NATIONAL
New NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has entered office as someone who has made commitments to the LGBTQ+ community, per Gay City News. Mamdani, 34, emphasized support for LGBTQ+ rights during his campaign and ultimately won overwhelming support from the queer community, capturing 81% of the LGBTQ+ vote. During his campaign, Mamdani had a six-page platform dedicated to the LGBTQ community; in addition, in an interview with the outlet shortly before the election, Mamdani said he would “not just protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers, but … celebrate and to cherish them.”
On a related note, an iconic transgender individual narrated Mamdani’s swearing-in ceremony, according to LGBTQ Nation. Bernie Wagenblast, 69—a veteran transportation broadcaster whose voice millions of people hear every day on the New York City subway—came out as trans in 2023. Wagenblast now speaks in a higher register in her private life and on her podcast, Cranford Radio. However, she still uses the voice NYC commuters have come to recognize when recording announcements.
Virginia Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger’s inaugural committee announced that at least two LGBTQ+ organizations—Equality Virginia and Diversity Richmond—will be among more than 25 state-based organizations that will participate in her inaugural parade on Jan. 17, per The Washington Blade. A statement released by the inaugural committee said the parade will take place immediately after Spanberger is sworn in as Virginia’s 75th governor and after she delivers her inaugural address in Richmond.
Minnesota Gov. and onetime vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz will not seek re-election in 2026, ending his bid for a historic third term to lead the northern state, The Advocate reported. The decision (reversing his September announcement) came amid mounting concern among Democrats over declining approval ratings and more scrutiny surrounding fraud allegations in state programs. Walz—known for being a staunch LGBTQ+ ally—criticized Republicans and the Trump administration, accusing them of exploiting fraud investigations for political gain and targeting immigrant communities in Minnesota.
Wyoming’s supreme court ruled that abortion will remain legal after striking down laws that include the country’s first explicit ban on abortion pills, ruling that they violate the state constitution, the AP reported. The justices sided with the state’s only abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access, and others who had sued over the bans passed since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The CBS newsroom under Bari Weiss has reportedly disagreed over how the network should cover transgender people, The Advocate noted. Reporters revealed that a correspondent and producer clashed in November over how to use the phrase “biological sex.” A correspondent at the network wrote in an email viewed by The Guardian that the network “should refrain from adopting terminology advocated by the movement,” referring to the Trans Journalists Association’s stylebook. Weiss gained notoriety after her 2020 resignation from The New York Times, when she accused the paper of what she described as “ideological conformity.” She later launched The Free Press in 2021 alongside her wife, Nellie Bowles, and her sister, Suzy Weiss.
The town of Loogootee, Indiana is being sued once again for blocking an LGBTQ+ Pride celebration by imposing strict regulations on public events, per The Advocate. The ACLU of Indiana has filed both a lawsuit and a motion for contempt against the town over an ordinance that bans special events from taking place within 240 feet of the town fountain, where the annual PrideFest is held. The town passed the resolution in December despite a court blocking an almost identical policy in August.
In a few years in San Francisco, an empty lot on Market Street will be transformed into a 15-story residential building for veterans and LGBTQ+ seniors, KGO noted. Mercy Housing will develop the property that will contain 187 studios and one-bedroom apartments with funding coming from the state and the city—all of it being affordable housing. Senior Project Manager Sean Wils said the housing will be “for seniors [aged] 62 plus, and the income will be restricted for very low income to extremely low income, so that means that folks can be making approximately $16,000 up to $92,000 a year.” When completed, it will be part of a mini-campus with three residential buildings and several locations to help support the queer community.
In Michigan, Saginaw Public Schools board Kevin Rooker has died at age 67 after becoming ill after having surgery, per ABC12. Rooker was married to Saginaw City Councilman Bill Ostash. In 2024, the couple hosted former President Joe Biden at a private event at their Saginaw home, where Biden came to thank supporters. Rooker is the second Saginaw school board member to die in office in the past few months; last November, Mattie Thompson died after 20 years of service.
WORLD
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a bill that will ban so-called “LGBTQ+ propaganda” in the country, The Washington Blade noted. Members of Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament previously unanimously approved the measure, and the country’s Senate later approved it. Russia, Georgia and Hungary are among the other countries joining the predominantly Muslim former Soviet republic with anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda laws.
New Equality and Human Rights Commission Chair Dr. Mary-Ann Stephenson asked campaigners who raised doubts about her appointment to “judge me on what I do,” according to The Guardian. Stephenson promised to “uphold the rights of everybody across all protected characteristics” after the UK government overruled the objections of parliament’s women and equalities committee about her. Controversially, Stephenson donated to the 2022 campaign of lawyer Allison Bailey, who was found to have been unlawfully discriminated against by her chambers for her gender-critical views. However, Stephenson has said, “I think it’s really important when we’re looking at [the] issue around single-sex spaces, to make sure that you also protect the rights of trans people.”
Judges have been named for the next season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World, per a press release. Regular judges Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and Graham Norton will all return, and the next crop of celebrity judges will include actors Lucy Punch and Will Poulter as well as pop icon Anastacia and Bananarama members Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward. Also, Pussycat Dolls Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt will drop by to be celebrity Snatch Game players—and there will be a special appearance from legendary Doctor Who writer/producer Russell T Davies.
In France, a Parisian court found 10 people guilty of the cyber-harassment of French First Lady Brigitte Macron, for spreading false claims that she is a transgender woman who was born male, CNN noted. Brigitte and her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, have long faced such false rumors, including claims that she was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is the actual name of her older brother. The eight men and two women were found guilty of making malicious comments about Brigitte’s gender and sexuality, even equating her age difference with her husband to “pedophilia.” (Brigitte is 24 years older than Emmanuel.)
Music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, YouTube and Deezer removed Guadeloupean performer Admiral T’s 2004 album Mozaïk Kréyòl over lyrics that incited hatred and violence toward LGBTQ+ people, per Erasing 76 Crimes. For years, the platforms included the album, which contains the offensive song “Gwadada”; in the song, Admiral T (legal name: Christy Campbell) portrayed homosexuality as a scourge promoting prostitution, among the many evils afflicting the island. A public school in Boissard was named after the controversial artist in 2013, and it continues to bear his name despite controversy. (Guadeloupe is a French overseas region in the Caribbean.)
SHOWBIZ
Audio-erotica app Quinn apologized and donated $25,000 to Trans Lifeline after removing a comment about trans women from an interview with Heated Rivalry stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, The Advocate noted. At one point Williams said that “there are straight women, there are trans women, there are gay women, like queer women” who are fans—but Quinn edited out “trans women” in its original video. On X, Quinn said that it cut the mention of “trans women” because “it’s not a sexual orientation and he was listing sexual orientations, and we wanted to distinguish the two.”
Queer musician Doechii and SZA released a duet called “girl, get up.,” marking the second collaboration between the female artists, per USA Today. The new track, released with a music video, addresses accusations from content creators and other musicians, like Kanye West, that Doechii is an “industry plant”—a demeaning term used to describe a “lab-grown, focus-grouped and reverse-engineered” artist who has been “anointed” for success by industry power players, according to GQ. Doechii and SZA first worked together on Doechii’s 2022 single, “Persuasive.”
A Broadway production is being prepared that will reimagine the Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt downtown classic The Fantasticks as a contemporary gay love story, with casting being announced down the road, per Deadline. Death Becomes Her director Christopher Gattelli will helm and choreograph this production. In the re-envisioned Fantasticks, the central romantic pair—traditionally Matt and Luisa—are now Matt and Lewis. Featuring a revised book and lyrics by Jones and music by Schmidt, this new version of the world’s longest-running musical was completed by Jones before his death in 2023.
Broadway performer Bret Hanna-Shuford, 46, has died less than five months after being diagnosed with cancer, People reported. The actor’s husband, Stephen Hanna-Shuford, confirmed the news on social media, writing that Bret died in the early hours of Jan. 3. Bret had been diagnosed last summer with an aggressive form of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL)—rare conditions that affect the immune system. Bret (Wicked, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid) was also a social-media influencer known for his work onstage and for chronicling his life with his family in the account Broadway Husbands.
A second alum of the 2016 gay reality-TV show Finding Prince Charming has recently died, per Queerty. Celebrity makeup artist Jasen Kaplan has died at age 46; his clients included Kelly Osbourne, Eva Longoria, Bethenny Frankel, Tinsley Mortimer, Cyndi Lauper and Lynda Carter, among others. (Osbourne and Frankel were among those posting tributes on social media.) Kaplan’s death came just a month after fellow Prince Charming castmate Chad Spodick, who died by suicide. Hosted by Lance Bass, Prince Charming, similar to The Bachelor, featured 13 gay men competing for the heart of a single guy; Kaplan was eliminated in week two.
Nashville-based LGBTQ+ indie-rock artist Abby Nissenbaum released her newest single, “If You Wanted To You Would,” per a press release. Nissenbaum—a lifelong musician, classically trained soprano and musical-theater performer—said, “’If You Wanted To You Would’ is my modern take on a ‘60s torch song. I was inspired by artists like Lesley Gore who could combine vulnerability and heartbreak with quietly radical feminist declarations all delivered in a sweet, melodic pop package.”
Iconic athlete Marta Vieira da Silva—best known simply as Marta—married fellow women’s soccer player Carrie Lawrence on Jan. 2, per Out. They got married in Florida, where Marta has been living since she was transferred to playing for Orlando Pride in 2017. Marta and Lawrence, who both played for Orlando Pride, started dating in 2022; following the silver medal that the Brazil’s women’s soccer team won in the 2024 Olympics, Marta publicly stated that she was engaged to Lawrence. General Hospital’s Adrian Anchondo, who plays Marco Rios, and Days of our Lives Colton Little, who recurs as ISA agent Andrew Donovan, went Instagram official as a couple, per Michael Fairman TV. Sharing photos from their time in San Juan, Puerto Rico—one of which has Little planting a kiss on Anchondo’s forehead as they hang out together on the beach—Anchondo captioned the photo montage, “This Christmas made my heart pop. Thank you, Puerto Rico and Florida.”