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In an executive order issued on his first day back in office, President Donald Trump rolled back protections for the transgender community and declared that the United States would no longer provide any federal funds to “promote gender ideology.” If it’s a fight the president wants on trans rights, then Lucy Dacus is ready to square up.
In a post to her X account on Wendesday (Jan. 22), the singer-songwriter told her fans to share GoFundMe pages for trans people looking to pay for gender-affirming surgeries, promising that she would donate $10,000 as a means of helping. “if trans people wanna comment surgery gofundmes, I’m gonna give away 10k in $500 increments until it’s gone,” she wrote. “if other people wanna scroll through and make donations, please do.”
The post, which has since earned more than 300 replies, ended with a stark message from the Boygenius singer about the future for trans Americans under a second Trump presidency. “the government will never be the source of our validation or protection,” she wrote. “we have to do it ourselves.”
Trump’s executive order (titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”) makes it the official policy of the United States that there are only two sexes, while also eliminating any and all federal funding for gender-affirming health care.
The executive order comes despite calls from established medical organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the Endocrine Society — for policies aimed at limiting access to gender-affirming care to stop. Additionally, the American Medical Association continues to acknowledge that gender identity and sexual orientation both exist on a spectrum rather than as a binary.
LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Lambda Legal already announced that they plan to challenge Trump’s executive order in court, saying “the impact of these executive actions will be devastating — stripping away health care access, weakening workplace protections from abuse, inviting exclusion and harassment of vulnerable school children, and giving a green light to discrimination throughout public life.”
Meanwhile, Dacus is currently promoting her forthcoming new album, Forever Is a Feeling. Last week, she debuted two new songs, “Limerence” and “Ankles,” while debuting the latter during a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
With awards season off to a big start in 2025, LGBTQ+ non-profit GLAAD is unveiling its honorees for the 36th annual GLAAD Media Awards. On Wednesday (Jan. 22), GLAAD revealed the full list of honorees for the annual award show, including a swath of musical artists earning nominations for their work in 2025. In the […]
01/21/2025
The judges tasked the queens with showcasing their “Monopulence” with a sewing challenge. See which queens raked in the Monopoly money, and which ones went directly to jail.
01/21/2025
With 2025 officially under way, it’s time to get some new music from your favorite queer artists playing, pronto. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
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See latest videos, charts and news
From Lucy Dacus’ excellent new solo track to Perfume Genius’ ode to anxiety, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Lucy Dacus, “Ankles”
Leave it Lucy Dacus, phenomenal modern singer-songwriter and one third of alt-rock trio Boygenius, to craft a stunning song steeped in queer intimacy. “Ankles” is unlike much of Dacus’ previous work — guitars are swapped for string sections, sonic spareness for grandiosity — but still retains the core tenet of her artistry: writing singular experiences into practically universal songs. From beginning to end, “Ankles” is a career-best showing for Dacus, and a testament to her enduring talent today.
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Perfume Genius, “It’s a Mirror”
In a time where anxiety seems to be more and more the norm, Perfume Genius is here with a definitive track to capture just that feeling. “It’s a Mirror” bathes itself in themes of isolation and loneliness, while letting the musicality carry out bigger and bolder sounds for the artist born Mike Hadreas, as he waxes poetic on the seemingly unbreakable cycle of paralyzing angst. “It’s a diamond, my whole life is/ Open just outside the door,” he croons.
Chloe Moriondo, “Shoreline”
Chloe Moriondo has made a name for herself in the music business as a purveyor of big, messy thoughts through wild, often hilarious songwriting. So it’s jarring when she never goes for the joke on “Shoreline,” their stunningly spare new single. Instead, Moriondo aims for earnestness, landing bolts of truth directly into your heart as she reels from the “first big breakup” of her life through effortless metaphor, simple production and a gorgeous vocal performance.
Zora, Belladonna
Belladonna, at its core, is a horror story told from the oft-neglected perspective of a black trans woman fighting for her life. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that Zora, the talented Minnesota singer/rapper/producer behind it’s creation, is a victim. No, Belladonna makes it clear from the jump that Zora is instead taking firm control of the narrative, spinning tales of desire (“Sick Sex”), secrecy (“Hush”) and revenge (“Bodies in My Room”).
Jasmine.4.t, You Are the Morning
Meet your new obsession Jasmine.4.t, the first British addition to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records and a rising alt-rock star in her own right. With her stunning new album You Are the Morning, Jasmine tells her own transition story on her exact terms, examining sex (“Skin on Skin”), queer friendships (“You Are the Morning”), trauma (“Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation”) and navigating the complexities of finding your truest self (“New Shoes”). Keep your eye on Jasmine.4.t — if Morning is any indication, than she’s only at the start of a long, fruitful career of incredible alt-rock stardom.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
Wilkommen, bienvenue, howdy partner! Country star Orville Peck is set to make his Broadway debut as the Emcee in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. On Wednesday (Jan. 15), Cabaret announced that the “Dead of Night” singer would take over the iconic role from Adam Lambert starting on March 31, where he will be joined […]
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With Rate-a-Queen back for the double premiere, Billboard will be rating the queens from season 17 every week.
01/15/2025
Bob the Drag Queen is used to dealing with unruly fan bases. Now, he’s putting fans of both The Traitors and Real Housewives on blast. In a series of messages posted on X Sunday (Jan. 12) and Monday (Jan. 13), the Drag Race winner and cast member of The Traitors season three called out fans […]
After Carrie Underwood made headlines Monday (Jan. 13) for announcing she would play at Donald Trump’s inauguration, a former RuPaul’s Drag Race star decided to mock the country star online. In a post to her Instagram Stories on Monday evening, Drag Race season 14 contestant Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté shared a recent post from the […]
Ariana Grande is opening up further about Glinda’s sexual orientation after saying in November that her Wicked character “might be a little in the closet.”
In a Variety cover story published Thursday (Jan. 2), the singer-actress was asked to elaborate on her thoughts about Glinda’s possible queerness in relation to Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, with whom the “Good Witch” nurtures an intense, passionate love-hate relationship. The two women’s dynamic is only ever referred to as a friendship in the original Broadway musical, but in Grande’s eyes, it might be something more.
“I think she’s a person who loves so much, and I do think that it goes beyond gender,” the R.E.M. Beauty founder told the publication of Glinda. “I also think that the ways in which she loves Elphaba so much, and that forgiveness and that unconditional love that they share — I think they’re in love with each other.”
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“I know, yes, it’s platonic …,” she amended before cutting herself off, not wanting to reveal too much ahead of Jon M. Chu’s second Wicked film. “But we’ll talk about it more in depth in movie two.”
Author Gregory Maguire, who penned the bestselling novel on which the Broadway show is based, also shared his thoughts on the sexual tension in the book between the two characters in a December interview. “That was intentional, and it was modest and restrained and refined in such a way that one could imagine that one of those two young women had felt more than the other and had not wanted to say it,” he told Them. “Or perhaps because a novelist can’t write every scene, perhaps when the lights were out and the novelist was out having a smoke in the back alley, the girls had sex in the bed on the way to the Emerald City. I wanted to propose this possibility, but I did not want to make a declarative statement about.”
Grande’s new interview comes over a month after the first Wicked hit theaters Nov. 22, 2024, quickly becoming the top-grossing movie adaptation of a Broadway musical ever. Its sequel, Wicked: For Good, will arrive almost exactly a year later in the fall of 2025.
Grande previously spoke about her character’s sexuality in a November interview with Gay Times, candidly telling the outlet, “Maybe Glinda might be a little in the closet.”
“You never know! Give it a little time!” she’d added. “I mean, it is just a true love. And I think that transcends sexuality, it’s just kind of a deep safety within each other.”
The “We Can’t Be Friends” musician’s co-leading lady agreed at the time. “I think Elphie … she goes wherever the wind goes,” Erivo told the publication. “I think she loves Glinda, I think she loves love. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with celebrating the deep connection that both of them have … it’s a relationship, it is true love.”
See Grande, Erivo and Chu on the cover of Variety below.
Sure, the sun will come out tomorrow, but for right now, viral comedian Randy Rainbow isn’t looking forward to a new day dawning on Donald Trump‘s presidency. In his latest parody video, Rainbow sits down for another faux interview with the president-elect, this time mocking Trump for his widely criticized cabinet picks, specifically calling out […]