NATIONAL
The American Medical Association (AMA) has updated its recommendations for gender-affirming care, endorsing certain limitations on surgery for minors, LGBTQ Nation noted. The AMA is now the second major medical organization (following the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, or ASPS) to walk back its total support for whatever gender-affirming treatments a doctor and a minor’s family determine the minor needs. “In the absence of clear evidence, the AMA agrees with ASPS that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood,” AMA said. The associated surgery, however, is already almost never performed on minors.
On Feb. 7, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) hosted hundreds of LGBTQ+-rights advocates and supporters for its annual Greater New York Dinner, a press release announced. This year’s event honored actress, singer and dancer Jane Krakowski; Daniella Kallmeyer, the New York-based designer and the founder of ready-to-wear brand Kallmeyer; and Juli Grey-Owens, a transgender activist and the founder/executive director of Gender Equality New York Inc. Other guests included actor/singer Tituss Burgess; The Gilded Age actress Louisa Jacobson; the iconic voice of the NYC Subway, Bernie Wagenblast; acclaimed actress Naomi Watts; and comedian and Out 100 Honoree Dana Goldberg. Don Lemon made a surprise appearance and delivered an emotional speech about the attacks on journalistic freedom and the need for solidarity in these perilous times. View video of Lemon’s speech here.
Openly gay U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres had a tense confrontation with out gay Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a House Financial Services Committee hearing, per The Advocate. After the hearing, Torres discussed his frustration with Bessent. Through a spokesperson, Torres said, “All I got were non-answers from Bessent: ‘Not a lawyer’ on Fed firings, excuses for 70,000 lost jobs from his boss’s tariffs. The secretary’s evasion isn’t a policy ploy—it’s a betrayal of working families in the Bronx and across America.”
In New York City, councilmembers Chi Ossé and Justin Sanchez have been elected co-chairs of the City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus, per Gay City News. The leadership change in the LGBTQIA+ Caucus happened after co-chair Erik Bottcher left the City Council to join the New York State Senate. The rest of the caucus includes former co-chairs Crystal Hudson and Tiffany Cabán, along with Lynn Schulman and David Carr.
Officers arrested nine gay-cruise passengers at PortMiami in Florida after narcotics were allegedly discovered in their luggage, The Advocate reported. The arrests happened ahead of the departure of Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, billed as the “world’s biggest gay festival at sea.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were screening bags at Terminal A with trained detection dogs when several suitcases were flagged. In a statement, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Detective Joseph R. Peguero Rivera said that the substances included MDMA/ecstasy, LSD and cocaine. Court records showed that Chicago residents Tamar J. Wilson and Daisuke Nakanoh were among those arrested.
Ft. Lauderdale’s Stonewall National Museum, Archives, & Library will soon unveil The Sahara: NYC’s Lesbian Legacy exhibit, per a press release. Debuting Saturday, Feb. 28, with a free opening reception, the exhibit shines a spotlight on the historical Sahara—a 1976 nightclub opened by four young lesbian trailblazers on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The exhibit is slated to run through April 5. RSVP Monique@stonewall-museum.org to attend the opening event.
North Carolina State University fired the assistant director of its LGBTQ Pride Center after an anti-DEI activist group secretly recorded him seemingly violating system policies, according to Inside Higher Ed, citing The Raleigh News & Observer. This is the fourth UNC system institution in which Accuracy in Media has targeted an employee. (Those employees—at University of North Carolina campuses in Charlotte and Asheville as well as Western Carolina University—no longer work at those schools, either.) The group posted videos of them allegedly subverting the system’s mandate to maintain “institutional neutrality” on issues related to social policies or political controversies.
WORLD
The Kenyan Court of Appeals recently overturned a ban on the film Rafiki, which the Kenya Film Classification Board, in 2018, had claimed promoted illegal same-sex intimacy, Erasing 76 Crimes noted. Directed by Wanuri Kahiu, Rafiki chronicles the evolution of two teenage girls’ friendship into a romantic relationship. After an eight-year legal campaign by the film producers, the Kenyan Court of Appeals ruled that the 2018 ban was not reasonable. The ruling means they and director Wanuri Kahiu can submit the film for classification under Kenya’s Films and Stage Plays Act as part of the process to allow public screenings.
Algerian boxer and Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif told CNN that she would undergo genetic sex testing to compete in the Olympics if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) required it, LGBTQ Nation noted. Khelif was thrust into a media firestorm following her gold-medal win at the 2024 Paris Olympic games, with people like Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling falsely labeling her as transgender. Khelif told CNN and French sports outlet L’Equipe that she has been reducing her naturally high levels of testosterone under medical supervision since before the 2024 Paris games qualifying tournament.
Ugandan human-rights activist Sarah Bireete, the executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), was released on bail after spending a month in detention over alleged violations of the Data Protection and Privacy Act of 2019, per Erasing 76 Crimes. Last Dec. 30, security operatives raided Bireete’s home and took her to an unknown destination; on Jan. 2, she appeared in a court in Kampala and she was charged with unlawfully obtaining or disclosing personal data. She was sent on remand at Luzira Prison after her initial bail application was rejected. On Jan. 28, the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court granted cash bail of 1 million shillings (approximately $280 USD) after two failed attempts by her lawyers to secure it earlier.
On the same day LGBTQ+ figure skater Amber Glenn won Olympic gold for the U.S. as part of the team event in Italy, she had to deal with controversy, the AP noted. Canadian artist Seb McKinnon (aka CLANN) took to social media late Sunday to object to the use of his song “The Return,” which Glenn had used in her free skate—and has been using for the past two years without issue. In addition, Glenn said she received threats on social media after saying during a pre-Olympics press conference that the LGBTQ+ community is going through a “hard time” amid the political climate under President Donald Trump.
In the UK, right-wing activist Tommy Robinson followed a trans teacher home after parents complained about them allegedly requesting to use the gender-neutral title Mx., PinkNews noted. Robinson (real name: Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) produced a 12-minute video showing him outside the academy ahead of the start of the school day before going to the teacher’s home address to question them. In the video, Robinson—an anti-immigration activist and self-styled journalist who was jailed for 18 months in October 2024 for contempt of court—started by claiming the UK education system is “indoctrinating” children with “LGBTQ+ values” and labelled it an “ideology.”
Josie Scott—the guitarist/vocalist in Australian alternative metal band the Mark of Cain—has come out as a trans woman, The Guardian noted. Scott wrote a statement to fans on the band’s social media, saying that her family know her as Josie or Jo and “given where I identify on the gender spectrum, I fit within the paradigm of being a trans woman.” Scott and her brother Kim have been in the Mark of Cain since the band formed in Adelaide in 1984.
And Marina Summers—who was runner-up on the first season of Drag Race Philippines and went on to become a finalist on the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World—has come out as a trans woman, Out noted. On Instagram, she stated, “Since I was a child, I’ve always felt feminine—even deep into the parts that I didn’t always know how to name. … Last year, I finally gave myself permission to stop pausing. And start my transition. After years of questioning and pushing back, I finally made the beautiful decision to begin social transitioning early 2025. … Thank you for the love you’ve shown me so far. Thank you in advance for the kindness and respect you continue to offer.”
SHOWBIZ
Queer two-time medal-winning Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez will make her Broadway debut in the musical & Juliet next month at the Sondheim Theatre, Playbill noted. Hernandez—part of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team nicknamed the “Final Five” at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics—will debut March 17, staying through June 14. The Dancing With the Stars winner will be part of the musical’s ensemble, in the featured dance role of Charmion.
Global music superstar and LGBTQ+ ally Bad Bunny performed at halftime, featuring out artists Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga as well as cameos from out star Young Miko as well as allies like actor/director Pedro Pascal, with same-sex couples dancing, per a GLAAD press release. The performance followed a pregame celebration of LGBTQ+ talent including Brandi Carlile singing “America the Beautiful” and Green Day’s performance featuring lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, who is bisexual. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said, “Bad Bunny and the brilliant musicians who joined him, including out artists Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga, represent the best of our country and the values that make it great: love, family, and above all, freedom.”
On a related note, the NFL’s fifth annual A Night of Pride with GLAAD, presented by Smirnoff, took place Feb. 6 at the NFL Culture Club at the San Francisco venue The Pearl. The NFL Network’s Kimmi Chex hosted the event, which featured guests such as former NFL player Carl Nassib, legendary athletic trainer Lindsy McLean, fashion designer Bishme Cromartie and GLAAD President/CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, among others.
Ahead of appearing at the Super Bowl with Bad Bunny, pop icon Ricky Martin published an open letter in the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día titled “When One of Ours Succeeds, We All Succeed,” in which he praised his colleague and fellow countryman on his achievement at the Grammys, Billboard noted. On Feb. 1, Bad Bunny (birth name: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) took home three awards, including album of the year for Debí Tirar Más Fotos in a historic moment. “Benito, brother, seeing you win three Grammy Awards, one of them for album of the year with a production entirely in Spanish, touched me deeply. Not only as an artist, but as a Puerto Rican who has walked stages around the world carrying his language, his accent, and his story,” Martin wrote in Spanish in his letter.
Aud Mason-Hyde—the trans actor who co-stars with Olivia Colman and John Lithgow in the film Jimpa—spoke about Lithgow acting in the upcoming Harry Potter series, Out noted. Mason-Hyde (the child of Jimpa director Sophia Hyde) said, “I don’t think it’s worth speaking to John’s reasoning by any means, but I do also think that it’s a strange decision, for sure. And also I found it disconcerting, maybe, is the right word.” Hyde added, “As soon as I heard about Harry Potter, for sure, I contacted John and expressed my feelings about it. Not that J.K. Rowling has opinions, which is one thing, but that she has a very vocal platform and she’s funding a very, very harmful legal battle against trans people and that funding is doing a great deal of harm.”
Anthony Rapp (Rent) will star in the off-Broadway production Touch, Variety noted. It’s a new solo play about a middle-aged gay man, failed writer and burned-out fifth-grade teacher whose life is turned upside-down after an unexpected encounter with a former student. Touch will run March 12-30 at the East Village Basement (321 E. 9th St.).
The HBO Original two-part documentary Murder in Glitterball City, directed by award-winning filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) will debut Feb. 19, per a press release. The film travels back to the night of June 17, 2010, when the body of James Carroll,—a hairdresser and drag performer—is discovered in Louisville, Kentucky. The official description reads that the documentary examines “the toxic relationship of two ex-lovers, a vulnerable victim and the unreliable accounts of flawed individuals on trial for their lives.”
NBC has pulled the last six episodes of the show Brilliant Minds—starring out actor Zachary Quinto—from its schedule, per Variety. Instead, NBC announced that The Voice: Battle of Champions will air Mondays at 9-11 p.m. ET/PT beginning with the season premiere on Feb. 23. It has been speculated that the final episodes of Minds will air at some point later in the season or over the summer.