Pride
Page: 49
Yung Miami may be in a situationship with Diddy, but that doesn’t mean she can’t acknowledge what a beautiful woman Megan Thee Stallion is.
During a recent appearance on Revolt’s The Jason Lee Show, Miami (aka Caresha) and Lee played a rapid-fire game of “smash or pass” with a series of celebrity photos. When Megan Thee Stallion came up, the “Rap Freaks” rapper wasted no time answering. “I’ma smash all day and tomorrow,” Caresha said. “Megan just gives me like … she really could take me up and throw down.”
Lee immediately followed up by asking if Miami had ever been with a woman before and whether or not she identified as bisexual, and the rapper nodded in confirmation. “Sexually I have been with a woman before,” she said. “I love it … I really do like girls, [but] I won’t be in a relationship with a girl.”
The City Girls star has been open about her adoration for Megan Thee Stallion before — and the feeling might be mutual. In a 2021 tweet, the “Savage” rapper wrote that she “was too shy to tell her in person but @YungMiami305 I want to date.” Miami quickly quoted Megan’s tweet, adding, “I been wanted you too, so what’s up?”
This isn’t the first time Yung Miami has made headlines when talking about sexuality, either — back in 2013, the rapper wrote in a since-deleted tweet that if she ever found out a son of hers was gay, that she would “beat that boy so baddd [sic].” In an interview on The Breakfast Club in 2018, the rapper defended her comments, saying, “I have absolutely nothing against gay people, but I wouldn’t want my son to be gay.”
Check out Yung Miami’s interview with Jason Lee above.
If you’re looking to feel “Beautiful” this Pride season, you don’t need a “Genie in a Bottle” to make it happen — all you have to do is “Come on Over” to NYC Pride’s Pride Island.
On Wednesday (May 3), NYC Pride announced that pop superstar Christina Aguilera will serve as the official headliner for this year’s Pride Island. Taking place on Sunday, June 25, Pride Island will also feature sets from Guy Scheiman, Karina Kay and Mor Avrahmi throughout the event.
“I couldn’t be more excited to headline NYC Pride’s iconic Pride Island,” Aguilera said in a statement of the upcoming show. “I’m always ready to celebrate the strength and resilience of all the individual members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies by dedicating this performance to our combined power when we act and work in solidarity.”
This year’s Pride Island is also coming to a new home. After Kim Petras’ headlining set on Governor’s Island last year, 2023’s Pride Island will take place at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, a modern manufacturing campus in Brooklyn that also hosts cultural events.
Aguilera has a storied track record of support for the LGBTQ community. Earlier this year, GLAAD recognized Xtina as its 2023 advocate for change, honoring the artist as someone who “through [her] work, has changed the game for LGBTQ people around the world.” In accepting the award, the five-time Grammy winner called on everyone listening “to raise our voices if we want to live in a world that is free of discrimination, hate and violence.”
Christina Aguilera will take to the Pride Island main stage on Sunday, June 25, at Brooklyn Army Terminal. Tickets to Pride Island are on sale now.
History has a way of repeating itself, which is exactly what Kim Petras is watching happen with the current anti-trans rhetoric spreading around the globe.
In an exclusive clip from her upcoming Out magazine cover story shared with People, Petras talks about coming out as trans at an early age and why her parents’ support was vital. “I literally was very suicidal as a kid, and I just wouldn’t still be here had my parents not believed me,” the singer said. Recalling her historic win at the 2023 Grammy Awards, she added that she knew she needed to thank “the person who’s responsible for me being alive,” her mother.
Watching the continued wave of transphobic sentiment sweeping across the globe — especially in the U.S., where more anti-LGBTQ legislation has been proposed in 2023 than any other year on record — has been “sad” to watch, Petras said. “I hate that another generation is going through this, and I hate that young kids are going through the same sh– I was going through, and that apparently just isn’t changing.”
Putting a finer point on the issue, Petras said it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business how a person identifies. “I just never understood why people were so obsessed with what people do to be happy,” she said. “Just focus on what you can do to be happy.”
The teaser of Petras’ new profile comes on the heels of “Alone,” the singer’s latest collaboration with rap superstar Nicki Minaj. Following the pair of performers earning a No. 55 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, Kim and Nicki dropped their official music video for “Alone” on Tuesday (May 2).
Check out the preview of Petras’ Out cover story here, and watch her new music video for “Alone” below:
As the “culture wars” around basic human rights for trans people continues, Kiss singer-guitarist Paul Stanley is sharing his thoughts on best-practice medical care for minors.
In a tweet on Sunday (April 30) titled “My Thoughts On What I’m Seeing,” Stanley wrote that he is concerned about children being given access to gender-affirming care. “There is a BIG difference between teaching acceptance and normalizing and even encouraging participation in a lifestyle that confuses young children into questioning their sexual identification,” he wrote.
He added that adults “may decide reassignment is their needed choice,” but said that children should not be eligible for gender-affirming surgeries and procedures. “Turning this into a game or parents normalizing it as some sort of natural alternative or believing that because a little boy likes to play dress up in his sister’s clothes or a girl in her brother’s, we should lead them steps further down a path that’s far from the innocence of what they are doing,” he wrote.
Both the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health do not recommend gender-affirming surgical intervention before 18 years of age, unless the patient, their doctor and a mental health professional all agree that intervention is necessary.
Closing his statement, Stanley claimed that too many parents were confusing “teaching acceptance with normalizing and encouraging a situation that has been a struggle for those truly affected and have turned it into a sad and dangerous trend.”
Billboard has reached out to Stanley’s representatives for further comment from the guitarist and other members of Kiss.
The guitarist’s claims are part of an ongoing misinformation campaign regarding gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Multiple states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, claiming that “irreversible” healthcare affecting one’s gender shouldn’t be an option for those under the age of 18 — though some legislatures in Texas, Kansas and elsewhere have begun quietly attempting to raise that minimum age to 26.
While these claims about “irreversible” procedures are common, the facts show that they are largely false. In an interview with Billboard last year, Dr. Joshua D. Safer, MD, explained that the kind of surgeries many of these right-wing lawmakers and Stanley are concerned about are already “typically reserved for adults,” with only extraordinary cases requiring more immediate intervention. “Prior to any gender-affirming medical or surgical intervention, all minors must have an intake with a knowledgeable mental health provider internal to our system. Once deemed ready for a medical/surgical intervention, the processes we have for adults are then brought into play,” he said.
Stanley’s statement is also directly refuted by every major medical organization in the U.S., including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, all of whom agree that gender-affirming care is not only not dangerous for trans youth, but in most cases, highly beneficial and life-saving.
Read Stanley’s full statement below:
The songs on Durand Jones’ debut solo album Wait Til I Get Over have been incubating for close to a decade, as the frontman (along with his band The Indications) rose to prominence while embracing jazz, soul and disco sounds from decades past. Jones even pitched tracks to the group from the solo debut – out May 5 on Dead Oceans – like the swinging “See It Through,” which he envisioned as a Christmas track.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“The Christmas song wasn’t vibing at all. That was a straight-up chop,” Jones laughs. “I wanted to keep it in my back pocket. I didn’t consider that song to be a failure.”
Instead of forcing the track to be a holiday tune, Jones harvested it as one of 10 tracks on his highly personal new album. Tied together by Jones’ stirring vocals, the genre-eclectic album sprouted from penultimate track “Letter to My 17 Year Old Self” — a jazz trip that contemplates “this thing called life.” At 17, Jones was playing in a punk rock band, singing gospel in church on Sundays and performing classic and jazz pieces in the school marching band, all while growing up in a rural Southern town founded with reparations paid out to eight former slaves. “I wanted it to envelop all of those things and show that everything I learned musically and everything that I experienced after leaving [hometown] Hillaryville lead me to this record,” he tells Billboard.
Hillaryville, La., was something out of a historical fiction novel — a town built by and for the Black community, where folks like Jones’ grandmother didn’t have to enter back doors or sit in separate sections of restaurants. As his grandmother tells the history, the first thing the founders did was build a school — since reading had been illegal for Black people — followed by churches, restaurants, a general store and hotels, to create a self-sustaining community that didn’t discriminate based on a person’s skin color.
“Here’s an example of America getting it right for eight men, and here’s what they did with that,” says Jones. “I realized when I moved away just how special my upbringing was and how unique it was.”
He captures the generational struggle of his grandmother’s generation attempting to instill those original values in their children, and the need for those children to leave home, in the foot-stomping “Have Mercy on Me.” The song is launched by a poetic interlude quoting Jones’ grandmother, who called Hillaryville “the place you’d most want to live,” before it ascends into a swampy groove that helps capture the tale of an idyllic town lost to time and gentrification.
Wait Til I Get Over is rich in burdens Jones has had to overcome in life, from underappreciating his hometown to the guilt of infidelity on the gospel-inspired “Sadie,” and the “taboo” love he felt for another man on “That Feeling.” “That Feeling” is a contemplative track (practically a whisper compared to Jones’ muscular vocals on other songs) that brings tenderness to the frustration, sadness and nostalgia felt after the end of an inmate relationship, and marks the first time Jones has openly expressed his sexuality. “I was worried about fans receiving it in a very negative way, but it’s been absolutely opposite,” says Jones of coming out. “I told myself this year would be a year of transparency for me. I don’t want to hide myself.”
For the album’s titular track, Jones set up a microphone in his bedroom and did his best to emulate the voices he heard in church to deliver the thesis of his first solo collection: “Wait Til I Get Over.” It’s a phrase he uses to illustrate crossing a river — like the Mississippi, which he grew up near and considers a huge influence in his art. For him, each song tackles a burden or an issue he feels the need to address.
“I wanted to think of this record as a trial of sorts… and as each song is done, the burden’s washed down; it is leaving my body,” he says. “Hopefully, by the end of the record, I can make it to the other side and I reach this state of elevation or mystic transformation.”
While musicians including Kid Rock, Travis Tritt and John Rich have been lashing out at Bud Light over their fury that the beer giant sent some one-off commemorative cans to Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender actor/activist has kept quiet about the tempest stoked by the right-wing media.
But on Thursday (April 27), Mulvaney broke her silence in a three-and-a-half minute TikTok video in which she said she had been content to “take the back seat and let them tucker themselves out,” in reference to the backlash against the March Madness promotional stunt that so angered rapper-turned-country-singer Rock that he attempted to obliterate cases of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle.
“I think it’s okay to be frustrated with someone or confused, but what I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I just, I don’t think that’s right. Dehumanization has never fixed anything in history, ever,” said Mulvaney, 26, in the video to her 13 million followers. Describing growing up in a conservative family and in the church, Mulvaney said she still has her faith, but it’s been a struggle to hold on to it in the midst of attacks that reminded her of similar criticism she faced as a child for being “too feminine.”
“Now I’m being called all those same things, but this time it’s from other adults,” she said. “And if they’re going to accuse me of anything, it should be that I’m a theater person and that I’m camp. But this is just my personality and it always has been.”
The right’s Bud Light malt-down came after Mulvaney shared a video of herself on April 1 participating in Bud Light’s Easy Carry Contest for the end of the NCAAs March Madness, revealing that the company helped her celebrate her “365th day of womanhood” with “possibly the best gift ever” — a commemorative can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s face emblazoned on the side; the cans, which are not commercially available, so angered Rock and country singers Tritt and Rich, among others, that they vowed to boycott the world’s biggest beer maker as a result.
“I’m embarrassed to even tell you this, but I was nervous that you were going to start believing those things that they were saying about me, since it is so loud,” she said. “But I’m just going to go ahead and trust that the people who know me and my heart won’t listen to that noise… and to those of you who support me and choose to see my humanity even if you don’t fully understand or relate to me: Thank you.”
Even as Rock and Rich’s Nashville bar/restaurants have made a show of removing Anheuser-Busch products from their shelves, other artists, including Jason Isbell and Zach Bryan, defended the brand against the online backlash, pointing out the importance of diversity. SiriusXM talker Howard Stern weighed in on the issue, as well, saying he was “dumbfounded by why someone would care so much” about a trans person acting as a spokesperson for the beer brand.
See Mulvaney’s video below.
There may be “Nothing in This World” that Paris Hilton fans want more than an official live performance from the Simple Life star. Now, it looks like they’re finally getting their wish.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
On Wednesday (April 26), the socialite-turned-singer announced Paris Hilton: Live in Concert, an upcoming event that will see Hilton take to the stage at L.A.’s Fonda Theater to perform some of her biggest songs. While Hilton has become known in recent years for her career as a DJ, her new show will mark her first full concert as a vocalist. The event is also set to feature “a variety of popular artists and musical guests” who have yet to be revealed, according to a press release.
Taking place on June 7, the show will also give back to the LGBTQ community as Pride Month kicks off — a portion of all ticket sales will go to GLAAD. Hilton is also teaming up with Absolut as the event’s “exclusive cocktail partner” for the evening, noting the company’s “40+ years of LGBTQ allyship” in a press release.
In a post to her Instagram, Hilton excitedly shared the news of her upcoming performance, telling fans that tickets would be available to purchase starting on May 5. “What songs would you like me to perform?” she asked.
Along with kicking off the “Stars Are Blind” singer’s “Summer of Sliving,” the concert will also serve as the official debut for the new music division of Hilton’s 11:11 Media. “My media company continues to expand, and I am so excited about the launch of 11:11 Media’s music division,” Hilton said in a statement.
The star added that fans of her music career won’t have to wait much longer to hear her first new album since 2006’s Paris. “I’ve been in the studio working on a brand new album, which will usher in a new era in my music career,” she said. “I am very excited for fans to experience my first concert as a vocal performer and the guest performances will be legendary!”
Tickets to Paris Hilton: Live in Concert go on sale at AXS starting Friday, May 5, at 1 p.m. ET. Click here to get your tickets then, and check out Paris’ official announcement on Instagram below:
The unceremonious dumping of Fox News personality Tucker Carlson was joke-writing manna from heaven for late night talk show hosts on Monday night (April 24). The surprise news that the network’s highest-rated host was dumped from the right-wing media channel effective immediately after Fox reached a historic $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation charges last week gave Jimmy Fallon, James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel and this week’s The Daily Show host, Desi Lydic, more ammunition than they knew what to do with.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
But perhaps nobody took as much glee in the swift, sudden downfall of the profanity-spewing, conspiracy embracing, Green M&M fetishist as Maren Morris. As you may recall, Carlson referred to Morris as a “lunatic” and “fake country music singer” in September after Tucker invited Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany, on his show to discuss her controversial transphobic tweet and a follow-up Instagram Story that doubled-down on her thoughts about trans youth and their rights to gender-affirming care.
In a since-expired Story from Monday night, Morris had the last laugh; as it turns out, Carlson’s final show was Friday night and the network was promoting his next episode just hours before announcing his canning. “Happy Monday, MotherTucker,” Morris wrote alongside a repost of an image of her face with the on-screen graphics from Carlson’s show reading “Lunatic Country Music Person.” The image was the same one she shared in screen grabs while announcing her “new profile pic” in September.
Morris also posted a screen grab of a Fox personality announcing the Carlson news. After the dust-up with Brittany Aldean, Morris launched a line of t-shirts with the “lunatic” line that raised more than $100K for Trans Life Line and GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program. In another Story slide, Morris posted a pair of rainbows with the words “The only Tuckers allowed are the drag queens,” a seeming reference to Fox and Carlson’s focus on the transgender community and drag time story hours.
The country star was not the only one weighing in on Tucker’s sacking. Bette Midler had plenty to say about it, tweeting, “#TuckerCarlson will no longer be spreading his lies, distortions and misinformation on #FoxNews. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for for years. But how will #Fox explain his absence?”
The singer then said the quiet part out loud, adding “how about, ‘he cost us close to a billion $$$!”?, suggesting that Carlson’s dismissal may have been tied to a rash of emails and texts unearthed as part of the lawsuit that showed the host knew the false claims he peddled night-after-night about election fraud related to Dominions machines were lies.
Actor Michael Rapaport could hardly contain his glee in a video in which he slammed Carlson as a “giggling, cackling fool” and a number of other NSFW monikers as he whooped with joy while walking down the street.
See some of the reaction tweets below.
#TuckerCarlson will no longer be spreading his lies, distortions and misinformation on #FoxNews. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for for years. But how will #Fox explain his absence?— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 24, 2023
How about, “He cost us close to a billion $$$!”?— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 24, 2023
As U.S. state legislatures continue to try and make this Pride season a “Cruel Summer” for drag performers, actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are telling them “You Need to Calm Down” with the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
In an Instagram post on Sunday (April 23), Bacon and Sedgwick are dancing around their living room to Taylor Swift’s Midnights track “Karma,” while wearing T-shirts that read “drag is an art and drag is a right” over an image of a drag performer. Swift’s lyrics helped drive the message home, as she’s heard singing “I keep my side of the street clean/ You wouldn’t know what I mean” while the celebrity couple groove along — by doing the “Karma” dance that the pop star has been performing during her Eras Tour, of course.
Bacon expounded on the topic in the caption, urging his fans to support the ACLU’s Drag Defense Fund going after anti-drag bills being passed throughout the U.S. “Drag bans are bad karma. Right now, drag performers and the LGBTQIA+ community need our help,” he wrote. “Tap the link in my bio to shop the @SixDegreesOfKB campaign supporting the @aclu_nationwide Drag Defense Fund in the nationwide effort to protect creative expression or make a gift. #DragIsARight.”
After publishing their video, the couple received plenty of support from fellow actors such as Alyssa Milano and Rosanna Arquette in their comments section. Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Peter Frampton shared Bacon and Sedgwick’s video on Twitter, simply adding, “Yes #DragIsARight thank you guys!”
The couple’s video comes after multiple states have passed or forwarded legislation that would ban drag artists from performing in public spaces. Tennessee passed its drag ban in early March, before a federal judge temporarily blocked the law from taking effect via a temporary restraining order until May 26, calling the statute “both vague and overly broad.”
This also isn’t the first time that Bacon has spoken out on the state of anti-LGBTQ affairs this year. When the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 performed a “Rusical” based off of Footloose earlier this year, Bacon applauded the queens on his Instagram Stories, saying , “With all the recent anti-drag bills, this came at just the right time.”
Check out Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s dance clip below:
At a concert Friday night (April 20) in Knoxville, Tennessee, Lizzo filled the stage with drag queens in a glittery protest against the state’s legislation designed to restrict drag performances in public.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
While performing at Thompson-Boling Arena, the Grammy-winning “Juice” singer brought out a number of drag performers, including Aquaria, Kandy Muse, Asia O’Hara and Vanessa Vanji. On Saturday, Lizzo posted videos on Instagram from the show, including comments to the crowd that referenced the pending law.
In February, Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the legislation against “adult cabaret” in public or in front of minors. A federal judge temporarily blocked the law in late March, saying it was too vaguely written. Civil rights groups have criticized the law as a violation of free speech.
The Tennessee law is part of a wider Republican effort to restrict drag shows and other LGBTQ+ public gatherings.
“In light of recent and tragic events and current events, I was told by people on the internet, ‘Cancel your shows in Tennessee,’ ‘Don’t go to Tennessee,’” Lizzo said during the Friday concert. “Their reason was valid, but why would I not come to the people who need to hear this message the most?”
“Why would I not create a safe space in Tennessee where we can celebrate drag entertainers and celebrate our differences?” added Lizzo.