Can Three Parents Make a Family in New York?
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD | In an opinion issued on April 10, a New York Family Court judge confronted the question whether there can be a third parent — an adult with legal rights to seek custody and visitation of a child who already has two legal, biological parents. In a case involving a married gay […]
Federal Court Orders Trial on Trans Military Ban
BY ARTHUR S. LEONARD | A federal court has rejected the Trump administration’s argument that the four existing preliminary injunctions issued last year against President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban are moot because they were based on his memorandum from last August 25 and the earlier July 26 tweets announcing the ban, which the president’s […]
David Buckel, Passionate LGBTQ Rights Litigator, Dead at 60
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | David Buckel, a former longtime attorney at Lambda Legal who had led the group’s Marriage Project and advanced LGBTQ rights on a broad range of fronts, was found dead in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park early in the morning on April 14, the victim of a suicide. According to the New York Daily […]
A Lear for Our Times
BY ANDY HUMM | First things first. This splendid production of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “King Lear”— directed by artistic director Gregory Doran with Sir Antony Sher as Lear in what he says will be his last Shakespeare performance (because what’s left for him?) — is at BAM only until April 29. Go. Now. It is […]
Nine Revolting Rebekah Mercers — In One Museum!
BY SYDNEY PEREIRA | The Revolting Lesbians were back on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History on Friday, and they weren’t afraid to get kicked out or even have the cops called on them. In fact, that was partially their goal. The Friday the 13th “horror show” was a demonstration against Rebekah Mercer […]
Melissa Sklarz Dives into Queens Race
BY PAUL SCHINDLER | For the past several decades, Melissa Sklarz has amassed a wide-ranging portfolio in local LGBTQ and Democratic activism. An out transgender woman, Sklarz served on the Police Commissioner’s LGBT Advisory Committee that established standards for police interactions with the trans community; she’s been a co-president of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New […]
Tribeca’s Rich Offering of Queer Cinema
BY GARY M. KRAMER | The Tribeca Film Festival, unspooling at half a dozen Lower Manhattan venues April 18-29, features several LGBTQ films and filmmakers. While not every queer-focused title was available for preview, a handful of features, documentaries, shorts, and special programs were. One of the highlights of this year’s fest is the world premiere […]
Resistance Bloc Likely to Seek Pride Parade Slot Again
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE | For the second year in a row, Heritage of Pride (HOP), the organization that produces New York City’s annual Pride Parade and related events, may be facing demands that it admit a resistance contingent to the march. “We want a resistance contingent and we want it to be bigger than 200 people,” […]
Charles Busch’s Big, Beautiful Dare
BY DAVID NOH | Unbelievable as it seems, genius campmeister Charles Busch has never tackled pre-Code women’s pictures, namely those soaked-hankie epics of beleaguered mother love like “Madame X,” “Blonde Venus,” or “Frisco Jenny.” Consider that genre now officially done, to a side-splitting fare-thee-well, for “The Confession of Lily Dare” is Busch in peak form, both […]
Bank of America Straddles Question of Financing Guns
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE | With leading LGBTQ groups supporting gun control measures since the 2016 killings of 49 people in a Florida gay nightclub, a major US bank that was once strongly allied with the community is loaning tens of millions to Remington Outdoor as part of the gun manufacturer’s pre-packaged bankruptcy. “Bank of America is […]
