Tom Daley dives into homophobia in the Commonwealth in new documentary

Elton John and Britney Spears have released a new song, “Hold Me Closer.” The duet is Spears’ first single in six years and her first music since being released from a conservatorship this past November.

New Kids On The Block singer Jonathan Knight revealed him and his long-term boyfriend Harley Rodriguez are married.

Britney Spears and Elton John have finally released their duet, Hold Me Closer.

From comedy to kink and quiet contemplation, Melbourne has got it all! Welcome to our pick of queer events that you can check out this week in Melbourne. Image: Pride Of Footscray BarIf there’s one thing us queers know how to do, it’s laugh. With Geraldine Hickey to MC, check out the best of Melbourne’s up and coming queer comedic talent at this classic LGBTQIA+ friendly venue, ‘Pride of Our Footscray’.

Monkeypox cases are declining in New York City and globally as more people get vaccinated and as they change their sexual behavior in response to the outbreak, health officials said this week. New York City on Thursday reported that 2,885 monkeypox cases had been identified in the city since the first case in the city was identified in May. In mid-August, about 50 new monkeypox cases were being detected each day, a drop from the 70 or so new daily cases emerging in late July and early August, according to city data.

A bid by LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham for Hong Kong to recognise overseas same-sex marriages has been denied in court.

Phoebe Bridgers has landed a role an ensemble role in A24’s upcoming horror film I Saw the TV Glow.

The Texas church responsible for staging the unauthorised version of Hamilton has apologised and agreed to pay damages.

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New independent research from Just Like Us has found that LGBTQ+ adults are half as likely to have “fond memories” of their time at school, and 36% were bullied. 

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Heartstopper star Sebastian Croft has landed a lead role in the upcoming teen rom-com How To Date Billy Walsh.

Not Speaking in Metaphor, described as “part-punk, part-heartbreak, part-dance mix — inspired by unexpected breakups, depression cycles, and a few questionable decisions.”Also on the bill is Boy Meets Pearl, a “carousel punk quartet” led by multi-instrumentalists Christian Crowley and Sea Griffin, the latter of whom you may also know as the wildly imaginative drag act Lucretia Blozia. (Crowley and Griffin also occasionally perform in The Diane Scream Show, billed as “the DMV’s only Diane Rehm-themed Talking Heads tribute band.”)Styled as a kind of nontraditional carnival funhouse act, Boy Meets Pearl performs rather eccentrically themed original songs — exploring, among other things, “time rifts, conjoined twins, tiger sharks, and the meaning of life” — with truly eccentric instrumentation, including “accordion, glockenspiel, autoharp, Chapman stick, trumpet, baritone saxophone, cajon, cello, and violin.”For this special evening event, the café and bookstore, which normally closes daily at 2:30 p.m., will be open for business.Saturday, Aug.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire star Jena Malone has come out as pansexual in a heartwarming statement.

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.

Edinburgh Fringe – he’s well and truly an open book.Do not be deceived by the name of his show, Straight Jokes. If anything, it’s the opposite of what that title might suggest, as James opens up about his own harrowing experiences as a queer person, but is able to see them through a humorous lens and make light of them in a bid to have the last laugh.James graces the stage with charm and confidence, but he’s under no illusion that watching a newbie comedian perform can be awkward for audience members.

Jena Malone revealed the range of emotions she experienced after coming out as pansexual and polyamorous.The Hunger Games star, 37, shared that it 'felt so nice,' though she hinted at regret at not doing it sooner. 'I feel like I’m a little bit late to the game in being able to have less shame,' she said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. It comes after she revealed that she felt like 'a heterosexual man in a woman’s body' in a lengthy Instagram post on Saturday.  Identity: Jena Malone revealed the range of emotions she experienced after coming out as pansexual and polyamorous on Saturday; Pictured August 22, 2022'The sexual journey is so beautiful.

Internalized transphobia case study Caitlyn Jenner is a decorated former decathlete. After her latest eye-rolling Fox News segment, it’s clear that her true sporting talent is mental gymnastics.The former Olympian has been very vocal on her opposition to trans women (or as she calls them, “biological boys”) in athletics.

Dear Plus reader,As a Latina born and raised in East L.A. (yes, just like the movie), I am very proud to present Plus magazine’s annual Latinx issue — in both English and Español. HIV has disproportionately affected our community since the epidemic’s beginnings in the early 1980s.

Violet Chachki has finally opened up about “stealing” Sharon Needles Drag Race crown in a new interview.

A transgender man was shot to death by police in McLean, Va., in July, and his family is saying there was no justification for the killing.Jasper Aaron Lynch, 26, was having a mental health crisis when police were called to his home the evening of July 7, The Washington Post reports. Lynch, who went by Aaron, lived with his sister and parents in McLean, a D.C. suburb.

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.

From left: Gov. Brian Kemp, Rep. Sam Park, and Sen.

Earlier this month, the collective Internet lost it over a TikTok of actor/musician Ross Lynch singing with his band, The Driver Era, at a recent live show. But get this: He was shirtless!“Singing while shirtless?,” you might exclaim.

Jena Malone is celebrating her decision to come out! Last weekend, the 37-year-old actress announced on Instagram that she identifies as pansexual. In a post that featured her dancing, she made the announcement to her over 300,000 followers. In an interview with, the actress shared why she felt it was the best time to come out.  “It felt so nice.

Professional cricketer Ben Stokes made international headlines in 2018 after he was arrested for defending a gay couple being attacked outside a Bristol nightclub. Now, in the new documentary Phoenix From The Ashes, he addresses that incident for the first time since it happened.The brawl took place outside the Mbargo nightclub in the early morning hours of September 25, 2018. Stokes and his teammate, Alex Hales, were out celebrating their team’s win over the West Indies earlier that day.“Nothing good happens after midnight,” he explains in the doc.

The cast of Garland Civic Theatre’s ‘Carnival!’ (Courtesy photo)

HELP Center for LGBT Health and Wellness has “secured a limited number of doses” on the monkeypox vaccine, and will be following the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations for administering the vaccine to high-risk individuals at upcoming Saturday clinics at HELP’s two locations — 1919 8th Ave. in Fort Worth and 602 S. St. in Arlington — on Aug. 27 and Sept. 10. There will also be limited availability on weekdays at both clinics.

When it comes to this homophobic church’s unauthorized Hamilton adaptation, the show must not go on.The word “adaptation” is pretty generous, actually. The Door church in McAllen, Texas decide to put on a full stage production of the founding father musical, but jerry-rigged a storyline of the titular character gradually accepting Jesus in there.Folks on social media caught wind, and the hilariously embarrassing clips of what they dubbed as “Scamilton” blew up.

RuPaul may have legions of squirrel friends, but Mark Longo is more than content with just one.The New York-based engineer has become an unlikely TikTok sensation by documenting his unique relationship with Peanut the squirrel, though some fans appear to be scratching multiple itches as they follow the duo’s exploits.As one gay fan put it in the comments, “Come for the nuts, stay for the meat.”We don’t know how Longo identifies, but he doesn’t appear to mind the attention.Sadly, this “squirrel dad” initially bonded with Peanut under unfortunate circumstances. Longo witnessed the squirrel’s mom get hit by a car, leaving baby Peanut orphaned.

A series of leaked videos of prominent men engaging in same-sex relations has led to a widespread homophobic backlash in the Maldives, and real danger for the men involved.While it markets itself as an idyllic honeymoon destination for gay couples, the island country in the north-central Indian Ocean does not extend the same acceptance towards LGBTQ residents. Homosexuality there is still illegal, with penalties that can include years in prison and lashings.The videos were recorded by M.D.

Hulu and Spyglass Media have shared a sneak peek of Jamie Clayton as Pinhead in the upcoming Hellraiser film.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday legislation seeking to codify same-sex marriage, left by the Senate as unfinished business before adjourning for August recess, continues to be “incredibly important” to President Biden.

In March of 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) — a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution aimed at preventing discrimination on the basis of sex — passed the U.S.

A transgender student from Peru has died in police custody in Bali after being arrested at Denpasar airport. Rodrigo Ventocilla, 32, was detained August 6 while going through customs after agents searched his luggage and found what they deemed to be “suspicious items,” the BBC reports. He died August 11, having been hospitalized two days earlier for severe vomiting.Ventocilla was a prominent transgender rights activist and a founder of the Peruvian advocacy group Diversidades Trans Masculinas.

Providing gender-affirming care via telemedicine, a Colorado-based health-tech start-up founded by a transgender doctor has raised millions of dollars in investor funding. Denver's Plume has raised $24 million in series B, or second round, funding to expand its virtual platform to transgender patients across the country.For $99, Plume allows users to use its platform.

Idaho Capital Sun.In 2017, two transgender women, F.V. and Dani Martin, two transgender women who are native-born Idahoans, sued over the state’s refusal to allow them to change the sex on their birth certificate to match their gender identity.In March 2018, Magistrate Judge Candy Dale, of the U.S.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — In a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction blocking enforcement of Arkansas’ ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender adolescents. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four transgender youths, their parents and two Arkansas doctors.

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.

Capping a three-week conflict that attracted national media attention, the creators of “Hamilton” said they will donate monetary damages collected from a Texas church that performed an unauthorized production of the acclaimed Broadway musical and altered it with the addition of homophobic content. 

It hasn’t been a good week for Kristi Noem.A South Dakota ethics board just determined there is “sufficient evidence” to suggest the vehemently anti-LGBTQ governor “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened to get her slacker daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license approved in 2020 after it was initially rejected because she hadn’t completed the required training.Related: Gay-hating Gov. Kristi Noem just got a double dose of bad newsAfter denying Noem’s motions to dismiss the ethics complaint earlier this month, South Dakota’s Government Accountability Board unanimously voted on Monday that “appropriate action” could be taken against her for her alleged bad behavior, although it didn’t say what exactly that action should be.Now, the ball is in Noem’s court.The AP reports:The state’s Government Accountability Board appears to be letting Noem decide whether to defend herself in a public hearing or simply accept an “appropriate action” that the board hasn’t detailed.

British diver Tom Daley delivered a powerful statement on the eve of the Commonwealth Games night, advocating for LGBTQI+ rights while protesting against the 35 countries under the Commonwealth where being part of the queer community is currently illegal. The Olympic champion played a key role in the ceremony, as the first athlete to carry the Queen’s Baton and was met with other athletes and activists who waved Pride Progress flags, raising awareness of the member states under the Commonwealth which criminalise same-sex relations. Pride House Birmingham (PHB) co-founder Lou Englefield spoke to ABC sport stating that there are currently “more countries in the Commonwealth that criminalise homosexuality than don’t.” Though Daley had decided not to compete at Birmingham 2022, he has been a strong advocate for LGBTQI+ rights in the past, drawing attention to the persecution of queer individuals after winning his 10 metres synchro event at the Gold Coast in 2018. These laws are a legacy of colonialism. This opening ceremony for us is about showing LGBTQ+ visibility to the billion people watching.” The opening of Pride House Birmingham has been projected to have the biggest presence to date by a Pride House at a Commonwealth Games. Pride Houses are venues dedicated to diversity, culture and LGBTQI+ inclusion at major sporting events where visitors are encouraged to enjoy performances, talks and activities in addition to opportunities to view live sports.

Tom Daley wore rainbow colors to protest the anti-LGBTQ+ views and laws found in some throughout the British Commonwealth at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Birmingham on Thursday. Daley, 28, entered the stadium with a group of LGBTQ+ rights activists from several Commonwealth countries carrying Pride flags.Starting in 1930, the Commonwealth Games is a worldwide multi-sport competition with athletes that come from 56 countries that were primarily former British colonies. However, the games have been widely criticized for the criminalization of the LGBTQ+ community that occurs in 35 of the countries competing.

Tom Daley showed his support for LGBTQ+ people living in countries that still criminalise homosexuality during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Thursday (28 July).

Tom Daley will front a new BBC documentary next month shining a spotlight on the widespread homophobia still present across Commonwealth countries.

Katie Sadleir, CEO of The Commonwealth Games Federation has announced that countries which criminalise homosexuality are less likely to host the Games in the future.