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Key West Cancels Arch Due To DeSantis’s DEI Law
The Key West Business Guild writes: The City Attorney has now confirmed what many feared and sadly what we anticipated: Florida’s new Senate Bill 1134 effectively ended the Rainbow Arch project before it could even begin. According to the City’s legal opinion, the Rainbow Art project cannot lawfully proceed because its purpose was to celebrate diversity, inclusion, and the freedom of LGBTQ+ people to live openly and authentically. The attorney concluded that even if the arch had been completed before the law takes effect on January 1, 2027, it would still be subject to the statute because it would require ongoing […]
Trump admin eliminates health care programs for LGBTQ+ veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs has ordered health facilities nationwide to eliminate gender identity-based initiatives and strip the LGBTQ+ designation from a network of medical coordinators created to help LGBTQ+ veterans navigate care, according to an internal memorandum obtained by The Advocate. The June 12 directive, signed by Veterans Health Administration Under Secretary for Health John J. Bartrum, the VA official who oversees the nation’s largest integrated health care system, is the latest move by the Trump administration to remove references to LGBTQ+ and transgender identities from federal programs. It also raises new questions about the future of a specialized support network the VA […]
Days 366-500: Trump’s Complete Track Record on LGBTQ Issues
Since President Donald Trump’s reelection, the full force of the federal government has been working to dismantle anything and everything it calls “gender ideology.” The past four and a half months have seen the Trump administration’s key agencies using executive orders from the president’s first days in office to further upend queer and trans rights. While federal judges continue to block some of his agencies’ anti-LGBTQ policies, his administration has ignored court orders at least 31 times. Here is every move Trump and his administration have made on LGBTQ issues since Jan. 21 of this year. Jan. 27, 2026 Building on a […]
Local News
Arts & Entertainment
Frameline50: Interview with Luchina Fisher, the director of “The Dads”
Inspired by the Emmy Award-winning short documentary of the same name (Netflix, 2023), The Dads chronicles fathers of trans and nonbinary children as they are forced to choose between country and family when a new right-wing administration and conservative Supreme Court take hold in the United States. Filmed over the course of a year spanning retreats in rural Maine and Minnesota, protests, family milestones, a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court decision, and the collapse of gender-affirming care for youth, The Dads captures this national reckoning with remarkable intimacy through vérité footage and interviews with the film’s main protagonists. This is fatherhood as an act of […]
Frameline50: Interview with Kai Stänicke, the Director of “Trial of Hein”
On a windswept remote island in the North Sea, Hein has returned from the mainland to his tiny village after 14 years’ absence. Why do so many of the villagers refuse to recognize him, or claim he is an impostor — even his own family members and the now-grown man who was his inseparable teenage friend? When the close-knit village decides to hold a community trial to prove if Hein is who he says he is, long-held secrets and memory itself will be put to the test. Winner of the Teddy Jury Award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Trial of […]
State News
Frameline50: Interview with the Directors and Star of “Mickey and Richard”
Meet Mickey Squires, legendary porn star and notorious alter ego to Richard Bernstein. Diving into the colorful history of gay adult cinema, this intimate documentary portrait from directing duo Ryan A. White and A.P. Pickle (Raw! Uncut! Video!, Frameline45; Big Sur Gay Porn, Frameline47) traces Richard’s evolution from a lanky high school drama nerd to fantasy dream daddy Mickey, charting the joys and tribulations along the way. As Bernstein was catapulted into porn stardom, he had to navigate the spotlight as well as the dark shadow it cast. Grappling with the harsh dichotomy of his personas, Bernstein was confronted with isolation, the death of his partner, drug […]
Kamala Harris thrills crowd with surprise appearance at iconic West Hollywood gay bar
Former Vice President Kamala Harris spent part of Pride Month visiting a place that has long served as both a sanctuary and stage for LGBTQ+ Americans. On Saturday evening, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, made an unannounced visit to The Abbey, the landmark West Hollywood gay bar that has occupied a singular place in American LGBTQ+ life for decades. Harris moved through the crowd, greeting patrons, posing for photos, shaking hands, and offering hugs. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. For roughly 20 minutes, according to witnesses, one of […]
