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Constellation’s intriguing Incognito, Gerrad Alex Taylor deftly inhabits just one memorable character in Christian St. Croix’s moving Monsters of the American Cinema (★★★★☆), a Prologue Theatre production at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.By the look and sound of this evocative, regional premiere, staged by Prologue artistic director Jason Tamborini, the playwright put that character firmly on the page.

Talk to Me (★★★☆☆) — not unlike co-directors Danny and Michael Philippou, twins from Adelaide, Australia, whose YouTube channel, RackaRacka, has cracked over a billion views with its brand of special effects-assisted comedy videos.Working from a script co-written by Danny Philippou and RackaRacka collaborator Bill Hinzman, the filmmakers invest their feature debut with ample compassion for the movie’s circle of camera-clutching Australian high schoolers, who barely distinguish between danger and content.Led by troubled Mia (played with intensity by Sophie Wilde, also making her feature debut), these friends charge full-speed into the maws of death, but none are treated by the film as expendable, nor as merely grist for grisly humor.In fact, Talk to Me doesn’t rack up a high-volume body count as it weaves grave drama into its taut supernatural tale following Mia, her bestie Jade (Alexandra Jensen), and their friends down a dark rabbit hole of convening with the dead.Mia, grief-stricken over the death of her mother, and probably now a bit too attached to Jade’s family, and definitely feeling some kind of way about Jade dating her ex, Daniel (Otis Dhanji), is already teetering on the edge. So when the group, including Jade’s younger teen brother Riley (Joe Bird), gets introduced to a party game that involves contacting the dead — by grasping a cursed, embalmed hand, and inviting the spirits to “Talk to me” — Mia plunges in eagerly, desperately hoping to make contact.Of course, Mia and friends make contact in ways they hadn’t imagined, summoning spirits who enter gladly but then won’t leave.

The law, SB 49, which is scheduled to take effect on August 28, prohibits health care providers in Missouri from prescribing puberty blockers, hormones, or gender confirmation surgery — the latter of which rarely is prescribed for those under 18 — to minors suffering from gender dysphoria.The law contains an exception for those who have already begun gender-affirming care that will allow them to continue receiving it if their doctors believe that stopping treatment would do more harm.The law also prohibits Medicaid from covering the cost of any transition-related treatments or procedures, regardless of the age of the patient — meaning low-income transgender adults are effectively barred from accessing gender-affirming care, and prohibits incarcerated individuals from obtaining gender confirmation surgery.The lawsuit argues that the ban is unconstitutional, violating the rights of transgender youth by discriminating against them on the basis of both sex and gender identity, and violating parents’ fundamental right to make decisions they believe to be in the best interest of their children.The lawsuit also claims that, unless the court issues an injunction to block Missouri from enforcing the law, all the plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed. By banning the transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care, the state is likely to exacerbate the youths’ feelings of anxiety and gender dysphoria, as well as lead to potential mental health issues.

Detroit News. “Let’s continue working together to ensure anyone can ‘make it’ in Michigan, expand fundamental freedoms and fight back against any and all forms of discrimination.”The types of techniques used in conversion therapy can run the gamut from more severe forms, such as electroshock therapy, induced vomiting or the infliction of physical discomfort as a form of “aversion therapy” to less severe forms such as talk-based therapy, in which a therapist may encourage patients or clients to conform to Biblical standards of morality or a specific set of religious beliefs.While proponents and opponents of conversion therapy agree that sexuality can be fluid over time and that gender-nonconformity alone is not indicative of either sexual orientation or gender identity, critics of conversion therapy claim that therapists engaging in such practices falsely hold them out as a “cure-all” that will completely eradicate a person’s naturally-occurring same-sex attraction, despite overwhelming medical evidence that such techniques are largely ineffective in achieving such goals.Under the ban, physicians, psychologists, licensed nurses, counselors, social workers, and therapists are prohibited from subjecting minors to conversion therapy in their professional capacity or in exchange for compensation.

“I’m a gay man.”It’s a rare announcement for a man in conservative Japan.And it’s even rarer for a big performer whose livelihood depends on fans and sponsors — and who’s famous for lyrics like “Pretty girl, I still adore you.”On Wednesday night, 2,000 fans gathered in Central Tokyo to hear J-pop idol Shinjiro Atae, who has been on hiatus for nearly two years, discuss “the challenge of my life.”“I respect you and believe you deserve to hear this directly from me,” he said, reading from a prepared letter as he stood onstage in a dark auditorium. “For years, I struggled to accept a part of myself.”“But now, after all I have been through, I finally have the courage to open up to you about something.

Two San Diego residents checked out nearly every single book in their library’s Pride Month display, claiming that such materials shouldn’t be available to children.Across the nation, conservative groups have pushed to ban books that discuss LGBTQ issues from libraries and schools, often arguing that they are pornographic or obscene merely because they depict LGBTQ identity.This attempt to stoke culture-war flames in San Diego backfired, according to The New York Times, ending with an outpouring of community support for the library in the form of increased monetary and book donations. As soon as The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest, new copies of the checked-out books began to arrive at the library.

High Low, Sivan took the opportunity to clear up a misconception about one of his most memorable hits, “Bloom.” “I wrote this one song called ‘Bloom,’ right? And it’s about bottoming. And the lyric is ‘I bloom just for you.’ And people took that and ran,” he started.

A nontheist advocacy organization is demanding that the Bible be banned from schools in a Florida school district, using the same justification that has been used to censor other literary works.Christopher Line, a staff attorney for church and state separation watchdog Freedom From Religion Foundation, formally requested the Bible be removed from library shelves in Leon County schools after the district pulled several other titles for mentioning sexual assault. The books that were banned include Dead End by Jason Myer, Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk, Lucky by Alice Sebold, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, and Push by Sapphire.

The recent antics of The 1975 frontman Matt Healy at a festival in Kuala Lumpur — where he kissed a male bandmate on stage and slammed Malaysia’s homophobic laws — has angered conservatives and, with just weeks before state elections, left some LGBTQ Malaysians concerned about a governmet backlash against them.Headlining the Good Vibes Festival, the British pop-rock singer delivered a profanity-laden speech, with a wine bottle (or what at least appeared to be one) in hand.“Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m fucking furious,” he said. “And that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government — because you’re young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool.”While the speech was met with some cheers, some LGBTQ community members say it may worsen the oppression they face and undo the progress they’ve made.“He gets to fly out of the country and not face the consequences,” drag performer Carmen Rose told the Guardian, “while our people have to face the brunt of what just happened.”“Any foreign artist who comes here and who wants to advocate for us, they need to understand how to go about it,” she added.

RuPaul’s Drag Race. The talented superstar recently took to her Instagram to share the exciting news that she has tied the knot with her now-husband, Doug.The Instagram post featured several heartwarming images, starting with a photo of Oddly and her betrothed sharing a tender kiss.

“The story of the LGBT movement in Hungary, and the story of the fight for human rights in Hungary, is a story that is being written by Hungarians,” says David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary and one of six out gay men currently serving as a U.S.

In a move that harkens back to the 1950s while simultaneously echoing the ongoing censorship of depictions of LGBTQ identity nationwide, the Motion Picture Association has given the upcoming queer film Passages an NC-17 rating.“We hunger for movies that are in any proximity to our own experience,” director Ira Sachs told Los Angeles Times, “and to find a movie like this, which is then shut out, is, to me, depressing and reactionary.”To be sure, the Sundance drama is quite sensual — it centers on a Parisian love triangle between a movie director (Franz Rogowski), his artist husband (Ben Whishaw), and a teacher (Adèle Exarchopoulos).And yes, it has its fair share of sex and nudity — including a two-minute scene of the two husbands shot in a single take. But none of the scenes are particularly indelicate or over-the-top, the film’s distributor MUBI said in a statement.For Sachs, the rating is “a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist.”“MUBI has officially rejected this NC-17 rating,” the film’s distributor said, per Variety.

She-Ra reboot — can draw his bustling life into a frame, one panel at a time.Filling the pages of candid, witty webcomic I’m Fine I’m Fine Just Understand with expressive line-drawn vignettes, or, say, early sketches for his award-winning science fantasy graphic novel Nimona, Stevenson, who is trans and married to fellow author/creative Molly Knox Ostertag, chronicles his own adventures in simply getting through the day.It’s a safe space, he writes, “to post little comics and updates about transition, mental health, career, and life in general.”“I just feel like comics is something that I kind of can’t not do,” Stevenson tells Metro Weekly, zooming in — before the current WGA and SAG strikes — to chat about Netflix’s new animated feature adaptation of Nimona, starring Riz Ahmed as interstellar knight Ballister Boldheart and Chloë Grace Moretz as the beloved, shape-shifting title character.Traveling the globe on behalf of the film, directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, Stevenson has recently devoted several amusing pages of I’m Fine I’m Fine to recounting his “adventures from the Nimona press tour.” The webcomic travelogue marks a full-circle moment for the artist and the character who helped lead him out of a self-described time of darkness.“I think the character specifically was at that particular time in my life,” Stevenson recalls. “I was 19 and in a very transitional period, as I think most young adults are at that age.

What We Do In The Shadows (★★★★☆), FX’s vampire mockumentary based on the 2014 film of the same name from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Over five seasons, Shadows has evolved into itself while embracing the weirdness that made it worth watching in the first place.

Here Lies Love (★★★★★) works so well. Patrons expecting the ambiance of a standard theater will be shocked to see the major transformation that has occurred at the Broadway Theater, which for 10 years was home to both the original production and revival of Miss Saigon.Gone are the plush crimson-red orchestra seats.

Remember What It Feels Like (★★★★☆) is mostly upbeat pop, with the occasional heartfelt ballad thrown in for good measure. It’s a fundamentally lighthearted album, frontloaded with largely acoustically-driven tracks, some of which are playful and others lightly plaintive.

Triple Threat (★★★★★). For James T. Lane, it’s a double entendre and the title of his phenomenal, autobiographical, Off-Broadway solo play.

Outsports.That designation makes Maxen the first out gay male coach — of any level — in men’s U.S. professional sports.While some former NFL players have come out, LGBTQ visibility is still exceedingly rare in the league.

Dutch News, a website that reports on news from the Netherlands in English for an international audience.The graffiti painted at the monument site and on the benches included drawings and anti-gay slogans, including “fuck gays,’ “fuck Pride,” and “weg met pride,” or “down with Pride.”The IHDH noted that the monument’s rainbow faces have been defaced multiple times before, ever since it was unveiled in 1993.“For example, the bench at Huijgenspark has been destroyed several times. The rainbow flag was also regularly pulled out of the ground last year, resulting in the arrests of two teenage boys.The IHDH said the monument will be repaired as soon as possible.Mariëlle Vavier, the alderman in The Hague who handles anti-discrimination issues, called the graffiti “unacceptable.”“It is a serious form of vandalism that stems from homophobia,” she said, according to the NL Times. “The Homomonument is a symbol of acceptance and freedom.

An anti-Ted Cruz political action committee has released an ad trolling the Texas Republican senator for obsessing over what he claims are hidden messages in the Barbie movie rather than more pressing political issues.The “Lose Cruz” PAC’s ad mocks the senator’s obsession with culture-war issues — both real and imagined — by unveiling a collection of “Cruz-inspired Barbie dolls” mocking Cruz’s past actions, statements, or political positions.The three Cruz-inspired dolls featured in the video show an “Insurrection Barbie”, with included a “Stop the Steal” button and podium to speak from as you attempt to “destroy democracy,” a “MAGA Podcaster Barbie” to help “promote the MAGA agenda” — a nod to Cruz’s own political podcast — and a “Cancun Barbie,” referring to the time when Cruz left Texas to vacation in Cancun while millions of Texans were left without power and water following a historic winter storm.Cruz recently branded the Barbie movie as Chinese propaganda for a scene in the movie depicting a cartoonish map of the world, displaying a dashed line through the water surrounding the map’s crudely-drawn Asian continent. Some have argued that the line is meant to represent the so-called “nine-dash line,” which Chinese propagandists have drawn on maps in order to lay claim to disputed territory in the South China Sea that other nations say does not belong to China. The controversy over the imaginary map led Vietnam, which has an ongoing conflict with China over where their maritime borders begin and end, to ban the film.

WVLA.“In eight years as a Democratic governor with a Republican legislature, I have issued 319 vetoes. More than 99% of those vetoes have been sustained.