The Gay & Lesbian Review

If Rex Reed Wasn’t Gay, Is Anyone?

MATTHEW HAYS — Fri, 29 May 2026 16:30:52 +0000

By Matthew Hays
I had to read the obituary over a few times to make sure I hadn’t missed something. But there it was, or rather, wasn’t: The New York Times made no mention of film critic Rex Reed being gay.

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Surviving a Plague

Vinny Cusenza — Thu, 28 May 2026 17:25:51 +0000

By Vinny Cusenza
It must be hard for young queer people today to imagine what it was like to be LGBT from 1981 to 2000. It’s hard enough for me to recall how I survived the daily assaults on our community.

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Trans Student Named Prom King in Georgia

Kara Zajac — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:52:13 +0000

By Kara Zajac
Last month White County High School held its junior-senior prom, where a transgender senior was voted prom king. She was photographed with the prom queen, both wearing gorgeous gowns.

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David Dominé in Glitterball City

Colin Carman — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:28:15 +0000

By Colin Carman
In the summer of 2010, the body of James “Jamie” Caroll—a beautician and drag queen from Appalachia—was found interred in the dirt floor of a gay couple’s basement in Louisville.

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Building a Jellicle Community

James Vining — Fri, 15 May 2026 16:22:31 +0000

By James Vining
The cat costumes are gone, as is most of the ballet and that fluffy MacGuffin, the Heavyside Layer. Instead audiences observe a fully embodied ballroom competition with relatable human beings.

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Coming Out in Siberia

Oleg Olizev — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:52:58 +0000

By Oleg Olizev
The first place I visited after arriving in the United States from Soviet Siberia in 1992 was a porn store on 42nd Street in New York City. I went there because I needed proof that gay people existed.

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The Brilliant, Closeted Life of Billy Preston

BRIAN BROMBERGER — Sun, 10 May 2026 19:59:05 +0000

By Brian Bromberger
This overdue film charts the life of a musical icon and “beautiful human being who deserved more than he got,” as by the end of the 1970s both his personal and professional lives were in decline.

The post The Brilliant, Closeted Life of Billy Preston appeared first on The Gay & Lesbian Review.

A, as in Alien

Colin Hosten — Fri, 01 May 2026 15:17:20 +0000

By Colin Hosten
An immigration officer might look at the stamps in my passport—and the fact that I’d spent the past eleven years, my entire adult life, living in the U.S.—and surmise that I secretly intended to stay.

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Boxing and the Boundaries of Intimacy

Con Chapman — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:35:56 +0000

By Con Chapman
Violence and sex occupy space in a crepuscular hour between day and night, sometimes permitted, sometimes forbidden, even though on the surface they appear to be poles apart.

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What They Don’t See About Iran

Majid Parsa — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:45:50 +0000

By Majid Parsa
“Isn’t it amazing, the opportunities this country offers?” she asked, as if I’d just been rescued from a burning building. She had a smile stretching across her face, eyes beaming with pride.

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