Table of contents for July/August 2022 in The Advocate

A PHOTO BOOTH set with faux lockers, backpacks, queer stickers, and various high school-themed accouterments stood in the center of the event space at Los Angeles’s NeueHouse. Bars lined with boxes of Gummi Bears, Dots, Red Vines, and popcorn (sweet or salty — you choose) framed the room. On the screen, just minutes before the premiere of Hulu’s hilarious and adorable queer rom-com Crush, was a still from the movie featuring its queer stars Auli’i Cravalho and Rowan Blanchard. The room brimmed with joyful young LGBTQ+ people whose gender and sexual identities appeared to fill the spectrum. They were in glam makeup, killer boots or heels, and sartorial excellence — the expansive choices of suits alone made me wish I were a young queer person again. The fabulously gay evening…

There continues to be an epidemic of violence against transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming Americans. Fourteen members of this community are known to have died by violent means so far in 2022, after a record 57 such deaths were reported in 2021. Both figures are based on just the number of recognized victims, as many more go unrecognized because of deadnaming, misgendering, or overall lack of reporting. Here are those we’ve lost most recently: Kenyatta “Kesha” Webster, 24, was found dead in Jackson, Miss., March 26. Family members have said Webster’s death was a homicide that took place during a robbery, but police have released few details. Her friends and family say she was well-loved and are calling for justice. Miia Love Parker, 25, was shot to death April 1 in…

Zoey Luna Transgender Latina actress and activist Zoey Luna is not yet 21, but in the last decade, she has established herself as a rising star. In 2014, Luna and her mother were featured in the Laverne Cox documentary The T Word, which chronicled the lives of seven transgender young people. Soon after, Luna was cast in a documentary about her own life, Raising Zoey, which came to fruition after a local filmmaker saw Luna speak at Transgender Day of Remembrance in West Hollywood. Since then, Luna has made guest appearances on I Am Jazz and I Am Cait and has garnered acting roles on Pose, The Craft: Legacy, and the film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen. She is also currently working on a record and continues to be a…

Sometimes, you have to go through the fire to find peace. For Angel Olsen, that meant discovering her first queer love, coming out at the age of 34, and suffering through the loss of both parents. But now that she’s through all of that, she’s releasing her best album yet: Big Time. “Many of the songs I wrote on this record were inspired by my first queer relationships, coming to terms with who I was, a result of what it meant to be sitting with myself in a very real way during the early pandemic,” Olsen says. “It felt like I experienced a storm of emotions and realizations on love now that I was tapping into this hidden part of myself. Was this how it was supposed to feel? Because…

DANNY PELLEGRINO IS on a quest to tell true stories that are very unfortunate. That may seem odd for a gay comedian and the host of the hit podcast Everything Iconic With Danny Pellegrino. But, he says, “I wanted to be open about my coming-out experience.” And he is brutally honest in his new memoir, How Do I Un-Remember This? Unfortunately True Stories, in which he chronicles his childhood upbringing in Solon, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland, and the challenges he experienced coming to terms with his sexuality “I didn’t want it to be all about my coming-out journey,” he adds. “Since I experienced plenty of other things as a kid from a small Ohio town.” It was important for Pellegrino to find humor in admittedly dark periods of his…

As of press time, basketball star and Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days. After months of silence, supporters have now begun making more noise to get the lesbian player free. Griner, center for the Phoenix Mercury, was taken into custody in February at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow after a search of her luggage allegedly revealed she had vape cartridges containing hashish oil. Possession of hashish oil is illegal in Russia. If she is convicted of possession, she could be sentenced to up to 10 years in a Russian prison. She has not gone to trial yet, and her pretrial detention goes into July. She was in Russia to play for one of that nation’s basketball teams, UMMC Ekaterinburg. It’s not…

Transgender man Ray Muscat, 26, was shot to death May 8 at his home in Oakland County, Mich., becoming at least the 13th trans, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming American to have died by violence in 2022. Police said he was shot by his girlfriend, trans woman Ruby Taverner, 22, who subsequently died by suicide, according to police reports. Her body was discovered May 9 near the apartment complex where she and Muscat lived. Her brother Bishop Taverner, 25, was also fatally shot in the apartment May 8, and authorities believe Ruby Taverner was responsible for his death as well. “An unspeakable tragedy took place on the day Raymond ‘Ray’ Muscat lost his life at the hands of someone he cared for…. He should still be alive today to share his unmatched…

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow became a national hero as an ally to LGBTQ+ people in April when she stood up to a fellow senator who had used the “groomer” slur against McMorrow and other supporters of inclusive education. Republican Sen. Lana Theis had delivered an invocation referring to children being “under attack,” then sent out a fundraising email accusing McMorrow of wanting to “groom and sexualize kindergarteners” and teach “that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery.” McMorrow, a Democrat, responded with an impassioned speech, saying, “I want every child in this state to feel seen, heard, and supported, not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white, and Christian.” “I just felt like it was really important to say something publicly,” McMorrow says now. The reaction to this self-described…

Julia Serano is an esteemed writer and musician as well as an activist and biologist. But I often think of her as a warrior, because if you spend any time on social media, you know that Serano has been an intellectual powerhouse in combating the misogynist, transmisogynist, and homophobic bigotries that have flooded our timelines, our news cycles, our statehouses, and even our own homes. Her points and counterpoints are not instantaneous or reactionary but meticulous and methodical. From her books to her blog posts, she point-by-point not only deconstructs the logic of a bigoted article — like that notorious Atlantic cover story on detransitioning — but pulls the covers of the faulty methods and factual errors rampant throughout them by mining data and fact-checking sources. In her third book,…

In a study released this spring by the Trevor Project, the LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention and mental health organization found an upward trend in suicidal ideation among queer youth, many of whom are trans and people of color. “The Trevor Project’s research demonstrates that suicidal thoughts have trended upward among LGBTQ young people over the last three years, making our lifesaving work all the more important. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and relentless political attacks during this time period cannot be understated,” Amit Paley, CEO and executive director of the Trevor Project, said in a statement. The findings are part of the group’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, which included responses from almost 34,000 LGBTQ+ Americans between the ages of 13 and 24. The group said…

TO KNOW URVASHI Vaid was to have a lifechanging experience. That’s a common thread that runs through remembrances of the legendary LGBTQ+ activist, who died of cancer May 14 at age 63. Vaid’s résumé was impressive by any standard. She spent a decade with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (now the National LGBTQ Task Force), rising from media director to executive director, and cofounding its Creating Change conference. She was executive director of the Arcus Foundation, a global funder of LGBTQ+ causes; the force behind LPAC, the first lesbian super PAC; cofounder of many other social justice groups; and most recently president of the Vaid Group, dedicated to equity, justice, and inclusion. But that’s just part of the story. She was an acclaimed author (Virtual Equality, Irresistible Revolution)…

THERE’S A SCENE in the iCarly reboot’s first season on Paramount+ where Laci Mosley’s bisexual character, Harper, and her crush, Poppy Liu’s Double Dutch, kiss. It’s a moment that LGBTQ+ folks and people of color who were fans of the original 2007 Nickelodeon show about a girl who becomes internet famous in the early days of web videos could only have imagined. The scene features two queer actors, one who is Black and one who is Asian, playing queer characters and acting on their attraction. For Mosley, who’s known for A Black Lady Sketch Show on HBO and for her podcast, Scam Goddess, about — you guessed it — famous grifters, iCarly’s inclusion of various kinds of people offers a space where marginalized folks can see themselves free of trauma…

IN THE NEW documentary A Sexplanation, released June 7, gay health reporter Alex Liu (pictured), 36, takes viewers on a journey to better understand sex by offering a sex education that is rooted in finding the fun and beauty in carnal pleasure. Liu, who also directed and co-wrote the film, explores sex through a range of lenses from the scientific to the religious, featuring interviews with psychologists, sex researchers, a Jesuit priest, and several generations of Liu’s family. “With humor and grit, Alex takes audiences on a playful, heartfelt journey from a shame-filled past to a happier, healthier, sexier future,” says the film’s synopsis. It’s also a bit personal for Liu, who, like many before him, was introduced to sex by way of the internet. When it came to sex…

WHILE CERTAIN DRAG competition shows that shall remain nameless may have taken their time (and a bit of public pressure) to include folks of varying gender and sexual identities, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula has always embraced artists of all kinds in this regard. Since 2016, the reality series has explored the darker and more alternative side of the art form. The competition rates its contestants on criteria like “drag, filth, horror, and glamour” without much attention paid to gender. Throughout its four seasons, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula has featured trans and nonbinary folks, cisgender women, straight men, and drag kings — like Landon Cider, the show’s season 3 winner. For the Boulet Brothers, known individually as Swanthula and Dracmorda, it’s all about art and creativity. Just make it creepy. “I…