For the first time, the Native Son 101 List is launching on Queerty, part of a new partnership with Emil Wilbekin’s Native Son, LGBTQ Nation noted. This year’s list honors 101 Black gay and queer men shaping culture and making a global impact, with Wilbekin saying, “These are the educators, journalists, editors, photographers, entrepreneurs, activists, authors, artists, actors and creators who dare to be different, to take risks, and to push the boundaries.” Some of the honorees include Lil Nas X, Colman Domingo, Jeremy Pope, Scott Evans, Kaytranada, Law Roach, Bill T. Jones, Tituss Burgess, Ncuti Gatwa, Don Lemon and Jerrod Carmichael.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed legislation designed to protect users of money-transfer apps after several deadly attacks have targeted gay men who were robbed by assailants who took advantage of security loopholes to steal thousands of dollars, Gay City News reported. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, an out gay state senator representing Manhattan’s west side, and Manhattan Assemblymember Grace Lee introduced the Financial App Security Act, which would have forced money-sharing platforms to use enhanced security features, such as requiring users to enter a pin number for many transactions. In part, Hochul said that she supports “expanding consumer protections in this space,” but added that “this legislation includes requirements that conflict with Department of Financial Services banking regulations and other technical challenges that could hinder compliance and unnecessarily restrict users’ access to these widely-used applications.”
The owner of Minneapolis’ 19 Bar was not able to reopen the historic bar on New Year’s Eve as planned, CBS News noted. The gay bar located in the Loring Park neighborhood closed last March after a garbage truck hit a power pole that landed on the building, starting a fire. “Turns out construction, city codes, and inspections are way different [than] back in the good ole days, [when] all you needed was some spit, a pack of cigarettes, and to be a friend of Dorothy,” the owner wrote on Facebook. The 19 Bar, which opened in the 1950s, is the oldest gay bar in the state.
And the Cincinnati queer bar The Birdcage has closed, citing a struggle to remain “financially viable,” per WCPO. “It has been an incredible six years serving you, Cincinnati,” The Birdcage posted on Facebook on Christmas Eve.”We’ve had our ups and downs but will forever be grateful to have played our part for the Greater Cincinnati LGBTQIA+ community.” The bar also posted, “Bills and payroll were covered out of pocket—not through the bar’s profits—in the hope that community support would rebound. However, sales have plummeted by nearly 75%. In recent months, sales fluctuated, and we remained hopeful, it was not enough to cover basic operational costs.” The owners of the Birdcage also operate other establishments throughout the city, including The Butcher and Barrel, Ché, O’Malley’s in the Alley, The Blind Pig, Gypsy’s Mainstrasse and Coffee at Lola’s.
Arkmayer Davis—a Black gay man who’d been left homeless by a fire—was fatally stabbed in New York City’s Bronx borough on Christmas Eve and bled out in the arms of his husband, Daris Antwan Davis, The Advocate noted. Arkmayer had gone to the laundromat to exchange cell phones with his husband, who had mistakenly taken Arkmayer’s with him; when Daris returned to their room at the shelter, he found Arkmayer unconscious and covered in blood. Authorities have not made an arrest and have not stated a motive for the crime. Daris and Arkmayer met in North Carolina in 2008, when Arkmayer, a New Yorker, was visiting his father there.
In California, the trial of a man charged with murdering an LGBTQ+-rights activist has been postponed from January to March, per KGET. Fredi Rivera (who was on probation for grand theft) is accused of killing Daniel Landeros, 43, who was shot on Sept. 18, 2023, while walking through Yokuts Park in Bakersfield with a male friend. The friend told police that a man approached and called Landeros a gay slur; Landeros and the man argued while the friend waited near a bench, according to court documents. Landeros was survived by his partner, Albert Bravo, among others.
Indiana’s Damien Center received an $800,000 grant from the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to expand its mental health and substance use disorder treatment services for LGBTQ+ individuals, according to Inside Indiana Business. The four-year grant will fund two full-time licensed mental-health therapists and group-therapy programs. Damien Center said in a statement that one therapist will provide in-person counseling at the center’s headquarters on the near east side of Indianapolis, while the second therapist will provide remote care via telehealth. A 2023 report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicates that gay, lesbian and bisexual adults are more likely than their straight counterparts to use substances as well as experience mental health conditions such as major depression and serious thoughts of suicide.
Approximately $25,000 from the 2025 Minneapolis budget will be used to develop an LGBTQ+ mental-health program, The Minnesota Daily reported. Council Member Jason Chavez (Ward 9), who was behind the mental-health amendment, said in a statement that the LGBTQ+ program would be established in collaboration with an unnamed community organization. The Minneapolis City Council passed the 2025 Minneapolis budget on Dec. 10—and Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed it the next day, saying it was “incredibly problematic,” per MSN; the city council overrode the veto on Dec. 12.
Grindr will cover as much as $300,000 in fertility, surrogacy and adoption costs for employees—far more than what the average company offers its workers, according to Fortune. The benefit will be available starting in 2025 to those who have been at the company at least 18 months, and will cover 80% of costs and associated taxes up to the $300,000 cap over five years. Employees will also have access to hormonal health care—including menopause and low testosterone support—through benefit provider Carrot Fertility, the company said in a statement. Grindr has around 140 employees globally and plans to expand its team through 2025.
Indiana legislators began the year by introducing one of the first anti-LGBTQ+ bills of the year—a continuation of Republicans’ ongoing campaign to restrict transgender rights, The Advocate noted. House Bill 1041, authored by Republican state Rep. Michelle Davis, aims to expand the state’s 2022 ban on transgender girls in K-12 sports to college athletics. Davis claims the bill is about ensuring fairness in sports, although Indiana has reported no issues involving transgender athletes at the collegiate level, per The Indianapolis Star.
The Colorado Republican Party is threatening to sue a Durango School District over a proposed resolution to classify the Black Lives Matter flag and an iteration of the LGBTQ Pride flag as protected government speech, Colorado Politics reported. Last fall, Durango School District 9-R banned the Black Lives Matter flag and a version of the Pride flag after receiving a parental complaint; however, months later, the school board introduced a resolution to officially sanction the flags as “protected government speech.” In response to the resolution, Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Director of Special Initiatives Darcy Schoening each wrote letters to the district, accusing it of violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause “by promoting an anti-religious fetish.”
In Georgia, Judge Jeffrey L. Foster sentenced a male same-sex couple to 100 years each in prison without parole for sexually abusing the children they had adopted, per The Advocate. William and Zachary Zulock were arrested in 2022 after the Walton County Sheriff’s Office received a tip that another man was receiving pictures and videos from the couple that showed child sexual abuse. The Zulocks had adopted two young boys a few years earlier and they “they both admitted to sexually abusing both boys over a period of time,” according to a press release from the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office. However, the Zero Abuse Project of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center stressed that “abuse is about power and control and is not anchored by sexual orientation,” adding that most people who sexually abuse children—including men whose victims are boys—are heterosexual.
In Virginia, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County confirmed that charges were dropped against two U.S. Army soldiers arrested in February 2024 for allegedly stealing Pride flags from the home of a lesbian couple on five separate days between September 2023 and January 2024, The Washington Blade reported. Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghni-Tafti said the charges against Specialist Matthew Henshaw, 21, and Private First Class Joseph DiGregorio, 23, were dismissed after they successfully completed a recently initiated program called the Heart of Safety Restorative Justice Conferencing Program. They attended counseling sessions with facilitators associated with the program over six months before meeting with the two women whose Pride flags they allegedly stole.
The Human Rights Campaign selected New Hampshire cafe Teatotaller as one of its 30 ”Queer to Stay” business awardees, according to WOKQ. The award is in partnership with Paramount Plus and Showtime. This initiative launched in 2020, when the Human Rights Campaign identified 10 LGBTQ+ small businesses across the country and made significant donations to each. A few of the other honorees include Kingfish Cider (Jefferson, Louisiana), Pink Sappho (Chicago), Trudy’s Spot (Hurricane, Utah), Everywhere Is Queer (Portland, Oregon), For Them (NYC) and Rose Pelvic Physiotherapy (Huntsville, Alabama).
Despite a resounding political defeat in August, Republican Valentina Gomez—known for her viral “don’t be weak and gay” campaign video—is once again running for office and making headlines for a new controversial video that shows her pretending to execute an immigrant, The Advocate noted. Gomez announced that she is moving to Texas and running for the 2nd congressional district seat that Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw has held since 2019. “I’m running for Congress in Texas, and I’m taking down a RINO (Republican in name only) and a dinosaur once and for all because Congress is full of crooks like [House Speaker Mike] Johnson,” Gomez said in a video.
Yahoo! Life listed the must-attend events at Aspen Gay Ski Week 2025, which runs Jan. 12-19. Some of them include The Little Nell’s Drag Queen Bingo Brunch, hosted by Mariam T; the HIDALGO Opening Cocktail Reception; “Signs of Life” at the Hotel Jerome, featuring out award-winning performer Cheyenne Jackson; the Womxn’s Cocktail Party at W Aspen’s Hidalgo; the Friday Night Underwear Dance Party at W Aspen’s Hidalgo; and the Round Up Saloon Dance Party, presented by Visit Dallas.
In Concord, California, a family-owned restaurant will close its doors for good after the business settled a lawsuit over its “Ladies Night” promotion, Local 12 noted. According to The New York Post, the Lima Restaurant announced it will permanently close due to a gender discrimination lawsuit. The business told KRON that it was sued over having a “Ladies Night” promotion, where drinks were sold to women at half-price for three hours every week, noting that the promotion had been running for years. California isn’t the only state where courts ruled “ladies night” promotions could constitute illegal discrimination; courts in states such as Iowa, Wisconsin and New York have also ruled that such promotions are not legal.