LGBTQ

Trans politician Addison Perry-Franks. (Facebook) Addison Perry-Franks, a talented filmmaker and steadfast trans Texan Democrat who sought a career in politics to combat transphobia, has died. She was 39. Her wife, Lacey Franks, confirmed her death in a Facebook post 1 January. “The love of my life has passed away today,” she wrote. “I don’t have all of the details till the autopsy comes back. The world is a darker place without her light shining in it.” Perry-Franks died at Cogdell Memorial Hospital in Snyder, per reports, after her wife...

The reality of Black gay love in the time of slavery is explored in a heart-stopping new novel that’s already won praise from Mariah Carey and Oprah Winfrey. The Prophets is a gripping tale of two enslaved men, Isaiah and Samuel, who live as lovers on a plantation in antebellum America. Their forbidden love blossoms in spite of the brutality that engulfs them, and together they find a small haven where they can be alone – until a fellow enslaved person grows suspicious and reveals a truth that threatens to rock...

Owner John McAffrey describes the bizarre moment his staff found his bar bespattered with blueberries. (Screen captures via OKC) A queer bar in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has been targeted by an anonymous homophobe who has vandalised the site across two nights. But it’s the bizarre ways in which the bar has been defaced that has exasperated owners as they capped off an already dispiriting year. Partners, a beloved midtown nightspot that has for years drawn both the younger and older sides of the LGBT+ community, was smeared with an assortment...

The LGBT Foundation in Manchester denied donating $10 million to a political party in Uganda, as was claimed in a fraudulent letter. (Twitter) The LGBT Foundation has categorically denied donating $10 million to a political party in Uganda after a fraudulent letter was widely shared on social media. The Manchester-based charity, which supports the LGBT+ community across the UK, was the subject of a bizarre letter circulated online claiming they had pledged support to the National Unity Platform (NUP), a Ugandan progressive political party. The letter, shared on Twitter, was...

Queer people in all 50 states now have equal protection from domestic violence under the law. (Envato Elements) Queer victims of domestic violence are finally protected by law in all 50 states after a historic court ruling in North Carolina. North Carolina had been the only state that did not offer equal protection to queer people in same-sex relationships – but that changed in a court ruling delivered Thursday (31 December). The Court of Appeals of North Carolina ruled that people who are in same-sex relationships should have the same...

Queer As Folk was Britain's first gay TV drama. (Channel 4) Russell T Davies puts the AIDS crisis front and centre in his new drama, It’s A Sin, something he says he was unable to manage until now. The producer and screenwriter made his name in bombastic fashion with the seminal 1999 drama Queer as Folk. Across two series and 10 episodes, it focused on gay characters with fully fleshed-out lives – a first for television – and taught a generation of adolescent gay men the wonders of rimming. One...

Things got, er, odd in the first trailer for RuPaul's Drag Race UK. (Screen captures via Twitter) Drag queens, start your engines – the official trailer for the long-awaited second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK dropped Sunday evening (3 January) and yup, we are absolutely gagging for it. Immediately sparking hope that maybe 2021 won’t be a truly cursed dumpster fire like the year prior was, the trailer was released on BBC Three’s official Twitter and we’re honestly suspect David Lynch directed it as it is weird. Very weird....

Jonathan Van Ness and Mark Peacock. (Instagram/@jvn) Jonathan Van Ness has opened up about his relationship with Mark Peacock after the pair quietly married in 2020. Taking to Instagram Saturday afternoon (2 January), the Queer Eye star shared adorable photographs of them together, his “favourite moments” of last year, he said. They ranged from re-enacting Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” to ringing out the new year with pals and what appeared to be snapshots of their secret wedding ceremony together. Dressed in white suits, the pair gazed lovingly into one another’s eyes...

Video footage showed the moment a cruise sank as rescue boats scrambled to save passengers from drowning. (Screen captures via Twitter/@fitnessgayz) As Mexico’s coronavirus caseloads soar, a queer party boat packed with some 60 people sank to the depths of the ocean Friday afternoon (31 December). Startling mobile phone footage uploaded to social media showed the moment blue waves engulfed the PV Delice Party Cruise catamaran. Crew and partygoers trying to stay afloat bob along in life vests around the keeped over boat, some clinging to or frantically flagging the attention...

Celine Dion and Celine Dion. (Twitter/ ThomasDodd1 and Getty/ Frazer Harrison) A 30-year-old gay man from Staffordshire drank so much one night during the festive period that he legally changed his name to Celine Dion. On 30 December, the man formerly known as Thomas Dodd posted a photo on Twitter of a pile of paper work and wrote: “Tier 4 is the least of my worries – I’ve just got home to some post. “Apparently at some point over Christmas I’ve had one too many vinos and legally changed my...

The circuit party was attended by 2,000 shirtless, maskless men. (G1) A circuit party in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was shut down by police and firefighters after thousands of maskless men attended as the city’s COVID cases soar. The Festa Revolution gay circuit party took place on Tuesday (29 December) at Faro Beach Club in the city’s Leblon district, on the same day that coronavirus deaths in Rio de Janeiro alone reached more than 14,600. Around 2,000 people were packed on the dance floor and partying without masks when police burst...

Devika Akka was one of two trans woman elected in India. (Twitter) Two transgender women have won local elections in their villages in India in an incredible history-making moment. Both women were elected to the gram panchayat – a form of local government operating in villages in India – on Wednesday (30 December), Devika Akka, a transgender woman, was elected in Ward 7 of the Saligrama panchayat, while a woman known as Sudha won the election in Kallahalli. Speaking to local media about her win, Devika, 46, said her priority would...

The poster for Forbidden Love in Heaven. (Ran Yinxiao_ A simple film about a gay couple who adopt a homeless child, Forbidden Love in Heaven has become something almost unthinkable for LGBT+ filmmakers and moviegoers in China: a hit. In a nation where acceptance of same-sex couples is progressing at a less-than-glacial rate, Chinese filmmakers have long been censored and nettled by authorities’ inability to acknowledge that LGBT+ people even exist. But 19-year-old filmmaker Ran Yinxiao sought to challenge the industry with his film, Forbidden Love in Heaven, released on local streaming platforms...

Megan Barton-Hanson attends the EE British Academy Film Awards 2020 at Royal Albert Hall. (Getty/ Jeff Spicer) Bisexual Love Island star Megan Barton-Hanson has revealed the “mortifying” homophobic comments she received from her brother’s girlfriend when she began dating women. Barton-Hanson came out publicly as bisexual last year when she appeared on Celebs Go Dating, and went on a date with The Only Way is Essex star Demi Sims. The two reportedly had a brief relationship before breaking up. But this month, Barton-Hanson invited Sims to be a guest on...