Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. La Bola Negra directors at the Cannes Film Festival. (Instagram)
Queer Vulturing
October 28, 2026
Los Javis express their big-screen ambitions, Black queer friendship, a $600 prescription shock and the pope’s tailor with a nose for trouble. Plus gymnasts, gay getaways and a drag queen who knows what to do with a brick.
Los Javis go big
The Guardian • Ryan Gilbey • October 28
The Guardian profiles the makers of La Bola Negra as awards buzz builds. Finally, a little ambition. Queer cinema deserves its own popcorn budget.
Lorca gets the last word
NPR Fresh Air • October 27
Four surviving pages are a slender foundation for an epic. They are also a rather pointed answer to anyone who thinks murdering a writer finishes the conversation. In the Fresh Air interview, Spanish filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi discuss building La Bola Negra from Federico García Lorca’s unfinished work, linking gay love and persecution across generations. The surviving broadcast excerpts describe a young man blackballed in 1932 and a soldier falling for an enemy prisoner in 1937.
Read the Guardian profile for the showmanship; listen here for the history underneath it. There is something satisfying about a fragment becoming a film large enough to demand attention. Fascism has never been particularly good at taking a hint.
Follow this link for Broadcast excerpts
Black queer friends get to be a glorious mess
Gaye Magazine • Anders Hare • October 27
Dewayne Perkins has made room for Black queer friendship without appointing the characters ambassadors to the heterosexual public. His independently produced YouTube series I Swear We’re Friends mixes sketch and sitcom, with an ensemble including Devere Rogers, Brian Jordan Jr., Philemon Chambers and Cameron J. Ross. There are egos, complications and friends who need their friends to forgive them. In other words, material for a comedy.
The most revealing detail in Gaye’s cast interview is the answer to demands for longer episodes: Perkins paid for the project himself, and everyone working on it gets paid. Those six-to-ten-minute running times reflect a budget. Viewers want a bigger helping; someone with money should take the hint. Streaming executives have certainly spent more on less.
Wikipedia has a queer defense squad
The Advocate • Jack Walker • October 27
Queer history does not maintain itself. Someone has to write the entry, locate the photograph and fix the hostile edit. More than 150 people from at least 30 countries gathered in Montreal for Queering Wiki 2026, according to organizers quoted by The Advocate. Their work ranges from articles and images to software and the information that makes material findable.
Jack Walker’s report makes a useful case for giving the volunteers behind the tabs some attention. Ajay Das writes LGBTQ+ material in Assamese; Ege Atacan Doğan works on metadata. These are specific jobs with specific consequences for who gets to find a record of themselves. The glamour quotient may be low. The stakes are considerably higher than the average verified account’s latest tantrum.
A prescription bill with a political price tag
Philadelphia Gay News • Mark Segal • October 27 • Opinion
Mark Segal says a family member’s longtime prescription has gone from no copay to $600 a month. That is $7,200 a year before anyone has paid the rent, bought groceries or indulged in the outrageous luxury of another medical problem. His PGN column puts a household number on its political argument.
The accusation against Republicans is Segal’s, and this is an opinion piece. The accessible excerpt establishes the reported price shock; it does not establish which coverage change or policy produced it. Still, the opening is a bracing reminder that the phrase “out-of-pocket costs” describes somebody’s actual pocket. It is rather less theoretical when that pocket is empty.
On the Road takes desire out of the fast lane
Gay City News • David Pablo interview
A married trucker, a younger man in trouble and a journey that becomes considerably more complicated than a lift: David Pablo’s On the Road has the makings of a romance with hazards beyond bad reception. Gay City News interviews the filmmaker about the drama’s inspiration. Separate Frameline coverage at AwardsWatch describes Veneno, played by Victor Prieto Simental, and Muñeco, played by Osvaldo Sánchez, developing a connection amid crime and danger.
AwardsWatch’s assessment is admiring but qualified: the reviewer praises Pablo’s visual assurance while questioning how consistently the striking images work together. That is a more interesting invitation than another automatic masterpiece alert. Desire, secrecy and the policing of masculinity are plenty to put in a cab; whether the film carries the load is the critical question.
Additional coverage at AwardsWatch
Ben Letvin is headed for Bear territory
Outsports • Jim Buzinski • October 27
Out gymnast Ben Letvin plans to take his final year of collegiate eligibility to Cal in fall 2027, after finishing his senior season at Minnesota. Outsports reports that he has committed to the Bears and applied to graduate engineering programs. Minnesota competes in GymACT; Cal offers the next chapter in NCAA Division I.
Letvin arrives with two individual titles from the 2025–26 GymACT championships and Minnesota’s Most Valuable Gymnast honor. Just as appealing is his account of seeing openly queer teammate Jude Norris and recognizing a way to be himself. Cal has its own out-gymnast history, including national champion Graham Ackerman. There is room here for ambition, artistry and a welcome from gay Stanford gymnast Cooper Kim. A little Bay Area rivalry should keep things limber.
Palm Springs Pride comes with a very short walk home
Out • Ricky Cornish • October 27 • Hosted travel feature
Palm Springs is preparing for its 40th-anniversary Pride, November 6–8, and Out’s Ricky Cornish makes the case for Hotel ZOSO as a convenient base near the Arenas Road bar district. Pool, drag bingo, bars within walking distance: the itinerary is not going to require an advanced degree. Sunday’s parade runs along nearby Palm Canyon Drive.
The useful detail is the location. The necessary disclosure is that the hotel hosted Cornish’s birthday stay, which he acknowledges in the piece. Read the enthusiasm with that hospitality in mind. A weekend in which the journey from revelry to bed can be accomplished on foot has an obvious appeal; the article supplies a lodging lead rather than an independent comparison of the city’s hotels.
Fall travel has entered its gay weekend era
GayCities • Carson Mlnarik • October 27
Pride season is not the only excuse to leave town. GayCities looks at a Babeland ranking of U.S. cities for a fall gay getaway, using LGBTQ+ inclusivity, affordability, entertainment and weather. The accessible portion names Miami, Las Vegas, Chicago, Denver and Austin among the runners-up.
A ranking commissioned by a retailer is a conversation starter, and the four criteria are sensible enough to start one. The attractive premise is a manageable 48-hour escape: eat something good, find the queer neighborhood and come home with something to discuss besides work. Check the full list for its winners; the available excerpt does not identify them, and we are resisting the temptation to crown a city by vibes alone.
The pope’s tailor has something to confess
Them • Mathew Rodriguez • October 26 • Added story
Filippo Sorcinelli makes papal vestments and perfumes with names including Quickie and Coffee and Cruising Area. The church has always understood incense; the gas-station hookup is a more adventurous extension of the brand. Them reports on the gay Italian designer’s interview with Dazed about UNUM and his new scent Vulnus, named for a wound. Sacred garments, sexual memory and expensive fragrance: finally, a lifestyle story with range.
Florida’s rainbow rubble pays for more Pride
Them • Mathew Rodriguez • October 23 • Added story
Florida drag performer Miss Bouvèé bought bricks from Miami Beach’s dismantled rainbow crosswalk and turned them into a Pride fundraiser. Them reports more than $25,000 raised for celebrations in Key West and Naples. She cleaned, repainted and commemorated the pieces before sending them into new hands. There is something delicious about a removed queer landmark continuing to fund queer celebration. The pavement may be gone; the drag queen has the receipts.
Your Halloween costume may require footnotes
Them • Sam Manzella • October 19 • Added seasonal story
Sam Manzella’s Halloween suggestions are for the person who considers “What are you supposed to be?” an opening for a lecture. The list includes Shane Hollander’s emotional-support ginger ale, an iced coffee at a job interview and the enduring Wicked “holding space” moment. Obscurity is the accessory. Wear the joke, locate the three people who understand it and accept that everyone else will think you are badly dressed. That, too, is a Halloween tradition.