Gulf countries threaten Netflix with legal action over its LGBTQ+ content

Out in Colombia, a gay-owned tour company that won the 2021 Impact Award from the IGLTA Foundation, in recognition of its dedication to responsible tourism development. We’ve teamed up with Out in Colombia and came up with a few ideas to inspire your next trip.A picturesque colonial port city on the Caribbean coast, Cartagena has long been a top draw for tourists, thanks to its historic walled downtown, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that dates to 1533.

Two popular gay contestants from The Great British Bake Off (known as The Great British Baking Show in the U.S.) say the show needs to do more for LGBTQ+ inclusion.The competition show has “embraced gay men very comfortably and highlighted them a lot,” but the “rest of the queer community has been slightly sidelined,” David Atherton, who won the program’s 2019 season, recently told PinkNews.His season, in which fellow gay contestant Michael Chakraverty placed sixth, marked a “turning point” for inclusion, he said. After downplaying LGBTQ+ visibility in previous seasons, in their season the show’s staff “let us wear T-shirts that were pro-LGBTQI+, and right at the end of the whole series is me and Nik [his fiancé] kissing,” he explained.But it’s time for the show to have a transgender competitor, Chakraverty told PinkNews.

As Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT), continues his push for broader adoption of electric vehicle use, he was again targeted with homophobic attacks online.  

Officials from EuroPride and Belgrade Pride commemorated the start of EuroPride 2022 in the Serbian capital with a ceremonial flag raising Monday as the event gets underway this week.

The Disney-themed drag brunch scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 11 was abruptly cancelled last week after an onslaught of threats of violence to the venue, the Cool Beans Bar and Grill, an LGBTQ+ friendly establishment.

Maybelle Blair, the 95-year-old baseball player who was an inspiration for A League of Their Own who came out this year; Solomon Bates, the second minor league baseball player to come out and was signed by the Sioux City Explorers; Lia Thomas, who came out and stood up to her Republican lawmaker dad; Megan Rapinoe, who educates her followers about wildlife and whose emu stole the show; his followers on TikTok and Instagram about life as a trans dad and promoted protests against anti-trans laws; and Justine Lindsay, who uses her large platform on to show what it’s like to be Black, queer, and Muslim.The nominees for LGBTQ Nation’s Sports Hero of the Year 2022 confirm that what counts, win or lose, is how you play the game. Vote now for LGBTQ Nation’s 2022 Sports Hero. Maybelle BlairIn June, Maybelle Blair, who inspired the character played by Madonna in Penny Marshall’s 1992 comedy A League of Their Own, came out as gay.The occasion was the premiere of a new Amazon series based on the film.

The pandemic is over (in award show world anyway,) and glitz and glamour have returned. That is the prevailing impression from this year’s 74th annual Emmy Awards. The show was stunning and exciting from the outset, but even with the pomp and loud noise of celebration, a queer presence was not to be drowned out.

Malta’s prime minister confirms that the country will have free gender affirming surgery for trans people, under reformed laws.

Yesterday, September 12, The Coalition Against Hate Crimes (CAHC), formed by several organisations and led by the Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL), launched the new campaign Hate Crimes Hurt Us All to raise awareness about the rising number of incidents of hate crime in Ireland and to demand a specific action plan from the […]

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic is accused of hypocrisy after her government banned Saturday’s EuroPride march

Below are our picks for some of the most fun and creative things to do this week in the DMV that are of special interest to the LGBTQ community.

Brigham Young University removed pamphlets with LGBTQ resources from welcome bags for new students last month, according to Today.Created by the student-run group RaYnbow Collective, the pamphlets directed students to resources for safe housing, therapy, scholarships, gender-affirming clothes, and political action opportunities, as well as events students could attend.The Honor Code Office at BYU, a Utah university sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, prohibits “same-sex romantic behavior.” The RaYnbow Collective, which supports safe spaces for LGBTQ students and staff, isn’t technically affiliated with BYU, even though students run the non-profit.Maddison Tenney, the group’s executive director, told TODAY she started RaYnbow Collective to help others avoid the loneliness she felt her freshman year as a gay student at BYU.“I remember sitting in my white dorm room with these cement walls and breaking down,” Tenney said. “I didn’t know anyone who was like me, who wanted to be faithful and embrace the fullness of themselves.”To develop the pamphlets, Tenney said RaYnbow Collective collaborated with BYU student paper The Daily Universe and paid a $200 fee.

About 100 youth activists and their supporters from throughout the country turned out for a rally on Monday, Sept. 12, at D.C. ‘s John Marshall Park near the U.S. Capitol to call on Congress to pass the LGBTQ nondiscrimination legislation known as the Equality Act.

Y Tu Mamá También that culminates in a kiss dissolving the limits of possibility, the queer longing for connection that permeates A Home at the End of the World, and the barbed revolutionary romp of The Dreamers, all of which somehow slipped past my parents’ radar. Suffice it to say, I had a thing for messy bisexuals.

On Monday, September 13, a judge adjourned an injunction seeked by secondary school teacher Enoch Burke with the aim of being released from prison. Burke has mounted a legal challenge against the Wilson’s Hospital School’s decision to put him on paid administrative leave pending a disciplinary process. After being jailed for contempt of court, teacher […]

What everyone needs to do, see, and eat on a trip to Sri LankaFor hearty pub food and beautiful countryside, this South Downs inn is the place to stayI went to Corona's beer island and fell in love with the eco-friendly paradiseJust because progress has been made, doesn’t mean it can’t be undone. It very much echoed the how I felt in India during my visit in 2013.

LGBTQ Nation’s 2022 Political Hero are Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, who became the first out transgender four-star admiral and spoke out for trans health care access; Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who scored a major win for LGBTQ protections in her state and stood up to Don’t Say Gay; California state Rep. Scott Wiener, who helped martial several pieces of pro-LGBTQ legislation through the legislature; Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who went full gay dad and stood up for the rights of the kids of LGBTQ people to speak about their families in schools; and Urbandale, Iowa School Board member Daniel Gutmann, who stood up to a candidate backed by the anti-LGBTQ organization Moms for Liberty and won.These five LGBTQ people were elected or appointed to serve, and did so with distinction.

Did you miss out on Capital Pride this year or want another chance to gather with the LGBTQ community and allies? Several area Pride celebrations are taking place in towns and cities in the area over the next few weeks.

The president of Sri Lanka on Sunday said his government will not oppose a bill that would decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations in the country.

The president-elect of Kenya last week told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that LGBTQ and intersex rights are “not a big issue” in his country.

Games Done Quick (GDQ) fundraiser is opting to go virtual this year and avoid contributing to the Florida economy.Related: Florida’s biggest school district decides recognizing LGBTQ history is illegal now“While we would love to return in-person, we’ve determined that to provide a safe and welcoming event to all it was best that we move away from our originally planned location in Florida,” the organization wrote on its website, adding “we do not believe it is a safe place for our community at this time.”Past GDQ events have prominently featured LGBTQ gamers.The law was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March, and went into effect July 1.

The popularity of video games has really exploded over the last couple of decades, so much so that now we have an official Video Games Day on September 12! What has also improved quite substantially is the representation of LGBTQ+ characters who are starting to populate lots of video games. So to celebrate this day, […]

A school chaplain claims he was unfairly dismissed from his post at Trent College in Derbyshire last year on the grounds of religious discrimination. Rev Bernard Randall is suing Trent College at an employment tribunal in Nottingham because he believes that a disagreement with senior staff at the college on implementing an inclusion programme designed […]

The inclusion of a same-sex family in an episode of the popular children’s animated series Peppa Pig is simply too much to bear for some people.

As ensuring adequate supply and distribution of the monkeypox virus vaccine becomes “less of an issue,” efforts have shifted toward maintaining demand, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, White House national monkeypox response deputy coordinator, said on Sept. 7. 

LGBT Ireland has joined forces with the Irish Hospice Foundation, the All-Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care & Shapes of Grief programme founder Liz Gleeson to host an LGBTQ+ Death Café as part of Palliative Care Week 2022. On Friday, September 16, at the Pearse Street Library, attendees will gather over coffee and cake […]

(CNN) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed Friday night to temporarily block a lower court order that required Yeshiva University to recognize a "Pride Alliance" LGBTQ student club.The order from Sotomayor -- who has jurisdiction over the lower court in the case -- suggested that the full Supreme Court is still considering the issue and will issue a more permanent order at a later time.For now, the university is temporarily shielded from having to recognize the group.The case is complicated by threshold issues -- such as the fact that New York State appeals courts have yet to rule on the merits of the dispute -- which could be slowing down the court's considerations.Former and current students of the university brought the original challenge arguing that the school's position violated a New York public accommodation law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation.The case is the latest religious liberty controversy to come before the Supreme Court.Last term, the court's conservative majority ruled in favor of religious conservatives in two separate disputes and in 2021, the court sided with a Catholic foster care agency that refused to consider same-sex couples as potential foster parents.Justice Samuel Alito has repeatedly called for greater protections for the free exercise of religion including during a July speech in Rome. "Religious liberty is under attack in many places," Alito said.Yeshiva lost at the lower court level when a trial judge focused on whether the University qualified as a religious corporation within the meaning of the New York City Human Rights Law, a public accommodation regulation that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation.

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Luke Evans has opened up about the future of Disney+’s Beauty and the Best prequel series.

Natasha Tripney’s review of the book in The Guardian, she describes the Marion and Patrick points of view, saying that the “possessive note is the key to their tragedy and it’s telling that the man so desired by them both remains voiceless, distant.” That is not the case in Grandage’s film, adapted for the screen by Ron Nyswaner (“Philadelphia”), in which Tom is very much a real person but still feels “voiceless, distant,” a slippery, elusive character. There is a gulf between the older Tom and the younger Tom in “My Policeman,” in both writing and performance, as there is with all of the younger and older characters in the film. Older Tom is bitter and taciturn, avoiding his wife by taking long walks on the sea wall with his dog.

also prides themself on not being emotionally available?”In the R-rated comedy, already being cited for its realistic depictions of gay men having sex, Eichner plays Bobby, a brash, blunt podcaster who spearheads an LGBTQ+ museum and falls for Macfarlane’s Garth Brooks-loving estate lawyer Aaron, who is quite a different representative of the community they both inhabit.“It’s interesting to see, as an actor, how many flaws I can have [with a character] and still get away with making the love story happen,” Macfarlane said, adding that he sometimes pushed back on his character’s rougher edges, thinking they might be too off-putting. “I saw the movie yesterday and I thought, ‘Aaron, you are such a dick!'”Eichner agreed, noting that Bobby and Aaron are “both dicks at various points, but that’s how people are.”Stoller assured Macfarlane he was in good stead: “I remember telling you, the more flawed and real you are, the more the audience is going to root for you for figure out your shit.”Apatow, a veteran of film exploring minefield relationships and stubborn male growth (“Knocked Up,” “This is 40”), commented on the historic nature of “Bros.” “It’s a very special experience, but it starts out with Nick and Billy having this really great idea,” Apatow said.

The Handmaid’s Tale star Samira Wiley has opened up about being outed in a new interview.

Luke Evans has opened up about the future of Disney+’s Beauty and the Best prequel series.

The Imperial Court of Washington, D.C. held its Gala of the Americas: Coronation XI at The Schuyler on Saturday, Sept. 10.

Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company will host a book signing event for Dana Tai Soon Burgess’ memoir, “Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly: A Memoir” on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at the Arts Club of Washington. 

As the famous TV commercial went from the ‘70s – “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Mother Nature has a way of exacting her revenge. 

This month I am celebrating 25 years of selling real estate in the DMV. 

Denise Lee will receive the Dale Hanson Ally Award at the 2024 Black Tie Dinner With two weeks to go before the 41st annua

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said on Friday that Yeshiva University in Manhattan can for now disregard a state court ruling that ordered it to recognize an L.G.B.T. student club — a case she said could be considered by the full Supreme Court.

After nearly 30 years of working in Hollywood, Gabrielle Union is used to facing slings and arrows. Still, when she opens up Twitter and sees people attacking her trans daughter, Zaya Wade, it hits differently.

The major studio romcom is back with a flourish, but it took Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller to prove the format still works, even if this time it is two gay men who are the ones who  find love against all odds.

Billy Eichner’s “Bros” just make history at the Toronto International Film Festival? It certainly felt like it. The Universal movie is breaking all kinds of barriers: It’s the first gay rom-com ever made by a major studio, the first with an all openly LGBTQ cast and Eichner is the first openly gay man to ever write and star in a studio movie. Audiences finally got to see the movie for themselves in Toronto on Friday night and, judging by the shrieks of laughter throughout the screening, it was a hit. “I want to thank TIFF for letting a comedy into a movie festival!” Eichner yelled into the audience before the film rolled, making a valid point about the dearth of studio comedies that world premiere at top international film festivals.

LGBTQ student organization for now, the Supreme Court said in a Friday evening order from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.A lower court had ordered Yeshiva University, a private Orthodox Jewish research school in New York City to recognize the student group, but Justice Sotomayor, who has jurisdiction over the Second Circuit, which includes Connecticut, New York, and Vermont, temporarily stayed that ruling, “pending further order,” as lower court and state court cases continue.“A New York state trial court ruled that as a public accommodation, Yeshiva was covered under the New York City Human Rights Law and required to provide the Pride Alliance the same access to facilities as dozens of other student groups,” The Washington Post reports. “The group said that means access to a classroom, bulletin boards and a club fair booth.”Yeshiva is an Orthodox institution, and the “Orthodox tradition only supports heterosexual relations and only within the context of heterosexual marriage,” the Human Rights Campaign Foundation has said.Well-known University of Texas School of Law Professor of law Steve Vladeck called Justice Sonomayor’s decision “surprising.”“Justice Sotomayor, acting by herself, has stayed a New York state trial court’s injunction that had ordered Yeshiva University to recognize an LGBTQ student group.

This is National Suicide Prevention Week, which technically means that during this week we are to raise awareness for suicide prevention. Next week is, among other things, National Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week, and the last week in September is International Deaf Awareness Week.Since I’m partially deaf, that week means something to me, but by the time we get to the week of October 9 and National Fire Prevention Week, will anyone remember the awareness raised a month before for suicide prevention?We’ve filled so many weeks up in the calendar that we skip from one issue to another to another and to yet another, and we forget about what we were supposed to remember from the previous month.

prohibiting Medicaid from covering gender-affirming health care treatments, even if a patient’s primary medical provider declares that such care is medically necessary.The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include August Dekker, a 28-year-old transgender man and Medicaid recipient who receives hormone therapy to treat his gender dysphoria; and Brit Rothstein, a 20-year-old transgender man and Medicaid recipient who receives hormone therapy and is scheduled to obtain top surgery to treat his gender dysphoria — a procedure that Medicaid had pre-authorized.Other plaintiffs include a 12-year-old trans boy and 12-year old trans girl, both of whom are receiving puberty blockers at the recommendation of their doctors, which were covered by Medicaid until Florida adopted its new rule.The revised rule, which went into effect on Aug. 21, was approved by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Florida’s Medicaid program.

Three transgender students and their families are suing the state of Oklahoma over its anti-trans school restroom law.The suit, Bridge v. Oklahoma State Department of Education, was filed Tuesday in U.S.

Most of us respected, even revered, Queen Elizabeth II for her 70 years of service to her country, from World War II to the Cold War and 9/11, right through to COVID and the war in Ukraine. 

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.