The ‘catastrophic masculinity’ of Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro

Vermont has elected a gay man, Michael Pieciak, as state treasurer.Pieciak, a Democrat, bested Republican H. Brooke Paige in the race to replace Beth Pearce, also a Dem, who did not seek reelection.Pieciak will be the first member of the LGBTQ+ community to hold the office. He has held an appointed position as Vermont’s top financial regulator since 2016, and he helped lead the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stage Notes is a weekly aggregate post about theater, classical music and stage news, events, reviews and other pertinent information.

The queens were dealt with a shocking elimination twist on the latest episode of Drag Race UK season four.

Lambda Legal filed a legal challenge Thursday to the U.S. military policy that bars people living with HIV from enlisting in the U.S. Armed Forces.In a news release, the LGBTQ+ rights group said that the policy is discriminatory.“The existing policy is out of step with science and unlawfully excludes people living with HIV from performing as members of the U.S.

Director Joseph Sackett’s body-transfer comedy Homebody screens at Los Angeles’s Laemmle Theaters on November 11, followed by a digital Fandor release on December 6.Premiering at Outfest, where it won the Emerging Talent Award, Homebody went on to screen at NewFest, where Colby Minifie was awarded “Best Performance.”Minifie (The Boys) stars in this genderqueer fantasy, expanded from Joseph Sackett’s 2018 short I Was in Your Blood. In it, young Johnny discovers a YouTube video that teaches him how to send his spirit into the body of Melanie, his beloved babysitter.

Zimbabwe has hit and surpassed a global target for HIV testing and treatment.The country’s Ministry of Health and Child Care confirmed that 95 percent of the HIV-positive population in Zimbabwe has reached undetectable levels of the virus, reports New Ziana. That means these individuals cannot transmit the virus to others.This comes in line with UNAIDS’ 95-95-95 goal, which aims to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.

The expected red wave may have only hit certain parts of the U.S., but a rainbow wave seems to have swept across the country.At least 340 LGBTQ+ candidates won their elections in the 2022 midterms, according to the LGBTQ Victory Institute, an organization that supports queer candidates. The previous record in 2020 saw 336 out candidates win.The organization estimates that around 1,065 LGBTQ+ people ran for office in this election, which is a historical number.

After losing his own congressional seat and helping stop a "red wave," Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney spoke about the historic midterm elections of 2022.Maloney served as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and was tasked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi with keeping the House of Representatives in Democratic hands.

From left: Steve Padilla, Rick Chavez Zbur, and Corey JacksonCalifornia is on track to be the first state in the nation with 10 percent LGBTQ+ representation in its legislature.Depending on the outcome of the state’s election races, some of which are yet to be decided, California will have 12 to 14 out state legislators, including four to six new ones, according to Equality California.Assembly candidate Corey Jackson, in the 60th District, and Senate candidate Steve Padilla, in the 18th District, have won their races, and former Equality California Executive Director Rick Chavez Zbur is on track to win his bid for Assembly in the 51st District. Senate District 20 candidates Caroline Menjivar and Daniel Hertzberg are both members of the LGBTQ+ community, so the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus will gain a member regardless of the outcome in that race.

The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser, is the latest film from director Darren Aronofsky, and A24 has released the official trailer. Fraser plays Charlie, a teacher weighed down figuratively and literally with 600 pounds of guilt.After leaving his family to be in a relationship with his now-deceased gay partner, Fraser’s character attempts to rebuild a relationship with his teenage daughter, played by Sadie Sink from Stranger Things. The story follows Charlie’s struggle with compulsive eating brought on by a grief-triggered deep depression.Hollywood artists constructed a bodysuit for the film that combined latex and physical attributes with digitally created and 3D-printed prosthetics.Fraser’s remarkable transformation and raw emotion throughout the film have earned the actor some Oscar buzz.The film debuted in September at the Venice Film Festival. Audiences reportedly gave the film a six-minute standing ovation, according to CNN.“Do you ever get the feeling people are incapable of not caring?” Fraser asks hauntingly in the trailer as he’s shown with an oxygen nasal cannula and beads of sweat dripping down his face. “People are amazing,” he says as the one-minute-long trailer concludes.In it, viewers only see Fraser briefly twice, but in those two brief moments, he conveys his character’s struggles.The trailer offers a brief glimpse of Sink’s distressed portrayal of Charlie’s 17-year-old daughter.

Nope star Keke Palmer has shed some light on her sexuality and where she falls in the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

From left: Ashley Carrick, Jennie Armstrong, and Andrew GrayAlaska has elected its first out state legislators.Jennie Armstrong, a pansexual woman; and Andrew Gray, a gay man; and Ashley Carrick, a bisexual woman, have won their races for the Alaska House of Representatives. All are Democrats, Armstrong and Gray from Anchorage, Carrick from Fairbanks.Armstrong prevailed over Republican Liz Vazquez in House District 16, while Gray bested two Republicans and a Libertarian in District 20, and Carrick beat two Republicans and a Constitution Party member in District 35.

Jim Obergefell at Black Tie Dinner. (Dallas Voice/file photo)

Nevada is poised to become the first state to broadly amend its constitution to include protections for historically marginalized people.The measure, Question 1, was supported by 57.5 percent of Nevada voters, while 42.5 percent opposed it at the time of publication, with 83 percent of the vote counted.A wide-ranging amendment to the Nevada state constitution that would include antidiscrimination protections covering gender identity and sexual orientation was on the ballot on Tuesday. Voters could adopt or reject the most comprehensive state version of the Equal Rights Amendment.In Nevada’s ERA, equal rights would be guaranteed for all, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or ancestry. Executive Director of Equality Nevada Chris Davin tells The Advocate that he’s pleased with the trajectory of the vote as final numbers start to come together.

NEW YORK/LONDON: With major cryptocurrency exchange FTX on the brink of collapse, some investors are beginning to question the viability of a sector already bruised by the bitcoin bubble bursting and closures of key market players.

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Nikita Dragun, a famous trans influencer and model, was put in a men’s prison after being arrested at a hotel in Miami.

Rosa Lopez

It’s easy to wear a mask, but under the surface, Shane Allen was hiding a struggle with mental health that almost ended his life. Brian and Colman sit down with the 2-time Emmy Award-winning television producer to talk about knowing when to get help and facing the stigma that plagues our community.

The mother of a gay man robbed and killed under suspicious circumstances in New York City earlier this year broke her silence this week, calling out Manhattan’s new district attorney for refusing to prosecute her son’s alleged murderers, a gang suspected of preying on young gay men in Hell’s Kitchen.Linda Clary told The New York Post District Attorney Alvin Bragg is dragging his feet on bringing charges against the suspected killers of her son, John Umberger, 33, of Washington D.C., who was drugged, robbed, and murdered after a night out visiting gay bars in Hell’s Kitchen this past May. The same gang of men is believed responsible for the April death of Brooklyn social worker Julio Ramirez, 25, who also died under suspicious circumstances after being drugged and robbed in the area, and at least dozen more gay men who were also drugged and robbed.“I can’t be quiet anymore. Word needs to get out, especially in the gay community, that they are targeting gay men,” Linda Clary told the Post, later adding, “This same group of killers have drugged, robbed, and murdered countless young gay men in New York.”Umberger was last seen on Saturday, May 28, with three unidentified men on a security camera as they entered an Upper East Side townhouse where he was staying.

(CNN) -- Running in the quiet, in those spaces between footsteps when both feet are in mid-air and flying for a millisecond, Nikki Hiltz figured out their gender identity.Ever since Hiltz ran on the beach barefoot as a child taking part in lifeguard training, running has seeped into almost every part of their life, becoming a career that took them to the world championships.So when all their races were canceled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hiltz organized their own, naming it Pride 5k to create a space for LGBTQ people and to raise money for The Trevor Project — a nonprofit organization providing 24/7 crisis counseling to LGBTQ youth."I was open about my sexuality at that point, but not my gender identity," Hiltz tells CNN Sport."And so I think, deep down, I was just a closeted queer person, trying to make a safe space for people to show up as [themselves] and kind of subconsciously making that space for me to show up as myself."Hiltz says nearly 2,000 people participated from a variety of locations in the first edition of Pride 5k and at least four people used the day to publicly come out as queer, later recording podcasts with Hiltz to share their stories."Something about hearing coming out stories, or just connecting with someone who was hiding something and then got to share it — it just really was the last push I needed to be like: 'OK, I think I'm ready to now come out,'" Hiltz says.And, in what Hiltz calls a "full circle moment," they also publicly came out as transgender on March 31, 2021 — Transgender Day of Visibility — a little less than nine months after that first Pride 5k race."That means I don't identify with the gender I was assigned at birth," they wrote in an Instagram post explaining that they

(CNN) -- Before his death last month, beloved actor Leslie Jordan gifted his best friends a complete home renovation.In one of his final TV appearances set to air on HGTV, Jordan surprises two friends who he credited with helping him break into Hollywood and get sober. With star with renovators Drew and Jonathan Scott, Jordan knocked on the door of Rosemary Alexander and Newell Alexander to tell his friends of 40 years they would be receiving a major upgrade to their home.CNN got a preview look at the episode in which Jordan laughs as the Scotts put him to work, swinging a sledge hammer into walls on demolition day.

ABSOLUT has launched an inspiring new choir made up of activists and changemakers led by Years & Years star Olly Alexander.

Clockwise from top left: Leigh Finke, Zooey Zephyr, Alicia Kozlowski, and SJ Howell. Finke, Zephyr, and Howell courtesy LGBTQ Victory Fund; Kozlowski via Facebook.Minnesota and Montana have elected their first transgender state legislators. Minnesota has also elected its first nonbinary one, and a nonbinary candidate appears headed for victory in Montana as well.Trans woman Leigh Finke was elected to the Minnesota House to represent District 66A, which includes St.

(CNN) – A gun found inside a raw chicken at an airport security checkpoint has the TSA calling “personal fowl.”“The plot chickens,” the Transportation Security Administration posted this week on Instagram after someone at the agency put on their punny pants and called attention to the “baste of time” that is stuffing a bird with a firearm.The passenger was headed to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, according to Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokesperson for the Gulf region.Nestor Iglesias, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the US Department of Homeland Security, said he could not offer additional details because it is an “ongoing criminal case which has been accepted for prosecution.” A record number of guns arrived at TSA checkpoints in Florida in 2022. Passengers have brought more than 700 guns to checkpoints at airports in the state so far this year – a year-to-date number that already surpasses any previous year, according to a TSA news release.Records have been set at 12 Florida airports, with airports in Orlando (129 guns), Fort Lauderdale (120 guns), and Tampa (102 guns) leading the way.Nearly all the guns discovered at checkpoints were loaded, the TSA said, and most had ammunition chambered.“An accidental discharge could result in tragedy,” the TSA's Koshetz said in a statement.

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE: Cryptocurrency markets nursed heavy losses on Thursday (Nov 10), with bitcoin hovering near a two-year low as investors fretted about the fallout from the implosion of crypto exchange FTX, which was seeking new funds to plug a gaping hole in its finances.

Bros stars Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane have revealed that the movie almost had a rimming scene complete with a “$30,000 butt rig”.

Leigh Finke has made history as the first openly transgender legislator elected to the Minnesota House after the 2022 midterm elections.

Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig

JAKARTA: Indonesia plans to move the regulation, supervision and oversight of cryptocurrency investments to the Financial Service Authority (OJK) to better protect investors, its finance minister said on Thursday (Nov 10).

While most of the attention has been on which LGBTQ candidates won their races for seats in the Texas House and which ones, nationwide, were elected or reelected to Congress, The LGBTQ Victory Fund backed 13 more openly-LGBTQ candidates here in Texas. And all 13 of those candidates, save one, were victorious.

South Dakota once again has LGBTQ+ representation in its state legislature.Kameron Nelson, a gay man, won a seat in the South Dakota House from District 10, centered on Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city.In South Dakota, each district elects two representatives and one senator. For the representative seats, he and fellow Democrat Erin Healy bested Republicans John Mogen and Tom Sutton.South Dakota’s previous LGBTQ+ representation came from Angie Buhl O’Donnell, a bisexual woman who was a state senator from 2011 to 2015.

Jennie Armstrong, left, and Andrew Gray

After her Monday arrest at a Miami Beach, Fla., hotel for assaulting a police officer and other lesser charges, social media influencer Nikita Dragun was placed in a men’s prison, according to her publicist."The situation with Nikita, who is legally female, being placed in a men’s unit of a Florida jail is extremely disturbing and dangerous,” her publicist, Jack Ketsoyan of Full Scope Public Relations, said in a statement. “This decision made by the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department directly violates their protocol, which mandates that transgender inmates are classified and housed based on safety needs and gender identity.

One day after the 2022 midterm elections proved that Republcans' efforts to paint LGBTQ+ people as groomers and dangerous to children failed, Tennesee lawmakers doubled down on their anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment by introducing two bills targeting the community.State lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 1 and Senate Bill 3 on Wednesday. SB 1 would prohibit doctors and families from making necessary life-saving healthcare decisions to support transgender youth.

Broadway’s Ain’t No Mo’ producer Lee Daniels announced today that NBA champ Dwyane Wade, actor Gabrielle Union and Drag Race star RuPaul will join the co-producing team of the comedy that begins previews tonight at the Belasco Theatre.

Justin Trudeau is ready for world domination…. Drag edition.The prime minister of Canada will join the upcoming season of Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has won reelection.Nessel, a Democrat and a lesbian, beat Republican challenger Matthew DePerno, a 2020 election denier. As of Wednesday morning, Nessel had 52.4 percent of the vote and DePerno 45.3 percent, the Detroit Free Press reports. The race was expected to be closer.

Tina Kotek has been declared the winner of the Oregon governor’s race, meaning that two states have elected out lesbian governors.The Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper, called the race for Kotek Wednesday morning. Kotek, a Democrat, had been in a close race with Republican Christine Drazan to succeed term-limited Gov. Kate Brown, also a Dem and the nation’s first out bisexual governor.

New York’s third Congressional District has a new gay elected congressman, but the victory is a feather in the cap of Republicans, not Democrats.It was the first time two openly gay congressional candidates faced off in a general election. Republican George Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman and turned the seat from blue to red.Santos is expected to succeed Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for governor last year.He will also become the first openly LGBTQ+ Republican elected to Congress and serving.

Erick Russell, a Black gay man, has been elected Connecticut treasurer, making him the first Black member of the LGBTQ+ community to win a statewide office anywhere in the U.S.Russell, a Democrat, bested Republican Harry Arora as Dems swept Connecticut’s statewide offices. The current treasurer, Shawn Wooden, also a Democrat, did not seek reelection.Russell is a partner in the law firm of Pullman & Comley, working in the practice that deals with public and private finance.

Democratic governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania recently signed a bill into law that makes passing on a communicable disease a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.The new law, known as HB 103, charges a third-degree felony with up to seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines for those who “expel” saliva, blood, or any other bodily fluid on a police officer. The offense must be “intentional,” but that intention is usually left up for debate.The second part of the law charges a second-degree felony if offenders “should have known” they had a communicable disease before they passed it on.

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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, right, and newly-elected Illinois Congressman Eric Sorensen, left

Gerald Lynn Bostock (Photo by Elvert Barnes, extracted from another file via Wiki Commons)

Naomi Ackie in ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ out this December. (Courtesy photo)

Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17

NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) – A New Orleans family is searching for answers after their loved one died under mysterious circumstances in Mexico over the weekend.Cortez Hall was a social studies teacher at KIPP Morial School in New Orleans.“My son was a joyous child,” said Ceola Hall, Hall’s mother. “He loved me, he loved his family. He loved to make everyone laugh.”The students and teachers are heartbroken by the loss of their beloved teacher.