Today, GRAMMY® Award-winning multiplatinum sonic visionary, artist, producer, and director Kid Cudi returns with a new single entitled “Do What I Want” via Republic Records.
Most importantly, it heralds the arrival of his anxiously awaited eighth full-length offering and one of the most anticipated projects of 2022, Entergalactic. The NETFLIX project and accompanying album are coming this Fall. The project reunites Cudi with co-creator Ian Edelman who worked together on HBO’s “How To Make It In America.” Cudi also serves as an executive producer alongside Kenya Barris, through their respective production companies Mad Solar and Khalabo Ink Society
Cudi stands on the precipice of a major moment once again. 2020’s Man On The Moon III: The Chosen crash landed at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 as his fifth Top 10 debut on the respective chart while the single “Tequila Shots” is now platinum. However, he initially blasted off into history with Man on the Moon: The End of Day in 2009. It has since gone double-platinum, garnered three GRAMMY® Award nominations, and seized a spot on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” A year later, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager claimed #3 on the Billboard Top 200 and went platinum.
Today, podcast studio Novel and host Shon Faye anounced season two ofCall Me Mother, the trailblazing archive for members of the LGBTQ+ community who have something important, interesting, or enlightening to say about what it means to be queer in the world today. The first episode will drop June 24, 2022.
The second season of Call Me Mother places a new emphasis on connecting with a younger generation of LGBTQ+ community members — providing listeners the language needed to grapple with unfamiliar experiences, demonstrating that they belong to a much broader history.
The upcoming season will feature voices and histories from across the globe, including Donna Persona of San Francisco’s Compton’s Cafeteria; the UK’s Lisa Power, founder of Stonewall and decades-long activist; Zsa Zsa Fisher, a South African Trans rights worker and former Miss Gay SA; founder of Nigeria’s House of Rainbow, Jide Macaulay, and many more.
In shining a light on stories that might otherwise be overlooked, Faye is “not only highlighting the tireless work and valuable life experiences of previous generations,” says Bustle on the impact of season one, but “providing younger listeners with an oral queer history they’d struggle to find anywhere else.” Read the full feature over at Bustle here.
With further season one praise from AnOther Mag, GQ, The Guardian, and more, season two of Call Me Mother will undoubtedly continue to do “a great service to the stories which were habitually excluded from the ones we tell about the 20th century” (Esquire).
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization —honors the lives of the 49 people — most of them young, LGBTQ+ and Latinx — killed in the attack at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016. Sunday’s commemoration falls as the United States continues to grapple with the scourge of gun violence, with recent shootings in Buffalo, NY; Uvalde, TX; and Laguna Woods, CA, to name only three. A total of 32 people – most of them people of color – were killed in those events.
HRC Interim President Joni Madison said in a statement: “We will never forget the lives lost at Pulse — beloved friends, siblings, partners and parents who were dancing in community and celebration only to be struck down in an act of terrible violence against the LGBTQ+ community. Gun violence remains an LGBTQ+ issue, with three-fourths of homicides against transgender people – including nearly eight in ten homicides of Black trans women – involving a gun.
Compounding this tragedy is the fact that in the six years since Pulse, we have been unable to advance meaningful federal gun reform legislation. The United States has more mass shootings than any other country in the world; nearly 53 people are killed by a firearm each day. But politicians who have been elected to serve the public are more concerned with censoring our identities and targeting trans and non-binary kids than protecting our communities from fatal violence. Politicians who have been elected to serve the public send ‘thoughts and prayers’ as they spread messages of hate and division that only fuel further violence.
We are facing a rising tide of hate violence against our communities, attacks fueled by racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism. Today, and every day, HRC joins with our partners and with people around the world in calling for an end to white supremacy, and for a transformation of our systems and institutions into ones that advance justice, equity and equality. Today and every day, together we are calling for immediate, measurable action towards this transformation — action that must include common sense gun reform.”
GLAAD, the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization; Drag Queen Story Hour, an LGBTQ literacy organization; and Transinclusive Group, which advocates to protect and defend equality for Transgender and LGBQ+ individuals in South Florida, are responding to increased anti-LGBTQ sentiment and misinformation targeting drag queens, specifically all-ages Pride events for families and children, and Drag Queen Story Hour readings at libraries.
Misinformation and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric spread by politicans and in media have escalated about LGBTQ content for youth, now expanding to targeting drag performances.
In a May 27 letter and press release regarding a Pride month event at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio inaccurately referred to drag queen story hours as “sexually charged content.” The event was canceled in response.
Last week, after protesters flung slurs outside an all-ages fundraiser for an LGBTQ youth organization at a Dallas gay bar, Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton announced he planned to introduce legislation banning minors from drag shows.
On Monday, threats of violence led to the cancellation of a Drag Queen Story Hour at a Pride festival in North Carolina. The event was reinstated on Thursday after Equality North Carolinastepped in.
Also on Monday, Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini proposed legislation that would charge parents with a felony and strip them of custody if they allowed their children to attend a drag show or reading.
On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference that he would explore using existing child protective statutes to fast-track a ban on minors at drag performances.
More than 225 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed around the country targeting evidence-based and lifesaving healthcare, LGBTQ and race-inclusive books, curriculum, and censoring classroom conversation. 85% of LGBTQ youth say the moves in state legislatures have negatively affected their mental health, and the CDC reported an increase in LGBTQ teens considering and attempting suicide in 2021. Nineteen children were shot and killed in their classroom in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24th, and to date no lawmaker proposing bans on drag performances has proposed reforms to reduce gun violence.
Quote from GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis
“Real threats to children include gun violence in school and baseless legislation that bans lifesaving healthcare. One in four LGBTQ teens attempted suicide last year. Let’s focus on actual problems facing students, and hold lawmakers accountable to keeping all kids safe from real harm.”
“Drag Queen Story Hour could not be more disappointed in disingenuous politicians who are trying to score points by attacking programs like ours, which use drag as a traditional art form to promote literacy, teach about LGBTQ lives, and activate children's imaginations. Let's be clear: DQSH provides age-appropriate programming, and we routinely receive praise from parents and educators who are delighted that we offer children safe spaces to express themselves and support one another. Rather than address real threats across the country — like the devastating epidemic of gun violence — right-wing politicians are spreading dangerous conspiracy theories about, and inciting violence against, drag performers and LGBTQ communities. This is part of a coordinated campaign to deny the rights of LGBTQ people, who already endure disproportionate rates of suicide and homelessness, and legislate us out of existence. Any attempt to criminalize our work is rooted in tired homophobic and transphobic hate and misinformation, and we refuse to give in to politicians who are too bigoted and boring to comprehend our vision for a world in which every child can be safe fully expressing who they are.”
Statement from Tatiana Williams, Executive Director of Transinclusive Group
“So many of the legislative attacks against our youth are rooted in these old beliefs and the knowledge that trans and LGBTQ+ kids are the most vulnerable among us and can’t necessarily advocate for themselves. These continued attacks and this latest attempt to criminalize drag shows when kids are around speaks to how when some people think about our LGBTQ+ community, they can only perceive us through this lens of fear and negativity as they try to fit us into this box and view us as this ‘other.’ Drag is here and it has always been here as a part of our community. Banning drag shows out of a misguided fear that some youth might find a sense of connection with the LGBTQ+ community would be an invasion of parents’ rights to raise their children and support them as their authentic selves. When we think of educating our youth about the world, about acceptance, and about LGBTQ+ people and history, these efforts to erase our visibility are never the answer.”
On Thursday, GLAAD posted a video interview with Drag Queen Story Hour board member and children’s book author Lil Miss Hot Mess, who was specifically targeted in Rubio’s press release. While GLAAD’s interview with Lil Miss Hot Mess was recorded prior to Rubio’s actions, she responded to Rubio on Twitter here, calling Rubio’s comment “an attack…on the lives of LGBTQ+ people.” The incident came exactly one year after Lil Miss Hot Mess was targeted by anti-LGBTQ activists for reading from her book on the PBS program Let’s Learn.
Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization, released a new video titled “My First Pride.” In the video, transgender and non-binary people ages 8-65 years old recount their first experiences at Pride and discuss how it feels to celebrate Pride at a time when the LGBTQ+ community is under attack in statehouses across the country. The video calls on viewers to fight against anti-transgender legislation in the states and help make Pride feel like a real celebration.
“During Pride Month, we celebrate our stories of coming out, of finding healing within our community, and often, look back on our first Pride—that very first time we felt safe to show up as our full, authentic selves,” said Joni Madison, Interim President of The Human Rights Campaign. “But this year, I hear stories that break my heart—stories of trans and non-binary children, their families, and millions of LGBTQ+ people whose rights and lives are under attack. So, this Pride Month—I want us to show up for each other. We need everybody to pitch in, roll up their sleeves and do the work. I want you to own and embrace all of who you are, and refuse to hide your Pride.”
This year, at least eighteen states have passed legislation preventing transgender children from playing sports with their peers. Two states have passed legislation preventing transgender children from accessing restrooms consistent with their gender identities at school. Five states have passed legislation censoring discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in schools. And three states have banned the provision of age-appropriate, medically-necessary, gender affirming care to transgender youth—including Alabama, the first state to make it a felony to do so. Furthermore, statewide officials in Texas have tried to classify transition care for minors as child abuse. In Florida, the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill was signed into law and blocks teachers from talking about LGBTQ+ issues or people. These bills represent a cruel effort to further stigmatize and discriminate against LGBTQ+ people across the country, specifically transgender youth who simply want to live as their true selves and grow into who they are.
In February, Gallup released polling that showed a growing percentage of adults in the U.S. are LGBTQ+ identifying—7.1% of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or some other LGBTQ+ identity. Bisexual identification is most common; accounting for more than 56% of all LGBTQ+ identified adults, and approximately 4% of the U.S. adult population. An additional third of LGBTQ+ adults identified as gay (20.7%) and/or lesbian (13.9%), accounting for approximately 2.5% of the U.S. adult population. Additionally, an estimated one in ten LGBTQ+ adults identifies as transgender, accounting for 0.7% of the U.S. adult population.
With those words, the lyrics of her anthemic hit "Beautiful," Christina Aguilera first became a voice for the LGBTQ+ community 20 years ago. She further cemented her status as an ally with the music video for the song, which featured a gay couple and a transgender woman, a move that was seen as strikingly progressive in 2002.
"Her video for 'Beautiful' was an amazing statement," singer and former Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui tells PEOPLE in this week's issue.
Since then, Aguilera, 41, hasn't stopped showing up for the community. Over the years, she's raised awareness about HIV and AIDS, and, in 2016, she donated proceeds from her song "Change" to the families of victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Next, she'll headline Los Angeles Pride in the Park on June 11.
Since the premiere of The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2019, Kellyoke has become an institution in its own right with over 500 songs covered to date and counting. The fan-favorite segment sees Clarkson and her band, Y’all, turn audience requests and personal favorites into stunning performances that captivate viewers and the internet alike. A longtime staple of Clarkson’s live show, the series was helmed by her long-time music director Jason Halbert, who along with vocal director Jessi Collins expertly tailor the performances for what has been deemed “one of the best things to happen to daytime television” by Vulture and “wildly popular” by Billboard.
Says Clarkson, “Music is in the DNA of everything I do, so when ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’ started we knew it was the perfect way to kick off every episode. Over 500 songs later, and we’re still not running out of amazing artists to pay tribute to. Picking just six was near-impossible, but these songs have been some of my favorites. Thanks for singing along with me y’all!”
GLAAD, the world's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, today released an exclusive interview with Lil Miss Hot Mess, a drag queen, children’s book author, and board member of Drag Queen Story Hour. Her latest picture book with illustrator Olga de Dios Ruiz, If You’re A Drag Queen and You Know It, was published by Running Press Kids, a Hachette Book Group imprint, on May 17th. It is her second children’s book, following 2020’s The Hips On The Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish. Both books are colorful, fun plays on classic nursery rhymes that encourage kids to sing, dance, move, and express themselves creatively.
The interview is part of GLAAD’s ongoing #BooksNotBans campaign, which responds to book bans and school censorship by uplifting the work of LGBTQ authors as well as working with coalition partners to speak out against censorship. Authors previously interviewed in the series include GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis and her wife Kristen Ellis-Henderson (All Moms), George M. Johnson (All Boys Aren’t Blue), Harry Woodgate (Grandad’s Camper), and Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer.)
Lil Miss Hot Mess was recently targeted by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who objected to a drag queen story reading scheduled at a U.S. Air Force base in Germany as a kickoff event for Pride month. In a May 27 letter and press release, Rubio inaccurately referred to drag queen story hours as “sexually charged content.” While GLAAD’s interview with Lil Miss Hot Mess was recorded prior to Rubio’s actions, she responded to Rubio on Twitter here, calling Rubio’s comment “an attack…on the lives of LGBTQ+ people.” The incident came exactly one year after Lil Miss Hot Mess was targeted by anti-LGBTQ activists for reading from her book on the PBS program Let’s Learn. Critics have spread misinformation about drag story hours and performers for the last few years, and this week threats of violence led to the cancellation of an event in North Carolina. After an anti-LGBTQ protest outside of a family drag event in Dallas, Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton announced on Tuesday he planned to introduce legislation banning minors from drag shows.
In her exclusive interview with GLAAD, Lil Miss Hot Mess discussed book bans and school censorship
“I see something like Drag Queen Story Hour as an antidote to that, as providing spaces for kids to learn about the diversity, about the creativity, and honestly the fabulousness in their communities. There are LGBTQ+ people in every community—whether we are in drag, whether we’re reading at your library or not—we’re there, and kids have a right to understand and to learn about members of their community and the world around them.”
Lil Miss Hot Mess on childrens’ responses to Drag Queen Story Hour
“It’s just such a gift to get to sing and dance along, and to get to see the smiles on their faces, and to get to witness some of those ‘A-HA’ moments when they realize that things aren’t necessarily the way they’ve always been told they have to be. Kids take so much out of it. I think they see drag queens, hopefully, as role models who get to play dress-up for a living and exercise our creativity and our imaginations.”
Lil Miss Hot Mess on what drag queens contribute to society
“We’re not just pretty, we’re not just entertainers, we don’t just love to wear lots of sparkles and sequins and lots and lots of makeup…we’re also active in our communities. We have long histories of raising money for causes that we believe in, leading protests and parades—some drag queens have even run for president!”
Lil Miss Hot Mess on how to fight anti-LGBTQ book bans
“Voting with your dollars, in this case, is one of the most helpful things that we can do to show that there is demand for this type of literature…to really say ‘we’re craving these stories, we need this diversity.’ And to ask for [LGBTQ books] in your libraries, in your school libraries. Because that’s where book bans start, at this local level where curmudgeonly parents—or oftentimes not parents but just hateful people—start challenging books, asking for them to be taken off the shelves, even stealing them out of libraries. So the more that libraries know that patrons want this material, that we demand access to it, the better.”
Lil Miss Hot Mess on the importance of LGBTQ inclusive media for kids
“I was always that kid who loved to dress up and explore my feminine side, my kind of proto-queer side. I would put a towel on my head and call it a wig, and wear my mom’s high heels and put on shows in the backyard. I think if I had been given a channel to push that into and to explore that through, it would have been incredible. Getting to see some of these kids experience this, to shimmy their shoulders, to swish their hips, to snap their fingers, the things we do in the books…they’re the things that I was made fun of or discouraged from doing when I was a kid. I want to create that safe space for kids to do it today.”
Lil Miss Hot Mess on how drag queens respond to anti-LGBTQ hate
“We like to get creative and like to bring the drag attitude back to the haters. Sometimes when people organize protests outside of our events, we do things like fundraisers where we say we’re gonna raise donations for every minute that these haters are out here. For every protester that shows up we’re gonna get people to pledge to give five dollars. And that’s a way of using that drag spirit of twisting things against these people who are out to get us.”
Despite everything you know and value, Carlos Allende’s new novel COFFEE, SHOPPING, MURDER, LOVE(Red Hen Press; June 21, 2022) will make you root for its bitter, spectacularly superficial, and highly immoral protagonists. The story is both an experiment in empathy and a savagely camp, relentlessly unsentimental, incisive account of our worst impulses and our current deranged political moment. It’s a brilliant, laugh-out-loud work of dark comedy.
Set in Los Angeles, a year before same-sex marriage became legal, the novel follows the misadventures of two gay men for whom it didn’t get better: Jignesh Amin, an overweight, angry Indian-American working as a bookkeeper, and Charlie Hayworth, a socially inept white guy from Leitchfield, Kentucky. After Jignesh murders the beautiful office intern because she insults his writing, and Charlie starts dating Jignesh because he wrongly believes he’s rich, the two men embark on a madcap journey that includes a few other deaths, a money-laundering scheme, a gay cruise, and an ass-backward trip to Los Cabos, Mexico.
COFFEE, SHOPPING, MURDER, LOVE will leave you cackling while also weeping at what shame does to the psyche, how social media demolishes the spirit, and how much fun it is to conjure abject moral decrepitude.
Sphere Media’s Toronto Team, CBC and HBO Max’s award-winning original comedy, SORT OF, today won a Peabody in the Entertainment Category at the 82nd Annual Peabody Awards.
Created by Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, who also serve as co-showrunners production on Season Two is currently underway in Toronto. Season One of SORT OF is currently available to stream in the US on HBO Max on the free CBC Gem streaming service in Canada. Today’s Peabody win marks the latest major accolade across Sphere’s award-winning content slate.
SORT OF features Sabi Mehboob (Baig), a fluid millennial who straddles various identities from sexy bartender at a 2SLGBTQ+ bookstore/bar, to the youngest child in a large Pakistani family, to the de facto parent of a downtown hipster family. The second season of the series will be the season of love – romantic love, family love and friend love. Sabi decides not only are they ready for some uncomplicated romance, they also want everything to be loving with everyone. Unfortunately, with their dad's unexpected return from Dubai, the Kaneko-Bauers' struggles as Bessy is released from rehab, and issues at Bar Bük, Sabi is faced with situations and relationships that are anything but simple.
“We’re personally so honored not only to receive a Peabody but be able to make ashowthat speaks to transition and the fact that we are all, in some way, in transition,”said Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, co-creators, co-showrunners, and executive producers. “It means a lot thatSORT OFis reaching people as we’re making theserieswith so much care and generosity.”
“It’s amazing to be able to produce ashowthat we all care about putting into the world,” said Jennifer Kawaja, executive producer, Sphere Media. “To win a Peabody is so affirming and exciting for us because we know it will extend the reach of what we wanted to do.”
The first Peabody win for Sphere Media Toronto, the premier scripted content producer also recently launched its critically acclaimed civil rights drama THE PORTER on BET+ in the US and CBC in Canada. Sphere Media is also known for its award winning medical drama TRANSPLANT airing on NBC in the US and CTV in Canada, Sphere Media Toronto has several projects in development that reflect its high quality, top-rated programming currently in the marketplace.
SORT OF was recognized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television earlier this year, winning three Canadian Screen Awards for Best Comedy Series, Best Writing, Comedy, and the Members’ Choice Series Ensemble Award. In April, Baig and Filippo received a Writer’s Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award. SORT OF received a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding New TV Series in addition to a Rockie Award nomination for Best Comedy Series, which will be announced later in June.
As the nation celebrates LGBTQ+ voices and communities, educators are also speaking out against legislation and rhetoric that’s causing harm and stoking fear.
Here are three ways in which educators are celebrating Pride Month and supporting their rights to be their authentic selves.
• Teachers play a crucial role in supporting and advocating for LGBTQ+ students, ensuring they can learn and explore in a safe classroom space.
• Anti-LGBTQ+ policies and laws—plus hateful rhetoric—make it difficult for educators to teach.
• NEA members and their unions work to protect LGBTQ+ educators, building solidarity along the way, and creating safe spaces for students.
OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE:OUT) proudly celebrates Pride month by highlighting 19 LGBTQIA+ individuals on billboards across the country. With PRIDE Personified, OUTFRONT showcases leaders from industries including Media, Politics, Television, Film, Marketing, Real Estate, Art, Health & Human Service, for their accomplishments in the face of adversity and those who personify the spirit of Pride both professionally and personally.
The campaign creative and concept was designed by the Co-Chair of the OUT at OUTFRONT Employee Resource Group (ERG) and an OUTFRONT STUDIOS member, Jake Parshall. The PRIDE Personified campaign applauds individuals for their impact in their communities and workplaces. To illustrate this, each LGBTQIA+ individual’s photo and occupation is displayed, along with authentically queer, vibrant, and fun designs on the campaign creative.
“I really set out to do something that didn’t feel ‘corporate,” said Jake Parshall, Co-Chair of the OUT at OUTFRONT ERG. “I wanted the designs to be super colorful, mirroring the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ Community and I pulled colors from not just the traditional rainbow flag but the progress flag, especially highlighting the trans community.”
“I am honored to be part of OUTFRONT’s 2022 PRIDE Personified campaign,” said Marc Fenty, SVP OOH at Horizon Media & Co-Chair OOH United. “I have long believed in the power of OOH and it is important to use these impactful IRL canvases to celebrate the individuals of the LGBTQIA+ community. This campaign directly follows the launch of OOH United, an initiative committed to advancing a culture of inclusion throughout the OOH industry, as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is core to industry growth.”
