Jules Von Hep and Mark Beverlo, who have been trying to become parents since 2020, are now seeking help abroad

• Rise in overseas surrogates ‘increases risk of stateless babies’

• Why Mexico is at the heart of ethical debate over global surrogacy

Jules Von Hep has wanted a baby ever since he can remember. For many people that dream is straightforward to realise – but, as a gay man, he has always known it would take years of saving and searching.

The only way he can have a biological child is to use a surrogate, which costs tens of thousands of pounds, and it often takes years of searching to find the right match. For Von Hep, it has been an “incredibly painful, incredibly expensive” process.

The star of Dear Evan Hansen plays a 1960s Greenwich Village crooner in hit queer musical Midnight at the Never Get. It’s the perfect outlet for his anxiety, he says

In performance, Ben Platt is a mellifluous singer and loose-limbed dancer, with a fizzy back-note of neurotic New York. The stage – most famously, as star of Dear Evan Hansen – is his safe space. In person, in a south London rehearsal room, he is sweet, earnest, nervy. He crosses his legs, knots his arms about him. The chat roams widely, the body language is wound tight.

Platt talks frankly about anxiety, like it’s his constant companion. So, how’s that going? “My relationship with my husband is a huge factor in being able to manage anxiety. There’s still highs and lows, but everything’s more in my sights, because I thankfully have him. And having something creative to focus on is a big help.”

He was a telecoms engineer by day – and documented the Scottish city’s leather scene by night. Now the 79-year-old has opened his erotic archives and received his first ever solo exhibition

What is the story behind John Wood’s photographs? Some might guess that his portraits, which capture male subjects in various states of undress, very often wearing black leather jackets, gloves and boots, were taken in New York in the era of BDSM photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and Studio 54. Or maybe they were created in a very different kind of darkroom – the type of spaces that inspired the homoerotic imagery of the artist Tom of Finland? If you were given a hundred tries, you’d probably never guess that these erotic, intimate, kinky portraits were taken in a converted attic in the West End of Glasgow, unbeknown to the world (and the neighbours) for decades.

The story of Wood himself is equally unusual. At 79, he is showcasing his first ever solo show at Celine gallery in Glasgow. To say it has been a long time coming would be an understatement: Wood has been making photographs since his teens, when he began teaching himself by studying the images in magazines. The portraits in the show span a 20-year period, from ‘Cal’, a small Polaroid of a man standing nude next to a white doorway, taken in 1982, to ‘June 2002’, a gelatin silver print of an unnamed man clad in a leather waistcoat, while a black leather military-style cap and a cigarette obscure most of his face.

Divine Playhouse promoter and founder says venue faces significant operational, legal and financial challenges

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A former church turned arts venue at the centre of a culture war is exploring legal action after receiving a notice from its landlord that forced its organisers to close the space and cancel planned events.

Divine Playhouse is facing possible eviction, with its landlord ordering the venue’s organisers, Heaps Gay Events, to stop “engaging in offensive trade”, days after religious groups protested its opening night.

A theatre pop-up in a former Sydney church has been accused of ‘offensive trade’. But if causing offence can lead to eviction, every artist is vulnerable

• Arts venue faces eviction from former Sydney church after religious groups protest LGBTQ+ events

A priest and two nuns walk into a bar. In Sydney this week, this wasn’t the setup for a bad joke but for a fiery culture war.

The bar in question is within a long-deconsecrated church, and the City of Sydney is considering an application for its redevelopment into luxury apartments. Divine Playhouse, which opened to the public last Wednesday, is a year-long queer-friendly and inclusive arts pop-up, supported by the New South Wales government and the City of Sydney.

Landlord of deconsecrated building sends notice of breach to Divine Playhouse, claiming it ‘insulted and mocked’ beliefs of Christian Australians

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A deconsecrated Sydney church newly transformed into an arts venue hosting LGBTQ+ events has been ordered to stop “engaging in offensive trade” by its landlord after religious groups protested against its opening night.

Divine Playhouse opened last Wednesday with the intention of being a safe and inclusive space for artists to work and connect with audiences, its organiser said.

An Italian on an exchange to the glamorous UK capital gets involved with a sophisticated older woman in a tale of soap opera silliness

A year is about how long this very quaint film feels, although there are moments when the soap opera silliness, the photo-love yearning and the wooden Google-translate line readings are reasonably entertaining.

Olivia (Nina Pons) is a young fashion student from southern Italy who gets the chance of a lifetime to spend a year in our glamorous capital at the “London Academy of Couture” in South Kensington. Saucer-eyed Olivia apparently can’t get over the sight of two men kissing. She is almost-engaged to a wealthy young home town boy called Paolo (Matteo Bassi), though it will soon be revealed that the cut of Paolo’s jib is not all that it might be.

The former world champion swimmer turned BBC commentator on 5am starts with his mum, a Jaws epiphany, and why he struggled to come out

Born in Billericay, Essex, in 1970, Mark Foster is a former competitive swimmer and winner of 51 major international medals, including six world titles, two Commonwealth Games golds and 11 European titles. He represented the UK at five Olympic Games, and broke eight world records. He works as a commentator for the BBC during major sporting events. Foster’s memoir, My Double Life, is out now.

This was taken in a park in Southend, presumably – as the trunks suggest – near a swimming pool. I would have been with both of my big sisters and my mum. I was always stupidly smiley and never took life seriously.

From Hollywood movies to confessional memoirs, three-person relationships are everywhere. But is it really possible to keep everyone satisfied? Happy trios, bruised couples and rejected lovers tell all

Priscilla can pinpoint the moment she realised that her throuple was falling apart. Her fiancee, Kiara, had started kissing their shared girlfriend, Olivia, in a way that went on for just a little too long. One night, after the three of them had gone out for a romantic dinner in Savannah, Georgia, where they live, Olivia and Kiara started kissing in the front seats of the family car and it seemed as if they were never going to stop. About 10 minutes in, Priscilla tried to reach out and touch her fiancee’s shoulder, but her seat belt was buckled. Unbuckling and leaning forward felt intrusive. And, anyway, Kiara and Olivia seemed to have forgotten all about her. Watching the kiss unfold, squashed into the back with all the baby seats and toys, Priscilla thought about how by rights it was her turn to sit up front. She was always in the back seat. She felt a flicker of something competitive. “I worried, am I desired less than her?” she recalls now. “Will I be replaced?”

In the early days, Priscilla felt giddy with the excitement of being in a throuple. She and Kiara had been together for eight years, and adding a third person to their relationship felt like a way of exploring non‑monogamy without losing one another, because every new romantic experience would be shared. Olivia was an old friend, so Priscilla and Kiara’s children were comfortable with her. When the kids were in bed, they would walk to the beach holding hands as a three, to watch the sunset. At night, they would curl up to sleep together, and form a kind of cuddle chain. Priscilla would cuddle Olivia, and Olivia would cuddle Kiara.

As Netflix’s quietly radical coming-of-age drama wraps up with a feature-length film, its stars discuss queer escapism, awkward love scenes and letting go of the characters that made them

In a house near Maidenhead in Berkshire, a group of sweaty teenagers are throwing a party. Vodka bottles line the staircase, snogs are shared on lumpy sofas and gossip is exchanged. The windows are covered with multicoloured fabrics to ward off prying eyes. Suddenly, as the vibes start to flag, the music cuts out and a voice bellows: “You’re having the time of your lives, remember!”

The voice belongs to the director Wash Westmoreland; the very real house – situated next to the noisy A308 – stands on the grounds of Bray Studios in Berkshire. As for the partygoers, well … they’re some of the most famous young faces on the planet.