LGBTQ+ ‘rainbow wave’ brings US midterms boost but battles ahead

(CNN) -- Ellen DeGeneres fought back tears in her first public video statement since the death of beloved talk show personality and her friend Stephen "tWitch" Boss."Hey everybody. I just wanted to say the past 11 days have been really tough for everyone," DeGeneres said in a video posted to her social media accounts on Friday.

Clive Davis is spilling the details about Whitney Houston‘s lesbian love affair!

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(CNN) -- A version of this story appeared in CNN's Race Deconstructed newsletter.About halfway into the winter finale of the workplace sitcom "Abbott Elementary," we learn why the corny history teacher Jacob, played by Chris Perfetti, is a Christmas killjoy: "Look," he says, "Christmas is not my favorite thing, OK? I don't have a lot of good memories around it."Jacob, who's gay, never elaborates. But as I watched the scene, I thought about how lots of queer people feel a similar unease around Christmas.

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Police have arrested two men in connection with a string of robberies and murders of men who were picked up at bars in NYC.Kenwood Allen, 33, and another unnamed man were arrested and charged with the drug-induced deaths of two men, although police said more charges are expected as their investigation continued.Police alleged the two men were part of a crew who drugged and then robbed unsuspecting men after they had left various Manhattan bars beginning in March of this year, according to a report in the New York Post.Allen was charged with the March 18 death of Nurbo Shera and the July 30 death of Ardijan Berisha. At least 24 other men have been drugged and robbed, and sometimes killed, under similar circumstances, and police have long suspected a crew was targeting inebriated bar-goers in the area.“They target their victims leaving bars, offering drugs in some cases, then either through force or when the victim passes out, they remove jewelry, money, high-end watches and phones from their victims,” James Essig, NYPD chief of detectives, said at a press briefing announcing the arrests.Allen was officially charged with two counts of second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of second-degree robbery, and two counts of second-degree assault.The unsolved murders of two gay men suspected of falling prey to the same crew made headlines last month when the mother of one of the victims, Linda Clary, accused Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of dragging his feet in bringing the murderers of her son, John Umberger, to justice.“I can’t be quiet anymore.

By all accounts, early Hollywood was one big bacchanal for those at the top before the Hayes Code and censorship more closely monitored the public and private lives of celebrities. La La Land director Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (a call-out to problematic but influential director D.W.

Tom Goss belts out some fab Christmas tunes on Big Fat Gay Ass Christmas. (Photo by Dusti Cunningham)

What a year: 2022 began with a law targeting transgender youth in sports going into effect, and it ends with the astounding news that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tried to get the Department of Public Safety to compile for him a list of people who had changed the gender markers on their Texas driver’s licenses and state IDs. Between then and now, we saw Gov. Abbott try to criminalize health care for trans youth

Where to begin with a play like One Woman Show? Liz Kingsman’s creation – originally opening at the Soho Theatre last year, and subsequently a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe, earning rave reviews – has now opened on London’s West End and it’s quite unlike anything we’ve seen. It’s high concept stuff – Liz is on-stage as the writer, knowingly creating a performance about a character who works in marketing at the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust.

Polly Crozier, left and Jordan Budd

Gemini Rights artist Steve Lacy has opened up about his “favourite” artists and how they influenced his sound.

Patti LuPone has joined the cast of Marvel’s upcoming series Agatha: Coven of Chaos.

Have an event coming up? Email your information to Managing Editor Tammye Nash at nash@dallasvoice.com or Senior Staff Writer David Taffet at taffet@dallasvoice.com by Wednesday at 5 p.m. for that week’s issue.

Meet Lt. Dan, a very happy and energetic little pup who is just over a year old. He is a Labrador retriever mix and has been with the SPCA of Texas since he was a puppy. He weighs 43 pounds and is covered in black fur with a little white underneath. Lt. Dan is celebrating this week because he was just outfitted with his brand new wheelchair! He had the misfortune of being born with deformed front legs. For his first year he managed without them completely and was even adept at rising up on his back legs. Now with his wheelchair exploring will become even easier for him. Lt. Dan is at the Jan Rees-Jones Animal Care Center, so no appointment is necessary to meet him.

Sometimes it’s easy for me to feel the holiday spirit. And sometimes, it is as if the holidays never existed. This year, for example, I decided that, in addition to the “s

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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery director Rian Johnson has revealed why Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc doesn’t share any scenes with his partner. 

Eureka O’Hara is “blessed” now that she’s living her truth as a transgender woman.

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Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, continues through Dec. 26 this year, and Beth El Binah celebrates the holiday Friday, Dec. 23, with a party at a private home featuring latkes and a dairy potluck. A number of LGBTQ-welcoming churches will be holding special Christmas Eve services on Saturday, Dec. 24, and Christmas services on Sunday, Dec. 25, including Cathedral of Hope and Northaven Church. Check listings and church websites for details.

Happy holidays homos and the few straights that seek me out for my warmth, heart and humor. I hope you are all full of the Christmas spirit. Christmas spirit is such a weird and wonderful thing, isn’t it? Some years I feel it, and some years I gotta fake it. Since the world of advert

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Sunlenca (lenacapavir), produced by Gilead Sciences, in combination with other antiretrovirals for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in heavily treatment-experienced (HTE) adults with multi-drug resistant (MDR) HIV-1 infection.Sunlenca offers a new, twice-yearly treatment option for HIV-positive adults that is not adequately controlled by their current regimen.“Today’s approval ushers in a new class of antiretroviral drugs that may help patients with HIV who have run out of treatment options,” Debra Birnkrant, M.D., said in a press release from the FDA.

The upcoming Road to Freedom Literary Festival aims to help support LGBTQ+ people who face persecution because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics by raising money for the nonprofit organization Rainbow Railroad.Under the theme of “storytelling helps heal humanity’s wounds,” the organization will hold the festival at the newly renovated office tower above Penn Station, PENN 1, on January 12, 2023, in New York City.“The Road to Freedom Literary Festival will contribute to that healing when prominent LGBTQI+ writers share moving and inspiring stories from their own work and ‘roads to freedom,’” Rainbow Railroad said in a press release.Rainbow Railroad is an international nonprofit organization working to assist LGBTQ+ escape violence and discrimination because of who they are. The group said it has helped more than 5,000 queer people find safety.Journalist and novelist Richard C.

Scotland and Spain have both advanced legislation making it easier for transgender people to legally change their gender.Both bills require further steps before they become law. Scotland, as part of the United Kingdom, needs royal assent for its bill, while Spain’s legislation has been passed by one house of its Parliament but needs the approval of another, something that is expected.Scotland’s Parliament voted 86-39 Thursday to ease the process of obtaining what’s called a gender recognition certificate, the BBC reports.

Republican congressman-elect George Santos of New York divorced a woman in 2019, days before the start of his failed 2020 campaign.In a new report by The Daily Beast, Santos didn’t disclose his marriage to a woman throughout his campaign while he positioned himself as a proud gay Republican.Santos is the first gay Republican to be elected to Congress while being out from the get-go when he beat out Democrat Robert Zimmerman in last month’s midterm elections. Predecessors Steve Gunderson and Jim Kolbe came out while already in office.“The divorce—which Santos has not discussed publicly—adds new uncertainty to his already shaky biographical and political claims,” the outlet reports.Santos had previously said that he was “openly gay,” and that he never had a problem with his sexual orientation.The Beast reports that after his divorce was finalized, he filed to run for Congress in 2020 — where he went on to lose.

The Great American Family Network, which is positioning itself as a conservative Christian alternative to Hallmark, has apologized to a viewer who objected to a commercial for HIV medication on one of its programs.The cable channel is also getting heat for the airing of an ad for RuPaul’s Drag Race and is saying that was a local ad, like the one for the HIV med, and it has no control over local commercials.Actress Alexandra Billings, who is transgender and living with HIV, shared an Instagram post in which a viewer under the name straighttalkwithmj wrote, “Love the movies! But have you removed the very non-family friendly aids drug ad with 2 men kissing?”Great American Family responded, “Unfortunately, we don’t have any control over local commercials, and we sincerely apologize.”Billings, tagging the cable channel, commented, “I have been living with HIV for over thirty years now. I buried most of my friends in my twenties and I live with an illness that gets more and more difficult to manage and navigate with each passing year.

NEW YORK: Sam Bankman-Fried was released on a US$250 million bond package while he awaits trial on fraud charges related to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

FTX founder and former Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces US fraud charges over the collapse of FTX, ran his crypto empire with a number of associates.

The Biden Administration is investigating a Texas school district for removing 130 titles from library shelves, mostly books with LGBTQ+ content.

The first footage is out for HBO’s True Detective: Night Country, which stars Jodie Foster and Kali Reis as detectives investigating the disappearance of staffers from a scientific research station in Alaska.“When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the six men that operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace,” says the official synopsis from HBO. “To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.”This is the fourth season of the popular series and the first one to feature all women detectives; each season has had a different setting and stars.

The Sex Lives of College star Reneé Rapp recently shared her experience after facing homophobic and slut-shaming comments.

Have an event coming up? Email your information to Managing Editor Tammye Nash at nash@dallasvoice.com or Senior Staff Writer David Taffet at taffet@dallasvoice.com by Wednesday at 5 p.m. for that week’s issue.

When Arturo Blazquez started studying theology three years ago, he approached it as a hobby, because he couldn’t conceive that he would be allowed to work in Germany’s Catholic Church as an openly gay man living with his husband in Berlin.

Hunter Schafer will star in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel.

When Kira learned that her partner Elvira Shchemur had died in a missile strike on Ukraine, the loss hit her doubly hard.

LGBTQ+ politicians, civil rights activists, and allies are thrilled with the U.S. Senate’s passage Tuesday of the Respect for Marriage Act, which will write marriage equality into federal law and protect it from being rescinded by the Supreme Court.The House of Representatives has already approved the bill, but since the Senate amended it with a religious freedom provision, it has to go back to the House for another vote.

Jeopardy! winner Amy Schneider has made LGBTQ+ history again with her Tournament of Champions win.

It was not the first time that Daníel Arnarsson, a well-known Icelandic LGBTQ+ rights campaigner, had faced homophobic insults on the streets of the capital, Reykjavik.

Demi Lovato, Amy Schumer, Andy Cohen and Lisa Rinna were among the celebrities to take to social media Sunday in the wake of a mass shooting at an LGBTQ Colorado nightclub that left five people dead and 18 others injured.Police Sunday said that two 'heroic' people inside the club stopped the deadly rampage from the gunman, identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich.Authorities said Aldrich had used a rifle at the club, where partygoers were apparently marking Transgender Day of Remembrance, which pays tribute to trans people targeted in violent attacks. The latest: Demi Lovato, 30, and Amy Schumer, 41, were among the celebrities to take to social media Sunday in the wake of a mass shooting at an LGBTQ Colorado nightclub that left five people dead and 18 others injuredLovato, 30, wrote: 'These devastating acts of violence MUST STOP.

A memorial takes shape at the site of Club Q. Photo by Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty ImagesPresident Joe Biden, Colorado Gov.

Statement by President Joe Biden on Transgender Day of Remembrance“There is no place for violence, hatred, and bigotry in America. Yet, tragically, as last night’s attack in Colorado Springs reminds us, too many LGBTQI+ people in the United States — and around the world — continue to face unconscionable attacks.

Lawmakers in Texas have introduced 17 anti-LGBTQ+ bills for 2023.

What the Human Rights Campaign terms “Equality Voters” made the difference in holding back the expected “red wave” in this month’s midterm election, according to a new survey by HRC and polling firm GQR.“The 2022 election defied pre-election predictions of a massive red wave in no small measure because Equality Voters pushed back against extremism and voted to protect commonly held values and our democracy,” says a memo released by HRC and GQR. “Across the country, election deniers and right-wing social warriors lost winnable elections because they advocated views that are out-of-touch with average voters, particularly the huge number of Equality Voters who made the critical difference up and down the ballot.”Equality Voters are those who support LGBTQ+ equality, and HRC counts 62 million of them — 38 percent of the 2022 electorate. They “tend to be younger and more racially diverse than the electorate as a whole,” HRC says.Related: Maura Healey Becomes First Lesbian Governor in U.S. HistoryIn U.S.

Dallas County Democratic Party Chair Kristy Noble speaks at an Election Night gathering (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Gabrielle Union and Eva Longoria revealed they are working on an LGBTQ+ wedding comedy.