ITV boss defends Love Island after Ofcom complaints about bullying and says ‘uncomfortable moments’ are ‘informative’

This article first appeared in Out magazine.Lil Nas X is ready for the double team.World famous wax figure museum Madame Tussauds Hollywood has added another star to its list of wax celebs – Lil Nas X.The superstar musician revealed his new wax figure today, showing off the uncanny resemblance to him. The new figure comes complete with X’s beautiful gold armor from the 2021 Met Gala.

Sexually transmitted diseases exploded in 2021, with syphilis rates reaching levels not seen in decades, according to an official from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Syphilis, a bacterial disease that shows up as genital sores and can lead to other diseases and even death, showed a huge increase last year. The rate of syphilis cases reached its highest level since 1991, while the total number of cases rose to its highest level since 1948, just three years after World War II.

The USDA has been facing legal disputes for months now, and the reason why is astounding (derogatory).The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), the USDA’s program that helps to fund public school meals, stepped up its Title IX compliance guidelines for fund recipients earlier this summer.The official press release on the decision explains that “state and local agencies, program operators and sponsors that receive funds from FNS must investigate allegations of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.“Those organizations must also update their non-discrimination policies and signage to include prohibitions against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.”Public figures who would prefer schools be allowed to discriminate freely took umbrage with this, resulting in a coalition of some 22 states‘ attorneys general filing a lawsuit against the USDA.Related: The DeSantis administration’s latest transphobic ruling has them headed straight for a lawsuitNow, the Ohio State School Board of Education is set to vote on two different resolutions that prove that they can’t quite figure out whether they want all kids to eat or not.One of these resolutions would expand the free meal programs to all Ohio students. The other would directly oppose the USDA’s recent anti-discrimination measures regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.The message sent is that they want all students to eat, unless they’re students they want to discriminate against.

Rafael Díaz, whose story of compatibility with his husband – both relationship and renal compatibility – showed that gay love has no bounds; small town Mayor Ty Penserga, whose honest style beat an anti-gay extremist in his local election; Ohio drag queen Robert Dennick Joki who used song to fight anti-gay protestors at a kid-friendly event; the Belfast, Maine Gender-Sexuality Alliance, a group of teens who stepped up and saved their local Pride festivities; and Jose Solivan, whose proposal to his fiancé on Good Morning America woke up our hearts.The nominees for LGBTQ Nation’s 2022 Good News Hero prove peace, love and understanding win the day. Vote now for LGBTQ Nation’s 2022 Good News Hero.Rafael DíazWhen Reid Alexander swiped right on Tinder in 2020, he had no idea he’d found a perfect match — for a new kidney.Alexander, who was diagnosed with kidney-impairing Alport syndrome at 17, found out at 24 he was down to just 20% of function for the blood-filtering organs, each about the size of a fist.

Queer storylines are becoming increasingly common in video games, but it’s still rare for games to be capital-G Gay. So if the prospect of an explicitly gay title makes you want to reach for the nearest joystick, check out this new offering from Melbourne-based Up Multimedia.The Beat: A Glam Noir Game is an investigative thriller where players take on the role of a closeted gay cop who is investigating a murder in a city’s gay scene.While tracking down clues over seven days and nights, you’ll explore places like a gay bar and a cruising area rendered with an impressive eye for detail.Related: The 10 best queer games available on the Nintendo Switch“The gay bar is this strange other world in which the main character steps,” says game developer Luke Miller. “He’s drawn to it but doesn’t fully understand why.

In recent years, Morgantown, West Virginia has been trending in the right direction on LGBTQ rights.After being taken out for a couple years by the pandemic, the town’s Pride celebrations returned late this summer. They even hosted their first ever Pride parade, with hundreds of community members turning out to celebrate and show support.In spite of this–or perhaps in retaliation–the local school board proposed a decision to remove any and all Pride flags from Monongalia County schools earlier this month.The school district’s policy states:Non-school related activities, including political activities, do not contribute to a positive learning climate and may be disruptive, divisive and distracting.

Netflix debuts its new limited series DAHMER- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer, the latest project from super-producer Ryan Murphy who casts his longtime collaborator Evan Peters in the titular role as the notorious gay serial killer.The project’s announcement was met with a mix of excitement—it does star icon Niecy Nash, after all—and trepidation. While, yes, the series purports to center Dahmer’s “underserved victims and their communities,” it still begs the question: How many times must Hollywood re-examine and relitigate the story of this convicted murderer and cannibal?Prior to Peters, the infamous role has been played by a number of actors, including Ross Lynch in the unsettling “origin story” My Friend Dahmer.

Joe Biden‘s National Security Council has a new chief of staff, and he’s here, queer, and everybody’s already used to it!Curtis Ried becomes the first out LGBTQ’er to hold the position, reports NBC News.“We are excited to have Curtis take on this critical leadership role for our team,” said a statement from National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. “I’m confident he will bring to it his trademark smarts, skills, and collegiality, sharpened across his nearly 20 years as a Foreign Service Officer and multiple tours at the NSC.”Related: President Biden vows to help trans people reach their “God-given potential”Ried leaves his previous job as senior director for multilateral affairs at the NSC, and he has been a foreign service officer with the State Department of State for nearly two decades.His work across the Middle East makes him uniquely qualified for the gig.

A Seattle Pacific University staffer has come out to her colleagues as a lesbian at a time when the conservative Christian school is facing legal action over its anti-LGBTQ+ policies.“My name is Kristi Holt and I am a lesbian,” Holt, a chemistry lab coordinator and adjunct instructor, wrote in a recent email to faculty and staff, The Seattle Times reports.The university has been the site of protests for several months, and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is investigating its hiring practices. Seattle Pacific is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, a conservative denomination that is separate from the United Methodist Church.

EXCLUSIVE: The wild story of crypto couple Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan is headed to the screen. Hulu is in early development of limited series Razzlekhan: The Infamous Crocodile of Wall Street, from Searchlight Television. Lily Collins (Emily In Paris) is set to star as Morgan in the project, which she is producing with Charlie McDowell, who is slated to direct, and Alex Orlovsky.

(CNN) -- Montana will comply with a court order requiring it to enforce a process that makes it easier for residents to change the sex designations on their birth certificates, the state's health department said Monday, abandoning a recent effort to impose stricter rules in the record-changing process."The Department has received the court's order clarifying the preliminary injunction and despite disagreeing with it, intends to comply with its terms," said Jon Ebelt, a spokesman for Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services, in a statement.In a Monday order, Judge Michael G.

Rictor Norton compiled his research in a new essay titled “The Gay Subculture in Early Eighteenth-Century London.” In it, he quotes English politician Clement Walker as chronicling gay sex in Mulberry Garden, now the site of Buckingham Palace.In 1649, Walker wrote of the “new-erected sodoms and spintries at the Mulberry Garden at S. James’s.” (For the uninformed, “sodoms and spintries” refer to brothels and sex workers.)Norton also quotes another writer from the 1600s, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, who penned a poem about his love of linkboys–that is, young men tasked with carrying a torch alongside noblemen at night in the city:Nor shall our love-fits, Chloris, be forgot,When each the well-looked linkboy strove t’enjoy,And the best kiss was the deciding lotWhether the boy f*cked you, or I the boy.Apparently, the Earl of Rochester was also versatile.

Gay men are blowing the whistle now, two months before the World Cup, demanding the host nation of Qatar change its anti-LGBTQ ways.

There’s quitting, there’s quiet quitting, and then there’s this — wishing you could just disappear from the digital huddle altogether.Twitter user @Frankivelli shared a photo with the caption “dude my boss just this to the work groupchat on accident” with a crying-face emoji, and the tears make sense when you read the rest of the message:dude my boss just sent this to the work groupchat on accident ? pic.twitter.com/b76qSeh7BH— Francis (@frankivelli) September 15, 2022Oops!It’s the stuff of gay nightmares, and also apparently made up by the Twitter user as a joke (you got us!).Except… it actually got the joker fired? Plot twist.this was a joke but yall got me fired fr

Billy Eichner is back with a new Billy on the Street to promote his movie Bros with help from Paul Rudd and, as Eichner says, “a pack of wild lesbians.”Eichner stops various New Yorkers in hopes of extracting a promise to see the gay rom-com, which opens September 30. All the main roles are played by LGBTQ+ actors.In the video, the first edition of Billy on the Street in three years, Eichner seeks to persuade passersby to tell “famous and beloved straight man” Rudd that they’ll go to the film. The pair — and the “wild lesbians” joining Eichner in the latter part of the segment — have varying degrees of success.One man appears put off when Eichner tells him there’s a lot of gay sex in the movie.

(CNN) -- At least 50 groups have recently played a role in the evolving movement to have books removed from schools, a new PEN America analysis shows.PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization, released Monday its latest analysis of bans on school library books and class curricula that have occurred in the 2021-2022 school year.Jonathan Friedman, the director of PEN America's free expression and education programs and author of the report,said that in the past decade "there was never organization at this scale or with this kind of momentum" but it's important to understand that these censorship efforts, more often than not, are led by people who are not parents and who only learned about the books online without reading them but demand officials to remove them from shelves.The organization identified 50 groups operating at the national, state, or local level that advocate for bans in K-12 schools and said it appears that the majority of those groups formed in the last year. They range from local Facebook or online groups to more established conservative organizations."While we think of book bans as the work of individual concerned citizens, our report demonstrates that today's wave of bans represents a coordinated campaign to banish books being waged by sophisticated, ideological and well-resourced advocacy organizations," said Suzanne Nossel, chief executive officer of PEN America.One of those groups is Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that came together last year to fight for parental rights in Florida and has since spread across the country.

In recognition of Janelle Monáe’s commitment to LGBTQ+ mental health awareness, the Trevor Project named them its Suicide Prevention Advocate of the Year award recipient for 2022. The distinction recognizes influential public figures in the LGBTQ+ community.The second annual award marks September’s National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month and amplifies The Trevor Project’s mission to end suicide among LGBTQ+ young people, the organization wrote in a press release announcing the award. The award was first given to Lil Nas X in 2021, and Monáe joins him in receiving the honor.The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, actor, and author has long been an advocate for LGBTQ+ issues and mental health awareness."Monáe has consistently raised the voices and experiences of marginalized communities," the Trevor Project said in its announcement.The artist has openly and proudly discussed their sexual orientation and gender identity throughout their career.

Pentatonix, the award-winning a cappella quintet with its roots in DFW, today announced the 22-city holiday tour, Pentatonix : A Christmas Spectacular, with tickets going on sale Friday, Sept. 23, at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster.com.

The N.B.A. fined Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards $40,000 on Tuesday for anti-gay remarks that he made in an Instagram video that circulated online this month. In the video, which has since been deleted from his account, Edwards used homophobic language to describe a group of people he was filming as they stood on a sidewalk.

Meet George Santos. He’s a Donald Trump-loving gay Republican currently running to represent New York’s 3rd congressional district who just said 21st century Americans are “going to be remembered as the most barbaric generation to ever live” because of their views on abortion, which he believes is as bad, if not worse, than slavery.“All of us in this room can agree that when we look at slavery, it was barbaric,” 34-year-old Santos said during a recent event hosted by the Whitestone Republican Club.

Kelley Robinson (Courtesy HRC)

Kelley Robinson, a Black, Queer woman and veteran of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, is to become the next president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s leading LGBTQ group announced on Tuesday.

Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), at a time when racial disparities in the monkeypox outbreak are becoming more pronounced, took a visible role Thursday in embracing efforts in contain the disease, putting out a video of him obtaining a vaccine.

It’s a marvel that 1962 jazz record Love is a Drag: For Adult Listeners Only exists. The record, tagged as “sultry stylings by a most unusual vocalist,” features a male crooner singing love songs about other men.Unlike most pre-Stonewall American queer music, there was no cheek or camp to the music.

Reality shows are a dime a dozen. Seriously, name a career, and we can almost guarantee there’s a documentary crew following a group of people around in that field as they go about their day-to-day jobs and all the messy drama therein.That’s why it’s all the more surprising that we’re only just now getting getting a show about the gay men who work in the adult film industry.

#brosmovie @brosthemovie pic.twitter.com/BYqd61Iilg

Tír na mBeo – a mythological place of everlasting life, one of several distant lands inhabited by the divine Tuatha Dé Danann. It was a realm of eternal delights, sexual pleasure, plentiful food, and wealth. During lockdown, the situation for queer people was anything but. This documentary is dedicated to each LGBTQ+ community member who […]

The Only Way Is Essex star Junaid Ahmed revealed he was kicked out of his family home at the age of 18 when he came out to his parents. But while he admits he has been through his fair share of "hardship" in his life, Junaid, 27, tells OK! he has no regrets about his decisions as they have made him into a "stronger person". Junaid - who joined the TOWIE family this year - describes the difficult time in his life saying: "Obviously, that was a long time ago and that was something just unfortunate that I had to go through in my life.

Two major payment processing companies have banned the group Gays Against Groomers from using their systems to receive funds from purchases on the hate group’s website.For months, along with right-wing troll Chaya Raichik who runs Libs of TikTok, a Twitter account that calls itself Gays Against Groomers has been engaging in what advocates have said are strategies that amount to a stochastic terror campaign, specifically against transgender people. Gays Against Groomers founder Jaimee Michell, who identifies as gay, is a political operative with, according to LinkedIn, employment ties to a Florida-based right-wing political outfit called X Strategies. The company’s co-founder is proud “MAGA Republican” Alex Bruesewitz, who recently spoke at a Trump rally.At 2:47 a.m. EDT Tuesday, the Twitter account for the group tweeted, “We have just been BANNED from @Venmo and @PayPal  (within minutes of each other) for “violating” their user agreements.

Following a hugely popular protest in August to save the landmark beer garden at the back of Fibber’s rock bar, organisers Rock For Culture will hold a second demonstration calling on An Bord Pleanála to protect cultural spaces in Dublin. The demonstration which will take place this Thursday, September 22, aims to lobby the planning […]

According to The Commentator, Yeshiva University’s student newspaper, school officials sent an email saying that as the Jewish High Holy Days approach, the university will “hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the US Supreme Court to protect YU’s religious freedom.”The freeze came two days after the Supreme Court narrowly decided, on a 5-4 vote, not to hear an emergency appeal of a New York state court’s ruling that the university had discriminated against the YU Pride Alliance by refusing to acknowledge it as an officially recognized on-campus group. By refusing to hear the university’s emergency appeal, the high court has allowed the lower court ruling to temporarily stand while the case is litigated on its merits in the courts.Official recognition by the school would have allowed the Pride Alliance to use school facilities as meeting spaces, put up fliers on school bulletin boards advertising its meetings and events, and have a booth set up at the school’s club fair.The student group’s lawyer, Katie Rosenfeld, told The Washington Post the shut-down is “a throwback to 50 years ago when the city of Jackson, Miss., closed all public swimming pools rather than comply with court orders to desegregate.”“The Pride Alliance seeks a safe space on campus, nothing more,” Rosenfeld wrote to The Post.

The Human Rights Campaign has named Kelley Robinson its new president, the organization announced Tuesday.Robinson comes to HRC from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, where she has been executive director since 2019. She is HRC’s ninth president and the first Black queer woman to lead the group — the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organization, with 3 million members and supporters.“I am just honored, humbled, and feel I’m so ready,” Robinson, 36, tells The Advocate.

In a new book, British author and comedian Adam Kay revealed he was raped in a sauna while visiting New Zealand, and that his attacker thanked him after the assault.The former doctor who turned his working diaries into the hit book and television series, This is Going to Hurt, frankly recalled the rape and its emotional aftermath in his latest book, Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients.Kay wrote how he was married, in the closet, and still working as a doctor who did comedy on the side when he received the opportunity to perform his comedy act at a medical conference in New Zealand. While he hoped this would be his breakout comedic performance, he also planned to use the trip to have an extramarital affair with another man before returning home to his wife and a heterosexual life.

(Image via Netflix)

Before we get to the 2022 midterm elections we have to find out who is the best of DC! You nominated and now we have our Top 5 finalists. Vote for your favorites in our 2022 Best of LGBTQ DC categories through October 2nd. Our 2022 Best of LGBTQ DC will be announced at the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards Party on October 20th and our special issue will come out on Friday, October 21st.

Matt Gaetz‘s teen sex scandal is back in the news.A former aide to Donald Trump testified to the January 6 committee that the anti-LGBTQ Florida congressman pestered the ex-president’s camp for a preemptive presidential pardon relating to the Justice Department’s investigation into his alleged underage sex crimes.Washington Post reports:Johnny McEntee, according to people familiar with his testimony, told investigators that Gaetz told him during a brief meeting “that they are launching an investigation into him or that there’s an investigation into him,” without specifying who was investigating Gaetz.McEntee added that Gaetz told him “he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.” Gaetz told McEntee that he had asked White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a pardon.When asked by committee investigators if he interpreted Gaetz’s request to be in response to the DOJ’s investigation into his alleged underage sex crimes, McEntee replied, “I think that was the context, yes.” He also said was couldn’t remember whether the request happened before or after the January 6 insurrection.The Justice Department has been investigating whether Gaetz, who opposes codifying same-sex marriage into federal law and frequently leans into the homophobic narrative about LGBTQ people and drag queens being “groomers”,  paid an underage girl for sex and traveled with her across state lines since the final months of the Trump administration.The probe was initially approved by Attorney General William Barr.Related: Matt Gaetz marks Pride Month by coming out against Drag Queen Story HourIn an email, a spokesperson told the Washington Post:

Reddit's popular "Am I The A**hole" forum where it received more than 9,300 upvotes and 3,500 comments. The post can be found here.The annual tuition for traditional four-year colleges in the U.S.

Suspender domination (GIFs via GIPHY)

Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon has received backlash following the approach to the shows only queer couple.

A drag queen who attended the final show of Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball was mistaken as the star by her security team.

More than two dozen HIV organisations and charities are partnering to hold a march, vigil and rally in order to fight stigma.

Lambda Legal announced that the government will pay $1,325,000 to settle certain Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) claims for attorney’s fees and costs incurred by Lambda Legal, Modern Military Association of America (MMAA) and several private law firms for their work on behalf of three active U.S. military service members living with HIV who were denied commissions or threatened with discharge due to their HIV status. 

The colors of bi-Pride. The bisexual flag was created in 1998 by Michael Page. (Courtesy art)

Audiobook narrator: Erika L. SánchezRelease date: July 12, 2022What it's about: I love when memoirs are read by the author, and Erika narrates her humorous, heartfelt memoir beautifully.

(CNN) -- The Biden administration is largely downplaying President Joe Biden's comments declaring the coronavirus pandemic "over," suggesting his remarks signal a continuation of the White House's evolving stance toward the pandemic over the past few months."The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with Covid.

Thrice-divorced wealth hoarder Elon Musk took to Twitter over the weekend to prove, yet again, that he doesn’t understand anything about trans youth.As the father of a trans daughter, one would hope he’d have educated himself at least a bit, but clearly the “pronouns suck” thinking that pushed her away is here to stay.This latest incident started with right-wing disinformation account “American Accountability Foundation” misinterpreting a section of a Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) research day booklet.They posted this excerpt with a misleading tweet:The @MUSCkids has four year olds coming through its transgender hormone clinic.And hopes: “In the future, hopefully more patients and at younger ages will be referred to affirming providers so that medical options such as pubertal suppression”https://t.co/EXnvgnv8vv pic.twitter.com/UILYvsosbi— American Accountability Foundation (@ExposingBiden) September 16, 2022Musk quickly responded to this with “Is it really true that four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatment?” For the record: Such a claim was made nowhere in the original material.Related: Elon Musk just reminded everyone why his trans daughter wants nothing to do with himBasic fact-checking and/or common sense would lead anyone to understand that no, hormones that aren’t present yet in children can’t be replaced. The richest person alive apparently does not possess such skills.Thankfully, there are plenty of folks who’ve witnessed his weird, transphobic BS long enough to call it out on the spot.Let the dunking commence:No, but now idiots will think it is.

Today is National Voter Registration Day, a chance to unite as a country in our democracy, and around the issues important to LGBTQ people and all Americans.GLAAD polling of LGBTQ voters has consistently shown our top concerns are the same as most Americans: abortion, healthcare, jobs and the economy, and climate change. The lives of LGBTQ people and especially queer people of color are deeply affected by these issues, and they are rooted in values every American cherishes: freedom, health and safety, love for our children, and a desire for a more prosperous future.GLAAD urges the media to include LGBTQ voices in the campaign conversation.

Editor's note: The following contains spoilers about the fifth episode of House of the Dragon, which premiered Sept. 18.(CNN) -- "House of the Dragon's" fifth episode is actually significant for logistical reasons, essentially marking the end of the chapter before the show time jumps ahead, featuring older versions of some characters and somewhat shuffling the deck.Yet the hour could generate as much buzz for a brutal death that occurred, inviting discussion of old concerns and wounds about the way that LGBTQ characters are treated -- and more to the point, killed off -- in TV dramas.The strides made in terms of greater inclusion have coincided with debate about how those characters are portrayed and the fates that they meet, giving rise to a much-discussed trope known as "Bury Your Gays." The phrase refers to a history in which gay characters have disproportionately died as a plot device, creating the impression they are more expendable in the eyes of storytellers.Given that, the "Game of Thrones" prequel potentially waded into controversy with its most recent episode, subtitled "We Light the Way," which again demonstrated, among other things, that in Westeros not much good ever happens at weddings.