LGBTQ

Mhelody Polan Bruno was 25 when she died after being choked during sex. (Facebook) A former corporal has been jailed for strangling trans woman Mhelody Bruno to death, having previously walked free from court due to a “sentencing error”. Rian Ross Toyer, 33, was sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment for the manslaughter of Mhelody Bruno, 25, whom he killed while engaging in an act of erotic asphyxia. He will not be eligible for parole for 12 months. Toyer was initially spared jail due to a “sentencing error” by Judge Gordon...

The first girlfriend of Freddie Mercury has revealed the awkward moment when she suddenly realised the singer was gay. Rose Pearson, an artist who now goes by the name Rose Rose, opened up about the icon in a new documentary titled “A Life in 10 Pictures”. She recalled a date to the V&A museum in London that took a surprising turn when the star’s interest in male nudes clearly went “beyond art appreciation”. “We had been to the V&A and seen Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs of men wrestling in the nude,”...

A woman is detained by Met police at a peaceful vigil for Sarah Everard on Clapham Common (Kristian Buus/In Pictures/ Getty) A report on the Metropolitan police’s handling of a vigil for Sarah Everard earlier this month has concluded that officers acted “appropriately”. The report from the official policing inspectorate was ordered by home secretary Priti Patel after widespread outrage over ugly scenes at the vigil on 13 March. Policemen were photographed pushing, shoving and dragging women away, and kneeling on one protester’s back as they tried to disperse crowds....

Pablo Fracchia never thought it would be possible for him to adopt (Instagram/@pablitofracchia) A single gay man who always wanted to be a father has found the family of his dreams after adopting a baby girl who’d been left at the hospital. Growing up in deeply conservative Argentina in the 1990s, Pablo Fracchia never thought fatherhood was an option for him. As a teenager he thought there were only two ways his story could pan out: stay in the closet, or give up his dream of being a dad. “I...

Lil Nas X holding one of his Satan-themed shoes. (Twitter) In spite of the furious conservative backlash, all 666 of Lil Nas X’s limited edition Satan shoes have sold out in under a minute. The red and black Nike Air Max 97 trainers include a gold pentagram and are made with 60 cubic centimetres of red ink, plus one single drop of human blood. They carried a hefty price tag of $1,018 a pair, a reference to the Bible passage Luke 10:18 written on the side: “I saw Satan fall...

Britney Spears. (Getty/ Bruno Vincent) The fan-led movement to free Britney Spears from her conservatorship has inspired California lawmakers to consider changing the law around the complex legal arrangement. Spears, 39, has for more than a decade seen her affairs, which includes her estate, career and mental health, governed by her father, Jamie Spears, among others, as part of a court-ordered conservatorship. This arrangement, also called a guardianship, was put in place after Britney suffered a mental health crisis in 2007. After blows to Britney’s bid to remove her Jamie from the...

Sarah Peters, a member of the Nevada State Legislature, comes out as pan on the Assembly floor. (Screen capture via Twitter/Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) A Nevada lawmaker proudly came out as pansexual on the Assembly floor in a powerful speech Thursday (25 March) that celebrated the state’s triumphs in LGBT+ rights. Assemblymember Sarah Peters spoke during LGBT+ Health Awareness Week as she reflected on the seismic leaps the state has made in queer rights. The district 24 representative, which covers part of Washoe County, said: “In the past...

Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett also famously declared once that part of her “would’ve loved to make Lara gay.” Ever wondered whether or not a certain video game character was queer or not? If not, you’re clearly not spending enough time on the internet. People love to speculate about their favourite games, and lockdown has given everyone plenty of time to do just that. From Lara Croft to Luigi, plenty of iconic video game characters are considered to be secretly queer. From two fiery Apex Legends to everyone’s second-favourite plumber,...

Tennessee became Friday (26 March) the third US state to cruelly pass a bill banning trans girls from playing in middle and high school sports as their correct gender. State governor Bill Lee announced on Twitter he had signed Senate Bill 228 to “preserve women’s athletics and ensure fair competition”. Such a view, the American Civil Liberties Union, is based on “discriminatory, harmful and unscientific” myths about trans athletes. Under the ban, student-athletes in Tennessee will be required to prove what sex they were assigned at birth to participate in school sports....

Queer Black lawmaker Park Cannon was forcibly arrested in the state legislature for knocking on the governor's door. (Twitter) A queer Black lawmaker was arrested after she dared to knock on the governor’s door as he signed a law to restrict voting rights. Park Cannon, a Georgia state representative, was arrested and forcibly removed from the state’s Capitol building on Thursday (25 March) while Republican governor Brian Kemp signed the bill, which is expected to make voting even more difficult for residents. In videos shared on social media, Park Cannon...

Joe Black is raffling that H&M dress for charity, giving you the chance to own a real piece of Drag Race herstory. The dress that launched a thousand tweets will be sold for Sussex Beacon, a Brighton-based charity providing specialist care for those living with HIV. “Do you love raffles? Do you love helping charity? Do you love fashion that can evoke emotion in television hosts?” the star asked on Twitter. “I am raffling off my infamous *whispers* H&M – dress for Sussex Beacon. Helping people living with HIV in...

Mildred Loic, also known as Shakiro, one of the trans women currently held in jail (Facebook/ Shakiro) Two trans women in the central African country of Cameroon are facing five years in prison on charges of “attempted homosexuality”. Mildred Loic and Moute Rolland were arrested for wearing women’s clothes in the country’s largest city, Douala, on 8 February. Police are said to have made the arrests while the pair were eating in a restaurant. The women were denied bail on Wednesday (24 March) after a judge adjourned their case and...

The popular action-adventure game Ghost of Tsushima is coming to the big screen, with John Wick director Chad Stahelski in the hot seat. Making the announcement on Thursday (25 March) on Twitter, PlayStation has revealed that Ghost of Tsushima is getting its directorial debut. Both Sony Pictures, PlayStation Productions, and Sucker Punch Productions are partnering up for a live-action version of the samurai hit, which looks set for release in 2022. The game, which saw its release last year, is a third-person open-world stealth game that sees players control Jin Sakai, a...

Russell Tovey. (David Levenson/Getty Images) Russell Tovey has revealed that he fell “desperately in love” with a “much older actor” while filming an early television series. The gay actor opened up about coming to terms with his sexuality and his first major crush in an interview with Attitude magazine. “I was doing a TV show and I was desperately in love with this much older actor and had such a crush on him, and I didn’t think anyone knew,” Tovey said. “I thought I was hiding it very well, but I wasn’t....