A newly elected lawmaker for the Australian far-right populist party, One Nation, has used his maiden speech to confirm that he’s gay.

To the surprise of some supporters, he also revealed he has a Muslim partner who grew up in Indonesia and migrated to Australia. One Nation is known for wishing to severely restrict immigration.

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MP Jason Virgo won the rural South Australian seat of MacKillop at the 2026 state election.

He comes from a family that traditionally voted for the conservative-leaning Labor Party. However, he says he felt Labor left him and others behind. He previously ran as a candidate for the Australian Sex Party at the 2010 and 2013 federal elections, before embracing One Nation.

Virgo used his first speech as MP last week to address his sexuality. He said that whilst on the campaign trail, a “lovely woman” called him to let him know “that people were going around the electorate telling people I was gay.”

Virgo suspected they were doing so maliciously.

“The reality is I have been openly gay throughout my entire adult life,” he said.

“Rather my community hear it directly from me

“I do not wave the flag in the air as I walk down the street,” Virgo continued. “I prefer people to find out these things naturally. There are times when those of us who are gay feel we have to hide it for our own safety or just sometimes to avoid social awkwardness. But I would rather my community hear it directly from me than from a potential political opponent or whispers.

“If someone does seek to weaponize who I am, that says more about them than it does about me. I wish, in respects, I was more like my last surviving grandparent, Nana Betty Stanley, who, no matter what would happen to her in life, would always just brush it off and say, ‘Oh well, it could have been worse.’ As my partner knows too well, I do sweat the small stuff.”

Boyfriend of 11 years

Becoming emotional, Virgo went on to say he’s been with his boyfriend for the past 11 years. He says his partner was “born in Indonesia, a Muslim, and is now a proud Australian.”

“We have built a life together,” said Virgo. “I think about where we started out, about how much we’ve grown together, and how much we’ve achieved in the 11 years of being together. Thank you for standing by through every high and low. Your faith and support when things felt overwhelming. And helping me keep going. You are the love of my life by my side.

“Our closest friendship circle was made largely of immigrants from China, India, and the Philippines,” Virgo continued. “I am deeply thankful for their support … I love migrants. The overwhelming majority are simply searching for a better life. But two things can be true at once. And I do believe migration levels in recent years have been too high.

“Yes, in some parts of the country, employees are crying out for workers. In others, communities simply want time for housing and infrastructure to catch up. In some places, both are true.

“Australians rightly expect governments to ensure our citizens can access housing and opportunity first. Those who come to Australia to share our boundless plains should come prepared to embrace this country as their own and respect our way of life. Many new Australians understand this, which is why support for One Nation continues to grow within migrant communities.”

You can watch his full speech below. The segment on his sexuality is at the 13.30-minute mark.

Pauline Hanson and One Nation

One Nation was founded and is led by Pauline Hanson, who has a poor record on LGBTQ+ rights. She campaigned against marriage equality in Australia and is a fierce opponent of trans rights. She’s basically Australia’s version of Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Hanson made international headlines last year when, protesting the Australian Parliament’s refusal to ban head coverings, she turned up to sessions wearing a burqa.

NEW: Australian senator Pauline Hanson, who was shut down when she requested to introduce a bill to ban burqas, banned from parliament after wearing a full-body burqa.

Senate leaders suspended the session after Hanson refused to remove the burqa.

"At the end of the day, this… pic.twitter.com/7kc8rxp2Xv

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 30, 2025

Earlier this year, Hanson suggested in an interview that there was no such thing as “good” Muslims.

Like populist parties elsewhere in the world, One Nation has made gains in the last decade and now enjoys its highest level of popularity in Australia. That said, it currently only has two seats in the 150-seat Australian House of Representatives.

Hanson has not commented on Virgo’s speech, although One Nation’s social media has celebrated his electoral win.

Virgo’s speech has prompted a strong reaction online.

Some on the right were unimpressed by his revelations.

This right wing party has focused all their attention on keeping far right candidates out and now literal “migrant loving homosexual muslims” are slipping past vetting. Incredible. https://t.co/zwbzi0DpiI

— auspill (@aus_pill) May 24, 2026

This is a “far-right” politician who was just elected in Australia.

He proceeded to come out as gay and announce “I love immigrants.”

Supporters are FUMING.

Bro was a Trojan horse pic.twitter.com/ylGh3eQ8pQ

— ADAM (@adamemedia1) May 24, 2026

Others, beneath a Facebook post from the Australian LGBTQ+ magazine Star Observer said that you can’t assume all gay people will be left-leaning in their politics.

“Although this sounds like a paradox, it is, unfortunately, not uncommon,” said one. “The same here in Germany. Alice Weidel, the leader of the AFD (Alternativ für Deutschland), a far-right party very similar to One Nation, is a lesbian married to a Swiss woman of Sri Lankan origin. Recent regional and local elections here have put the AFD in either the leading or close to leading position.”

Another quipped that Virgo must be thinking, “I’m sure the leopards won’t eat MY face”.

Others predicted Virgo would likely end up distancing themselves from One Nation and becoming an independent MP within a matter of months.

“Overwhelmed”

On Facebook today, Virgo thanked those who offered him support following his speech.

“Thanks folks! I have been overwhelmed by the support of those common sense people who just want to put Australia first!”

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French fashion designer Louis Gabriel Nouchi is taking couture to the next thirsty level.

The out 38-year-old launched his eponymous clothing brand, LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi, in 2017. Since then, it has become known for its sensual menswear and often gender-fluid designs.

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Whether daring to bare or keeping it more modest in a head-turning ensemble, LGN definitely lets a guy stand out in the crowd.

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The It-boys

LGN is routinely covered in major fashion publications like Vogue and stages its cutting-edge runway shows during Paris Fashion Week.

The line is also a favorite of Hollywood hunks like Alexander Skarsgård and Heated Rivalry co-stars Connor Storrie and François Arnaud, among many others.

The It-boys love them some LGN.

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Category is: OF but make it fashion

Despite the brand’s success, Nouchi decided to take his provocative designs a step further. In January, he launched an OF page–not for himself, but for the label.

He promoted the venture during LGN Fall/Winter 2026 fashion show, as a model sashayed down the runway in a white tank and briefs with the OF branding.

10s across the board.

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“Exclusive content released every week, exploring sensuality through the LGN lens. This space is for the curious,” reads a description on the OF page. “For those who read bodies as much as words. For those drawn to desire, tension, and intimacy — never obvious, always intentional.”

However, if you are looking for triple X adult content, you might be disappointed.

“I’m not showing people naked because I’m selling garments,” Nouchi told Vanity Fair.

What the page does feature are fetish-driven visuals, erotic texts and images of new LGN models in a “bulge series”. While the subscription is free, most of the “snack content” is behind a paywall and priced under $12.

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Exclusive content for the gays

Nouchi said he wasn’t afraid of alienating his customers by joining the controversial platform as he was fairly confident most were familiar with it.

“I know we are a gay brand, a gay-male brand,” he told the outlet. “I was completely aware about that from the start.” 

But for those that may be clutching their pearls, he reminded that OF is what you make of it. “It’s basically just private video and content; it doesn’t have to be sex.”

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Nouchi may be one of the first designers to jump on the OF train in this way, but he probably won’t be the last. Fun fact: Designer Rick Owens put feet content on the platform last year to raise money for a good cause.

“It was important for me to work with this platform,” Nouchi said, “because I think it’s the future of how social media will be—the tone they have, the way it works.”

And while he’s begun to make money off the site, he isn’t expecting to rake in millions. Beyond the monetary benefits, OF is also letting the designer explore his artistic endeavors in a way he hadn’t thought possible previously.

“For me, it was having the liberty to create everything that I want without any restriction.” 

So if anyone asks, just say you only look at OF for the fashion. 😜

LGN has a retail store in Paris, but most of the designs are available for purchase via the brand’s official website. Check out the LGN Fall/Winter 2026 runway show below, which was inspired by Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic Alien.

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As a recent edition of our Ask Jake advice column pointed out, there’s an unfortunate lack of respect for the older generations within our community.

The elder queers paved the way for the rights & protections we enjoy today and deserve to be treated with dignity, but even beyond that, society seems to brush anyone aside once they reach a certain age, all too willing to treat them as relics with nothing new to offer.

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With his new film Bookends, writer & star Noam Ash (The Other Two, Boy*Friends) hopes to bridge that gap, showing us how “oftentimes the people best suited to helping each other through difficult life moments are those on opposite ends of life’s journey.”

And he would know: After a particularly tough breakup a little while back, he crashed with his grandparents as temporary relief while he got his life back in order. Though “mortified” by the situation at first, Ash wound up living with them for well over a year, finding their time connecting, human to human, to be invaluable—not to mention, so inspiring that he decided to write a movie about it!

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Directed by Mike Doyle (Almost Love), Bookends follows a similar trajectory when aspiring author Nate (Ash) finds his wealthy boyfriend of many years (Spencer Belko) sleeping with their trainer (Jared Reinfeldt). With nowhere else to turn, he reluctantly heads to the senior living community his grandparents, Saul (F. Murray Abraham) & Miriam (Caroline Aaron), call home. Of course they welcome him in with open arms, though all soon realize that three’s a crowd, especially when it comes to family.

Oh, and we should mention there’s a pretty heated romance, too, as Nate strikes up a friendly flirtation with Daniel (Charlie Barnett)—who also happens to be Saul & Miriam’s doctor!

Hilarious & heartfelt, the film is a love letter to Ash’s own grandparents, who sadly passed before they could see the final product. Yet Bookends is a testament to their spirit, a reflection of all Ash learned from them, and a special reminder that there’s endless value in nurturing international relationship.

After premiering at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this past February, Bookends will soon make its NY debut in the NewFest Pride program on May 30 with a special screening and Q&A (it’ll also be available to stream via the fest’s virtual program from May 28 – June 1), followed by dates at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival and San Francisco’s Frameline50.

In anticipation, Queerty is honored to host a special preview clip of the film below, plus our conversation with writer & star Noam Ash about the film’s real-life inspirations, beautiful blending of genres, and the unforgettable life lessons learned from those that came before us.

Check out the article on our site to view the video

Bookends was inspired by the time you moved in with your own grandparents after a breakup, but when 7 how did you first start seeing that experience as something that could be turned into a film? 

When I first moved in with my grandparents, I was working on another project entirely and spent a lot of time (lovingly) complaining about the whole situation to my manager. One day, she said, “You know what…?” and suggested that the experience I was going through was a great premise that I should really be writing about instead. I was resistant at first, but once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. Building the fictional world of the film to communicate the emotional truths I was learning was so fun and satisfying.  

Given this is such a personal story, was it difficult to hand the reins to a director? How did you know Mike Doyle was the right person for the job? 

Not at all. Collaboration is my favorite part of filmmaking. I cherish the process of bringing together the best group of people, who each then bring their own special gifts to the film. When it works, the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. And of course, for this to really work, it has to start and end with the director. I wanted to find someone who was just as passionate about telling funny and emotionally resonant stories but also, just as importantly, valued collaboration as much as I do.

I was a fan of Mike’s previous films, but when we started talking about creative and process, it became clear very quickly that he was the best fit. When I write, I’m always imagining what the scene looks and sounds like in my head, and I’m very happy to say that the final film looks and feels very different from what I initially imagined; it’s so much richer and more moving than I possibly could have imagined, and that really is thanks to the imprint Mike put on it.

Caroline Aaron & F. Murray Abraham are so fabulous in this. If Miriam & Saul are at least loosely based on your own grandparents, who would you say they each brought to these roles? How did they surprise you on set? 

The film is based on my relationship with my grandparents, so a lot of the lessons that Miriam and Saul teach Nate are very true to their my grandparents innate warmth, love, and wisdom. But both F. Murray Abraham and Caroline Aaron, like all truly great actors, brought so much of their own humanity, humor, physicality, and perspective to the roles beyond anything I could have predicted. They are both so present, agile, generous, and FUN. Acting opposite them is a masterclass; you can’t help but rise to the occasion when surrounded by their enveloping genius.

There’s a world where this is solely about Nate’s relationship with his grandparents, but the romance with Charlie Barnett’s Daniel brings such great texture to the story. Why did that feel like an important component of the film to you?? 

One of the things I’m most proud of in this film is that it almost defies genre. It’s a story about growing up, growing old, first love, more mature love, the uncertainty of life, and how roles shift within families as generations change. It’s a comedy with lots of laughs, a family film, and a romance that builds towards a heartfelt, life-affirming conclusion. To me, the family drama is inseparable from the romance, as it is our nearest and dearest who ultimately teach us how to love. So the romance is not so much an addition of texture to the story as much as it is a manifestation of the journey Nate’s grandparents set him on.

At the same time, Dr. Daniel Green (played brilliantly by Charlie Barnett) is his own person with his own identity, nuances, complexities, and ways of seeing the world. And having Nate and Daniel’s journey both contrast and mirror Saul and Miriam’s is one of my favorite things about the film. Young love, old love, family love, romantic love—these are all flavors of what truly matters in life.

In your opinion, why is it important that we (especially as queer people) connect, converse, and build relationships with those from older generations?

It’s hard to emphasize how important I think it is to connect and build relationships with older generations. It’s funny, but I think oftentimes the people best suited to helping each other through difficult life moments are those on opposite ends of life’s journey. That was certainly the case with me and my grandparents. They brought so much wisdom and a lifetime of experience that was invaluable to me at such a young age, and I brought so much youth, excitement, and liveliness that they were deeply craving in their older years. I think intergenerational relationships are so important for us both as individuals and as a society. We’d all be better off with a healthy balance of the wisdom of age and the optimism and vivaciousness of youth in our lives.

What’s the best piece of advice you say your grandparents gave you, or something that you learned in your time spent with them? 

Family first, do the right thing even when it’s hard, never skip an opportunity to celebrate no matter how small the occasion, and have a joke at the ready. It’s always a good time to laugh.

If you’re in the NYC area, don’t miss Bookends at Newfest Pride on May 30, or stream it via the festival’s virtual program from May 28 – June 1!

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Caleb Shomo, the founding member and singer with rock band Beartooth, has come out as gay.

Shomo posted an emotional message on Instagram on Saturday.

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“There’s been a lot of speculation surrounding my personal life as of late and I feel compelled to set the record straight before it affects those I love any further,” Shomo began.

“I am a proudly gay man.

“This is something I’ve been unpacking and reckoning with in my life for quite some time now, the 33-year-old continued.

“It’s been difficult to navigate the feelings surrounding the subject and figure out what to do with this fact.

“When it comes to my art / Beartooth, I have always strived to chase who I am in the deepest part of my soul from album to album. As you could gather if you’ve followed the band at all in the earlier years, there are 4 very self deprecating albums about exploring my religious upbringing, depression, self hatred, self loathing, and hopelessness. I am grateful for all these albums, yet feel embarrassed at times that I wouldn’t allow myself to really dig up the roots for so long.”

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Founding Beartooth

Shomo joined the band Attack Attack! aged 15. He then began releasing music under the name Beartooth in 2012. Initially, he was the sole member before adding further musicians to the lineup.

That same year, he married his wife, Fleur Shomo.

“I spent a decade burying feelings with alcohol, and honestly when I decided to put it down and focus on exploring why I felt this way for so long, it’s been a direct path to me reconciling with my sexuality in hopes that it will eventually lead to me experiencing self love,” Shomo continued on Instagram.

“One thing I decided before I wrote a single note or lyric of the upcoming album is that whatever happens, I will express myself whole heartedly and fully. Wherever it takes me I will follow and I refuse to water any part of it down, from the music, to the lyrical content, and way I portray myself. I will only do what makes me happy at the deepest level and what is the most honest depiction of who I am.”

Beartooth’s sixth studio album, Pure Ecstasy, drops this August.

“I believe it’s impossible to love every part of you when you won’t face every part of you head on,” said Shomo. “I am trying to finally be proud of who I am and I think this is a massive part of that journey.”

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“Give yourself grace. Give yourself patience”

Shomo thanked those who had shown him love and support and encouragement to live “freely and openly”.

“I encourage anyone who’s struggling with who they are to give yourself grace. Give yourself patience. Be honest with yourself. Do the hard work instead of burying it down as deep as you physically can thinking it will change like I did. Holding these things in only hurt you and those around you.

“Love you all, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction to loving myself one day.”

Shomo turned off comments beneath the post.

According to his Wikipedia page, Shomo spent much of his childhood in Westerville, Ohio. His dad was a pastor and his mom is a nurse who also performed with a church band.

Wife Fleur: “Our story was a good one. And now it’s done.”

His wife, Fleur, 41, shared her own Instagram post. Her profile is not set to private. It featured a video of her and her husband dancing. She said she supported him but also admitted that finding out about her husband’s sexuality was difficult.

“You never want anything more for your person than for them to just be ok. You also ask yourself constantly if you’re a bad person for wondering wtf this means for your world & the anger you also feel,” she said.

“I am the only person that is having to deal with the duality of this situation.”

She said she would always “want to love, protect and support Caleb,” while at the same time facing up to the fact she was “losing everything.”

“You can love and support your person through the hardest time in their life, whilst also be completely demolished & lose yourself at the same time,” she wrote.

“You question everything. But I have learned the one thing I don’t need to question is our history.”

She concluded by saying their relationship, “was wonderful and full of so much fun, adventure & love.

“Nobody will know anything about our marriage like we do. And no one can ever truly know what depths of love exist between two people unless they are those people.

“I already miss it & my husband more than anything. Our story was a good one. And now it’s done.”

You can watch the video for Beartooth’s recent single, “Free”, below. Many fans remarked at the time of its release, a couple of months ago, that the song represented a move away from the pure metal sound of Shomo’s earlier work. Lyrically, it also finds Shomo commenting on a newfound feeling of freedom.

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The story of the Mediterranean gayborhood that was ancient Greece might feel like ancient history, and technically, sure, it is. But for queer people, the homoerotic lore of that particular period antiquity stays forever alive, and forever young, thanks to just how embedded it remains in pop culture. Why else would people currently be having heated arguments about Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey casting, or picking apart the details of Connor Storrie’s Greek God-inspired Met Gala outfit?

We’re also learning new things about the Greeks all the time—like the fact that the mythical God Hercules apparently had lots of male lovers and plenty of spicy fun times with all of them, canonically!

But one question about ancient Greece still remains a matter of intense speculation. We know those guys were having plenty of sex, but did they do any douching? Was fleeting a thing back then, and if so… how???

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Some internet sleuths may have the answer. Or rather the answers, because this is not a one-size-fits-all question.

What was sex like in Ancient Greece?

Those Greeks might not have had Grindr, but they didn’t need it. In all the male-centric spaces created by a patriarchal, deeply classist government, sex was free-flowing, and even if it perhaps wasn’t as out and proud as we might imagine, it was definitely tolerated to the point where it seems like nobody really cared who was having sex with men and who wasn’t.

But the sex they were having wasn’t always traditional. While ancient Greeks definitely enjoyed a lot of penetrative sex, they had a lot of intercrural sex, which shows up on a lot of artwork from the time. So yes, there were definitely tops and bottoms, but there was also plenty of side action.

Did they bottom?

Yes, of course they did—but bottoming came with a whole host of specific class and status connotations back in the day.

Usually, high-status older men would insist on topping their younger boyfriends, which got some people into a lot of trouble, as in the case of Periander of Ambracia, who met his untimely end after making a pregnancy joke to his boyfriend. Because even though gay sex was de rigueur, being a top was considered manly, while being a bottom was considered effeminate, and could even jeopardize your status as a high class Greek citizen.

The Greeks probably didn’t invent bottom shame, but they definitely played right into its hands. In the words of bottoming scholar Jonathan Kemp, “for the ancient Greeks, to be a citizen meant being a top and if an adult male persisted in being f*cked he was considered unfit for his civic role.”

Well, that’s annoying!

How did they do it?

Those guys didn’t have any bidets or gummies or magical pork gelatin balls like we have now, but they did douche… sometimes. How did they do it? Well, enemas, mostly. That particular technology is surprisingly old, but it wasn’t the only way bottoms kept things ready at a moments’ notice—then as now, diet played a partial role.

According to one poet, bottoms would eat a lot of sorb apples, which were small, bitter, and full of fiber. They didn’t taste pleasant, but they basically did the job of a standard anti-diarrheal.

But some bottoms didn’t douche at all, and while some writers did judgmentally make note of this phenomenon for posterity, people in the past weren’t that obsessed with before and after care the way we are now.

This isn’t just true of the Greeks—as some queer elders have told us, the obsession with douching was nowhere near what it’s become today. People in the past were pretty much just psyched to be having sex, and weren’t so hung up on the messier side effects that can sometimes follow.

Which is cool! Ancient Greece definitely wasn’t a magical shame-free environment where everyone was having amazing gay sex all the time and feeling no judgment, but they were definitely much more modern in their thinking about sex and sexuality than many long-ago—and not so long ago—cultures. We’ll never fully know what it was like to live there, but thanks to many Greek and Roman oversharers, we definitely get the gist.

RIP ancient Greece—you would have loved Sniffies.

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Robby Hoffman didn’t become funny out of nowhere. More people just started paying attention.

In the past year, the comedian, writer and actor has been everywhere in the best possible way: an Emmy-nominated turn as Randi on Hacks, a John Mulaney-directed Netflix special, Wake Up, a role opposite Steve Carell in Rooster, and a very public, very adored marriage to former Bachelorette star Gabby Windey. 

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But Hoffman’s rise isn’t some sudden Hollywood discovery story. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she put it plainly: “I never had connections or the fast track in any way, shape or form. So I just got used to slow and steady wins the race.” The bigger audience is new; the sharp, specific, slightly combustible voice is not.

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That road started far from Netflix specials and HBO sets. Hoffman was born in Brooklyn, raised in Montreal and grew up one of 10 children in a Hasidic Jewish family. Before becoming a stand-up favorite, she briefly headed toward accounting, wrote for television, and even won an Emmy for her work on the PBS children’s series Odd Squad (range)!

Part of Hoffman’s appeal is that she doesn’t sound overly polished by the industry around her. Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar about her early stand-up days, she said, “I’m happy that I didn’t know what stand-up was because I was able to be uninformed and uninfluenced. I went out with whatever the hell I thought. [And] if I think it’s funny, then that’s all I need.”

It’s that instinct that still drives her, too. “We give ourselves the green light,” she added. “With stand-up, it was a different thing; I felt like this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Hoffman’s comedy is blunt, personal and often sweeter than it first appears, even when the sweetness is buried under six layers of complaint. Asked by CULTURED what people get wrong about her, Hoffman answered that she’s “rude.”

She offered a very Robby-like explanation. “I’m actually a delight to work with!,” she added.

For LGBTQ+ audiences, Hoffman’s successful year goes beyond providing visibility. It’s about seeing someone get louder, weirder, and more fully herself as the spotlight gets bigger. “My job is just to be me,” she told the Guardian.

So far, that job is going extremely well.

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With so many gays complaining about hooking up and dating in the digital age via the apps, a new book is giving a glimpse to the thirst of cruising in the analog days before our phones consumed our entire identities.

Polaroid Encounters: 1998–2009 is the latest book by former music industry vet-turned-photographer Michael Alago.

Consisting of more than 200 Polaroid images, Alago photographed friends, models, bodybuilders, tatted up toughs, hook-ups, and even ex-con boyfriends in various stages of undress and arousal over the 11-year period from 1998 to 2009.

As the book’s release points out, this is the same year (2009) that adult magazine Mandate ceased publication amid the rise of the internet. It’s also the year Grindr arrived on the scene. You can do the math.

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Described as “sexy, self-contained shrine to macho masculinity in all its flexing, flirting, full-frontal glory,” Polaroid Encounters features candids and posesd shots of the male subjects with a raw intensity rarely seen in today’s Instagram world of endless filters and perfect lighting.

This is Alago’s fourth photo book and follows his previous releases, Rough Gods, Brutal Truth, and Beautiful Imperfections.

As a gay Puerto Rican teen in NYC, Alago was heavily involved in the punk scene and parlayed that into becoming an A&R music executive. He’s famous for having signed Metallica, as well as working with artists such as White Zombie, John Lydon, Cyndi Lauper and Nina Simone.

Upon leaving the music business in 2003, Alago rekindled his passion for photography having first picked up a Polaroid camera in the ’90s. His reinvention documenting gritty male portraiture continues with 142-pages of erotically-charged musculature in Polaroid Encounters.

Polaroid Encounters is available as a limited edition exclusively from punk and hardcore books and zines publisher Shining Life Press at www.shininglifepress.com The first 100 books come with a signed Polaroid from Alago’s collection.

Check out a sample of sultry images from Michael Alago’s Polaroid Encounters below.

If you’re in NYC,  Alago will sign copies of Polaroid Encounters on June 12, from 7-9PM at Bureau of General Services–Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, in Manhattan. More info at 
https://www.bgsqd.com/  

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While the current administration has been working tirelessly to silence the queer community, the importance of Pride Month has never felt more urgent and essential.

The right wing’s anti-LGBTQ+ dystopian plan has led to a rise in the cancellation of Pride festivals due to lack of funding over DEI backlash and the abandonment by corporations who fear White House retaliation despite previously splashing rainbows all over logos and apparel during the month of June.

But not everyone has deserted us.

On Wednesday, we told you how Converse debuted their new Pride collection, which upped the rainbow eleganza to 100 with merch that supports several LGBTQ non-profits.

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On the other end of the spectrum, Levi’s is taking a different approach in how they show their unwavering support to the community. The iconic denim brand’s 2026 Pride collection is ditching the rainbows and instead celebrating the grittier side of queer resilience by taking inspiration from the gay motorcycle clubs of the early LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Bull dykes and leather daddies, rise!

Gay motorcycle clubs

Gay motorcycle clubs go back to the 1950s and were initially a way for queer men to assemble in a safe space and form camaraderie. LA’s Satyrs Motorcycle Club is considered to be the longest running group having been established in 1954. By the ’70s, the biker bands had exploded in popularity with clubs across the nation, including: NY’s Empire City Motorcycle Club, Stonewall Knights in South Florida, and the queer women-focused Dykes on Bikes.

Entitled “Together We Ride”, the Levi’s collection “pays homage to the trailblazers who carved out spaces of belonging on the open road, reminding us that Pride is not only a celebration, but an act of visibility and survival,” the company said in a statement.

And to make sure they were keeping it authentic as possible, Levi’s collection took inspiration from leather, hardware and graphics sourced by the GLBT Historical Society archives in San Francisco.

The merch is focused on the biker aesthetic with items that include a leather-like coated denim vest and chaps “designed to capture the look and spirit of the open road.” That and your favorite local fetish bar.

No kink-shaming in this house.

Other pieces include a Pride Cropped Muscle Tank, denim Pride Trucker Jacket emblazoned with “Free to Be” graphic with a pink triangle on the back, a studded pair of Levi’s 501s, and a Pride Biker black bandana.

Perhaps Charlie XCX is right, rock and roll is back!

Rainbows for all

There’s also a monochromatic Rainbow Motorcycle Club t-shirt that is devoid of any vibrant hues. Black is our favorite color anyway.

But for those looking for a more stereotypical Pride moment, Levi’s does include their Pride community tee with the brand’s logo immersed inside a standard rainbow. Everybody wins.

Naysayers may think Levi’s going 99% rainbow-free for the Pride collection gives the line a more universal appeal that offers a way to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in a very subtle way so as to not “offend” the homophobic Karens of the world. Yet, it also satiates members of the queer community that bemoan companies slapping rainbows on everything for 30 days as a performative act that doesn’t really benefit the gays.

While we should be loud and proud, does Pride merch have to be?

What’s interesting is, that as of press time, Levi’s has yet to promote the Pride line on Instagram or TikTok despite it being available as of May 19th.

Since Levi’s is also donating $100,000 to Outright International, a global organization working to advance human rights for LGBTQIA+ people all over the world, we are giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are not keeping the Pride line on the down low and will be promoting it on social media in the days to come. Stay tuned.

The entire Levi’s Pride 2026 collection is available for purchase on Levi.com and in select Levi’s stores now.

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You don’t need an international super-spy to tell you that the James Bond franchise has a sizable, not-so-secret gay fan base.

But why is that? You know, aside from the fact that the now 73-year-old spy is always rakishly handsome and impeccably dressed. Since the iconic British hero was brought from the pages of author Ian Fleming’s pulp novels to the screen, there have been 25 feature films (in the official canon, at least!), yet you can probably count the series’ overt or intentional nods to queerness on two hands:

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Bond goes undercover as not-so-subtly coded gay man in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond is hunted but a couple—and we mean, like, a romantic couple—of assassins in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever. Bond heads to San Francisco to tango with a glamorous villain played by gay icon Grace Jones in 1985’s A View To A Kill. Bond hints to a flirty nemesis that he may have been with men before in 2012’s Skyfall. Bond nearly interrupts his colleague Q’s (out actor Ben Whishaw) date with another man in 2021’s No Time To Die.

We may have missed a few, but you get the idea. On the surface, Bond, both as a character and a franchise, is pretty straight, especially given the agent’s well-documented proclivity for women. However, there’s a rich queer history of 007 that’s largely been hidden from plain sight, one that’s part of the very fabric of the tuxedo he famously wears and so much more. All we needed was for someone to pull at that thread.

In his new book Bond, Queer Bond – The Fabulous Other Story Of A Spy, author Mark O’Connell does just that. It’s a thrilling journey through the colorful collection of queer individuals who in some way helped shape the man we still fawn over today—the writers, directors & editors, the artists & illustrators, the singers & songwriters, and even Truman Capote!—which in turn examines the myriad ways Bond has impacted queer culture, too.

A lifelong devotee, O’Connell writes with wit and charm as he connects the gay dots in this wide world of espionage, while also incorporating the voices of both its creators (like longtime series shepherd Barbara Broccoli & composer David Arnold) and super-fans (like out actor Mark Gatiss & drag royalty Peaches Christ).

Those already familiar with 007 lore while delight in seeing a whole new side of their beloved spy, but anyone can appreciate the way the book illuminates the stories of how queer people have so thoroughly influenced popular culture at large, even if they’ve been behind-the-scenes—or undercover.

With Bond, Queer Bond available now, we spoke to O’Connell about taking on this noble mission and the surprising discoveries he made along the way. Plus, the author weighs in two of the questions that inevitably comes up every time the possibility of new casting looms: Will there ever be a gay James Bond, and is it possibly he could be played by an out, queer actor?

QUEERTY: When & how did your obsession with James Bond begin?

MARK O’CONNELL: Bond was in my family before I was! My grandfather worked for the Broccoli family since the late ’50s and they are, until very recently, for 60-plus years, the Bond “captains” the with Harry Saltzman, they steered the Bond movie project through many uncharted waters and made it a franchise of brilliance.

I was taken, kicking and screaming, to see Octopussy at age seven. I had a meltdown in the cinema lobby because I wanted to go and see Return Of The Jedi again. But my dad wanted me to see it because his father had worked on it, and Bond was a thing in our family. And it kind of changed my cinematic life!

I just fell in love with Octopussy and the costumes and the music and the sense of production. I didn’t understand the story or the Cold War politics, but I got that Maude Adams was just beguiling with her big hair and shoulder pads, and she had this silver octopus boudoir bed. I just remember being obsessed by that even though there were no gay kids here to see at all.

I became a Bond fan off the back of that. I would get fed things from the Broccoli office that my grandfather would pass on, and then I started to join fan forums where [my writing] was getting a lot of traffic, but my friend said, “Stop giving it away for free!” So I wrote Catching Bullets in 2012, which is subtitled “Memoirs Of A Bond Fan,” and it was my me looking at those films in the order I saw them. Years after that, I was getting a bit itchy—I wanted to do a queer book, maybe something a bit historical, and that’s when I began to realize there was a bit of a queer background to Bond.

So when did it first click for you that there was this sphere of queer influence on the broader Bond franchise?

I think, as a British gay man, it was definitely Dame Shirley Bassey. Because Shirley Bassey has such a great LGBTQ+ following across the world, so it was kind of like, “hang on; a queer icon did that!”

I never watched the Bond films thinking, “Oh my god, he’s hot”—until Daniel Craig came out the water 20 years ago in Casino Royale. I don’t know, but Roger Moore, Sean Connery, they felt like my parents’ heroes. It’s like, you’re never going to listen to your dad’s favorite music, you’re going to find your own—and it’s the same with Bond actors.

But there were some moments where I would respond. I remember nearly breaking a VHS pause button on one of the henchmen getting out of a rooftop pool in The Living Daylights, where he’s in a very skimpy 1980s Speedo. And in the same film, there’s a battle in some airfield, and two soldiers are showering, so they get disrupted and have to run naked—I paused that, too!

However, it wasn’t ’til later that I discovered the queer creative DNA of the films. I learned that Peter Hunt— who edited the ’60s films and made On Her Majesty’s Secret Service—was gay. And probably, in the last 10 years, I saw these jigsaw pieces come together: I thought these characters were interesting, not just in the DNA and history of Bond, but also interesting in the DNA of queer pop culture queer.

So I’d discover through research that all these queer icons, bars, underground films clubs, etc, had tapped into Bond and lapped it up. And in doing so, that showed our own queer history as well. I didn’t want to be about connective tissue; I wanted to to be about arteries and spine and bone marrow. It wasn’t until I handed the manuscript in that I realized there was enough there. And in fact there was too much—I had to leave stuff out!

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Peter Hunt is such an important figure in all of this, because as you lay out in the book, he really helped set the tone & pace of the films as their first editor, creating this unique cinematic language we now think of as a signature to the Bond franchise—a gay man did that! Why do you think that was significant in terms of the way Bond is received & perceived as a masculine action hero?

Peter Hunt, he was a gay guy who edited the first five films when it was illegal to be gay in England. But like a lot of those guys, he was living his queer life—they were not always these sheltered, closeted, scared mice hiding in the cellars. George Lazenby would often regale that, when his Bond film was shooting in Switzerland, Peter Hunt would have his gay friends there, they’d all be hanging out. And that was important to me—that’s part of the queer history. I’ve got a big problem where where we think diversity and visibility is something that’s just happened since we’ve had hashtags and Instagram. There’s a lot of people living their their very real, queer lives with real, queer texture and real, queer openness from way longer back than perhaps our panicked headlines would like us to think.

But with Peter Hunt, it was gay man that changed action cinema! When we watch a sequence from Fast & Furious or Mission: Impossible, its creative, artistic DNA can be directly traced back to Peter Hunt and those Bond films in the ’60s. Because he realized that they were paperback novels but that they could still be good, and so in an action scene, he would just chop frames out: Do we really need Bond arriving, Bond walking through the door, and Bond in the corridor? No! There was an economy of action.

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That time James Bond went undercover as a gay man in 1969’s ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’
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And that’s not necessarily queer, of course, but Peter Hunt was helping cut and edit this vision of masculinity. He was making choices. Sure, everyone knows Ursula Andress coming out of the sea in that bikini in Dr. No, but straighter audiences often overlook that Sean Connery is topless, he’s dripping wet, he’s in tight denim—there’s something for everyone! And I think Peter Hunt was privately mindful of that.

So it’s interesting that he was forging what masculinity was in the on screen in the ’60s in the Bond films. They were revolutionary and game-changing in so many ways, including how they re-shaped our view of masculinity, because until then the Brits didn’t have this next generation of hot, sometimes working class, blue collar men. And Connery represented that! Hunt really showcased the sexuality and the hyper-masculinity of one of the straight icons of the 20th Century. And that’s totally relevant!

It’s interesting because, in the book, you argue that 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever is the gayest Bond film: it’s campy, it’s cheeky, it’s glamorous, and it’s got two early gay villains in Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd! But there’s also this hypothesis that, had Hunt directed it—which he was at one point considered—he might’ve been inclined to downplay some of what we perceive as the movie’s queerness out of self-preservation.

He grew up in a very guarded era, even if he was living a gay life. The story goes that he later adopted his partner because that was the only way of securing the legalities of “next of kin status.” which is interesting as well. But I think, totally, if he directed Diamonds Are Forever, he would have reigned it in. But what I think is delicious about Diamonds Are Forever is that it’s a gorgeous Vegas bauble of an accident, and it should never have happened that way! They were just happy they got Connery back, so they didn’t overthink the other details.

It was director Guy Hamilton who was really keen to have the two gay characters in the film. It might have been the lighter touch of the early ’70s. But even writer Tom Mankiewicz was straight, and he even contributes to the queer veneer with some great, arch pieces of dialogue. I think Diamonds Are Forever is just such a happy gay accident—and as the years go on, a more important one, too.

If that’s the gayest Bond film, then I’m curious who’d you’d say, performance-wise, which actor has given us our gayest James Bond?

I think the tone of Roger Moore, and particularly the tone of the ’70s was a slightly lighter, more arch—the Bond films turned a tonal corner in their second decade. I think, with Roger Moore, it falls under camp, but it’s a lightness, it’s a comedy. Us gays, we love a comeback, we love the shade, and a lot of Roger Moore’s dialogue is shady, whereas perhaps Sean Connery’s was more to the blunt point. Moore was a little bit more relaxed. But we mustn’t mistake camp for gay, of course—that’s not what he was doing.

I do think Daniel Craig, because of the time his films came out—you know, he started 20 years ago, but he’s still our Bond of record. Of course, that Skyfall scene was interesting! I remember seeing it with my husband and a couple of friends, and at least two of us got up and applauded! And then there was the rimming gag—and maybe it’s only the filthy gays that really get that, but I was like, “Is that…” And we were clapping again! [Laughs.] So it’ll be interesting to see where we go from there.

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Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to ask something that I hope you’re not tired of talking about: What do you think of the possibility of a queer actor playing James Bond?

My joke response is: Again? And then you walk away. [Laughs.] No, of course the actor that plays James Bond could be gay!

One of the little curios of the book—and I couldn’t get a definition on this from from literally the horse’s mouth—is that Tom of Finland had his eye on Roger Moore, allegedly, in the early ’60s, pre-Bond. And I was thinking that queer culture, queer art has noticed those people: Connery, of course, and Moore was often accused of being gay when he was a younger, because he was quite a pretty young actor and he was always up for banter.

I think there’s many actors out there that could fit the role: Jonathan Bailey, especially; Luke Evans, but he’s a little older perhaps than where I think the franchise might go. But the fear would be—Amazon’s got the world’s eyes looking at them, so I think the one thing they’re going to do to make it work is to make it familiar. They’re not going to change too much. So I think there will be a straight acting actor playing Bond.

But there is nothing stopping the likes of Jonathan Bailey doing it. If the film and the franchise felt strong enough to weather the online fan storm—because the online fans will moan at anything, but they’re not the ones that that fill the box office, it’s regular people that just go to see the Bond movie. And I think most of them aren’t going to be too bothered that it’s a gay guy, because plenty of straight people have played gay roles very well, including in Bond films!

And then how about the man himself? Can James Bond be gay, or does that fundamentally change who this character is?

It’s an interesting question: Can the character be gay? No, because that’s not how he was written.

But one thing I’m always really mindful of is is that Ian Fleming and the spy world of the ’50s was led and marked by gay men. And Fleming was surrounded by what I call “sexual adventurers,” people with different rhythms and grooves when it comes to how they enjoy their physical lives. And I think that is there in the books: Bond meets some people with anti-gay judgment, but it’s because he finds them irritating, he just doesn’t like the person full-stop, and it’s not because of who they fundamentally are. So, if you want to say that Fleming and the Bond books were homophobic well, they’re only as homophobic as the 1950s were. And I think Fleming works his way around that.

I’m very mindful of how queer equality and diversity have become collateral for certain political thinking—this whole reaction to “woke” of late. Well, Fleming used the phrase properly in the early ’60s: he wrote about San Francisco being the most wide awake community in the world. So people say he’d be spinning in his grave with all this “woke stuff,” but I wanted to use the “openly straight” James Bond to shed light, not just on the queer influences and DNA of Bond, but also just queer history in general. I love the irony that the “straight knight” of British culture is taking some queer history forward.

Before I let you go, are there any other personal favorite moments or details from the Bond movies that feel gay to you that you maybe didn’t get to include in the book?

One of the things I always loved, as a gay kid and now as an adult, is the women of Bond. If there’s one thing gay audiences do respect and get drawn to is strong yet flawed women—glamorous women that have a sense of presentation, a sense of self. And from the first Bond film on—yes, there might have been some bikinis and slapped backsides and that that was of the time, that’s not what we would say is okay now. But suddenly, in Thunderball and Goldfinger, the villains’ right hand is a woman! I think it’s an overused word, but they have such agency and such strength.

I also think it’s the sense of production, it is the sense of design. I’m not saying that all queens, all gay guys, have a great eye, or need to see design and artistic choices. But, my god, the Bond films are just dripping in tailoring and glamour, and are always set like five minutes into the future. So nothing feels quite like the world we are in this minute, and that’s quite a queer thing as well.

Mark O’Connell’s Bond, Queer Bond – The Fabulous Other History Of A Spy is now available wherever books are sold, courtesy of The History Press.

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