Anti-LGBTQ+ billboards pop up in rural Ohio. Communities are immediately pushing back.
This article was originally published by The Buckeye Flame, an independent nonprofit newsroom covering LGBTQ+ communities across Ohio. Republished with permission. Billboard advertisements from a Seattle-based organization called Them Before Us popped up across rural Ohio as part of its campaign against LGBTQ+ families. The billboard reads, “No child has two dads. No child has…
Matt Skallerud has watched LGBTQ+ travel grow up—Here’s what comes next
LGBTQ+ travel has matured into a $300 billion market, but the industry is entering a new era where safety, authenticity and community matter more than rainbow marketing. Matt Skallerud has spent decades tracking the evolution of LGBTQ+ media, marketing and travel. He founded GayWired.com, one of the leading LGBTQ+ websites of the early internet era,…
LGBTQ+ organizations and advocates respond to SCOTUS trans sports ruling
LGBTQ+ organizations and advocates responded to Tuesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding Idaho and West Virginia’s laws that bar transgender students from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity, warning the decision will deepen discrimination and harm transgender youth. Across the country, advocacy groups called for continued legal challenges, policy action…
As corporate Pride pulls back, Point of Pride takes its message inside the workplace
After years of growing corporate support for Pride and LGBTQ+ initiatives, many companies and LGBTQ+ organizations are navigating a new period of uncertainty. Recently, many big corporations have been pulling back their support for Pride events and LGBTQ+ programming, leaving funding gaps for LGBTQ+ organizations. Instead of walking away from these connections, nonprofit Point of…
Cancellations, reductions & redirections: Pride looks different this year for many across the country
For the LGBTQ+ community, June is our month of celebration. Pride events happen across the country from big cities with hundreds of thousands of attendees, to tiny community potlucks in public parks. There has been discourse for many years about the involvement of corporate sponsors in parades and festivals, in particular for larger Pride events…
At Pride and beyond, 73 ways to hold the line for each other
This article was originally published by Pridesource/Between The Lines, the largest and longest-running LGBTQ+ publication in Michigan. Republished with permission. We are living in a time when “holding the line” can sound very big and dramatic. To even consider taking action, it seems you’ll need a bullhorn, a legal team, a bunch of laminated signs…
This summer is packed with queer cinema releases – including a sapphic slasher
Queer cinema is having quite a summer. From a star-studded disaster comedy packed with Drag Race royalty to a sapphic teen romance making its debut at Frameline, a supernatural thriller rooted in conversion therapy horror, and a sapphic slasher that’s already got us buzzing. Plus, two beloved classics are back on the big screen for…
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Queer-owned perfume brands to support this Pride season
Perfumes are having a moment right now, especially indie and niche fragrances. What was once a nearly impossible industry to enter, has blossomed in recent years thanks to more accessible information and peer to peer knowledge sharing. Among the companies making waves at events like Fumed Chicago, are several queer-owned brands, some that only launched…
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The first school year under a Texas law targeting LGBTQ+ student
This story was originally reported by Bekah McNeel of The 19th. Meet Bekah and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. Adrian Moore was sharing a blanket with his friends, watching the sun come up over Morton Ranch High School before the first day of his senior year. Parents and teachers milled…
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With monkeypox, let’s not stigmatize (again)
More than 40 years ago, a worldwide plague emerged. Men who have sex with men (MSM) made up a large portion of those diagnosed early on. Among its first names were gay cancer and GRID (gay-related immune deficiency); eventually, the disease became known as AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). And talk about a marginalized community. HIV/AIDS-impacted…
TikTok famous plus size Charlotte store provides a refuge for LGBTQ+ shoppers
When you walk through the doors of Juicy Body Goddess, you know instantly you’ve ended up in an affirming place. “Welcome to Juicy, where you’ve got to be two something to do something,” store owner Summer Lucille and her staff call out as a greeting. The plus size boutique is a hit on TikTok, where…
The value of your visibility
We all know that representation matters. We’ve seen what happens when there aren’t enough LGBTQ+ individuals in Congress, not enough people of color policing our streets and not enough women making laws in state legislatures. In the same ways that these absences of representation harm us, we know that seeing ourselves reflected in the world…
A lesbian perspective on reproductive freedom
I was once young. And fresh off the turnip truck. So naive I laugh today looking back. I thought every lesbian would be my friend. I worried about the ducks I saw in Rock Creek Park. What would they eat? Who fed them? It was an early girlfriend who moved me off the worry with…
Archives for ALL, Y’all!
Queer History South 2022 conference to take place in Dallas from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. 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 engineering to science and the arts, LGBTQ+ people…
LGBTQ+ content featured heavily in recent book bans
The most recent rise in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has been heavily focused on students and what they should and should not be exposed to in the classroom. School libraries have been forced to pull certain books off their shelves, while teachers have been told to remove books from their syllabi. What’s the current state of banned…
Monkeypox: What you need to know
Monkeypox cases are on the rise. Reported cases of monkeypox have increased to more than 5,100 in the U.S., compared with several hundred in late June, the Centers for Disease Control said. Worldwide, the number of reported cases is more than 18,000. In this outbreak, so far, monkeypox has disproportionately impacted gay, bisexual, queer and…
6 books featuring transgender or nonbinary heroes
Just as the great Bonnie Tyler once sang, “I need a hero!” so too do we. Today, as transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals are under new threats every day it seems, this Pride month feels like a fitting time to celebrate transgender and nonbinary heroes. From princes fighting for their kingdom and acceptance to a teen…
Yes, we still need Black LGBTQ+ Pride events
Most of us know the story of the Stonewall Inn: We’ve heard how Black, Brown, and trans individuals in a small Greenwich Village bar rose up against the police in June 1969. While we often credit that night with sparking the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, the larger queer community ignores the continuation of the story:…
6 ways to experience LGBTQ+ history this Pride month
Pride month is a perfect time to reflect on the people and events that helped us get where we are today. For many LGBTQ+ people, they never got to see their bravery and sacrifice blossom into the joyful celebrations we now have around the world. This June, you can honor their legacies and learn more…
Can the original Gay Pride be reclaimed?
In the political upheaval that is reshaping our society, including the LGBTQ+ community, there seems to be a national movement to “reclaim” Pride. This movement has taken various forms around the nation: marches being led by queer youth and people of color. Dyke and trans marches. It’s taken different shapes in multiple cities.
The term Pride started in Los Angeles
For the gay patrons of the Black Cat bar in Silver Lake, it was a rotten way to start 1967. But in the aftermath of that horrific night, the LGBTQ+ community adopted a word that would help define a movement. As balloons fell from the ceiling of the neighborhood gay tavern at midnight on Dec.…
LGBTQ+ youth are on the frontlines of massive setbacks for equality
A joint report by member publications of News is Out: Bay Area Reporter, Dallas Voice, Philadelphia Gay News, Q Voice News, Tagg Magazine, Washington Blade, and Windy City Times. The LGBTQ+ community is experiencing wide-reaching attacks from state governments, with most proposed and passed legislation focusing on LGBTQ+ youth. News is Out explores what’s happening,…
Op-ed: Purple states like Pennsylvania are at a crossroads
This op-ed is the third part in a five-part series, by News is Out member publications, looking at Roe v. Wade and its impacts on the LGBTQ+ com
Blue states working to expand abortion access
This article is the final in a five-part series, by News is Out member publications, looking at Roe v. Wade and its impacts on the LGBTQ+ community.
Chicago abortion-rights advocate warns of emboldened right-wing
This article is the fourth in a five-part series, by News is Out member publications, looking at Roe v. Wade and its impacts on the LGBTQ+ community. By Matt Simonette, Windy City Times The only aspect of U. S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion attacking Roe v. Wade that surprised longtime abortion-rights…
Texas is at the forefront in the move to ban abortion
This article is the second in a five-part series, by News is Out member publications, looking at Roe v. Wade and its impacts on the LGBQT+ community.
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Make drag queens illegal? It’s happened before
The growing campaign to criminalize drag performers may seem quixotic given the mainstreaming of drag in popular culture. Indeed, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and its spinoffs threatened to make drag passé, except for the most extravagant, outrageous, and outlandish. But perhaps it was inevitable that a backlash was due, because anti-drag hysteria is nothing new; in…
News is Out’s LGBTQ+ international roundup
The LGBTQ+ community stretches far and wide and it’s important to know what’s happening beyond our own borders. Here are some important developments happening with the international LGBTQ+ community.
The importance of living authentically
“Don’t worry about what other people think of you. They need to worry about what you think of them.” I offered this advice to a new colleague of mine recently as we sat enjoying our lunch of gumbo and shrimp po’ boys on a cloudy Dallas afternoon. He responded, “For the first time in a…
