Reiss Smith

André Leon Talley, giant of the fashion industry, has died aged 73. Talley, who was Vogue’s first Black creative director, and later editor-at-large, passed away on Tuesday (18 January), his literary agent confirmed. He had been suffering from an unknown illness. A pioneer in fashion, Talley passionately championed diversity and inclusion in an industry that for years resisted it. He was remembered by friends and fans for his glamour, grace and grit. Talley grew up with his grandmother in the city of Durham in Jim Crow era North Carolina, and told NPR in 2018 that he first came across a copy of Vogue at […]

On Martin Luther King Jr Day, we revisit the legendary civil rights leader’s relationship with LGBT+ rights. Dr King’s legacy is towering and complex. He devoted his life to – and was ultimately murdered for – advancing the rights of Black Americans, rallying against the “three major evils” – racism, poverty and war. But when looking back at his life and work, it is of course natural to wonder about the things that largely went unsaid.  For many, queer Black folk in particular, his stance on LGBT+ rights is a topic of much conversation. During his lifetime, Martin Luther King Jr was […]

Karine Jean-Pierre could become the first out lesbian and first Black woman to be named White House press secretary. The political heavyweight served as Kamala Harris’ chief of staff during the Biden-Harris campaign, and has now been tipped for a permanent role in the new administration. NBC’s White House correspondent Geoff Bennett tweeted Wednesday (18 November) that Jean-Pierre has “emerged as a top candidate” for press secretary, citing multiple sources. Symone Sanders, TV pundit and a senior advisor to the campaign “has also been discussed” for the role, he added. “No final decisions have been made, officials stress, as the […]

Queer Black American men suffer disproportionate levels of police discrimination, which in turn may contribute to increased risks of HIV, depression and anxiety, a study has found. Research by Rutgers University, published in Social Science & Medicine, asked over 1,100 queer Black men to self-report any incidents of police discrimination, arrests and incarceration. Between 2017 and 2018, some 43 per cent reported suffering discrimination at the hands of police and other law enforcement. The results reinforced the notion that injustice is systemic and cyclical, with prior incarceration linked to later police and law enforcement discrimination, which in turn was linked to […]

Last week two Black men, George Floyd and Tony McDade, were killed by police, leading to countless people protesting around the world in support of Black Lives Matter. George Floyd died after a police officer pinned him down by the neck using his knee until he went limp. Tony McDade, a trans man, was shot and killed by officers while being chased in connection with a fatal stabbing. For people of color – gay or straight, trans or cis – these stories, sadly, aren’t unique. Frankly, they’re commonplace. Black people have been dying at the hands of police in horrifying numbers […]

Mike Pence was governor of Indiana when it experienced “the largest concentrated outbreak of HIV ever documented in the United States” in 2014-15. Pence’s contribution to the crisis has been put under the microscope after Donald Trump put the vice president in charge of America’s response to the Covid-19 coronavirus. It was back in early 2015 when public health officials noticed a spike in new HIV and hepatitis C transmissions in Austin, Indiana, with NPR reporting it as the “largest HIV outbreak in Indiana’s history” at the time. Most the cases were linked to drug use, specifically the injection of prescription opioids. At the […]

Pete Buttigieg was accused of “contradicting God’s word” by pastor Rhyan Glezman, the older brother of his husband Chasten. Glezman spoke out after Buttigieg questioned how Christians could support Donald Trump. “Well, I’m not going to tell other Christians how to be Christians, he said during a CNN town hall event on Tuesday, February 18. “But I will say I cannot find any compatibility between the way this president conducts himself and anything that I find in Scripture.” The Democrat’s brother-in-law said that it was the “the height of intellectual dishonesty for Pete to make claims that there’s no compatibility […]