Stephen Bates: Last News

The Tortured Poets Department. (And to be fair, that’s not as hyperbolic as you’d think, considering her new, Charlie Puth-referencing record broke Spotify records in less than 12 hours.)Nevertheless, I can confirm that the world outside of Swifties has continued spinning! Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.This week in LGBTQ+ news gave us Luke Evans’ hunky birthday post, some ally love from the iconic Paula Abdul, and Kit Connor‘s plans for a Broadway debut.

We talk to the Norwegian musician about her sophomore album I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY!, her infamous Gen Z lore and what we can expect from her self-proclaimed “goofy era”. 

Attention, Bridgerton fans! LGBTQIA+-led love stories are finally coming to the series. 

BY BRETT BARROUQUERE | A Montgomery County high school student is charged with what police describe as plans to commit a school shooting.

Bill Maher's "Kid 'N Prey" segment on Friday went viral on social media after he criticized the child entertainment industry.On Friday's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher reacted to the recently released documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which exposed the sexual abuse and hostile work environment that child actors faced at the hands of adults at Nickelodeon.The comedian posted the segment from his show on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday night with the caption, "It turns out for pedophiles in Hollywood, 'It's A Small World After All.'" It has amassed 28.3 million views as of Saturday afternoon.Maher said he was "grossed out" by the revelations in the documentary, adding that "it didn't just expose a dangerous workplace. It also exposed hypocrisy."He said that when Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis "was saying the exact same thing about kids and creepy stuff at Disney—that liberals now find intolerable at Nickelodeon—he was dismissed as a hick and a bigot, but why would a kid's content factory like Disney be all that different than the one at Nickelodeon?"During a legal feud with Disney that started when the company's then-CEO Bob Chapek publicly opposed a controversial bill that restricts certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida schools known as the "Don't Say Gay" law, DeSantis accused Disney of adding a lot of "sexuality into the programming for young kids," which the company denied.