The Daily Queer
July 13, 2026

Did Lindsey Graham die with his heels on? Queer mayor killed in Mexico. DAR shows trans awareness. Scarlet Lady’s lonely voyage. Matteo Lane offers advice.

NEWS & CULTURE

Lindsey Graham, Trump ally who opposed LGBTQ+ rights and consistently denied being gay, dies at 71

The Advocate • Christopher Wiggins • July 12, 2026
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the foreign policy hawk who transformed from one of Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican critics into one of his most dependable allies, died Saturday evening after what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness.” He was 71.
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Lindsey Graham cross-dressed & paid me to do “unspeakable things” to him, queer sex worker says

LGBTQ Nation • Daniel Villarreal • July 13, 2026
The senator was barely cold before the receipts started surfacing. Trans author Jesse James Rose wrote in an Instagram post titled “Eulogy for a Horny Hypocrite” that Graham regularly paid her “a fat stack of cash” when she was a “twinky pre-transition college student” to do “unspeakable things to him in a hotel room while he wore red lingerie.”
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Mexico’s first out gay mayor shot & killed while getting ice cream in Guadalajara

LGBTQ Nation • Molly Sprayregen • July 13, 2026
Benjamín Medrano Quezada, who made history as Mexico’s first openly gay mayor when he led Fresnillo, Zacatecas, from 2013 to 2015, was shot to death July 7 while leaving an ice cream shop in Guadalajara. He was 59.
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Turkey, Egypt block LGBTQ+ cruise entry over “moral values”

gCaptain / Bloomberg • Patrick Sykes • July 12, 2026
Turkey and Egypt have both turned away a cruise ship carrying more than 1,900 LGBTQ+ tourists. Egyptian port authorities ordered Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady to turn back as it approached Alexandria on Thursday — a stop tour organizer Atlantis Events had added only after Turkey canceled scheduled calls in Istanbul and Kusadasi.
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Daughters of the American Revolution votes to keep trans members

LGBTQ Nation • Greg Owen • July 12, 2026
At its 135th Continental Congress last week, the Daughters of the American Revolution rejected a proposal to define trans women out of membership, voting 1,481 to 984 against adding “born female” to the group’s bylaws.
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Why Florida’s LGBTQ+ Democrats feel hopeful

Politico Florida Playbook • July 13, 2026
Politico’s Florida Playbook looks at the surprising optimism coursing through the state’s LGBTQ+ Democrats as they gathered in Orlando for the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus’s Summer Conference — three days of speeches, policy panels, and grassroots organizing at a moment when the community’s rights have been under sustained assault in the Sunshine State.
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Sarah McBride foresees a blue wave this November: “I’m determined to enter a Dem majority in 2027”

LGBTQ Nation • Molly Sprayregen • July 12, 2026
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first openly trans member of Congress, is bullish on the midterms. “I’m determined as a member of Congress, but even more so as an American, so that we can pull the emergency brake on this administration,” she told Out.
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The Black queer icon who spied on Nazis, flew a WWII plane, & was also a vaudeville superstar

LGBTQ Nation • Kimberly Kaye • Updated July 13, 2026
As part of its “LGBTQ 250” issue on queer America through the ages, LGBTQ Nation revisits the astonishing life of Josephine Baker — the East St. Louis washerwoman’s daughter who became Europe’s biggest star, the richest Black woman of her generation, and, improbably, a decorated spy for French intelligence.
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‘Roddy McDowall’ — Rediscovering the life of a cinematic gay treasure

Bay Area Reporter • Brian Bromberger • July 12, 2026
Roddy McDowall — child star of “How Green Was My Valley,” Tony and Emmy winner, Cornelius of “Planet of the Apes,” and lifelong best friend to Elizabeth Taylor — finally gets a comprehensive biography in Samuel Garza Bernstein’s “Roddy McDowall: An Actor’s Life.”
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Russia censors rainbow in SpongeBob SquarePants episode amid crackdown on LGBTQ+ “propaganda”

LGBTQ Nation • Molly Sprayregen • July 12, 2026
Russian television viewers noticed that the famous “imagination” scene in SpongeBob SquarePants — the meme-immortalized moment where the sponge paints a rainbow over his head — has been altered in the Russian broadcast to show a plain yellow arc instead.
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12 gay actors who perfectly played iconic straight roles

MSN • July 13, 2026
A listicle with a point worth making: great acting transcends identity. The roundup celebrates openly gay performers who created some of the most memorable straight characters on screen.
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Jim Parsons says he feels ‘robbed’ of his youth after coming out later in life

Attitude • Callum Wells • July 13, 2026
Speaking backstage at Broadway’s “Titanique” — where he plays Rose’s mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater — Jim Parsons told the “All Out with Jon Dean” podcast that he still feels “a little robbed of my youth in that specific aspect of being uncomfortable gay.”

Matteo Lane shares Broadway advice to celebrate his star turn in ‘Chicago’

GayCities • David Hudson • July 10, 2026
Gay comedian Matteo Lane is living the theater-queen dream, playing silver-tongued lawyer Billy Flynn in “Chicago” at the Ambassador Theatre through July 19, opposite Sophie Carmen-Jones and Krysta Rodriguez.
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Real Housewives of Rhode Island star called out for allegedly liking anti-LGBTQ+ posts

Reality Tea • Kim Stempel • July 13, 2026
RHORI breakout star Jo-Ellen Tiberi — considered a lock for a Season 2 return — is facing backlash after Reddit sleuths surfaced her apparent “likes” on anti-LGBTQ+ social media posts.
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