Almost 50 years before “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Pose,” Sir Lady Java was a pioneering transgender activist fighting against a Los Angeles law that restricted drag performance. Photo: Sir Lady Java
26.10.2023 - 22:57 / metroweekly.com
“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.
And not only that, but they’re motivating and getting other people involved. So I want us to remember the power we do have and draw inspiration and motivation from that.”Heng-Lehtinen acknowledges the deluge of anti-transgender legislation and policies being pushed at the state and federal levels.This year, more than 500 bills targeting or seeking to restrict transgender rights have been introduced in nearly every single state — a situation that prompted the nation’s top LGBTQ civil rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, to declare, for the first time in its history, a “state of emergency” for transgender and nonbinary Americans.“It is astounding to be that under attack,” says Heng-Lehtinen.
“But what our opponents did not count on is that transgender people, and our families, and other people who love us, are turning out to state legislative hearings and packing the rooms, giving testimony and trying to show these state legislators that transgender people are not the boogeyman under the bed.“We are your friends, families, and neighbors, and there are people who back us up and care about us. And if you go after us, we’re going to get mobilized and show up and turn out.
So I do think this wave of anti-trans legislation is waking up a sleeping giant of people who are on the right side of history here. And it’s motivating people to get involved.
Almost 50 years before “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Pose,” Sir Lady Java was a pioneering transgender activist fighting against a Los Angeles law that restricted drag performance. Photo: Sir Lady Java
The Breakfast Club” podcast, the “White Chicks” star spoke openly about his child’s transition and how it has affected him. “I have a daughter that transitioned into a son,” Wayans, 51, said on the podcast. “My daughter Amai is now Kai, and so, I talk about the transition.” “Not his … their transition, but my transition as a parent, going from ignorance and denial to complete unconditional love and acceptance,” the actor continued.The Post reached out to Wayans for additional comment.
The Beatles have topped the charts with their “final” track ‘Now And Then’ – six decades after they secured their first Number One.Released earlier this month, the track was billed as the last song from the Fab Four and stemmed from an old John Lennon demo tape – completed by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with the help of AI.It also came alongside both a short video documenting their time completing the project and a Peter Jackson-directed music video that included previously unearthed footage of the band.Now it has been confirmed that the long-awaited track has gone on to top the charts – 60 years since the band claimed their first Number One track.This feat means that McCartney and co. now boast the longest period between an artist’s first and last Number One single – with their first being ‘From Me to You’ in May 1963 (60 years and six months ago).
Met Gala has been revealed in a new article in Vogue.On Wednesday this week (November 8), Vogue announced that the theme for the annual star-studded gathering would be “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”The Met Gala is the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. According to Vogue, “cutting-edge curation and technology will together reveal precious masterpieces of fashion as they’ve never been seen before at next year’s Costume Institute exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.”The collection will include 250 items from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, some of which have “rarely been seen in public before”.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music The path from TikTok phenom to career artist is a challenging one, and while Victoria Beverly Walker — a.k.a. 22-year-old British singer-songwriter PinkPantheress — has navigated it far better than most, a big test comes with “Heaven Knows,” her first conventional full-length album.
dubia, or questions regarding Catholic Church doctrine, submitted by Brazilian Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro, inquiring about LGBTQ people and their participation in holy sacraments.The church’s Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith said that transgender people may be baptized, under certain conditions, and as long as there is “no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful.”The doctrinal office also said that “transsexuals,” as it refers to transgender people, could serve as godparents at a baptism at the discretion of a local priest, or as witnesses at a Church wedding — noting that there is no prohibition in current canonical legislation — but warned that diocesan priests should exercise “pastoral prudence” in allowing this participation.The answers to the dubia were signed by the department’s head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, and approved by Pope Francis on Oct. 31, according to Reuters.
Oklahoma!But soon after, the school’s principal called Hightower’s father to inform him of a new district policy.“He said we’re instituting a new policy where only males can play males, and only females can play females,” Phillip Hightower told Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate KXAS-TV.The elder Hightower was “devastated” by the decision, noting that Max has never been treated differently because of his gender identity — until now.Aside from being absurd — cross-gender casting has been a reality in the theater world dating back centuries — the school district’s purported policy will likely prove logistically difficult if it tries to avoid cross-gender casting, in part because there’s frequently a dearth of males in high school production casting pools.Illustrating that point, the sudden policy change also reportedly cost several other cast members their roles, according to the New York Post.Max Hightower’s adult sister, Gracie, recounted the events involving her brother, writing that some female students cast as “cowboys” were told they could not participate in the play due to the school district’s decision to intervene in casting.“Many opportunities were ripped away from kids not for bad grades, not for bad behavior, not for attendance, but for something that has absolutely nothing to do with the production whatsoever,” she wrote.A group of parents, including Phillip Hightower, plan to appeal the decision to the school board. “I’m not an activist.
Neil Portnow, the former chairman and chief executive of the Recording Academy, has been sued for sexual assault, The New York Times reports. The accusation was filed by Jane Doe in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, who accuses Portnow of drugging and raping her in June 2018. The Recording Academy is also listed as a defendant.
pop-u-lar!Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth rushed to the defense of Lady Gaga on Wednesday after “Bachelor” alum Carly Waddell called the pop star “so extra” for singing songs from “Wicked” during lunch back in college. “I’m ready to sing FOR GOOD with our girl Gaga,” Chenoweth, 55, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), referring to the show’s penultimate ballad.
Grammys, Neil Portnow, of rape in a new lawsuit.As reported by the New York Times, the suit alleges that Portnow drugged and raped the musician in a New York City hotel room in 2018.While the artist is not named in the suit, they are identified as an instrumentalist from outside the United States who once performed at Carnegie Hall. The musician is said to have contacted the Recording Academy, which runs the Grammys, in 2018 about the alleged crime.Portnow stood down from his position as President of the Recording Academy in 2019, following a backlash to his comments the previous year, when he said female artists needed to “step up” in order to have their success recognised.In a statement also issued to the New York Times, the musician’s lawyer Jeffrey R.
Lady Gaga‘s habit of performing Wicked covers in college did not turn classmate and The Bachelor alum Carly Waddell into a fan. However, Kristin Chenoweth is certainly eating up the revelation!
Former Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow is being sued by a musician who claims he raped her five years ago. A civil complaint filed today In Manhattan says Portnow drugged and sexually assaulted the woman in a New York City hotel room in summer 2018 — an allegation that first came to light more than three years.
Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Neil Portnow, the former chairman and president of the Recording Academy, was sued on Wednesday by a woman who claimed he drugged and raped her in a New York hotel room in 2018, according to the New York Times. The allegation had previously surfaced in 2020 as part of a blockbuster legal claim filed by Portnow’s successor, Deborah Dugan, after she was abruptly placed on leave and ultimately terminated after just eight months on the job; at the time Portnow called the allegations “ludicrous, and untrue.” The new suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accuses Portnow, who stepped down in 2019, of sexual battery, and accuses the academy — the nonprofit group behind the Grammys — of negligence.
found on a Dallas street on the morning of May 18, 2019. She had recently spoken out about being attacked by an angry mob following a minor car accident in front of a local apartment complex.Police said they identified Lyles as the suspect in Booker’s murder while investigating the deaths of a man and a woman killed in two separate shootings in the days around Booker’s death.Lyles has also been charged in those deaths.
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.
1819 News, F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama, and the pastor at First Baptist Church in Phenix City, apparently cultivated an online persona named “Brittini Blaire Summerlin,” who referred to herself as a “Transitioning Transgender Curvy Girl.”As Summerlin, Copeland frequently posted to Reddit and had a private Instagram page, where he encouraged people to follow him.
Screen Producers Australia (SPA) has predicted the uptick in foreign productions shot in Australia will fall next year due to the writers and actors strikes in the U.S.
previously ruled that an Oregon school district was within its rights and did not violate federal law when it allowed a transgender student to use gender-affirming restroom and locker room facilities.The 9th Circuit also previously blocked an Idaho law barring transgender athletes from competing on female-designated sports teams on the grounds that the policy may violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.Three similar laws, from West Virginia, Arizona, and Utah, have also been temporarily blocked from being enforced by court orders.
Can you believe it has been 20 years since Wicked premiered on Broadway?!
The Broadway musical Wicked is celebrating its 20th anniversary TODAY (October 30) and we decided to look back at 20 famous actors who appeared in the show after Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel opened the musical.