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Reuters, no previous Gay Games had fewer than 8,000 participants.But the week prior to the event, only 2,381 athletes had registered to play in Hong Kong, and only 2,458 participants had registered for Guadalajara.The opening ceremonies of the Gay Games last Thursday drew criticism from local anti-LGBTQ conservative politicians, eight of whom backed a petition circulated by anti-LGBTQ groups demanding the Gay Games’ cancellation due to fears of spreading “Western ideology,” reports CNN.Junius Ho, a firebrand conservative lawmaker, suggested that the Gay Games violate provisions within the country’s new national security law that prohibit foreign powers from interfering in Hong Kong’s governance. This is based on the idea that support for homosexuality is a form of Western imperialism and is too closely connected with pro-freedom movements that have warred with China’s Communist-led government.Another lawmaker, Peter Shiu, accused the event of being overly politicized and a form of “advocacy” that was an attempt to impose Western values on Chinese society.Organizers of the Gay Games rebutted those claims, arguing that the event is a non-political celebration of inclusivity.“All our books have been checked by professional accountants, open and transparent,” Lisa Lam, the co-chair of Gay Games, said at a kickoff event last Thursday.

video shared to Instagram by user @skymilezz on October 26 appears to show an officer in the passenger seat of a marked police car after a voice says “suck my d**k, f****t.”No one else is seen in the video, which is captioned, “What did he just say?!”A post shared by BikeLife (@skymilezz) The video went viral on social media, amassing more than 100,000 likes.It appears to show the police car stopped at a red light at East 106th Street near Lexington Avenue, in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood. The NYPD now says it is conducting an “internal review” of the incident.“The Department does not tolerate discrimination in any form and is committed to respectful work environments for our diverse workforce,” an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement.

letter demanding that the NCAA ban transgender female athletes from competing in women’s sports.The letter’s signatories are Governors Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Mike Parson of Missouri, Greg Gianforte of Montana, Joe Lombardo of Nevada, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.All except Lombardo — who is saddled with a Democratic-led state legislature — represent states that have passed laws banning transgender participation on female-designated sports teams.The governors decry the NCAA’s current policy on transgender athletes, which allows the individual national governing body of each sport to determine criteria for eligibility.Some of those sporting bodies, including track and field and swimming, have barred transgender competitors from female events.Both bodies have also suggested holding a third “open” category in which transgender swimmers could compete at the elite or post-collegiate levels.“The NCAA has the chance to guarantee an environment where female college athletes can thrive without the concern of inequities,” the letter reads. “We trust that you also want to guarantee just such an environment.

Agence France-Presse.The video footage shared on local and social media shows people gathered around a large fire, filming the scene on their phones. Homosexuality and consensual same-sex relations, deemed “against nature” in the Muslim-majority country, are criminalized and carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.While homosexuality is largely not accepted in Senegalese society, the incident offended many because it was viewed as disrespecting the dead.

Fall Preview issue, opportunities abound this season to catch some of the world’s foremost flamenco dancers and musicians in and around D.C., including this month at GALA Hispanic Theatre’s 19th Fuego Flamenco Festival.Among the international artists on the festival bill — in addition to local favorites, the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company — dancer-choreographer Rafael Ramírez, of Málaga, Spain, will make his GALA debut performing the solo work Lo Preciso.Accompanied in the show by singers Rosa Linero and Fabiola Santiago, guitarist Isaac Muñoz, and percussionist Alex Otero, Ramírez sparks a dialogue through movement exploring the quest for perfection — in art, work, or interpersonal relationships.“That is why in the show there are dance numbers that are more geared towards finding that artistic perfection,” Ramírez says over a Zoom call from Madrid. “But there are also numbers focusing on listening to each other, interacting with each other, and trying to find that connection.”Dramatically intense and imposing onstage, Ramírez comes off strikingly sweet and friendly discussing the show and sharing his expert opinion (via translation by GALA’s Dubraska Vale) on flamenco’s remarkable popularity with U.S.

kidnapped Israeli children gruesomely displayed by their captors as props, to read of nearly 500 Gaza children — as of this moment — killed by Israeli bombings, how can anyone look away?I have learned that the worst pain may be helplessness in the face of loved ones’ suffering. For the families of those abducted by Hamas terrorists, or who can’t escape Gaza, I cannot imagine the depths of your pain.Not an expert in Middle East geopolitics, nor a Jew, nor an Arab, nor Muslim, nor Israeli, my own thoughts on the conflict may be irrelevant in the extreme. Still, I’ve got to share them before I can move on to anything else.When I think of Israel, of course, I think of the Holocaust, which I learned about when I was about 5.Aunt Betsy was in from San Diego, visiting us in Springfield, Virginia.

Confederates renders a frank, witty, and delightfully twisted exploration of racial biases, be they unconscious or firmly resolved.The play, directed by Stori Ayers in a riveting new production at Mosaic, derives some suspense from the anticipation that its parallel plotlines might connect. But whether or not the individual stories of embattled college professor Sandra (Nikkole Salter) and enslaved rebel Sara (Deidre Staples) actually meet, their experiences as Black women, though separated by centuries, are still intertwined.Even Nadir Bey’s evocative set design suggests as much, combining Sandra’s office and Sara’s plantation cabin within the same space.

Top Gun set to a musical theater score. After that subsides, you might then wonder if this is too round a peg trying to fit into too square a hole.And yet to see Jeanine Tersori’s Grounded, a co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, is to be dazzled by concept and execution alike.

1989 is a watershed. It gave us some of her most enduringly popular tracks and marked a major stylistic pivot that began with Red, away from the world of country towards a noticeably more adventurous synth-pop sound.

Rustin, the long-awaited biopic directed by George C. Wolfe, and written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black, drives home the point that the arc of U.S.

CNN, Johnson, an attorney by trade, gave legal advice to Exodus International. The pro-conversion therapy organization was the leader in the “ex-gay” movement, which sought to change people’s orientations through a mix of aversion therapy, talk therapy, and religious-based counseling.Exodus eventually shut down in 2013, with its president, Alan Chambers posting a public apology for the “pain and hurt” the organization’s advocacy caused.Chambers would later go on an apology tour, appearing at LGBTQ and Pride events, including Capital Pride, and speaking with LGBTQ news outlets, including Metro Weekly, about what led him to change his stance on conversion therapy, which he had previously hailed as effective, citing his own marriage to a woman.He later came out in favor of bans on conversion therapy for minors.

privileged resolution had cited Santos’s indictment on 23 criminal charges.It also cited the recent guilty plea by Nancy Marks to charges of falsifying campaign finance reports. Marks was the former treasurer for Santos’s congressional campaign.It also cited Santos’s history of fabrications — many to which he has admitted publicly — regarding his professional and personal background, including his heritage, his educational and work history, and his “history of misrepresenting his and his family’s connections to major events, including the Holocaust, Sept.

resolution, introduced by U.S. Rep.

Zig that’s delivering perhaps the best dark pop out there. A Journey from Bullying to HomeschoolingPoppy’s path to stardom was not without its challenges. She faced bullying during her school years due to being perceived as skinny and quiet.

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.Politics ain’t for babies, especially at the highest level, so blowing off steam by cursing like a sailor just seems to be what gets an overtaxed, under-appreciated staffer through a tough day.And this day, as it careens ahead into one disaster after another, will be especially tough for staffers, the First Lady, and POTUS himself, who never actually appears onstage. But he gets the whole shitstorm started by referring to his wife as “cunty” — and not in a good way — during a meeting with foreign dignitaries.Managing potential fallout from the flub falls to the President’s harried Chief of Staff, Harriet (Naomi Jacobson); officious press secretary, Jean (Natalya Lynette Rathnam); and, begrudgingly, the First Lady, Margaret (Felicia Curry).A million other complications, from petty to Presidential, threaten to further derail the day: determined journalist and new mom, Chris (Yesenia Iglesias), hiding out in the West Wing; an unexpected visit from POTUS’ much-younger mistress, Dusty (Sarah-Anne Martinez); and a really unexpected visit from his ne’er-do-well lesbian sister, Bernadette (Kelly McAndrew).Meanwhile, the President’s secretary, Stephanie (Megan Hill), tries to control the increasing flow of traffic in and out of the Oval Office.

The Chameleon least expects it, the roof of their house caves in, and not just figuratively.Though, without question, the sudden ceiling collapse serves as a metaphor for the fragile, imperiled state of several family members and relationships inside the Golden-Kruger household in suburban Long Island.Gathered for a “Jewish Christmas” dinner of takeout Chinese, and celebrating a milestone job offer for prodigal daughter Riz (Dina Thomas), the family had already seen the mood marred by turbulent outside interruptions.But a hole in the roof is also an actual catastrophe for everyone in the house, another WTF, post-dinner disaster in a night filled with them, meant to be played for angst and laughs — the measure of which can be hard to read in director Ellie Heyman’s world-premiere production at Theater J.Despite the awkward live execution of the roof caving in on Andrew R.

Merrily We Roll Along. Sondheim acolytes are well versed in the show’s difficult past that dates back to the original 1981 Broadway production.Hal Prince, a longtime collaborator with Sondheim, mounted the show with a teenage cast who played the characters as both their younger and adult selves. It didn’t work.

Fellow Travelers unfolds volumes of engaging plot and story in its eight hour-long episodes. At the center of it all are Hawk and Tim, two well-matched yet wildly different men, who meet and become lovers in McCarthy-era Washington, D.C.Impeccably played by Matt Bomer and Bridgerton fave Jonathan Bailey, Hawk and Tim live an intense, forbidden love.

force a vote on expelling U.S. Rep.

“I think that the reason there is so much fervor against trans people, and specifically transgender youth right now is because the opposition is deliberately taking advantage of the public’s lack of familiarity with them,” says Rodrigo Heng-Lethinen, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, which is celebrating 20 years with a gala on Oct. 27. “Most Americans do not think they know someone who is transgender.

For musical theater lovers intrigued by the idea of a lively 90-minute pastiche of rock, soul, and ballad paired with an interesting premise involving Shakespeare and social justice, Macbeth in Stride is the show for you. With an onstage band and performance at the heart of the production, this is all about clapping along, a goodly portion of expository — some of it sung — and participation as required.For those with a shorter attention span, fear not: there are whiffs of live-concert crowd-rousing, keening gospel gatherings, and even intimate evenings in a piano bar.The question is, other than being very entertaining, does Macbeth in Stride actually have something to say?Maybe, perhaps, sort of.The concept of writer-performer Whitney White is certainly compelling: it starts with a personable and inclusive invitation to consider with new eyes the way Shakespeare writes his female characters, Lady Macbeth in particular (called Woman here).White begins by asking, who was she really? Her answer arrives through the lens of a Black woman laying claim to their world and their power.This is an intriguing premise, but anyone who knows the play will be stumped by a threshold question: why choose a character who is murderously power-mad to the point of driving herself insane? Despite a fair amount of spoken and sung angst, the answer to the question never quite surfaces, and White’s attempts to fill in the gaps never convinces.More to the point, White’s Lady Macbeth presents as too smart, capable, and 21st-century-centered to see murder as her way to power.When even the three witches query her ruthlessness, it’s time to make the message clear, but it still never quite adds up.

“It is understandable to look at the state of transgender rights today and feel dismayed — I get that,” says Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “But there are really incredible leaders who are fighting back.

murder of a transgender woman earlier this month.A’nee Roberson, 30, of Northwest D.C., was struck and killed by a vehicle around 4:20 a.m. on Saturday, October 14, near the intersection of U and 9th Streets NW — just steps from several prominent D.C.

The New York Times, Johnson, whom the newspaper called “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections,” crafted arguments alleging that certain states’ changes to voting procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic were unconstitutional. Therefore, he argued, the election results from those states should have been invalidated.On Tuesday night, after being nominated, a reporter tried to ask Johnson about his role in pushing to decertify the results of the 2020 election, only to be shouted down by members of the GOP caucus, who told the reporter to “shut up.”Johnson grinned slyly, shaking his head and refusing to answer.Politically, Johnson is a tried-and-true conservative, earning a lifetime rating of 92% from the American Conservative Union and 90% from Heritage Action.He has voted against a host of bipartisan bills, including a measure to establish a January 6 independent commission, and some of the Biden administration’s chief legislative accomplishments, including a national infrastructure funding bill, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act.Earlier this year, Johnson voted in favor of raising the debt limit, but voted against a bill to avoid a government shutdown in early October.He has previously indicated, in a letter to colleagues shared to social media by U.S.

an interview with GQas the league’s first nonbinary and transgender referee.A Los Angeles native who uses the pronoun “they,” Flores worked 35 games last season, and 12 games as a non-staff official during the 2021-2022 season.When Flores first became an NBA official, the league touted an announcement that two new women referees had been added to the mostly male referee corps — something Flores found alienating, knowing that, in private, they had begun to identify as transgender.“One piece I was missing for myself was that no one knew how I identified,” they said. “Being misgendered as she/her always just felt like a little jab in the gut.”But since coming out to some of their colleagues during a preseason meeting last month, Flores now feels more at ease and less constrained, even when it comes to little everyday choices like dressing in a manner that matches their gender identity.“When I started refereeing, you had to look a certain way,” Flores told GQ.

drug-induced robbery scheme that is alleged to have led to the deaths of two gay men in New York City last year has pleaded guilty to robbery, grand larceny, and identity theft charges, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.Eddie Ashley, 30, is alleged to have been part of a scheme that targeted at least 16 nightclub patrons from September 2021 to August 2022, resulting in the overdose-related deaths of 25-year-old social worker Julio Ramirez and 34-year-old John Umberger, a political consultant from Washington, D.C. Both Ramirez and Umberger were seen leaving gay bars with a group of other men, only to be found dead hours later.Part of the scheme involved the suspects drugging their victims with a substance that made them compliant and then using their incapacitated bodies and facial recognition technology to unlock their cell phones and access bank accounts to rob them.Ashley, who faced charges related to four separate incidents, including the drugging scheme, had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.On Monday, he changed his plea to guilty.Terrence Grifferty, Ashley’s attorney, confirmed his client’s guilty plea, telling NBC News that Ashley is expected to be sentenced to nine years in state prison on November 20.He is currently being held at Rikers Island jail, but declined to comment further on the case or answer whether his client had accepted a plea deal.Umberger’s mother, Linda Clary — who has been critical of how the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has handled the case — said she was grateful that Ashley was willing to admit his guilt in the robbery scheme, adding that he should face consequences for his actions.

Overall Rating for this Program: ★★★★☆, CRITIC’S PICKThis year’s “Transitions” program kicks off with a sweet, honest portrayal of young love in Daisy Friedman’s As You Are (★★★☆☆).Millie and Piper, an inter-abled lesbian couple played by Bri Scalesse and Estefanía Giraldo, navigate their expectations around spending the night together for the first time and must reckon with their own sexuality and vulnerability as so many couples do.Although the two have an early moment of tension around Millie’s use of a wheelchair, that tension reveals itself to be about a deeper insecurity on Piper’s part. In this way, Friedman takes a refreshing approach to depicting disability on film, making sure it is present and acknowledged, but taking care to tell a three-dimensional love story around it, too.Honey & Milk (★★★☆☆) drops us into the end of a mature relationship, following the story of a couple who has decided to end their partnership and must dismantle their lives.We are dropped into the final weekend of the relationship between Grayson, who has begun to transition, and Alice, who loves and supports her partner but struggles to grieve the impending loss.While there is little in the way of narrative payoff and the short seems uncertain of exactly what it wants to build towards, the chemistry between the two is believable, it nevertheless stands as a beautifully shot portrait of a love that outlasts a relationship that must end so one half can be free to thrive.The program takes a heartrending turn with Our Males & Females (★★★★☆), a brief, deeply affecting short from Jordan.

temporary restraining order directing the city of Murfreesboro and its officials, including City Manager Craig Tindall, Mayor Shane McFarland, and the Murfreesboro Police Department, not to “enforce or take any action pursuant to the provision to Murfreesboro City Code 21-71 that includes ‘homosexuality’ within the definition of ‘sexual conduct.'”The so-called “decency ordinance,” which was approved in June, prohibits people in public spaces from engaging in “indecent behavior,” displaying “indecent material,” or subjecting minors to behaviors, material, or events that are “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for minors.” Those found in violation are barred from sponsoring any events at a public space for a period of two to five years.Critics of the ordinance have argued that such language is overly vague and subject to wide interpretation based on individual biases or preferences.Some have also noted that the ordinance’s references to appealing to the “prurient interest” appear to be specifically targeting drag shows, with the intent of having such performances deemed as “offensive” based on the aforementioned “prevailing standards” of what constitutes “decency.”A year ago, the city started to take action targeting BoroPride over the presence of drag and open displays of LGBTQ identity.Tindall, the city manager, sent a letter to BoroPride organizers stating that he would deny future permits for the festival and drag show on government property.

We often take advantage of our queer privilege in ways many spend their entire lives hoping for. In Iran, a place not known for its pro-LGBTQ attitudes, queerness is something you hide, and hope never comes out, but that doesn’t erase it.

Orlando (★★★★☆) are having fun onstage, and their good time is infectious. Of course, Sarah Ruhl’s frolicsome, gender-swapping adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography supplies a sound blueprint for the farcical shenanigans this company puts over heartily.The play also captures the romance and scope of the novel, as well as the ripe sexuality in the tale of Orlando (Mary Myers), whose journey toward their true self spans continents and centuries.

KSWB.No injuries to staff, patrons, or first responders were reported. “We were extremely lucky. San Diego Fire was here in a heartbeat,” Moe Girton, the owner and manager of Gossip Grill, said.

one-minute ad, by the right-wing American Principles Project — a “pro-family” political organization that has focused much of its political messaging on opposing LGBTQ rights — alleges that if Beshear wins re-election in November, non-affirming parents will soon lose custody of their children. In the ad, “Dinner Table,” a mother, father, and teenage girl are eating dinner when the teenager says, “Mom, Dad, I’m transgender. I think I might be a boy.”“Honey,” the mother says, “you know we love you no matter what, but, you’re a girl, so why would you say that?”A short-haired woman in a black blazer appears and interrupts her.“Whoa, whoa, whoa.

The Associated Press.Critics also alleged that party leadership attempted to impose fees on at-large diversity caucus members, including LGBTQ members, without notifying them beforehand or informing them that failure to pay would lead to their removal from the party.The Democratic National Committee has since directed the Alabama Democratic Party to pass new bylaws — with certain safeguards to ensure diversity constituencies are given an equal opportunity to elect at-large members of their choice — by February 1, 2024.

Dicks: The Musical (★★★☆☆) is exactly the silly, sex-obsessed, do-anything-for-a-laugh (including having Nathan Lane regurgitate ham into the mouths of puppets), song-happy spoof implied by the title. And that’s why it works.“Bravely written by two homosexuals,” according to the opening credits, the film stars those very same creators, Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson, as identical twins Craig (Sharp) and Trevor (Jackson), separated at birth.

Joe Vogel (D-Montgomery Co.), who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the state’s 6th Congressional District race, shared a photo to the social media platform X, depicting swastikas drawn on the lobby door of his apartment building in Gaithersburg.“Swastikas in my apartment building lobby again,” Vogel wrote. “The surge in antisemitism isn’t some distant phenomenon — it’s happening right here in our own community as well.”Swastikas in my apartment building lobby again.The surge in antisemitism isn’t some distant phenomenon— it’s happening right here in our own community as well.

press release.Two of the plaintiffs — Micha Rich, a staff accountant at the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, and Benjamin Johnson, a media clerk at an elementary school in Bibb County, Georgia — are transgender men who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and were advised to pursue social and medical transition to treat their dysphoria.The third plaintiff, referred to by the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” is an employee of the state’s Division of Family and Children’s Services, whose adult transgender son, “John,” gets his insurance coverage through his mother’s plan.In all three instances, the plaintiffs were denied coverage for gender confirmation surgery. Rich and John Doe were also denied coverage for hormone therapy — even though such treatments are offered to non-transgender patients if recommended by their doctors — because they would assist in a gender transition, violating the state employee insurance plan’s prohibitions on coverage for transition-related treatments.As a result of the denials of coverage, all three trans individuals had to forego surgery for a significant period — in Rich’s case, two full years.Rich and Doe ultimately had to pay out of pocket to cover the cost of their surgical and hormonal treatments, with Rich being forced to declare bankruptcy a few months later due to the financial strains placed on him.Johnson was able to have his surgery covered by switching to a non-discriminatory Marketplace plan, which he had to pay for out of his own pocket.Under the terms of the settlement, the members of the State Health Benefit Plan, including state employees and their dependents, will now be able to obtain coverage for gender-affirming treatments, effective immediately.