Queer Vulturing
September 16, 2026
More bad news from Turkey; Daniel Diemer joins Heated Rivalry; a gay Olympian recovering from brutal judo assault; House candidate Chris Gallant says bring it on; Chaka Khan’s dance-floor love letter; and Nick Hisson turns break-up pain into heart.
Nick Hissom Turns a Breakup Into Hot Boy Things
FAME Magazine
Nick Hissom’s five-track EP Hot Boy Things turns a public breakup into glossy queer pop and unapologetically sexual visuals, reclaiming both his image and desire while pushing back at online censorship.
Turkey Jails Eight LGBTQ+ Activists as Sweeping Crackdown Expands
Reuters
Eight members of the LGBTQ+ rights group Kaos GL have been jailed pending trial amid a nationwide operation targeting queer organizations, businesses and activists. Rights groups call the campaign an assault on fundamental freedoms, while Turkish authorities say it is aimed at protecting children and family values.
Seattle Adds Non-Monogamous Relationships to Its Protected Classes
The Guardian
Seattle’s City Council unanimously approved protections for people in non-monogamous relationships, along with multigenerational households. The measure expands the city’s anti-discrimination framework into a corner of family life rarely covered by municipal law.
The Trans CIA Official Ousted by Trump Speaks Out
The Guardian
Former senior CIA officer Julia Curlee discusses her removal from government and the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI and transgender employees. The interview places her experience inside the broader reshaping of the national-security workforce.
Equalpride Board Member Resigns After Staff Challenge His MAGA Support
The Advocate
Jay Katari stepped down from equalpride’s board after queer and trans staffers at The Advocate, Out and Them raised concerns over his political donations and past social-media activity. The resignation came one day after the editorial staff publicly pressed management.
Chris Gallant Says BDSM Modeling Photos Won’t Push Him Out of His Congressional Race
The Advocate
Democratic congressional candidate Chris Gallant, a gay Army veteran running against Republican Rep. Nick LaLota in New York, says publicity around fetish-modeling photos from his past will not end his campaign. Gallant describes the coverage as a political attack and says voters should judge his record and platform rather than the images.
Bob Mackie, Designer Who Made Camp Sparkle, Dies at 87
Reuters
Bob Mackie, the legendary designer whose rhinestones, feathers and barely-there glamour helped define Cher, Carol Burnett and generations of show-business spectacle, has died at 87. His five-decade career earned nine Emmys, a Tony and three Oscar nominations.
NikkieTutorials Named New Host of BBC’s Glow Up
PinkNews
Trans makeup artist and YouTube star Nikkie de Jager, better known as NikkieTutorials, will take over as host of Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star. It is another high-profile television gig for one of the beauty world’s most visible trans personalities.
Andrew Garfield Can Name His Drag Race Queens, Thank You Very Much
Out
Asked on Watch What Happens Live to name his five favorite Drag Race queens, Andrew Garfield promptly blew past the limit. His list included Jujubee, Alyssa Edwards, Jinkx Monsoon and the immortal Vivacious-and-Ornacia package deal.
Dancing With the Stars Brings Back a Same-Sex Pairing
Them
Bisexual reality star Sarah Jane Nader and pro Hailey Bills are only the third same-sex celebrity-pro pairing in Dancing With the Stars history, and the second all-female team. Their chemistry was already generating chatter before they hit the ballroom.
Vipress Wins GCW Ultraviolent Championship in LGBTQ Wrestling Milestone
Outsports
Out wrestler Vipress defeated Otis Cogar to become the fourth openly LGBTQ champion in Game Changer Wrestling history. The bruising title match ended with a sweeter image: Vipress celebrating in the ring with her daughter.
Gay Olympian Timo Cavelius Speaks After Judo Assault Left Him With a Broken Jaw
Outsports
German judoka Timo Cavelius, the first openly gay man to compete in Olympic judo, says he remains shocked after opponent Akaki Japaridze attacked him following a Bundesliga match. Cavelius, recovering from a double jaw fracture, declines to speculate about motive and says the incident should be investigated on the facts.
Red Sox Pitcher’s Hug Turns a Routine Tag Into Something Unexpectedly Sweet
Outsports
Outsports celebrates Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle’s playful hug of a baserunner while making a tag, arguing that baseball could use more moments of spontaneous affection and fewer macho collisions. A tiny sports moment, but a charming one.
Queer Bookstore Flooded With Support After Pro-Trans Display Is Vandalized
LGBTQ Nation
After vandals smashed a bookstore window displaying a message supporting trans liberation, a fundraiser to repair the damage quickly sailed past its target. The owners say the response affirmed the shop’s role as a community space, not merely a place to buy books.
Episcopal Dean Makes History as First Known Out Trans Priest in the Role
LGBTQ Nation
The Very Rev. Micah Cronin, 30, is the first known openly transgender dean of an Episcopal cathedral. Now leading All Saints’ Cathedral in Milwaukee, Cronin says his visibility can open conversations about faith, inclusion and trans lives.
VCU to Honor LGBTQ+ Student Group It Once Fought in Court
Axios Richmond
Virginia Commonwealth University will install a historical marker honoring the Gay Alliance of Students, 50 years after a federal court forced the university to recognize the group. The 1976 ruling helped establish protections for LGBTQ student organizations across five states.
Josh Silver on Fruit Fly, Masculinity and Who Gets to Tell a Queer Story
British GQ
Josh Silver’s satirical thriller Fruit Fly has gone from breakout bestseller to an A24 miniseries deal. In a wide-ranging interview, Silver talks queer representation, masculinity and the novel’s deliberately thorny questions about authenticity, identity and who has the right to turn someone else’s pain into material.
Des Moines Drag King Trade Steps Into the National Spotlight
Axios Des Moines
Dakota Chambers, who performs as Trade, is among the competitors on the second season of King of Drag, premiering September 20 on Revry. The trans performer is part of a growing push to give drag kings the kind of national platform long enjoyed by drag queens.
Could Gay Bathhouses Return to New York? A New Nonprofit Wants to Clear the Way
Gay City News
A new nonprofit is working to reopen the door to gay bathhouses in New York, where regulations dating to the AIDS crisis have long made such venues difficult to operate. The effort reframes the bathhouse not simply as a sexual space, but as part of a lost queer social infrastructure that advocates hope can return with modern health safeguards.
Are Gay-Exclusive Resorts Still Necessary? Travelers Have Opinions
GayCities
GayCities readers weigh the pleasures and limits of LGBTQ-specific resorts in an era of apps, cruises and more welcoming mainstream travel. Old-school favorites in Key West, Fire Island, Puerto Vallarta and Palm Springs still have devoted fans, while other travelers increasingly prefer hotels embedded in the life of a city.
Sunil Gupta Looks Back at Five Decades of Photographing Gay Life
The Guardian
Ahead of a major retrospective at Kettle’s Yard, photographer Sunil Gupta revisits images made from Christopher Street to Delhi, London and the bathhouse. His work has spent five decades making queer intimacy, cruising, leather, race and public space visible, often when that visibility carried real risk.
Heated Rivalry season two casts Daniel Diemer as ‘essential’ queer character from the books
Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Half of It star Daniel Diemer will be taking to the ice as Ryan Price in Heated Rivalry season two.
Chaka Khan Has a Message for Queer Fans: Keep Loving, Keep Dancing
Out
Chaka Khan reflects on a relationship with LGBTQ+ audiences that stretches back to her early performances in gay clubs in the 1970s. With new music arriving, the Queen of Funk talks about what it means to hear generations of queer fans claim songs such as ‘I’m Every Woman’ as their own.
Young Photographer Ben Jastremski Turns Queer Visibility Into Permission
CULTURED
New York photographer Ben Jastremski, featured in CULTURED’s Young Photographers list, describes portraiture as a way of granting his younger gay self the permission he never had growing up in a conservative environment. His polished, confrontational images linger on the complicated thrill and danger of being seen.