Pet of the week • 08-26-22

The auction will feature many items from celebrities, including (from left) Billy Porter, Shangela, and Billie Jean King.Now through Sunday, nonprofit organization Pride and Less Prejudice is holding its second annual #BannedTogether virtual auction to raise $10,000 to send 800 LGBTQ-inclusive books to elementary schools across the U.S. and Canada.The auction features items and experiences donated by a star-studded group ,including actor Leslie Jordan, actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, actor Billy Porter, actor Chris Colfer, drag queen Shangela, actress Lea DeLaria, drag queen Brooke Lynn Hytes, actress Elvira, author ALOK, drag queen Latrice Royale, comedian Hannah Hart, actress Emily Hampshire, actress Jennifer Beals, comedian Hannah Gadsby, musical duo Tegan & Sara, actress Nicole Maines, comedian Cameron Esposito, actress Kat Barrell, actor Carson Kressley, actress Natasha Negovanlis, tennis legend Billie Jean King, singer Melissa Etheridge, singer Rufus Wainwright, singer Mary Lambert, author Desmond Is Amazing, and musical duo A Great Big World. Founded in November 2019, Pride and Less Prejudice sends free LGBTQ-inclusive books to pre-K through third grade classrooms in order to foster LGBTQ+ acceptance.

Back in the day, if you were gay, there was basically no way to meet or dialogue with other gay men unless you went to a gay bar. There was a time in the beginning when I was petrified to walk into a gay bar. I was sure that someone was outside ready to take a picture of me and send it to the congressman I worked for.

is a mascot—one with a rather unfortunate name: La Bussí.Back in Spain, the character’s strange design has been met with confusion and derision. On the internet, however, La Bussí is already being embraced by the gays, and it’s all thanks to that name.The stanning began earlier today when La Bussí’s dancing debut on Sabadell’s TikTok made its way to Twitter.

Patrick Church (he/him), famous for his visual art and risqué clothing designs has announced the launch of a new alcohol company. GAYBOY Sparkling Rosé will be available exclusively on Church’s Website beginning September 23, 2022.   A post shared by patrick church (@patrickchurchny)The name of the brand is partly inspired by Church’s ‘Dance Gayboy Dance for Champagne’ print, which features on his swimwear. Church states that it was his swimwear that inspired him and his husband Adriel to launch the company.

Kayla Lemieux, a manufacturing technology teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School in Ontario, Canada, recently made headlines after she was pictured teaching a class while wearing massive prosthetic breasts. Kayla, formerly known as Stephen Hanna, is said to have started transitioning to a female last year.READ MORE: Astrid Wett shocks Amazon delivery driver by answering door in racy cowgirl outfitThe images quickly went viral, with some people criticising the school.Now, controversial Fox News host Tucker Carlson has weighed in on the debate.In a segment on the US channel on Monday (September 19), he compared the prosthetics to Japanese "Exploding Milk Porn".

We’re only a day into fall, but that means it’s officially calendar season, and these thirsty farming enthusiasts are already harvesting their crops.Related: More European redheads sizzle in one of world’s sexiest calendarsThe Irish Farmer Calendar 2023 is here and undeniably queer. This marks the 13th installment of the popular timetable.It features “hunks of agricultural charm” hailing from Offaly, Mayo, Dublin, Wicklow and Kilkenny, along with their four-legged friends.

The gay romantic comedy Bros, the first such film to be backed by a major studio, will not be released in the Middle East.“It’s still unclear exactly what markets in the region will be affected, but it’s likely to include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Kuwait — all of which are notorious for censoring movies over even the slightest hint of LGBTQ themes or content,” according to Variety, which was the first to report the story.LGBTQ-inclusive films that have been banned in the region include Onward and the recent release Lightyear — both of which have queer characters. Marvel's The Eternals was banned in some countries in the region for showing the studio's first same-gender couple. Other films have had affectionate same-sex scenes cut for the market.Bros tells the story of two New Yorkers, played by Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane, beginning a romance.

“Sparks” singer Hilary Duff re-established herself as a pioneer of the queer rights movement yet again this week.Pentatonix member Scott Hoying and his fiancé teamed up with the star to recreate an enduring public service announcement from 2008. In it, Duff confronts two girls in a shop for using the word “gay” derogatorily.The fact that she read the girls down in the process just added to the magic of it all.This new recreation really takes us right back to ’08:In the words of Derrick Berry, “That was fighting for gay rights.

A Louisiana judge dismissed a lawsuit filed last month by a librarian over criticism she received for supporting the inclusion of LGBTQ-related books in a library.Amanda Jones, a middle school librarian and the president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, from Denham Springs, La., filed the lawsuit against two men, Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames, after she claims they publicly attacked her opposing censorship and “book policing," The Hill reports.Although conservative group Citizens for a New Louisiana, ran by Lunsford according to the suit, published a series of online criticisms of Jones, the judge ruled that their statements were only opinions. The judge indicated that the level the offending commentary would have to rise was very high because the plaintiff was somewhat of a public figure.On July 19, Jones spoke at the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting after a board member requested that the board review inappropriate books.

At its most powerful, literature creates empathy, a vital spark to help us feel and understand the experiences of others distant from our own. We are able to grasp their joy, pain, or sorrow.

When he was an undergrad at Harvard, author and historian Eric Cervini’s first encounter with queer history surprisingly did not come from a book. “I watched the film Milk about Harvey Milk, and I was shocked that I knew nothing about this story,” Cervini says. “That’s where my interest in queer history began.”Cervini earned his Ph.D.

Pride is the commemoration of the Stonewall’s queers publicly pwning the NYPD, Folsom stems from confronting draconian authority. Folsom Street and San Francisco’s fetish community was first entwined in 1966 with the opening of Febe’s, the thoroughfare’s first leather bar. By the late ’70s, Folsom had developed its own “Miracle Mile” strip, which featured over 30 gay bars, shops, and bathhouses, cementing it as the epicenter of SF’s leather community.

Chrissy Judy is a tale of friendship that should hit close to home for many: A pair of besties have spent so much time together that they’re practically co-dependent. But what happens when life and love get in the way?In this case, the BFFs are—you guessed it—Chrissy and Judy, two thirty-something gay New Yorkers who moonlight as a successful (yet under-appreciated, by their account) drag cabaret duo.Writer/director Todd Flaherty plays Judy, the duo’s requisite “messy Judy” who always manages to get tangled up in drama.

that’s so gay? more like that’s so SLAY (of hilary duff) #Pride2022

LONDON — The daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu had wanted to honor her godfather’s personal wish: that she officiate his funeral in England after he died last week. But the Church of England stopped the Rev. Mpho Tutu van Furth, a priest ordained in the United States, from doing so this week because she is married to a woman, she said.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor RuPaul and the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” judges raised more than $250,000 for Extraordinary Families on Thursday night at an event in Hancock Park. Michelle Visage, Ross Mathews, Carson Kressley and Jeffrey Bower Chapman co-hosted the celebration for the adoption and foster agency that works with LGBTQ+ parents and kids. World of Wonder co-founder, Drag Race producer and co-host for the night Fenton Bailey announced $250,00 and counting had been donated. Extraordinary Families CEO Barnaby Murff thanked Bailey, who is also on the organization’s board and has two adopted children with his filmmaker husband Billy Luther.

Dame Joan Collins has revealed that she wanted to be a boy when she started going through puberty at the age of 14. The star first made a splash in Hollywood in glamorous roles in the 1950s in films like Land of the Pharaohs, The Opposite Sex and Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys!. However, she has now shared that she ‘hated’ all the changes she saw in her body as a young teenager and so opted to ‘rebel’ and wear boys’ clothes instead.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville is under attack for the gender-affirming care it provides to young people, and now Tennessee lawmakers are calling for restrictions on such care.It all started with a podcast and social media posts this week by right-wing blogger Matt Walsh. He shared video of a doctor at Vanderbilt calling gender-affirming surgeries a “big moneymaker” and another of a professor saying there would be “consequences” if hospital personnel object to participating in the procedures.However, the doctor, Shayne Taylor, “does not refer to children in the video clip Walsh posted, which did not appear to contain her full remarks,” Tennessee Lookout notes.

Cynthia Erivo is opening up about her coming out experience and why she came out later in life.

Harper’s Bazaar that investors kept pushing for a NSFW LGBTQ story, instead of a plot about a killer on the run.She told the publication how backers demanded “a hot lesbian movie with me and Christina Ricci” — however, that is not what the Patty Jenkins-directed “Monster” turned out to be.“There’s a natural fight in me to want to create environments that feel like the things that I wish I had 30 years ago when I started,” Theron said. The “Old Guard” actress also discussed her struggles with costumes during movie shoots.“Having absolutely no control over what you’re wearing is a big one that really f – – king annoyed me for years. Having some guy make you have a fitting almost in front of them — stuff like that, it’s really belittling,” Theron noted.She then described an incident on set involving a director who kept wanting her to change her clothes.“When I started, there was no conversation around it.

Nova, a popular primetime science series on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), is set to release the ambitious documentary Ending HIV in America.The doc chronicles the journey of the HIV epidemic in America over the last 40 years with a highlight on the activism and community commitment that’s helped slow the spread. San Francisco and Birmingham, Ala., serve as at the centers of the one-hour special, as they are two of the cities that represent the real-world challenges of getting treatment to the people who need it most.“HIV is a uniquely challenging virus to fight, and the scientific journey over the last four decades has been a dramatic rollercoaster filled with hope and frustration and some truly remarkable discoveries,” Nova co-executive producer Julia Cort said in a statement. As scientific efforts continue to advance, they gradually uncover more of the secrets of the virus’s mutation.

RuPaul’s Drag Race. And it’s been almost a year since the last time BuzzFeed spoke with this Legendary Legend, who at the time was about to release her memoir, My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska?: A Memoir, and was preparing to go on her first solo tour at the beginning of this year. Unfortunately, Omicron had other plans, and Alaska was forced to postpone her tour. However, Alaska has kept busy over the last year; aside from continuing to co-host her podcasts, she also co-launched MOM Plus, a subscription service for her and Willam’s Moguls of Media podcasting company, released the AAA Girls documentary, Access All Areas, held a series of pop diva-themed shows at Brooklyn’s 3 Dollar Bill, and held her annual The Drag Queen of the Year Pageant Competition Awards Contest Competition pageant.

The race for U.S. Senate in Florida is a dead heat.A new poll finds pro-LGBTQ Democrat Val Demings is just 2 points behind anti-LGBTQ incumbant Marco Rubio, with a 4.5% margin of error.The Civiqs poll, released yesterday, found 49% of likely Florida voters expressed support for Rubio, compared to 47% who support Demings.When it comes to favorably, 41% of likely voters said they viewed Rubio in a favorable light, compared to 51% who viewed him unfavorably.

Billy Eichner’s “Bros” will be making history upon its release as the first R-rated gay rom-com ever made by a major studio, but that historical record certainly won’t include the Middle East. The Universal movie, which hits the U.S. box office on Sept. 30, is set to roll out across most international markets in October and November, but is pre-emptively skipping any kind of release in Middle East markets due to cultural and commercial reasons, sources close to the studio tell Variety. It’s still unclear exactly what markets in the region will be affected, but it’s likely to include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Kuwait — all of which are notorious for censoring movies over even the slightest hint of LGBTQ themes or content.

Marketing researchers Alexander Davidson of Wayne State University and Mark R. Gleim of  Auburn University recently reviewed listings of rentals in the U.S.

A new study has found bisexuals reported experiencing less workplace discrimination than their gay and lesbian counterparts, although the findings suggest the disparity may be the result of fewer bisexuals being out at work.The report from the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, entitled “The Role of Sexual Orientation and Gender in Workplace Experiences of Cisgender LGB Employees” surveyed 935 LGB adults about their workplace experiences.The key findings of the report showed that significantly fewer bisexuals were out to their supervisors or coworkers than gays and lesbians. Only 36 percent of cisgender bisexual employees reported being out to their supervisors and only 19 percent reported being out to all their coworkers.

As attacks on hospitals across the country providing gender-affirming care services to trans children increases, with the latest target being a hospital in Ohio, far-right Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson is adding fuel to the fire.During a segment on his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, on Wednesday, Carlson, who has often made anti-LGBTQ+ comments, attacked hospitals providing gender-affirming health care to transgender young people. Carlson said that being transgender is a fad, and he repeatedly claimed that gender-affirming medicine harms children and called it a “crime.” He also described being transgender as a “fad.”Following a series of tweets from right-wing extremist influencer Matt Walsh accusing Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee of opening its gender-affirming care division for financial gain, Carlson joined online trolls in targeting the facility. As a result, the hospital received an influx of hate and vitriol, leading to its having to shut down its website, as the Daily Beast reported.Carlson directs his viewers to engage in threatening behavior with a wink and a nod.In what experts describe as an example of stochastic terrorism tactics, Carlson said on his program that hospital employees were criminals who shouldn’t be surprised they “are receiving threatening phone calls.” As the latest attack on children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care, right-wing social media accounts have targeted Akron Children’s Hospital, the Akron Beacon Journal reports.In August, right-wing bloggers, news outlets, and social media accounts targeted Boston Children’s Hospital, which runs what was the first transgender health program in the country. A Massachusetts woman was arrested last week for allegedly

Editor's note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 5.As part of our new ritual, my boyfriend and I tuned in to watch House of the Dragon this past Sunday, along with about  29 million other viewers. We both let out a collective “aww” when, halfway through the episode, the show introduced its first queer storyline.

Yes, that is right, I am going to be a guest on A.S.S. — The Adam Sank Show!

The daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu van Furth and her wife, Marceline

above] comes from 1980.Jordan, 66 captioned the pic on Instagram, “I just called 1980 and told it I wanted my 6-pack back — except in those days I was drinking and I’m afraid they’ll think I want beer.”The photo shows a shirtless, hairy, and rugged-looking Jordan, leaning against a car. If it was taken in 1980, he would have been around 24 or 25.Related: Leslie Jordan just schooled T.I. on his homophobia and it went surprisingly wellAmong those to comment was fellow actor Octavia Spencer, who said, “If they call u back text me.

No, Maroon 5 hasn’t put out any new music, but frontman Adam Levine is definitely trending.The musician has landed himself in an off-key controversy after his DMs started to leak this week. In the messages, Levine, who has been married to model Behati Prinsloo since 2014, gets more-than-flirty with other women.Related: Multiple leaks suggest one of the world’s biggest gay icons will soon make her video game debutInstagram model Sumner Stroh kicked off the accusations by saying she’d had an affair with Levine when she was “young” and “naïve.” In a TikTok video, Stroh shared snippets of their conversations, which began when Levine reached out to ask her if he could name his new baby “Sumner”:embarrassed I was involved w a man with this utter lack of remorse and respect.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on Monday reiterated his government does not support LGBTQ and intersex rights.

To the Editor: Re “Court Lifts Hold on Sensitive Files at Trump’s Estate” (front page, Sept. 22): Perhaps we made a mistake not electing Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. He just revealed that he could declassify top-secret documents by just “thinking about it.” Just imagine all that could have been accomplished by having Mr.

Drag Race UK’s fourth season kicked off with a bang this week and fans are already declaring it to have “one of the strongest casts” in herstory.

Saga Magazine. "I hated everything that was happening. So I rebelled and wore boys clothes.

‘Before We Were Trans’By Kit Heyamc.2022, Seal Press$30/352 pages

‘Hamilton’Through Oct. 9The Kennedy Center Opera House2700 F St., N.W.$59–$399Kennedy-center.org

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and two leaders of the White House monkeypox response team joined officials with the D.C. Department of Health on Thursday for a visit to D.C.’s recently opened Monkeypox Vaccine Clinic on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E. in Ward 8.

‘Tagg is a form of resistance,’ says editor Eboné Bell. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Billy Porter arrives at the 75th annual Tony Awards this past June at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

It’s been a truly terrible week for the Trumps.Between the ongoing federal investigation into confidential documents seized from Mar-a-Lago by FBI agents and New York Attorney General Laticia James filing a $250 million civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, everyone in the Trump klan is more than a little screwed.Everyone except for Tiffany, that is.While her father and older siblings likely spend every waking minute on the phone with lawyers, Donald Trump‘s least favorite daughter is reportedly drinking her water, going about her business, and blissfully planning her upcoming wedding.She Knows reports:With Donald Trump and his three eldest children being sued for $250 million by New State Attorney General Letitia James for business fraud, Tiffany’s focus is her wedding to Michael Boulos at Mar-a-Lago on November 12. Even though the couple got engaged at the White House on her father’s last day in office, Tiffany’s relationship with Donald Trump was often tense.

RuPaul and Michelle Visage have written heartfelt tributes to Drag Race UK star Cherry Valentine, who passed away aged 28.

The post Exclusive: Just May reveals why it was her goal “to leave first” on Drag Race UK appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Related: Dolly Parton reveals who she’d like to play her in a biopicThe collection includes accessories and apparel, and even a blonde wig inspired by the style Dolly herself is famed for wearing.“’Puppy Love’ was my very first record and 6 decades later, my love for pets is stronger than ever,” Parton said in a promo video.“This inspired me to start my own line of Doggy Parton apparel, accessories, toys and more with a little ‘Dolly’ flair. Part of the proceeds will support Willa B Farms, a rescue where animals in need find never-ending love.

Meet Ken, a good guy who is patiently waiting for a forever home. He is a domestic shorthair mix weighing 9 pounds and covered with striped gray fur. Ken is a chill dude, friendly but not a silly, hyperactive kitten. He is a pretty careful guy and it may take a bit for him to warm up to new folks. He enjoys a calm and serene environment, and while he is open to sharing a home with children, he prefers to meet any under the age of 12 before an adoption takes place. He also wants to have another friendly cat waiting for him to help him adjust to the new digs. Ken is housed at the Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center, so no appointment is necessary for you to come and introduce yourself to him.

ABOVE: Start spreadin' the news ...

When student writers at Northwest High in Grand Island, Nebraska were putting together their end-of-year issue back in May, they never could’ve imagined that it would be the school’s last.In celebration of Pride Month, the Viking Saga paper featured the writers’ pronouns, as well as a couple of queer-focused student editorials and a “Pride and Prejudice: LGBTQIAP+” article.One quick decision from the local school board later, and the publication’s 54-year-old history was abruptly ended.Northwest Public Schools board Vice President Zach Mader attempted to explain away the situation to the Grand Island Independent, saying, “I do think there have been talks of doing away with our newspaper if we were not going to be able to control content that we saw (as) inappropriate.”“The very last issue that came out this year, there was… a little bit of hostility amongst some,” he cautiously says. “There were editorials that were essentially, I guess what I would say, LGBTQ.”“There (were) some things that were… If (taxpayers) read that (issue), they would have been like, ‘Holy cow.