Warning: This column mentions suicide, self-harm and child sexual abuse.
NATIONAL
A new study concluded that transgender individuals undergoing “top surgery” aren’t being provided adequate counseling about their future risk of breast cancer, U.S. News & World Report noted. Top surgery—also known as gender-affirming mastectomy—might appear to reduce or eliminate breast-cancer risk by removing most or all breast tissue, researchers said. However, they added that 10% to 20% of breast cancers are caused by genetic or hereditary risk factors, and these risks will remain even after the surgery.
Lavender Magazine—which served the Minneapolis metropolitan area’s queer community for 31 years—ceased publication with its June 25 issue, per Press Pass Q. Former Vice President of Sales and Marketing Barry Leavitt told Minnesota Public Radio that staff were informed on June 24 that the publication was shutting down. However, this may not be the end of the Lavender brand.
On the flip side, however, Press Pass Q noted that online publication QBurgh—which covers the LGBTQ+ community in the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area—recently launched a print edition.
Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D) was projected to win the Democratic primary in the state’s 11th Congressional District, succeeding U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (who lost to former public health official Abdul El-Sayed in the U.S. Senate primary), The Hill noted. Moss—the president pro tempore of the Michigan Senate since January 2023—defeated five other Democrats. If he defeats Republican Ethan Baker in November, Moss would become the first openly gay member of Congress from the state.
Former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis is accused of hiding money to avoid paying a gay couple $565,000, MassLive.com noted. Davis owes David Ermold and David Moore after a federal jury ruled in 2023 that she violated their civil rights. Davis was ordered to pay them $50,000 plus legal fees and expenses, but the couple’s attorneys say she still hasn’t paid a dime.
On the Outreach website, Father James Martin contends that decades of experience show gay men can be exceptional priests—modeling Christ’s love and mercy through faithful celibacy just as effectively as their straight peers.
More than 200 reps of the National Kidney Registry and National Liver Registry member centers and non-member transplant centers joined a webinar about how their advanced Streamlined Serology Services will prepare them for the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network emergency policy, per a press release. Said policy will shorten the required serology testing window for HIV and seasonal West Nile Virus to just seven days.
More than four decades after New York shut down adult saunas/bathhouses during the AIDS epidemic, state lawmakers are seeking to repeal that move, The Advocate reported. State Sen. Erik Bottcher and Assemblymember Tony Simone—who are both openly gay—introduced the Public Health Modernization Act, which would overturn state regulations dating to 1985 that effectively banned bathhouses and require the state Department of Health to create a licensing and oversight system for their operation.
California is making an online suicide prevention training program it had piloted for middle through high school students a permanent thing starting next spring, per The Bay Area Reporter. Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) had secured funding for it in the 2018 state budget.
Federal authorities arrested Omar David Panqueva, known as DJ TUNJO, and his husband, Santiago Paez, outside Chicago’s Midway Airport for overstaying their visas, which both expired in 2022, The Chicago Tribune noted. But their attorney, Enrique Espinoza, said the couple have asylum cases, Social Security numbers, work permits and the documents required for their application for asylum. Expired visas are common among immigrants who are awaiting decisions on asylum claims, visa extensions or green card applications, and who are often granted work authorization while their cases are pending.
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission ruled that a Traverse City hair salon owner who told certain LGBTQ+ customers to go to pet groomers cannot turn them away, The Advocate noted. The commission said that Studio 8 Hair Lab violated the state’s civil-rights laws when owner Christine Geiger posted on social media that the business would not serve people who did not identify as a man or a woman.
A federal lawsuit claims that a Virginia school board illegally responded to students’ efforts to create an LGBTQ+ support club by repeatedly changing the rules and making it impossible to form, The Advocate noted. The ACLU of Virginia and Potomac Law Group filed the complaint on behalf of two students and their parents against the King George County School Board, Superintendent Jesse Boyd and King George Middle School Principal Casey Nice, taking a year-long local dispute to the next level.
Carol Lynn Pearson—a poet, playwright and author whose memoir, Goodbye, I Love You, spurred conversations about faith, sexuality and AIDS—has died at age 86, KUTV reported. She first gained widespread recognition with her poetry collection Beginnings, which was self-published by her husband, Gerald Pearson; she and Gerald (who could not deny his same-sex attractions) later divorced. When Gerald was diagnosed with AIDS, Pearson cared for him during the last days of his life.
Conservative Christian advocacy organization One Million Moms (OMM) is up in arms over a campaign (starring RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage) that urges people to educate themselves about long-acting injectable PrEP—a HIV-prevention medication, LGBTQ Nation noted. The ad, produced by ViiV Healthcare, aired on TV Land, which OMM described as no place for “edgy programming.”
Brooklyn resident Bretford Brewer faces murder charges for allegedly fatally stabbing Queens resident Carlos Penzo during an apparent romantic rendezvous that went wrong, per amNY. Sources said that the two men met on social media and intended to hook up for the night at Penzo’s residence in the Hayden building; however, a verbal dispute ended with Brewer allegedly attacking Penzo with a knife, causing his death.The suspect was seen on the roof nude, allegedly attempting to destroy security cameras with a fire extinguisher.
WORLD
Ghana’s parliament plans to reconsider—and possibly add harsher punishments to—the anti-LGBTQ+ bill it passed on May 29, Erasing 76 Crimes noted. The queer-rights group Rightify Ghana reported, “Hardliners, including the speaker of Parliament and some proponents of the bill, believe that amendments adopted before its passage weakened its original objectives.”
In Mexico, Bishop Raúl Vera López, O.P., addressed a national conference of LGBTQ+ Catholics there, telling the participants, “Without you, the Church is not complete,” New Ways Ministry noted, citing Vanguardia.com.
Senegal police arrested eight women suspected of being lesbians, per Erasing 76 Crimes. The arrests came shortly after the arrest of Fatou Binetou Guèye—the daughter of prominent anti-LGBTQ+ advocate Mame Makhtar Guèye—on the same charge.
Russia has designated the NC SOS Crisis Group—which offers support to women and queer people who are victims of domestic violence—an “extremist organization,” per Erasing 76 Crimes, citing OC Media. The group was founded in 2021 by human-rights activists who had previously taken part in evacuating persecuted queer people from Chechnya.
In Bulgaria, authorities are investigating if a fatal attack on a man was motivated by his sexual orientation, according to PinkNews, citing Novinite. Georgi Kuzev, 31, was found seriously wounded in Plovdiv, and later died from those injuries. Prosecutors are determining if the killing was a sexuality-based hate crime and if he was lured to the scene through a dating app.
In the UK, the legendary singer Diana Ross dedicated a “special song for you” at Brighton and Hove Pride as she sang to the crowd on Aug. 2: “Always be you,” according to Brighton and Hove News. She also performed songs such as “Upside Down,” “Baby Love” and “I’m Coming Out,” among others.
Oprah Winfrey’s school for disadvantaged girls in South Africa is closing, EW noted. The residential campus of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls—described on its website as “a forward-thinking, “cutting-edge” all-girls school with a focus on learning—will fold at the end of the 2027 academic year. The campus is being turned over to South Africa’s Gauteng Department of Education, per the original partnership agreement; Winfrey will now provide scholarships to female students throughout South Africa.
Gay British-American Olympian/actor Gus Kenworthy is now engaged to finance executive Andrew Rigby, PinkNews noted. Kenworthy and Rigby met almost a decade ago in Sydney while the athlete was there for a speaking engagement; then, they “properly” met years later at a mutual friend’s birthday party in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2024.
SHOWBIZ
On July 30, GLAAD and CAA partnered to host the Beyond the Spotlight: Women Shaping the Future of Media Mixer, which took place at CAA in Los Angeles, a press release noted. Award-winning journalist and cultural critic Shar Jossell moderated the panel discussion, which explored how authentic storytelling can expand LGBTQ+ visibility, dismantle harmful stereotypes and engineer cultural shifts. Panelists included WNBA legend Angel McCoughtry, Youth Dealer Co. founder/CEO Brandi Andrews, Black Girl Gamers founder/CEO Jay-Ann Lopez and Hello Fallon Ent. founder Fallon Jethroe.
According to Them, conservatives are attacking Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu’s trans teenage sibling.The anti-trans news site Reduxx identified, misgendered and allegedly outed Liu’s 16-year-old sister as trans in an article titled “Olympic Figure Skater’s Brother Quietly Racking Up Wins In Girls’ Sports,” per LGBTQ Nation. Although Liu, a gold medalist, has not directly addressed the report, she has frequently supported LGBTQ+ rights.
The Met announced “John Galliano: Horizons” as the spring 2027 exhibition at the Costume Institute, according to Vogue. Galliano, who is queer, is considered controversial; in 2011, he was found guilty of spewing anti-Semitic insults at a Paris restaurant, and he blamed drug and alcohol addictions for the rants, the BBC noted. The New York Times revealed that Global Editorial Director Anna Wintour, Galliano and Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Met’s Costume Institute, met over the course of the past year with “influential rabbis and Jewish leaders” in New York City before the exhibition was named.
Queer musician Meshell Ndegeocello will drop the new album Synonym—featuring a roster of guest artists—on Oct. 2, per her Instagram account. The lead track—a reworking of Aretha Franklin and George Michael’s “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” that features fellow LGBTQ+ artist Cynthia Erivo—is out now.
Dolly Parton will be honored with the Americana Music Association’s lifetime achievement award during the 2026 Americana Honors & Awards, Billboard noted. Parton will accept the honor via video during the ceremony, which will be held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 16; she will join previous winners such as Buddy Guy, Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson.
Madonna and Kylie Minogue performed together at WorldPride in Amsterdam in a surprise performance, debuting “Love Sensation” (Afterhours Mix) before a packed crowd, a press release noted. Moreover, the track has now been released worldwide via Warner Records.
Perez Hilton was hospitalized after deputies with the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office (MDSCO) were sent to his home after the queer blogger and father of three appeared to self-harm during a TikTok livestream, People reported. After the video ended, clips appearing to show Hilton nude and covered in blood circulated on social media. On Hilton’s website, his relatives later stated, “We have also been able to confirm that Perez is able to communicate, which has given our family hope.”
Producers of the Tony-winning show Hadestown announced that a fresh principal cast will take the stage beginning on Sept. 1 at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre—but, now, there will be a new Hades after Geno Segers was dropped, EW reported. Fans on social media revealed posts from Segers in which he allegedly made anti-trans statements. (Segers later issued a public apology that did not include trans individuals.) Amber Iman, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Norbert Leo Butz are also part of the new cast.
Zeke Thomas recently talked with Queerty about growing up gay with an NBA Hall of Fame father: basketball great Isiah Thomas. In part, Zeke said, “Coming out was extremely easy for me. They were accepting. I had acceptance on both sides of my family, my friends. It was more [about] accepting myself, per se.” Zeke also talked about being a sexual-assault survivor/advocate, spinning records as a DJ and helping to run his family’s Champagne company.
Pop singer/actress Ariana Grande is stepping away from being in the public eye after a year of promoting Wicked: For Good, touring, releasing an album, enduring comments about her weight loss and ending a three-year relationship, USA Today noted. Grande’s current 41-date tour will end with a 10-night residency at London’s O2 Arena; the final date is Sept. 1.
Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings doubled down on his support for trans rights, according to Them. “I saw … that some right-wing outlets were running stories about me, which I’m used to. But this time I’m going to say something about it, because these were framed to imply that I was aligned with their own transphobia,” Jennings posted on Bluesky. “For the record: NOPE. Honestly, I don’t think there’s an issue today I care about on a personal level more deeply than trans rights.”
Charlie Gillespie and queer actor Justice Smith are joining returning stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as leads in the upcoming second season of the series Heated Rivalry, which is confirmed to premiere in spring 2027, according to Deadline. Smith and Gillespie will play Harris Drover and Troy Barrett, respectively—the couple at the center of Role Model, the fifth book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, on which the show is based.
NBC announced that queer actress/host Keke Palmer will take over for Carson Daly on season 31 of The Voice, People noted. This season, the singing competition show is switching things with The Voice: Celebrity, in which a celebrity champ will be crowned.
The upcoming off-Broadway premiere of Midnight—written and directed by queer entertainer Todrick Hall, who will also star—will take place at the Daryl Roth Theatre, Playbill noted. The musical, to be in the U.S. following two runs in London, will begin Sept. 12 ahead of a Sept. 27 opening night, with the limited run to continue through Nov. 1.
Several drag artists who were scheduled to appear at an event celebrating RuPaul’s Drag Race star Kennedy Davenport’s birthday and her 30-year anniversary of doing drag have dropped out following fan backlash due to the planned inclusion of Shangela—a fellow Drag Race queen who has faced numerous sexual-assault allegations, per Them. Morgan McMichaels and Mrs. Kasha Davis are among those no longer attending.
Jason De Puy (aka RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Selina EsTitties) was evicted from the Big Brother house by a unanimous 12-0 vote, EW noted. The outlet asked De Puy why he thought the country hated him; De Puy responded, “I think it’s just my PTSD from Drag Race and the fandom on that end. It could be so toxic, you know, after the fact.”Trans actress and Love & Hip Hop: New York alum Sidney Starr was arrested on allegations of child sex abuse in Hapeville, Georgia, EW reported. Starr, 37, was apprehended on suspicion of aggravated child molestation, sexual battery against a child under 16 and sodomy. Starr, in asking for privacy, said the situation should not reflect on the transgender community, because one person’s alleged actions should not stigmatize a group.
NOTE: If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.