LGBT Is in Business: Inclusion at Work

(CNN) -- George Ward, a star of the British version of RuPaul's Drag Race, has died at the age of 28, according to a statement issued by his family.Ward, who shot to fame on the BBC's RuPaul's Drag Race U.K. under the stage name Cherry Valentine, died on September 18, his family said.In a statement released by his agent, the family said: "It is with the most heart wrenching and deepest sadness to inform you that our George — Cherry Valentine — has tragically passed away."This will come as a profound shock to most people & we understand there is no easy way for this to be announced."As his family, we are still processing his death and our lives will never be the same."The statement continued: "We understand how much he is loved and how many lives he has inspired and touched. All we ask is for your patience and your prayers in this time.

Kitty Scott-Claus opened up about her experience of not fitting in, finding her community and the importance of queer storytellers.

The View yesterday with a joke about Lindsey Graham… before producers made her clarify she was just making a “joke”. She then quipped “Maybe I should never do this show again.”The View hosted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre yesterday.

The Advocate, several parents later complained online about the program, with one saying her daughter felt "duped" into attending an event where she was "proselytized over and prayed over."Brittney Byrant, a biology teacher at Woodlawn High, with a child at the same school, complained about what she claimed were gender-segregated talks for girls and boys.On Facebook she said the girls were addressed by three women, who "talked about rape [and] forgiving the offender, suicide, prayer leadership and many more dark controversial topics. We had females in the bathrooms crying due to the topics of discussion."Byrant claimed her transgender child, who identifies as male, was initially blocked from leaving the "girls talk." She added: "Other students poured water on top of transgender students' heads without any repercussions by any of the adults present."In contrast Bryant said at the event for boys "no topics were discussed," with male students instead taking part in a push-up competition with money as prizes.Speaking to The Advocate Bryant explained why she had spoken out, stating: "I just want to bring to light what happened with the kids and the feelings they had."Alexis Budyach, a Baton Rouge Magnet High senior, also complained about the event on Facebook.She wrote: "The majority of students chose to attend this field trip on the promise of free food and the opportunity to skip class, however, the majority of students were not only disappointed by this event, but traumatized as well."Bonnie Kersch, mother of a girl who attended, said her daughter didn't realize the event would be so religious.

Robert Emery and Cece Cox were resplendent in white as grand marshals of the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, outshining the protesters who showed up

Joan Collins has looked back on her teenage years and the struggles she faced as she tried to come to terms with how her body was changing due to puberty.The legendary actress, 89, admitted she “hated” the changes and wore boys’ clothes to conceal them, before changing her mind about wanting to be a boy when she was "discovered"..Dame Joan said: “I remember going through puberty at 14 and hating the way my body was changing.“I hated everything that was happening,” Joan added to Saga Magazine.“So I rebelled and wore boys clothes. I wore corduroys and scraped my hair back.“I even went to football matches with my father.”However, the film star said being discovered at age 15 shifted her perspective on embracing her femininity.When asked when she changed her mind about wanting to be a male, Joan said: “I think when I went on holiday to France when I was around 15.

Fifteen years after 20-year-old Matthew Leveson walked out of Sydney gay nightclub ARQ and disappeared, never to be seen again alive, his parents have shared an emotional tribute. “Matty, it is fifteen years today that you were murdered and our lives changed forever.  A part of our hearts went with you to heaven,” Faye & Mark Leveson, Mathew’s parents, posted on .Matthew Leveson (right) was last seen on September 23, 2007, leaving ARQ nightclub in Sydney with his then boyfriend Michael Atkins (left).Matthew had walked out of ARQ in Darlinghurst, Sydney, in the early hours of September 23, 2007. CCTV footage showed him leaving the club with his boyfriend Michael Atkins (then 45 years old). On September 25, 2007, Matthew’s parents reported him missing and two days later on September 27, his car was found abandoned at Waratah Park Reserve in Sutherland. Matthew’s parents Faye & Mark Leveson.Matthew’s parents continued their search for their son’s body and in 2015 a coronial inquest into the death was resumed.

Gus Kenworthy photo by Jen Rotstein

Members of the Fairway to Equality board are, standing from left, Cathi Scalise, Sarah Semington, Stacey Meyers, Camille Wallace, De’An Olson Roper, Sara Offringa, Amanda Minkler, and, seated from left, Gregory Pynes, co-chairs Deiadra Burns and Dee Pennington and Clarissa Carter. Not pictured are Sue Wyll, Dan Gueths, Kelli Verla and Linda Reyes Hart. (Photo courtesy of Dee Pennington)

This week marks Banned Books Week, the American Library Association’s annual celebration of the freedom to read. But this year feels more like a call to action than a celebration. Book bans and other attempts at censorship, largely targeting the LGBTQ and other marginalized communities, are raging across the country. Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31 this year, the ALA documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict

The Rev. Kevin Johnson is pastor of All Souls Episcopal Church. (Photo by Matthew Shaw)

Miss LifeWalk final

Director Kenya Barris is promising to heavily feature representation from the LGBTQ+ community in their upcoming Wizard of Oz remake. As of now, there are no details for the release of the highly anticipated film though the Black-ish writer is promising to make this a “modern reimagining” of the original 1939 film. Barris talked about […]

Greyson Chance has revealed he has “never met someone more manipulative, more self-centred, and more blatantly opportunistic” as Ellen DeGeneres.

Voices From Afar depicts five people not born in Ireland but who live here now. They shared their stories with GCN about their new lives in Ireland. These portraits explore themes of homophobia, racism, sexual and mental health and Ireland’s Direct Provision system. Expect intimate, up close, personal and real voices sharing their truths and compelling […]

Netflix has officially announced that Heartstopper season two has begun filming with a promo video of the cast saying hello. The beloved series made its debut on the popular streaming service earlier this year and was an instant hit. Kit Connor and Joe Locke lead the stunning series and have launched themselves right into the […]

It is Bisexual Visibility Day, and to celebrate this special date, we have put together a list of five bisexual celebrities flying the flag for representation! Lili Reinhart View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lili Reinhart (@lilireinhart) The Riverdale star revealed she is “a proud bisexual woman” in an Instagram post in […]

Mpho Tutu van Furth, the daughter of the late Desmond Tutu, has been barred by the Church of England from officiating the funeral of her godfather because she is in a same-sex marriage. During a visit to London last April, Tutu van Furth, an ordained priest in the Anglican church, was asked by Martin Kenyon, […]

The post A League of Their Own shows us that there is more than one way to be queer appeared first on GAY TIMES.

The Football Association (FA) has assured LGBTQ+ fans that they will not face arrest for kissing or holding hands in public at the World Cup in Qatar.

See Change Happen – an initiative that provides equality, diversity and inclusion advice to organisations that specialises in LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming awareness and education.She came up with the idea after hearing colleagues make transphobic comments about someone else. As a transgender person herself, Joanne realised she would also face the same sort of abuse if she came out, and wouldn’t be able to transition in her job comfortably, so she decided to leave her successful career in IT to launch the service. Now, Joanne runs workshops, mentoring sessions and face-to-face consultancy to help businesses become more inclusive for LGBTQ+ staff.

RozeLinks viert op 24 september in Utrecht diens jubileum met een feestelijk programma. Tweede Kamerlid Lisa Westerveld trapt de dag af met een gesprek over acceptatie en gelijke rechten voor LHBTIQ+ personen.

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.

The contributions of LGBTQ people toward the betterment of the world cannot be underestimated, and the world is a better place when LGBTQ people are allowed to flourish. From government and warfare to engineering and science to the humanities and the arts, LGBTQ people have been at the forefront of progress throughout time. History books should be filled with stories of LGBTQ people exhibiting c

(Image via video still)

controversial law, which opened the possibility of medically assisted parenthood to lesbian couples and single women, has been in force since 2021.Until 1 September, the identity of those who provide the biological ingredients necessary for life has been shrouded in anonymity.Now, children born as a result of medical procreation will have the right, if they wish, to know the identities of the donors who made their lives possible.The information about donors – including details of their family and professional situation – will be recorded at the time of the donation, along with a description of their "general state" and physical characteristics.Once the child reaches adulthood, he or she will have access to the information.The law cannot be back-dated, unless there is a specific request from a child and the donors agree.The legal obligations concern only the identity of the donors, not of the child.And under no circumstances can a child born from donated sperm or eggs be obliged to accept a meeting with the donor, though such meetings are not prohibited by the law.Writing in French daily paper Le Monde, the anthropologist Jérôme Courduriès says that the obligation to identify donors is already enforced in Sweden, Australia, Finland and the UK.Instead of the dramatic decline in donations which was predicted by critics of the identity regulations, those four countries have seen an upsurge in the number of donors. Courduriès says the fact they will no longer be anonymous may actually encourage donors.The level of donations in France reached an all-time high last year, with 600 male donors (up from the peak of 404 in 2017), and 900 female donors (up from 2019's 836.)The law will have no impact on the legal status of the

Sex workers aren’t always a part of the conversation in working with the LGBTQ community, but they should be. Sex workers are often targeted, harassed, and assaulted. Brian and Colman sit down with advocate Kevin Chadwin Davis as he discusses his own story in the business.

Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com

Employees of Texas’s child welfare agency were told to avoid written communications and take other steps to maintain secrecy about investigations of parents who allow their transgender children to receive gender-affirming care.The investigations began after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered them in February, based on a nonbinding legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton that allowing kids access to such care is child abuse.

LGBTQ+ youth who have a parent in the military report significantly higher rates of mental health challenges and suicide risk, according to a new research brief by the Trevor Project.The brief, out Wednesday, draws on data from the Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health. Five percent of the youth in the sample reported having a parent currently in the military.Having a parent currently in the military was associated with 17 percent higher odds of recent anxiety symptoms, 14 percent higher odds of seriously considering suicide in the past year, and nearly 40 percent higher odds of attempting suicide in the past year, after controlling for demographic variables.

We for one are sick of the same old tropes in music videos. We need something more exciting, edgier, queerer. No more wide-angle shots of people in the club. No more dancing on top of shipping containers on a construction site. Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of artists who treated us to a fine selection […]

Since the representation of Irish Transgender people is lacking in mainstream media, we’ve decided to list some important figures throughout Irish history. Here are five people who are undeservedly missing from your history books. James Barry James Barry was a surgeon, originally from Cork city, born in 1780. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical […]

With summer coming to a close and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community under attack once again, our community also faces another foe that is less publicized but still extremely dangerous: tobacco companies masquerading as allies in order to addict us to their harmful products and grow their customer base.There’s a well-documented history of tobacco companies targeting Black communities with marketing for menthol cigarettes, causing disastrous public health consequences. Lesser known is the insidious targeting of the LGBTQ+ community, which both harms overall health and contributes to health disparities in our community.According to the latest survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a quarter of lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults use at least one form of tobacco, compared to about 19 percent of straight adults (the CDC survey did not report data for transgender adults).

London.Timothy, who now lives in Ealing, has finally found the freedom to be his true self, but it is clear that his adult life is a stark contrast to his former years.‘Growing up at church, I was told that God didn’t want me this way. He didn’t want me to be gay, so I went to classes to try and be healed,’ he said.While Timothy wants to speak out about the ‘conversion therapy’ he experienced within the church – to help others also struggling with their sexuality – he has decided to withhold details of where his ordeal happened as well as the people involved.But he does confirm it happened ‘nowhere near’ his current home.Timothy recalls his schooldays as a ‘living hell’.After realising he was different from the other boys around him, Timothy, aged 13, decided to come out to a few close friends.But instead of receiving support, as Timothy expected, he was relentlessly bullied by his peers.‘I knew I was different from all the other kids, and I slowly realised I was gay,’ he said.‘I told some people at school when I was 13, and they told everyone, which made my life a living hell.‘I hated school.

ABOVE: Let's go, Brandon ... Walsh!

Editor's note: Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat), a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, is professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She publishes the newsletter Lucid on threats to democracy. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.(CNN) — "Florida is fighting back," Gov.

Welcome to Curtain Call, our mostly queer take on the latest openings on Broadway and beyond.Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper’s Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots returns, this time to Off-Broadway, in a recycled production that attempts to address queer language and perceptions, which have evolved since the show’s 2013 Broadway opening. Unfortunately, sequins, thigh-high boots, and a stellar cast distract from a storyline that confusingly melds trans and drag identities to create a head-scratching premise that turns a failing shoe factory into one that manufactures for niche market “trans dressers.”Related: From Broadway to burlesque, San Francisco’s queer theater scene has it allAfter crossing paths during a street brawl, Lola (Callum Francis), a “heterosexual transvestite with a killer voice and winning ways,” joins forces with Charlie (Christian Douglas), the heir to a failing shoe factory in Northampton, England, to save the business by shifting its production line from standard footwear to products for a different kind of consumer.“If you trans-dressers are all around, like you say, then maybe you’re the niche market we need,” Charlie says to Lola.

New York City gay nightlife entrepreneur Michael J. Cohen is being accused of sexual misconduct by numerous young queer men, NBC News reported Thursday.These include “accusations that he groped or pressured men to have sex or send nude photos, as well as a claim of sexual assault,” according to NBC.

Notorious Arizona Baptist hate preacher Steven Anderson is at it again. The minister banned from Ireland and elsewhere around the world for being too extreme in his homophobic views and who infamously called for an LGBTQ+ holocaust that would wipe out AIDS in weeks has made his latest round of outrageous commentary.Atheism activist Hemant Mehta tweeted a video Wednesday of Anderson seemingly speaking to parishioners assembled to be proselytized about the horrors of homosexuality."These people are going to take you down a dark path!" he begins.In the 40-second-long clip, Anderson gesticulates wildly and in an almost cartoonish way, adjusting his voice's inflection as if to make LGBTQ+ people seem especially vile and nefarious. "You start hanging around with a bunch of faggots and lesbians; you know what they're going to do? They're going to ply you with alcohol or ply you with drugs, and they're going to abuse you.

With support for gays and lesbians on the rise in Poland, the country’s transgender citizens fear they'll be a major target of the right wing ahead of next year’s parliamentary election. The same day in June that Warsaw held its Pride celebration, the chair of the conservative Law and Justice party, Jarosław Kaczyński, met with voters in the nearby town of Włocławek to voice his disdain for trans people, The Guardian reports.“We have elementary knowledge in biology, we know that gender is determined at the level of chromosomes. … In extreme cases, an operation must be performed, but this does not mean that after this operation a man will be a woman and a woman will be a man,” he said.He taunted the crowd, making a point to look at his watch, saying, “It’s now half past 5; before I was a man but now I’m a woman.”Kaczyński has touched on the subject several times since, poking fun at name changes and calling trans people “abnormal.” He also insulted Poland’s first trans member of Parliament, Anna Grodzka.The Polish government has attacked the LGBTQ+ community on several past occasions, with the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, running a successful reelection campaign two years ago based on anti-queer rhetoric.

The Inclusive Faith Coalition of Arlington sent the following letter to Grapevine-Colleyville ISD’s recent actions targeting LGBT students:

Queer, Irish, visual artist Brian Teeling will launch his stunning new work The Drift///Parallax this evening, Thursday, August 25 at the Dean Arts Studios. The triptych of publications explores constructs of masculinity and how they intersect with sexualities, queer working-class identity, and remnants of memory enlarged into a cosmic scale. Using personal archives, the work […]

People protest during a rally calling for more government action to combat the spread of monkeypox at Foley Square on July 21, 2022 in New York City. | Jeenah Moon/Getty Images Opinion by Kody H. Kinsley 08/25/2022 11:26 AM EDT Link CopiedKody H.

Some public health experts are criticizing the federal vaccination strategy for forcing state and local health departments to scale back their vaccine outreach when they should be ramping it up. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo By Megan Messerly and Krista Mahr 08/24/2022 04:30 AM EDT Link CopiedThe Biden administration’s strategy for stretching scarce monkeypox shots is instead leading to fewer vaccinations and could worsen racial health disparities.The federal government last week slashed the number of vials states received in anticipation of each being able to vaccinate up to five people per vial instead of one.But health officials in half a dozen states told POLITICO that they are routinely able to extract only three or four doses per vial, meaning they were able to vaccinate fewer people last week than if the federal government had made no changes at all because of the drastically reduced allocations.These officials have had to scramble to reorganize their vaccination efforts — canceling clinics, rescheduling staff and delaying plans to expand eligibility.And,even though the federal government made more vaccines available for states to order on Monday, states warn that they still do not have enough doses to contain a rapidly spreading outbreak that has infected nearly 16,000people to date as public health experts fear the window of opportunity for stopping the virus’s spread is closing.

Australia’s new defence minister Richard Marles has scrapped his predecessor Peter Dutton’s ban on “woke” events like LGBTQI morning teas organised by Australian Defence Force employees. Dutton, at present the Leader of the Opposition, had brought in the ban in May 2021 after the department held morning teas with staff wearing rainbow clothing to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexphobia and Transphobia. Dutton, then the Defence Minister, had got Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell and Secretary Greg Moriarty  to issue a memo to ban such events. “Defence represents the people of Australia and must at all times be focused on our primary mission to protect Australia’s national security interests. We must not be putting effort into matters that distract from this,” the note read. A new note issued by Campbell and Moriarty on August 23, overturned the ban on the direction of deputy prime minister and defence minister Marles, reported The Australian.  “Each year we recognise events of significance and importance.

We know what you’re thinking. “I’ve barely recovered from last weekend, and you’re bringing up queer nights on Friday already?!”. And yes, that’s exactly what we’re doing because you need to be prepared for what this Friday has in store for you. Not one, not two, but three nights dedicated to the queer community are […]

Christian schools in Western Australia are sounding the alarm against the state government’s plans to make changes to the Equal Opportunity Act and introduce law reforms to protect LGBTQI students in religious schools. The Australian Association of Christian Schools claimed that they may be forced to shut down their institutions in WA if the government’s proposals become law. In other words, the association is claiming they would rather shut down than protect LGBTQI students from discrimination. Last week, Western Australian Attorney General, John Quigley said that the government broadly accepted the 163 recommendations by the Law Reform Commission after its review of the Equal Opportunity Act. ACCS claimed that the recommendations “fail to protect religious freedom… (and) traditional views on sexual and gender expression.”The peak body for Christian schools said that the law reforms would “impact the way Christian schools employ staff and enrol students, making it difficult for schools to employ staff and preference families in enrolment who share the beliefs of the school.” “Unless the Government pushes back against some of these recommendations, it will be very difficult to operate a Christian school according to Christian principles and beliefs once they become law,” ACCS Executive Officer Vanessa Cheng said in a statement. ACCS has asked its members to send a message to their respective political representatives opposing the law reforms.

The Bookshop Darlinghurst, Australia’s oldest LGBTQI bookstore, turns 40 this month.In recent years, The Bookshop has weathered the impacts of COVID, economic and political uncertainty and inclement weather, and for a while its future was precarious.