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The Last Match (★★★☆☆), it might not matter who wins or loses the titular duel between American champion Tim Porter (Drew Kopas) and Russian upstart Sergei Sergeyev (Ethan Miller). In Alex Levy’s cleverly staged production at 1st Stage, however, the charmingly boastful Sergei clearly emerges as the more fully realized and engaging of the characters.Brilliantly embodying the young challenger’s drive, hunger, and athleticism, Miller also adeptly delivers Sergei’s trash-talking sense of humor, as the play unwinds its tale of the foes’ hard-fought match on-court, amid side glances to pivotal moments in their off-court lives.Yet, Miller rises above the script’s tendency to lean on Sergei as comic relief, and invests the guy with personality beyond his bad-boy insults, aggressive style of play, and mane of wild curls.

Arizona Republic. “The state is leading by example on this issue, and we will continue working until Arizona is a place where every individual can participate equally in our economy and our workforce without fear of discrimination or exclusion,” Hobbs said in prepared remarks. “This is the only way to move our state forward.”Under Hobbs’s first executive order, state agencies will be prohibited from using funds to promote or facilitate conversion therapy, or efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity based on the belief that LGBTQ identities are pathologies that can be suppressed or even “cured.”Most major medical and mental health organizations have denounced conversion therapy as unscientific and, more importantly, ineffective at achieving its purported goals — namely, the ability to radically and permanently  “change” a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or feelings of sexual attraction, as opposed to simply providing subjects with techniques that help them resist giving into or acknowledging their feelings or desires.

Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep.

The San Diego Police Department is investigating an alleged homophobic attack, claiming that new evidence shows the purported victim, a gay man, assaulted a woman before she set him on fire. Last week Scott Rowin, 39, claimed to have been set on fire during a homophobic attack. Metro Weekly reached out to San Diego Police for additional details after the story first broke, but the department never responded to multiple requests for comments. Rowin told San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV that he was set on fire by two people yelling homophobic slurs.

He Used To Go By The Name Somersault SundayOver the course of more than a decade, Lauv has been actively involved in the music industry, albeit not always under his current stage name. In his early years, he ventured into the world of music by forming a metal band. After that endeavor didn’t work out as he had hoped, Lauv transitioned to a different musical identity and began releasing music under the name Somersault Sunday.

Drive-Away Dolls, has been released a few months after the movie’s initial announcement. The trailer sets the tone for what appears to be a must-see comedy that blends humor, suspense, and perhaps even a murder or two. Directed by the celebrated filmmaker Ethan Coen, Drive-Away Dolls promises to deliver an entertaining and stylized movie experience.Set to a rocking tune, the short clip showcases the film’s fantastic stylized visuals and some thrilling moments, Drive-Away Dolls seems poised to captivate audiences with a perfect balance of humor and nail-biting suspense.

A group of students and the authors of And Tango Makes Three, a story about two male penguins raising a chick, are suing the Lake County school district in Florida over the book’s removal from libraries.Published in 2005, the award-winning And Tango Makes Three is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, a pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo, who helped protect and hatch an egg and raised the penguin chick, Tango, that emerged from it.Authors Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell were inspired to write the book after hearing about how Roy and Silo were “completely devoted to each other,” according to a New York Times article.While the book is geared towards 4- to 8-year-olds and does not contain sexually explicit content, Florida school district authorities banned the book. They removed it from school library shelves, citing Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, also known as the “Don’t Say Law.”Under the law, which is intended to allow parents to have a greater say over the content of their classroom lessons, teachers in public schools are barred from providing classroom “instruction” — which is vaguely defined — on sexual orientation and gender identity.“We removed access to And Tango Makes Three for our kindergarten through third-grade students in alignment with Florida House Bill 1557, which at the time prohibited classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for those grade levels,” Sherri Owens, a spokesperson for Lake County Schools, told the Times in an email.Parnell and Richardson and the parents of five school-age students subsequently sued to challenge the county’s ban on Tango.In the lawsuit, filed in U.S.

A gay couple was attacked by a group of teenagers in Drogheda, Ireland, on June 18, while out walking their dog.The couple was walking near Saint Dominic’s Park, near the outskirts of town, when the teens began throwing stones at the couple while hurling anti-gay slurs at them and even threatening to rape their dog. The teens also punched and kicked the couple during the attack, calling them “f*****s and queers,” breaking at least one of the men’s nose during the attack according to the Irish Mirror.Ivan Miadini, one of the husbands, filmed the incident on his cell phone. “They started throwing punches and rocks, even bigger rocks,” Miadini told Michael Reade, a local radio host.

ESPN and the Associated Press.Among the players refusing to don Pride memorabilia were then-Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov, San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer, and Florida Panther players Eric and Marc Staal, who cited their religious beliefs. Three Russian players — Ilya Lyubushkin of the Buffalo Sabres, Denis Gurianov of the Montreal Canadiens, and Andrei Kuzmenko of the Vancouver Canucks — cited a Russian anti-gay “propaganda” law that prosecutes individuals for having engaged in activities or made statements perceived to “promote” LGBTQ rights or treating homosexuality as a normal occurrence.Additionally, the Chicago Blackhawks team did not wear their Pride-themed warmup sweaters in March because of security concerns over that same Russian law. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers also reversed course on wearing Pride-themed warmup gear.Bettman noted that teams will continue to host specialty nights such as Pride Night, Black History Night, Military Appreciation Night, and Hockey Fights Cancer Nights.

TikTok recently to share the news, writing the following text across one of his videos that featured him listening to music in a car: “When ur dating a girl but ur also a lil bit into men.” Now, it seems clear that Lauv is not straight, but how exactly he identifies isn’t obvious, at least from what was shared in the clip. Lauv continued the conversation in the comments on the video, explaining how he’s come to this realization.

LOVE, will grace the event’s Meadow Stage on Saturday afternoon.Rogers joins a lineup of queer artists and allies that also includes the band Lucius, Brandy Clark, Yola, Celisse, local faves Oh He Dead, and one of Rogers’ early artistic heroes, Rufus Wainwright.“Rufus is someone I found in college,” Rogers recalls. “That kind of blew my whole world up as far as this incredibly prolific singer-songwriter, writing these songs as an openly gay person in the late ’90s, early 2000s. That is so important and so inspiring to me.”Rogers, who learned piano while still a kid in Ozark, Missouri, had taken to writing his own songs as a necessary means of self-expression and preservation.

The randy, rocky comedy No Hard Feelings (★★☆☆☆) hints at a few different meanings in its title, including the obvious sexual pun, which hardly warrants a giggle, and isn’t exactly accurate. The lead pair in this wannabe-bawdy, R-rated romp are plenty horny, actually, if not necessarily for each other.Jennifer Lawrence plays Montauk bartender and Uber driver Maddie Barker, who’s sleeping off a hot night with a hunk listed in the credits as Gorgeous Italian Guy (Christian Galvis) when she wakes to find her car being seized by the county.

rule prohibiting Medicaid from covering the cost of gender-affirming medical treatments that assist a transgender-identifying person in transitioning.The rule, approved last August by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, applies to treatments sought out by both minors and adults, declaring that transition-related treatments do not “meet the definition of medical necessity” to qualify for coverage under Medicaid.The rule was passed as Florida officials have sought to crack down on all forms of LGBTQ visibility, including passing a law blocking transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming treatments.Under the administration of Republican Gov.

similar law passed in Arizona last year that bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors — which is less severe than bans on all types of gender-affirming care that have passed in 18 other states over the past two years.The lawsuit challenging the law, signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb in April, was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four transgender youth and their families, a physician who specializes in gender-affirming care, and a health care clinic offering itself out to individuals suffering from gender dysphoria, a condition where a person’s anatomy does not match the gender by which they identify. “Because Plaintiffs have some likelihood of success on the merits of constitutional claims, a preliminary injunction is in the public interest,” Hanlon wrote in his ruling.

New York Daily News.Given the use of anti-gay slurs, and the seeming randomness of the attack, the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the attack.Police have released a photo of the alleged assailant and are asking for the public’s help identifying him. The suspect is described as a bald man between 25 to 40 years old, and was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, black pants, dark brown boots, and carrying a black book bag.Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish speakers, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).The attack comes at a time when anti-gay sentiment is on the rise in response to increased LGBTQ visibility.Recently, three men were caught on surveillance camera destroying Pride flags mounted on a fence near the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.In May, a homeless man was charged with several hate crimes for allegedly defecating on an LGBTQ Pride flag and wiping his behind with another.

Jepsen has built her brand with disco-leaning electro-pop in the past few years, soundtracking many a gay pregame. “Shy Boy” is, fittingly, more demure and quieter than some of her more bombastic and catchier cuts, but there’s still a time and place for it. In fact, it’s great to hear her try new things in her sound without drifting too far from what fans have come to expect.

Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain multitudes.)There is something of another queer American in these lines. His name is Ari Shapiro.

Jason Mraz scored a handful of successful singles in the early aughts with smashes like “The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)” and “I’m Yours,” which stood out as some of the best acoustic pop of the last several decades. For years, he was known simply as that adorable singer-songwriter who landed the occasional radio hit. While he may have a legion of fans, few realize that he is also a member of the LGBTQ community.Like far too many in the public eye, Mraz’s journey to coming out wasn’t immediately met with applause and welcoming.

On Tuesday, June 20, Estonia’s parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage, making the country the first Baltic state, and the first ex-Soviet state, to legalize same-sex marriage.The vote comes a week after Lauri Hussar, the president of the Riigikogu, Estonia’s unicameral parliament, announced the commitment from the country’s liberal governing coalition to legalize same-sex marriage within a month.The law will take effect on January 1, 2024. It does not need to be ratified by any other governmental body.In a 55-34 vote, the legislature amended the Family Law Act, which encompasses topics such as alimony, custody, and child support, to permit  same-sex couples to wed.

Nutcracker break, or in the summer, when all of the companies shut down and there’s this whole industry’s worth of ballet-trained, high-performing dancers who are just out of work. And everybody has to scatter to the winds to find projects.”Palkens has been dancing with Chamber Dance Project for the past few years.

signed a similar law into effect last month.The ban on transgender athletes builds upon an existing ban for athletes in grades K-12 that requires school-aged children to compete in sports based on their assigned sex at birth.The collegiate bill, dubbed the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” imposes similar restrictions, requiring athletes to compete based on their “biological sex,” defined as the gender listed on the college student’s original birth certificate. It also allows cisgender athletes who believe they’ve been disadvantaged by competing against transgender individuals to sue for damages . Under the bill, which takes effect in September, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which oversees post-secondary education in the state, will draft and adopt rules for athlete eligibility to ensure the law is enforced while also ensuring that state and federal laws regarding the confidentiality of student health and medical information are not violated.Sitting in front of a sign reading “A Win for Women Athletes during a bill-signing ceremony, Abbott hailed the bill’s passage as a victory for female athletes while repeatedly misgendering transgender females as “men,” according to The Hill.“The Save Women’s Sports Act protects young women at Texas colleges and universities by prohibiting men from competing on a team or as an individual against them in college sports,” Abbott said.