LGBTQ

USNS Harvey Milk launches after a ceremonial address in San Diego, California on 6 November, 2021.(AFP via Getty/ ARIANA DREHSLER) US Navy has officially christened and launched the USNS Harvey Milk, a ship named in honour of the trailblazing US politician and LGBT+ rights pioneer. Milk became the first openly gay man in US history to be elected to public office when in 1977 he was elected to San Francisco’s board of city supervisors. Tragically, a year later, he was assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had lost his...

Billy Porter has apologised to Harry Styles. (YouTube/ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) Billy Porter has apologised for his criticism of Harry Styles’ Vogue cover, explaining: “This is not about you… it’s about the systems of oppression.” Last month, Porter called out American Vogue featuring Styles as its first male to wear a dress on its front cover, insisting that the young singer hadn’t put in the work. “I was the first one doing it and now everybody is doing it,” he told The Sunday Times. “I created the conversation...

Queer rabbis Becca Walker (left) and Ariella Rosen (right).(YouTube/ Women's League for Conservative Judaism) Two queer, female Conservative rabbis have tied the knot, in a historic first for the Conservative Judaism movement. Conservative Judaism is the second-largest denomination of Jewish people in North America, and over the last two decades it has become increasingly inclusive of LGBT+ folk. Rabbis Becca Walker, 33, and Ariella Rosen, 35, met at a Rabbinical Assembly retreat in Connecticut in May 2018 for female rabbis starting out in their careers, according to the Jewish Telegraphic...

Star Trek: Prodigy is introducing a new generation of kids to the utopian values of Starfleet with a refreshingly diverse cast, including a non-binary main character. The animated Star Trek kids’ series premiered on Paramount+ last week with a star-studded voice cast including Ella Purnell, Brett Gray, Rylee Alazraqui, Angus Imrie and Jason Mantzoukas. The show is already winning praise for its thoughtful messaging, which teaches children the importance of acceptance, individuality and looking beyond appearances. This careful inclusivity is established from the first episode when a simple pronoun correction...

Mariah Carey in "Fall in Love at Christmas". (Screen capture via YouTube) Mariah Carey has officially killed Halloween and done vocal runs over it as she released a brand-new Christmas single. At midnight Friday (5 November), Carey, who actually invented the annual tradition of Christmas so she could release “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in 1994, has once again thrown the first bauble at Stonewall. The benevolent goddess of Christmas dropped “Fall in Love at Christmas“, a festive R&B track that DJ Khalid had lent a hand with. #FallInLoveAtChristmas Out...

Lady Gaga as Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci. (YouTube/ MGM) Lady Gaga got so into her House of Gucci character Patrizia Reggiani, heir to the leather goods fortune, she thought she killed someone. The “Stupid Love” hitmaker opened up about her challenging experience filming the upcoming movie which charts the turbulent marriage and divorce of Patrizia and Maurizio Gucci which curdles into a plot to kill the head of the Gucci fashion house. In an interview with British Vogue, the December 2021 cover star recalled the struggles she faced when...

Rikkey Outumurro. (Facebook) Rikkey Outumuro, a beloved community leader, fearless drag icon and decades-long activist, has died. She was 39. Otherwise known by her drag stage name as Tru Starlet, Outumuro fatally shot in Centralia, Washington, Saturday evening (30 October) by her 28-year-old boyfriend. Cristopher Allen Gaudreau told Centralia police officers that he and Outumuro, a former Miss Gay Lewis County, had met for drinks but blacked out at around 11:30pm 30 October, The Chronicle reported. He told police that he woke up on the floor of his residence in the...

“We acknowledge that an admission of inappropriate behaviour by the same contributor should have been included in the original article.” The “inappropriate behaviour” refers to sexual abuse allegations made against Cade over the years, by a number of women, which were mentioned by Cade herself in her blog posts. She wrote: “If a rapist is someone who is accused in public of sexual misconduct, then I am a rapist. “So, too, are three of your last four presidents, the men who sit in your halls of power, and the men who...

Lynne Spears (L) and Britney Spears. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic) Britney Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, has officially asked for her piece of the singer as well. The 66-year-old author filed a petition Monday (1 November) requesting that her daughter’s estate pay her attorneys’ fees in the strained battle over Britney’s conservatorship. Lynne has never had a formal role in the complex legal arrangement that has seen Britney’s personal and financial affairs controlled largely by her father, Jamie Spears. But she is considered an interested party in the affair and is now asking...

Hackers have leaked the entire online database of Israeli LGBT+ dating app Atraf, exposing highly sensitive information including the sexuality and HIV status of thousands of users. The Black Shadow hacking group stole a file containing information on around a million listings with full details on the users, according to France 24, many of whom are closeted. They released the database on Tuesday (2 November) after their $1 million ransom was not met within 48 hours. The leak has prompted panic among the app’s mostly male users, who fear they...

The BBC headquarters. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty) A BBC journalist is facing resounding criticism after he appeared to compare a much-reviled article about trans women to the broadcaster’s investigation into Jimmy Savile. John McManus, who covers religion and ethics for the BBC, tweeted a link to a Guardian article on Tuesday (2 November) which reflected on the work of two BBC journalists who put their careers at risk to bring Jimmy Savile’s abuse to light. Following Savile’s death in 2011, hundreds of people came forward to detail the sexual abuse they had suffered at his...

The Boots Black Friday sale features beauty, fragrance and skincare products. (Boots.com) Boots has launched its Black Friday sale early, with deals on beauty, skincare and fragrances. Customers don’t have to wait until 26 November to get deals at Boots this Black Friday, as they’ve kicked off their discounts already. There’s up to 50 percent off on brands including Soap & Glory, Yves Saint Laurent, Oral B, No7, Dove, Philips and Lovehoney. The retailer’s sale is now live on the Boots website here and in-store, and new deals are expected...

Badr Baabou, a human rights defender, was battered by cops in Tunisia. (Damj Association for Justice and Equality) Two police officers brutally beat one of Tunisia’s top LGBT+ rights activists in an attack campaigners warn captures the country’s descent into “repression”. Badr Baabou, a human rights defender and head of the Damj Association for Justice and Equality, told Human Rights Watch how he was ambushed in Tunis, the nation’s capital, last week. He was taunted, robbed and senselessly beaten by the officers, he claimed. The thrashing left the activist concussed and...

Private user information from an Israeli LGBT+ dating site has been leaked online by hackers, who are threatening to release more data unless they receive a $1 million ransom. Geo-located dating service Atraf was among dozens of sites hit by the Black Shadow hacking group on Friday evening (29 October) after a break in at the servers of Israeli internet hosting company Cyberserve. The following day the group dumped tens of thousands of online records from the sites it penetrated, including 1,000 user profiles from Atraf. The information includes names...