Guest Opinion: LGBTQs ready for smoke-free bar patios this Pride

Kesha’s soaring ballad “Praying” was released five years ago today, but the story it told about her time with producer Dr. Luke is one that is still yet to be resolved.The “TikTok” singer famously filed suit against Dr.

Cheer, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges relating to child pornography.Harris, 22, was sentenced Wednesday, Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, assistant U.S.

Bear1Boss ends every song on his new self-titled album with an exclamation mark. It's an indicator of what to expect from the Atlanta rapper's style, and perhaps the only trace of subtlety to be found in connection with it.

Hypochondriac—one gay man’s nightmarish descent into paranoia.From first-time feature director Addison Heimann, the film follows a successful young potter named Will (American Horror Story‘s Zach Villa) who has a loving boyfriend (The Flash‘s Devon Graye) and a happy life, despite a traumatic past he’s worked hard to forget. When his estranged and institutionalized mother makes contact for the first time in over 10 years, he starts hallucinating haunting images of a man in a wolf costume (which gives us major Donnie Darko vibes, we might add).Unfortunately for Will, no one else seems to notice these masked menaces, and, as he gradually loses his grasp on reality, he finds himself falling into the darkness that consumed his mom—a journey that drives a wedge between him and his boyfriend and the rest of the life he’s built for himself.Also starring television royalty Paget Brewster, Hypochondriac made waves when it played a number of genre festivals over the past year, including SXSW.

the report presents results from the first nationwide survey assessing the number of school board members who are openly part of the LGBTQ community. The LGBTQ Victory Institute, a national organization focused on electing leaders within the LGBTQ community, conducted its survey among known LGBTQ school board members in April.The report comes amid an elevated awareness about threats levied at school board members across the country during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bold fashion choices are practically a queer birthright, but every so often, a little self-editing is called for.A soon-to-be-married straight man uninvited his gay brother, Sam, from the wedding after seeing Sam’s planned choice of attire — a rainbow-colored tuxedo.Sam called the snub “homophobic,” but many online feel the groom was justified in his actions.To be clear, the bride and groom set a “black and white only” dress code for their big day, so showing up in a rainbow tux does seem like a fairly big cry for attention. Plus, you never want to upstage the bride.Sharing the story on the ever-so-popular AITA (Am I The A**hole) Reddit forum, the groom said he was initially excited to have Sam and his boyfriend Jack at the wedding.Related: She brought a homophobic date to gay cousin’s engagement party. It didn’t end well.That excitement was dramatically dampened when Sam sent his brother a photo of his outfit a week before the event.“Initially I thought he was joking so I said ‘lmao.’ He was very hurt and told me to go f*** myself.” He added he’s always been comfortable with whatever Sam wore in the past, but that given the circumstance, it felt inappropriate.The groom told his brother “he could come if he didn’t wear the outfit,” but Sam dug his rainbow-colored heels in the sand and refused.“He said it cost a lot of money and he didn’t want it to go to waste because ‘I was being homophobic,'” the groom wrote.“I am very much not homophobic,” he added.

say recent results from a study show HIV quickly impacts a person's DNA and accelerates biological changes similar to the natural aging process, including death. "The findings suggest that new HIV infection may rapidly cut nearly five years off an individual’s life span relative to an uninfected person," a UCLA press release states.The disease's maturing effect on cells happens within two to three years of HIV infection, according the university researchers. Some of the results of the accelerated aging process can manifest in heart and kidney disease, frailty, and cognitive difficulties.It's not clear how antiretroviral regimens may affect the aging process caused by HIV, but previous studies have shown it happens regardless of medications — and that the powerful medicines that keep HIV at bay may also contribute to accelerated aging.UCLA researchers initially studied 102 men, collecting blood samples six months or less before they became infected with HIV and again two to three years after infection.

unfortunate tweets of late.She’s been on a tear this past week, spouting transphobic rhetoric and then only making it worse in her attempts to clarify what she meant—not to mention her knock on the Supreme Court, which many have called out as racist and Islamophobic.WOMEN OF THE WORLD! We are being stripped of our rights over our bodies, our lives and even of our name! They don’t call us “women” anymore; they call us “birthing people” or “menstruators”, and even “people with vaginas”! Don’t let them erase you! Every human on earth owes you!— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) July 4, 2022It’s all been a bit difficult to stomach, especially for fans who have long considered Midler to be an ally to the LGBTQ community. Between her work on Broadway and roles in iconic films like Beaches and The First Wives Club, some might even call the actress a gay icon.

Dallas County Health and Human Services announced today (Wednesday, July 6) that “an out-of-state visitor who was in town for the Daddyland Festival” held in Dallas over the July 4th weekend has been confirmed to have monkeypox. The individual, who went to an area hospital with a rash, was diagnosed through laboratory testing.

Green Bay Press Gazette.But that left some people in the community incensed by the plea agreement, including Koss, who wrote, in response to a Facebook comment from a friend, that the deal was “unacceptable” and urged people to contact Lasee’s office and share their thoughts.In court, Lasee said that while he appreciated Koss’ victim impact statement and the trauma she experienced, the case involved “unusual components,” implying that might make it harder to secure a conviction at trial rather than a plea deal. For instance, he noted that nobody called 911 to the scene of the crime, that Koss’s sister, a key eyewitness, was not at HSHS St.

Never meet your heroes, unless they’re Lynda Carter. While more celebrities reveal their TERF nature and consequently ruining your favorite movies, songs, and TV shows, the O.G. Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, continues to show her true colors.

Days before the 53rd anniversary of the Stonewall uprising on 28 June, hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of New York City on Sunday (26 June) for the annual Pride parade.

Good morning. It’s Monday. We’ll look at the sense of urgency that the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling added to the annual gay pride parade.

The festivities began on Sunday with a familiar feel: Revelers adorned in a palette of bright colors, waving rainbow flags and handmade signs, tossing confetti into the air as the roar of screams and bikers revving their motorcycle engines signaled the start of the annual New York City Pride March in Manhattan. But there was no mistaking that this year’s event, for all its joyous celebrations, had taken on sudden urgency and heightened significance just two days after the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion and signaled that the court could reconsider other liberties, including the 2015 decision that allowed same-sex marriage.

Glasgow and Edinburgh are decked in colour today for the Pride marches that are taking place today in each city.

Gloria Allen, a transgender activist whose experiences running a charm school in Chicago for at-risk transgender youth inspired an acclaimed documentary film, “Mama Gloria” and play, “Charm,” died on June 13 at her home in Chicago. She was 76. The cause was respiratory failure, said Luchina Fisher, a close friend and the director of the documentary.

Liss LaFleur

Have an event coming up? Email your information to Managing Editor Tammye Nash at nash@dallasvoice.com or Senior Staff Writer David Taffet at taffet@dallasvoice.com by Wednesday at 5 p.m. for that week’s issue.

To T or Not To T, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, a Los Angeles suburb, just in time for Pride. The show opens Saturday as part of the Center Theatre Group’s Block Party 2022 series and runs through July 10.To T or Not to T is D’Lo’s intimate reflection on “T and transitioning,” T being testosterone.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNext week, Disney+ will release its second annual variety special for Pride month — featuring a parade of talent celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community “through song and storytelling.”But “Say It With Pride: Disney+ Celebrates Pride 365” won’t be available on Disney+ itself. Rather, the special will premiere June 30 at 8 p.m.

It's been three years since San Francisco last celebrated Pride with its usual extravagance — COVID, like any unwanted guest, saw to that — but now, the fête is back this weekend under the theme "Love Will Keep Us Together" and people, hundreds of thousands of them, are ready to party. In person.

Black trans activist Andrea Horne is an imposing woman. It's something in the way she carries herself, perhaps, her bearing, her sense of self. Her voice suggests a woman who has seen it all and knows the score but is enjoying herself nonetheless.

Located at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is internationally recognized as the LGBTQ+ capital of the Middle East. Its nightclubs, bars, beaches, and premier Pride parade attracts millions of LGBTQ+ tourists from across the world. The beating heart of this community is the city of Tel Aviv, which could be viewed as the equivalent of San Francisco.Much like San Francisco, Tel Aviv has long been a safe haven for the region's queer citizenry, where the LGBTQ+ community could thrive and people could celebrate their identity.

The National Audubon Society has partnered with drag artist Pattie Gonia to invite the LGBTQIA community outdoors this Pride Month and to ensure that they have a safe and welcoming experience while there. As part of the collaboration the society has released the first two of four videos celebrating Pride in the outdoors.From hiking in platform boots to ice skating in a famous dress made from recovered pieces of discarded trash, Gonia is the creation of avid hiker and backpacker Wyn Wiley, who said the character was born spontaneously on a hike several years ago, according to a news release.

If you see something, say something. That appeal to the public gained traction after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, today, remains relevant as the LGBTQ community prepares to celebrate the first in-person San Francisco Pride events since 2019. The reason, of course, is the uptick in some strange and frightening events over the past several weeks, both locally and across the country.

Netflix announced that the 35-year-old actor’s character, Viktor Hargreeves, would use he/him pronouns in the third season of the superhero series, which premieres Wednesday. The Oscar-nominated “Juno” star stopped by “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Tuesday to talk more about how the decision for the character to come out as transgender came to be. They said “Umbrella Academy” showrunner Steve Blackman was “really excited” to incorporate Page’s identity into the show.

Elliot Page said he is “proud” of how The Umbrella Academy handled his character’s transition in the third season.

announced the rule on Sunday alongside plans to create an "open" category for events for transgender women who want to compete. The policy allows transgender women who transitioned before the age of 12 years old to compete in women's races.FINA defended the decision, noting "some individuals and groups may be uncomfortable with the use of medical and scientific terminology related to sex and sex-linked traits [but] some use of sensitive terminology is needed to be precise about the sex characteristics that justify separate competition categories."Transgender athletes competing in women's swimming races became a hotly debated topic this spring, as Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer, became the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA Division I title in any event.Her win sparked a high-profile debate about whether or not transgender women have an unfair advantage over cisgender women in sports, with critics saying Thomas would not have seen the same level of success while competing on the men's team even as the transgender community argues that forcing trans women to swim in men's races would be invalidating.FINA's rule change, which went into effect on Monday, was met with mixed remarks.

Dean McDermott is speaking out loud and proud!

Twitter after FINA, the sport's world governing body, announced that transgender women would not be allowed in major women's races as of Monday, June 20."It worked! I took a lot of heat—but what's fair is fair!" Jenner tweeted on June 19."If you go through male puberty you should not be able to take medals away from females. Period."It worked! I took a lot of heat - but what’s fair is fair! If you go through male puberty you should not be able to take medals away from females.

Jordaan Sanford Movies centered on queer and transgender characters are still few and far between. And when members of these marginalized communities do make it to the screen, their stories can be suffused with a dark and somber tone. But Nigerian film director and multimedia artist Gbenga Komolafe breaks free of those stifling conventions in his Indeed Rising Voices short “100% USDA Certified Organic Home-Made Tofu.” The film tells the whimsical tale of Nicki, a slightly bougie transgender woman living in Los Angeles who desperately needs money for breast augmentation surgery.

LGBTQ+ rights advocates and allies have been so inundated with threats during Pride Month that they have been forced to cancel events and involve local law enforcement authorities after a group of white nationalists were arrested outside a Pride event in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.

On Saturday, June 11, “Jeopardy!” champ Amy Schneider threw out the first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game in celebration of Pride Day.

Love can be confounding. It can be surprising and elusive; there’s no guidebook. That’s one reason why we devour romantic comedies: They’re funny but neat stories about how people get together, a process that’s terrifyingly vulnerable in real life. For Keiynan Lonsdale, best known for playing romantic lead Bram in 2018’s tender high-school romance Love, Simon, the genre has been professionally but also personally significant.

Texas Republicans have been targeting transgender folks in the Lone Star State for years, especially since 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Obergefell ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. It’s like, since they lost on marriage, the right-wingers decided to target the most vulnerable in our community.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 17, 2022 CONTACT: Cathy Renna, Communications Director, National LGBTQ Task Force, 917-757-6123 NATIONAL LGBTQ TASK FORCE STATEMENT ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S PRIDE MONTH EXECUTIVE ORDER Washington, DC……Yesterday, along with LGBTQI+ families, advocates, elected officials, and leaders, the National LGBTQ Task Force attended the White House LGBTQ Pride Month event hosted by President and Dr. Biden.

A variety of food trucks will be on hand for hungry folks at Arts District Pride. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Visitors at the opening day of With Love included, from left, Christopher Walker of ViiV Healthcare, former city council member Adam Medrano, Hope Health Center Executive Director Tamara Stephney, P.J. Moton-Poole, AP, Inc. CEO Kirk Myers and Councilman Omar Narvaez.

Amidst attempts around the country to ban LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books, the sheer number of new titles being published gives me hope. Here are some of my favorite new ones about Pride and the early LGBTQ rights movement, perfect for this month but worth reading all year ’round. For the very youngestWe Are the Rainbow!

In the United States the call for meaningful gun violence prevention is louder than ever. People are tired of mass shootings every day; they want their kids to go to school and then come home alive. And Republicans are responding to the deadly gun violence epidemic just as you’d expect them to: by demanding to see the genitals of transgender kids. Ohio House Republicans have passed a bill that allows just about anybody to demand a “genital check” of any kid playing girls’ s

Have an event coming up? Email your information to Managing Editor Tammye Nash at nash@dallasvoice.com or Senior Staff Writer David Taffet at taffet@dallasvoice.com by Wednesday at 5 p.m. for that week’s issue.

There are 140 million poor and working-class people in the United States – with 22% of LGBTQ people living in poverty. As an organization that fights for LGBTQ people and families, economic justice is a vital aspect of our movement. It is because of that that we are answering the call from the National LGBTQ Anti-Poverty Action Network for the LGBTQ community to show up for the Poor People’s Campaign’s Moral March on June 18th.  As we take to Washington, joining side by side with those affected by the inequalities present in this nation, we’re reminded that despite the progress made in our

President Zelenskyy is keen to emphasise the liberality of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression, many LGBTQ+ Ukrainians are concerned about the potential impacts the invasion will have on their burgeoning civil rights.“Of course, this worries us,” says Yura Dvizhon, creative director of UKRAINEPRIDE, a queer patriotic movement which nurtures Ukrainian cultural identity at home and abroad.“Russia comes to our land and wants to take it away, establish its own rules and take away the freedom that exists in Ukraine.“People in Kherson, Mariupol or hundreds of other places occupied by Russia suffer.“Of course, there are LGBTQ+ people in these cities and they need a lot of help, because being different in Russia is one of the worst and hardest things that a person can handle.”A post shared by YURA DVIZHON (@dvizhon)Dvizhon is one of a number of participants who are partaking in ‘LGBTQ+Me. Embracing Our Differences,’ a collaborative project between UKRAINEPRIDE and BetterMe, a global behavioural-health care company which is headquartered in Kyiv.Research shows that depression, discrimination by family members, trouble sleeping, and feelings of hopelessness are all higher in the queer community.

according to Swedish newspaper Queer.de.The effigy sparked a backlash, with one resident filing a criminal complaint against the town. Master of ceremonies Christian Weiss has insisted this was not an attack on any one person, but rather a statement against ‘rampant narcissistic hypersensitivity and the pathological lack of humor’.

Spurred on by a Twitter account known for its provocative nature, @libsoftiktok, a cadre of alleged Proud Boys members stormed into the San Lorenzo library in the East Bay June 11. Their target was a "Drag Queen Story Hour" event hosted by local drag artist Panda Dulce.About 10 or so of the group marched in, calling the host and others homophobic and transphobic slurs.

Fox News for promoting LGBTQ Pride month.The network, which has built a reputation for its conservative perspective, launched a Pride month promotional video earlier in June inviting viewers to "celebrate Pride month with Fox News," "meet important voices of the LGBTQ+ community" and "go inside their incredible contributions."They also aired a Pride month special segment featuring a transgender teenager named Ryland whose parents allowed him to transition when he was 5 years old. In the special, his mother, Hillary Whittington, said she allowed her son to transition because she would "rather have a living son than a dead daughter."The pro-Pride content, however, has left the network at odds with some of its conservative allies.

Netflix special, SuperNature. In a recent BBC News interview, his response to the backlash was, "These are just jokes. They don't mean anything.

Justine Lindsay is making history! Ahead of the 2022 football season, the 29-year-old cheerleader is officially the new member of the Carolina Panthers’ TopCats, becoming the first openly trans NFL cheerleader.Lindsay shared her excitement on social media, making the announcement and sharing her appreciation for her friends and the alumni TopCats family.“Cats Out the Bag you are looking at the newest member of the Carolina Panthers TopCats Cheerleader’s @topcats as the first Transgender female,” she stated.“I would like to thank the beautiful and talented dancers who supported me along the way alumni TopCats family and friends for your love and support,” Lindsay continued, “I would not have gotten to this moment in my life if it wasn’t for the support.”The cheerleader revealed to BuzzFeed that she was “so scared” to make the announcement, as “there’s just some things you can’t post,” declaring that she’s happy to “break down that door” for future trans athletes.The director of the TopCats Chandalae Lanouette, explained that Lindsay had shared that she is trans on her application, highlighting her talent. “My goal is to create a team of individuals that are absolute fire on the field but are incredible human beings in the locker room, good friends, good people, and at the end of the day, you have to walk through the door first to get to that spot,” Lanouette shared.Lindsay confessed that she was afraid she would have to change her look, revealing that her coach encouraged her to keep it and “inspire other young girls who may be insecure rocking their bald look.”“I think more people need to see this.