LGBT News

Guinness World Records has made it official. Toronto’s Michelle DuBarry, 84, is the world’s oldest performing drag queen. The Toronto Star reports: As she twirls around a stage belting out Doris Day lyrics, you’d never think Michelle DuBarry is 84. But along with her birthday this week came the title of World’s Oldest Performing Drag Queen. Russell Alldread — Michelle …

Big news for LGBT teachers in Ireland, where the Catholic Church runs most public schools. From the Irish Journal: The Dail has passed a Bill that will make it illegal for religious-run schools to discriminate against LGBT teachers over their sexuality. The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013 amends the provisions of Section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act. It has …

Arkansas Matters reports: A Florida man applied on Monday afternoon to place a “Gay Pride Festivus Pole” at the state Capitol grounds in Little Rock. Executive Director for the Humanity Fund Chaz Stevens said he sent in an Arkansas Secretary of State Temporary Display application around 1 p.m. on Monday. Stevens said that he erected his first Festivus pole in …

Last night for World AIDS Day, HBO debuted Vice’s Countdown To Zero, which tracks the search for an HIV cure. Today HBO made the unusual move of making the entire show available on YouTube. Watch below.

The Human Rights Campaign yesterday began selling its “Make America Gay Again” hat, which reads “LGBTQ = Equality” on the back. The HRC is just the latest group to troll Donald Trump’s stupid hat, with the Democrats selling one that reads “America Is Already Great.” The HRC’s version sells for $26.

Jimmy Kimmel devoted last night’s show to World AIDS Day, where the delightful clip below made its debut. Ad Age is raving: There’s nothing remotely earnest about this goofy, charming video promoting (SHOPATHON) RED, a month-long fund-raising effort for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, which launches today (World AIDS Day). From the start, when we see Jimmy Kimmel dialing …

Well, this is a welcome surprise coming from someone who campaigned on opposing same-sex marriage. NOLA.com reports: Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards plans to issue an executive order to protect the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community from firing, discrimination and harassment as state employees and government contractors. Edwards’ directive would cover state workers and government contractors in agencies and departments …

For World AIDS Day, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta today reported on PrEP, which is the daily usage of Truvada as an HIV preventive. CNN’s piece characterized PrEP as “controversial” – when in fact it has been endorsed by the CDC and virtually all HIV/AIDS activists and organizations. So you can guess where this “controversy” is REALLY coming from. Watch below.

Last night President Obama issued his annual World AIDS Day proclamation which celebrates continuing advances and vows to pursue a cure for HIV. This afternoon the president follows up that message with a personal video. Watch below.

People reports: At 72, actress Holland Taylor has found the love of her life, saying she is in her first deeply committed relationship ever. “It’s the most wonderful, extraordinary thing that could have ever possibly happened in my life,” the actress said on WNYC’s Death, Sex & Money podcast, where she declined to name the woman she is dating. The …

CBS News reports: Police are looking for a man who nearly killed a transgender woman in a beating in Queens. Around 4 a.m. Sunday, the attacker followed the 35-year-old victim — whose given name was Ricardo Sal but goes by the name Kathy — to the front of Sal’s apartment on 93rd Street in Jackson Heights, police said. As CBS2’s …

A month ago One Million Moms called for a boycott of Mattel because their American Girl magazine featured two gay dads with the foster children they had ended up adopting. Since then donations to the couple’s charity for foster kids have tripled and thousands more children will now receive “Comfort Cases” – which are backpacks full of clothes, toys, and …

CNN reports: A U.S. Marine was found guilty of killing of a transgender woman who was found strangled in a Philippines hotel room in October last year. The court in Olongapo, a city 77 miles (124 km) northwest of Manila, sentenced Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton to up to 12 years in prison, according to CNN Philippines’ Ina Andolong, who …

President Obama tonight issued his annual World AIDS Day proclamation. It reads: More than three decades ago, the first known cases of HIV/AIDS sparked an epidemic in the United States — ushering in a time defined by how little we knew about it and in which those affected by it faced fear and stigmatization. We have made extraordinary progress in the …

Agence France-Presse reports: Three people were killed and five more injured when armed gunmen attacked a gay festival in Mexico’s southern tourist resort of Acapulco, police said on Monday. Attackers stormed the “Reina Gay” festival taking place in Tres Palos on the edge of Acapulco on Sunday, opening fire on the crowd, a local police official told AFP. Three men …

Big news today from amfAR. Via press release: amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, today announced the establishment of the amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research, an innovative collaborative enterprise based at UC San Francisco (UCSF). As the cornerstone of amfAR’s $100 million cure research investment strategy, the aim of the Institute will be to develop the scientific basis of …

Within weeks of his 2012 election to his state’s legislature, former Queensland Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie engineered the downgrading of civil unions to registered partnerships. But in what is being called a “breathtaking reversal,” Bliejie has declared that he now supports same-sex marriage. Q News reports: Mr Bleijie, who is a committed Christian and a marriage celebrant this week told …

Ahram Online reports: A Cairo court ruled on Thursday a six month jail sentence for controversial television presenter Mona Iraqi for defaming and spreading lies about a number of men in the central Cairo bathhouse incident. The sentence follows a defamation case filed by the mens’ defence team. Iraqi was also ordered to pay bail of LE1,000 and a fine …

A World AIDS Day photo project titled When Dogs Heal launches this week in Chicago and New York City. Watch below as the Associated Press explains. The exhibit opens tomorrow at Chicago’s FLATS Studio and on Thursday at NYC’s LGBT Community Center.

Austria’s The Local reports: Five Austrian children of same-sex parents are taking the government to court over Austria’s marriage laws, which don’t allow gay couples to marry. The children and their parents have taken their cases arguing for same-sex marriage to the Administrative Court in Vienna, and hope to change the law so that the children can become ‘legitimate’. Austria …