LGBTQ

Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett reacts as she testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing. (Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty) Amy Coney Barrett has been confirmed for the Supreme Court. The Senate voted to confirm Barrett’s nomination 52 to 48 on Monday (26 October). Barrett is expected

Danell Leyva, three-time USA Gymnastics Olympic Medalist, attends a viewing party of the Olympic Opening Ceremony hosted by the filmmakers of “Icarus” at the Hollywood Athletic Club on February 9, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Rich Fury/Getty Images for Netflix) Three-time Olympic gymnastics medallist Danell Leyva has explained how stereotypes about male gymnasts held him back

Local drag queens in Perth, Australia, performed a number inspired by Lady Gaga’s Chromatica and it deserves to win every single Tony award. (Screen capture via TikTok) Over in Australia, where the coronavirus has been almost stamped out, a scene which is all but a dream to most of the world – a crowded drag

Baroness Nicholson. (UK Parliament, cropped. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) Anti-trans Tory peer Baroness Nicholson claims it’s “very dangerous” that the BBC explained what pronouns are to children. On International Pronouns Day, BBC Bitesize – the public-service broadcaster’s free online study support resource for UK pupils – tweeted a cartoon of three teenagers in a changing room, each with

J.M. Barrie writing letters to his great friend Robert Louis Stevenson at his desk in Adelphi Terrace House. (Sotheby’s via Getty Images) Never-seen-before letters reveal JM Barrie telling Robert Louis Stevenson “I have discovered that I love you” – and the only possible explanation is that they were “the greatest of friends”. It’s the first

The company behind the Lady Boys of Bangkok will get more than £1 million from the government’s emergency arts funding. (Twitter/TheLadyBoys) The Lady Boys of Bangkok has secured emergency government arts funding as part of the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund. Gandey Productions, which stages the Chinese State Circus and the Lady Boys of Bangkok,

A man reads The Times newspaper as he rides the tube in London. (Robert Alexander/Getty) Media coverage of trans issues has been linked to an increase in the number of young people seeking support at specialist gender clinics, a landmark study has found. In the past 10 years there has been a significant increase in

Del Martin (L) and Phyllis Lyon (R). (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AFP via Getty Images) The home of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, a late lesbian couple who sought to defy federal and state marriage equality bans in 2004 by getting married, could be preserved as a city landmark. Lyon and Martin were the first in California to receive

Hayling Island Bowls Club, where trans woman Stella Moore has played for nine months. (Hayling Island Bowls) A women’s bowling club has removed advice on its website saying that “transsexual” women shouldn’t “vamp up” after backlash to its “archaic” policy on transgender inclusion. The first part of the Portsmouth & District Women’s Bowling Association policy,

Izzy Kamikaze was left beaten and bloodied after she was assaulted at a far-right, anti-mask protest in Dublin (Twitter) A man in his 20s has been charged with assault after he was accused of violently attacking trailblazing LGBT+ activist Izzy Kamikaze at a far-right rally in Dublin. The man, named as Michael Quinn, was arrested

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence give a thumbs up after speaking on the first day of the Republican National Convention (Chris Carlson-Pool/Getty) An LGBT+ Republican group has endorsed 12 politicians who have long track records of opposing LGBT+ rights. The Log Cabin Republicans, which describes itself as “the nation’s original and largest

Ariana Grande juggled being US President and home life in the music video for her new song, ‘Positions’. (Screen capture via YouTube) Ariana Grande dropped her “Positions” video Friday (October 23) – the first single from her album of the same name – and fans are split. The “Positions” video sees Ariana elected president of

The Sri Lankan government has been accused of forcing abusive anal and vaginal virginity “tests” on LGBT+ people in an attempt to prove homosexual conduct. According to a shocking Human Rights Watch report, at least seven people have been forced into the “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” physical examinations since 2017. Together with the non-profit Equal

Evangelical preacher Franklin Graham has lashed out at Pope Francis for “trivialising Christ’s sacrifice” by “normalising homosexuality”. Pope Francis suggested in a documentary that premiered on Wednesday (October 21) that gay people “have a right to be part of the family” and threw his support behind “civil union law” so same-sex relationships can be “legally

James ‘The Amazing’ Randi. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images for the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival) The Amazing Randi, the bearded and brilliant gay magician who traded his decades-long and award-winning career as an illusionist for a second act debunking the paranormal, has died aged 92. Randi passed away Tuesday (October 20) “due to age-related causes”, according to

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends the 2016 Toronto Pride parade (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) The UN’s LGBT+ rights expert has praised Canada’s bill to ban conversion therapy, which could set a new international standard on the issue. The legislation, officially tabled in Parliament earlier this month (October 1) with the backing of prime

Mary Fay, one of the few openly gay Republican congressional candidates, was speaking when the event was hijacked (Campaign video) A lesbian congressional candidate has spoken out after a virtual debate she was involved in was hijacked with racist and homophobic messages. Mary Fay, one of the only openly gay Republicans running for office in

The two gay penguins were desperate for a chick of their own (DierenPark Amersfoort) Two gay penguins are so determined to become fathers that they have commandeered the entire nest and egg of a lesbian penguin couple. The aquatic soap opera unfolded this week at Amersfoort’s Dierenpark zoo in the Netherlands, where the African penguins’

Asia Kate Dillon attends the “John Wick: Chapter 3” world premiere in 2019. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) There is growing demand for non-binary actors as directors seek more diverse onscreen representation, according to a talent manager. Transgender representation in film and TV has historically been woeful, with cisgender actors of the wrong gender playing trans characters.

Netflix has released a trailer for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a new film starring Viola Davis as pioneering queer blues singer Ma Rainey. Rainey, widely known as the mother of the blues, forged a lucrative early career in the 1920s while peppering her songs with references to her sexuality, more than 40 years before the Stonewall

Zendaya and Hunter Schafer stars in Euphoria. (Euphoria/HBO) Euphoria is returning with two new episodes ahead of season two, Zendaya confirmed in an Instagram post on Monday (October 19).  Zendaya, who plays Rue Bennett on the show, told fans that “two special episodes” will air toward the end of this year. The new Euphoria episodes will tide

Carole Baskin could “just as easily have had a wife”. (Carole Baskin) Carole Baskin has revealed that she is bisexual, and that she discovered her sexuality while spending time with the LGBT+ community during the AIDS crisis. Speaking with PinkNews just two weeks after her elimination from Dancing with the Stars, Baskin said she was

Leon Wenham explained that he wrote You, Me and Lots and Lots of Love because he never saw his family reflected in books he would read to his five-year-old son (Instagram) A Black, gay dad has written his own story book after being disappointed by the lack of diversity in traditional tales. Leon Wenham explained that

Sam Smith in LA in September, 2019. (Steve Granitz/WireImage) Sam Smith has opened up about their experiences with panic attacks, anxiety and depression. Smith told Apple host Zane Lowe Sunday (October 18) about a time when they were dealing with mental health issues “for the first time”. The Grammy Award-winning singer said: “I’ve always been sad,

Kendall Stephens was brutally beaten in her own home. (Human Rights Campaign) Kendall Stephens, a trans woman who survived a horrific transphobic attack in her own home, has described the shocking reaction by police who “cracked jokes while she bled onto the floor”. Warning: contains graphic descriptions of violence against a trans person. Kendall Stephens,

Ann Widdecombe has previously backed gay cure therapy. (Steve Taylor / Echoes Wire / Barcroft Media via Getty Images) Ann Widdecombe, the British former lawmaker known for her high-decibel anti-LGBT+ views, drew criticism Sunday (18 October) for saying “families” wouldn’t be interested in watching a same-sex couple dance on Strictly Come Dancing. Nicola Adams, the

Nicola Adams (L) and her Strictly Come Dancing partner, Katya Jones. (Strictly Come Dancing/BBC) Nicola Adams made Strictly Come Dancing history Saturday night (17 October) after being partnered with seasoned pro dancer Katya Jones, becoming the ballroom show’s first same-sex contestants. It was a sight 16 years in the making, but now looking forward, both Adams

Mart Helme, chair of the of the far-right Estonian ERKE Party. (SVEN TUPITS/AFP via Getty Images) Those who are against defining marriage as only between a man and a woman are “heterophobes”, Estonia’s interior minister said ahead of a pitched referendum. Mart Helme, a member of the anti-immigration conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), said that

Robert Brissette, an ardent Trump support, coughed at Black Lives Matter protesters while hurling homophobic insults. (Screen captures via YouTube) A Donald Trump supporter once again proved that the president’s fans are the pinnacle of grace and decorum by… taunting Black Lives Matter supporters with homophobic slurs before violently coughing on them. While pumping gas

Ellen DeGeneres during a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. (Getty/Brooks Kraft) Ellen DeGeneres, the embattled American daytime talk show host, dotted the studio audience with her own staffers to prevent fans from getting “too close” to her. A former employee told The Sun newspaper that crew would remove their work IDs so they could