LGBT

LGBT

President Donald Trump called for all flags to be lowered, and West Hollywood officials said on Sunday (14 September) said that their decision aligned with that request, rather than an "endorsement of, Mr Kirk's political views or actions". A spokesperson said: "The action was undertaken in accordance with the city's Policy for Recognitions and Memorials, which acknowledges that the city follows the direction of the president in determining when flags in the city are flown at half-staff."

"You know what the irony is?" King asked. "She wrote eight books about children having autonomy and the ability to make their own choices, which is possibly the most trans thing I've ever heard. She could have had these books go down as some of the greatest young-adult writing in the world - all she had to do was shut the f**k up." Rowling's views were "spitting in the space of [the author's] fandom", they added.

The headline on a lengthy piece in The New York Times late last month read: "Donald Trump's Big Gay Government." It profiled a certain type of gay man: white, successful, conservative, probably handsome (Trump and company dislike unattractive people), full of themselves, disdainful of most of the rainbow colors that represent the GLBT community beginning with women (although they love Melania), and absolutely indifferent to the civil rights movement that now allows them to be out and proud.

You might be asked to dance, serenade, complete a task... etc

The expansion, which concluded on Aug. 27, includes a dorm with 44 beds, three bathrooms and changing rooms, charging stations, and lock boxes. Work on the building began in February of this year and Mission Local took a first look at the new dorms and amenities a day after the finishing touches were put in place. The inner courtyard of Jazzie's Place is peaceful and warm. Trees shade tables and chairs, and brightly tiled murals decorate the walls.

The head of London's Pride parade, who is fighting claims that he used its funds for his personal benefit, has been ordered by the high court to relinquish control of the organising body's bank account. Christoper Joell-Deshields, who was suspended as chief executive last month, consented to an order on Friday to hand over Pride for London's banking passwords, social media and email accounts.

NBA Ambassador and 13-year NBA veteran Jason Collins is currently undergoing treatment for a brain tumour. Jason and his family welcome your support and prayers and kindly ask for privacy as they dedicate their attention to Jason's health and well-being.

Produced by the trailblazing queer British duo Charlie Zlutz and Vascha, "Diva" transcends mere entertainment; it's a movement. The accompanying visualizer features Ivy adorned in stunning gold body paint, juxtaposed against a dark and shimmering universe that symbolises transformation, inner power, and the radiant glow that comes from embracing one's true identity. This vivid imagery captures the essence of owning who you are and shining brightly, even in the shadows.

As the visibility of LGBTQ+ people has risen in many countries in the last decade, so too has a backlash from conservative parts of societies, fuelled in many cases by far-right activists and politicians using gay and transgender people as scapegoats for other problems. There is a growing weaponisation of hate, said Alberto de Belaunde, a director at Outright International, an NGO that promotes LGBTQ+ rights globally.

Over the last four years, LGBTQ+ people-especially transgender people-have been attacked from every angle: bans on healthcare, restrictions on bathrooms, even attempts to restrict driver's license gender markers. But one of the earliest and most revealing features of this backlash was the push to strip books about queer and trans lives from classrooms and libraries. At first, these bans cloaked themselves in neutrality, prohibiting vague "gender and sexuality" discussions-rules that always seemed to allow depictions of straight marriage while quietly targeting anything queer.

The bill, which would have given limited rights to couples whose marriage or civil union was registered overseas, was in answer to a September 2023 ruling by the court of final appeal. The landmark case, brought by activist Jimmy Sham, affirmed that the city's laws defined marriage as between a man and a woman, but also said the government was obliged to create an alternative framework which recognised the core rights of same-sex couples.

I come from a restaurant family. My grandparents opened Henry's Hunan-the only Hunanese restaurant in the city at the time. Chinese food in San Francisco was largely American Chinese or Cantonese-inflected, so it was unusual to have this different region represented. I spent childhood Saturdays at the restaurant, making Shirley Temples, and helping seat people. I waited tables in college but never saw a career in the restaurant industry. I then worked in documentary film for many years.

In my sex therapy practice, I see a respectable number of couples in heterosexual relationships where the presenting issue is that the male partner has been engaging in sexual behavior with other men and has kept this secret from his girlfriend or wife...until it was no longer secret. Needless to say, by the time these couples come to see me, their relationship is in deep crisis. I would like to address a few of the common issues that these couples face.

"leave the gay at the door."

At the pinnacle of San Cha's opera Inebria me, an apparition in white emerged: Esperanza (Kyle Kidd), angelic and blood-smeared, clutching a red rose. Dolores (San Cha, the show's librettist and composer) gazed at the spirit, her expression a blend of awe and longing, the unraveling newlywed finally alight with something beyond grief. Her encounter with Esperanza sparked a radical, gender-free religious fervor, one of ecstasy and drama, detached from self-flagellation or duty.

On Sunday (7 September) Carpenter attended the awards ceremony where she won three awards, Best Pop Artist, Best Album (for Short n' Sweet), and Best Visual Effects for "Manchild." The "Taste" singer also performed her new song, "Tears", during the show, in which she featured many RuPaul's Drag Race and queer icons. After the performance, Pascal, an ally to the LGBTQ+ community with a trans sister, Lux Pascal, took to his Instagram to celebrate Carpenter.

"When Michael Seltzer first got involved in progressive and then gay activism in the 1970s, it was mostly funded through passing the hat at meetings and through low dollar fundraisers," Gay City News notes. "More than any other individual, Seltzer turned that around over the course of decades of work, from serving on boards of major gay organizations from 1980 onwards to creating and running organizations that exponentially increased philanthropy to gay and AIDS causes."

You may know Grindr as the go-to destination for LGBTQ+ people looking to hook up-but apparently, it's now being used as an alternative to the likes of LinkedIn. Users checking into the dating app to see how many feet they are from a potential love interest can now expect to be poached for work, rather than asked out. That's because around 25% of its users are on the app to network, according to the company.

There was no problem until Donald Trump decided to fire thousands of qualified, capable service members simply because of their gender identity. They wore the uniform. They kept their promises to us. It's time we keep our promises to them. It's one thing for some of my colleagues to disrespect me, but it's another thing entirely to disrespect the people who lay down their lives for this country.

Or, come in late August like me, and you might just stumble upon the local Pride march, one of the world's only Pride events to take place above the Arctic Circle. If you're used to Pride in London or Brighton Pride, Senja Pride will come as a culture shock. There's no Mariah Carey performance or gaggle of corporate sponsors, but there is a sweet community spirit, and a heartwarming reminder of why Pride is needed everywhere, but more crucially in small, rural areas.

Because equality politics demands respectability politics. Rather than tear down or smash or, even more kindly, transform the patriarchal institutions of marriage and the military, gays sought inclusion into them - the impulse of heteronormativity and the democratic ideal of equality too deeply conditioned into their mindset. The gay politics of respectability reasoned that formal inclusion in the nation's institutions was tantamount to, or at least would induce, societal acceptance. (To wit, the gay defense of marriage proffers nonsensical arguments that marriage is necessary because the marriage contract prevents their kids from being bullied at school for having two mothers.)

After her heart is thoroughly broken by Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel), all finger-guns and sapphic swagger, Saira is devastated but there's no time to cry, because Kiki has been kidnapped by the Straight White Maliens (played by Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, and Zachary Ruane of Aunty Donna) and only Saira's legendary magical labrys can save her. Except Saira has never been able to summon the labrys which is her birthright.

Williams painted the index finger of his right hand teal and his ring finger purple - the colours of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. He adorned the middle finger with a suicide prevention ribbon. On his left hand, the index, middle and ring fingers sported the numbers 988. A sub-section of the national suicide crisis helpline, the LGBTQ+ Youth Specialised Service hotline, was shut down by the Trump administration in July under changes to the US federal budget.

On a foggy morning in August, a group of hikers stood laughing and joking, trekking poles in hand and backpacks full, at the top of a trail in Reinhardt Regional Redwood Park. That day, those joining the Rainbow Sierrans were mainly older women. Even in the early hours of the day, the energy emanating from them indicated a passion for the outdoors and the smiles passed between them hinted at the decades-long friendships many of them share.

The cases the EEOC withdrew from included those brought on behalf of an Alabama hospitality group worker who alleged their manager said they needed to be "hidden" on the night shift before firing them outright; a transgender woman at an Illinois hog farm who said her coworker exposed his genitals to her and touched her breasts; and a transgender hotel worker in New York who said their supervisor referred to them as "transformer" and "it."

The indictment, unsealed Monday in U.S, District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, arose from an inquiry into whether lawyers were "judge-shopping" - looking for sympathetic judges - in a case challenging Alabama's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. On May 20, 2022, three federal judges in Alabama questioned Charles, asking if he had called any judge's chambers about the assignment of the case, according to the indictment. Charles said he had not. But he "later amended his answers to state he actually called a judge's clerk," Reuters reports. "He apologized for his earlier response."

I think it's hard when you become representative of something to other people, and then you change or you are just following your heart, and then that means other people feel that they are not represented anymore. The pressure of that is so immense. As much as it's funny that Reneé Rapp is like, 'You'll never catch me dating a man.' It's like, 'Go off, queen! I love that for you.' But I also hold space for her in 10 years if she goes, 'Oops, I met the love of my life and it's this man, I didn't mean to.' It's like, that's okay!

I sometimes think of Leo Varadkar as the Forrest Gump of the gay rights movement in Ireland: an unlikely figure who was always in the right place at just the right time. He waited until it was safe politically to come out and was against gay adoption before that, but then within a few short years he was on the cover of Time magazine as Ireland's first gay taoiseach, a global symbol of modernity.

If I meet you and you're portraying that you're a man and you're not gay, if I look at you like a man, and we f***ing bitches together and we doing certain s**t, and I look at you in a man light, then I find out you gay, there ain't really nothing you can say to me... I don't look at you the same.