I love finding a wild card for this column. This week we have one of my favorite sings of my youth, a lovely collection of locals, and a little harp because I have free will and so do you. Got a show coming up? New single? Simply want someone to talk music? I am your...
Becoming the first Asian country to legally recognize same-sex marriages offered Taiwan the chance to host an absolutely fabulous mass wedding. Taiwan is now the first country in Asia to legally recognize same-sex unions. On May 24, Taiwan's legislature voted 66 to 27 to federally recognize same-sex marriages. The proceedings were live-streamed...
Kweendom, Bobby Hankinson's all-LGBTQ comedy showcase, promises to be a highlight of this weekend's 2nd Best Comedy Festival. Bobby Hankinson and his rad stand-up comedy lineup want you to know that they are the 2nd Best in Richmond. At least as far as the 2nd Best Comedy Fest is concerned. Hankinson and his New York City-based comedy show,...
The U.S. State Dept. on Thursday quietly published a notice in the Federal Registerannouncing it creating a new commission to provide "fresh thinking" about "natural law and natural rights," which is the religious right's code for anti-LGBTQ. The "Commission on Unalienable Rights" will "provide fresh thinking about human rights...
Behind every gay man, there is a great woman -- or, more accurately, great women. Joe Biden said of Will and Grace that the show “did more to educate the American public than almost anybody’s ever done so far.” And he was absolutely right. The sitcom was indeed groundbreaking, because it normalized gay people to American audiences. Yet, perhaps...
Every Monday throughout June, The Byrd Theatre will celebrate Pride Month with #MonGays, a series spotlighting the LGBTQ community. This week, Kenyan film Rafiki kicks off the month in memorable fashion. When was the last time you witnessed history unfolding and actually felt like humanity at its core was good? When was the last time you felt the...
Richmond drag performer Sweet Pickles describes herself as a "dancing troll with an AC Moore rewards card." Claire Gates has a busy theater career. But whenever she finds time, she paints her face, dons a wig made from yarn, and becomes Sweet Pickles, a rising star in Richmond’s ever-growing drag scene. “The way I like to describe myself is like...
In Critiques For The Culture's latest contribution to GayRVA, Taneasha White and Brooke Taylor examine TheatreLAB's An Octoroon, and ask: Did this play about racial relations in the 19th century -- and today -- achieve its intended goal? Critiques for The Culture is a conversational podcast and radio show (on WRIR and WRWK) that focuses on...
Why is a public school being housed in a building owned by a church, and how can it be required to not do anything that would violate "Catholic moral values, ethics and faith"? A New Jersey taxpayer-funded public charter school run by a private non-profit organization has the Catholic Church for its landlord. Last week administrators at the...
The attacks from this administration just do not stop. On Friday, Trump's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a rule that seems calculated to have devastating effects on LGBTQ health care in the United States. Roger Severino, who is the director of HHS's Office of Civil Rights -- and, probably not coincidentally, a known...
