Queer Tony winner Harvey Fierstein—whose work includes Kinky Boots, La Cage aux Folles, Hairspray and more—took to Instagram to share his response to President Trump’s takeover as chairman of the Kennedy Center’s board, Playbill noted.
“I have been in the struggle for our civil rights for more than 50 years only to watch them snatched away by a man who actually couldn’t care less,” Fierstein wrote. “This is how freedom ENDS! Trump may have declared ‘woke’ as dead in America. We must prove him wrong.” Trump previously vowed to ban drag shows at the institution, and Fierstein said that would include his own shows. However, openly gay Trump aide Richard Grenell—who Trump appointed to be Kennedy Center’s president—responded via X, stating that Fierstein’s shows have not been banned from the organization’s programming and that he should “come do Hairspray or La Cage here at the Kennedy Center.” Fierstein declined.
Disney may be abandoning some of its DEI initiatives but the company recently strongly rejected some MAGA efforts to gain control of corporate governance, Deadline noted. At the Bob Iger-run media giant’s virtual annual shareholders meetings, Disney investors voted down an effort to cut ties with a respected equality study from a top LGBTQ+ group. Following unanimous recommendations from the James Gorman chaired board, the shareholders also rejected an Elon Musk-inclined measure to probe Disney’s alleged moves in recent years “to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and others for expressing disfavored political and religious viewpoints.”
GLAAD hosted its 2025 Latine Honors event—a celebration of LGBTQ+ Latine leaders in entertainment, advocacy and journalism—at Grandmaster Recorders in Los Angeles, a media release noted. The event happened ahead of the 36th Annual GLAAD Media Awards that will stream exclusively on Hulu on April 12. The evening was hosted by standup comic Roz Hernandez and featured a rousing live performance by drag superstar Salina EsTitties, presented by Hyundai Motor America. Among those speaking were GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis; GLAAD Senior Director of Spanish Language & Latine Media and Representation Monica Trasandes; and Gabe Gonzalez, host of the GLAAD digital original series ¡DIMELO! Special guests included David Archuleta, Jonathan Burke, Kirstie Diaz, Pixie Dot, Victoria Bazúa, Linda Yvette Chávez, Jordan Gonzalez, Harvey Guillén, Roz Hernandez, Brigitte-Muñoz Liebowitz, Ian Paget, Christine Pike, Vico Ortiz, Johnny Sibilly, Juan Torres-Falcon, Sofia Yepes and more.
Lollapalooza headliners this year include pop singer Olivia Rodrigo, rapper Tyler, The Creator, pop singer Sabrina Carpenter, electronic group RÜFÜS DU SOL, country singer Luke Combs, K-pop group TWICE, rapper A$AP Rocky, rock band Korn, pop singer Gracie Abrams and queer rapper Doechii, per WTTW. (Rodrigo will make her debut at Lollapalooza Chicago. Sabrina Carpenter is returning as a headliner, having made her debut Lolla performance two years ago.) A few of the other acts (out of 170) slated to perform are LGBTQ+ DJ The Blessed Madonna, Foster the People, T-Pain, Wave to Earth, Finneas, Dom Dolla, Still Woozy and Mariah the Scientist. The event will run July 31-Aug. 3 in Grant Park.
Lizzo, Lil Nas X and Kim Petras are slated to headline the Outloud Music Festival at WeHo Pride in Los Angeles, taking place on May 31 and June 1, per Variety. Additional performers at Outloud include Paris Hilton, Honey Dijon, Shygirl Presents: Club Shy, Pabllo Vittar, Rebecca Black, Sasha Colby, Alyssa Edwards, Onya Nurve and Neverending Nina, among others. “At a time when our rights and visibility continue to be challenged, it’s more important than ever for the LGBTQ+ community, allies, organizations, and advocates to come together in solidarity,” said Outloud founder and executive producer Jeff Consoletti. “This festival is a place where we celebrate and empower queer artists on a massive scale. As we continue to grow, so does our impact in bringing the LGBTQ+ community to the forefront of entertainment.”
And speaking of Lizzo, the Emmy recipient and four-time Grammy winner will be taking up the guitar to play queer music icon Sister Rosetta Tharpe—the gospel singer who was one of the first to appeal to rock ‘n’ roll and R&B audiences, Deadline reported. Thorpe’s influence on popular music spans decades and includes Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and countless others. As she shatters musical boundaries with her signature guitar sound, she must navigate societal constraints, conceal her love for another woman and eventually stage the first stadium show.
The documentary Helen and the Bear has been making the festival rounds, with its most recent viewing on March 25 at NYC’s IFC Center, per a press release. The movie is described thusly: “At 70, Helen often acts like an uninhibited teenager, sneaking cigarettes and exploring the bounds of her sexual identity. But at home, she cares for her 96-year-old husband Pete, a once-prominent Republican politician who now depends on her absolutely. … Helen’s inner journey is brought to life through decades of journal entries and archival footage that reveal a struggle between her love for Pete and a desire for freedom. As Pete’s health worsens and Helen anticipates life without ‘Bear,’ she wrestles with what’s been lost and won through life by his side.”
Polyvinyl Record Co. and trans musician Laura Jane Grace announced the July 18 release of Adventure Club, from the act Laura Jane Grace In The Trauma Tropes, according to a media release. The announcement stated that the album “a new and incendiary, 12-song collection exploring the [archetypal] hero’s journey tropes from classic Greek mythology: love, war, trust, betrayal, virtue and vice, [and] iced coffee drinks.” The band also features Grace’s wife and collaborator, Paris Campbell Grace (vocals); and Athens, Greece-based musicians Jacopo “Jack” Fokas (bass) and Orestis Lagadinos (drums).
Lady Gaga announced the dates for her 2025 “Mayhem Ball” tour on social media, writing, “I wasn’t planning to tour this year after my shows in Singapore but the incredible response to the new album inspired me to keep things going,” CBS News noted. She added that the tour, beginning this summer, will feature music from her hit album MAYHEM, which debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 when it was released March 7. She will make just five U.S. stops during her months-long tour—Las Vegas, Seattle, New York City, Chicago and Miami—and will perform in arenas instead of stadiums. Pre-sale ticket sales start March 31 at 11 a.m. CT; general-public sales begin April 3 at 10 a.m. on Ticketmaster.com.
As part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, the Department of Defense (DoD) deleted actress Bea Arthur’s (Golden Girls; Maude) trailblazing contributions to the Marine Corps, The Advocate noted, citing PinkNews. Along with the accomplishments of other female veterans, the webpage dedicated to Arthur was deleted, with only her enlistment photo remaining on the site and a “404 page not found” warning connected to the former link. Arthur was a typist at the Marine Corps headquarters in D.C. before becoming a truck driver and dispatcher at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, between 1944 and 1945; she left the military at the rank of staff sergeant. And because anything with the word “gay” in it apparently can’t be allowed to stay on the DoD website, photos of the Enola Gay airplane that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan are also marked for deletion by the administration,
In Tokyo, Netflix revealed that it has ordered a second season of the gay series The Boyfriend, which is famously Japan’s very first same-sex reality show, according to IMDb, citing The Hollywood Reporter. The first season, which premiered July 9, won over viewers both globally and in Japan, landing on Netflix’s weekly top-10 list of most-watched series for six consecutive weeks. The show’s format features a cast of nine Japanese and East Asian men, who identify as gay or bisexual, living together for a month in a luxury house known as the “Green Room.”
Actor Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter; Looking) shared with The Broadway Show that his late ex-boyfriend Gavin Creel helped him to come out, per Queerty. Groff stated, “I had come out of the closet personally, but there had been no occasion for me to announce it publicly. We were dating and he was so out and doing Hair [on Broadway, in 2009] at the time and he organized these buses [to the National Equality March]. I really remember the moment of looking over at him with literally a bullhorn and feeling like, ok am I going to like [come out]. It was such an essential moment because of who he was and how out and vocal and how brave and fearless and externalized he was and wanting to kind of try to be as brave as he was. … I owe him that and I am so grateful we got to talk about it many times even after we broke up. It’s such an unbelievable loss.”
In a recent cover story interview for Rolling Stone UK, Sir Elton John stated that live performances are the best way to discover early on who you are as an artist, per American Songwriter. “It doesn’t matter if you’re playing to 40 people,” he said. “The more experience you get playing to nobody, the better. Because when I played in Musicology, we played to hardly anybody sometimes. That experience stood me in great stead for when I became Elton John because I had backbone. And backbone is so important.” He added a warning about reality shows like American Idol, saying that overnight fame can be harmful for someone who has no experience performing live: “Take risks—go and play in a pub.”
Mariah Carey won a copyright-infringement case over her 1994 Christmas staple, “All I Want for Christmas is You,” the BBC noted. Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani rejected the allegations of songwriter Adam Stone, who performs under the name Vince Vance and who released a song with the same name in 1989. He accused Carey of exploiting his “popularity” and “style.” Almadani referred to expert testimony saying the two songs simply shared “Christmas song clichés” common to several earlier hits. Almandi also ruled that Stone and his lawyers should face sanctions for filing “frivolous” arguments, that included “vague … and incomprehensible mixtures of factual assertions and conclusions, subjective opinions, and other irrelevant evidence.”
Out actor Dan Amboyer (known from the TV series Younger) is performing alongside Tony nominee Elizabeth A. Davis in the Abingdon Theatre Company’s production of Maybe Tomorrow, per a press release. In Maybe Tomorrow, “Gail and Ben’s nearly 10-year relationship appears to be thriving: a new job, a new city, and a baby boy on the way. But as the challenges of reality come to light, they must navigate the complexities of a relationship tested by time. In desperate need of a break, Gail retreats to her pause room; the bathroom of their mobile home. As the outside world slowly slips away from her, we are left to wonder if it was ever there to begin with.” The off-Broadway production is slated to run through April 6.
Queerty noted that daytime television has an increase in LGBTQ+ characters and actors. They include queer actor Adrian Anchondo, who has made his daytime debut as Marco in General Hospital; out actor Van Hansis, also on General Hospital (and who was on the now-defunct soap As the World Turns); and Brandon Claybon and Mike Manning, who portray a couple on the new show Beyond the Gates. Soap operas were some of the first programs to adopt queer storylines, like Ryan Phillippe’s openly gay teen character on One Life to Live; and All My Children, which featured TV’s first lesbian wedding.
The movie musical adaptation of Broadway’s Kiss of the Spider Woman—starring Jennifer Lopez, queer actor Tonatiuh and Diego Luna—will debut in film venues this fall via a newly inked distribution deal with Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate, and LD Entertainment. The completed film, written and directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls), made its world premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The musical had been rumored to be making a return for some time in some form; a reading was held in 2015 with Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming and Steven Pasquale.
Singer Kim Wilde (“Kids in America”) has been announced as one of the main acts for Bristol Pride—one of the UK’s largest Pride events, the BBC revealed. The Afternoon Legend slot has previously featured acts such as The Human league and Natalie Imbruglia. Pride has a wide ranging program of events running between June 28 and July 13, with the main Pride celebration happening July 12. Bristol Pride’s main headliner has not yet been announced but other acts already named include dance-floor act Cascada and U.S. club-music icon Ultra Naté, among others.
The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) has set the date for the 7th Annual AAFCA TV Honors for Aug. 23, a press release noted. The awards ceremony, celebrating excellence in television, is returning to the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. “We are excited to once again celebrate the incredible talent and creativity that defines television today,” said AAFCA President and co-founder Gil Robertson. “The AAFCA TV Honors provides a platform to recognize the impactful narratives and performances that reflect the richness of the Black experience. We look forward to another year of honoring the best in television.”
Queer British actor/director Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding) talked about his past with UK singer Paloma Faith on her podcast, Mad, Sad and Bad, according to Queerty. Among other things, he said he missed the early ‘80s, when he was enjoying the sexual freedom London afforded him while he lived near Earls Court in West London, then a popular gay hot spot. Everett said, “I’ve become more conservative as I’ve got older. [He’s 65.] I look back on the time, for example, this town [London], when I first came to it in the 1970s, when it was very rough and tumble, and sexuality … no one really thought of it in the same way. Being gay, for example, in the ’70s, was quite a magical thing, considering it had only just been legalized.”
Vanessa Williams didn’t want to be compared to Meryl Streep when the former signed on to play the Devil Wears Prada character Miranda Priestly in London, according to People.In a conversation with HuffPost UK, Williams said she “refused to be compared” to Streep when asked if she was intimidated in taking on the role made famous by the three-time Oscar winner. “I’ve heard this question over and over again, and I knew that I was going to make it my own. … That’s been the feedback from everyone who’s seen it,” she said. “After they sit down in their seat, they say, ‘I completely forgot who was playing it before and I love the journey that you took me on.'” The musical originated in Chicago in 2022, with Tony winner Beth Leavel as Miranda and Taylor Iman Jones as Andy (who Anne Hathaway portrayed in the hit 2006 film).
Queer actors Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Sir Ian McKellen (Magneto) are among the original X-Men actors expected for the superhero movie Avengers: Doomsday, per Deadline. Patrick Stewart (Professor X), James Marsden (Cyclops), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique) and Kelsey Grammer (Beast) are also slated to join. Also, Channing Tatum—who played Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine—will be in the movie. People have known for a while that the whole MCU gang and those new to Marvel, i.e. The Fantastic Four: First Steps foursome –Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/Thing)—will be boarding the big Avengers movie, which is filming in London. Avengers: Doomsday will debut in theaters on May 1, 2026.
Tom Cruise is to receive a BFI Fellowship—the highest honor bestowed by the UK’s lead organization for film, Deadline noted. The award will be presented to Cruise at the BFI Chair’s dinner in London on May 12 at an event hosted by BFI Chair Jay Hunt. The day before, Cruise will take part in an onstage In Conversation session at the BFI Southbank to discuss his decades-long career. Also, a season of 27 films featuring Cruise will screen at the BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX throughout May.
Heidi Klum is returning to Project Runway’s 21st season as host and judge and will be joined by OG judge Nina Garcia and queer stylist Law Roach, Deadline noted. Garcia is the editor-in-chief of the U.S. edition of Elle magazine and has been a judge on the show since its debut in 2004. Out designer Christian Siriano returns as the series’ mentor after Tim Gunn was not asked back. Siriano won the show’s fourth season and became a mentor when Bravo rebooted the show in 2019 for season 17. The new season is set to premiere this summer on Freeform and will be available to stream shortly after on Disney+ and Hulu.
Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum musicians Jonas Brothers return with new music, releasing their latest single “Love Me To Heaven,” which is out now via Republic Records, per a press release. Also, Jonas Brothers shared an exclusive touring announcement: This summer, they’ll hit the road on their “JONAS20: Living the Dream” Tour, performing in stadiums and arenas across North America. The tour’s title was inspired by the band’s journey of living their dreams over the last 20 years—from performing in local malls in New Jersey to selling out stadiums and arenas around the world.
Also regarding the Jonas Brothers, JONASCON recently took place in NYC, another media release noted. The day started with a massive reveal of Jonas Brothers’ upcoming tour “JONAS20: Living The Dream.” Other announcements included an upcoming album, Greetings from Your Hometown, coming Aug. 8; a Joe Jonas solo album, Music For People Who Believe in Love, coming May 23; their upcoming Disney+ Christmas movie, A Very Jonas Christmas; and a collaboration with ESPN that will include their unreleased song “I Can’t Lose.” In addition, former pro quarterback Eli Manning made a surprise appearance to announce that Jonas Brothers will be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Five months after a disastrous launch of their initial branding, officials from Boston’s 2026 National Women’s Soccer League expansion team unveiled “Boston Legacy Football Club” as the new name of the franchise, ESPN noted. The team, which was granted an expansion franchise by the NWSL two years ago, had unveiled the name “BOS Nation FC” and announced itself using a marketing campaign called “Too Many Balls”—a pun about there not being enough women’s professional sports in Boston—last October. However, a lot of pushback quickly followed, and the team removed most of the marketing campaign assets within about 24 hours.
Logo’s viral digital-talk series SPILL returned March 25 with a special New York season, a press release noted. Guests include Orville Peck, Jay Jurden, Lina Bradford, Eric Sedeno, Murray Hill and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Sasha Velour. In SPILL, host Johnny Sibilly sits down with special LGBTQ+ celebrity guests to dish about pop culture, love, sex, Hollywood feuds and other topics. The series streams on Logo’s YouTube.
Garcelle Beauvais announced her departure from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills after five seasons, per Variety. On Instagram, she said, “One of the reasons why I’m leaving is my family—my boys, their last year of high school is next year and I want to be a part of that. And Jade is starting a new career and I want to be a part of that, too. And, secondly, I have the most exciting projects that I am developing, producing and acting in. … Andy Cohen says I can come back anytime. The door will always be open, so you never know, I might pop back in sometime. To the fans: I want to say thank you so much.” Beauvais joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2020 and became its first Black cast member.
After being accused of dissing trans activist Dylan Mulvaney at the 2023 Grammys, trans actress Laverne Cox talked about the video for the first time recently, per Yahoo! Entertainment. The viral moment happened when Mulvaney walked up to Cox on the red carpet to tell her how she was on her vision board; Cox responded, “I was on your 2023 vision board. That’s lovely.” But Cox sat with Mulvaney for an interview with ELLE and said to Mulvaney, “There were a lot of people making all kinds of speculations and reading into that video. I don’t know what you saw on the internet about that.” Mulvaney agreed there was “so much” speculation, which couldn’t have been more inaccurate, stating, “I left that interaction feeling nothing but love, and supported and protected. It felt maternal for me.” Cox said she was surprised by comments accusing her of being shady and mean.
Ex-Channel 4 drama chief Caroline Hollick called Gwyneth Paltrow “irresponsible” for her remarks about intimacy coordinators, per Deadline. Paltrow launched a debate when she said she would “feel very stifled” by the actions of intimacy coordinators, adding that she had to tell the coordinator on her upcoming Marty Supreme movie to “step a little bit back” regarding sex scenes with Paltrow and co-star Timothée Chalamet. Hollick labelled Paltrow’s comments “quite an irresponsible thing to say,” which she said prove that intimacy coordinators have “got caught up in the fringes of the culture wars.”