Here’s how much Blu Hydrangea spent on her Drag Race UK vs the World looks

An appeals court ruled on Wednesday that requiring the Miss USA pageant to allow transgender women to compete would violate its first amendment right to communicate “the ideal vision of American womanhood.”The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a two-to-one decision that forcing the organization to allow Anita Green, a transgender woman, to participate in the pageant would violate its First Amendment rights.The Oregon woman sued Miss United States of America Pageants in federal court in Portland last year after her application to participate was denied.The 9th Circuit ruled that Enforcing Oregon’s law would violate the pageant’s free speech rights under the U.S.

The queens gave heartwarming makeovers to six special guests on the latest episode of Drag Race UK season four.

A doughnut shop in Tulsa, Okla., that had hosted an art installation featuring drag queens was attacked with a Molotov cocktail this week.The shop, the Donut Hole, had also been burglarized two days after the drag event, which was part of its grand opening October 15, the Tulsa World reports. The event had drag queens serving sculptures of doughnuts as well as real ones.Then Monday, the Donut Hole posted security video showing a “hooded and masked figure” breaking a window with a baseball bat and throwing a bottle with a flaming substance into the shop, according to the World.

U.S. diplomats have met Thursday with WNBA star Brittney Griner, who’s imprisoned in Russia, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.“We are told she’s doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,” Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One, CNN reports. The State Department also confirmed that officials from the U.S.

Le Fil has shared the music video for the lead single from his brand new EP, Le Filosophical.

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Pageant queens Mariana Varela and Fabiola Valentin this week announced via their Instagram accounts that they got married Oct. 28 in Puerto Rico. Varela, Miss Argentina 2020, and Valentin, Miss Puerto Rico 2020, said in the post that while they had decided to keep their relationship private, they were choosing to “open the doors on a special day. 28/10/22.”

(CNN) -- A new power couple has taken the stage.A former Miss Argentina and former Miss Puerto Rico shocked and delighted fans by announcing their surprise marriage on Instagram.Mariana Varela and Fabiola Valentín met at the 2020 Miss Grand International competition in Thailand, where they represented Argentina and Puerto Rico, respectively. After making it to the pageant top 10, the two beauty queens appeared to remain close friends on social media.

With less than a week before Election Day and stakes that could not be higher, the race for attorney general in Michigan is surprisingly tight. The race is between the out incumbent Democrat, Dana Nessel, and Republican Matthew DePerno, who famously lost a case as part of the Big Lie election meddling conspiracy leading to the January 6 insurrection.Nessel tells The Advocate the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community this election cycle are opportunistic and have no widespread constituency in the Great Lakes State."[Republicans] get the attention because they have money, and unfortunately because the Republican Party now has become the party of homophobia and transphobia, that [anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric] gets spotlighted a lot," she says.

For more than two decades, indie pop stars Tegan and Sara Quin crafted a mystique as the epitome of effortlessly cool. But, as it turns out, even the hip artists behind hits like “Walking With a Ghost,” “Closer,” and “Everything is Awesome” were once awkward teens navigating friendships, first loves, and broken hearts.The duo is featured on the first digital cover of Pride (a sister publication of The Advocate), where they talked about how, just like the rest of us, the Quins struggled through the discovery of their identities — in their case as twins, individuals, and queer women.

When Sam Williams, son of musician Hank Williams Jr. and grandson of country legend Hank Williams, decided to come out in a video, he utilized his new single, “Tilted Crown,” to speak his truth.“I felt like I was promoting invisibility, like I wasn’t being visible and wasn’t being myself,” Williams told Apple Music's Proud Radio With Hunter Kelly.

Yasmin Finney is the latest cover star for British Vogue.

Although Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, claimed it would not be a "hellscape" for LGBTQ+ people, human rights groups and advocates say it already is only days after Musk took the reins. On Thursday, the world's richest man completed his long-anticipated takeover of the social media platform. And with his acquisition, out goes content moderation, critics say. As seemingly one of his first acts, Musk eliminated some of the app's safeguards.The billionaire claimed, however, he had yet to change Twitter's content moderation."Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints," the billionaire tweeted.

Although Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, claimed it would not be a "hellscape" for LGBTQ+ people, human rights groups and advocates say it's already there only days after he took the reins. On Thursday, the world's richest man completed his long-anticipated takeover of the social media platform. And with his acquisition, out goes content moderation, critics say. As seemingly one of his first acts, Musk eliminated some of the app's safeguards.The billionaire claimed, however, he had yet to change Twitter's content moderation."Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints," the billionaire tweeted.

Miss Argentina 2020, Mariana Varela, and Miss Puerto Rico 2020, Fabiola Valentin, have announced that they are married.

GEMMA Collins looks slimmer than ever while posing in her pyjamas at home. The 41-year-old star posed in her stylish nightwear while sharing that she’d be telling fans something “so exciting” tomorrow night.

In what LGBTQ+ people in Japan hope is a harbinger of marriage equality, Tokyo’s city government began issuing partnership certificates to same-sex couples Tuesday.The certificates allow the couples’ unions to be recognized for services such as housing and health care, but they do not confer any rights when it comes to inheritance, adoption, or spousal visas, the BBC reports.Japan is the only country in the G7, an association of countries with advanced economies, that does not have marriage equality. Several smaller municipal governments, including parts of Tokyo, have already offered partnership recognition that confers some but not all the rights of marriage.

(CNN) -- When Patrick Haggerty was gearing up to record his very first country music album, he had a choice to make.He could be the industry-friendly country star and remain in the closet, or he could use music to make a statement about what it was like being a gay man in a deeply discriminatory world.He chose the latter, and 1973's "Lavender Country," Haggerty's first album recorded under the same name, is now widely considered the first country album recorded by an out gay musician.Haggerty, an unflappable activist for LGBTQ and socialist causes and married father of two, for years was persona non grata in the music business. "Lavender Country" was a defiantly queer record, with songs like "Cryin' These C**ksuckin' Tears," during a time when few musicians in any genre were comfortable coming out as gay.So it was surprising, most of all to Haggerty, when he got his chance in 2014 to re-release that historic album and record another one, performing with other LGBTQ country musicians and sharing his story with millions.

(CNN) – SpaceX's Falcon Heavy — a towering, three-pronged vehicle that is the most powerful operational rocket in the world — returned to the skies on Tuesday for the first time since mid-2019.The rocket launched at 9:41 a.m. ET from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, hauling satellites to space for the U.S.

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“Just as it’s unacceptable for Americans to sit behind bars for simple possession of cannabis, it's absolutely unacceptable for an American sitting in a Russian gulag.” So said DC Marijuana Justice co-founder and cannabis activist, Adam Eidinger, to The Washington Post.So on October 26, when WNBA star Brittney Griner lost her appeal and, despite hope for a reduction in her punishment, a Russian court decided to uphold her nine-year prison sentence for drug smuggling charges, the same advocacy group and her supporters decided to hold a “smoke out” in protest.The demonstration kicked off at 4:20 local time outside the country’s embassy, and the group told demonstrators, “If you have used vape cartridges, bring them!"Griner, who was arrested February 17 at the Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow, had 0.702 grams of cannabis oil in vape cartridges in her luggage. "I had no intention to break the law," Grinder said during her initial testimony. She then added that it was an accident due to stress and rushing while packing, while also recovering from a then-recent COVID-19 diagnosis.At the time, she’d also testified that she’d used cannabis oil to treat various injuries she’d sustained over her basketball career.During the demonstration, protesters not only smoked marijuana, they also  carried a 51 foot inflatable joint.

Måneskin have announced details for their highly-anticipated third studio album.

Within 72 hours of acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk tweeted a baseless conspiracy theory involving Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, who suffered severe injuries during a violent attack on Friday.The wealthiest man in the world took to his social media platform on Sunday morning to spread disinformation about the 82-year-old who had been beaten in the head with a hammer by an intruder. In response to a tweet Hillary Clinton sent out about how David DePape, the suspect in the attack on Paul Pelosi, spread far-right conspiracy theories, Musk responded, "There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye," and included a link to a false article that claimed Paul Pelosi and a male sex worker had been in a drunken quarrel.The article appeared in the Santa Monica Observer, an outlet that has proven itself to be unreliable at best. For example, in 2016, the paper claimed that Hillary Clinton had died on September 11 and had been replaced by a body double.Musk's tweet, posted at 8:15 a.m.

SINGAPORE: Cryptocurrency exchanges licensed to operate in Singapore must comply with financial sanctions against Russia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday (Oct 31), after research found that pro-Russia groups have raised millions of dollars in crypto donations to support Moscow's war in Ukraine.

A Thai trans activist and business tycoon has bought the long-running Miss Universe Organisation in a landmark deal. 

Australia’s men’s national football team have condemned Qatar for its human rights record ahead of the highly anticipated World Cup.

Russia has taken steps to extend the country’s archaic ‘gay propaganda’ law to all adults. 

Russia has taken steps to extend the country’s archaic ‘gay propaganda’ law to all adults. 

World of Wonder has revealed that Michelle Visage will replace RuPaul as host of the upcoming episode of Drag Race UK.

GEMMA Collins looked incredible tonight as she had a sexy makeover for Halloween. The GC slipped her shrinking figure into a black leather catsuit and corset and headed to the Kiss Haunted House Party at Wembley Arena with her fiancé Rami Hawash. She swapped her blonde locks for a white wig and covered her face with a bunny mask complete with big ears.

Elon Musk is now the owner of Twitter, and LGBTQ+ and other civil rights groups are worried this means more hate speech on the platform.The $44 billion deal closed Thursday night, and Musk, the world’s richest man, has assumed the title of “chief twit.” He has said he will reverse Twitter’s permanent ban of former President Donald Trump, and he wants to allow a variety of viewpoints on the platform — but progressive advocates say he will likely allow hateful content.“Despite his claim that he wanted to buy Twitter to ‘help humanity,’ Elon Musk has a record of posting and defending harmful anti-LGBTQ content as well as content that harms other marginalized communities,” said a statement released Friday by GLAAD. “GLAAD remains deeply concerned about the safety of LGBTQ people on Twitter and we join other organizations that are now questioning Twitter’s future policies and actions against extremist content.”Twitter’s moderation wasn’t great under the previous ownership, and it undoubtedly will be looser under Musk, Cathy Renna, communications director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, told The Advocate.

Jake Wesley Rogers (Photo via Facebook)

RICHLAND, Washington (KAPP) — By a 4-to-1 vote, the Richland School Board approved a contentious policy that instills certain restrictions on the way race, sexuality and culture are allowed to be discussed in the schools’ curriculum.During a school board meeting on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 25, four of the five Richland School Board members agreed to Policy 2360, which is entitled ‘Race, Culture, and the Curriculum.’It’s a near-identical policy to one that was passed by the Kennewick School Board earlier this year. The following passage comes directly from the document shared during this meeting:The Board recognizes that students must learn factual U.S.

(CNN) – World Cup host Qatar has praised the Australian men’s national team for its efforts to raise awareness on “important matters” and said that “no country is perfect,” a spokesperson for Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy said on Friday.In a video message produced by Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) and released Wednesday, 16 Socceroos called on Qatar to recognize same-sex relationships and improve the rights of migrant workers.

The post Exclusive: Le Fil addresses the ‘harsh’ judging on Drag Race UK appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Cheddar Gorgeous has been applauded for using her runway look to start discussion about HIV stigma on this week’s episode of Drag Race UK.

Mark Patton on the convention circuit (Photo by Lizz Ellis)

Winter Walks at the Allerton Park and Retreat Center offer gorgeous views (Photo courtesy of Visit Champaign County)

Time once again for some Pride on the court — the basketball court, that is. The Dallas Mavericks are hosting another Pride Night at the American Airlines Center on Friday, Nov. 4, when the Mavs host the Toronto Raptors. There will be a Pride Night Pre-Game Party in the AAC’s Mic Ultra Lounge starting at 6:30 p.m., and tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. Kathy Jack, the Mavs’ ambassador in the LGBTQ community, says the team will have lots of “Pride Night swag” to give away, and there will be plenty of new Pride items for sale in The Hangar. Tickets start at $35; get your tickets at https://tinyurl.com/mwessnps and you get access to the pre-game party and you get a Mavs Pride t-shirt.

Hello and Happy Halloween to all of you spooky and beautiful people. I hope you are all in the spirit of the holiday … you know, all creepy and shit, taking every chance you get to scare the bejesus out of someone you love or — even better — someone you know is easy to scare. I am, apparently

Drag Race UK star Sminty Drop shares the look she would have worn during the West End runway category.

Brian sits down with unique singer/songwriter Alex Kautz to discuss how music was the constant in his mental health journey. Alex has two albums to date — Alex in Wonderland and We’re All Gonna Die. Stay tuned to the end of the episode to listen to the lead single from his latest album.

The queens delivered their best celebrity impressions on the latest episode of Drag Race UK season four.

Russian men are looking to potential scammers on the application Telegram to purchase fake HIV diagnoses to avoid the Russian draft.LGBTQ Nation reported that the groups contain tens of thousands of users and offer transportation to bordering countries in addition to work and housing. The falsified HIV and hepatitis diagnoses can be paid via Bitcoin and come alongside forged government documents and currency exchanges.The fake diagnoses come in the wake of the September 21 announcement from Russia’s anti-LGBTQ president Vladimir Putin ordering 300,000 male citizens to aid in his ongoing invasion of Ukraine.An anonymous seller told the global tech website Rest of World, “At the moment, the most effective way [to avoid being drafted into the Russian military] is to get a certificate that you have HIV or hepatitis.”He added, “Vendors offered HIV diagnoses that would be added to the Ministry of Health’s database, rendering someone as unfit for military service, for $620.

CNN) — Russian lawmakers agreed to toughen the country's discriminatory law against so-called same-sex "propaganda," moving to ban all Russians from promoting or "praising" homosexual relationships or publicly suggesting that they are "normal."Moscow's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved unanimously amendments to strengthen the law against "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations," making such propaganda illegal among Russians of all ages, according to the parliament's official website.The original version of the law adopted in 2013 banned "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors."Our bill is not an act of censorship.

(CNN) — British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is receiving backlash for suggesting gay soccer fans should be "respectful" in Qatar when attending the FIFA World Cup set to take place in the Gulf Arab state later this year.Speaking to LBC Radio on Wednesday, Cleverly said he had spoken with authorities in Qatar -- where homosexuality is criminalized -- who "want to make sure that football fans are safe, secure and enjoy themselves."He continued: "And they know that that means they are going to have to make some compromises in terms of what is an Islamic country, with a very different set of cultural norms to our own."One of the things I would say to the football fans is, you know: 'Please do be respectful of the host nation.'"They [Qatar] will try -- they are trying -- to ensure that people can be themselves and enjoy the football and I think with a little bit of flex and compromise at both ends, it can be a safe, secure and exciting World Cup," the foreign secretary added.New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman distanced themselves from the comments, saying, "We wouldn't expect [LGBTQ fans] to compromise who they are and you'll know the UK has very clear rules around this. Qatar's policies are not those of the UK government and not ones that we would endorse."Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell of UK's main opposition Labour party slammed Cleverly's comments, calling it "shockingly tone deaf" in a tweet."Where do you draw the line on that?" she said in an interview with LBC Radio.

Tamaulipas voted to legalise same-sex marriage on 26 October, becoming the final of Mexico’s 32 states to do so.

Wagner, a private military company in Russia, has initiated a mass recruitment of Russian prisoners who have a severe infectious disease.The main targets of the prisoners are those with HIV and hepatitis C, according to the Kyiv Post. In a report on October 25 from Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, more than 100 prisoners with confirmed HIV or hepatitis C have been “mobilized” to Wagner.The fighters, who came from penal colony No.