Back to School in DeSantis’s Florida, as Teachers Look Over Their Shoulders

Kayla Lemieux, a manufacturing technology teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School in Ontario, Canada, recently made headlines after she was pictured teaching a class while wearing massive prosthetic breasts. Kayla, formerly known as Stephen Hanna, is said to have started transitioning to a female last year.READ MORE: Astrid Wett shocks Amazon delivery driver by answering door in racy cowgirl outfitThe images quickly went viral, with some people criticising the school.Now, controversial Fox News host Tucker Carlson has weighed in on the debate.In a segment on the US channel on Monday (September 19), he compared the prosthetics to Japanese "Exploding Milk Porn".

We’re only a day into fall, but that means it’s officially calendar season, and these thirsty farming enthusiasts are already harvesting their crops.Related: More European redheads sizzle in one of world’s sexiest calendarsThe Irish Farmer Calendar 2023 is here and undeniably queer. This marks the 13th installment of the popular timetable.It features “hunks of agricultural charm” hailing from Offaly, Mayo, Dublin, Wicklow and Kilkenny, along with their four-legged friends.

The gay romantic comedy Bros, the first such film to be backed by a major studio, will not be released in the Middle East.“It’s still unclear exactly what markets in the region will be affected, but it’s likely to include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Kuwait — all of which are notorious for censoring movies over even the slightest hint of LGBTQ themes or content,” according to Variety, which was the first to report the story.LGBTQ-inclusive films that have been banned in the region include Onward and the recent release Lightyear — both of which have queer characters. Marvel's The Eternals was banned in some countries in the region for showing the studio's first same-gender couple. Other films have had affectionate same-sex scenes cut for the market.Bros tells the story of two New Yorkers, played by Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane, beginning a romance.

“Sparks” singer Hilary Duff re-established herself as a pioneer of the queer rights movement yet again this week.Pentatonix member Scott Hoying and his fiancé teamed up with the star to recreate an enduring public service announcement from 2008. In it, Duff confronts two girls in a shop for using the word “gay” derogatorily.The fact that she read the girls down in the process just added to the magic of it all.This new recreation really takes us right back to ’08:In the words of Derrick Berry, “That was fighting for gay rights.

A Louisiana judge dismissed a lawsuit filed last month by a librarian over criticism she received for supporting the inclusion of LGBTQ-related books in a library.Amanda Jones, a middle school librarian and the president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, from Denham Springs, La., filed the lawsuit against two men, Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames, after she claims they publicly attacked her opposing censorship and “book policing," The Hill reports.Although conservative group Citizens for a New Louisiana, ran by Lunsford according to the suit, published a series of online criticisms of Jones, the judge ruled that their statements were only opinions. The judge indicated that the level the offending commentary would have to rise was very high because the plaintiff was somewhat of a public figure.On July 19, Jones spoke at the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting after a board member requested that the board review inappropriate books.

At its most powerful, literature creates empathy, a vital spark to help us feel and understand the experiences of others distant from our own. We are able to grasp their joy, pain, or sorrow.

When he was an undergrad at Harvard, author and historian Eric Cervini’s first encounter with queer history surprisingly did not come from a book. “I watched the film Milk about Harvey Milk, and I was shocked that I knew nothing about this story,” Cervini says. “That’s where my interest in queer history began.”Cervini earned his Ph.D.

Pride is the commemoration of the Stonewall’s queers publicly pwning the NYPD, Folsom stems from confronting draconian authority. Folsom Street and San Francisco’s fetish community was first entwined in 1966 with the opening of Febe’s, the thoroughfare’s first leather bar. By the late ’70s, Folsom had developed its own “Miracle Mile” strip, which featured over 30 gay bars, shops, and bathhouses, cementing it as the epicenter of SF’s leather community.

Chrissy Judy is a tale of friendship that should hit close to home for many: A pair of besties have spent so much time together that they’re practically co-dependent. But what happens when life and love get in the way?In this case, the BFFs are—you guessed it—Chrissy and Judy, two thirty-something gay New Yorkers who moonlight as a successful (yet under-appreciated, by their account) drag cabaret duo.Writer/director Todd Flaherty plays Judy, the duo’s requisite “messy Judy” who always manages to get tangled up in drama.

that’s so gay? more like that’s so SLAY (of hilary duff) #Pride2022

LONDON — The daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu had wanted to honor her godfather’s personal wish: that she officiate his funeral in England after he died last week. But the Church of England stopped the Rev. Mpho Tutu van Furth, a priest ordained in the United States, from doing so this week because she is married to a woman, she said.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor RuPaul and the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” judges raised more than $250,000 for Extraordinary Families on Thursday night at an event in Hancock Park. Michelle Visage, Ross Mathews, Carson Kressley and Jeffrey Bower Chapman co-hosted the celebration for the adoption and foster agency that works with LGBTQ+ parents and kids. World of Wonder co-founder, Drag Race producer and co-host for the night Fenton Bailey announced $250,00 and counting had been donated. Extraordinary Families CEO Barnaby Murff thanked Bailey, who is also on the organization’s board and has two adopted children with his filmmaker husband Billy Luther.

Dame Joan Collins has revealed that she wanted to be a boy when she started going through puberty at the age of 14. The star first made a splash in Hollywood in glamorous roles in the 1950s in films like Land of the Pharaohs, The Opposite Sex and Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys!. However, she has now shared that she ‘hated’ all the changes she saw in her body as a young teenager and so opted to ‘rebel’ and wear boys’ clothes instead.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville is under attack for the gender-affirming care it provides to young people, and now Tennessee lawmakers are calling for restrictions on such care.It all started with a podcast and social media posts this week by right-wing blogger Matt Walsh. He shared video of a doctor at Vanderbilt calling gender-affirming surgeries a “big moneymaker” and another of a professor saying there would be “consequences” if hospital personnel object to participating in the procedures.However, the doctor, Shayne Taylor, “does not refer to children in the video clip Walsh posted, which did not appear to contain her full remarks,” Tennessee Lookout notes.

Cynthia Erivo is opening up about her coming out experience and why she came out later in life.

Harper’s Bazaar that investors kept pushing for a NSFW LGBTQ story, instead of a plot about a killer on the run.She told the publication how backers demanded “a hot lesbian movie with me and Christina Ricci” — however, that is not what the Patty Jenkins-directed “Monster” turned out to be.“There’s a natural fight in me to want to create environments that feel like the things that I wish I had 30 years ago when I started,” Theron said. The “Old Guard” actress also discussed her struggles with costumes during movie shoots.“Having absolutely no control over what you’re wearing is a big one that really f – – king annoyed me for years. Having some guy make you have a fitting almost in front of them — stuff like that, it’s really belittling,” Theron noted.She then described an incident on set involving a director who kept wanting her to change her clothes.“When I started, there was no conversation around it.

Nova, a popular primetime science series on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), is set to release the ambitious documentary Ending HIV in America.The doc chronicles the journey of the HIV epidemic in America over the last 40 years with a highlight on the activism and community commitment that’s helped slow the spread. San Francisco and Birmingham, Ala., serve as at the centers of the one-hour special, as they are two of the cities that represent the real-world challenges of getting treatment to the people who need it most.“HIV is a uniquely challenging virus to fight, and the scientific journey over the last four decades has been a dramatic rollercoaster filled with hope and frustration and some truly remarkable discoveries,” Nova co-executive producer Julia Cort said in a statement. As scientific efforts continue to advance, they gradually uncover more of the secrets of the virus’s mutation.

RuPaul’s Drag Race. And it’s been almost a year since the last time BuzzFeed spoke with this Legendary Legend, who at the time was about to release her memoir, My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska?: A Memoir, and was preparing to go on her first solo tour at the beginning of this year. Unfortunately, Omicron had other plans, and Alaska was forced to postpone her tour. However, Alaska has kept busy over the last year; aside from continuing to co-host her podcasts, she also co-launched MOM Plus, a subscription service for her and Willam’s Moguls of Media podcasting company, released the AAA Girls documentary, Access All Areas, held a series of pop diva-themed shows at Brooklyn’s 3 Dollar Bill, and held her annual The Drag Queen of the Year Pageant Competition Awards Contest Competition pageant.

The race for U.S. Senate in Florida is a dead heat.A new poll finds pro-LGBTQ Democrat Val Demings is just 2 points behind anti-LGBTQ incumbant Marco Rubio, with a 4.5% margin of error.The Civiqs poll, released yesterday, found 49% of likely Florida voters expressed support for Rubio, compared to 47% who support Demings.When it comes to favorably, 41% of likely voters said they viewed Rubio in a favorable light, compared to 51% who viewed him unfavorably.

Billy Eichner’s “Bros” will be making history upon its release as the first R-rated gay rom-com ever made by a major studio, but that historical record certainly won’t include the Middle East. The Universal movie, which hits the U.S. box office on Sept. 30, is set to roll out across most international markets in October and November, but is pre-emptively skipping any kind of release in Middle East markets due to cultural and commercial reasons, sources close to the studio tell Variety. It’s still unclear exactly what markets in the region will be affected, but it’s likely to include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Kuwait — all of which are notorious for censoring movies over even the slightest hint of LGBTQ themes or content.

Marketing researchers Alexander Davidson of Wayne State University and Mark R. Gleim of  Auburn University recently reviewed listings of rentals in the U.S.

A new study has found bisexuals reported experiencing less workplace discrimination than their gay and lesbian counterparts, although the findings suggest the disparity may be the result of fewer bisexuals being out at work.The report from the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, entitled “The Role of Sexual Orientation and Gender in Workplace Experiences of Cisgender LGB Employees” surveyed 935 LGB adults about their workplace experiences.The key findings of the report showed that significantly fewer bisexuals were out to their supervisors or coworkers than gays and lesbians. Only 36 percent of cisgender bisexual employees reported being out to their supervisors and only 19 percent reported being out to all their coworkers.

As attacks on hospitals across the country providing gender-affirming care services to trans children increases, with the latest target being a hospital in Ohio, far-right Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson is adding fuel to the fire.During a segment on his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, on Wednesday, Carlson, who has often made anti-LGBTQ+ comments, attacked hospitals providing gender-affirming health care to transgender young people. Carlson said that being transgender is a fad, and he repeatedly claimed that gender-affirming medicine harms children and called it a “crime.” He also described being transgender as a “fad.”Following a series of tweets from right-wing extremist influencer Matt Walsh accusing Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee of opening its gender-affirming care division for financial gain, Carlson joined online trolls in targeting the facility. As a result, the hospital received an influx of hate and vitriol, leading to its having to shut down its website, as the Daily Beast reported.Carlson directs his viewers to engage in threatening behavior with a wink and a nod.In what experts describe as an example of stochastic terrorism tactics, Carlson said on his program that hospital employees were criminals who shouldn’t be surprised they “are receiving threatening phone calls.” As the latest attack on children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care, right-wing social media accounts have targeted Akron Children’s Hospital, the Akron Beacon Journal reports.In August, right-wing bloggers, news outlets, and social media accounts targeted Boston Children’s Hospital, which runs what was the first transgender health program in the country. A Massachusetts woman was arrested last week for allegedly

Editor's note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 5.As part of our new ritual, my boyfriend and I tuned in to watch House of the Dragon this past Sunday, along with about  29 million other viewers. We both let out a collective “aww” when, halfway through the episode, the show introduced its first queer storyline.

Yes, that is right, I am going to be a guest on A.S.S. — The Adam Sank Show!

The daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mpho Tutu van Furth and her wife, Marceline

above] comes from 1980.Jordan, 66 captioned the pic on Instagram, “I just called 1980 and told it I wanted my 6-pack back — except in those days I was drinking and I’m afraid they’ll think I want beer.”The photo shows a shirtless, hairy, and rugged-looking Jordan, leaning against a car. If it was taken in 1980, he would have been around 24 or 25.Related: Leslie Jordan just schooled T.I. on his homophobia and it went surprisingly wellAmong those to comment was fellow actor Octavia Spencer, who said, “If they call u back text me.

No, Maroon 5 hasn’t put out any new music, but frontman Adam Levine is definitely trending.The musician has landed himself in an off-key controversy after his DMs started to leak this week. In the messages, Levine, who has been married to model Behati Prinsloo since 2014, gets more-than-flirty with other women.Related: Multiple leaks suggest one of the world’s biggest gay icons will soon make her video game debutInstagram model Sumner Stroh kicked off the accusations by saying she’d had an affair with Levine when she was “young” and “naïve.” In a TikTok video, Stroh shared snippets of their conversations, which began when Levine reached out to ask her if he could name his new baby “Sumner”:embarrassed I was involved w a man with this utter lack of remorse and respect.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema on Monday reiterated his government does not support LGBTQ and intersex rights.

To the Editor: Re “Court Lifts Hold on Sensitive Files at Trump’s Estate” (front page, Sept. 22): Perhaps we made a mistake not electing Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. He just revealed that he could declassify top-secret documents by just “thinking about it.” Just imagine all that could have been accomplished by having Mr.

Drag Race UK’s fourth season kicked off with a bang this week and fans are already declaring it to have “one of the strongest casts” in herstory.

Saga Magazine. "I hated everything that was happening. So I rebelled and wore boys clothes.

‘Before We Were Trans’By Kit Heyamc.2022, Seal Press$30/352 pages

‘Hamilton’Through Oct. 9The Kennedy Center Opera House2700 F St., N.W.$59–$399Kennedy-center.org

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and two leaders of the White House monkeypox response team joined officials with the D.C. Department of Health on Thursday for a visit to D.C.’s recently opened Monkeypox Vaccine Clinic on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., S.E. in Ward 8.

‘Tagg is a form of resistance,’ says editor Eboné Bell. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Billy Porter arrives at the 75th annual Tony Awards this past June at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

It’s been a truly terrible week for the Trumps.Between the ongoing federal investigation into confidential documents seized from Mar-a-Lago by FBI agents and New York Attorney General Laticia James filing a $250 million civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, everyone in the Trump klan is more than a little screwed.Everyone except for Tiffany, that is.While her father and older siblings likely spend every waking minute on the phone with lawyers, Donald Trump‘s least favorite daughter is reportedly drinking her water, going about her business, and blissfully planning her upcoming wedding.She Knows reports:With Donald Trump and his three eldest children being sued for $250 million by New State Attorney General Letitia James for business fraud, Tiffany’s focus is her wedding to Michael Boulos at Mar-a-Lago on November 12. Even though the couple got engaged at the White House on her father’s last day in office, Tiffany’s relationship with Donald Trump was often tense.

Billionaire-backed Blake Masters, the Arizona Republican party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate is undergoing a massive transformation little more than two months before Election Day and nearly two months after early voting in the Grand Canyon State has already begun.

Does Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law — aka the “Don’t Say Gay” law — violate First Amendment, due-process and equal-protection rights?To paraphrase a bunch of unhappy Floridians: Abso-eff-ing-lutely. Now they’d like a federal judge to halt school districts from enforcing the law, which prohibits teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation in grades K-3, and bans any such discussions deemed “age-inappropriate” for older students as well.Related: 16 states just turned to Ron DeSantis and said “GAY GAY GAY”On Friday, a group of Florida teens and their families, along with LGBTQ advocacy groups, requested a preliminary injunction, arguing their constitutional rights are bing violated.

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Florida’s “don’t say gay” law have requested a preliminary injunction blocking the law’s enforcement while their suit proceeds.They filed a motion to that effect Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Editor's note: Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat), a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion, is professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She publishes the newsletter Lucid on threats to democracy. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.(CNN) — "Florida is fighting back," Gov.

After months of political organizing on behalf of candidates running to replace two anti-LGBTQ members of the school board in deep red Flagler County, Fla., rising high school senior Cameron Driggers was ready to celebrate their improbable electoral wins this week.  

In Tuesday's election, a controversial Florida school board member lost her seat after student activists rallied to replace her. Her removal comes during a time when Florida has become a flash point for LGBTQ+ people.Flagler School Board member Jill Woolbright lost to challenger Sally Hunt in her first reelection bid.

Top Gun in his latest campaign video. DeSantis sports a bomber jacket and poses in the cockpit of a fighter jet, recreating scenes from the Tom Cruise-starring movies.In the ‘Top Gov’ ad, DeSantis (R) poses as a trainer of fresh recruits at ‘Freedom Headquarters’, informing them about “taking on the corporate media.”It’s intercut with footage of him verbally sparring with journalists during press conferences.

(CNN) — To take on the herculean task of challenging Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall, Florida Democrats are going with someone familiar over "something new."For the second time in eight years, Democratic voters will elect Charlie Crist as their nominee for governor, CNN projects, choosing the seasoned veteran over Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who was vying to become the state's first female governor.

Floridian mess Ron DeSantis and him administration have been targeting trans folks pretty intensely, but they may be poised to learn the true meaning of “f*ck around and find out”.This weekend, the Agency for Health Care Administration in Florida officially ended medicaid reimbursements for trans-affirming care.Several queer advocacy groups like Lambda Legal and the Florida Health Justice Project are set to file lawsuits to put a stop to this rule as quickly as it’s begun.Simone Chriss, director of the Trans Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel, is among those intending to request that a federal judge block the rule.“There’s really no room to play around with something this awful,” she tells the Orlando Weekly.Related: Why Ron DeSantis could soon live to regret ever messing with the LGBTQ communityMeanwhile, Florida’s health agency regards itself fully in the right to pull coverage from trans people needing care.An AHCA spokesman says that the agency is “prepared to defend the integrity of our well-established rule-making process.”Even further, Communications Director Brock Juarez says, “The Agency will not comment further beyond stating that these attacks are clearly coming from unscientific and partisan-motivated organizations posturing for a lawsuit against the rule.”Related: Marjorie Taylor Greene introduces law banning gender affirming care for minorsIt should be noted that plenty of cosmetic and medical procedures that trans people undergo are also sought out by cis folks; cis men get top surgery to treat gynecomastia, cis women get various facial feminization surgeries, etc.The difference is that trans folks’ gender dysphoria creates an urgency for these interventions that agencies like the AHCA would

A Florida teen who made headlines this spring as the first openly gay president of his school and who is suing the DeSantis administration for its "don't say gay" law received some encouragement from a man in the Biden administration who is also known for his firsts.Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg sent a heartfelt thank you and message of inspiration to Zander Moricz, the Florida teen who went viral for his graduation speech in which he spoke of his curly hair instead of using the word gay, to highlight the ridiculousness of the state's anti-LGBTQ+ law."After Chasten and I saw your graduation speech earlier this year and heard about your appearance at the Department of Education, I wanted to be sure to personally thank you for your voice and advocacy. Your combination of wit and courage has reverberated across the country in ways that will benefit people you'll never even meet," Buttigieg wrote.Buttigieg says that he's aware that his position as the first out gay cabinet secretary rests upon the work of those who came before him, "and there is no doubt that your example will open doors for many others who now look up to you, even as you are just starting your path forward following your graduation."Moricz tweeted a photo of the letter with the caption, "Thank you@PeteButtigieg.