I knew we Tucsonans are pretty proud of our fun little city, but there is a whole gay world out there full of amazing people and we should know a little about their lives. With that in mind, I present to you the Gay News section; a few of my favorite news sources talking about Gay News and Events around the world. Check back regularly for constantly updated news and information that truly matters.
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Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order ‘defending women’
The Department of Veterans Affairs has imposed new guidelines on VA hospitals nationwide that remove language that explicitly prohibited doctors from discriminating against patients based on their political beliefs or marital status.
The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.
Continue reading...As many as 70 said to be planning to show solidarity at LGBTQ+ march after Hungary’s PM tried to ban it
Dozens of MEPs are expected to attend the Pride march in Budapest this month, in defiance of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has tried to ban the event.
In a debate in the European parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs from liberal, left and green groups pledged to be in Budapest on 28 June for the parade to show solidarity with gay Hungarians.
Continue reading...Lifeblood heralds ‘world-leading plasma pathway’ amid change to HIV-era restrictions
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Rules banning sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood and plasma will be scrapped in a world-leading change to HIV-era regulations, with Lifeblood’s chief medical officer heralding it “a very exciting day”.
Current rules prevent gay and bisexual men and transgender women who have had sex with men in the past three months from donating blood or plasma.
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Continue reading...Ruling rebukes order from White House that said passports must conform to the sex citizens were assigned at birth
A federal judge in Boston has ruled that transgender and intersex people can obtain passports that align with their gender identity, in a rebuke to an executive order from the Trump administration that said passports must conform to the sex citizens were assigned at birth.
US district judge Julia Kobick issued a preliminary injunction that expanded an earlier order she issued in April that had stopped the US state department from enforcing the policy in the case of six people, after finding the order was probably unconstitutional.
Continue reading...A harrowing new book looks back at a dark period of US history as the Johns committee targeted Black and queer Americans, drawing parallels to what’s happening now
With his second book, Robert W Fieseler casts new light on a dark episode: the years in the 1950s and 60s when the Florida legislative investigation committee, commonly known as the Johns committee, persecuted Black and queer Americans in the name of anti-communist red scare politics.
“The state of Florida has a very poisonous political system,” Fieseler said, promoting a book published as Ron DeSantis sits in the governor’s mansion, whose virulently anti-LGBTQ+ policies had fueled, if briefly, his presidential ambitions.
Continue reading...Judge says cuts represent unlawful ‘racial discrimination’ and orders grants given to those that filed suit be reinstated
A federal judge ruled on Monday that the Trump administration’s termination of more than $1bn in research grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was “void and illegal”.
US district judge William Young added that the cuts, which targeted research with a perceived connection to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, represented unlawful “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community”, Reuters reported. Young, who was appointed to the bench by then president Ronald Reagan, added that he had “never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable”.
Continue reading...As a queer, black woman raised on jazz and soul, discovering the genre of indie folk felt like an antidote to the guilt and self-loathing I was battling through
I am coming out again, this time as a lover of stomp and clap music. This will probably get me in trouble with my mother in a way that coming out as bisexual never did, because she believed that you should always be your authentic self, so long as you have good taste. Stomp clap music has often been the subject of much derision and a bit of a punchline. But despite the ridicule, I’m willing to defend my taste.
The genre, sometimes referred to as stomp and holler or indie folk, peaked in the 2000s, with bands such as the Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men and, of course, Mumford & Sons – think a lot of guitars, banjos, the odd fiddle, literal stomping and clapping, with the occasional rousing “hey!” in the background. It was largely associated with hipsters – the twirly moustached, braces and Henley-shirt-wearing kind – and with band members who all look like Sunday school preachers and youth pastors. I can’t stand the aesthetic, but the music is undeniable.
Continue reading...As a gay woman I’d never really fantasised about my wedding, but I made a sartorial odyssey from Savile Row to Shanghai. Just don’t call it menswear
It’s a month until my wedding, and my suit has arrived in the post, unceremoniously crammed into a plastic postage bag. I wasn’t expecting it to come from China, but China is of course where things come from. Unbagging the crinkled jacket and trousers for my supposed Big Day felt a little deflating.
Although I’m not sure what I did have in mind. I’ve never fantasised about getting married. As a gay woman, this wasn’t even an option for me until 2013. In fact, the closest I ever came to daydreaming about this occasion was when I was around four and I’d inferred from Disney movies that “getting married” was the act of a prince ballroom dancing with a princess. The dancing was neither here nor there, but I knew I wanted to be the prince.
Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva
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Continue reading...Watching mild-mannered schoolgirls overcome serial killers such as Freddy Krueger and emerge as survivors spoke to my younger self in a way no other films could
I have always been morbidly obsessed with the horror film genre. As a small child, I’d gaze up at the posters of Freddy Krueger or Pinhead in our local video rental shop with a curious mix of fear and desire. I wanted to be scared, and I also did not. I was 11 when Channel 4 screened A Nightmare on Elm Street. My poor mum, assuming it couldn’t be that bad if it was on TV, let me record it. I watched through my fingers, drunk on anxiety, the anticipation of the kills almost unbearable. There is, I would argue, something quite queer about this complicated urge. Horror is titillating.
The golden age of the slasher movie was the 1970s and 80s. I’m sure film-makers were inspired by the cultural austerity of the Reagan era, the Moral Majority and the unfolding Aids crisis. But, as a child, I was blissfully unaware of those things or my burgeoning queerness. I just knew I wanted to watch these films.
Continue reading...Drag is a tool of self-expression and of protest in this kaleidoscopic portrait of the city’s vibrant underground art
The queer defiance of Fil Ieropoulos’s kaleidoscopic documentary manifests not only through its subject, but also through its form. Centring on a group of drag performers and gender-nonconforming artists in Athens, this shape-shifting film celebrates a vibrant underground scene that thrives in a homophobic system, rife with state-sanctioned discrimination and violence. Introduced through an episodic structure, figures from the community light up the screen with their artistry and activism as they carve out a safe haven of their own.
In each of the vignettes, we get a glimpse of both the joy and the peril of navigating the city as a queer person. Decked out in extravagant costumes and makeup inspired by Leigh Bowery, Kangela Tromokratisch struts in towering high heels, while her drag performances, with their vaudevillian feel, parody heteronormative ideals of motherhood and marriage. Equally irreverent is Aurora Paola Morado, who weaves her Albanian heritage into her act as she takes aim at xenophobia in Greek society. For them and other artists featured in the film, drag is both a form of self-expression and a tool of protest.
Continue reading...
(Washington, DC) – New laws passed by Ecuador’s National Assembly and signed by President Daniel Noboa include dangerous provisions that threaten the rights of Ecuadorians, Human Rights Watch said today.
On June 7, 2025, the newly appointed National Assembly approved through an expedited process the National Solidarity Law, which grants the president sweeping powers to declare and respond to an “internal armed conflict.” On June 10, the Assembly approved an Intelligence Law that creates a legal framework for intelligence and counterintelligence activities and operations. The legislation opens the door to the unjustifiable use of lethal force, threatens accountability for abuses by security forces, and undermines safeguards on intelligence gathering.
“While Ecuador urgently needs to address insecurity and organized crime, these new laws will do more harm than good,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Security won’t be built on rushed, poorly drafted, and overly broad legislation. It requires careful debate, strong safeguards, and respect for rights.”
In recent years, Ecuador has experienced a sharp rise in violence linked to organized crime, driving homicide rates to record levels in 2023, with more than 47 homicides per 100,000 people, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory for Organized Crime. In 2024, the Observatory reported a roughly 15 percent decrease in homicides. Yet homicides, in most cases committed by criminal groups, have increased again in 2025, according to government data.
The Assembly approved the National Solidarity Law based on a proposal sent by President Noboa in May. The law allows the president to declare an armed conflict, which allows security forces to use lethal force in situations in which international human rights law and Ecuadorian law would otherwise prohibit it. The apparent aim of the law is to give the authorities a freer hand in combating crime by dispensing with crucial human rights protections.
The Constitutional Court in several rulings has not accepted “internal armed conflict” as a justification for President Noboa’s declarations of a state of emergency, because the government’s arguments did not allow the court to verify the existence of the criteria established under international law for the existence of such armed conflict.
States of emergency under Ecuador’s Constitution have limitations on their duration and on the rights that can be suspended, and they are subject to oversight by the Constitutional Court. The new law creates a special legal regime that attempts to circumvent the constitutional framework for states of emergency, including Constitutional Court review.
The “armed conflict” framework established by the National Solidarity Law opens the door to serious human rights violations and will have consequences for Ecuadorians, Human Rights Watch said. The law allows security forces to conduct raids without warrants and to set aside restrictions on the use of lethal force that are essential to rights-respecting law enforcement.
The law defines “organized armed groups” who can be targeted as parties to an armed conflict vaguely to include groups made up of as few as three members who engage in “prolonged violence.” Law enforcement officials have the authority to determine which groups qualify as parties to the conflict.
The law allows the president to pardon members of the security forces who are under investigation for crimes committed during the supposed “armed conflict.” The law also prohibits the use of pretrial detention, house arrest, or electronic monitoring against members of security forces under investigation and establishes that they will continue performing their duties even while they are under investigation.
The Intelligence Law establishes a National Intelligence System composed of military, police, financial, tax, customs, penitentiary, and presidential security agencies, all coordinated by a governing body whose head is appointed by the president.
The Intelligence Law contains risky provisions that seem to depart from the constitution’s protections of the rights to personal data, which require the authorization of the owner or a legal mandate to collect the data; to personal and family privacy; and to the inviolability and secrecy of all types and forms of communication. Under the constitution, this information may not be accessed except in the cases provided for by law, after judicial authorization.
Under the new law, state entities, public and private institutions, companies, and individuals are required without exception to provide information to the National Intelligence System., with no court order required. This includes telephone operators, who will be required to hand over both previous and real-time data on people’s communications and connections without a court order. In addition, the National Intelligence System may intercept communications on vague grounds of “national security” without a court order.
These provisions undermine privacy and interfere with the right to private life and correspondence, Human Rights Watch said. The law could also create a chilling effect for free speech and put at risk professions protected by confidentiality—such as doctors, lawyers, and journalists—by potentially requiring them to disclose sensitive information.
These laws should be reviewed to ensure their alignment with the constitution and international human rights obligations.
“Ecuadorians should not have to choose between security and human rights,” Goebertus said. “Lasting security won’t come from granting unchecked power to security and intelligence agencies, but from strengthening the justice system, dismantling illicit economies, and protecting the rule of law.”
Tony Ray Baker
RE/MAX Professionals
(520) 631-TONY (8669)
Contact Tony Ray: TonyRay@GayTucson.com
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