Queer Vulturing
November 5, 2026
Jordan Firstman is the queer man of the hour as Club Kid opens to rave reviews. Meet the gay sheriff of Madison County. Bathhouses return to SF. Mr. Kansas opens for business.
Variety puts Jordan Firstman on its cover as A24’s Club Kid opens Friday, tracing his road from Instagram comedian to Oscar contender with a film about a New York party promoter who discovers he has a 10-year-old son. “You really can’t try to steer the narrative within the gay community,” he concedes; neither, in fairness, can anyone else.
The Pelosi Seat Goes to Scott Wiener
Scott Wiener is set to become San Francisco’s first out gay member of Congress after Supervisor Connie Chan conceded the race to succeed Nancy Pelosi, The Advocate reports, with Wiener ahead about 55 to 45. Pelosi took the seat in 1987 by beating gay former supervisor Harry Britt, so call this a 39-year rain check.
PinkNews counts at least 17 out LGBTQ+ members headed to the 2027 Congress, up from 14, with all nine House members who sought reelection returning and six newcomers joining them. Chris Pappas’s Senate win means Tammy Baldwin will have company at lunch again.
Vermont voters approved Proposal 4, adding explicit equal protection for sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, along with race, sex, religion and more, to the state constitution, The Advocate reports. The measure took nearly a decade to reach the ballot, which in Vermont counts as moving briskly.
Missouri Says No, Virginia Says I Do
GLAAD’s election wrap-up notes that Missouri voters rejected an anti-trans ballot measure while Virginia voters protected marriage equality. Virginia’s 2006 same-sex marriage ban has been a dead letter since 2014; now it finally gets the burial.
A Gay Sheriff in Madison County
Former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Brett Jones unseated a two-term Republican to become Alabama’s first openly gay sheriff, The Advocate reports, running on jail reform and ending Flock license plate cameras. The county also sent Allison Montgomery to the legislature as Alabama’s first trans lawmaker, on the same night the state made Tommy Tuberville governor.
The Blue Wave Stopped at the Locker Room
Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska and Washington have passed or are on track to pass limits on trans athletes, Stateline reports, even as Democrats swept races elsewhere. Washington’s athletics association knows of about 10 trans athletes a year statewide, which is a great deal of ballot for very few players.
Five Statehouses and a Soil Board
The 19th, via The Advocate, profiles six trans and nonbinary winners, including Jaelynn Scott, Washington’s first trans lawmaker, and Bentley Hudgins, Georgia’s first nonbinary legislator. In Florida, Quinnie Perez’s seat on a soil and water board comes with no budget and little power, and still makes her the first trans woman elected in the state.
Kathleen Stock’s Bedtime Story
On Times Radio, gender-critical philosopher Kathleen Stock, herself a lesbian, argued that parents should be free to tell a child coming out that it sounds like a “miserable life,” Attitude reports, as she attacked the UK’s draft Conversion Practices Bill. Writer Liam Rondi asked the obvious question: miserable because of whom?
A Death in St. Louis, Reconsidered
St. Louis police are now investigating the death of Jhené Audrict, a 21-year-old trans woman found shot in August, as a homicide after an autopsy raised doubts about the initial apparent-suicide finding, PinkNews reports. Her mother says Audrict was legally blind and was not wearing her glasses when she was found.
San Francisco planners have recommended Sanctum Baths at 40 12th Street, the first new gay bathhouse in SoMa since the AIDS-era closures, SFist reports, with a Planning Commission vote expected today and a late-2027 opening hoped for. Owner Kevin Born promises “the Four Seasons of bathhouses,” which is more than anyone offered in 1984.
Flicker Magazine talks with King Key, the Scottish drag king and former educator who is now headliner and creative director at Minnelli’s in Benalmádena, Spain, about teaching through cabaret and mentoring new performers. Out of drag, they say, they still self-censor; in drag, the shame simply drops away.
Queerty runs the Daily Yonder’s report from New Mexico’s Zia Regional Rodeo, where the 50-year-old gay circuit lets women wrestle steers alongside the men. Goat dressing, in which two people wrestle underwear onto a goat, remains undefeated.
Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams says she received death threats after backing trans athletes this season, PinkNews reports, and credits the team’s fans with getting her through it. She says she would welcome a trans teammate or opponent anytime, and she is not planning to stop saying so.
The Gay King of Christmas Reports for Duty
The Daily Mail talks Hallmark and LGBTQ love stories with Jonathan Bennett, the network’s resident out leading man. He is back in this year’s Countdown to Christmas opposite Italia Ricci in Save the Date for Christmas, airing Dec. 20.
Cynthia Erivo will play Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, in Universal’s Snoop Dogg biopic Snoop, directed by Craig Brewer and due Aug. 6, 2027, PinkNews reports. The outlet notes that the film’s subject has a mixed record on LGBTQ+ people, which should make for lively craft services.
Frankie Is Still Working It Out
Evicted Big Brother UK housemate Frankie Taber says he did not know whether he would end up gay or bi when he came out on the show, PinkNews reports, and that he is still coming to terms with it. He also confirms he and his girlfriend were “basically together,” which clears up some of the confusion and creates a little more.
Queerty’s Hot Sheet salutes Hulu’s The Mob, a mob-movie reality contest hosted by Parker Posey in caftans, with Drag Race alum Willam among the players. Willam sorting real gems from fakes is as close to typecasting as reality TV gets.
Mister Kansas Opens for Business
John Ahlstedt, the Mister USA contestant whose tiny Speedo went viral, has joined OnlyFans as Happy Times After Hours, Queerty reports, and promises to keep talking politics and human rights on his regular channels. As one fan put it, a big win on election night.
Flicker talks with Mr Gay Europe 2022 Paul Dennison about playing JR in Robert Chesley’s AIDS-era phone-sex play Jerker at London’s Waterloo East, and why he said yes to the nudity. If Chesley were writing it today, Dennison figures, the phone would be gone and it would all be texts and pictures.
Mexico’s Oscar Entry Hits the Road
Flicker’s Edin Čusto raves about David Pablos’s On the Road (En el camino), Mexico’s Oscar submission and a Venice winner, about a young drifter and the trucker he falls for badly. By comparison, the review says, this year’s other gay-trucker film, Flesh and Fuel, is a PG-13 family watch.
Try to Remember, Now With Two Boys
Broadway.com talks with the company of The Fantasticks, in previews at the Hayes and opening Nov. 16, with the young lovers now two boys and the scheming fathers now two mothers. After 66 years, the world’s longest-running musical reaches Broadway, and Matt finally gets Lewis.
Isaiah Rashad Declines the Job
Isaiah Rashad tells Andscape that being “the drug guy and the queer guy” is too much pressure, Complex reports; he will hug and listen, but he will not be anybody’s hero. It is an honest answer, and a rarer one than the alternative.