Evansville, IN – A Methodist pastor in Indiana has been fired by his church after appearing in drag on the HBO series We’re Here. Pastor Craig Duke had served as head pastor at Newburgh United Methodist Church since 2018. He is married and the father of a Pansexual daughter. While the United Methodist Church—a mainstream Protestant denomination—does not condemn same-sex attractions, it does not endorse marriage equality or allow partnered Gay or Lesbian people to be ordained as clergy. Nevertheless, Duke earned a reputation as an ally of the LGBTQ community in his hometown of Evansville, Indiana, and when We’re […]
Actor Jussie Smollett guilty of faking antigay attack
Chicago, IL – On Thursday evening December 9, an Illinois jury found former Empire actor Jussie Smollett guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct related to lying to police about being the victim of a racist and anti-gay hate crime reports LGBTQ Nation. He now faces up to three years in prison, though many speculate that he may receive probation and community service hours instead. A sentencing hearing will be set for a later date. Smollett is expected to appeal the ruling. Prosecutors alleged that Smollett lied to Chicago police on January 29, 2019, when he claimed he had been […]
Tokyo set to recognize same-sex partnerships
Tokyo, Japan – Japan is the only member of the G7 that doesn’t allow same-sex marriage. Next year, Tokyo, the country’s largest city and capital, will do what it can to recognize relationships by introducing same-sex partnerships. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike didn’t provide details about what benefits registered partnerships would provide nor how these partnerships will remain unequal to marriage. In opinion polls, the Japanese population supports marriage equality. The Japanese organization Marriage for All put out a statement that they hope Tokyo’s move will put pressure on other local governments to follow. They pointed out partnerships will not allow […]
Gay for Good — change the world with acts of kindness
Long Beach, CA – At the core of service organization, Gay for Good is the idea that acts of kindness bring people together. Founded in California in 2008 by Steve Gratwick, Tony Biel, and Frank Roller, the now national nonprofit mobilizes LGBTQ and ally volunteers to participate in service projects in their communities. Gratwick, Biel, and Roller established the organization in response to the passage of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California by public vote. The Gay for Good founders believed the way to change people’s hearts and minds was to build relationships in the community through service. […]
National AIDS Memorial observes World AIDS Day
San Francisco, CA – At the beginning of December each year, people united in the fight against HIV/AIDS come together to observe World AIDS Day. The National AIDS Memorial remembers, honors, and supports stories of the pandemic to ensure they are never forgotten. On November 30 and December 1, the memorial hosted events in San Francisco and online to “offer inspiration, hope, remembrance, and reflection,” as 2021 marks the 40th year of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the US, with over 700,000 lives lost in the past four decades. “Today, while much progress has been made, HIV rates continue to rise […]
Gay Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim dies at age 91
Roxbury, CN – The news on November 26 that Stephen Sondheim had died was sudden and surprising. Although he was 91, Sondheim was not reported to be in ill health and had just spent Thanksgiving with friends. The breadth of Sondheim’s musical oeuvre and concomitant genius will be written about extensively in the coming days and weeks — and for years to come — by music critics, musicologists and academics. I shall leave it to them to deconstruct his genius in those contexts, noting his many awards from Tonys to the Pulitzer Prize to Grammys. But for some of us […]
Connection between untreated HIV and COVID-19 variants
KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Molly Sprayregen writes for LGBTQ Nation that Tulio de Oliveira, the South African scientist who first detected the COVID-19 Omicron variant, believes it likely originated in someone with poorly treated HIV. Oliveira, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), explained to the Los Angeles Times that variants are more likely to arise in COVID-19 patients with compromised immune systems, and those with untreated HIV have severely weakened immune systems that make it extremely difficult to fight off illness. In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately eight million people are living with HIV that has either been undiagnosed or […]
Justice says LGBTQ cases support reversing abortion case
Washington, D.C. – Dan Tracer writes for Queerty that the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the most consequential abortion case in decades, and noted beer lover, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, suggested landmark LGBTQ rights cases could support overturning federal abortion rights. Yes, it’s come to this. Conservative justices, Kavanaugh among them, appear willing to uphold the Mississippi law before the court that would ban abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and possibly overturn Roe v. Wade. The liberal justices expressed serious concern that reversing the 1973 Roe ruling would be too political for the court. Kavanaugh […]
Scott Robbe, activist, movie, TV & stage producer has died
Hartford, WI – Veteran progressive activist and TV-film-stage producer Scott Robbe died on Sunday, Nov. 21, according to a statement by Paul Algiers, a longtime friend and the executor of Scott Robbe’s estate. Robbe was in hospice care at the home of his sister, Angela, in Hartford, Wisc. He was 66. Robbe died of complications from Myelodysplastic Anemia, a blood cancer he had battled for more than a year. Robbe was a prominent member in the founding of two direct-action groups in New York City: ACT UP and Queer Nation. Robbe was a member of an ACT UP undercover team, […]
Biden nominates 2nd out woman to federal appeals court
Washington, D.C. – Juwan J. Holmes writes for LGBTQ Nation that just weeks after the first LGBTQ woman was confirmed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Biden is sending another out woman to join the same bench. The White House announced this week that Biden is nominating Alison Nathan, currently a district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recommended her, as he did when she was nominated to her current judgeship by President Barack Obama […]