claim to defend. Maybe, just maybe, theyre starting to see theyve been used all alongto help dismantle the very values that make America worth fighting for."

The queer soccer fam just got a little bigger as star players Kristie Mewis and Sam Kerr just announced the birth of their baby!Last November, Mewis, a U.S. Womens National Soccer Team midfielder, and Kerr, Chelsea striker and Australian national team captain, told the world they were expecting a baby in 2025. Now, the baby has finally arrived, and the happy couple announced the news on social media.The two love birds posted an adorable selfie on Instagram with the caption, Our little man is here, showing off the new addition to their family: baby boy Jagger Mewis-Kerr.See on InstagramFellow soccer players Mary Fowler, Caitlin Foord and Katie McCabe all took to the comments to congratulate the pair.To announce they were pregnant last year, Mewis and Kerr posted a series of photos on Instagram that included them holding an ultrasound and Kerr pointing to Mewis belly. "Mewis-Kerr baby coming 2025!" Kerr wrote on Instagram at the time.See on InstagramKerr, 31, and Mewis, 34, made their relationship public at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics when photos of them hugging after they faced off against each other went viral, and then got engaged in 2023.Now, Kerr and Mewis are making waves with the announcement of their bundle of joy, but earlier this year their names were splashed across the headlines when Kerr was accused of causing racially aggravated harassment to a police officer in England after allegedly calling him stupid and white. Mewis testified , telling the court that her fianc was speaking her truth in how she was feeling, and Kerr was found not guilty, New York Times reported.

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Is Jennifer Beals trying to kill us? The L Word star recently posted some throwback pics that have the ladies swooning."baby #dandy," reads the simple caption on Instagram, shared alongside two photos of her in a button up, trousers, and tie.The pics are clearly a nod to the 2025 Met Gala theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, in which attendees paid homage to Black dandyism and its impact on fashion. But fans were a little too preoccupied to do much more than stare."Read the hashtag [too] fast and thought it said 'Daddy,'" wrote @ukiiyolueur."baby was manifesting Bette before she even knew it," @kenobry joked, while @thealeximelvin said, "I think I just witnessed an L Word prequel somehow."See on InstagramBeals has been making the press rounds lately to promote her new book. The L Word: A Photographic Journal was released on April 15 and features a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes pictures the actress took during her time on the show.Although the book was initially available in limited quantities on her website, fan demand led to Beals eventually having it officially published. "There's an emotional layer of memory that the photos bring back," she told People. "But for other people experiencing the book, they may remember where they were at that time and what the show meant to them."Promoting the book also led to a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show that left sapphic fans shrieking at the interaction between the two."I wish I had your voice, by the way," Clarkson told the Flashdance star out of nowhere. "Youre so quietly sexy. Its amazing."Without hesitation, Beals responded by referencing a viral performance in which Clarkson winked during a particularly loaded line, saying, "I heard you like your women older or something?"So, yeah, it definitely feels like Jennifer Beals is trying to kill us all.

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by Bianca Fortis ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. Columbia University has agreed to a $750 million settlement with 576 patients of a former doctor who sexually abused them while working at the school. In 2023, a ProPublica investigation, published with New York Magazine, revealed how Columbia had ignored women, undermined prosecutors and ultimately protected a predator. Obstetrician-gynecologist Robert Hadden worked at the university for 20 years despite decades of complaints about him. The university had even cleared Hadden to see patients three days after he was arrested when a patient called 911 to report that he had assaulted her during a postpartum exam. University higher-ups had been informed of the arrest but allowed Hadden to continue working for another five weeks. Patients he saw during that time also reported being assaulted. The latest settlement, combined with payouts from previous cases, means that Columbia will have paid out more than $1 billion to resolve claims of sexual abuse by Hadden. Columbia also said that it has now settled more than 1,000 claims of sexual abuse by Haddens former patients. Hadden was convicted of sex crimes in federal court in January 2023 and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence. Laurie Kanyok, the patient who called 911, said the settlement is bittersweet. Its emotional because its been 13 years, she told ProPublica. She also said that financial compensation does not amount to justice. Im grateful that Im involved in this, Kanyok said. At the same time, I feel like I want to see people held accountable and not just somebodys insurance company or checkbook. Unlike in other high-profile cases involving sexual abuse by doctors, no administrators from Columbia have been fired or have stepped down as a result of the Hadden case. In a statement, Columbia acknowledged failing to protect Haddens patients. We deeply regret the pain that his patients suffered, and this settlement is another step forward in our ongoing work and commitment to repair harm and support survivors, the statement said. We commend the survivors for their bravery in coming forward. The latest settlement puts Columbia on par with the largest payout ever by a university to settle sexual abuse claims. In 2021, the University of Southern California agreed to pay $1.1 billion to survivors of George Tyndall, a university gynecologist who abused thousands of women. Anthony DiPietro, the attorney who handled most of the Columbia claims, said the lesson from this weeks settlement is clear: Institutions cannot continue to cover up sexual exploitation and abuse by their doctors because theyre going to be held accountable. Weeks after ProPublicas investigation, Columbia announced that it would set up a $100 million settlement fund for patients who did not want to file civil suits. Survivors have about another week, until May 15, to submit a claim. As part of the same announcement, Columbia also said it would notify all of Haddens nearly 6,500 former patients of the doctors crimes and that it would commission an external investigation to examine failures that allowed the abuse to go on for so long. Asked about the status of that investigation, which was announced a year and a half ago, the university said it is ongoing. Columbia did not give a time frame for the reports completion.

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Its nearly summer, which means vacation time for many LGBTQ+ Americans. But where are LGBTQ+ vacationers heading? From beach towns to big cities, here are some of the top LGBTQ+-friendly destinations this summer.Provincetown, MA. Photo: Photo by Tyler Butler Provincetown, MAOften considered the ultimate gay beach town, Provincetowns population grows from around 3,500 to 60,000 during the summer months. This coastal town has been courting LGBTQ+ visitors for decades, and offers popular events like Bear Week, Girl Splash, LGBTQ+ Families Week and more. While accommodations book up months in advance, you might still be able to score some last-minute deals. Be sure to stop by Atlantic House, one of the nations oldest operating gay bars.Rehoboth Beach, DE. Photo: Erica Zhao Rehoboth Beach, DERehoboth Beach, Delaware, has long been a favorite LGBTQ+ vacation spot on the East Coast. With its charming boardwalk, inclusive atmosphere, and a lively mix of LGBTQ+-owned and friendly restaurants, bars, and shops, its a welcoming destination for queer travelers looking for sun, community and coastal fun. Check out the CAMP Rehoboths popular Womens Fest and Summer Solstice The Ultimate White Party while planning your trip.Fire Island, NY. Photo: WoodysPhotosFire Island, NYThis iconic destination about two and a half hours by car or train from New York City offers beach culture mixed with a party atmosphere and a strong queer community. The island is divided into several communities, the most popular being Cherry Grove and The Pines. Vacation rental houses are available for those planning longer trips, while hotels right in the mix of the party scene are also available. Houses tend to book out months, if not years in advance, but many guests make weekend trips via the Fire Island Ferry and stay in one of the islands many hotels. Ferries depart from three locations, with hourly options during peak times.Palm Springs, CA. Photo: Xavier S. Palm Springs, CA About a two hour drive west of Los Angeles, Palm Springs is one of the most LGBTQ+-friendly resort towns in the U.S. Once a bastion for Hollywoods biggest stars, Palm Springs combines a relaxing desert atmosphere and mid-century charm with an LGBTQ+ welcoming vibe. In 2017, the city made headlines for having the countrys first all LGBTQ+ city council. Queer parties happen year round in Palm Springs, and while summer isnt peak tourist season (temperatures can top 109 degrees June-August), this town has its share of luxury resorts and a strong pool culture to cool things down. Fans of RuPauls Drag Race wont want to miss a stop by for a drink at The Trixie Motel, renovated and owned by drag superstar Trixie Mattel.Key West, FL. Photo: Mikhail Nilov Key West, FLFamous for its laid-back, anything-goes attitude, Key West is home to drag shows, Pride events and a strong queer tourism economy. Once home to icons like Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal, it grew into a haven for LGBTQ+ artists, writers and travelers starting in the mid-20th century. By the 70s, the island had fully embraced its queer identity, becoming one of the countrys most welcoming and affirming destinations. Today, events like Pride and Fantasy Fest keep that spirit alive. Head over to the 700 block of Duval Street, where rainbow crosswalks beckon and several LGBTQ+-owned establishments are located.Douglas, MI. Photo: PixabayDouglas and Saugatuck, MichiganOn the coast of Lake Michigan, youll find two LGBTQ+-friendly towns that come to life in the summer months. Douglas and Saugatuck are twin cities of a sort, these towns have welcomed LGBTQ+ visitors since the 50s. In Douglas, youll find the famous Dunes Resort, which has been welcoming primarily gay and queer men since 1981. In Saugatuck, art galleries and LGBTQ+-owned businesses line the streets and you can even catch a show at the Mason Street Warehouse.San Diego, CA. Photo: Zachary SawchukSan Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego has quietly become one of the most LGBTQ+-friendly vacation spots in the U.S., offering a mix of coastal charm, vibrant nightlife and inclusive spaces. The Hillcrest neighborhood is the heart of queer San Diego, full of bars, cafes, and shops that cater to the community, including Gossip Grill. From beach days at Blacks Beach (a clothing-optional beach popular with locals), to catching a performance at Diversionary Theatre, San Diego delivers a culturally rich, welcoming vibe.Portland, OR. Photo: Justin ShenPortland, OregonThe Rose City is in bloom during the summer, and so is the LGBTQ+ scene in this Pacific Northwest city. Portland has multiple LGBTQ+ bars but is so queer and trans-friendly that most places offer an enthusiastic LGBTQ+ welcoming atmosphere. Sporty queers will want to check out the Portland Thorns soccer team, stop by the queer-owned Sports Bra for snacks and drinks, and look into WNBA tickets for the Portland expansion team debuting in 2026. Dont miss a show at the famous Darcelle XV, which in 2020 became the first LGBTQ+ business in Oregon to receive designation as a national historic site. On any given night, visitors will find something queer-themed to do in Portland.Where are your favorite LGBTQ+ destinations in the U.S.? Let us know at newsisout@localmedia.org.The post From Coast to Coast: LGBTQ-friendly places to visit this summer appeared first on News Is Out.

Two days after the College of Cardinals gathered to elect a new pope, a decision has been made. Robert Prevost has been chosen, becoming the first American pope in history. He's adopted the name Pope Leo XIV.Leo's ascension to the papacy comes after Pope Francis, a relatively progressive pope when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, died last month.The new pope is from Chicago and is 69. He earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, then received a diploma in theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.Related: 'JD Vance is wrong,' new Pope Leo XIV once posted on social mediaRelated: LGBTQ+ Catholic organization's leader says he's 'hopeful' about Pope Leo XIVHe previously served as a Catholic missionary in South America, CNN reports. He worked in Trujillo, Peru, for about 10 years and then served as bishop of the Peruvian city of Chiclayo from 2014 until 2023.The outlet states that many believe Leo will continue many of Francis's reforms.In his first speech as pope, Leo said, We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue."Opinion: By selecting an American, the Vatican sends a message to Trump's hostility and global aspirationsThe new pontiff also honored his predecessor.Let us keep in our ears the weak voice of Pope Francis that blesses Rome. The Pope who blessed Rome, gave his blessing to the entire world that morning of Easter. Allow me to follow up on that blessing. God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail."While he honored Francis, there are some questions about his support of LGBTQ+ rights. Francis made several pro-LGBTQ+ reforms during his papacy. But the new pope has made some anti-LGBTQ+ statements. In 2012, at a meeting of bishops, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel, The New York Times reports. He specifically mentioned the homosexual lifestyle and alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children. As bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, he objected to a plan to teach about gender in schools, saying, The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that dont exist.Related: Will the next Pope embrace the LGBTQ+ community and a more modest lifestyle like Pope Francis did?However, he has voiced compassion for the LGBTQ community, according to the Meidas Touch Network. But while he may foster a more welcoming environment, he has not signaled any openness to changing Church teaching on same-sex marriage or the ordination of women, Meidas Touch reports.LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD said it looked forward to working with Leo. The group had previously met with Francis to discuss LGBTQ+ rights.The Roman Catholic Church stands on the threshold of a hopeful and inclusive new chapter. With Pope Leo XIVs leadership, there is an extraordinary opportunity to inspire billions around the world and further embrace LGBTQ people with compassion, dignity, and love," GLAAD's CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement provided to The Advocate. "He can build on the progress already made and help create a Church that truly reflects the universal message of acceptance and care for all. We are hopeful to collaborate with Pope Leo, just as we did with Pope Francis, to help ensure the Church continues to grow as a welcoming home for everyone.Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which works for LGBTQ+ equality in the Catholic Church, released a statement saying it was "disappointing" to hear of the new pope's 2012 anti-LGBTQ+ comment. "We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened," DeBernardo added."We pray that as our church transitions from 12 years of an historic papacy, Pope Leo XIV will continue the welcome and outreach to LGBTQ+ people which Pope Francis inaugurated," he continued. "The healing that began with Who am I to judge? needs to continue and grow to 'Who am I, if not a friend to LGBTQ+ people?'"DignityUSA, another LGBTQ+ Catholic group, issued a press release saying in part, "We note that this [2012] statement was made during the papacy of Benedict XVI, when doctrinal adherence appeared to be expected. In addition, the voices of LGBTQ people were rarely heard at that level of church leadership. We pray that Pope Leo XIV will demonstrate a willingness to listen and grow as he begins his new role as the leader of the global Church."Trudy Ring contributed reporting.

Rockstar Games released a new trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI, and while the video features high-stakes heists and stunning graphics, the internet has zeroed in on something else entirely: the games steamy new leading man. Fans have waited more than a decade for a glimpse of the next installment in the iconic open-world franchise, and the second official trailer did not disappoint.Source

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The Golden Globe Awards, best known for celebrating the best of film and television, are entering uncharted territory by adding a podcast category to the event.The best podcast category will feature six nominees chosen from the 25 most-listened-to podcasts. Unfortunately, that means shows like The Joe Rogan Experience, This Past Weekend w/Theo Von, and Call Her Daddy are likely to win before we ever get to see an LGBTQ+ podcast take home a golden statue, despite deserving all the accolades.Alex Cooper may have made headlines recently for interviewing queer stars Chappell Roan, Abby Wambach, and Glennon Doyle on Call Her Daddy, but if a podcast category is getting added to the awards show, then we want see some LGBTQ+ hosts to make it to the podium.Since the Golden Globes have never been as stuffy as the Oscars, weve picked light-hearted comedy podcasts and pop culture shows right alongside political commentary and explorations of gender.So get comfy because youre about to have a whole new list of podcasts to start bingeing!Gender RevealTrans masc journalist Tuck Woodstock hosts the award-winning podcast Gender Reveal , which has been releasing episodes since 2018. The podcast focuses on the trans and nonbinary community, exploring current events and gender. With 13 seasons out already, you have plenty of episodes to binge if youve missed this one. Listen to Gender Reveal.Las CulturistasLas Culturistas is a weekly podcast hosted by Saturday Night Live comedian Bowen Yang and Fire Island star Matt Rogers. These two besties dive into all manner of pop culture, from movies and reality TV to music, and have amazing queer celebrity guests like Chappell Roan, Joel Kim Booster, and Rene Rapp.Listen to Las Culturistas.Vibe CheckOn Vibe check, hosts Sam Sanders, Saeed Jones, and Zach Stafford explore the intersection of news and pop culture, something we could all use these days. The podcast is described as your favorite group chat, come to life, and that is the perfect description of what it feels like to listen to these friends talk about everything from President Donald Trump to Black fashion. Listen to Vibe Check.Keep ItEach week the Princes of Pop Culture chat about the intersection of pop culture and politics through a queer lens. Notable guests have included Tina Knowles, Darren Chris, and Gabrielle Union, but it is the chemistry of hosts Ira Madison III and Louis Virtel that will have you tuning in to every episode. Listen to The Read.Bad With MoneyHosted by trans bisexual NYT best selling author Gabe Dunn, Bad Money brings you a money show for the weirdos and queerdos with an unabashedly radical point of view about finances that will help you fix your life. Podcasts about money and finances are often stale and boring, but Dunn manages to make it entertaining while also interviewing guest experts to give you the best information available. The ReadThe Read is a laugh-out-loud funny podcast hosted by Kid Fury and Crissle West that has been releasing episodes for more than a decade. This hilarious podcast analyzes politics and pop culture from a Black queer perspective while keeping things light and fun. A Bit FruityOn every episode of A Bit Fruity, host Matt Bernstein dives into the current events, culture wars, and people who are shaping the world around us. Recent episodes have tackled everything from Gwen Stefanis slide into conservatism to Elon Musks bizarre brand of family values. Once you start listening, youre never going to want to stop.Listen to A Bit Fruity.We Can Do Hard ThingsWhat makes We Can Do Hard Things so great is that the hosts, lesbian author Glennon Doyle, her soccer star wife Abby Wambach, and Doyles sister Amanda Doyle, are so relatable, and their lives are open books. While talking about relationship struggles, parenting woes, and social justice issues, the women offer up advice and stories from their own lives, making them infinitely listenable.Listen to We Can Do Hard Things.Horror QueersHosted by gay horror experts Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurman, every week Horror Queers delivers witty, smart, and often hilarious commentary on your favorite scary movies from an LGBTQ+ perspective. Its the perfect show if youre a diehard horror aficionado, but their reviews are so accessible that even baby horror fans will enjoy it. Listen to Horror Queers.The MessThe TransLash podcast network tells trans stories to save trans lives, and The Mess, hosted by journalist Imara Jones, is part of that mission. At a time when the trans community is being attacked by conservatives more than ever, Jones offers incisive political analysis while also reminding listeners to keep hope alive. Rachel Maddow Presents UltraLesbian political commentator Rachel Maddows weekly podcast, Ultra with Rachel Maddow, is on its second season. The show explores Americas slide into fascism by focusing on the far-right in the U.S. in the 1930s and 40s. Well researched and fascinating, youll get hooked on this pod despite its dark subject matter.Listen to Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra.The Bald and the Beautiful with Trixie and KatyaOn The Bald and the Beautiful, Drag Race royalty Trixie Mattel and Katya give beauty advice, chat about pop culture, and kiki with fantastic guests. But its really the off-the-charts chemistry between these two besties and the bizarre and hilarious tangents they go off on that will keep you tuning in. Listen to The Bald and the Beautiful.

They read Nietzsche (or at least the Wikipedia summary), know how to s feminism in a sentence, and think that playing you a Phoebe Bridgers song counts as vulnerability. Welcome to the world of softbois.Softbois (sometimes spelled soft boy) are a slippery dating archetype. They're emotional, poetic, deeply into their curated Letterboxd accounts, and often deeply full of it. At first glance, theyre the antidote to toxic masculinity: emotionally intelligent, progressive, and interested in connection. But spend a little more time with them, and you may start to notice performative empathy, sudden ghosting, and low-key negging wrapped in Radiohead lyrics. If youve ever left a situationship feeling like you were emotionally gaslit by a man in a turtleneck who drinks oat milk and owns a copy of Norwegian Wood, chances are, youve met a softboi.But what actually defines a softboi? Where did the term come from? And how do you spot one before you get caught in their web of pseudo-enlightened sadboi energy? We talked to expertsand combed through years of cultural receiptsto break it down.What is a softboi, really?According to Iona David, the creator of the wildly popular Instagram account @beam_me_up_softboi and author of Is This Love or Dopamine?, a softboi is hard to define but extremely easy to spot. They use emotional intelligence, cultural depth, and a carefully curated taste in music, books, and aesthetics to distinguish themselves from so-called basic guys.See on InstagramThink of him as the romantic evolution of the hipster. He knows about feelings. Hell talk about his therapist. Hes not into hookup culturebut somehow youre still crying on a Tuesday morning because he said you were too intense after three months of texting daily.How softbois differ from f*ckboys and nice guysAt first glance, softbois might look like a better, safer option than the traditional f*ckboy. But thats part of the trap.A softboi is characterized by being emotionally connected, often politically correct, being interested in culture, and wanting to come off as intellectual, says Sofie Roos, a licensed sexologist and relationship therapist for Passionerad. They give off the vibe of being empathic and deepeven though many times, theyre calculating, doing it to create a bond, a feeling of safety, and realness to get someone more into them.Nice guys, Roos says, also try to present themselves as a better alternative to other men, but tend to emphasize stability and sweetness, contrasting themselves with bad boys. F*ckboys, meanwhile, rely on overt charm and sex appeal to get what they want and bounce.Softbois are sneakier. Theyre the ones who send you long voice notes about intimacy and connection, then vanish the moment you say you want something serious.The softboi aesthetic: Doc Martens, Mac DeMarco, and the trauma dumpThe term softboi may have entered popular use in the late 2010s thanks to Twitter and Tumblr, but The Guardian traced its modern rise to David's now-iconic Instagram account in 2018. Since then, the look and feel of a softboi has become instantly recognizable: thrifted tees, wireframe glasses, deeply niche music references (bonus points if they accuse you of being a fake fan), and a constant need to be understood.Softbois dont always say Im different, but they want you to know they are. They romanticize mental illness. They treat literature like foreplay. They ghost you but still watch every Instagram story. They send messages like, You remind me of a Sylvia Plath poem, and then ask if youre emotionally mature enough to handle them.Theres also a spectrum: some softbois are harmless, even endearing. Others weaponize their wokeness to manipulate partners into emotional or sexual vulnerability. David calls these types self-awareness-as-a-weapon softboismen who know theyre a walking red flag, but lean into it like its hot.Why softbois hit harder in queer spacesEven though the archetype is most often tied to cishet men, softboi behavior doesnt stop at the binary. In queer spaces, the softboi dynamic can be just as commonand sometimes even more challenging to navigate.Because queer folks are often looking for emotional safety, softbois can feel especially alluring. They give the illusion of a deep connection and shared values, which can make it harder to identify when the relationship becomes manipulative."A person thats a victim to a softboi that uses this stereotype knowingly to manipulate and trick them into something that feels genuine and safe to get sex, closeness or something else from their date can get quite hurt emotionally, leaving feelings of being used, hurt and humiliated," says Roos. This can lead to trust issues "when its difficult to open up again, and/or to know if the person you get shown actually is the real person."This is especially true for those whove experienced emotional invalidation in the past. A softboi can feel like a revelation until they start to guilt-trip you for wanting clarity, use their feelings to override yours, or disappear without a word the moment you assert a boundary.Is it always a red flag? Or just a phase?Not every guy who listens to Mitski or has a dog-eared copy of The Bell Jar is a walking red flag. Some softbois are just softand thats okay.Understanding if its genuine or character play, Roos says, is tricky, because the fake ones playing a role are often so good at it that you wont notice until its too late and youre already hurt.That said, a real softboi won't tick too many of the stereotypical softboi boxes in a way that feels too clich or consciously done, Roos explains.Softbois can evolve. Some grow up. Some dont. Your job isnt to fix themits to protect your peace.So, are you dating a softboi?Ask yourself:Do they constantly talk about being different from other guys?Do they rant about hookup culture but still breadcrumb you?Do they say Im not emotionally available while still seeking intimacy?Do they use poetry and emotional intelligence like a weapon?If the answer to more than two of those is yes, you might be dating a softboi. And if thats the case, we suggest this highly advanced coping strategy: Block. Delete. And go make out with someone who listens when you talk.

Asbury Park celebrated its inaugural Drag Queen Visibility Day on May 7, 2025, with a heartfelt ceremony recognizing the contributions of local drag performer Crystal Envy. The event, held at Paradise nightclub, featured a proclamation from the city and a Asbury Park celebrated its inaugural Drag Queen Visibility Day on May 7, 2025, with a heartfelt ceremony recognizing the contributions of localSource

With her fourth studio album Dreamsicle set to drop Friday, Grammy-winning singer Maren Morris is stepping into a bold new chapterone marked by vulnerability, self-discovery and unapologetic authenticity. In a recent interview with The Zoe Report, Morris opened up about her bisexuality for the first time publicly, reflecting on how the journey has helped her connect more deeply with herselfandSource

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Two days after the College of Cardinals gathered to elect a new pope, a decision has been made. Robert Prevost has been chosen, becoming the first American pope in history. He's adopted the name Pope Leo XIV.Leo's ascension to the papacy comes after Pope Francis, a relatively progressive pope when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, died last month.The new pope is from Chicago and is 69. He earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, then received a diploma in theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.Related: Ross Mathews says queer people 'will never stop fighting'He previously served as a Catholic missionary in South America, CNN reports. He worked in Trujillo, Peru, for about 10 years and then served as bishop of the Peruvian city of Chiclayo from 2014 until 2023.The outlet states that many believe Leo will continue many of Francis's reforms.In his first speech as pope, Leo said, We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue."Opinion: By selecting an American, the Vatican sends a message to Trump's hostility and global aspirationsThe new pontiff also honored his predecessor.Let us keep in our ears the weak voice of Pope Francis that blesses Rome. The Pope who blessed Rome, gave his blessing to the entire world that morning of Easter. Allow me to follow up on that blessing. God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail."While he honored Francis, there are some questions about his support of LGBTQ+ rights. Francis made several pro-LGBTQ+ reforms during his papacy. But the new pope has made some anti-LGBTQ+ statements. In 2012, at a meeting of bishops, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel, The New York Times reports. He specifically mentioned the homosexual lifestyle and alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children. As bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, he objected to a plan to teach about gender in schools, saying, The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that dont exist.Related: Will the next Pope embrace the LGBTQ+ community and a more modest lifestyle like Pope Francis did?However, he has voiced compassion for the LGBTQ community, according to the Meidas Touch Network. But while he may foster a more welcoming environment, he has not signaled any openness to changing Church teaching on same-sex marriage or the ordination of women, Meidas Touch reports.LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD said it looked forward to working with Leo. The group had previously met with Francis to discuss LGBTQ+ rights.The Roman Catholic Church stands on the threshold of a hopeful and inclusive new chapter. With Pope Leo XIVs leadership, there is an extraordinary opportunity to inspire billions around the world and further embrace LGBTQ people with compassion, dignity, and love," GLAAD's CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement provided to The Advocate. "He can build on the progress already made and help create a Church that truly reflects the universal message of acceptance and care for all. We are hopeful to collaborate with Pope Leo, just as we did with Pope Francis, to help ensure the Church continues to grow as a welcoming home for everyone.Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which works for LGBTQ+ equality in the Catholic Church, released a statement saying it was "disappointing" to hear of the new pope's 2012 anti-LGBTQ+ comment. "We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened," DeBernardo added."We pray that as our church transitions from 12 years of an historic papacy, Pope Leo XIV will continue the welcome and outreach to LGBTQ+ people which Pope Francis inaugurated," he continued. "The healing that began with Who am I to judge? needs to continue and grow to 'Who am I, if not a friend to LGBTQ+ people?'"DignityUSA, another LGBTQ+ Catholic group, issued a press release saying in part, "We note that this [2012] statement was made during the papacy of Benedict XVI, when doctrinal adherence appeared to be expected. In addition, the voices of LGBTQ people were rarely heard at that level of church leadership. We pray that Pope Leo XIV will demonstrate a willingness to listen and grow as he begins his new role as the leader of the global Church."Trudy Ring contributed reporting.

American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost became the new pope on Thursday, selecting the papal name Pope Leo XIV. The first pope from the U.S., Leo is thought to continue some of the reforms made by the late Pope Francis, who died last month. Leo's thoughts on the LGBTQ+ community have not been widely reported, but at a meeting of bishops in 2021, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel," The New York Times reports. At the time, the new pope specifically mentioned the homosexual lifestyle and alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children. Related: 'JD Vance is wrong,' new Pope Leo XIV once posted on social mediaMichael O'Loughlin is the executive director of Outreach, a resource organization working and supporting LGBTQ+ Catholics. He told The Advocate in a statement that Leo's choice of name is a sign of what can be expected from the new pontiff. Pope Leo XIII is looked to for his support of labor rights during the Industrial Revolution. "From his choice of name honoring a pope committed to justice, to his call for a church focused on peace and dialogue, early signs show that Pope Leo XIV hopes to continue the pastoral outreach of Pope Francis. While we do not yet know how the new pope will interact with LGBT Catholics, the same was true in 2013 on the night Pope Francis was elected, and his pontificate wound up being inspiring to so many in our community," he said.Related: By selecting an American, the Vatican sends a message to Trump's hostility and global aspirationsFrancis was often perceived as being more accepting of LGBTQ+ Catholics than previous pontiffs. Pope Benedict XVI, Francis's direct predecessor, was staunchly anti-LGBTQ+. When asked by a journalist in 2013 about gay priests being included, Francis said, "If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with goodwill, who am I to judge?" He later upheld that the church should apologize to LGBTQ+ people for mistreating them. Though Francis made several anti-trans statements, he met with trans Catholics on a number of occasions. "As a gay Catholic myself, and one who lived for a decade in Pope Leos home city of Chicago," O'Loughlin said. "Im hopeful for the church and offering prayers for the new pope."

Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, are settling into a quieter life in the English countryside following a move that surprised many of their fans. After former President Donald Trump won a second term in office, the couple made the decision to leave the United States and start a new chapter abroad. Their destination? The Cotswolds, a picturesque region in south-central EnglandSource

by Vernal Coleman and Eric Umansky ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. Democratic House members on Thursday blasted the Trump administrations moves to shrink the Department of Veterans Affairs and demanded more transparency from its leaders after a ProPublica investigation revealed widespread disruptions across the agencys health care system.There are real-life dangerous impacts for veterans, said Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, citing the news organizations work.This week, ProPublica reported on dozens of emails sent from staff at VA hospitals and clinics across the country to headquarters warning how cuts could, and in some cases are, degrading the agencys ability to provide for the roughly 9 million veterans who rely on it. Hiring freezes and other edicts from the White House have left medical providers scrambling and short-staffed amid an ever-shifting series of policy moves, including the cancellation of contracts with companies that maintain cancer registries, the emails said. Staffers at VA centers in Pennsylvania warned the cuts were causing severe and immediate impacts, including to life-saving cancer trials.Enrollment in clinical trials is stopping, one wrote, meaning veterans lose access to therapies. Staffers at the hospital warned more than 1,000 veterans would lose access to treatment for diseases ranging from metastatic head and neck cancers, to kidney disease, to traumatic brain injuries.On Thursday, the House members, several of whom are veterans, demanded VA leadership provide more details on how cuts are affecting such work, in which service members often receive treatment they would not otherwise have access to. We all want to cut waste, fraud and abuse, but what we see today is when you cancel a contract, it means the end of a clinical trial thats going to save someones life, Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire said.Notably, Deluzio, an Iraq War veteran whose Pittsburgh-area district includes a VA facility, and other lawmakers said they had learned about the impact for the first time from ProPublicas reporting. On Thursday, they accused agency Secretary Doug Collins of stonewalling their efforts to find out what positions have been laid off, what contracts have been canceled and what future cuts will look like.We want the country to understand that this administration is hiding what they are doing, not just from us and the Congress, but from veterans and the American people, Deluzio said.And the worst part is, we dont know if anyone has died, he added.President Donald Trump has long said his administration will prioritize veterans and not compromise their care.The disruptions at the VA have come even as the department has laid off just a few thousand staffers a small fraction of the employees it said it ultimately plans to remove. Collins has said the agency is developing plans with Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency to cut at least 70,000 employees a number that he has underscored is a goal. Could be more, could be less, he told lawmakers this week.On Thursday, in a post on X, Collins pushed back on criticism, calling ProPublicas reporting misleading and saying it was based on some outdated reports from the internal system VA uses to quickly identify and fix issues across the department.In a statement, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said that Collins was working to fix a broken bureaucracy that has long had problems with patient safety and access to care, among other issues. Unfortunately, many in the media, government union bosses and some in Congress are fighting to keep in place the broken status quo, he said. Our message to Veterans is simple: Despite major opposition from those who dont want to change a thing at VA, we will reform the department to make it work better for Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors.Kasperowicz previously told the news organization that the issues in Pennsylvania have been resolved, though locals there with knowledge of the issues said thats not the case and that the impact is ongoing. Kasperowicz also said in regard to the contracts to maintain the cancer registries that there had been no effect on patients. He added that the VA is moving to create a national contract to administer them. According to some providers, even the temporary disruptions have hurt the care of veterans. One clinical trial to treat veterans for opioid addiction was hobbled by temporary layoffs. We couldnt give veterans a tool that could save their lives, said Ellie Gordon, the CEO of the startup Behavior, which is testing biosensors to alert veterans to the risk of relapse.Collins touted the cuts in a sometimes-contentious hearing on Tuesday before the U.S Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.Were going to maintain VAs mission-essential jobs like doctors, nurses and claims processors, while phasing out non-mission essential roles like interior designers and DEI officers, he said in an opening statement. The funds saved will be rerouted into direct health care and benefits for veterans, he added.Some Republicans at the hearing defended the administrations proposed cuts. The VA has become a bloated bureaucracy, said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who represents Alabama. I think most of us will agree with that.But Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., pushed back on Collins statements, saying that laying off such a large portion of the staff will inevitably involve letting go of health care workers, like nurses and doctors. You cannot slash and trash the VA without eliminating those essential positions which provide access and availability of health care, he said. It simply cannot be done.Others at the hearing took Collins to task for a lack of transparency. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, admonished the secretary for refusing to provide a list of the 538 canceled contracts since his appointment. Collins said he would provide the information, but only after its finalized.Were looking at every step we can, but also, Im not going to play it out in a public arena, he said. J. David McSwane contributed reporting.

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American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost became the new pope on Thursday, selecting the papal name Pope Leo XIV. The first pope from the U.S., Leo is thought to continue some of the reforms made by the late Pope Francis, who died last month. Leo's thoughts on the LGBTQ+ community have not been widely reported, but at a meeting of bishops in 2021, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel," The New York Times reports. At the time, the new pope specifically mentioned the homosexual lifestyle and alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children. Related: 'JD Vance is wrong,' new Pope Leo XIV once posted on social mediaMichael O'Loughlin is the executive director of Outreach, a resource organization working and supporting LGBTQ+ Catholics. He told The Advocate in a statement that Leo's choice of name is a sign of what can be expected from the new pontiff. Pope Leo XIII is looked to for his support of labor rights during the Industrial Revolution. "From his choice of name honoring a pope committed to justice, to his call for a church focused on peace and dialogue, early signs show that Pope Leo XIV hopes to continue the pastoral outreach of Pope Francis. While we do not yet know how the new pope will interact with LGBT Catholics, the same was true in 2013 on the night Pope Francis was elected, and his pontificate wound up being inspiring to so many in our community," he said.Related: By selecting an American, the Vatican sends a message to Trump's hostility and global aspirationsFrancis was often perceived as being more accepting of LGBTQ+ Catholics than previous pontiffs. Pope Benedict XVI, Francis's direct predecessor, was staunchly anti-LGBTQ+. When asked by a journalist in 2013 about gay priests being included, Francis said, "If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with goodwill, who am I to judge?" He later upheld that the church should apologize to LGBTQ+ people for mistreating them. Though Francis made several anti-trans statements, he met with trans Catholics on a number of occasions. "As a gay Catholic myself, and one who lived for a decade in Pope Leos home city of Chicago," O'Loughlin said. "Im hopeful for the church and offering prayers for the new pope."

Susan Feniger, the celebrated chef, restaurateur and LGBTQ+ advocate, has spent more than four decades shaping the Los Angeles culinary scene. As the co-chef and co-owner of popular restaurants such as Border Grill, Socalo, Alice B., and BBQ Mexicana, Feniger has left a lasting legacy not only through her innovative flavors but through her steadfast dedication to community, inclusivitySource

Lea Michele is setting the record straightand stirring the poton the latest episode of Therapuss, the hit podcast hosted by Jake Shane. In a revealing and surprisingly candid conversation, the Glee alum opened up about her strained relationships with her co-stars, the emotional fallout after the death of boyfriend and castmate Cory Monteith, and, yes, that long-running internet rumor claimingSource

Former NFL defensive end Carl Nassib has shared the emotional and deeply personal story behind his decision to come out as gay while still an active player in the National Football Leaguea historic moment that made headlines around the world. Speaking candidly during a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast, Nassib reflected on the years-long process that led to his public coming out in 2021.Source

Asbury Park celebrated its inaugural Drag Queen Visibility Day on May 7, 2025, with a heartfelt ceremony recognizing the contributions of local drag performer Crystal Envy. The event, held at Paradise nightclub, featured a proclamation from the city and a Asbury Park celebrated its inaugural Drag Queen Visibility Day on May 7, 2025, with a heartfelt ceremony recognizing the contributions of localSource

Queer joy and sex are radical acts!As you're hitting the streets this Pride season to fight rollbacks of our rights, don't forget to celebrate the kind of sex you like to have -- and protest efforts to regulate it. You're also marching for sexual liberation. Sex and Pride have always gone together. Here's why:1. Pride started in cruisy LGBTQ+ bars.New York's Stonewall Inn was a prime cruising zone. Young queer hustlers, transgender and lesbian sex workers, cross-dressing butches, and other marginalized folks hung out there. (The same can be said for the Black Cat in Los Angeles and numerous bars in San Francisco.) Slut-shamers may want to paint over parts of our history, but the sexual backdrop of the birthplace of LGBTQ+ rights can't be erased.2. Sexual attraction is a vital part of our identities.We still debate words we use to describe and define ourselves by, and many of them reflect a step away from sex. We're not homosexuals; we're gay or same-gender-loving. But in medical offices, I'm MSM -- a "man who has sex with men." MSM of the past are familiar with white rooms and hospital beds, places where so many of our relationships ended. We were defined by the sex we have, our risk factors, play partners, and our fuck buds. I cannot separate my identity from the sex I love.3. We march for the right to have sex with each other.Most antisodomy laws in the U.S. were created in the early 19th century and predominantly invoked in cases involving straight people -- only later did conservatives employ them to enforce antigay discrimination. Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 invalidated antisodomy laws, but some jurisdictions are still trying to enforce them. Around the world there are still nearly a dozen countries where homosexuality is punishable by death. Sex is one of the most vital and beautiful things in life. To take that human need and use it to hunt down our brothers and torture or kill them is unimaginable. We are marching for the freedom to have sex without fear. And we also march for those who can't.4. We march because so many of us died and are still dying from a sexually transmitted virus.Gay and bisexual men who are a generation older than me remember a time when sex was riskier than Russian roulette. Many went a decade without it in order to survive. We've lost so many brothers, mentors, lovers, fathers, and would-be husbands. To fight AIDS, we had to kick down the closet door and invite America into the privacy of our underground sex lives. Marching for Pride was part of that uphill battle. Sex once amounted to death. In some places, especially in the South, queer people of color are still battling Stage 3 HIV (classified as AIDS), and some still succumb to it.5. Stigma about sex is still killing US.Closeted queer men will ignore symptoms and avoid going to clinics for treatment because they're terrified to admit they've had gay sex. Others will go into a clinic only to be met with judgment and discrimination from their doctors. Still others won't take PrEP because they don't want to be slut-shamed. That kind of stigma kills.6. In the age of PrEP and TasP, we can celebrate sex again.If you're HIV-negative, taking PrEP (the daily dosage of an HIV prevention pill) is one of the most responsible things you can do as a sexually active trans woman or queer, gay, bi, or same-gender-loving man. If you're poz, using treatment as prevention (TasP) is easy if you can get your viral load down to undetectable levels. Even the CDC agrees undetectable equals untransmittable. You are now free to let go of the crippling fear that has accompanied sex for so many of us for so very long. We can finally fuck without fear.7. Thank sex workers for Pride, And LGBTQ+ folks for sex-positivity.Marsha P. Johnson was a sex worker. In fact, many protesters on that historic night at Stonewall were. The Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York (LesbianHerstoryArchives.org, pictured) includes extensive coverage of lesbian sex workers. Working in adult industries has helped countless LGBTQ+ people. Some do it for fun, some do it for spare cash, but many do it just to survive when our families kick us out (queer youth in New York City are still seven times more likely to depend on sex work than heterosexual peers, according to the Urban Institute).Most of our lesbian, gay, bi, and trans forebears assumed they'd never be able to participate in the conventions of family life. That was a reason they rejected society's rules about what kind of sex they were permitted to have. Queers launched the free love movement. The history of sex-positivity in America and the history of Pride are the same. The simple notion of sex as revelry and reverie should never leave.8. The leather community was among the first to organize against AIDS.The leather community, a group literally defined by the kinds of sex we enjoy, was among the first to organize against AIDS. You might clutch pearls at seeing human rubber pups, bare-breasted dominatrixes, and scantily clad biker boys at your local Pride parade, but they are part of a community that acted fast against a plague. AIDS forced us to suddenly talk about what we were doing sexually -- something that kinky leather folks have a knack for. Bringing sex into the spotlight is something we did at underground leather bars years before HIV and will continue to do long into the future.9. Sex, like Pride, will always be politicized.From its roots, Pride was a political act. And so is having the kind of sex we want to have with who we want to have it. That was a rebellion against the institution of monogamy and ideas about women as property. Today, lesbian and bi girls have higher rates of teen pregnancy, thanks in part to bullying. Meanwhile, there are panels of men making decisions on women's access to contraceptives. Being in control of our own bodies is critical to LGBTQ+ rights. Pride is the antidote to efforts to control and limit sex -- which politicians are still trying to do.10. Sex happens on Pride weekend.Even if you don't want to see it or know it's there. Many queer people see Pride as a time to come together and play. What more would you have it be?11. Shaming bodies makes you part of a greater problem.All body types should be welcome at Pride. Ignore the naysayers. Showing skin (and feeling sexy), according to some, cheapens Pride. Here's a better way to look at skin: Bodies are neither inherently ugly nor beautiful. But they are incredibly powerful, strong instruments. They are vehicles through which all experience happens. They endure massive amounts of stress and do incredible work. To celebrate anything in life, whether it's your identity or your sex or your history, is to celebrate your body, your mechanism. Show it off.12. PDAs make Pride authentic.There is no greater show of Pride than kissing the person you love for everyone to see.13. Its time to defend Pride, not tear it down.There's always a pushback to progress. Right now we're in a tough one. We're outnumbered. Our enemies are kicking at the door.Many queer people can't believe the state of affairs. The violence against men in Chechnya and the epidemic of anti-trans violence here paint a bleak picture. There is no greater time to do what we do best. We must march together as one family, undivided, with liberty and justice for all.

JD Vance has been made fun of in a myriad of hilarious ways, from people accusing him of having coitus with a sectional to people pointing out that he was acting like a weird robot during the presidential campaign, to him being blamed for Pope Francis death. But now the vice president is being dunked on because the new pope was chosen, and it seems like he might hate Vance as much as Democrats do.Pope Leo XIV, perviously known as American Cardinal Robert Prevost, has been an outspoken critic of the way Vance tried to use Catholic teachers to justify the Trump administrations draconian immigration policy, writing on social media, JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesnt ask us to rank our love for others, USA Today reports.Pope Leo XIV also posted his approval of a public letter Pope Francis wrote, giving Vance, who only converted to Catholicism in 2019, a lesson on theology. This means that two popes in a row have thought that Vance needs to do better as a Catholic. This has predictably led to the internet tearing Vance to shreds. This new Pope had me at 'JD Vance is wrong, one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Another person joked, jd vance killed pope francis only for the new pope to hate him even more, while someone else posted, good news everyone, the new pope still hates jd vance. Keep scrolling to see the funniest reactions to JD Vance getting roasted for the new pope being critical of him! (@) "jd vance killed pope francis only for the new pope to hate him even more" (@) Me, seeing all the times our new Pope has dragged this administration AND JD Vance. (@) "good news everyone, the new pope still hates jd vance" (@) "This new Pope had me at 'JD Vance is wrong' (@) "The Vatican keeps in tradition of having a Pope who doesn't like JD Vance." (@) "An American pope who fights with JD Vance on Twitter? I am so in" (@) "I dont care how homophobic the new pope is as long as he excommunicates JD Vance, thats all I ask." (@) "Pope Leo XIV is not a fan of Trump and JD Vance! MAGA isnt going to like this one." (@) "The new pope appears to not have tweeted in 2024, returning only to pray for Pope Francis's health and criticize JD Vance" (@) "For clarity - The new Pope thinks Trump and JD Vance are a couple of assholes. Hes right." (@) "Excellent job of maintaining continuity by picking another Pope who personally hates JD Vance" (@) "JD Vance is such a bad catholic they gave us an american pope lmao" (@) "the new pope being from illinois and also hating jd vance is so funny were about to see heretofore unknown levels of midwest beef" (@) "new pope hates JD vance" (@) "Wowthis ones a mic drop from the new Pope. A sitting Cardinal (now Pope Leo XIV) publicly rebuking JD Vance for twisting scripture to justify a political agenda?" (@) "italian catholics guarding the new pope from jd vance" (@) "Pope Leo, recognizing that JD Vance is a loathsome piece of shit not only has Catholics ecstatic, it has the entire free world howling in delight! In history, there has never been an American president and vice president who are more globally despised than Trump and Vance." (@) "Wow, the new Pope has directly gone after JD Vance before. I'm a fan!" (@) "Even the Pope dunks on JD fng Vance." (@) "Robert Prevost our new pope is: From Chicago Cubs Fan Hates police brutality Hates JD Vance 69 years old (nice!) Yea I like this guy already"

Sebastian Stan (Thunderbolts) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) are teaming up for a powerful new film that blends political rebellion, counterculture history, and queer love. Titled Burning Rainbow Farm, the film is directed by Justin Kurzel (The Order) and based on the true story of Tom Crosslin and Rollie Rohmtwo lovers who turned their rural Michigan land into a cannabis-friendly utopiaSource

This is the energy we need!At a time where LGBTQ+ rights are under attack around the world, queer fashion icons Stacy London and Clinton Kelly are teaming up yet again on Wear Whatever the F You Want.Each episode, the dynamic duo helps people embrace who they really are by evolving their sense of style and expression."The world has changed so much since What Not to Wear. All the rules have gone out the window! This show helps people basically bridge the gap between who they are now and who they really dream they can be. We're a couple fairy godmothers making it happen," Kelly tells PRIDE. See on Instagram Kelly and London are the perfect hosts for this empowering new show as the messaging is very much aligned with LGBTQ+ people coming out of the closet. In fact, London started dating women back in 2019 and announced that she fully identifies as a lesbian just last year."This is about celebrating out loud and this is about celebrating individuality. I have been screaming 'gay rights' as an ally since the 1980's, but I didn't know what I didn't know... until I knew! We have more in common with people than we realize. We're much better at lifting people up than tearing people down," London tells PRIDE.Although Kelly and London have found success personally and professionally as queer entertainers, it's still no easy task for many people to fully come out and love the skin they're in.The TV personalities have some important words of wisdom to share with anyone who might still be struggling with their identity."First of all, you have to make sure that you're going to be safe if you come out. If you live in a community where your personal safety is at risk, don't come out. That might not be what everybody wants to hear. I just want you to be alive. Just take your time. Do it at your pace. You're in your control of your messaging," Kelly says."If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I came out at 49, just to be clear! There's no due date and there's no reason that you can't change your mind or feel fluid or all of the things that we are now accepting a lot more in our society," London concludes. Wear Whatever the F You Want is streaming now on Pride Video. To see the full interview with Stacy London & Clinton Kelly, check out the video at the top of the page.

by David Armstrong ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. In the U.S., the price of Revlimid, a brand-name cancer drug, has been increasing for two decades. It now sells for nearly $1,000 a pill. In Europe, the price has been consistently lower in some countries by two-thirds.I started reporting on Revlimid after I was prescribed the drug following a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. Stunned by the high price, I found that the drugmaker, Celgene, had used Revlimid as its own personal piggy bank for more than a decade, raising the price in the U.S. whenever it saw fit.Even with lower prices in Europe, Celgene still made a profit there, a former executive told Congress. That added to the more than $21 billion in net earnings the company made after Revlimid was introduced in 2005. Of course, Revlimid isnt the only drug with a price disparity. Americans pay more in general for prescription drugs than people in other wealthy countries. And costs keep going up, saddling patients with crippling debt or forcing them to choose between filling prescriptions or buying groceries. So why do we pay so much more? And is anything being done about it? In most other wealthy countries, governments set a single price for a drug that is usually based on analysis of the therapeutic benefit of the medicine and what other countries pay. In the U.S., drug companies determine what to charge for their products with few restraints. Insurance companies can refuse to cover a drug to try to negotiate a lower price, but for some diseases like cancer, that poses a risk of public backlash. Cancer is a very politically charged disease, said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a Harvard Medical School professor who studies drug pricing and regulation. Some states also mandate that insurers cover certain cancer drugs.Pharmaceutical companies have consistently argued that American drug prices reflect the cost of research and development. Americans may pay more, but they also benefit from having first-line access to cutting-edge treatments. (Celgene has since been acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb, which says its price for Revlimid, which it increased in the U.S. last year by 7%, reflects the continued clinical benefit Revlimid brings to patients, along with other economic factors.) Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, a leukemia specialist at MD Anderson Cancer Center who studies drug pricing, said that pharmaceutical companies often overstate the cost of developing drugs and that many drug discoveries originate in hospital and academic labs funded through government grants. Funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health contributed to all but two of the 356 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2019, according to a Bentley University study. Companies also dont spend all their profits on innovation: The 14 largest drug companies in the world spent more on stock buybacks and dividend payments to investors than on research and development, according to a 2021 analysis by the U.S. House Oversight Committee.One possible solution to bring down costs: tie American prices to what drugmakers charge in other wealthy countries. The Congressional Budget Office found last year that this would have the biggest impact on reducing costs of seven proposals it studied. Its an idea with bipartisan support.Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., introduced a bill this week that would penalize pharmaceutical companies that sell their drugs at higher prices than the average of the prices in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom. Companies that sell above the average would face civil penalties equal to 10 times the difference between the U.S. list price and the average price in those other countries.President Donald Trump has advocated for similar actions. During his first term, he issued an executive order directing the Medicare program to employ a most favored nation approach in paying for drugs. The administration later developed a rule directing Medicare to select the lowest price from a basket of similar countries and make that the maximum amount the agency would pay for 50 drugs administered by doctors. A court blocked the rule from being implemented in the last days of the first administration.Now, according to reports this week, the administration is pushing plans to tie Medicaid and Medicare prices to lower prices charged in other countries. Linking U.S. prices to those in other countries is opposed by industry groups who say it would leave decisions on medications to the government rather than doctors and patients.Government price setting in any form is bad for American patients, said Alex Schriver, a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry group. He said efforts should be focused on fixing the flaws in the U.S. system, including money that flows to intermediaries such as pharmacy benefit managers.Some critics also warn so-called international reference pricing can be gamed and allows foreign governments to essentially set the value of medicines sold in the U.S.The Trump administration is expected to announce drug pricing plans as early as next week, according to a report. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

by Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues. Two years ago, Texas lawmakers quietly cut millions of dollars in funding for kits intended to help track down missing kids, after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed there was no evidence they had aided law enforcement in finding lost children.The company that made the kits had used outdated and exaggerated statistics on missing children to bolster their sales and charged for the materials when similar products were available for less or for free. Now, some Texas legislators are again pushing to spend millions more in taxpayer dollars to purchase such kits, slipping the funding into a 1,000-page budget proposal.Although the proposal does not designate which company would supply them, a 2021 bill introduced by Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell all but guarantees Texas will contract with the same vendor, the National Child Identification Program. Back then, Campbell made clear that her intent was to enshrine into law a long-standing partnership between the state and NCIDP that goes back more than two decades. Her legislation, signed into law that June, also specified that whenever the state allocated funding for such materials, the Texas Education Agency must purchase identification kits that are inkless, a technology that NCIDP has patented. The Waco-based company is led by former NFL player Kenny Hansmire, who ProPublica and the Tribune found had a history of failed businesses and financial troubles, including millions of dollars in federal tax liens and a ban from conducting certain finance-related business in Connecticut due to his role in an alleged scheme to defraud investors. Hansmire cultivated relationships with powerful Texas legislators who went on to support his initiatives. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, championed Campbells legislation funding the kits and later told the news organizations that the state should prioritize anything that can speed up the return of a missing child. Campbell told lawmakers in a hearing that the bipartisan measure, which was brought to her by Hansmire and Patrick, was important to protect our children. Patrick, Campbell and Hansmire did not respond to interview requests for this story. Hansmire previously told the newsrooms that his debts and other financial issues had been resolved. He also defended his companys kits, saying they have helped find multiple missing children, and instructed reporters to ask any policeman about the kits usefulness. However, none of the dozen Texas law enforcement agencies that the news organizations reached including three that Hansmire specifically named could recall any examples. Stacey Pearson, a child safety consultant and former Louisiana State Police sergeant who oversaw that states Clearinghouse for Missing and Exploited Children, said she has never seen any cases demonstrating that these kits work, including in the last two years since lawmakers discontinued the funding. I dont understand why were going back to this, said Pearson, who spoke with the newsrooms recently and for their previous investigation. It wasnt a good idea in 2023 and its not a good idea now. Despite the lack of evidence, Pearson said companies like NCIDP are able to profit off the kits by marketing them as part of a larger child safety program, a strategy that makes opposing lawmakers look as if they are against protecting children. Texas allocated nearly $6 million for the kits between 2021 and 2023. Lawmakers did not explain their reasoning when they decided to stop paying for the kits in 2023. Republican state Sen. Joan Huffman, who chairs the high chambers Finance Committee, told the newsrooms at the time that both the House and the Senate had agreed to remove the funding after review and consideration.During this years budgeting process, Democratic state Rep. Armando Martinez proposed adding $2 million to the Houses budget to provide kits to families with children in kindergarten through second grade. Martinez did not respond to an interview request.State Rep. Greg Bonnen, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, did not respond to interview requests or written questions. Bonnen was among the 33 lawmakers who voted against Campbells bill that established the child identification kit funding four years ago. The newsrooms attempted to reach a handful of those legislators, but none responded. Huffman and the Senate have so far chosen not to restore the programs funding. Huffman declined the newsrooms interview requests. The entire budget process is ongoing, she wrote in an emailed statement. No final decisions have been made on most issues. Legislators from the two chambers will continue hashing out the differences between their budget proposals in a joint committee that operates behind closed doors. Theres no guarantee that the funding will make it into the final budget, which lawmakers must pass before the legislative session ends in early June. Pearson cautioned legislators to question whether the kits are the best use of state funding, given the absence of documented success.My advice would be for lawmakers to ask themselves, If this was your personal money and not the taxpayers, would you spend it on this program? Pearson said. And the answer is going to be no.

I'll never forget the first day on the job in my authentic form.It was a day or two after I held my own "coming out" party as my trans self. The party included some friends, relatives, and a coworker or two. At the time, I worked as a desk clerk at the local museum and the local orchestra's theatre box office. I did all the work to "prep" my colleagues at both jobs: provided HR departments with my legal name change papers; informed my immediate colleagues (though they had known weeks and months in advance); and even wrote up a blog post-turned-email on my new legal name, pronouns, and the importance of understanding and respecting them.After a few hours of smiling and helping guests, my boss at the museum pulled me to the side. With a smile I thought equated to a rainbow emoji, she passive-aggressively told me that my eyelashes were lovely but "a bit too much." With a small smile, I nodded and took them off to the staff room.If only I knew this was the start of a long journey dealing with similar actions.Out of Office: Coming Out at Work as a Trans PersonThere's coming out, and then there's coming out at work. One is a declaration of identity, and the other is a risk decision.Let me explain.Coming out as trans in the workplace is not a moment of clarity wrapped in a neat little bow. It's a thousand paper cuts of disclosure: the HR form, the Zoom meeting, and side chats with a coworker who stumbles over when referring to your former or chosen name like a lava flow. When your health insurance and livelihood hang in the balance, coming out isn't just brave but a negotiation.And, sometimes, not always a fair one, especially when the Man with the Orange Face and his folk make it even harder for us to thrive.If you're like me, you probably drafted words or prepped yourself in a mirror of coming out that sometimes reads like a corporate apology statement. You may have whispered, "I'm transitioning," in a one-on-one the way most people admit to forgetting a deadline. You may have overcompensated with work for weeks, hoping no one would say the wrong thingand knowing someone inevitably would.And if you're lucky, you may have been met with support, celebration, and maybe even an awkward "I watched Pose once!" comment from someone in Accounting.But before we get to the office confetti, let's rewind.Coming Out to Yourself, FirstBefore you come out to Brenda in Finance, come out to yourself in the bathroom mirror. And take your time.No rule says you have to disclose your identity at work. There's no medal for being the first out trans person in your office, like there's no penalty for choosing peace and privacy over visibility. Whether you're a trans femme software engineer, a nonbinary barista, or a gender-expansive guidance counselor, your identity is valid regardless of who knows it.Know Your Rights, Even If They Feel Like SuggestionsDepending on where you live, the protections for trans workers range from rock solid to barely a rumor.In the U.S., the Supreme Court's Bostock v. Clayton County decision means it's technically illegal to fire someone for being transgender. That's the law. But the reality? Trans people are still disproportionately fired, misgendered, passed over, and victims of aggression in the workplace to push them out.When I was still at the museum, I increasingly dealt with what I now realized were microaggressions that ranged from how I looked "overdressed" at work to "not looking happy when I arrived" minutes after walking into the museum (yes, that one was on a performance review.) Despite being one of two non-white staffers promoted to full-time, they slowly began to pull back on my hours to the point that I lost the insurance benefits that helped me at the start of my transition. It increasingly felt like they wanted me there for diversity points but didn't truly value me.So, before you write that coming-out message or change your email signature, check your company's non-discrimination policy. Do they list "gender identity" explicitly? Do they have a trans-inclusive health plan? An LGBTQ+ employee resource group? A clue?Because being out at work shouldn't feel like spelunking into HR's inbox without a rope.Choose Your Own (Coming Out) AdventureSome people send a big email to everyone in the organization. Others drop it in one-on-ones. I wish I had included a surprise party with a gender reveal cake. There's no right way to come out at the workplace. But I would suggest thinking about three things:Audience: Who needs to know? (Just your boss? The team?)Tone: Do you want to educate, update, or just inform? (You don't have to write a dissertationunless you want to.)Support: Do you have an ally in the room, someone who can back you up, correct pronouns gently, and advocate if needed?Looking back, I feared coming out at the orchestra more than at the art museum. The art museum conveyed avant-garde and a safe space for diversity (I presumed). Meanwhile, the dedicated patrons who volunteered, sat on committees, and donated some serious money always gave the vibe that their safe space was somewhat conservative. But I was surprised to receive a warm welcome when I came out at that workplace. Was there a slight bump in the road? Absolutely. A day or so after my mass email, one coworker who worked in the Development Office explained he would have difficulty going by my new name and pronouns, not to mention the occasional asks if they could go by my nickname. But if they could pronounce Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, they could best learn to say my name equally.You don't have to be funny or fabulous or write the Dear White People of coming out emails. You have to be clear to them and always be kind to yourself.Manage the Fallout or the Glow-UpSome workplaces surprise you in the best ways. A bouquet shows up on your desk. Someone buys you lunch. Your email and signature updates are met with nothing but hearts and "Thank you for sharing."Other times? The air gets thick. A colleague calls you by your old name in a meeting. Your manager avoids eye contact. The guy who always overshares about his CrossFit regime suddenly gets quiet.Coming out is a mirror. It shows you who's been listening and, sadly, who's been pretending. And it can be deeply disappointing. Here's the thing: people will get it wrong. Someone will say "transgendered." Someone will ask if you've had any surgeries. Someone will say they couldn't "tell" like it's a compliment. You don't have to educate them. You don't have to smile.But you do get to correct them. You do get to document it. And you do get to put your mental health first.No job is worth your dignity. No paycheck is worth your peace.Making Space for Yourself and OthersThe moment after you come out of work can be strangely anticlimactic. You might feel underwhelmed or overwhelmed. You might find yourself overexplaining or over-apologizing. You may overperform to prove that you're still a team player, hoping they still see you as 'professional' and 'normal.'But, my dear, you never were normal. You're a trans trailblazer in a world full of binary spreadsheets and gendered bathrooms. And just by being out, if you choose to be, you open the door for someone else to walk through. Because visibility isn't everything, but it means something.Sometimes, coming out at work doesn't just shift how others see you. Many times, it shifts how you see yourself. A new confidence, a deeper breath, a refusal to shrink into the person they hired before they knew the full story. Some will cheer you on as you get comfortable and confident in your skin.And expect others who will fear and loathe you because they cannot dim the glory of your shine.I won't lie. It's hard. It's risky. It's rarely as simple as clicking "Send." But one day, a new hire might scroll through the org chart, see you, and realize they aren't alone. One day, a colleague might thank you for quietly helping them understand the trans person in their life, be it a child or a neighbor. One day, you might catch your reflection in the elevator mirror and smile, knowing you're no longer pretending.You Are LimitlessI finally left the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester exactly 19 months after the start of my transition. After all the aggression, I realized that the professional path wasn't for me. But at the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra? I was there for another four years, moving up the ladder from a desk clerk at their box office to working in their Marketing department as a Content Manager and ending the last leg of my stint there as a Director of Content & Digital Marketing. It wasn't always rosy there. But I was always allowed to grow professionally because I grew into my authentic self.And I continue to grow every day.So, whether you're crafting a coming out email or just surviving another day in the cubicle that smells like printer ink and repression (not to mention those awful overhead lights!), remember:You deserve to be seen.You deserve to be respected.And you deserve to take up space.Keep glowing and growing,Your Lovable Trans AuntieYour Lovable Trans Auntie is our go-to advice column for lifes biggest (and messiest) questionslove, work, identity, and everything in between. With a signature blend of warmth, wit, and just the right amount of sass, Auntie offers readers a uniquely trans perspective thats as affirming as it is entertaining. Whether dishing out heartfelt wisdom, practical advice, or a little tough love, Auntie is here to remind everyone that theyre never alone on this journeyGot a crush but dont know how to tell them youre trans? Wondering how to deal with that coworker who still forgets your pronouns? Trying to navigate family drama, dating dilemmas, or just figuring out who you are? Aunties got you. Submit your questions to voices@equalpride.com.

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