LGBTQ+ Topics and Race Censored by Washington School Board

Out actor and singer Ben Platt is engaged to his boyfriend Good Doctor actor Noah Galvin.Platt, 29, made the announcement on Instagram on Friday.“He agreed to hang out forever,” the Dear Evan Hansen and Pitch Perfect star said. Galvin, 28, also shared the news: “I said yeehaw and then cried for like 7 hours.”Both Platt and Galvin have played the lead in the Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen.

For years Tucker Carlson has been targeting U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The Fox News host and “propagandist” has attacked Buttigieg, the youngest and arguably one of the most popular to hold that Cabinet position, for the high price of gas, inflation, complaints against airlines – including ticket prices and flight delays, speaking out in support of women’s reproductive rights, and for allegedly working “feverishly on the equity agenda.”

Brandy Norwood has reached a settlement with the ex-housekeeper who filed a suit against her. According to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, The Boy is Mine singer and her ex-housekeeper have reached a settlement following the housekeeper’s age discrimination suit against Norwood. The housekeeper, Maria Elizabeth Castaneda, sued Norwood in March for $250,000 (£206,400) over alleged age discrimination, claiming she was wrongfully terminated and denied proper wages and a meal break while she was employed by the singer.

(CNN) – In the first hours after the Carnival Valor set sail from New Orleans on Thanksgiving eve, a brother and sister set off for a place appropriate befitting the occasion. They headed to an onboard bar.Predictably, the man at one point stepped away to use the restroom.But he didn’t come back.Hours passed.He wasn’t in his stateroom.He had, quite simply, vanished.What happened next has astonished at least one seasoned mariner who, with hours of hindsight, declared the stunning outcome unlike anything he’s ever witnessed – and nothing short of “one of those Thanksgiving miracles.” A search is launched by air and seaIt was around 11 p.m.

The time has come to finally see Tim Drake — aka, Robin — finally share a kiss with his boyfriend in the pages of a DC comic.Tim has spent the last year dating his boyfriend Bernard Dowd and coming out. Now, the two are shown kissing on the cover of issue #6 of Time Drake: Robin.Tim, in full Robin vigilante garb, kisses Bernard in the night with his cape blowing in the wind, covering Bernard, and the Gotham City skyline in the background.“The final showdown! Tim Drake comes face-to-voice with the villain who’s been taunting Tim by using his metahuman powers to create ghostly animals.

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RICH LOPEZ | Staff writerrich@dallasvoice.com Alaska Thunderduck 5000. (Photo courtesy of

DAVID WEBB | Contributing Writerdavidwaynewebb@yahoo.com GUN BARREL CITY — For three decades, a gay nightclub featuring drag show

Dickie Weaver, right, with friends Bill Nelson, Terry Tebedo and Mike Anglin skiing in Breckinridge in 1980. (Photo courtesy of Mike Anglin)

Tyler Johnston, right, comforts his friend Joshua Thurman at a makeshift memorial near Club Q, Sunday, Nov. 20. Thurman was inside the nightclub when a gunman walked in and opened fire the night before. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via AP)

RICH LOPEZ | Staff writerrich@dallasvoice.com Actor/comedian/singer/advocate and icon Sandr

TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editornash@dallasvoice.com In 2019, according to the U.S. government’s HIV website HIV.gov, there were an estimated 34,800 new HIV infections

An investigation into claims about Dominic Raab's conduct has been expanded to include a third formal complaint, Downing Street said.

CHRIS Moyles has slammed Matt Hancock in a scathing rant after hitting back as he hit back at bullying claims. After becoming the most recent celeb to get the boot from I’m A Celebrity last night, the 48-year-old radio DJ spoke about his time on the show in a cat with Radio X.

People gather around a memorial Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, for the victims of Saturday’s fatal shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)

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 Cleopatra, the queen of cat condo! Actually, she is a somewhat timid little kitty who is hoping for the perfect home while she waits at the SPCA of Texas. Cleopatra is almost 4 years old and weighs a mere 7 pounds. She is covered in a regal black coat with big yellow eyes. She was seized from an animal cruelty case back in May, so her starting out point in life was a little shaky. Her ideal home will be calm and serene while she adjusts to the new environment. Rambunctious kiddos can be very frightening for her, so a home with children over 12 who can be respectful of a cat’s needs is best.

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writertaffet@dallasvoice.com “I wish I could be an animator,” second-grade student Arturo said to me at the press

< 1 min read As the Mr Gay Pride Australia competition heads toward its 2022 finale this weekend at Rainbow on the Plains Festival in Hay NSW, nine judges have been announced to help select this year’s winner.

We’re fans of The Old Vic’s staging of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – we originally caught Jack Thorne’s production back in 2019 (although it had already played for a couple of runs previously) and we’re glad to have it back this festive season. It gives us everything we want from a Christmas show – a heartwarming tale, carols, bells, and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to snaffle a mince pie from one of the actors before the show starts. It’s performed in the round and lit by dozens of lanterns hanging overhead – it all adds up to a rather special and wonderfully festive evening.

Queen of the Universe winner Grag Queen has released Future Is Queer, the fierce anthem for GAY TIMES Honours sponsored by Meta Quest.

After releasing her first-ever album as an independent artist, Tove Lo tells GAY TIMES that she finally feels “creatively free”.

A “rainbow wave” that lifted record numbers of LGBTQ+ candidates to victory in the US midterms is a promising sign of growing acceptance, but tough legislative fights still lie ahead in many Republican-controlled states, rights campaigners said.

Adidas has confirmed that it will launch an investigation into allegations of misconduct that have been made against Kanye West by people who worked on the rapper’s long-running Yeezy joint venture with the sportswear brand.That joint venture was cancelled recently when West’s flurry of controversial interviews and statements made the alliance untenable, but – former employees say – Adidas bosses were previously willing to turn a blind eye to their superstar business partner’s bad behaviour.Those former employees have expressed their grievances in a letter to Adidas bosses which has been seen by Rolling Stone.In it they say that Adidas staff members who came into contact with West via the Yeezy JV had to deal with “years of verbal abuse, vulgar tirades and bullying attacks”, but management – although aware of this behaviour – “turned their moral compass off” and ignored that conduct, because, you know, that’s just “Kanye being Kanye”.Rolling Stone reports: “Behind the scenes, [West] did more than test the boundaries of professionalism. Former Yeezy and Adidas staffers and creative collaborators claim that he played pornography to Yeezy staff in meetings; discussed porn and showed an intimate photograph of Kim Kardashian in job interviews; and showed an explicit video and photos of Kardashian as well as his own sex tapes to Yeezy team members”.Meanwhile, the letter from the former employees states: “[West] has, in years past, exploded at women in the room with offensive remarks, and would resort to sexually disturbing references when providing design feedback.

NOBLESVILLE, Indiana (WISH) -- Bones found in the 1990s on Fox Hallow Farms in Westfield are linked to Herb Baumeister, the man largely considered Indiana’s most prolific serial killer.In 1996, authorities found only 11 DNA profiles among the bones and identified eight of the men.Now, that total of DNA profiles could rise to about 25 men with new testing of the bones.Jeff Jellison, who takes office in January as the new Hamilton County coroner, said DNA technology has advanced, and it is time to identify the rest of the men.“The search produced more than probably 10,000 bones and bone fragments,” Jellison said. “We believe there are as many as 25 individuals that were recovered from that property.

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Members of the Lost Souls Rugby Football Club are known as champions on the field and off. And one of the reasons for that is their dedication to community service, including their annual holiday toy drive, benefitting the children at Adelfa Callejo Elementary School. This year the players will be accepting donations from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at the Round-Up Saloon, 3912 Cedar Springs Road. Those who want to help make the holidays merrier for the children can bring unwrapped gifts to the Round-Up at that time.

Hey y’all. Hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving, and I hope you had fun if you ventured out for a Black Friday sale. I know some people love that shit, but the thought of an overcrowded store with grown folks acting like shop-hungry cannibals freaks me out. No thank you!

The National LGBTQ Task Force has assembled a group of straight and queer, transgender, and cisgender men for a campaign to persuade cis men to support the fight for reproductive freedom.The campaign, “Ban the Reproductive Binary,” consists of several short videos from a diverse set of male-identified voices, was released ahead of the midterm election to emphasize why reproductive rights affect cis men. The project was produced with funding from the Pop Culture Collaborative.The recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v.

“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.

The Kroger supermarket chain has settled a lawsuit via a consent decree with two former employees in Arkansas who claimed they were fired for refusing to wear aprons with a rainbow heart which they felt violated their religious beliefs.The two believed the heart was in support of the LGBTQ+ community. On Thursday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the Kroger Limited Partnership I agreed to pay $180,000 to former employees Trudy Rickerd, then 57, and Brenda Lawson, then 72, in return for dropping their suit. Both employees were subsequently disciplined and fired in 2019, although Kroger maintains they were not terminated in retaliation for their actions.

An advocacy group in Denver is bringing attention to domestic violence as an ongoing issue. Men and LGBTQ+ people have been calling for help in more significant numbers since the pandemic began, according to the group.SafeHouse Denver is hoping to snap the stigma of speaking out for anyone who is a victim of domestic violence. According to its website, the group is the only agency in the city and county of Denver that offers comprehensive domestic violence services to the victims of domestic abuse.The most common perception of domestic violence is that it is specific to women with cis-male partners.While SafeHouse Denver reports an increase in the number of men and people who identify as LGBTQ+, only 5 percent of their clients are males, and 13 percent are LGBTQ+, according to Denver Fox affiliate KDVR.According to the CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 44 percent of lesbians and 61 percent of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35 percent of straight women.LGBTQ+ members reported high rates of intimate partner violence, according to the 2013 CDC study.

(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.

As school boards vote to limit access to LGBTQ-themed books, an advocacy group has found that more LGBTQ+ people are running for school board positions than ever before.Data released by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a national political organization that works to elect LGBTQ+ people to public office, shows that 82 out people are seeking school board seats. That's more than double the number in 2018, while in 2020 the number was 43.As of April, only 90 of the 90,000 school board members in the United States had been known to be out LGBTQ+ people, according to the Victory Fund-affiliated Victory Institute’s “Few & Under Fire: LGBTQ School Board Members in the U.S.” national report about the state of LGBTQ+ representation on school boards across the country.Victory Fund reported that of the LGBTQ+ school board members surveyed 47 percent had been the target of anti-LGBTQ+ verbal attacks as a candidate, and 51 percent had been the target of anti-LGBTQ+ verbal attacks as a school board member.

(CNN) — The University of Florida Faculty Senate approved a no-confidence resolution Thursday on the selection process to appoint US Sen. Ben Sasse as the next president, officials said.The 67 to 15 vote comes after Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska, became the only person considered for the high-ranking position at one of Florida's largest universities.

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.

BENTON, Louisiana (KTBS) -- A special session was held at Benton United Methodist Church to decide if it will split from the United Methodist Conference.The session comes as some members are grappling with differing views about whether, or how to include members of the LGBTQ+ community in the church.Some in the Methodist church advocate for inclusion of LGBTQ+ Christians, however, many feel strongly that the church should uphold its current stance against gay pastors and same-sex marriage.However, some churches allowing LGBTQ+ clergy and performing same-sex ceremonies are prompting a split within the denomination.Many churches are voting this year to exit in time for confirmation this fall.Two-thirds of members must approve before the church can disaffiliate.The Methodist Book of Discipline states that a local church has the right to disaffiliate under the basis of deep conflict around the issues of human sexuality.As for Benton UMC and churches like it throughout the United States and worldwide, the church would owe the conference a one-time payment, before the end of 2023.Exiting churches must pay two years of apportionments and pension liabilities.A total of 3,000 to 5,000 churches are expected to leave the conference by 2023.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company.

South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster, seeking re-election to a second full term, denigrated the marriages of same-sex couples in a debate Wednesday and said if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn its 2015 ruling that found a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, he would ensure they could not. He also took the opportunity to attack transgender children in his response.

A West Palm Beach dad is suing his son’s public school district under Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ “Don’t Say Gay” law, claiming a teacher posted two rainbow pride flags and “proselytized” in favor of “homosexual lifestyles,” which he claims are against his religious beliefs.

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.

STONINGTON, Connecticut (WFSB) — After heated debate Tuesday night, the Stonington Board of Education voted to allow pride flags to fly once again.A potential ban had been discussed earlier this month.Many passionate opinions came for and against the flags during public comment, but it was determined the pride flags were not political.The crowded meeting room included many who showed up clad in rainbow clothing and other signs of LGBTQ support.Supporters said the flags stand for inclusivity and diversity and cross all party lines.“The whole idea that this is political, that the pride flag is political. It’s not.

A former standup comedian who became president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky is a Jewish man who has become a global hero for standing up to a tyrant. Against all odds, Zelensky has led his nation to successfully rebuff the efforts of a world superpower bent on assassinating him and taking political control of his country.In refusing to surrender to Russia, he inspired his fellow Ukrainians (including 90-year-old grandmothers) to take up arms.

In two weeks Arizona voters could elect a Trump-endorsed Republican and former TV news reporter who just approved an ad featuring what many would assume is a mild-mannered small business owner who apparently was thinking of voting for Democrat Katie Hobbs for governor but says she’s just “too liberal” so he has to vote for Kari Lake because of “President Biden’s” inflation.

British human rights activist Peter Tatchell was briefly stopped in Qatar on Tuesday for staging a public demonstration in Doha, the country's capital city. According to the Peter Tatchell Foundation, he was "detained" for holding the first pro-LGBTQ+ protest in any Gulf state.With less than a month to go before the FIFA World Cup, which is expected to draw huge crowds of tourists from around the world to the nation, Tatchell stood outside the National Museum of Qatar with a sign calling attention to the nation’s mistreatment of LGBTQ+ people.“Qatar arrests, jails & subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’ #QatarAntiGay,” read a sign that the activist held while wearing a T-shirt with the same hashtag emblazoned on it.The foundation’s YouTube page shows that Tatchell was standing peacefully in a pedestrian area along a street when a security officer approached him and folded up his sign. The video ends as the security official walks away from Tachell.But Tatchell’s supporters tweeted that he had been seized and that his whereabouts had been unknown for some time.

(CNN) — A judge in Russia has left Brittney Griner's verdict in place, upholding on Tuesday the US basketball star's conviction on drug smuggling charges and reducing only slightly her nine-year prison sentence.Griner's sentence will be modified to count the time she spent in pre-trial detention after her February 17 arrest at a Moscow airport, the judge ruled, with each day in pre-trial custody counting as 1.5 days toward her prison sentence. It was not immediately clear by exactly how much that would reduce the sentence.The decision came after an appeal hearing Tuesday at which Griner again apologized as she and her attorneys asked the court for a more lenient sentence, arguing the verdict was unfair and unjustified under Russian law.

The Social Security Administration will now allow people to self-select their gender on their Social Security number record.The policy, announced Wednesday, is effective immediately.“The Social Security Administration’s Equity Action Plan includes a commitment to decrease administrative burdens and ensure people who identify as gender diverse or transgender have options in the Social Security number card application process,” Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi said in a press release. “This new policy allows people to self-select their sex in our records without needing to provide documentation of their sex designation.”Those who update their gender marker in Social Security’s records will need to apply for a replacement Social Security card.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has closed a gap in survivor benefits for those who were not able to marry a same-sex, now-deceased veteran spouse before the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges marriage equality ruling and therefore weren’t married long enough to qualify.The VA’s minimum length-of-marriage requirement is one year, and higher benefits are available to survivors who were married to a veteran spouse for eight years or more.