Journalist · 25 articles indexed on LGBTQ News
Michael K. Lavers is a bylined journalist whose reporting appears on LGBTQ News. We aggregate Michael K. Lavers's work from trusted local sources with full attribution, linking back to the original publisher. To learn more about how we select and review stories, see our editorial standards.
Affiliated with: Washington Blade
Egyptian authorities have refused to allow a gay cruise to dock in the country. The Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages ship that Atlantis Events chartered, was to have docked in Alexandria, a port city on
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten is scheduled to open this year’s World Pride Human Rights Conference in Amsterdam. Organizers in a July 1 press release said Jetten will open the conference on Aug. 5.
Turkish authorities have refused to allow a gay cruise to dock in the country. The Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages ship that Atlantis Events chartered, departed Athens on Sunday. The 10-day cruise is s
Queen Camilla on Tuesday met with JK Rowling. The Royal Family on X said the meeting took place at Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. The post included a picture of Camilla and Rowling together. “W
A gay couple from the U.S. is among the four people found dead in a mass grave in Mexico last month. The Associated Press reported Zafar Mawani and Guillermo Hidalgo Ortiz disappeared on May 20. The c
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took part in the annual Budapest Pride march in the Hungarian capital. The march took place less than two months after new Prime Minister Péter Maygar took offi
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle. Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Dis
The Trump-Vance administration will end PEPFAR funding for South Africa. A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday told the Washington Blade the State Department “will begin a phased drawdown of PE
Eswatini's Supreme Court has ordered the government to allow an LGBTQ rights group to legally register. The Registrar of Companies in 2019 denied Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities' request to regi
The Nepalese Supreme Court on June 18 ruled the country must extend full marriage rights to same-sex couples. The Supreme Court in 2023 ordered the country’s government to allow same-sex couples to te
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday announced he will step down once his party chooses his successor. Starmer succeeded Rishi Sunak of the Conservative Party in No. 10 Downing St. in 2024. T
Abelardo de la Espriella on Sunday narrowly defeated Iván Cepeda in the second round of Colombia’s presidential election. De la Espriella, a far-right lawyer who has praised U.S. President Donald Trum
By ANTONIO PLANAS | After a physical confrontation outside an early-voting site Thursday, local union leader Gino Renne filed an assault complaint against Del. Gabriel Acevero, who said he plans to do
Editor's note: This is part of the "Queering America 250" LGBTQ history magazine published by the Washington Blade. The glossy magazine is free and available across the D.C. region during Pride. You c
The Dutch Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would ban so-called conversion therapy in the Netherlands. NL Times, an online Dutch newspaper, reported 57 of 75 senators backed the proposal. The Dut
Activists around the world are marking Pride month this year against the backdrop of war and geopolitical tensions with the U.S. KyivPride on June 21 will hold its annual Pride march in the Ukrainian
Niger is the latest African country to recriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. The Associated Press on June 12 reported the country’s military junta announced a new penal code under which
A German advocacy group on the eve of the 2026 World Cup sharply criticized the Trump-Vance administration over its anti-LGBTQ policies. The World Cup will take place in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico t
Hungarian authorities on Thursday dropped charges against Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony over his role in organizing the city’s 2025 Pride march. Karácsony spoke at the event, even though then-Prime
NEW YORK — Cyndi Lauper on Monday said LGBTQ Americans and their allies cannot give up in the fight for equality. "We need to band together. We need to stand together, and we need to speak out, and we
U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday arrested 10 HIV/AIDS activists who protested Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. The activists from Housing Works, Health
Hungarian police on May 29 announced they will allow the annual Budapest Pride march to take place. “The Budapest Metropolitan Police has approved the 2026 Budapest Pride Parade and also has issued re
Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López on Sunday finished fifth in the first round of Colombia’s presidential election. López, a centrist who ran as an independent, received 225,517 votes. This figure is .
Ghanaian lawmakers on Friday approved a bill that would, among other things, criminalize LGBTQ allyship. Reuters reported MPs approved the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, in a voice
Nine LGBTQ groups in Russia have been banned so far this year after authorities deemed them as "extremist." Human Rights Watch on Thursday noted courts in seven regions between March and May banned Co
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Out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized President Donald Trump's "carnival of corruption" during his speech at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty & Justice dinner last Sunday. The speech ramped up expectations that Buttigieg may run for president in 2028. “Right now, what’s at
An LGBTQ+ community leader in Florida was arrested last Monday for allegedly misusing a nonprofit organization's funds. Greater Fort Lauderdale LGBT Chamber of Commerce's former director, Jason Nunez, is accused of spending $11,097 of the organization's funds on Uber rides, gas, and haircuts, accord
Two religious parents filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Anne Arundel County Public School District of Maryland for allegedly "socially transitioning" their child with a masculine name and pronouns without notifying them. The parents, identified in court documents only as John and Jane Doe, ar
A community in East Toronto has come together to support the LGBTQ+ community after a student-created pride display at an elementary school was set on fire earlier this month. Hundreds of students from RH McGregor Elementary School helped create an intersex-inclusive Progress Pride flag, made from i
I entered Club Confessions through a pussy — or rather, an opening in a giant inflatable Mistr-branded pair of legs flanked by a greeting committee of lithe gay guys clad in skimpy bodysuits. If anyone else had been DJing Saturday night, the visual would be unforgivably gauche. But this is Madonna w
Former Trump Administration Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem is reportedly divorcing her husband, Bryon Noem, following tabloid reports of his alleged crossdressing and “bimbofication” fetishes earlier this year. In a recent interview with The Daily Mail, the former South
This story originally appeared on Out.The unexpected popularity of Heated Rivalry thrust its stars into the limelight almost overnight, but with their rise to fame came a loss of privacy that Hudson Williams is now acutely aware of.Williams is currently being escorted by a bodyguard around France's
Social media is eviscerating anti-trans activist Riley Gaines after she tried to compare the moment Kamala Harris made a moving speech to a WNBA team to the time FBI Director Kash Patel partied in the locker room with the USA Men's Hockey Team in Italy. "I haven't yet seen that video of Kamala Harri
Lawsuits in Arizona and New Hampshire challenging the states’ anti-trans sports bans are being dismissed following the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. B.P.J., which upheld such bans. While attorneys for both cases suggested their suits could continue after June 30, plaintiffs have chosen
After a month of radio silence from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) since neighbors saw him being rushed to the hospital, his office released a photo of him holding a newspaper in what is perhaps an attempt to show that he's still alive. The image, posted to his congressional webpage, shows McConnell in
In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, widely seen as a coded gay film, a bickering pair of urbanites try to keep a terrible secret during a tense dinner party. Slowly, a third party — in the form of an inquisitive Jimmy Stewart — begins to unravel them.Olivia Wilde’s masterful The Invite is kind of like strai
One night in the early 1930s, the great Jean Malin, hungry and tired, decided to stop by a cafeteria as he headed home from winning first prize at a drag ball. Still clad head to toe in drag, his flamboyance angered a group of four men inside. They threw a pitcher of hot water on him. Malin reacted
‘Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex’By Perrin Roosevelt Irelandc.2026, W.W. Norton$29.99 241 pages Birds do it. According to Cole Porter, bees do, too, but it’s not exactly what he imagined. Wild and tame, avians, insects, and mammals all have sex – although not always as you’ve bee
As the Trump administration celebrates America's historic semiquincentennial – the two and a half centuries that have passed since the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence – it's important to note that the president and his political party have spent the past several years actively erasin
Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has died, and what he has left behind is a power vacuum for his U.S. Senate seat — and within the Republican Party. The South Carolina senator had been a major part of Republican politics up until his Saturday death at his home in Washington, reportedly o
Mexico's first out gay mayor was shot to death on July 7 while exiting an ice cream shop in the city of Guadalajara. 59-year-old Benjamín Medrano Quezada served as mayor of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, from 2013 to 2015 and subsequently served as a federal deputy in the Mexican Congress Chamber of Deputies
Transgender author Jesse James Rose wrote in an Instagram post published Sunday that recently deceased homophobic Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) regularly paid her "a fat stack of cash" when she was a "twinky pre-transition college student" to do "unspeakable things to him in a hotel room while he wore
After longtime U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham died on Saturday night, reportedly from aortic dissection, the reaction from the LGBTQ+ community was immediate.The South Carolina Republican had served in the U.S. Senate since 2003, spending his final years as a loyalist to President Donald Tru
The eighth annual Westminster Pride Festival was held at Westminster City Park in Westminster, Md. on Saturday, July 11. (Washington Blade photos by Michael Key) The post PHOTOS: Westminster Pride appeared first on Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News.
El 24 de junio de 2026, dos terremotos sacudieron Venezuela y alteraron la vida de miles de personas en cuestión de segundos. Para gran parte del mundo fue una noticia que ocupó titulares durante algunos días. Para quienes nacimos allí, el tiempo pareció detenerse. Antes de pensar en la magnitud del
Did you know that today, July 13, is Lesbian Aunts Day? Did you even know that there’s an entire day devoted to the sapphic sisters of your parents? Well, there should be. Because lesbian aunts are the givers of the best birthday gifts and — I can only say this because I am one — the weirdos who mak
The fifth annual Emerald City Pride was held in Greenbelt, Md. on Saturday, July 11. (Washignton Blade photos by Michael Key) View on Threads The post PHOTOS: Emerald City Pride appeared first on Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News.
By CODY BOTELER | Two parents, backed by a conservative nonprofit group, are suing Anne Arundel County Public Schools over the school system’s policies related to transgender children. The suit, filed Wednesday in Maryland’s U.S. District Court, accuses staff at an unidentified county high school of
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) died suddenly on Saturday night from an aortic rupture at age 71. And one of the last things he said was that he "can't die now." In his final hours, Graham talked to the president on the phone about Ukraine, Russian sanctions, and airstrikes against Iran. Just after that
A disabled transgender college student who was bullied by conservatives on social media because of his disability and trans identity has had his accounts on Instagram and Facebook banned because they allegedly broke the rules on "Community Standards on child sexual exploitation, abuse, and nudity."
So after nearly a month of silence, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) decided to prove that he is still alive. In a statement yesterday, McConnell said that the reason he was wheeled away on a stretcher in an ambulance was because of a fall, not a heart attack or stroke. He subsequently contracted "mild p
At their annual Continental Congress gathering last week, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) rejected a proposal to define trans women out of membership in the organization. The vote was the culmination of a two-year battle among members over who does and doesn't qualify as a "daughter"
Amidst Russia's crackdown on so-called LGBTQ+ propaganda, television viewers in the country noticed the censorship of a rainbow in a famous episode of the children's cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. In the episode, SpongeBob speaks about the fun of using one's imagination, and as he does so, his hands
A Texas judge is asking a federal court to overturn marriage equality in the U.S., arguing in a lawsuit filed on Friday that marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional because it was legalized in a decision that "subordinat[ed] state law to the policy preferences of unelected judges." The cas
State Sen. J. Stuart Adams, Republican leader of the Utah Senate, once said that transgender athletes put cisgender girls at risk. Now, he's facing criticism for his help to keep his 18-year-old relative out of jail after the relative raped a 13-year-old. Adams helped change a state law to give his
Leading up to the 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which made marriage equality a federal right, sociologist Mark Regnerus published controversial research titled the “New Family Structures Study”. Regnerus, who is forthcoming about the fact that his Catholic faith shapes
Following the start of the Iran war, many Americans were worried for the first time in decades about a potential draft. When asked about the possibility, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt noted that it was not part of the current plans but that, “The president wisely keeps his options on
Trans Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) recently spoke about her high hopes for Democrats in the midterm elections this November. In a Tuesday interview with Out, McBride said she's "determined to enter a Democratic majority in January of 2027." "I'm determined as a member of Congress, but even more so as a
During an appearance on Fox News last night, anti-LGBTQ+ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) spoke with host Sean Hannity about what Hannity called a "mass migration" of conservative voters moving from blue states to red states. DeSantis said a massive influx of GOP voters to Florida has inflated the perc
This story originally appeared on The Advocate.As questions swirl around Washington about the health status of Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been hospitalized for weeks after emergency responders went to his house for a patient in cardiac arrest, the political world woke up Sunday morn
Gay cruise blocked from docking in Turkey and Egypt due to "moral values" Why they blocked the ship: An LGBTQ+ cruise operated by Atlantis Events was supposed to stop at a port city in Turkey this week, but authorities denied access to it because LGBTQ+ people are " known for behaviors that do not a
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) died suddenly on Saturday. The South Carolina Republican’s office in a statement said Graham, 71, “passed away from a brief and sudden illness.” The Washington Post reported first responders responded to Graham’s Washington home on Saturday and transported him to a
Goose, a new gay dating app that launched last month, is using AI-generated Instagram "friends" to recruit members to the Grindr alternative, reporting from Wired alleges. “On one hand, I’m flattered that I’m their target audience,” Ryan Cheam, a PR professional and a mark in the fake friends' campa
Jerusalem's LGBTQ+ community is mourning the closure of the city's only gay bar, which bid farewell to patrons at the end of June. Video Pub has been a haven for LGBTQ+ Israelis and tourists for the past 14 years, but its owner, Avi Goldberger, believes it's no longer needed. Related How LGBTQ+ affi
MAGA infighting erupted at Turning Point USA’s America Fest in Phoenix, Arizona, as conservative broadcaster Ben Shapiro blasted Candace Owens for spreading conspiracy theories about the murder of Turning Point's founder Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson for platforming neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, and Steve B
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