Transgender Wyoming residents will no longer be able to update the gender marker on their driver’s license due to a quiet behind the scenes change, Transistics reports.

While trans Wyomingites have been able to obtain accurate driver’s licenses in the state since at least 2019, a combination of laws and policies means that is no longer the case. The Wyoming Department of Transportation (DOT) will now require an amended birth certificate to update a gender marker, rather than simply providing letters from a medical provider — a recent state law has made it impossible for trans people to get an amended birth certificate.

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While Kansas invalidated trans drivers’ licenses with a well-publicized bill and letters to residents telling them their licenses were revoked, Wyoming’s changes have quietly occurred behind the scenes. A series of dominoes fell without people noticing, leading to this situation.

Back in 2020, the Wyoming Supreme Court heard a case from a trans woman, known as MH, who wanted to update the gender marker on her birth certificate. In a 4-1 decision, the court ruled in MH’s favor, saying that lower courts could hear and grant petitions for such updates to birth certificates.

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However, in March 2025, the Wyoming legislature passed what they called the “What is a Woman Act,” a dog whistle phrase popularized by the anti-trans right-wing commentator Matt Walsh. The bill passed both the state House and Senate, but Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) allowed it to become law without signing it.

While Gordon had signed other anti-trans laws that year, he said this one lacked clarity and “begs questions of necessity and issues of practical administration,” adding, “However, I suspect this Act was not drafted with keen legal objectives in mind as much as it was to scratch a welcome national political itch.”

The “What is a Woman Act” is a sex-definitions bill, which follows the concepts outlines in Trump’s infamous “two sexes” executive order. Those definitions are rooted in bioessentialism and tie male and female gender entirely to the presence of certain reproductive organs, with the definition of a female reading: “A person who has, had, will have or would have had, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports and utilizes eggs for fertilization.” The law also requires that any collection of vital statistics identifies people by their gender assigned at birth.

A trans woman in the state, known as KR, who had legally changed her name in 2021 and had gender-affirming surgeries in 2023, filed to update her gender marker in 2025. That triggered a challenge to the “What is a Woman Act” and drew the attention of Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz. Kautz had previously served as a judge on the Wyoming Supreme Court until 2024, and in that 4-1 ruling from 2020, he was the lone dissenting voice against amending MH’s gender marker.

A Wyoming District Court Judge denied KR’s request for a gender marker correction, citing the What is a Woman Act and old vital statistics laws. KR is now appealing that decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

As of March, Wyoming has adopted a permanent policy that the state agency will not update gender markers on birth certificates for trans people, only allowing corrections for clerical errors and missing information.

Aleksandra Vaca of Transistics has confirmed with Wyoming DOT employees that a change has taken place in their policies for updating gender markers, which will make it impossible for anyone who has not already updated their birth certificate before the “What is a Woman Act” came into effect. Additionally, Wyoming will reportedly retroactively change gender markers on driver’s licenses for trans people when it comes time for renewal, unless they were previously able to update their birth certificates.

Wyoming is the latest in a string of states making it impossible to update gender markers on crucial ID, which leaves trans people vulnerable to being outed in a wealth of situations. Notably, Texas’ Department of Public Safety stopped allowing gender marker updates, even with a court order, after an order issued by the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Wyoming has become a hotbed of anti-trans legislation and cases in recent years. Last year, its legislature passed a collegiate sports ban, two bans on trans access to restrooms and single-sex spaces, and a bill preventing government agencies from requiring employees to use another employee’s correct pronouns.

Wyoming is also the site of an ongoing legal dispute over a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter whose sisters sued after a trans woman was allowed to join.

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Trump administration officials and pundits are scratching their heads and wondering why First Lady Melania Trump decided to make an unexpected speech denying her ties to deceased billionaire child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein yesterday. Epstein’s victims blamed her for trying to shift the responsibility of uncovering his crimes onto them rather than the Department of Justice.

In her speech, she called for an end to “the lies linking me with” Epstein. She said claims that she was friends or had a relationship with him “mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation.”

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“I am not Epstein’s victim. Epstein did not introduce me to Donald Trump,” she said, adding that she neither had any knowledge of his crimes nor witnessed any evidence of them. She then called for a congressional hearing with Epstein’s victims, saying, “Then, and only then, will we have the truth.”

MS Now reported that President Donald Trump and White House staffers were unaware that she planned to speak out, and that her speech reignited public interest in Trump’s past friendship with Epstein.

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After the speech, Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich told viewers, “We’ve been trying to understand why she made [the speech] today, if there was something that she is reacting to that might already be in the news that has upset her, or if there’s a story that’s yet to come out, that’s about to drop that she wanted to get ahead of, because it did feel like it came out of left field for us.”

The New York Post also wondered, writing, “It’s unclear why the first lady chose to hold the press event at a time when the White House is trying to move on from the Epstein saga that has been a drag on her husband’s second term.”

An unnamed “close Trump adviser” told Zeteo, “What the f**k is she doing right now?” Two unnamed senior administration officials also told the publication that they were “similarly baffled” and called her statement a “poorly worded denial.”

Several of Epstein’s victims criticized Melania Trump for “shifting the burden” of investigation onto them rather than the Department of Justice, which has still refused to comply with a congressional 2025 law requiring the release of all government investigatory files on Epstein.

“Those failures continue to put lives at risk while shielding enablers,” the victims’ statement said, according to The Hill. “Survivors have done their part [by speaking to Congress in the past]. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs.”

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It wasn’t that long ago that Kristi Noem was everywhere. All glammed up and ready to deport hardworking immigrants, the now-fired DHS secretary cosplayed as a Border Patrol agent, an ICE officer, a military pilot, a firefighter and a member of the Coast Guard, as well as a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and Christ follower.

But now, following her ouster as secretary and amid the alleged outing of her husband as a big-breasted bimbo, she’s nowhere to be found. Reports say she’s a practical no-show at her ceremonial new job in the State Department, where she’s nothing more than an underling.

We’re shedding so many tears!

Before the public’s eyes, Noem, a former bob-wearing “Karen”, transformed into “ICE Barbie.” Her chef-d’œuvre was a taxpayer-funded, $220 million ad campaign that showed her horseback riding throughout Mount Rushmore. In the commercial, which cost more than many “Best Picture” nominees, Noem urged undocumented immigrants to self-deport. Little did she know, her theatrical threats would lead to her own ejection.

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Noem was canned last month as DHS sec. following a disastrous tenure that was hallmarked by the killing of two American citizens, her incessant self-promotion and apparent rendezvous with Corey Lewandowski. Together, the loathsome pair reportedly waged vicious campaigns against perceived rivals inside of DHS and seemed to alienate just about everybody.

In the end, that included the president himself. He was unhappy when Noem testified in front of Congress that he was aware of her $220 million horseback ride and approved of it. “I wasn’t thrilled with it,” he told reporters. “I spent less money than that to become president.”

Since that smackdown, Noem is nowhere to be found. Her zest for the limelight has appeared to deflate as quickly as her husband’s balloon breasts. Last week, her reps said she was “devastated” by the revelation.

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“His kink was yoga pants,” Love alleges. “He would try to talk more feminine.”

No-show job

When Tr*mp fired Noem, he provided her with a shield–at least in title–when he appointed her as the “special envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” a new role that was ostensibly created to focus on the American Hemisphere.

Since being demoted, however, Noem has only held a single meeting, and it was virtual, reports the Daily Mail. In addition, four of her deputies have been placed on administrative leave.

“This post was intended as a soft landing so it didn’t look like Noem was immediately being fired,” said a State Department official. “But no one really thinks she should have this job.”

He concluded, “The State Department was not happy to have her here and the understanding is that she’s not going to be here for much longer.”

We can officially say it: ringing in the year with Stephen Miller invites bad juju. Who knew?!

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“Bimbo bride”

Meanwhile, Bryon Noem and his big boobs continue to poke out into the headlines. Just days after hearing from his alleged femdom, an OF model has come forward to say the married father of three wanted her to be his “ultimate bimbo bride.”

“Bryon was addicted to my bombshell Barbie curves and enormous breasts,” she told the Daily Mail. “He gave me whatever I wanted – shoes, handbags, even bigger b***s. He wanted me to be his ultimate bimbo bride.”

As the alleged screenshots show, Bryon made no effort to hide his face during these encounters. The aforementioned femdom says there’s “no way in hell” that Kristi didn’t know about her hubby’s predilection.

Keeping the plane

Adding insult to injury, the White House is keeping Noem’s private jet. In her final days of DHS secretary, she tried to purchase a $70 million luxury airplane with a bedroom suite, multiple bathrooms, an entertainment room and glitzy kitchen with stainless steel.

She claimed the plane would be used for deportation flights, as well as her travel… with her right-hand man Corey Lewandowski, of course.

Even though Tr*mp has discarded Noem, he’s decided to keep her plane. It will be made available to Melania and cabinet secretaries, according to the Wall Street Journal. No word on whether it will run over Noem on the tarmac before taking off.

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Andy Cohen had a special Easter message.

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Vivian Wilson says her father, Elon Musk, was an unsupportive dad while she was growing up in a life of privilege, she explained in a new interview with Cosmopolitan.

But somehow, somewhere, someone was doing something right. How much wiser, funnier, and more comfortable in her own skin can a famously trans 21-year-old be?

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Vivian Wilson is all that.

And a model, too.

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Now 21, the one-time Musk scion filed to legally change her name and gender when she was 18, saying in court documents that she no longer wished to be related to Musk “in any way, shape, or form.”  

Two years later, her father went public with his displeasure around Wilson’s transition, the start of a public obsession with trans people, and coinciding with Musk’s active support of the current president, who was waging his own anti-“trans insanity” crusade.

Musk told a right-wing podcaster that he was “tricked” into signing transition documents for Wilson, and claimed his “son” was “killed by the woke mind virus.”

She responded on TikTok, posting, she “looks pretty good for a dead b**ch.”

“It went mega viral,” Wilson recalled of the clapback in an interview with Cosmopolitan. “Everything took off from there.”

A cover shoot for Vogue in January 2025 put a face and a body to Wilson’s name, still “Elon’s kid” in the public imagination.

“There’s not much I can do about it, so who cares?” she said of the lingering association. “It’s part of my story, but it’s not the future of my story.”

Part of that narrative is the extreme wealth Wilson grew up with in Los Angeles, and her decision to reject it.

“It was a very strange experience, very isolating,” she said of her elite upbringing. “The upper class have their own private schools, social circles, and whatever.”

“I have unlearned a huge amount, but even as a child, I was like, ‘This is a bit gauche,’” she recalled. “I remember being very young and seeing homelessness and feeling sick to my stomach. People would get on me for being like a dramatic little child. But no, I was right to be a dramatic little s**t about that.”

Around the world in that orbit, Wilson observed a “level of detachment from reality itself, in favor of wealth and this illusion that you deserve it while people are sleeping on the streets.”

“Oh, and also ‘Santa Claus is real.’”

Wealth “absolutely” warped the people around her, Wilson said.

“I have seen that s**t firsthand. It will change you, and the desire for power corrupts people from within. It is cartoonish. Achieving that and wanting more is a never-ending cycle of greed and gluttony, where nothing is enough, and you kind of go insane. It turns you into someone different. Which is honestly one of my biggest fears.”

“I also know,” she added, “that, like, I was a rich kid. I should not be lecturing anyone on materialism.”

Wilson’s latest cause for clapback has been Musk’s association with Jeffrey Epstein: emails released this year reveal he wanted to visit the sex trafficker’s private island while on a family holiday in St. Barth’s. Wilson says that lines up with her own childhood memory; she’s publicly offered to assist authorities tracking down the truth about her dad, however she can.

“Bringing down the oligarchy would be tea, but I don’t know if that’s feasible for a 21-year-old. I’m just living my life and speaking out on issues that are important to me,” Wilson said.

Important to her public, though: romance!

Wilson says that’s off the table.

“I don’t want romance; it’s scary. I would like to grow more before getting into another relationship,” Wilson said, humility only adding to her allure.

“I’m not on any dating apps. I made sure to delete that when I got famous. Y’all are never catching me slipping,” she said with a laugh.

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Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was on Morning Joe on MS NOW today, where he discussed Donald Trump’s mental decline and his recent threat to kill the nearly 100 million people who live in Iran.

Buttigieg was talking about a social media post from Trump earlier this week that said, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” referring to Iran. He then used that incident to talk about how Trump’s mental decline has been something that was happening “gradually” since at least 2015, but, in his opinion, has accelerated recently.

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“Going bankrupt is something that happens gradually, then suddenly,” he said, quoting Ernest Hemingway. “This has been happening gradually, really, since the day he came down that escalator a decade ago.” He was referring to Trump announcing his first presidential campaign.

“Certain things are happening suddenly,” Butigieg continued. “For the leader of the free world, the leader of this country to just make a nakedly genocidal threat against another civilization, as if the United States of America was a death star that was going around blowing up civilizations. Of course, that crosses a new line; of course, that’s a new low.”

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“The effects of that kind of thing will outlive Donald Trump. Long after he has departed the scene, the collapse in trust, not just affection for the United States, but trust in the United States,” Buttigieg continued. “The whole country is being judged, even though most Americans don’t support him anyway. The whole country is being judged just for tolerating that kind of thing at the White House.”

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There has never been a time when LGBTQ+ people did not exist in classrooms, but for most of the history of American education, they were invisible. In addition to closeted students and teachers, classes could move through years of history, literature, and health classes without encountering queer people in any direct way. In practice, that often meant students would never hear the word “gay,” let alone any other queer identities.

Curriculum decisions have always determined which histories are treated as central and which are left out. For LGBTQ+ people, this is a particularly potent problem in K–12 schools, where discussions of sexuality and gender identity are often considered inappropriate.

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What is now described as LGBTQ-inclusive education reflects a shift in what some schools are willing to include, whether that means lessons on the Stonewall uprising as part of broader civil rights history, literature that situates queer themes within American writing, or health classes that reflect the realities students are already living.

But access to LGBTQ+ education varies widely across the United States, with some places expanding inclusion and others placing intensive restrictions on what can be taught. School boards, legislatures, and educators all play a role in determining what students learn, creating a landscape where curriculum is shaped as much by politics as by pedagogy. 

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LGBTQ+ people, however, have always been part of the classrooms where these debates are unfolding, not only as students but as part of the history, literature, and social life those classrooms are meant to reflect. The central question has remained consistent over time and is not about whether that history exists. Rather, it’s about whether those realities are acknowledged or deliberately left out.

A legitimate subject of study

Organized efforts to teach LGBTQ+ history in formal educational settings can be traced back to the 1950s, when what is now the One Institute was founded as ONE, Inc., one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the United States. The group began offering lectures, publishing research, and developing structured educational programs focused on what was then called homophile studies. 

At a time when homosexuality was widely criminalized and classified as a mental illness, these efforts positioned LGBTQ+ life as a legitimate subject of study rather than something to be ignored or suppressed.

The ability to teach LGBTQ+ topics in schools was closely tied to the overall ability to circulate information on LGBTQ+ people. This ability was itself contested through legal battles, such as ONE, Inc. v. Olesen, a U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed the right to distribute pro-LGBTQ+ publications under free speech protections. These developments made it possible for LGBTQ+ perspectives to enter public discourse, which in turn enabled their entry into educational spaces, even if only in limited ways.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, LGBTQ+-inclusive courses began appearing in universities as a result of student activism, particularly following the Stonewall uprising, which marked a turning point in LGBTQ+ visibility and organizing. 

In 1970, one of the first courses on homosexuality in the United States emerged at the University of California, Berkeley, the result of student demand rather than institutional initiative. Similar efforts appeared at other universities and often drew fierce backlash.

At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for example, a professor taught a course in 1970 called the “Proseminar in Homophile Studies,” which caused so much controversy that it only existed for one semester. A state Senator even held a public hearing on it and tried to force the professor to share his student roster.

The controversy did, however, lead to the establishment of the school’s first gay student group.

As LGBTQ+ studies programs developed through the 1980s and 1990s, they helped establish queer history and identity as recognized areas of academic inquiry, influencing how universities approached questions of culture, politics, and social life. That shift in higher education did not immediately extend to K–12 schools, where LGBTQ+ topics remained largely absent or were introduced in limited ways, such as through connections to public health education during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

At that time, the consequences of misinformation and silence became clearer. Public health research has consistently shown that comprehensive sex education improves awareness and reduces risk, while limited or abstinence-only approaches leave students without critical information.

Efforts to create more inclusive school environments expanded in the following decades, with organizations like GLSEN (now Glisten) focusing on the role of education in addressing bullying and improving school climate for LGBTQ+ students.

Research has found that students in schools with inclusive curricula and policies report lower levels of harassment and better overall well-being than those in less inclusive environments. Findings from the Trevor Project similarly show that LGBTQ+ youth who feel affirmed in their identities are significantly less likely to attempt suicide, connecting classroom environments directly to student mental health.

A turning point

By the 2010s, some states began to incorporate LGBTQ+ history into formal curriculum standards, most notably through California’s FAIR Education Act, which requires public schools to include the contributions of LGBTQ+ people in history and social studies instruction.

The law amended the state education code to ensure that LGBTQ+ Americans are represented alongside other groups who contributed to the country’s development and reflected a broader shift toward defining LGBTQ+ history as part of the standard curriculum. Nevertheless, there is much work to be done, as only eight states currently have LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum laws.

The FAIR Education Act was designed in part to address the long-standing exclusion of LGBTQ+ people from instructional materials and to promote safer school environments. These developments marked a turning point in how education systems approached LGBTQ+ topics, shifting from omission to structured inclusion in certain parts of the country. That shift did not settle the debate, but it made it harder to ignore.

Today, debates over LGBTQ+ education have intensified, particularly around what can be discussed in K–12 classrooms and at what age.

Laws such as Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act have placed limits on classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, while data from PEN America shows that books with LGBTQ+ themes are among those most frequently challenged or removed from school libraries.

Across the country and at the federal level, there has been legislation introduced targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, reshaping what students are allowed to learn and how schools support LGBTQ+ students.

Students say the effects are already visible inside classrooms. Last year, a high school student in Texas explained to The Texas Tribune that students are definitely feeling more empowered to openly hate.

“Because if the president of the United States can spread that hate and attack LGBTQ students, why can’t they?” the student said. “In the wake of Trump’s election and in the wake of anti-DEI legislation, that haze has increased exponentially.”

The broader impact of LGBTQ+ education extends beyond LGBTQ+ students, though. A curriculum that excludes entire groups presents a limited version of history and society, affecting how all students understand the world around them.

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David Geffen’s contentious divorce from his 50-years younger ex Donovan Michaels (who also goes by David Armstrong) appears to be over.

The 83-year-old billionaire has been involved in a nasty split with his 33-year-old ex-husband for nearly a year.

But now it seems the pair have ironed out all the details as Geffen, who has an estimated net worth of $9 billion, claims they’ve settled their differences.

According to court documents, the mogul has reached a divorce settlement with the former model, per TMZ.

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And just like that …it’s over.

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The way they were

While the two men were declared legally singled in November, they still had to workout the financials in regards to spousal support, division of property and attorney fees. Since the new legal docs were marked “uncontested”, it signifies both Geffen and Michaels have come to an agreement on the remaining money issues.

If you were hoping to find out just how much Michaels was going to get from his octogenarian former lover, you will be sadly disappointed. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.

This marks a pretty uneventful conclusion to Geffen and Michaels very messy relationship, which the couple entered into legally without a prenup.

Geffen and Michaels were together for seven years before tying the knot in May 2023.

Messy divorce

The legal marriage lasted barely 24 months, with Geffen pulling the plug in May 2025 just ahead of their 2nd anniversary. In the divorce filing, he cited irreconcilable differences as the cause of the split.

Two months later, Michaels dropped a bombshell lawsuit claiming the Hollywood kingpin exploited him over the years amid accusations of paid sex, alleged drug use and extremely controlling behavior, including being forced to remove all of his body hair.

In the complaint, the ex go-go boy also alleged he first met his future husband in 2016 on a sugar daddy website, “where men like Geffen shop for the vulnerable.” A transaction occurred with Michaels alleging Geffen paid him $10,000 for sex on their first night together.

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David Geffen and Donovan Michaels married in 2023 without a prenup.

While he didn’t specify an amount in the lawsuit, Michaels had asked for unspecified compensatory and other damages, as well as attorneys’ fees and other costs. 

Then in October 2025, he abruptly dropped the lawsuit, but requested it be dismissed “without prejudice,” so he would be able to re-file the if the mediation over the financials didn’t turn out to the way he liked.

Geffen had previously stated he’d be willing to pay Michaels $50K a month spousal support, but only for 12 months. He also claimed to have given his ex $200K since their split, in addition to covering his $15K monthly rent.

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Should he get more for being married to a billionaire without a prenup? Everyone has an opinion.

While we may never know how much Michaels is walking away with, both he and Geffen are now free to move forward with their lives.

On to the next, gentlemen!

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Breaking up is hard to do. But sometimes, it’s necessary!

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The executive producers of Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair say their experience parenting their own LGBTQ+ children influenced their inclusion of a new nonbinary character in the Hulu limited series.

The four-episode revival picks up 20 years after the beloved, Emmy-winning Fox sitcom ended, with Frankie Muniz’s Malcolm reconnecting with his dysfunctional family for his parents’ (Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek) 40th wedding anniversary.

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Among the new additions to the cast is Vaughan Murrae, who plays Kelly, the child with whom Kaczmarek’s Lois learned she was pregnant in the original series’ 2006 finale. Like Murrae, Kelly is nonbinary.

In an interview with Deadline this week, Life’s Still Unfair executive producer Tracy Katsky explained the significance to her and husband Linwood Boomer, the show’s creator, of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the new series.

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“It’s a really important thing to us,” Katsky told the outlet. “Three out of four of our kids are queer, and without making it a thing and without making an issue, I think it’s really nice to have a character that [being nonbinary is] just a facet of their personality as opposed to the entire story.”

“Also, I mean, it’s in there because I don’t know what else to write except the stuff that’s really happening around me,” Boomer joked.

According to Deadline, the new series also reveals that Malcolm’s childhood friend Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor) has come out as gay and started a family of his own in the two decades since the original show ended.

As for Murrae, in a recent interview with entertainment site The Direct, they said they wanted fans of Malcolm in the Middle to “feel like Kelly has been in the family like forever.”

“They’re a character that is, I think quite wise and down-to-earth, but they’re not above the crazy,” Murrae told the outlet. “They’re a character, I think, that believes very strongly in justice and being good and being the favorite, or at least the most well-behaved, child, but they’re also still a sibling in this family of craziness. And even they aren’t above getting involved in some crazy stuff if it means, you know, getting back at their brothers.”

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Believe it or not, it was over a decade ago that Schitt’s Creek first premiered, the funny & heartwarming series that made Dan Levy a household name—and a four-time Emmy-winner, all in the same night.

But for his follow-up TV project, the actor & filmmaker decided to pursue a different kind of family comedy, one that’s just as hilarious but much, much darker. 

In Big Mistakes, Levy stars as Nicky Dardano, a gay priest in suburban New York who would have his congregation believe he’s celibate—even though that’s definitely not the case. Of course that’s just one little white lie compared to the mess he and his sister Morgan get into, which snowballs from petty theft into an entire underworld of organized crime over the course of the season.

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Upping the stakes further, their mom—played by the great Laurie Metcalf—is running for mayor. So, you know, no pressure!

And while Levy will be the first to tell you that crime is harder than it looks (pulling it off on TV, at least!) he had some help from his fabulous co-star Taylor Ortega. She’s previously been a scene-stealer in projects like Ghosts and Another Simple Favor, but this feels like the breakout role Ortega’s long deserved, a disaffected school teacher who feels trapped i n her relationship to childhood sweetheart Max (Adults‘ Jack Innanen), which she’s absolutely aged out of.

It’s Levy & Ortega’s bickering sibling chemistry that really makes Big Mistakes one to watch and, amusingly, they share the same playfully teasing banter in real life, too, which was on full display when we recently spoke with the stars about the little mistakes they made on the way to bringing this series to life and the real reason gays are going to love it. (Two words: Laurie Metcalf.)

You can watch our conversation with Dan Levy & Taylor above, or read our full interview with the Big Mistakes duo below.

In the spirit of the title, I’m curious: Can you think of a time, in the process of bringing this show together, that felt like a mistake, but wound up being a blessing in disguise, or that you were able to learn from?

ORTEGA: Probably a million times; probably a lot of times.

LEVY: Really? What was your big mistake?

ORTEGA: [Laughs.] But not us! Never the two of us. No, no, no, no. Us? [Laughs.] Every time we made a mistake, people would go, “We actually like that better!” And then they go, “We would’ve never thought of that!”

LEVY: I’ll say this: Listen, writing crime is really hard. And in the early days of putting the show together, I gotta say, I had to take a couple stabs at it. I have so much respect for crime writers. I know how to write comedy with my eyes closed. [Laughs.] But crime is soberingly difficult. So, you know, trial & error led us to here, and I think you do have to make a lot of mistakes to learn.

ORTEGA: You do! There’s a lot more to keep track of, too. This show is kind of a different format and genre. And even as we’re filming it—and we’re filming it kind of sequentially, but in blocks—so you have a million things going on, and you’re thinking of the scene you’re doing, and then someone does have to come up and remind you—

LEVY: So, you’ve still not said a mistake…

ORTEGA: Well, remember, we had to re-shoot something because we completely forgot the whole context of what we were shooting?

LEVY: Oh, was that a we thing? Or was it another one of my mistakes?

ORTEGA: We re-shot a scene interesting, because you were like, “Oh, we forgot that this is either where we’re coming from or where we’re going.” And we were being a little too cowabunga-casual with it.

LEVY: [Laughs.] That’s right! That is the thing about crime, is that you have to realize, like, “oh right, what happens after is very life-threatening!”

ORTEGA: But sometimes you’re like, “Should we do Chili’s for lunch?” And that’s what we’re actually thinking about. Sometimes you’re Googling “Chili’s near me” between [takes,] when you should actually be locking in.

LEVY: And honestly we did that way! So!

All of which reminds me, this show does fall into one of my favorite, underrepresented genres of media, which is “Be Gay, Do Crime.”

LEVY: That’s right! And how rare an opportunity to actually get to do that, honestly. I have to say, part of why I wrote this show is because there’s not a lot of “Be Gay, Do Crime.” I would kill for a script to have crossed my desk that was “Be Gay, Do Crime”—had to write it myself!

So, with that in mind: Why should the gays tune in, why will they love Big Mistakes?

LEVY: Oh! Because I think there’s like—well, Laurie!

ORTEGA: For Laurie, you don’t say!

LEVY: Hello! That’s like up in the shining lights.

ORTEGA: … Us! Prominent gays.

LEVY: [Laughs.] Prominent gays. You know, there’s a joie de vivre with this show that I think has a certain mating call to the gays. I don’t want to say it out loud, but I just feel like put it on, listen for it—you’ll hear it. It’ll call for you. And you’ll know that it’s for you.

It’s another frequency that only we can hear!

LEVY: We don’t talk about that frequency, but it’s there. it’s elevated!

ORTEGA: It’s a good dog-whistle! It’s a whistle tone. [Laughs.]

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A new survey by UCLA’s Williams Institute examines the impact that the Trump administration has had on the families of transgender parents.

While the responses are as varied as the trans community itself, a couple of statistics stand out: among transgender parents whose children are old enough to understand current events, 66% reported their kids have grown more anxious or fearful under the Trump administration.

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More than half (56%) said their children had expressed new worries, including concerns about parental safety, discrimination, relocation, or family separation.

“My older child has started asking why some people hate families like ours and whether I’ll ‘get taken away,’” said one parent.

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It’s anecdotal evidence that the Trump administration’s anti-trans crusade is having a cascading effect on trans people and those closest to them.

Trump’s campaign to erase trans and nonbinary identity has affected non-discrimination protections, state and federal IDs, gender-affirming healthcare, transgender inmates’ housing, equal access to sports and restrooms, and the books kids can check out at libraries.

While trans parents report that younger children have been spared for the most part, kids old enough to have a phone are suffering a lot of Trump’s contempt aimed at their parents.

“The heightened fears transgender parents and their children are experiencing in the current sociopolitical and legislative climate strike at the heart of their security and stability,” said lead author Abbie E. Goldberg, Affiliated Scholar at the Williams Institute and Professor of Psychology at Clark University. “For many, what is at stake is not simply a matter of hardship, but whether their family will survive the Trump presidency intact.”

A majority of respondents agreed that Trump’s re-election posed a threat, and they were taking steps to mitigate it. Close to 40% said they’ve limited their family’s visibility on social media and in public out of safety concerns. Close to 40% have responded by sharing affirming media, spaces, and communities with their children, while about the same number have talked more explicitly with their kids about discrimination and civil rights.

About one in five respondents called the anxiety around Trump’s executive orders and other actions overblown.

Asked about changes to their parenting choices or behaviors, one respondent said, “I really haven’t seen much actual change regarding either of these in my personal life. It feels more like media hype.”

Separate from the data sets, the written responses to the survey questions reveal a spirit of resistance that defies what some trans parents characterize as an existential emergency, even as many have been forced to subjugate their own identity for the sake of their children’s safety.

“I’ve limited my ‘outness’ in public spaces, especially in church-related settings,” said one respondent. “We still go to church, but I’ve explained that we cannot disclose that I am part of the LGBT community. He seems to understand.”

Another was more defiant: “I tell them we are going to fight back and won’t lie down!”

A third, like most parents, was coping as best they could.

“I tell him that we’re in a sh**ty place right now and things suck, but the area we live in is pretty decent and well protected,” they said of the talk so many trans parents have been forced to have with their kids.

“I reassure him that we have the community we need to be safe. I reassure him that he’ll be safe.”

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The president isn’t the only one breaking records for the number of Americans who disapprove of him. First Lady Melania Trump is faring just as badly, according to CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

“I would say that the American people really don’t care for Melania Trump,” Enten said on a recent segment.

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He explained that at minus 12 points, she is not only at her own lowest net favorability rating, but also has the lowest favorability rating of any first lady in history at this point in a presidency.

What’s more, just over a year ago, Melania Trump was polling at plus three points. And at this point in her husband’s first term, she was at a whopping plus thirty points.

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“These numbers are absolutely awful,” Enten said.

He also showed where other first ladies ranked at this point in their husbands’ second terms. Michelle Obama was at plus 42, Laura Bush at plus 46, Hillary Clinton at plus 25, and Nancy Reagan at plus 50.

“Melania Trump breaking records in the way that you don’t want to break records,” Enten said. “Historically awful. The American people really don’t care for her.”

Other than the release of her feature-length documentary, Melania, in January, the first lady has been even quieter and more absent from the public eye than she was during Donald Trump’s first term.

She did, however, emerge for a tone-deaf black-tie screening of the film held the same day that intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by CBP agents in Minneapolis while standing up for a woman who was being attacked during Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.

On social media, Melania Trump called the event “a historic moment.” Yet, the film cost $75 million to create and was considered a major flop, earning only $16.6 million worldwide.

Enten’s findings, then, should be no surprise.

Another recent poll from Lake Research Partners found that 52% of U.S. voters want Donald Trump to be impeached. Only 40% of voters don’t want him to be impeached, with the rest undecided.

“This is an unprecedented result this early in a presidential term,” said Lake analyst John Bonifaz, who noted that voters have turned on Trump earlier in his term than they did against Richard Nixon in 1974. He also said that the public only turned on Nixon after a thorough congressional investigation into Watergate, whereas Congress right now is doing everything it can to avoid investigating Trump, and the public still wants him impeached.

Enten has long tracked the president’s plummeting approval ratings, telling viewers in March that there seems to be “no bottom” as the numbers keep falling.

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Vice President J.D. Vance recently said at a holiday party that he will “never, ever forget” when President Donald Trump implied that he, Vance, had a large penis. It’s just the latest example of Trump’s obsession with penis size.

While standing next to his wife at a White House holiday party for actor Sylvester Stallone, Vance said, “Sometimes [as vice president], you get these behind-the-scenes moments that I will never, ever forget for the rest of my life.”

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Vance then told a story about a meeting in the Oval Office with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and an unnamed politician. Trump reportedly told the men they had “sh**ty” shoes and began browsing a shoe catalog with them, offering to buy them new pairs.

“He says, ‘Marco, what’s your shoe size?’ And Marco’s apparently an 11 and a half. He says, ‘JD, what’s your shoe size?’ My shoe size is 13. I asked this politician, who I won’t embarrass, what his shoe size is, and he says, ‘seven,’” Vance told the holiday party audience.

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“The president leans back in his chair and says, ‘You know, you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size,’” Vance said, adding, “We won’t ask the Second Lady for comment on that particular topic.”

Vance: Today I’m in the Oval Office with the President and Marco Rubio, talking about something important… He peers over the Resolute Desk: ‘Marco, JD, you guys have shitty shoes. What size are you?' He leans back: ‘You can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size.’ pic.twitter.com/dSpJ1er3KB

— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) December 6, 2025

This wouldn’t be the first time that Trump commented about another man’s penis size. In 2024, Trump claimed that professional golfer Arnold Palmer had large genitalia.

During a 2016 Republican presidential primary debate, Trump replied to Rubio’s claim that Trump had small hands. Trump said, “He referred to my hands, if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee it.”

Stormy Daniels, the adult video star who Trump reportedly had an extramarital affair with, said that Trump has a “smaller than average” penis.

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A federal jury deliberated for barely two hours on Wednesday before finding 32-year-old Firomsa Ahmed Umar guilty of arson for throwing two Molotov cocktails at Fletcher’s Ice Cream and Cafe in Minneapolis last October. It’s believed that Umar targeted the gay-owned business because of the progress Pride flag prominently displayed above its outdoor entrance.

The jury found Umar guilty of arson, attempted arson, and two counts of possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. He remains in federal custody. Because jurors believed his arson was motivated by bias against actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation, he could receive hate crime penalties when the court eventually sentences him.

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Umar threw one Molotov cocktail through the window of the shop on the evening of October 19 and another on the afternoon of October 20. The shop was closed during both incidents. The shop’s owner, Jason Fletcher, told KTTC that employees had only left 6 minutes before the first attack. The firebomb caused some chairs to catch fire. Workers from neighboring businesses put out the flames.

Fletcher said he refused to be scared off by the attack, especially considering the outpouring of support he saw from the community. “I believe in my heart that Minneapolis is a really amazing place to be,” he said. “I believe that this city has my heart, and I am so, so grateful for all of this support.”

Fletcher said the attacks gave him “an opportunity to spread peace and love.”

“I’m not going to be in a closet, and I don’t think any queer-owned business should be. I think it’s really important we stand up for ourselves,” he said.

After it occurred, out LGBTQ+ City Council Member Jason Chavez condemned the attack on social media.

“At a time when marginalized communities are being even more targeted than has always been the case, it is important that we as a city condemn this behavior,” Chavez wrote. “We must also reaffirm our commitment to equality and the safety of our LGBTQIA+ neighbors.”

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Actor and writer Stephen Fry was the latest celebrity to take part in a special form of interview on British TV last night.

Fry, 68, was a guest on The Assembly on ITV. In each episode of the show, a group of autistic, neurodivergent, and learning-disabled interviewers asks probing, unfiltered questions. Nothing is off limits.

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Fry was praised by many viewers for coming across as candid, honest, and warm.

However, there were some questions that even Fry declined to answer.

One man asked Fry about his life with his husband, Elliot Spencer. This included a question as to whether Fry is a top or bottom in the bedroom.

“Wow, that is as direct as it gets,” replied Fry. “I’m going to leave that a mystery, I think that’s best.

“Thank you for raising it, it’s a very important point. There is V in the middle of course, ‘versatile’, is there not?”

Watch below.

In The Assembly (2026)–a show where autistic, neurodivergent and/or learning disabled people interview celebrities–Tomislav (one of said interviewers) asked Stephen Fry whether he's a top or a bottom pic.twitter.com/OhLP5GKQ59

— ce (@housewaiful) April 9, 2026

Marriage and power dynamics

Fry married Spencer, 38, in 2015, ten days after announcing their engagement. Many people online have commented on the 30-year age gap between them. This was again asked about on the show last night.

One person asked Fry what he thinks about people who disagree or don’t like age-gay relationships.

“I feel a bit sorry for them,” Fry replied.

“I don’t see why they should have such an opinion about things, but the only thing that matters in a relationship is love.

“And, if you feel it, and it’s felt on both sides, and it’s not an exploitative relationship.”

Concerning his own marriage, he added, “I would say to people that in our relationship, Elliot has all the power, really.

“He makes a lot of the decisions about things, ’cause I trust him to. It just works for us extremely well.”

Fry also talked about his own mental health and experiences being bipolar. He compared it to the weather – something that cannot be wished away or is within one’s control: Depression, like rain, is something that simply turns up on some days.

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He was also asked about his fondness for WWE wrestling.

Think you know Sir Stephen Fry? Think again. Actor, Writer and… WWE Super-fan?

From The Undertaker to Stone Cold Steve Austin, he’s bringing heavyweight champion-level wrestling knowledge The Assembly is delivering the crossover we never knew we needed … pic.twitter.com/0gyR1xfG7f

— ITV (@ITV) April 8, 2026

Online, many people praised Fry for his answers and the rapport he struck up with those questioning him.

Tonight’s #TheAssembly was pure magic! Stephen Fry handled everything with such warmth and grace—even when the "smiling assassins" got cheeky and asked if he was a top or a bottom! A brilliant mix of chaos, wit, and deeply moving honesty. Truly TV at its best.

— Ian Archard (@archard_ia53975) April 8, 2026

I don't tweet much these days – you know that already.

I've just watched The Assembly with Stephen Fry. And I can't help but think this might be one of the most uplifting things I've seen on TV for a very long time.

Well done… to everyone involved. (Where are the tissues?)

— Stephen Swann (@stephenjswann) April 8, 2026

Stephen Fry looked very nervous through most of this. He got the most brutal questions i’ve seen yet on this show. The list of adverts was very funny. #TheAssembly

— Flex (@alexis_cronx) April 8, 2026

Viewers in the UK can watch the episode on YouTube.

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Movie buffs know the Cannes Film Festival as one of the most prestigious & glamorous fests in the world, and it’s also developed quite a reputation as a pipeline to Oscars glory.

Of late, its top prize, the Palme d’Or, has been awarded to films that would go on to win Best Picture like Anora and Parasite, while other winners from abroad like It Was Just An Accident and Anatomy Of A Fall have made major headway into awards season, too.

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All of which is to say, each year when the new Cannes lineup drops feels like Christmas morning for cinephiles. And we must’ve been extra good this year, because to our great surprise & delight, the 2026 festival looks like it’s going to be very, very gay!

As always, there’s a stacked roster of films “In Competition” for the fest’s major prizes, but Cannes also offers the “Un Certain Regard” program for innovative & emerging talents, other out-of-competition premieres & special screenings, and the “Midnight” program for more risqué genre fare.

But no matter where they are on the lineup, films with LGBTQ+ themes & filmmakers are eligible for the special Queer Palm, which since 2010 has been awarded to modern queer classics like Carol, Stranger By The Lake, and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.

And, again, given how many great gay movies have been announced to premiere at the 2026 Cannes—running May 12 – 23 in the French Riviera—competition for the Queer Palm is going to be stiff! We can’t wait to see how this turns out…

So, let’s get into it, shall we? Here’s a first-blush preview of all the exciting queer films at Cannes that we have a feeling we’ll be talking about all year long…

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In Competition

Bitter Christmas, Pedro Almodóvar

What’s gayer than having a mental breakdown over the holiday season? How about one directed by Almodóvar? Since the ’80s, the prolific Spanish auteur has given us lurid thrillers, campy farces, and stirring melodramas that bring his distinctively queer sensibilities to the big-screen in eye-popping color.

His latest appears to fit the latter category—the IMDB logline says it’s about “a woman being abandoned by her partner during Christmastime”—but with a meta-framework about the creative process that calls to mind the filmmaker’s excellent auto-fiction Pain & Glory from a few years back. Throw in an extended striptease scene from a male burlesque dancer, and we might just have our new favorite Almodóvar film!

Coward, Lukas Dhont

At just 34, handsome Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont is basically a Cannes prodigy, having made his debut with the trans coming-of-age film Girl that won the Queer Palm in 2018, which he followed up with the Oscar-nominated Close in 2022, the heartbreaking story about the fraught friendship between two young boys.

Now he’s back with Coward, the story of a young Belgian man in 1916 who “discovers love and art while performing in trench shows,” theatrical performances staged by & for soldiers to lift their spirits during WWI. The cast has not yet been announced and other details are scarce—save for a very evocative film still—but given Dhont’s track record, we’d bet this one will also be incredibly gay and incredibly devastating.

The Black Ball, Javier Ambrossi & Javier Calvo

Though the duo colloquially known as Los Javis announced they had broken up late last year, it seems their creative partnership is still going strong, an impressively eclectic run that’s included Drag Race España, the acclaimed miniseries Veneno, and the original musical movie Holy Camp!

But next up might just be their most ambitious project yet, La Bola Negra, or “The Black Ball.” Set in 1932, 1937 and 2017, its story is said to follow the inter-connected lives of three gay men, exploring what it means to be queer in three different eras. To do so, they’ve assembled a jaw-dropping cast that includes Glenn Close, Penélope Cruz, Julio Torres, Elite’s Miguel Bernardeau, and even sexy singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente!

The Man I Love, Ira Sachs

Emerging from the New Queer Cinema movement of the ’90s, Sachs has become one of the most accomplished & revered filmmakers of his generation, crafting achingly intimate stories about love (Love Is Strange), friendship (Little Men), and desire (Passages).

But it sounds like he’ll be working on a bigger canvas with The Man I Love an original “musical fantasia” starring Rami Malek & Rebecca Hall set in 1980s NYC, said to be about “a downtown artist living in an extraordinary moment between great illness and death.” As we’ve previously covered, details from the film thus far have curiously obscured the fact that it is almost certainly confronting the realities of life during the AIDS crisis, providing a time capsule for a very specific time & place in our community’s history.

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Un Certain Regard & Beyond

Club Kid, Jordan Firstman

Yep, that Jordan Firstman. The actor & comedian who made a name for himself with hyper-specific impressions on Instagram (“banana bred’s publicist” being a fave). The same guy who had un-simulated sex in the fantastic dark comedy Rotting In The Sun. The one who stirred up plenty of discourse when he un favorably compared Heated Rivalry‘s sex scenes to his work in I Love LA.

It’s pretty amazing to see his feature directorial debut—which he also writes & stars in—headed to Cannes, especially one that sounds wild & queer as Club Kid, about a “washed-up underground party promoter” who suddenly has to look after the son he never knew he had. Unsurprisingly, he’s joined by a killer cast that includes Miss Benny, Cara Delevigne, and Diego Calva.

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Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun

After breaking new ground for trans cinema with the mind-meltingly brilliant I Saw The TV Glow, we were going to be eager for whatever Schoenbrun did next, but oh my god are we excited to see this one. It’s a meta horror-comedy about a young queer director who gets the chance to helm the latest sequel in a past-its-prime slasher series, trying to coax the franchise’s original “final girl” out of retirement to star, “leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos.”

And did we mention those two roles are played by Hacks‘ Hannah Einbinder & The X-Files‘ Gillian Anderson? No to mention Eva Victor, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Jack Haven, Sarah Sherman & The Kids In The Hall‘s Kevin McDonald in the supporting cast. Check in on the sapphics in your life, because we don’t know if they’ll survive this one!

Jim Queen, Nicolas Athane & Marco Nguyen

Film nerds love to remind us that Shrek once was in competition at Cannes, and yet the festival doesn’t have the most extensive history with animated films. So it’s kind of a shock to see one in the Midnights section of the lineup, not to mention one that sounds as campy, quirky, and queer as Jim Queen.

The feature directorial effort from French duo Nicolas Athane & Marco Nguyen its art style looks a bit like Steven Universe meets Tom Of Finland. And as for the plot? Well, we’ll just leave the official synopsis right here: “A gay influencer’s life crumbles when a virus turns Paris’s gay men straight. He teams up with a twink to find a rumored cure in the Marais district.” Sold!

And, we should clarify: These are just the queer titles that are already on our radar—who knows what other films might surprise us!

For instance, we have our eyes on Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All Of A Sudden, which is said to be about the intimate bond between two women in academia. Queer icon Kristen Stewart stars in Quentin Dupiex’s Full Phil, which is being described as a nightmarish Emily In Paris. And then there’s Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell, a mysterious thriller with a cast of hot rising stars including Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu, Diego Calva, and Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher in the lead role. Yes, please!

So, yeah, we’re pretty jealous to not be going to France next month. But you better believe we’ll be following along for all the updates, reaction & more. So stay tuned, and brace yourselves for what’s quickly shaping up to be an incredibly gay year at the movies!

You can find the full announcement of the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival lineup here.

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Reality stars, they’re just like us … messy AF!

Shahs of Sunset star Reza Farahan is no stranger to giving his opinion on just about everything and everyone. And that’s partly why he’s been such a fan favorite for years.

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But the 52-year-old outspoken reality vet, who currently stars on Bravo’s The Valley: Persian Style, is now turning the tables and spilling all the tea on himself.

Reza just released his new memoir, the amazingly titled Memoirs of a Gay Shah: My Story of Family, Fame, and Becoming a King, and it reveals all kinds of spicy deets about his wild sexcapades prior to becoming a Bravolebrity.

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From friends to threesome

One of the juiciest hook-ups involved a friendship with Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper that eventually evolved into a threesome relationship. It happens!

The duo first met working out at the same gym and became “inseparable” hanging out all the time. One thing lead to another and the men were soon more than platonic friends.

“Bob and I carried on like that for a good while. It was very much a friends-­with-­benefits situation, though,” Reza writes in the book, per People.

“I wanted more, but I always got the feeling he wasn’t interested in any kind of serious relationship with anybody, so I didn’t really push the matter.”

But turns out Bob wasn’t a f*ckboy, he was married!

According to Reza, Bob was wed at the time to a man named Scott. Plot twist!

Instead of that information ending the hook-up, a ménage à trois situation developed with all parties on board. But it soon got complicated as feelings got involved.

“Bob and I still ended up falling totally in love,” Reza adds. “For a while, Bob was bouncing back and forth between Scott and me.”

However, Reza notes that the trio relationship ended on a “bittersweet” note following an unexpected tragedy.

“Poor Scott, who I honestly harbored no ill will toward even though I was chasing his husband, ended up passing away,” Reza writes. “And even though Bob and I didn’t last forever, we remain friends to this day.”

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A post shared by Reza Farahan (@rezafarahan)

While Reza doesn’t give a timeframe for when and he Bob were romantically involved, it appears to be prior to Shahs of Sunset‘s premiere in 2012.

This isn’t the first time Reza and Bob’s past has come up. Back in 2015, Bob himself confirmed the romp during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live.

Without going into specifics or mentioning his late ex, Bob admitted they had “a thing.”

“We had a thing—a very, very long time ago!” Harper told Andy Cohen. “It was a tawdry little thing!”

Maybe not-so little as far as Reza is concerned, but ok.

Bob Harper

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A post shared by Bob Harper (@bobharper)

Bob’s relationship – and possible marriage – to his late partner Scott was not previously known. He’s never spoken publicly about the relationship and there doesn’t seem to be photos of them together as a couple.

In 2019, Bob became engaged to his longtime boyfriend Anton Gutierrez. However in August 2025, the Traitors alum, 60, disclosed they had broken off their engagement.

Bob is currently single and teaching hot yoga near his NYC home.

Reza and Adam Neely

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A post shared by Reza Farahan (@rezafarahan)

Interestingly, Reza also first met his husband Adam Neely at the gym. The duo began dating in 2010 and were engaged in August 2013. The proposal was featured in an episode during the third season of Shahs of Sunset.

They married in October 2015 during a surprise ceremony in Palm Springs, which was also filmed for an episode during the fifth season of the Bravo series.

Following their 10th wedding anniversary, both Reza and Adam have continued to share their romance for the cameras on The Valley: Persian Style.

The Valley: Persian Style can be streamed on Peacock and Reza’s book Memoirs of a Gay Shah: My Story of Family, Fame, and Becoming a King is out now.

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Do threesomes help or hurt long-term relationships? Gays share their experiences
Is three’s company or a crowd? Let us know what you think.

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Could Texas fall?

For years, the Lone Star State has been a tease for Democrats. Buoyed by its diversity and influx of young people, the biggest Republican-led state in the country seems destined to turn blue. The political prophecy almost came true in 2018, when Ted Cruz narrowly edged Beto O’Rourke in a tight Senate race.

But since then, Texas has turned rightward. Tr*mp has won the state by greater margins each time he’s run.

In 2024. he garnered nearly 2 more million votes (6.375 million) than he did in 2016 (4.68). That’s why the ominous warnings from a top Texas GOP official should be heeded.

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This week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the second-ranked official in the state, said Republicans may lose the Texas House for the first time since 2003.

He issued his warning as part of a plea for party activists to coalesce around the winner of the upcoming GOP Senate run-off between Sen. John Cronyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“Get over it and come together as one,” he said at a conference, per the Texas Tribune. “We’re going to have a tough time holding the Texas House.”

Currently, Republicans hold an 88-62 advantage in the House, and a 20-11 advantage in the State Senate. In the House, Democrats would need to flip at least 14 seats to win a majority.

Overall, Dems have flipped more than two dozen seats in Republican or battleground states since 2025. Deliciously, one of those districts encompasses Mar-a-Lago.

Ground zero for the GOP’s desperate redistricting push, Texas seems to represent the national mood. With Tr*mp’s approval ratings under water, Republicans will likely lose the House, and maybe the Senate, too. Democratic nominee James Talarico, who’s already a political star, could become the first Dem to win statewide in Texas since 1994.

That’s precisely why Patrick is sounding the alarm. Oh, let the horse race begin…

Who is Dan Patrick?

The fact that we’re quoting the Texas Lt. Gov. and not condemning him, should highlight the significance of his warning. Patrick is one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in the country.

He’s championed Texas’ own “Don’t Say Gay” law, a decade’s worth of anti-trans bills, and framed the battle over LGBTQ+ rights in biblical terms. In a recent campaign ad, Patrick boasts that he’s made Texas the “most conservative state in the nation.”

But Patrick’s arch conservatism might be exactly what’s driving Texas voters away.

A bruising Senate race

Despite being exposed as a corrupt adulterer, Paxton, the most anti-gay AG in the country, came within 1.2 points of knocking off Cronyn in the GOP primary. Their race will go to a run-off on May 26.

A four-term incumbent, the 74-year-old Cronyn oozes Beltway Insider. In recent years, he’s made a hard right turn to try and attract Tr*mp’s support. But so far, the president has withheld his endorsement.

Paxton better embodies MAGA’s ethos, right down to the womanizing and shady dealings. The Texas House impeached Paxton for using his office to benefit a friend and political donor who had helped him hide his extramarital affair.

His wife, a state senator, filed for divorce last year on “biblical grounds.”

As AG, Paxton has dedicated his career towards suing the federal government over LGBTQ+ protections, dating back to the Obama administration.

Much like Patrick, he’s helped turn Texas into a MAGA breeding ground. Meanwhile, James Talarico continues to lead general election polls…

Blaring warning signs

At the White House’s urging, Texas underwent aggressive redistricting and created five more right-leaning congressional districts. The maps were redrawn based on 2024, when high percentages of Latinos and young men voted for Republicans.

But trends nationwide, and in Texas itself, show that fragile coalition is breaking. Latinos have swung back towards Democrats in big numbers. The turnout in the Texas Democratic Senate primary between Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett reflect that.

In multiple Latino-majority counties, more voters were cast in the Democratic primary than for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Latinos comprise roughly 40% of Texas’ diverse population.

At the federal level, Texas Republicans may have cost themselves seats. Those consequences would likely trickle down to the rest of the ballot.

Tr*mp suffering major losses

This week, Tr*mp endured the worst night of his presidency With his tail between his legs, he announced a fragile cease-fire and withstood more electoral losses.

Even in deep red Georgia, the MAGA brand appears to be dying out. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district swung 25 points towards the Democrat in a special House election for her seat. Dan Patrick was surely paying attention to those results.

Everything is bigger in Texas, after all, including the wipeouts.

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The developers behind Pokémon Champions, the newly released video game from the mega-popular monster-fighting cartoon franchise, announced that they will correct a bug that allowed Gallade, a male creature, to have a female gender marker. The temporary error prompted some fans to humorously declare that it allowed the creature to be “transgender.”

Screenshots of the game showed the Gallade, a fighting bipedal creature, with a female symbol () denoting its sex. However, the game has always had Gallade evolve from a male version of a Kirlia (a smaller, androgynous-looking creature); a female Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir, a fairy creature that floats in a long skir). The evolved males and females look distinctly different, a real-life biological phenomenon known as sexual dimorphism.

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Some fans of the game began referring to the female Gallade as a “transgender Gallade,” likely as a joke and as a way to insert LGBTQ+ content into the game. While LGBTQ+ content exists in Pokémon games, it has often been through subtle nods, character dialogue, and queer-coding rather than explicitly labeled representation.

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Though the game was just released this last Wednesday, in a statement released Thursday, the Pokémon Company said it would soon release a patch to fix several of the game’s bugs, including “an error of some genders of Pokémon in the tutorial and in released teams.” 

The LGBTQ+ publication them noted that the Japanese dialogue from the 2013 role-playing video game Pokémon X/Y had the trainer Beauty Nova reveal that she was “reborn” as a Beauty (a female class trainer in the game) after originally being a Black Belt (a male class of trainer).

“A mere half year ago, I was a Black Belt! Quite the transformation, wouldn’t you say?” Beauty Nova says in the Japanese language version of the game. “I’ve recently remade my life completely! I’ve been reborn as a Beauty at last!”

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Charles Melton knows where the beef is!

The 35-year-old hunk first caught our attention as Reggie in the CW’s Riverdale and then respectively fixated our gaze as Julianne Moore’s younger lover in queer director Todd Haynes’ May December.

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Now Melton is about to make mouths waters in the second season of Netflix’s anthology series Beef, so, naturally, the 35-year-old is putting all of his front and center in a new homoerotic fashion spread for i-D Magazine.

With his muscles greased up and barely wearing a pair of itty-bitty short shorts, the actor is giving ’70s/early ’80s bodybuilder physique model eleganza in images lensed by photographer Charlie Denis.

Show us that meaty tuck, Mr. Melton!

Lathered up with enough baby oil to attend any Diddy house party, Melton posed and flexed showing off his hard-earned gym gains in numerous body-baring fits.

Whether his glistening musculature was decked out in a chainmail apron, a retro bodysuit by Wooyoungmi or a fitted Dries Van Norten spandex shorts, the vintage beefcake pictorial vibes, styled by Gadir Rajab, were pure fire.

Sorry hairy chest bros, it’s all about a smooth hairless king today!

The accompanying article leads with the headline “Charles Melton is 100% Beef” and we couldn’t agree more. Apologies to vegans everywhere!

All the meaty wordplay is of course a nod to Melton’s turn in the new season of Netflix’s rage-bait drama Beef.

In the new season, Melton co-stars with Cailee Spaeny as a Gen Z couple that gets into a generational war with their boss and his wife, millennials Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan.

If you watched the award-winning first season, then you know to expect your anxiety level to hit new heights once the eight-episode second season premieres April 16th.

In the meantime, Melton is keeping the carnivore hunger alive with his sizzling well-done fashion spread. Sorry, but the puns write themselves.

So stay well-fed and check out the rest of Melton’s mouth-watering i-D photos and behind-the-scenes video below…

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As the Vietnam War raged on, Walter Cronkite filed a special report with a rare on-air commentary. In it, the legendary CBS anchor declared the catastrophic conflict, well into its second decade, was destined to “end in a stalemate.”

Upon watching Cronkite’s warning, President Lyndon B. Johnson reportedly remarked that if he had lost the venerated newsman, he had “lost Middle America.” Two months later, LBJ announced he would not seek re-election in 1968.

In today’s America, there’s no equivalent to Cronkite, and “Middle America” has disintegrated into a million little echo chambers. But we are experiencing a similar breaking point. For three straight days, D*nald Tr*mp has threatened to commit war crimes in Iran and destroy the country of 90 million people.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the 79-year-old declared Tuesday morning.

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In response, the loudest carnival barkers in the MAGA echo chamber are publicly denouncing the president. Even for them, genocidal insanity is a step too far.

Now the question is, will our country be rescued from the nuclear brink? For humanity’s sake, here’s hoping the answer is yes.

“How do we 25th Amendment his a**?”

Alex Jones, a desperate and defeated people turn their weary eyes to you. The arch conspiracy theorist has broken with the president over his illegal war in Iran, recently praying that Tr*mp is “rescued from the evil control he’s under.”

Now, the Info Wars host wants Tr*mp out of office. “How do we 25th Amendment his a**?,” he asked on his show.

Marjorie Taylor Greene issued the same demand. “25TH AMENDMENT!!!” she posted Tuesday. “This is evil and madness.”

While we’ve known for a decade that Tr*mp is deranged and unfit for office, we won’t discourage anybody from joining the chorus. We appear to be on the verge of catastrophe, engineered by the President of the United States in our name. Now is not the time for purity tests!

We remain suspicious of MTG’s rebrand while hoping her calls for intervention are heeded. The situation is spiraling out of control.

On Easter Sunday, Tr*mp threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants, which is almost certainly a war crime. The Geneva Convention, ratified after WW2, prohibits the targeting of critical civilian infrastructure.

Using expletives, POTUS said he would attack if Iran didn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz.

“Open the F*ckin’ Strait, you crazy b*stards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!,” he posted at 7:03 a.m. EST before concluding with a very Christian message: “Praise be to Allah.”

Tr*mp’s mockery of Islam sent one of his most steadfast boosters, Tucker Carlson, over the edge.

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The biggest defection

For months, Carlson has lambasted the Administration for its unauthorized campaigns against Iran and Venezuela. But the ex-Fox News host has avoided criticizing Tr*mp directly.

Until now. After his Easter morning missive, Carlson ripped into Tr*mp with a scathing monologue.

“How dare you speak that way on Easter morning to the country?” he said. “Who do you think you are? You’re tweeting out the f-word on Easter morning.”

Carlson went on to call Tr*mp’s threats “vile on every level.” He also took issue with the president lampooning Islam.

“No decent person mocks other people’s religions,” he said.

In keeping with our theme, people of all political stripes welcomed Carlson’s words.

Carlson also called for military officers to take away the nuclear codes…

The end of an empire

If one were to draw up the end of the American Empire, it would look a lot like the current moment.

At the White House on Monday, Tr*mp rambled on about the war effort beside an Easter Bunny. It was a visual that even the strongest high would struggle to produce.

“I don’t think it gets much more hostile than Iran,” he said. “They’re capable fighters, they’re very tough people. You don’t mind when the enemy is weak, but that enemy is strong. Not so strong like they were about a month ago, I can tell you. Right now, they’re not too strong at all in my opinion.”

Later in the White House briefing room, Tr*mp gushed over the military’s apparent rescue of an injured airman whose plane was shot down in Iran.

Oozing with incoherence, his words were impossible to follow.

“They came in so fast and so hard and these guys knew exactly what—‘let’s go, come in, get in, let’s go, pwah!,'” he said. “They came right after another. Not at the same time. They don’t want to come at the same time. They had to come right after each other. They didn’t have any room.”

And we, clearly, do not have a sane president in office.

MS NOW medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta said he’s certain the soon-to-be 80-year-old Tr*mp is suffering from dementia.

Will the 25th Amendment be invoked?

With all that said… we’re not hopeful! Ratified in 1967, the 25th Amendment would require the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to declare that Tr*mp is unable to discharge his power or duties.

While an increasing number of Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment, no elected Republican has followed suit.

As Tr*mp teases genocide, JD Vance, who would be responsible for invoking the clause, is all the way in Hungary.

Thirsty for approval, the VP echoed Tr*mp’s threats in a speech Tuesday.

That’s right: the situation is so dire, Alex Jones has a stronger grip on reality than our Vice President. That’s not good.

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Transgender Dutch darts champion Noa-Lynn van Leuven recently announced that the Darts Regulatory Authority (DRA) has “retired” her with its new policy banning trans women from competing in women’s events. The 29-year-old champion called the new policy “another huge hit for the trans community.”

On Thursday, the DRA (the independent governing body that regulates professional and some amateur darts competitions) announced that it “replaced its Trans and Gender Diverse Policy with an Eligibility Policy and Rules for open and women’s tournaments, which will now be in operation across affiliated organizations,” including the U.K.-based groups, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and Professional Darts Players Assocation (PDPA), Sports Bible reported.

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The DRA’s policy review commissioned developmental biologist Dr. Emma Hilton, who has published several papers on gender and sports, to examine sex differences in the sport. She concluded that “multiple, small magnitude sex differences accumulate to generate male advantage over females in darts.”

As such, the DRA announced that it will no longer allow trans women to compete in its women’s competitions. Instead, they will have to compete in an “open” category, which allows players of any gender.

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The policy change personally affects van Leuven, as it as now excludes her from competing in the PDC Women’s Series, where she has won six titles across the previous two seasons.

“I just got an email. Apparently, I just got retired, not by choice, but because I’m no longer allowed to compete,” said van Leuven in a recent Instagram post about the DRA’s policy change. “The DRA just decided that trans women are no longer allowed in women’s events, which basically means I’m out.”

“I’ve worked so damn hard for years just to get here: I showed up, I competed, I respected the sport every game, every single day,” she continued. “And now, with just one decision, I’m being told I don’t belong anymore.”

“This isn’t just about me. This is another huge hit for the trans community, especially after recent decisions made by the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she continued, referring to the IOC’s recent banning of trans women and mandatory genetic testing for all female athletes.

“Every day it’s getting harder and harder for trans people just to exist, to compete. If you think this stops with me, it doesn’t,” she continued. “We just want to be.”

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Last July, van Leuven was banned from the World Darts Federation (WDF) after it announced new rules banning trans women from women’s tournaments. Last May, English player Deta Hedman forfeited a match against van Leuven rather than compete against her.

“I’m not scared to play in the WDF, but I’m not comfortable,” she told The i Paper last December. “Every time I play a tournament in the WDF, something happens against me. Either bullying, or in Wales, someone even threw a tennis ball at me, and it hit me full in the face.”

At the time, van Leuven said she intended to continue to compete. “I love this game too much, and why would I let anyone else ruin my passion for darts?” she told the Daily Record. “I just want to play darts.”

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On Wednesday, 11 members of the Turkish rights group Young LGBTI+ were tried over charges of “obscenity” and “violating the protection of the family,” their lawyer told Agence France-Presse.

The defendants face three years in prison for violating an article in the Turkish constitution that prosecutors say undermines “family values.” Among the activists’ offenses: posting images to social media that show same-sex couples kissing, a display deemed “obscene” by the government.

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The trial in the western city of Izmir could result in prison time for the defendants and the suspension of their civil rights. It coincides with an appeal against another court ruling issued in December ordering Young LGBTI+’s dissolution based on the same charges.

While homosexuality isn’t illegal in Turkey as it is in most neighboring Muslim-majority countries, authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made the LGBTQ+ community a frequent target when it suits him. He blames Turkey’s low birthrate in part on gay people.

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“This trial arises from a policy of excluding LGBT+ people from the public sphere,” said Kerem Dikmen, who is the Young LGBTI+ group’s lawyer and also a defendant in the case.

“This is not about obscenity. Activities that are perfectly legitimate, legal and in line with the Constitution are being criminalized. It is a form of dehumanization,” he said.

Turkey’s tenuous ties to Europe once moderated the country’s official treatment of LGBTQ+ Turks, but with Erdogan’s rise, the country’s integration with the West stalled. Talks on EU membership, first proposed in 1999, effectively ended in 2016 over European concerns on human rights, migration issues, and Erdogan’s democratic backsliding.

In October, draft legislation leaked that would impose penalties targeting Turkey’s LGBTQ+ community and behavior deemed “contrary to biological sex and general morality.”

“Legislators could be considering the criminalization of any expression of LGBTI identities, consensual same-sex sexual activity, and access to vital gender-affirming healthcare,” Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty’s Deputy Director for Europe, said at the time. “Under these proposals, people could face jail terms based on gender stereotypes, how they present themselves, and who they chose to be in a relationship with.”

“These proposals present a grave threat to the rights of LGBTI people and those who advocate for LGBTI rights, and they must never see the light of day,” he warned.

While the legislation was withdrawn in November, the new case is testing the limits of current law to the same ends.

“We will not give up defending human rights,” said Young LGBTI+’s lawyer. “But they are trying to send a message to society through us.”

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There’s uproar in San Francisco over the news that a local coffee chain will be removing its Pride flags.

Phil Jaber and son Jacob launched Philz Coffee in San Francisco in 2003. It now has outlets across the Bay Area, as well as greater Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and Chicago.

The Jabers completed a sale of the business, which now has around 75 branches, last year. It’s now owned by private equity firm Freeman Spogli & Co.

On the weekend, a Change.org petition was launched by unnamed baristas. They expressed unhappiness over a new dictate that they remove Pride flags from stores.

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“Philz Coffee’s recent decision to remove pride flags from their stores has left many team members and customers feeling confounded and unsupported,” they say. “Within Philz’s expressed core values, the company emphasizes its goal to create a ‘customer and team-member focused’ experience. The pride flags within the stores hold deep meaning and value to both staff and visitors, symbolizing that these locations are safe and welcoming spaces for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“Unity is fundamental to how we operate”

In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, CEO Mahesh Sadarangani appeared to confirm the policy. Sadarangani said Philz, “was working toward creating a more consistent, inclusive experience across all our stores, including removing a variety of flags and other decor.”

Sadarangani went on to say that Philz’s “longstanding support of the LGBTQIA+ community is unchanged. This is a change in how our stores look, not in who we are. Our allyship runs deeper than what is on our walls. It shows up in who we hire, how we treat one another and in our annual Pride Month Unity celebration, which returns this June as it has every year. Unity is fundamental to how we operate.”

Local media outlets report not all stores have implemented the policy. Some staff say they’ve not yet been informed about it.

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Customers react to news of the change

As evidenced on its social media, the brand is known for displaying Pride flags in several stores. The video below appeared in January.

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Unsurprisingly, many people are now leaving critical comments on the Philz Coffee social media pages.

“Uninstalled my app today and decided no more Philz for myself or orders for my staff,” said one customer. “Removing flags does not create inclusivity, it’s the opposite.”

Some customers say this is the latest way that Philz Coffee has changed in ethos since it was sold to a private equity firm.

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Shortly after Pope Leo XIV delivered a January 9 speech which he criticized “diplomacy based on force” and said, “War is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading,” the Pentagon reportedly sent the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Jaunuary 22 meeting where U.S. officials suggested that the U.S. military could retaliate against Vatican City, the pope’s residence, The Free Press reported.

A Pentagon official allegedly told Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, that the U.S. military has the “power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” the media outlet reported, citing unnamed sources. The Pentagon denied the report, calling it “grossly false and distorted.”

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Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See (the central government and supreme authority of the Roman Catholic Church), said that, in a Thursday conversation, Pierre called The Free Press‘ report “just invented … fabrications.”

Burch wrote on X, “Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I was likewise not surprised when His Eminence acknowledged there were no threats of any kind in the meeting. ‘It was a frank and cordial meeting that took place two months ago.’ … It’s regrettable that some journalists and online agitators chose to exploit a routine meeting to sow division between the Holy See and the United States.” 

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The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See concurred with Burch, saying, “Deliberate misrepresentation of these routine meetings sows unfounded division and misunderstanding. Our relationship remains strong and productive.” 

The Free Press was founded by transphobic lesbian journalist Bari Weiss. She now serves as editor-in-chief of CBS News.

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On TACO Tuesday, D*nald Tr*mp got served a heaping plate of political comeuppance.

Hopefully he was hungry!

As the U.S. and Iran announced a fragile cease-fire that doesn’t accomplish any of the administration’s supposed objectives, Republicans were once again thrashed in local elections from suburban Wisconsin to Anchorage, Alaska. Though the GOP did retain a House seat in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s deep red Georgia district, the electorate swung towards the Democratic candidate by 25 points. It was the Dems’ biggest over-performance in a special House election in 18 years.

With a narrow majority in Congress and Tr*mp’s approval ratings under water, Republicans are bracing themselves for a midterm shellacking. Already, Democrats have flipped more than two dozen seats in Republican or battleground states, while the GOP hasn’t captured any Democrat-held seats.

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In a delicious example of symbolism, Dems have even flipped the Florida district that includes Mar-a-Lago, where Tr*mp and his cabinet plotted the five-week war that sent the world to the nuclear brink.

Here are all the ways that Tr*mp is licking his wounds…

Iran

The world never needed a TACO Tuesday more. Hours after threatening the Iranian people with extinction, Tr*mp reversed course and accepted a cease-fire. While both sides are claiming victory, it’s apparent that Iran holds the cards.

Despite absorbing 13,000 targeted strikes from U.S. and Israeli forces, Iran managed to choke off the global oil supply and pelted America’s Persian Gulf allies with missiles and drones. They hit oil refineries, economic hubs and American military bases, shattering the perceived insulation of glistening desert metropolises such as Dubai and Doha from the region’s instability.

Emboldened, Iranian officials released a 10-point peace plan that involves the lifting of all sanctions, U.S. withdrawal from the Middle East and continued control over the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through. Still intact, the hardline Iranian regime hasn’t mentioned anything about surrendering its nuclear stockpile, the alleged driving force behind America and Israel’s bombing campaign.

Desperate to save face, the White House says they received a different proposal from Iran, but there’s no denying the uncertainty on the ground. As of Wednesday morning, ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains “throttled,” per the New York Times.

Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the biggest tragedy of this senseless war: the mass loss of human life, including a reported 3,500 in Iran, 1,400 in Lebanon and 19 in Israel and 13 American service members.

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Wisconsin

Last spring, a usually obscure election for a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin attracted $100 million in spending and featured Elon Musk donning a cheesehead hat. But the richest man in the world’s money and presence backfired.

The Democratic candidate won the seat.

On Tuesday, another election for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat was held, albeit with much less fanfare. The liberal candidate skated to a blowout win over his conservative rival, providing progressives with a 5-2 advantage on the bench.

In keeping with national trends, heavily Hispanic areas shifted sharply towards the Democrat-aligned candidate. A key voting bloc for the GOP in 2024 has all but evaporated. Maybe siccing federal agents on immigrant communities wasn’t such a good idea after all!?

Despite Milwaukee and Madison’s status as deep blue cities, Wisconsin has remained a swing state due to its populous and ruby red suburbs. But in another sign of electoral doom for the GOP, Democrats won a mayoral seat in one of the state’s most conservative areas.

Here’s another crazy stat: if you toss out all the Wisconsin districts that Kamala Harris carried in ’24, the liberal Supreme Court candidate still would’ve won.

Georgia looking peachy

Tr*mp won Marjorie Taylor Greene’s rural district with 68% of the vote. The Republican who’s taking MTG’s place in Congress, Clay Fuller, won by just 11%.

Since re-signing from Congress, MTG has emerged as one of Tr*mp’s most vociferous critics on the right. She says the president has sold out the “America First” movement and working class people. In the wake of his unhinged threats, she’s called for him to be removed from office.

It appears that many GOP voters in her district agree. All 10 of the area’s counties shifted by double digits towards the Democratic candidate.

In 2024, nearly two dozen House Republicans won their races by 10 points or less.

Even the GOP’s brazen redistricting efforts don’t seem like they can change the midterm math: Republicans are in trouble!

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It may be too late for Philz Coffee.

A belated announcement by the specialty coffee shop’s CEO on Wednesday explained that the San Francisco-born retailer will remove Pride flags and other LGBTQ+ ephemera from all of its locations, following the company’s sale last August to a private equity firm.

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The company didn’t respond to inquiries about the new policy.

Phil Jaber and his son Jacob founded Philz Coffee in Jaber’s former corner store on 24th Street in the Mission District in San Francisco in 2003. 

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The owners’ “one cup at a time” philosophy and the store’s groovy ambiance — posters, tapestries, and painted clouds on the walls brewed hippie nostalgia — caught on with the artisanal crowd in the Bay Area and made Philz a coffee spot phenomenon. 75 locations now operate across California and the Chicago area.

The Silicon Valley darling catered the coffee at Mark Zuckerberg’s 2012 wedding to Priscilla Chan, fortifying guests with caffeine and their not-so-secret ingredients of cardamom and manufacturing cream.

The Jabers and their investors earned $145M with the company’s sale last summer to LA-based private equity firm Freeman Spogli.

CEO Mahesh Sadarangani’s explanation on Wednesday about stripping the stores of Pride flags and “other decor” to create “a more consistent, inclusive experience” was forced by the publication of a Change.org petition from an unnamed group of Philz employees denouncing the new policy.

“The Pride flags within the stores hold deep meaning and value to both staff and visitors, symbolizing that these locations are safe and welcoming spaces for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” the petition reads. “Removing these flags risks alienating a core group of team members and loyal customers who see Philz not just as a coffee shop, but as a place where they are embraced and celebrated for who they are.” 

“Philz has made their branding and fortune off of supporting the LGBTQ community,” said one former barista in response. “This is a slap in the face to all of your employees.”

“Make this right!” they added.

It may be too late for that.

The corporatization of Philz has been underway for a long time, say several staffers, past and present, as the owners met the demands of expansion and other investors throughout the coffee company’s 22-year history. The original poster-laden location closed in 2023.

“It hasn’t been Philz for years now,” one purported employee shared on Reddit just ahead of the company’s sale in August. “They are getting ready for a big Starbucks-style change.” 

Even the petition itself holds clues to the corporatization of OG Philz’ cardamon-infused culture: “team members,” “core values,” “a customer-focused experience,” and “welcoming spaces” are likely not terms that came up between baristas and customers over their custom-made coffees next to a pencil jar holding a Pride flag in 2003.

By the time a company is asked to “reaffirm its commitment to diversity and inclusion, aligning its values with the community it serves,” it’s likely already lost the thread.

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Asiri Kuttige left Sri Lanka for the United Kingdom with nothing besides a small backpack. In it, he packed a pillow and sandals.

It’s fair to say one item wound up being a little more practical than the other!

But don’t blame Kuttige for packing poorly: he had never previously left Sri Lanka. Located about 880 miles off the southeast coast of India, the island nation of 23 million people is known for its breathtaking tropical landscape. A beautiful place to grow up, it can also be stifling. Though Kuttige and his Catholic family grew up as religious minorities in the majority Buddhist nation, their conservative sensibilities were the norm.

Once Kuttige suspected he was gay–he had come across an article in a magazine–he knew he had to leave. “If I stayed in Sri Lanka, I could never be myself,” he tells Queerty.

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Now as an out gay man who splits his time between London and Spain, Kuttige is enjoying a life that he never thought was possible. He’s had a fruitful career in children’s TV and is passionate about his creative pursuits. When he looks in the mirror each day, he’s proud.

That wasn’t always the case. For much of Kuttige’s life, he suffered from body dysmorphia. A dedication towards fitness and wellness shifted him spiritually.

And OK… it also gave him a ripped bod!

“I do this for myself,” he says. “When I stand in front of the mirror, if I feel good, that’s enough.”

The closeted, shy kid who left his school uniform on at the beach would be proud. Better yet, Kuttige enjoys complete acceptance from his family. Though his father passed in 2014, he came out to his mother last year, after all of this time.

She responded with unequivocal love.

“She said, ‘Nothing changes, you are who you are,'” he says. “It was amazing.”

During a moment of downtime, Queerty recently caught up with Kuttige to chat about his transformation, his fitness routine and his dreams of being an underwear model. Here’s what he had to say…

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QUEERTY: Why have you decided to share your story?

ASIRI KUTTIGE: I often receive messages on Instagram, particularly from Asian men who are struggling with their identity or feel afraid to come out because of cultural expectations or family pressure. Many of them are still living with their families and feel they have no safe space to be themselves. I realize that being able to live independently in the U.K. is a privilege, and if sharing my story can give even a small sense of hope to someone who feels stuck or alone, that means a lot to me.

All my life, I’ve gone through body dysmorphia and things like that. I always told myself “I’m not good enough, I’m ugly, that’s why nobody really likes me.” Things like that. I tried to end it end it a few times. But I just kept going. I said to myself, “There has to be something else. There has to be something else.”

You’ve certainly found it. How did you keep going?

I think if I really want something, I really work for it. I won’t stop. People have said to me, “Oh yeah, you’re at a certain age, you will never have abs.” Things like that. I don’t to challenge anyone, but I also want to prove, “Is that true?” I do it for myself. I don’t do it for anyone else. It’s not a competition. That’s how I keep going. If I have a goal, I just keep working towards it.

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Suffice to say, you look great! What’s your fitness routine?

I had a crazy one. I trained seven days per week. But then I just felt it was too much. So I’ve cut back to six days. Now at the moment, it’s five days. I think that’s OK! I do push-pull legs, full-focused full body workouts. That’s my routine.

How do you get yourself to show up at the gym even if you don’t want?

For me, part of it is about confidence and self expression. Since I was very young I have had the dream of modeling underwear or swimwear, so building my physique has been a way of working towards that and feeling confident in my own skin. Another motivation is the environment of the gym itself. Wherever I train there is always someone stronger or fitter, and I see that as a positive thing. I often use that as motivation to push myself a little further each time.

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What do you eat on your cheat day? Please tell me you have one…

I still eat quite clean. But when I go out, I don’t want to feel guilty. I love cakes and pastries! I love cream cakes. I love cheesecake. I don’t feel guilty having some of those.

You mentioned you want to model underwear or swimwear. How do you feel when you’re wearing a speedo?

Amazing, amazing, amazing! I never, ever thought I would be able to wear one. I’ve always been a shy kid. In Sri Lanka, after school you would always go to the beach, because it’s an island and beaches are everywhere. We would go to the beach after school four or five times per week. Everyone would take their clothes off and jump into the water in their underwear. I was the only one who wouldn’t go. I would keep my uniform on, because I was too shy.

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Well, now you’re certainly not! Along those lines, do you prefer thongs or jockstraps?

Oh my God! Oh my God… that’s hard. Uh… thong! Thong!

What’s your favorite muscle to work out?

There’s two of them: glutes and pecs. I have a dedicated page for that as well. Just a dedicated page for workouts for glutes and pecs.

What do you do for fun?

I love TV shows, so I love watching stuff on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV. At the moment, I’ve recently finished Outlander. That’s one of my favorite shows. I also play piano. I have one at home. Then I like cleaning. I’m a clean freak and love things organized and tidy. That’s probably one of the reasons why I’ve never found love! 

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A Christian dad took his son to a TV court for $6,000, claiming his gay son owes him the money because he didn’t attend the entirety of a summer conversion therapy program.

The story appeared on a recent recirculated episode of Equal Justice with Judge Eboni K. Williams, a court-TV show. Dad Gregory Talbert said that he caught his son, Michael Talbert, kissing another boy the previous year when Michael was still 17-years-old. Gregory showed Judge Eboni K. Williams text messages where he threatened to kick his minor child out if he didn’t stop being gay.

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Michael apologized to his father and promised he’d “do whatever you need me to do.” Gregory responded, saying, “Let’s fix this.”

Several days later, Michael found a religious conversion therapy program and told his dad about it. The program would last for three months and would require him to be present every weekday from 8 to 5.

“If I go to the program, can I continue living here?” he asked his dad.

Gregory says he paid for the program because he liked the idea of turning his only child straight. He mentioned that he was very happy when he learned that his child would be a boy so that he would have someone to carry on his family name, something that, as a very religious Christian in the Memphis area, was important to him.

Well, the program didn’t work, and a month into it, Michael wanted to leave. He texted his dad, who refused to let him stop.

“Son, it was your idea to go to this program,” Gregory texted back. “You need to finish what you started. I spent $6,000. Money doesn’t grow on trees. How am I going to teach you how to be a man if you don’t keep your promises? Just follow the rules and you’ll be cured in two more months.”

Michael eventually escaped the program and went to stay with the friend he had previously kissed. His dad was furious and texted him to “pack your things and move out.”

Gregory was asking the court to make his son reimburse him for the $6,000 that the conversion therapy program cost. Judge Williams dismissed his claim, pointing out that Michael only said he wanted to go because he was worried about being thrown out of his home as a minor.

In an emotional moment, Judge Williams took Michael aside and affirmed that he deserves a family that loves him.

“Young man, you are not cursed,” she told him. “You are as loved and as worthy, Michael, as your father, your mother, and everyone else who gets the privilege to reside on this earth, young man. And I don’t care what your daddy says…. I don’t care what some stupid conversion therapy says, which is nothing but a bunch of hoopla and a scam and a money grab for young, vulnerable men like yourself.”

“I see you. You are valuable.”

It’s unclear when the episode first aired, but it has been getting attention on social media recently since it was just uploaded to YouTube. Equal Justice debuted in 2023.

Courtroom television shows are not actual courtrooms and therefore don’t have to follow the same rules as real courts. Equal Justice bills itself as a “small claims court arbitration” show. Arbitration is a private process in which a neutral third party hears both sides of a dispute and issues a decision that may be binding if the parties agreed beforehand to follow it. Arbitration is not the same as civil litigation.

Williams’ Wikipedia page identifies her as a lawyer and a TV host, not as a judge who has been elected or appointed in any jurisdiction. So it’s probably more accurate to think of courtroom TV shows like Equal Justice as talk shows that use a judicial-style format to tell a story.

But the problems with conversion therapy that the show presented are real. Conversion therapy has not been demonstrated to be able to turn LGBTQ+ people straight or cisgender, are often run by members of the clergy or lay ministries in a religious context, and both children and young adults are often badgered into going into them because they want to be good kids for their parents or even worry about being thrown out to the streets before they’re ready to support themselves.

Research has shown that LGBTQ+ youth are twice as likely as straight youth to face homelessness. Conversion therapy is associated with increased depression, anxiety, substance abuse risk, and suicidality.

The episode never explained how aware Michael’s mother was of the conversion therapy or what her reaction is to it now that her son has moved out.

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Lane is currently starring in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman on Broadway.

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Children’s hospitals in Minnesota are fully reinstating their gender-affirming care programs for people under 18 after parts of them were paused for over a month. The healthcare centers had temporarily suspended parts of their programs after the Trump administration threatened the hospitals’ federal funding in December.

“Offering science- and research-based health care to transgender and gender diverse youth is part of Children’s Minnesota’s vision of being every family’s essential partner in raising healthier children,” Children’s Minnesota said in a statement.

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Children’s Minnesota is a non-profit children’s hospital system in Minnesota with locations in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. Like many hospitals and clinics across the country, it suspended elements of its gender-affirming care plan for youth because of pressure from Trump and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

On February 27, Children’s Minnesota released a statement noting that they would “temporarily pause prescribing puberty-suppressing medications and pubertal hormones (estrogen and testosterone) for patients under age 18 in our Gender Health program,” citing “an increase in federal actions directed at pediatric health systems like ours that provide this care.”

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Under that pause, the hospitals still provided gender-related mental health care and counseling. Gender-affirming surgeries were not part of the pause because the hospital does not offer them to minors.

The threat to Children’s Minnesota’s federal funding came in December when Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a declaration deeming puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and surgeries as unsafe (contradicting the evidence-based findings of numerous studies and the best practices recommended by every major medical association). Kennedy’s declaration cited the HHS’s own much-criticized review from May 2025 (which was anonymously generated in 90 days and underwent no peer-review process). His declaration threatened to potentially deny Medicaid and Medicare funding to any hospitals or clinics that still offered those treatments to minors.

Medicaid alone was estimated to have covered the cost of roughly 48% of patients admitted to the Children’s Minnesota Hospitals in 2023. A loss of the Medicaid and Medicare funding would represent millions of dollars of federal funding and result in the hospital being unable to care for many of its patients.

After the declaration, Minnesota was among the 21 states (plus D.C.) that came together to sue HHS in response. The lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, said, “Health care services for transgender young people remain legal, and the federal government cannot intimidate or punish the providers who offer them.”

In March, Oregon-based federal judge, Mustafa Kasubhai, ruled that the administration had overreached with its declaration, providing preliminary relief to hospitals and doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors.

The judge also noted that the declaration did not allow for proper notice periods or hearings, and implied that it was an attempt to circumvent proper policy change procedure.

In his ruling, Judge Kasubhai wrote, “The notion that ‘I will go forward and issue a declaration and see if we can get away with it’ is not a principle of governance that adheres to the overarching commitment to a democratic republic that requires the rule of law to be regarded and respected and honored as a sacred.”

With Judge Kasubhai’s ruling in place, Children’s Minnesota appears to have felt safe enough to offer gender-affirming care in its entirety once more. In its statement, the hospital wrote that the decision was related to “a federal court ruling that vacated a federal declaration attempting to restrict gender-affirming care.”

At this point, 27 states have passed laws restricting access to gender-affirming care for youths. Conversely, Minnesota has passed a law that protects people’s right to access trans healthcare.

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The gay nightlife scene in a U.S. city known for its progressive values and frigid winters may soon get a lot steamier.

For the first time in nearly 40 years, Minneapolis is considering a push to re-open the city’s bathhouses and gay sex clubs. The proposed ordinances, which include updating zoning regulations and revising health standards, would allow sex venues to operate legally.

Like many U.S. cities, Minneapolis had a thriving bathhouse scene until the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. During that time, nearly every major metro passed ordinances that banned the businesses. Minneapolis’ last legal bathhouse closed In 1988, per the Star Tribune.

Citing the public health crisis, officials across the country moved to shutter bathhouses, which was likely at the top of their wishlists anyway. Many activists and academics believe politicians used AIDS as a pretext to surveil gay people and push homosexuality back into society’s shadows.

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With the advent of PrEP and retroviral drugs, the risks today are far different. Minneapolis City Council president Elliott Payne, an author of the proposed changes, told the Star Tribune that he thinks bathhouses can be a benefit for public health.

He also views them as a way to protect queer people from a hostile regime in D.C.

Across the country in San Francisco, a city supervisor has been making a similar argument for years. After passing an array of repeals of 80’s-era prohibitions, San Francisco could soon see the return of its bathhouses as well.

The story of what happened in Minneapolis, and what’s changing, mirrors shifting societal attitudes on bathhouses and cruising in general.

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The battle over bathhouses

Believe it or not, some LGBTQ+ activists were proponents of closing sex clubs. The first out gay member of the Minneapolis City Council, Brian Coyle, helped pass the city’s ban in the ’80s.

He was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1991 at age 47. The Star Tribune says he warned that bathhouses facilitated “high-risk” encounters.

Before the city’s last adult bathhouse closed in ’88, the paper says a former patron of the club demonstrated outside the space and blamed anonymous sex as bathhouses for facilitating the spread of HIV.

Over in San Francisco, Larry Littlejohn, who founded a homophile organization (groups that pushed for gay rights by downplaying sex), first introduced a ballot initiative to close down the city’s baths. SF passed a number of onerous ordinances making it impossible for bathhouses to operate. The last one closed in 1987.

But figures like Coyle and Littlejohn were in the minority. Most advocates were proponents of bathhouses, and blamed conservatives for using concerns over AIDS to fulfill their long-standing objectives.

In addition to being safe places for gay sex, bathhouses were community hubs. They provided a way for medical professionals to reach at-risk people who were detached from care.

Bay Area LGBTQ+ activist Harry Breaux says closing the bathhouses in SF had the same impact on gay people as “shutting down the internet” would today.

The movement in Minneapolis

For nearly a decade, advocates have been pushing to bring back legal bathhouses in Minneapolis. A 2017 article from a now-defunct local newspaper reports on one of the early, under-the-radar meetings.

Even though PrEP had been around for five years, there still wasn’t a lot of political muster behind the movement. As recently as 2023, Minneapolis officials closed down an unlicensed sauna. It boasted around 900 members.

But in the second Tr*mp era, high-profile city officials say they see bathhouses as potential safe havens.

“Parties and events that operate as adult sex venues already happen in the shadows, and we are trying to ensure that they are safe for patrons, especially when LGBTQ+ individuals are under attack by the federal government,” Payne, who is straight, told the Star Tribune.

A spokesperson for Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said he’s supportive of the city looking into the proposal.

As backlash grows over hookup apps and sex bots, bathhouses could also be vital antidotes to social isolation and alienation.

Bathhouses offering IRL experiences

A 2024 Minneapolis report found that six U.S. cities allow bathhouses to operate with special permits. None of those cities “reported issues with the businesses.”

Along with Minneapolis, San Francisco is looking to become one of them. In recent years, the city has lifted a number of restrictions. A City Supervisor named Rafael Mandalman, who’s gay, is leading the charge.

He told GayCities he doesn’t view bathhouses as sex-only venues. In Europe and Asia, they are social places to gather.

He doesn’t see why the same can’t be true here.

“If you think about the great bathhouses around the world, they’re not just sex venues,” he said. “They’re a kind of community center.”

In Mandalman’s mind, gay people connecting in a physical, sex-forward space is preferable to scrolling the grid. With Grindr subscriptions now costing hundreds of dollars annually, it’s also more inclusive and cost effective.

“I think it’s good for human beings,” he said. “People are social. I think we get a kind of stimulation from some of this online activity, including online-based sex apps, but it’s actually better to have more sustained community in person.”

Clearly, there’s an appetite for IRL cruising. In my home city of Chicago, the line for Steamworks, the bathhouse in Boystown, often stretches down the block on busy party weekends.

Rather than looking at their phones, prospective patrons are looking at each other.

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Out trans Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) scorned anti-trans Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) for implying that merely being trans is as egregious as the president’s threat to wipe out Iranian civilization.

McBride, the first out transgender person elected to Congress, posted on Wednesday, condemning Donald Trump‘s Truth Social post proclaiming “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz. Iran stopped allowing ships to pass through the narrow waterway after Trump bombed the country last month.

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“I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump continued.

Of course, Trump did not obliterate Iran. Instead, the president announced a two-week ceasefire deal as he and Iran negotiate. While Trump continues to claim he’s doing an incredible job, many have said it is extremely clear that the United States has suffered an embarrassing defeat in this unnecessary war.

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“It doesn’t matter if it’s ‘just bluster’ or ‘leverage,'” McBride posted yesterday. “The president doesn’t get to threaten genocide as a negotiating tactic.”

Mace replied, “You don’t get to call yourself a woman but you still do it.”

McBride didn’t take it lying down. She reposted Mace’s words and wrote, “According to this person in my replies, trans people exist so Donald Trump gets to genocide a country.”

While some, like Mace and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, have stood by Trump throughout this mess, folks on all sides of the aisle have been horrified by the president’s threats and by his overall conduct toward Iran. Even (former) diehard MAGA followers have spoken out against his behavior.

But as McBride pointed out, Mace seems to believe being trans is the moral equivalent of threatening to kill nearly 100 million people.

When McBride was first elected to Congress, Mace mounted a campaign to prevent her from using the women’s room in the Capitol complex despite trans people having visited the Capitol for decades without incident.

She posted several messages a day to social media, attacking McBride and trans people as she tried to get resolutions passed preventing trans people from using the restrooms associated with their gender identities.

Mace has since continued to escalate her anti-trans rhetoric, building her entire brand around transphobia. In one social media post, she bluntly declared herself a “proud transphobe.”

She has referred to McBride as “it” and claimed, “She’s not a woman! It’s a man!” Mace has repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed McBride; claimed that McBride, trans people, and their allies are a threat to the safety of women and girls; repeatedly discussed McBride’s genitals on national television; and called her “mentally ill.”

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Former Fox Host Megyn Kelly recently went off on the president for allowing himself to be “bamboozled” by Israel into starting a pointless war with Iran.

Kelly’s rant shocked folks on social media, given that her rhetoric has become increasingly inflammatory and extreme of late. She is one in a series of right-wingers who have been speaking out against Donald Trump this week after he threatened to wipe out all of Iran if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz and after it became clear that the U.S. is not winning this war.

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“What led Trump, at 79 years old, to sit there in that Situation Room with Bibi Netanyahu… and buy what that guy was selling hook, line, and sinker when every other president was able to see through that liar?” Kelly told Piers Morgan. “What was it? Because he was told the next day by our own top advisors… that these are lies and that these objectives are not going to be attainable. Don’t believe him.”

She also called the president “too weak to say no” and “too gullible to see through the lies” when he “allowed himself to be pushed into this insane conflict.”

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“The goals as stated by Trump when we actually did pull the trigger were all over the board,” she said, “and to this moment, he’s pushing the BS claim that we effected regime change. No, we didn’t! It’s the same regime, just different players.”

She also pointed out that “Iran is more powerful economically” now, given its control over the Strait of Hormuz.

She slammed Trump for touting lies in the name of “saving face to bail off his insane threats about annihilating an entire civilization.”

“So I don’t know how we got here, Piers,” she said. “I’d like to know just as much as anybody else.

In response, some have expressed their surprise at agreeing with Kelly, while others have wondered how Trump‘s behavior could possibly be a surprise.

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Miami is home to one of the most vibrant communities in the world, one filled with eclectic characters, must-visit locales, and plenty of other jaw-dropping wonders.

No, we’re not talking about the gay nightlife scene of South Beach—we’re talking about the South Florida Reef Tract, a gorgeous underwater ecosystem that is, against all odds, utterly thriving.

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Surely we don’t have to tell you that Mother Nature isn’t doing so hot right now. Thanks to global warming and all the other human-inflicted damage on the planet, many of our most beautiful natural habitats are crumbling right under our feet.

Yet somehow this particular coral reef off the shore of Miami, once decimated by dredging in the 1950s, has bounced back, a resilient sign of hope in these ecologically depressing times.

And two gay men have made it their mission to keep it that way, rallying their community around preserving this aquamarine wonderland. Because not all heroes wear capes… some wear briefs.

Set to make its debut at the Miami Film Festival this month, Neon Reef is a different kind of nature documentary—surely one of the few queer nature docs in existence?—that shines a light on the intersection of the LGBTQ+ community & environmental activism.

At the heart of the story is married couple Patrick Breshike and David Grieser, South Beach residents leading the charge in keeping the South Florida Reef Tract safe from harm.

It was out of boredom during our 2020 lockdown era that the pair began more frequent paddle-boarding trips over the shallows of South Beach where they couldn’t help but notice dark outlines of something below them on the ocean floor. They soon took it upon themselves to strap on some scuba gear and explore beneath the surface, completely blown away by the lively biodiverse ecosystem they found.

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Since then, they’ve been deemed the “reef guardians” of Miami’s Urban Paradise Guild non-profit, rallying their neighbors & lobbying local politicians to do all they can to preserve this natural beauty, warding off poachers, combating the effects of climate change, and educating the masses.

From filmmaker Alex Mitow (a producer of Peter Hujar’s Day), Neon Reef welcomes audiences into Patrick & David’s world, which is just as colorful above & below sea level, as well as the diverse coalition of activists they’ve emboldened, from queer coral scientists to female divers to “eco-mermaid” Merle Liivand, the Guinness World Record-holder for farthest swims using a monofin. Pretty iconic, if you ask us.

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With loud & proud couple Patrick and David front-and-center, their fondness for flashy, form-fitting swimwear makes this an unexpectedly sexy nature doc, but not even their beach bods are a match for the beauty of Miami’s “gorgeous, world-class, eye candy reef.”

On April 19, Neon Reef will make its world premiere at the Miami Film Festival featuring a live Q&A with the director and his subjects—including an optional scenic bike ride to the screening guided by Patrick & David!—so if you’re in the area, grab tickets ASAP because they’re selling fast!

After that, the doc will screen as part of the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival‘s South Beach Shorts program on April 27 (tickets here), and if you’re not in the area, it’ll also be streaming via the fest’s virtual program beginning May 3.

Stay tuned for more festival screenings & wider release details for Neon Reef sure to come. And in the meantime, check out its first teaser trailer below:

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When Joanna Whaley calls potential donors to her campaign for Michigan state representative, she often faces a thorny problem. Awkward exchanges occur when an old friend or colleague is unaware that Whaley transitioned four years ago. Similarly, Whaley has been mistaken for her own brother, when in fact she’s an only child. 

“Some of those conversations go weird,” Whaley told LGBTQ Nation. “We have a semi-pro hockey team in the area, and I was sitting down with one of the directors. In the middle of the conversation, he says, ‘So do you have a brother? I went to high school with someone named blah blah blah,’ and they said my dead name. I’m like, ‘That’s me.’ And they’re like, ‘Whoa, what?’”

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“It happens all the time,” Whaley continued. “I’m honored by it, but at the same time, it does turn into some really weird and uncomfortable conversations, especially with some of my old Christian friends who then try to save my soul and tell me that I’m living in sin.”  Given that Whaley was a pastor in some of the country’s most well known megachurches over a career that spanned 20 years, she does have an abundance of “old Christian friends.”

“My Rolodex is very evangelical,” Whaley said.

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Whaley’s journey from evangelical leader to Democratic candidate is certainly unlikely, made even more so by the fact that she endured conversion therapy with four different therapists over a period of 15 years.

After publicly transitioning at 34, Whaley began advocating for queer rights in affirming faith spaces.

“In the winter of 2022, I was forced to resign from my job as a pastor at one of Michigan’s largest megachurches because they had heard that I was considering a gender transition,” Whaley said. 

“After picking up my life and picking up the pieces and starting my transition publicly, I started working at an LGBTQ affirming church in Royal Oak. And it was in that space that I really began to hear from people who were queer who longed for their faith, like they lost it, and they didn’t know that there were even churches that would accept them.”

By the summer, Whaley was speaking out and sharing her story on social media; she also started a podcast. She’d earned a master’s degree and was working as a clinical hospital chaplain in emergency rooms and ICUs. 

A pivotal opportunity came at a “Hands Off” protest in her community last fall. She volunteered to speak not only on LGBTQ+ rights but also on Christian nationalism, which she knew as well as she knew the Bible.

It was after that speech that people in the community started asking Whaley to run for office. 

“They said, ‘You need to run for something,’” Whaley said. “I wasn’t quite sure what that would be. It wasn’t on my bingo card to run.” 

Whaley was well aware that her current state representative was one of eight House Democrats who voted in favor of a resolution that would ban transgender girls from playing school sports. It was merely symbolic, a transphobic gesture put forth by the majority House Republicans in a divided Legislature with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at the helm. But the fact that so many Democrats voted in favor convinced Whaley how powerful her own voice could be in Lansing. 

Growing up, Whaley said she “wasn’t necessarily politically engaged at home” in her “super Catholic family.” 

“But then I ended up going to this church that was very much in the Christian nationalist world. And so I actually was like a full-blown Christian nationalist for my early adult life. That was what my religious environments taught me.” 

At 17, Whaley was hired for her first church job. This entailed mostly tech production; she said she could be considered a music minister. Whaley acknowledged she had a lot of responsibility for her age.

“Then I started working closely, hand in hand, with our youth pastor and pastoring young people within our church,” Whaley said.

Whaley lacked seminary training at that point, but said on-the-job training for high performers was pretty normal in megachurch spaces. 

By age 20, Whaley took the title of pastor. At one point, she stood in for a youth pastor temporarily during a period when there was a “really bad sex scandal” that she had to figure out how to navigate.

As a kid, Whaley had early inklings of being trans. She said she knew “something was up” around the ages of 8 to 10.  “But that was in the 90s,” Whaley said. “You know the environments we were in— my mom and my family—we didn’t really have language for being trans.”

“My mom knew something was up,” Whaley said. “She would ask me very regularly if I was gay. I’m like, ‘No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I’m gay.’ And now I’m definitely very gay.”

It wasn’t until high school that Whaley said she started to ask questions. She gained more clarity in college.

“When I got to college is when I met my first trans person,” Whaley said. “And that’s when I first had the language like ‘oh my gosh, I think I’m trans.’”

By then, Whaley was already a minister at a megachurch. She felt safe turning to the people who had initially welcomed her with open arms, but it didn’t go well.

“That’s how conversion therapy began,” Whaley said. “I knew at a really early age, but didn’t come out until I was 34.”

Whaley said she was forced to go to Christian conversion therapy, paid for by the church. Being outed and losing her job, livelihood, and family connections was unimaginable.

Christian conversion therapy, as described by Whaley, always began with the Bible.

“We pulled out a Bible,” Whaley said. “And he said, ‘No matter what happens in this room, we’re going to start and end here.’”

“Speaking of the Bible,” Whaley continued, “that is really not good therapy. What that communicated to me is it didn’t really matter what happened. I had to kind of adhere to whatever the interpretation of scripture was.”

The first “round” of conversion therapy involved inner child work. Whaley’s transness was “blamed” on being raised by her mother and grandmother, as opposed to being the child of a nuclear family. “So now I was being put at odds with my family,” Whaley said.

Whaley also said her queerness or transness was sometimes blamed on an experience of abuse of a sexual nature during childhood perpetrated by a family member.

“That’s a narrative within Christian circles, that people who are abused become gay and become trans because their sexual experience is all messed up or whatever,” Whaley said. “They just started blaming it on all my ‘family failures.’ I did a lot of that very ill-advised trauma therapy. I would feel just like absolute dirt after every session.”

Whaley said after a course of conversion therapy, she would be “good” for about two years. Then she would “bottom out” and go back to therapy.

The second time Whaley was put through conversion therapy involved what she called public homework. “It was like, ‘OK, you’re gonna now start telling your testimony and name it and claim it’ type of theologies. ‘You’re gonna claim your victory. Tell everyone that God has delivered you from cross-dressing.”’ 

“And so I started doing that,” Whaley said. “I started standing on stages in front of thousands of people and saying how God delivered me. And when it didn’t work, after a couple of years, I bottomed out again.”

The next type of therapy was much different, Whaley said. This time, she denied her feelings existed. “We’re going to erase this and put it in the bottom of the sea like Christ does to our sins,” Whaley said. “And that was what I had to endure: forgiving myself, forgiving my sins.”

During this third round of therapy, Whaley was married. It was fear therapy, Whaley said.

“It got to the point where I wasn’t allowed to have cash,” Whaley said. “My locations were tracked. I would be questioned if I stopped at a gas station. ‘What are you doing there?’ I was not even allowed to go into Target with my family. Any store that had a women’s clothing section, I was not allowed to go into.”

Whaley prefers not to say much about her ex-partner. It was a very difficult period for all involved.

“I try to honor her and our children,” Whaley said. “I have a great relationship with my kids, another thing that I was told in therapy would never happen. Yeah, my kids love me, and they call me Dad still. I love that title, and I’ll always allow them to call me that.”

Yet Whaley still hadn’t found a fourth and ultimately affirming therapist. She said she interviewed potential therapists and asked how they felt about LGBTQ+ issues. 

“They gave me some pretty cliche answers,” Whaley said. “But the one guy that I ended up going to see gave me a bit more of an intriguing answer. But he was still kind of unclear.”

When Whaley completed the intake process this time, explaining why she had come to therapy, something unexpected happened.

“I start sharing my story, and then he stops me halfway through,” Whaley said. “He says, ‘I just need you to know you’re not sitting in a conversion therapy session right now.’ And I just lost it. I just bawled my eyes out. And that was really the beginning of that journey for me to feel cared for and feel like I was safe. It was a beautiful thing. It was unexpected and very beautiful.”

From then on, Whaley was welcome to come to therapy as herself, as Joanna.

“It was very liberating,” Whaley said. “It was really important to be able to talk about my spirituality, as myself. It did help me to see that I could actually have a better relationship with my divine presence.”

Whaley called her first experience being out publicly “phenomenal.”

“I went to my uncle’s cottage in New Hampshire and basically had a very spiritual experience of ending my time in my old self and emerging as Joanna the next morning,” Whaley said. “And it was a really beautiful moment. Yeah, it took me a while to get used to the fact that I wasn’t wearing pants at times.”

These days, as the August primary date approaches in Whaley’s left-leaning district, she’s betting community members are more focused on what she stands for, and less on her gender identity.

“This has been a really deeply ignored district, especially in Lansing and state leadership in general,” Whaley said of House District 2, encompassing Lincoln Park, Allen Park, Melvindale, and parts of Southgate. The area is south of Detroit, known as Downriver. 

“Some people kind of refer to our communities as the ‘drive-through’ cities.” Whaley noted some more desirable “hot spots” in her district, yet many people are mostly focused on paying their utility bills. Whaley is hoping that her potential constituents see in her someone who struggles as they do, and who is already putting in the work to address their basic needs.

Whaley’s two primary opponents have both served in elected office previously. However, it’s Whaley and her team who delivered water to more than 300 homes in Melvindale during an unexpected shut off, and who raised over $10,000 to ensure that district residents who couldn’t make it to food pantries had food delivered when SNAP benefits ran out.

“My transness, my queerness is never even a topic with most people in my community,” Whaley said, “because we’re focused on the things that they are focused on. And the number one thing is utility bills.”

In addition to reining in the state’s ever-climbing utility costs, another high priority for Whaley is supporting legislation introduced by a representative in the Ann Arbor area that would create MiCare, a universal, publicly financed healthcare system for Michiganders. “If the federal government can’t act, I am going to,” Whaley said.

Whaley is proud to have earned endorsements from such organizations as the LGBTQ Victory Fund, Run For Something, Her Bold Move, and Families United for Trans Rights (FUTR).

Well-versed in social media and unafraid to turn the camera on herself, Whaley has drawn the attention of both fans and foes. She chooses to leave the comment section uncensored. But it sometimes goes beyond transphobic jabs: Whaley has received a number of death threats. 

“My advisory board, actually, they were very tough on me about getting a security company before I filed for office,” Whaley said. “I knew it was gonna get bad. And it has been bad at times.”

Whaley’s greatest campaign expense has been security. Still, she’s undeterred by threats and nasty comments. Whaley credits her thick skin to the media training she received as an evangelical.

“They always preached at us that we would be ‘persecuted for our faith,’” Whaley said. “I’m using big air quotes here. American evangelical religious persecution is hilarious. It’s accountability. But they taught us how to stay focused on our mission through opposition. So honestly, I’m taking everything they taught me and applying it and staying focused on the things people want and are asking for.”

“Also, I come from the Whaley family, and we’re just very strong-willed people. You can’t knock us off our goals.”

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A courtroom moment has gone viral after being shared on X this week.

The drama first aired on TV a few weeks ago, as part of the show Equal Justice with Judge Eboni K. Williams (S03, E65), but just recently making the rounds online. The show is available on Justice Central TV and Apple TV+, but we suspect not many people will be aware of this particular episode.

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In the case of Calbert vs. Calbert, a father (Gregory Calbert) was suing his 19-year-old son (Michael) for repayment of $6,000. Dad says he was shocked to discover Michael kissing a male friend that he had over for a sleepover. Michael was 18 at the time of the alleged incident.

Dad later sent his son a text threatening to kick him out unless he “fixed” himself.

Alarmed and fearful of being made homeless, Michael did some research into conversion therapy. He found an intense course that lasted three months. Although not residential, he would need to attend five days a week from 8am to 5pm.

His dad, a devout church-goer, agreed to pay the $6,000 fee.

After a month of attending the course and being told repeatedly he was cursed and going to hell, Michael could take no more and dropped out. Friends have assured him he does not need fixing.

His dad now wants Michael to repay him the $6,000.

A father is suing his own son after he came out as gay — demanding to be repaid for every expense from raising him, calling it a “worthless investment.” pic.twitter.com/pxNlmUS4cV

— PopPulse (@PoppPulse) April 8, 2026

The whole episode is on YouTube, and you can watch it below.

“You are perfect in the eyes of God”

Judge Williams, who was previously a Real Housewives of NYC star for one season, is horrified by the dad’s actions and by what Michael has gone through.

In one moving segment (at the 11-minute mark), the Judge leaves her bench, goes to Michael, and takes his hands. Looking into his eyes, she says, “Young man, you are not cursed. You are as loved and as worthy, Michael, as your father, your mother, and everyone else who gets the privilege to reside on this earth, young man. And I don’t care what your daddy says … what this (so-called therapist) Matthew guy says. I don’t care what some stupid conversion therapy says, which is nothing but a bunch of hoopla and a scam and a money grab for young, vulnerable men like yourself. I see you. You are valuable. And Michael, you are perfect. You are perfect in the eyes of God.”

“Downright cruel”

When Michael’s father discovered his son was skipping his conversion therapy session, he sent an angry text saying: “How could you betray mom and me like this? I need you to pack your things and move out.”

Dad told the judge he regretted the “harshness” of his words he used in that text, and said he loves his son.

Judge Williams is unimpressed.

“I don’t give a damn how angry you were, sir. And now I’m about to get real harsh with mine.

“It’s unacceptable. It’s manipulative. And sir, it’s downright cruel. I believe I’m ready to rule in this matter.

“I deal with a lot of cases in my courtroom, sir. And many of them are extremely complicated and nuanced, and I really have to sometimes seek counsel as we tease through the minutia and the theories and the legal complexities. And this one is very simple. This young man deserves a father and a mother who love him completely. Not that tolerates him, sir. Not that begrudgingly accepts who he is, but that loves him unconditionally and completely. He deserves a home, sir, where he is safe and loved. And it’s clear to this court that you nor your wife, according to your testimony here today, can provide that. Therefore, it is with great joy and comfort that I dismiss your case in its entirety. The plaintiff’s case is dismissed.”

Real or fictional?

Watching the video, one might assume this was a real case. However, according to IMDB and comments on Reddit, the show uses numerous actors in its productions.

Queerty has reached out to Allen Media Group, which owns Justice Central TV, to ask if this episode used actors or was based on a real-life case.

Whether a fictional courtroom drama or not, the episode does raise the issue of conversion therapy at a pertinent time.

The discredited practice does not work to alter anyone’s sexuality. Numerous studies have found that it often does more harm than good. Many states have now banned it. However, late last month, the US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that a Colorado law banning conversion therapy for minors likely violates the First Amendment free speech rights of therapists. The decision allows counselors to argue that, as “talk therapy,” these practices are protected speech rather than regulatable conduct. The SCOTUS ruling likely threatens similar bans in other states.

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A high school history teacher in Ohio is suing his school district for forcing him to remove an anti-hate flag featuring the colors of the LGBTQ+ and transgender Pride flags from his classroom, which he alleges violated his First Amendment rights.

According to the lawsuit, filed earlier this week, the teacher, identified as John Doe, first hung a small flag featuring the slogan “Hate Has No Home Here” in rainbow letters in his classroom at Little Miami School District in August 2022. Along with the slogan, the flag depicted “heart-shaped icons representing, among other things, the American flag, a peace sign, a rainbow Pride flag, and a transgender Pride flag.”

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Following the Ohio Assembly’s January 2025 passage of the state’s Parents’ Bill of Rights law — which allows parents to remove their students from instruction that includes sexuality content — Doe was informed in September 2025 by his principal that Little Miami School Board president David Wallace visited his classroom and took a photo of the anti-hate flag.

In early February, the school’s principal told Doe that Wallace had asked the district’s Superintendent, Regina Morgan, to have Doe remove the flag. The principal declined to force Doe to do so, and Doe refused to comply with Wallace’s request, according to the complaint. In a February 3 email, Morgan wrote that she did not “believe a reasonable observer would conclude its primary purpose is to prompt discussion, provide instruction, or solicit student engagement on sexual concepts or gender ideology.”

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During a meeting with Doe and the school’s principal the following day, Morgan informed the teacher that she would not order him to remove the flag, as requested by Wallace, but said that if the school board voted to have it removed, his refusal would constitute “insubordination and subject John Doe to discipline,” the lawsuit states.

Later the same month, the board voted 4–1 to remove the flag, claiming it constituted “sexuality content” in violation of both Ohio’s Parents’ Bill of Rights law and a similar policy adopted by the district in October 2025.

However, the complaint notes that under both state law and district policy, “incidental references to sexual concepts or gender ideology occurring outside of formal instruction or presentations” are not considered “sexuality content.” Doe’s suit argues that “at most, the Hate Has No Home Here Flag’s inclusion of a rainbow symbol was an incidental reference to sexual concepts or gender ideology ‘occurring outside of formal instruction.’”

The complaint claims that “Comments from School Board members made it clear that the opposition to the Hate Has No Home Here Flag was focused on the association of the rainbow symbol with a position on LGTBQ rights that the Board Members disagreed with and anti-LGTBQ animus.” It also claims that the board “has a history of animus towards the message that LGBTQ individuals are entitled to equal rights,” citing the removal of “safe space” stickers from classrooms in 2023, efforts to restrict access to books featuring LGBTQ+ characters, and a proposed policy to limit what teachers can display in their classrooms that failed to pass in the face of “significant public backlash” to proponents’ focus on LGBTQ+ symbols and messages of support for the community.

Doe argues that in forcing him to remove the “Hate Has No Home Here” flag, the Little Miami School District violated his First Amendment right “to speak as a citizen addressing matters of public concern,” and that the district’s actions “were motivated by a desire to silence those with whom they disagreed on the matter of LGBTQ identity and status.”

“A teacher hung a flag in his classroom for four years saying every student deserves to be treated with respect — and nobody had a problem with it until some school board members decided to make it one,” Doe’s attorney, Joshua Adam Engel, said in a statement to Ohio LGBTQ+ outlet The Buckeye Flame. “The Constitution demands more; school board members cannot silence speech simply because it disagrees with the message.”

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To quote everyone’s favorite Supermodel Of The World, “You better work!”—but what that work entails can be very different these days.

In the decades that have passed since RuPaul first sissied that walk, more and more people have turned to a form of sex work referred to as “camming” where they perform over a live webcam to earn money. Queer people especially are drawn to cam work, some in pursuit of creative freedom while others might come to rely on it out of economic necessity. 

You’d think this kind of onscreen performance would be perfect fit for cinematic storytelling, but few films & shows have really delved deep into what the camming experience is actually like for queer people. 

That’s starting to change now and will likely continue to do so if all the buzz surrounding a new cam movie named Blue Film is anything to go by…

So, get your tips ready & join us as we explore the wild—and apparently very profitable!—world of queer cam work as depicted on-screen in 6 very different stories.

Blue Film (2026)

If you think regular cam work is a bit taboo, wait until you get a load of Blue Film. 

While camboy Aaron Eagle (Boots‘ Kieron Moore) makes a decent living live-streaming, he still says yes when an anonymous client offers him $50,000 for a night together. However, we soon discover that Aaron knows this mysterious man quite well, because he turns out to be a guy from his past named Hank Grant (Tony-winner Reed Birney). But not just any old guy: Hank was Aaron’s former middle-school teacher, and it’s during this night together that Hank confesses he was in love with Aaron back when he was a boy.

First-time feature filmmaker Elliot Tuttle really goes there with his debut, exploring the connection between a camboy and the man who inappropriately longed for him all those many years ago. Major film festivals were reportedly scared to platform the taboo subject matter, but Blue Film is now set for wider release in May following its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival last summer.

Love it or hate it, Moore welcomes the conversations that his latest film inspires, telling EW:

“I don’t think all art is meant to agree with us. I don’t think it’s meant to dismiss our opinions. I also think it’s meant to strengthen them, but I think it can be all of them,” says Moore opines. “The movie doesn’t make you do anything. The movie gives you an opportunity. And that is where I think the [discomfort] lies.”

Blue Film opens in select theaters on May 8.

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Cam (2018)

While Blue Film taps into very real horrors through a dramatic lens, Daniel Goldhaber’s film Cam goes full-blown horror within that same field. 

The story follows Alice (The Handmaid’s Tale star Madeline Brewer), a successful cam girl who’s suddenly locked out of her account one day by a doppelganger named Lola. What ensues is a nightmarish descent into paranoia and the damage that losing your online persona can do to you as a person. 

Writer Isa Mazzei used her experiences as a former cam girl to help build the narrative and ensure that Alice’s job is never depicted as exploitative on screen. It also helps that both she and Goldhaber identify as queer, because Cam‘s deconstruction of identity would never have been so detailed had a straight person got their hands on this story. 

Cam is a Netflix film, though it is unfortunately not available on the platform at the moment.

Cam Boy (2021, 2025)

Cam Boy does what it says on the tin, following a young gay man named Aston (Callum Dunphy) who turns to camming when he struggles to make ends meet in Nova Scotia.

Born out out production restrictions in 2020, the first season all took place in one house with one actor where other characters could be introduced virtually. When OUTtv green-lit a second season of the show in 2025, other characters were able to be re-introduced into the story as actual people who physically appear in the show. 

What the two seasons do share, however, is all the ways in which creator Thom Fitzgerald balances vulnerability and empowerment within the world of camming. There’s choice and agency in Aston’s work, but he also gives something of himself, doing what he does so publicly.

Cam Boy is available to stream exclusive via OUTtv.

Queer Britain (2017)

Back in 2017, BBC Three commissioned a six-part documentary series named Queer Britain where presenter Riyadh Khalaf explored queerness across the pond. While each episode revolved around different facets of modern-day Britain, including racism and homelessness, the fifth installment specifically honed in on the world of queer adult film.

Titled “P*rn Idols,” the episode in question took a candid look at the queer adult film industry, including scenes with trans female webcam performers. Through interviews and behind-the-scenes access, Queer Britain shined a light on into the real-life challenges and aspirations that queer cam performers face in their day-to-day work. 

The episode can be watched in full right here on YouTube.

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WebCam Boys (2016)

One year before Queer Britain aired, BBC Three released a documentary called WebCam Boys which focused specifically on four men who perform online for money. 

According to this doc, more than 100,000 British men had joined this multi-billion-dollar industry over the previous five years, so the goal was to investigate why the appeal of camming had grown so quickly. 

Four men were involved including Martyn, a 22 year-old who web cammed full time, often performing sex shows with his male friends. “We never touch each other,” said Martyn. “We’re just in the same room.” Sure, Martyn. Sure.

Another guy named Joseph cammed five nights a week in a shed that his parents refurbished for that exact purpose. ‘Web camming has been very good for Joey’s social life’, explained his mother in a rather illuminating moment.

For some of the men, camming is just an easy way to make money short-term, while others see a future in it long term. And then there are those who simply want to explore their sexuality on camera and flaunt their sculpted bodies for the world to see. For that, we salute you.

WebCam Boys is not streaming via any official channels, but can be found in segments uploaded to YouTube.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (2026)

Camming isn’t just a side hustle these days. That’s true for the performers, yes, but also mainstream entertainment now thanks to a new series is heading to Apple TV. 

The tagline for Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is “Cam Boys. Blackmail. Divorce. Soccer practice,” and boy does the trailer live up to that!

Orphan Black queen Tatiana Maslany stars as a recently divorced mother named Paula, but eagle-eyed gays will also spot Brandon Flynn playing a camboy in the trailer, too. 

During a recent Apple TV presentation, co-star Charlie Hall asked Flynn what a camboy is. “I mean, I’m an actor. That’s kind of a camboy by definition,” joked Flynn before going into more detail (which only those in the room were privy to, unfortunately).  

Flynn will also be joined by another gay actor, Murray Bartlett, alongside Maslany in the series set to premiere on May 20th. Let’s hope they all end up camming together!

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed premieres May 20 exclusively on Apple TV.

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For the first time in over half a century, a majority in a poll said that they wanted to see the president impeached. The poll was conducted after Donald Trump started a war with Iran for reasons that have not been made clear to the public.

A new poll from Lake Research Partners found that 52% of U.S. voters want Trump to be impeached. Only 40% of voters don’t want him to be impeached, with the rest undecided.

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“This is an unprecedented result this early in a presidential term,” said Lake analyst John Bonifaz, who noted that voters have turned on Trump earlier in his term than they did against Richard Nixon in 1974. He also said that the public only turned on Nixon after a thorough congressional investigation into Watergate, whereas Congress right now is doing everything it can to avoid investigating Trump, and the public still wants him impeached.

While the public wants Trump impeached, impeachment would still face an uphill battle in Congress. Republicans hold majorities in both the House and the Senate, and it’s unlikely enough Republicans would break ranks with the party to vote to remove Trump. Two-thirds – or 67 – senators would have to vote to remove Trump from office.

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Moreover, the poll’s results showed a stark contrast between parties. Only a small minority of Republican voters (14%) supported impeachment, while most Democrats (84%) did. Independents also supported impeachment, with 55% for and 34% against.

Trump is currently the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice, but the Senate did not remove him both times.

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At least one producer was audibly shocked to hear a Republican congressional candidate use the n-word in a Wednesday interview with TMZ as he was talking about Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL).

Right-wing influencer Dan Bilzerian is running in the GOP primary to represent Florida’s Sixth Congressional District, which pits him against the incumbent, Fine, who is among the most obsessively anti-LGBTQ+ members of Congress. Fine is also Jewish, something that Bilzerian hasn’t hesitated to point out.

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Out of control “MAGA warrior” lawmaker held in contempt for angry gestures in court

TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin asked Bilzerian about how he has called Fine “this fat Jew” in the past. Levin is himself Jewish.

“You called your opponent ‘this fat Jew,'” he said and tried to preempt any argument that Bilzerian was just criticizing the Israeli government. “So he’s not from Israel, but you called a guy in Florida ‘this fat Jew.’ How is that not antisemitic?”

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Opinions vary on the word “Jew.” Jewish comedian Howie Mandel recently noted that it’s a word he rarely hears non-Jewish people use in a positive context, and Levin was pointing out the word’s use in a negative context.

“He puts Israel before America, and I think that he should be tried for treason,” Bilzerian said.

He went on to call Fine “a Jewish supremacist” and note that Fine has said in the past that Muslims are worse than dogs. “Is that Islamophobic?” he asked Levin and TMZ co-host Charles Latibeaudiere, as if he had them cornered in a debate.

“Yes,” both Levin and Latibeaudiere responded. Bilzerian then tried to argue that the term “antisemitic” is “made up.”

After some back-and-forth, Levin presented a hypothetical to Bilzerian: if he didn’t like a Black person, would he feel free to use the n-word?

“Is Jew the same as [n-word]?” Bilzerian said as someone off-camera gasped, and Latibeaudiere, who is Black, showed exasperation. “Because one is a slur and one is describing a religion, so you can’t compare the two.”

Latibeaudiere said that the way Bilzerian uses the word “Jew” sounds like an insult, and Bilzerian then said that he doesn’t use the n-word so he didn’t like the hypothetical comparison. Both Levin and Latibeaudiere pointed out that he just used the n-word, and he said that they were all “adults” who can have a conversation about it and that “people are too sensitive.”

Fine was recently elected to Congress in 2025 after winning a special election to replace former Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) after Waltz was nominated to be the national security advisor. Fine previously served for a decade in the state legislature.

Fine has repeatedly accused LGBTQ+ people of “grooming” children, which is another word for child sex abuse. “The perverts who wish to groom our children will stop at nothing to achieve their ends,” he posted to X in 2023, referring to LGBTQ+ people.

He was a key supporter of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which banned mentions of LGBTQ+ people in grades K through 3 (and was later expanded to include all grades) in public schools.

In a 2023 speech supporting a bill to ban drag performances, he implied that drag performers are child sex abusers. “If it means ‘erasing a community’ because you have to target children – then, damn right, we ought to do it!” he said at the time.

In 2024, he filed a bill to ban the Pride flag from being flown on government buildings. In 2025, he denounced rainbow crosswalks, saying that they “promote a woke agenda.”

Fine has also earned a reputation for making anti-Muslim statements. “If you’re not an Islamophobe, you’re a fool,” he said in 2024. “I don’t think every Muslim is a bad person, but I think that there’s an awful lot who are.” He has called for the U.S. to take away citizenship from Muslim people and for the mass deportation of “legal and illegal” Muslim people.

“We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational,” he posted to X.

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The Trump administration is investigating the anti-discrimination policies of the Los Angeles Unified School District in response to parents who filed a lawsuit claiming the district is responsible for their trans child’s death.

Kathleen Mulligan and Andrew Parke allege the school’s decision not to inform them that their child was beginning a social transition isolated them and ultimately led them to take their own life two years after graduating from Palisades Charter High School, the New York Times reports.

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The lawsuit says the school connected the child with a therapist and allowed them to go by new pronouns without informing them. (LGBTQ Nation has chosen not to use the child’s name and to refer to them with gender neutral pronouns, since it is unclear what they preferred at the time of their death).

The complaint reportedly claims the school “actively took steps to facilitate the separation” of the child from their family.

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“The secrecy policy isolated [the child] rather than helping [them],” it says. “It did not expand educational access or reduce stigma; instead, it cut [them] off from those best equipped to address [their] distress and mental health risks, depriving [them] of the stability parental involvement provides.”

The district’s anti-discrimination policy allows school officials to use their discretion when it comes to outing trans kids to their parents and encourages schools to do so in only extremely limited circumstances.

“School personnel should be aware that the student may not have disclosed their gender identity to their parents,” it states. “When school personnel find it important to discuss a student’s gender identity or expression with parents (if, for example, the student is being bullied based on their gender identity or expression), school personnel should consult and work closely with the student to assess the degree to which, if any, the parent is aware of the student’s gender identity or expression and is supportive of the student, and school personnel shall take into consideration the safety, health and well-being of the student in deciding whether to disclose the student’s gender identity or expression to parents.”

The policy emphasizes a student’s right to privacy and says a student’s gender identity and expression “shall be shared only on a need-to-know basis.”

“Students have the right to openly discuss and express their gender identity and expression, and to decide when, with whom, and how much information to share,” it states.

Justice Department assistant attorney general for civil rights Harmeet K. Dhillon told the Times that the administration “will not tolerate policies that deny parents’ fundamental rights.”

“Parents have a fundamental right to the care, custody, and control of their children, including the right to direct their children’s upbringing and education,” Dhillon said.

The Justice Department’s investigation also reportedly includes a sexual assault allegation from a student who says the district ignored her when she expressed concern about a certain student.

Schools across the country have increasingly adopted “forced outing” policies as parents demand the right to know anything a school knows about their children. But a study from the University of Connecticut found that a third of youth who were forcibly outed had a greater likelihood of experiencing major depression as well as low family support. Additionally, more than 65% of youth said being forcibly outed was “highly stressful.”

Data for the study came from the 2017 LGBTQ National Teen Survey by the Human Rights Campaign, which included more than 17,000 nationwide respondents ages 13 to 17.

“Students do in fact have a constitutional right to privacy,” said ACLU spokesperson Gillian Branstetter when the study was released. “It’s not about subverting the parents’ will. It’s about protecting the young people who face very real, very great risks.”

According to the Movement Advancement Project, 15 states currently have some form of forced-outing law. These laws typically require schools to alert parents if their child requests to use a different name or pronoun at school than the one associated with their birth name. For trans kids, this means either hiding who they are all day, every day, or being forced to come out to their parents before they’re ready – something that can be especially problematic for kids who would be in unsafe situations if their parents knew they were trans.

In 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the SAFETY Act, which prohibits “parental notification” policies in school districts that require educators to notify parents if their child requests to use pronouns and facilities different from the gender they were assigned at birth.

The law also protects teachers and administrators from retaliation if they choose not to follow district directives to out queer kids to their parents. It also funds resources for parents and families of queer students to help offer supportive conversations about their identities on terms that make the children feel safe and respected.

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On Saturday morning, Miami Beach unveils its answer to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) officially sanctioned demolition in October, when, at the presidential administration’s order, he bulldozed and sledgehammered the city’s Pride crosswalk out of existence.

This weekend, one day before the oceanside resort’s annual Pride parade, Miami Beach rededicates the crosswalk, now relocated to Lummus Park and transformed to a sidewalk, just steps from its original location.

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The iconic crosswalk has been reassembled, brick by brick, in a defiant show of community resilience.

“To take what was considered an assault to some people, a tragedy to others — and definitely an affront to most of us — and turn it into a moment of strength and pride — what’s better than that?” asked Miami Beach Commissioner Tonya Katzoff Bhatt.

“We have Tallahassee spending its time manufacturing culture wars,” Bhatt told News 10 Miami. The crosswalk’s removal was the answer to a non-existent problem.

“It was empirically the safest intersection on Ocean Drive,” she said.

Bhatt called the removal “a real slap in the face to our residents and visitors.”

Bhatt’s colleague on the commission, out member Alex Fernandez, credited the community’s straight allies for helping right the rainbow crosswalk wrong.

“When the State forcibly removed this crosswalk, it was our straight allies on the Miami Beach City Commission who ensured our gay community would not be pushed into the shadows,” Fernandez told Out South Florida. “Our allies understood that this crosswalk symbolizes a history of perseverance through the stigma of HIV/AIDS, the injustice of military exclusion, workplace and housing discrimination, and the long fight for the right to marry and to build a family.”

“These crosswalks were a symbol of that progress, and when they come strip it away, it’s very clear message.” The reinstallation “is a powerful reminder that our allies will help us overcome this moment,” he said.  

The new crosswalk — more art installation than pedestrian crossing — is built from 3,606 rainbow pavers salvaged from the original crosswalk. It’s scheduled for unveiling Saturday morning on the final weekend of Miami Beach Pride. The new installation bypasses the state’s ban on street art by being located entirely within a park.

“It’s so important and gratifying to be able to rise above the manufactured culture wars to build something lasting, recognizing the struggle and celebrating the love that this new installation represents,” Bhatt said.

“After the crosswalk was removed, we came back stronger,” said city Commissioner Joe Magazine. “This installation is Miami Beach’s answer to anyone who thought they could legislate away our community’s pride.”

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The Trump administration on Friday filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to halt a lower court order that allowed transgender and nonbinary people to change the sex marker on their passports despite an earlier administration policy denying such changes. It is the 26th emergency appeal the Trump administration has made to the court in the nine months since he retook the Oval Office.

A judge blocked the policy in June, finding that plaintiffs who sued against it could successfully prove the administration’s order is “based on irrational prejudice toward transgender Americans,” is “arbitrary and capricious,” and “was not adopted in compliance with the procedures required by the Paperwork Reduction Act and Administrative Procedure Act.”

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In its filing to the Supreme Court, Trump’s Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote, “The Constitution does not prohibit the government from defining sex in terms of an individual’s biological classification,” and noted the court’s recent ruling upholding state bans on gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors. 

In a statement, Jon Davidson, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project said, “The State Department’s policy is an unjustifiable and discriminatory action that restricts the essential rights of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex citizens…. including the freedom to travel safely and the freedom of everyone to be themselves without wrongful government discrimination.”

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Trans and nonbinary people with incorrect gender markers on their government-issued ID are more likely to face harassment and violence, studies have shown.

In a Bluesky post, gay legal journalist Mark Joseph Stern wrote, “I think it is extremely likely that the Supreme Court will freeze the current injunction and allow Trump’s State Department” to continue its policy, adding, “[The Supreme Court] has stayed plenty of rulings against the Trump administration that were NOT nationwide injunctions. It basically just goes straight to the merits now, with some hand-waving about equities. And it will agree with the government on the merits.”

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A man allegedly attacked Lilith Barraza Garcia, a 22-year-old transgender woman, and her friend outside of Rumors Cabaret Bar — an LGBTQ+ bar in Bellingham, Washington — on Sunday, March 22, as Garcia and her friend tried to help an intoxicated man who was slumped over.

Garcia told The Advocate that she had gotten the intoxicated man a bottle of water and was “checking on him,” when his friend — someone she had seen at the bar several times before — confronted her and told her she had “great breasts for a man.”

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As he continued to insult her, Garcia began arguing with the man. He eventually pushed her and punched her in the chest and face, breaking her glasses, she told the publication.

“The man thanked me, but then started hurling transphobic comments at me,” she wrote on a GoFundMe page to help cover her lost income and legal fees. “He then hit & punched me, pushed me and my friend, and eventually shoved me to the ground while saying hateful slurs during assault.”

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“I was told he was part of the Navy and at first I was a little bit shocked, but then I was like, ‘Oh that makes sense and why he was so strong’ because when he hit me, I did go unconscious for like two seconds and now I understand what people mean now by ‘seeing stars,’” she told the aforementioned publication.

The assault left her with a black eye, a cut on her face, a swollen jaw (which has made it difficult to eat with pain and bleeding), and a foot injury that has made it very difficult for her to walk, she wrote on her GoFundMe page.

The attack also left a bruise on her chest, which she is now concerned about since she had breast augmentation surgery less than a year ago.

“I am also now dealing with PTSD from the incident,” she added on her crowdfunding campaign page. “This is not the first time I have been attacked by a man. I’m anxious to leave my house alone.”

She said she filed a report with the Bellingham Police Department and that the man now faces felony anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime charges.

The GoFundMe campaign to help Garcia has rasied $7,822 of its $8,000 goal.

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Don Lemon and husband Tim Malone celebrated their second wedding anniversary this week. The two met in 2016 and married on April 6, 2024. The date also happened to be Malone’s 40th birthday (a great way to always remember your wedding anniversary!).

Yesterday, Malone marked the anniversary of tying the knot. In a post on Threads, he posted several photos from that day, alongside the message, “2 years married. Let’s keep going.”

Sweetly, some people replied with their favorite photos of Lemon and Malone. One well-known image showed Malone leading Lemon by the hand after a court appearance earlier this year.

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On January 18, Lemon livestreamed an anti-ICE demonstration inside Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was subsequently taken into custody in Los Angeles. Lemon and several co-defendants are charged with interfering with religious freedoms at a place of worship.

Malone’s own profile rose in the wake of a subsequent court appearance his husband made. Videos and photos of him leading Lemon through a small crowd after his release from custody went viral. Some compared him to Kevin Costner’s character in The Bodyguard movie with Whitney Houston.

Other couples share their love

Sweetly, many others responded to Malone’s anniversary Thread with photos of their own weddings. This included several same-sex couples.

Lemon also marked the anniversary. On Instagram, he shared some previously unreleased footage from his and Malone’s big day. It shows both men being walked down the aisles of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Afterward, they and their guests walked the short distance to Ralph Lauren’s Polo Bar for a reception. A traditional Dixieland jazz band accompanied Lemon and Malone on the walk. The men and their guests waved white hankies while the band played.

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A post shared by Don Lemon (@donlemonofficial)

Don Lemon has enjoyed a significant boost in his web traffic since authorities swooped upon him in January. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges levelled against him, and his defense team has indicated they believe them to be unconstitutional. The case rumbles on, but one thing’s clear: Malone will be standing by Lemon’s side all the way.

Happy anniversary, guys!

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David Geffen’s contentious divorce from his 50-years younger ex Donovan Michaels (who also goes by David Armstrong) appears to be over.

The 83-year-old billionaire has been involved in a nasty split with his 33-year-old ex-husband for nearly a year.

But now it seems the pair have ironed out all the details as Geffen, who has an estimated net worth of $9 billion, claims they’ve settled their differences.

According to court documents, the mogul has reached a divorce settlement with the former model, per TMZ.

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And just like that …it’s over.

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A post shared by ICONICHIPSTER.COM (@iconichipsterdotcom)

The way they were

While the two men were declared legally singled in November, they still had to workout the financials in regards to spousal support, division of property and attorney fees. Since the new legal docs were marked “uncontested”, it signifies both Geffen and Michaels have come to an agreement on the remaining money issues.

If you were hoping to find out just how much Michaels was going to get from his octogenarian former lover, you will be sadly disappointed. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.

This marks a pretty uneventful conclusion to Geffen and Michaels very messy relationship, which the couple entered into legally without a prenup.

Geffen and Michaels were together for seven years before tying the knot in May 2023.

Messy divorce

The legal marriage lasted barely 24 months, with Geffen pulling the plug in May 2025 just ahead of their 2nd anniversary. In the divorce filing, he cited irreconcilable differences as the cause of the split.

Two months later, Michaels dropped a bombshell lawsuit claiming the Hollywood kingpin exploited him over the years amid accusations of paid sex, alleged drug use and extremely controlling behavior, including being forced to remove all of his body hair.

In the complaint, the ex go-go boy also alleged he first met his future husband in 2016 on a sugar daddy website, “where men like Geffen shop for the vulnerable.” A transaction occurred with Michaels alleging Geffen paid him $10,000 for sex on their first night together.

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David Geffen and Donovan Michaels married in 2023 without a prenup.

While he didn’t specify an amount in the lawsuit, Michaels had asked for unspecified compensatory and other damages, as well as attorneys’ fees and other costs. 

Then in October 2025, he abruptly dropped the lawsuit, but requested it be dismissed “without prejudice,” so he would be able to re-file the if the mediation over the financials didn’t turn out to the way he liked.

Geffen had previously stated he’d be willing to pay Michaels $50K a month spousal support, but only for 12 months. He also claimed to have given his ex $200K since their split, in addition to covering his $15K monthly rent.

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A post shared by Donovan (@donovan_michaels)

Should he get more for being married to a billionaire without a prenup? Everyone has an opinion.

While we may never know how much Michaels is walking away with, both he and Geffen are now free to move forward with their lives.

On to the next, gentlemen!

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A queer therapist and sexpert is calling out a double standard that always seems to penetrate its way through the dark room.

On Instagram, Dr. Matthew Brinkley usually posts videos about dating advice and how to avoid emotionally unavailable men. But the L.A. resident recently loaded up on toxic tops who think their d*cks aren’t deserving of the same distasteful discourse they dump on bottoms.

“There is judgment around topping versus bottoming in those spaces, and being labeled negatively for the number of people one bottoms for,” he says. “But [tops don’t] endure same labeling as tops in those same spaces.”

Brinkley sums up the disparity with a moan of disgust.

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UGH!

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A post shared by Dr. Matthew Brinkley, PsyD, LMFT (@dr.brinkley)

Bottom shaming

An abhorrent practice, bottom shaming dates back to the time of the ancient Greeks. Elites kept male concubines for their sexual gratification and used them as boy servants. “The shame has always been there, to be honest, since the time of the Greeks, when the role of the bottom was always taken by a boy or a slave, and as such a noncitizen,” an academic expert on bottoming once told Vice.

Though the definition of “homosexuality” has shifted over time, it’s long been associated with partners on the receiving end. The AIDS crisis only exacerbated the stereotype that bottoms are dirty or inferior.

“These categories became particularly entrenched during and after the AIDS crisis when there were anxieties about certain practices being more risky,” said HIV/AIDS advocate Ben Weil.

Since receptive anal sex is higher risk, many gay men disavowed bottoming, and those who were submissive were shamed into the shadows.

Despite the advent of PrEP and retroviral drugs, bottom shaming persists. Thankfully, it’s not nearly as present: bottom-forward personalities and bum-showing attire like jockstraps and thongs are all the rage these days. But as Brinkley says, it still exists in the darkest of places.

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The role of sexism

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the relationship between bottom shaming and misogyny. For millennia, promiscuous men and women have been judged differently. If a woman has sex with lots of guys, she gets called disparaging names.

Meanwhile, if a guy has sex with lots of women, he gets a high five from his friends.

Brinkley says tops who disparage bottoms are engaging in the same noxious behavior. “I am so over people bottom policing. Shut the f*ck up,” he says.

He continues with a simple question: “Who are you to tell what someone what they should do with their body?”

Period!

“If you’re so worried about other people having sex, your sex is probably trash,” Brinkley continues. “How about that?”

Dark room discourse

With bathhouses making a comeback, it’s more important than ever for tops to hold their judgment–just like they often withhold their emotional attachment! That’s especially the case when it comes to cleanliness.

Douching, while no longer a medieval experience, can still be time consuming and difficult. Sex can also be unpredictable. You don’t always know when it’s going to happen! One minute you’re dancing with your girlies on the dance floor, and the next minute you’re in a sling.

Isn’t being gay exhausting?

But seriously, there’s no reason for portraying an unsuspecting bottom as Picasso. It’s mean-spirited, and probably hypocritical.

Paging Dr. Brinkley

As mentioned, Dr. Brinkley offers a wide range of romantic advice. This week, he invited his followers to play the “emotionally unavailable game.” It goes as follows:

“If he’s inconsistent, vague, emotionally unresponsive, avoids accountability, avoids repair and avoids real plans, congratulations, he’s emotionally unavailable.”

And if that’s the case, then the question is, “Why are you still there? Is it because you’re also emotionally unavailable?”

Clocked!

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A post shared by Dr. Matthew Brinkley, PsyD, LMFT (@dr.brinkley)

Speaking of high impact, Brinkley and his partner, David Brandyn, are far from inconspicuous. They got married in red!

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A post shared by Dr. Matthew Brinkley, PsyD, LMFT (@dr.brinkley)

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A post shared by Dr. Matthew Brinkley, PsyD, LMFT (@dr.brinkley)

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A post shared by Dr. Matthew Brinkley, PsyD, LMFT (@dr.brinkley)

If we met either one of them in a dark room, well, there would be no shame in that! Just sayin’…

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