Welcome back, fellow queers! We are gracing you with a special bonus Tuesday edition of Xtra News Flash today, fresh off the heels of the biggest night in fashion—the Met Gala. Read on to see our top toots of the night and the rest of the queer news of the day you should know.
1. Our top queer looks from the Met Gala
2. Trans lawmaker Zooey Zephyr and ACLU sue Montana House leadership
3. A drag dinner party competition series is coming this month
4. New survey results reveal that nearly half of young LGBTQ2S+ people considered suicide in the past year
5. Tony Awards nominations are announced
6. Gay Twitter blows up over misleading article linking oral sex to “throat cancer epidemic”
1. Our top queer looks from the Met Gala
Yesterday was the first Monday of May, which means hundreds of celebrities, socialites and nepo babies descended upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art dressed to impress for the Met Gala.
Each year, the event serves as part fundraiser and part reveal of the museum’s new exhibit. This year’s offering, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” provided inspiration for the dress code “in honor of Karl.” The late designer’s work could be found in numerous fashion houses including Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi, Chanel and his own eponymous brand, giving stars a wealth of fashion history to pull inspiration from. But the theme has also garnered criticism in light of Lagerfeld’s history of homophobic, racist, misogynistic and fatphobic comments.
Here are three of our favourite queer looks!
Serving perhaps the most dazzling look of the night, Lil Nas X stepped onto the carpet covered head to toe in silver glitter and encrusted in pearls and gems.
The men this year certainly did not disappoint! What We Do in the Shadows star Harvey Guillén stunned in a baby pink tweed suit, silky train and layers of pearl necklaces. Guillén joins other celebs who sported pink looks in a possible act of subtle shade to Lagerfeld, who famously disliked the colour.
We couldn’t end the list without a shout-out to Doja Cat, who dressed iconically as not only her namesake, but as Lagerfeld’s beloved cat, Choupette. For her Met Gala debut, she even fully committed to the bit by meowing all her interview responses. (And no, we will not be discussing the other Choupette in attendance.)
2. Trans lawmaker Zooey Zephyr and ACLU sue Montana House leadership
The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana (ACLU) filed a lawsuit Monday in response to the censure of the state’s first openly trans legislator, Zooey Zephyr, last week. The lawsuit alleges that the censure implemented Thursday violates Zephyr’s First Amendment rights and the rights of the 11,000 constituents she represents.
The censure allows Zephyr to maintain her position and vote remotely, but prevents her from physically participating on the House floor for the remainder of the session, which ends this Friday. While it might not seem like a significant amount of time, this move crucially prevents Zephyr from participating in the final bills of the session.
“This effort by House leadership to silence me and my constituents is a disturbing and terrifying affront to democracy itself,” said Zephyr in a statement. “House leadership explicitly and directly targeted me and my district because I dared to give voice to the values and needs of transgender people like myself.”
The Republican-led House ratified Zephyr’s censure last week after protests prompted by her being forbidden from participating in House debates for a second week. Protestors interrupted House proceedings to show their support for Zephyr, who has been outspoken against the state’s new ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The ban was signed into law by Montana’s governor on Friday, which the ACLU has also promised to challenge.
3. A drag dinner party competition series is coming this month
Drag fans rejoice—a new drag competition show is coming to Hulu this month! Only instead of baking their faces, our favourite performers will be tasked with baking something in the kitchen.
Drag Me to Dinner assembles talent from across the Ru-niverse and beyond to test their cooking skills in front of a panel of queer legends and food experts, including Neil Patrick Harris and Drag Race winner Bianca Del Rio. Each week, the 10-episode series will pit two pairs of performers head to head in a themed battle of the dinner parties, bringing a whopping 40 queens to our screens.
Drag Race fans can look forward to the return of iconic duos like Latrice Royale and Manila Luzon, Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme and Alaska and Willam. The series will also feature one of the final performances from Heklina, the San Francisco drag legend who passed in early April.
Drag Me to Dinner comes to Hulu on May 31. With the eighth season of Rupaul’s Drag Race All Stars also set to premiere this month, the drag gods are truly keeping us fed.
4. New survey results reveal that nearly half of young LGBTQ2S+ people considered suicide in the past year
It’s long been clear that the mental health of LGBTQ2S+ youth is in a dire state—and a new report released by The Trevor Project further confirms this. The results of the 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People are nothing short of alarming, revealing that two in five young queer and trans people have seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. With a sample size of over 28,000 LGBTQ2S+ youth aged between 13 and 24, this is the fifth consecutive year that The Trevor Project has conducted this survey, and the situation remains critical.
Despite a slight decrease from last year’s results, the findings demonstrate the urgent need for mental health support and intervention for young LGBTQ2S+ people. According to The Trevor Project’s vice president of research, Dr. Ronita Nath, “As the existence of LGBTQ2S+ young people continues to be unfairly put up for debate, it’s critical to consistently underscore that these challenges are not inherent to LGBTQ2S+ identity, but rather stem from stigma, discrimination and violence.”
5. Some Like It Hot dominates Tony Award nominations with 13 nods, alongside Shucked, New York, New York, Kimberly Akimbo and & Juliet
It’s Tony Awards season, and the nominations for the 76th annual ceremony were announced on Tuesday morning. The frontrunner in the musical category is Some Like It Hot, which snagged a whopping 13 nominations! But it’s not going to be an easy win for them.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street had the most nominations of any revival musical with eight nods, while A Doll’s House earned the most nominations for a play revival with six.
Some big-name stars are up for awards this year, including the talented Jessica Chastain, Jodie Comer, Josh Groban, Ben Platt and Samuel L. Jackson.
In a fun twist, both Lea Michele, who is currently starring in Funny Girl on Broadway, and Myles Frost, who won a Tony Award last year for his portrayal of Michael Jackson, teamed up to announce the nominations. Check out the full list to see who made the cut!
6. Gay Twitter blows up over misleading article linking oral sex to “throat cancer epidemic”
Over the weekend, a U.K.-based cancer and genomic sciences professor published an article that names oral sex as a leading factor in what he calls the “throat cancer epidemic.”
However, the article fails to clarify that oral sex itself does not cause throat cancer—rather, HPV (which can be passed on via oral sex) is a possible cause of oropharyngeal cancer. Nevertheless, the internet took this misleading information and ran with it, causing quite a stir on gay Twitter.
While HPV may be a cause of throat cancer, HPV vaccines are widely available—and one can further reduce the chance of contracting STIs like HPV by practising safer sex.
The takeaway? Don’t believe everything you read online, kids!
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