LGBTQ

California lawmakers have sent a bill banning secretly removing a condom during sex – commongly known as 'stealthing' – to governor Gavin Newsom. (Pexels) California could soon become the first state to outlaw “stealthing”, the vile practice of removing a condom during sex without verbal consent. State lawmakers sent a bill to governor Gavin Newsom’s desk on Tuesday (7 September) that would add the act to California’s civil definition of sexual battery, the Associated Press reported. The proposed bill, AB 453, would allow victims to sue perpetrators who removed a...

Sandi Toksvig (L) and Susan Calman (R) laugh after a contestant on British comedy panel show 'QI' thought she heard Toksvig say 'lesbians' instead of 'laser beams'. (TikTok/@theqielves/BBC) Legendary comedian Sandi Toksvig tried valiantly to hold laughter over a contestant hilariously mishearing the words lesbian and laser beams on QI. The TikTok channel @theqielves, which is run by the team behind the BBC quiz show, unearthed a years-old clip from QI (short for Quite Interesting for any non-Brits wondering). The TV show is known for its witty banter and for...

Nikki Kuhnhausen, 17, was tragically killed after her assailant discovered she was transgender. (Facebook) The killer who strangled 17-year-old trans girl Nikki Kuhnhausen to death with a phone cord has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. David Bogdanov, 27, was found guilty of second-degree and malicious harassment under Washington state’s hate crime statute back in August. On Thursday (9 September) Clark County superior court judge David Gregerson handed down a sentence in the top range for both those crimes, saying he was “struck by the darkness in this case”....

Thor in God of War: Ragnarok. (Sony) With fresh gameplay shown at the PlayStation Showcase, God of War: Ragnarok is showing some much needed diversity. Of course, some corners of the internet aren’t happy about it. The game will follow the 2018 PS4 title set in the world of Norse mythology. As the second and final part of the story, Ragnarok is set to include some of the more commonly known gods from mythology like Odin and Freya. That also includes Thor. Now, contrary to popular belief, Thor is not...

Drag star Priscilla has been unveiled as the host of Drag Race Italia (Instagram/@priscilla_drag) International drag superstar Priscilla has been named as the new host for RuPaul’s latest spin-off show, Drag Race Italia. The inaugural season of Drag Race Italia will sashay onto Discovery Plus Italia and WOW Presents Plus this November, joining the ever-expanding drag televisual Ru-universe. At its helm will be Neapolitan drag entertainer Priscilla, otherwise known as Mariano Gallo, who’ll be judging an all-new cast of Italian queens. Priscilla is widely known for her work in the Grecian...

A teacher resigned after a school sought to silence him for telling students he is gay. (Stock photograph via Envato Elements) A Missouri teacher resigned after his school forced him to sign a letter vowing to never tell his students he is gay. John Wallis taught speech and theatre a Neosho Junior High School – until he quit after a volley of parents complained about him hanging a Pride flag in his classroom. “A parent called last week to complain that I was going to teach their child to be...

Winterset High School in Iowa punished a bisexual teacher for disclosing his sexuality (Facebook/Winterset High School) More than a hundred students at Winterset High School in Iowa staged a defiant walkout after their teacher was disciplined for telling his class he was bisexual. Seventh-grade literacy teacher Lucas Kaufmann was placed on administrative leave last week after he included an LGBT+ flag on a “Things that describe me” slide in an introductory presentation to students. When asked by the children, Kaufmann said he was bisexual – a disclosure that enraged several parents....

Xavier Novell, the former bishop of Solsona and conversion therapist (YouTube/TV3) An ultra-conservative conversion therapy priest has rapidly changed career after falling head-over-heels for a writer of Satanic erotic fiction. Xavier Novell, Bishop of Solsona, was seen as a rising star in Spain’s Catholic church after being appointed as the country’s youngest bishop in 2010 when he was just 41. Until recently he was known for his controversial exorcisms and conversion therapy practices, being among a minority of priests who continued to organise such programmes despite the disapproval of Spain’s...

Raven-Symoné arrives for the premiere Of Disney's "The Lion King" on 9 July 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Getty/Albert L. Ortega) Raven-Symoné has spilt some hot tea about her iconic Disney character, including that she could have been a lesbian. But the actor turned it down. The American actor is arguably best known for her role on the Disney Channel series That’s So Raven and its 2017 spin-off Raven’s Home. The shows centre around Raven Baxter, a fashion-forward woman who can see glimpses of the future. In an interview on Straw...

Former Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes. (Karwai Tang/WireImage) Miriam Margolyes still wishes she never came out as gay to her parents and thinks the shock sent her mother to an early grave. The Harry Potter actor opened up about her tumultuous coming out in her new memoir This Much Is True. In an excerpt published by the Daily Mail, Margolyes reflected on the “regret” she still feels about coming out to her parents in the 1960s. In the heartbreaking excerpt, Miriam Margolyes explained that she had a “completely loving and open” relationship with her...

Two men assaulted shoppers after saying 'anti-gay' remarks. (New York Police Department CrimeStoppers) Two men were slashed with a glass bottle and stabbed with a screwdriver in an apparent homophobic hate crime. The New York City Police Department has launched an appeal after the victims, aged 36 and 28, were attacked by two individuals who made “anti-gay statements” towards them. The attack took place in a at a Brooklyn convenience store early Saturday morning (4 September), at around 2:10 am. One of the men called the victims a “f****t”, sources told New...

Gay teacher Lonnie Billard was fired because of his sexuality (Charlotte Observer) A gay teacher has won his lawsuit against the Catholic school that fired him after they learned he was planning to marry his same-sex partner. The school and the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte violated workplace sex discrimination laws in firing the former teacher, Lonnie Billard, US district judge Max Cogburn Jr ruled on Friday (3 September). Reacting to the judge’s decision, Billard said in a statement that he felt “a sense of relief and a sense of vindication”....

Plaintiffs were represented by Lamba Legal and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) Trans state employees can sue North Carolina for failing to cover gender-affirming treatments in its health insurance plan, the Fourth Circuit has ruled. Six state employees filed the lawsuit in 2019 accusing the North Carolina State Health Plan of discrimination against them or their children. The health plan covers nearly 750,000 teachers, state employees, retirees, current and former lawmakers, state university personnel, community college personnel, hospital staff members and their dependents. But it categorically denies...

A Pride flag on the steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, California (Max Whittaker/Getty) The California state senate has unanimously approved America’s first bill aimed at improving data on violent deaths in the LGBT+ community. If passed into law, AB 1094 would kickstart a three-year pilot program run by the California Department of Public Health to better track the LGBT+ status of victims of fatal violence. Known as the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data Collection Pilot Project, the program will teach coroners and medical examiners how to identify...