The Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Institute released its 2024 Studio Responsibility Index, finding an alarmingly low amount of queer and trans characters in 2023 films and TV series, oftentimes still being blatantly offensive. 

“It’s our job to provide you with the tools and support to tell fair and inclusive stories,” said GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis. “This is so important because we are seeing a direct correlation between a very sharp rise in LGBTQ+ violence and over [600] anti-LGBTQ+ laws [being introduced] this year.”

Over 600 anti-transgender laws were introduced this year alone, whereas in 2023 there were a record-breaking 400 anti-trans laws introduced. 

The SRI found that in 2023, only two films featured a trans character. 

The report further found that not only is representation “alarmingly low,” but it is “also at times, blatantly offensive.”

Yesterday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a report highlighting hate crimes against LGBTQ people, showing an increase from the previous years. 

Megan Townsend, the GLAAD Media Institute’s senior director of entertainment research and analysis, stated that the need for more LGBTQ representation is more crucial than ever because more Americans than ever now identify as part of the LGBTQ community. 

“One in five Americans identify as LGBTQ+ and this is a figure that has gone up,” said Townsend. “Super majorities of both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ 18-24 year olds actively seek out queer inclusive media.”

The purpose of this Studio Responsibility Index is not only to highlight the lack of representation on Hollywood screens, but also to protect the progress that has already been made. 

GLAAD uses research and analysis of ten major studios that include A24, Amazon, Apple TV+, Lionsgate, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery. 

The studio responsibility index explores films across five genres, comedy, drama, family, fantasy/sci-fi/action and horror. 

Each studio receives a rating on the scale of excellent, good, fair, insufficient, poor and failing to provide with enough valid representation. 

The SRI also uses The Vito Russo Test, which was inspired by The Bechdel-Wallace Test. The Bechdel-Wallace Test was named after Alison Bechdel and Liz Wallace, who developed it to measure women’s representation on screen. To pass, the film must feature a conversation between two female characters, where they don’t mention a man. 

The Vito Russo Test, therefore, was inspired to measure LGBTQ representation on screen. GLAAD developed its own set of criteria to analyze how characters are represented within a narrative. In 2023, 71 percent of the 256 films analyzed passed the Vito Russo Test. This marks a consistent rise in this specific part of the report. 

Music and dance artist Isla Cheadle is producing “Build This House,” a weekend of vogue performance and community-building workshops at the Warehouse at the Geffen Contemporary on Oct. 4-5. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and the Banjee Ball Foundation, a Ballroom-centered organization providing creative, educational and career opportunities to LGBTQIA+ individuals and women, are presenting the event.

“Ballroom is one of the greatest American art forms, both in its creative potency and competitive structure,” Cheadle said. “It belongs in spaces that respect it — not just for the finger snaps, but for the effect it has had on culture for half a century.”

Organizer, Isla Cheadle, an award-winning voguer and sought-after choreographer.

Cheadle, who was one of the dancers on HBO Max’s popular Ballroom series “Legendary” in season one, said this weekend is a “full circle” moment for her.

“Back in 2014, when I was early in my ballroom path, I was asked by a music artist friend to help choreograph their performance at MOCA. I pulled in my new voguer friends and it was amazing. Ever since then, I have dreamed about getting back there and letting Ballroom fully take up space.”

Cheadle has been in talks with MOCA for almost two years about hosting a Ball there. “This year I finally turned my brand Banjee Ball into a nonprofit (also a longtime dream) and we were able to bring it all together.”

With almost 20 years of experience in entertainment, Cheadle has toured the world performing dance music with her husband under the name Purple Crush. They’ve released collaborations with artists such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Raja and Eureka O’Hara, rapper Le1f, Ballroom/House producer Vjuan Allure and Ballroom commentator Icon Kevin JZ Prodigy, who worked with Beyoncé and Madonna.

“Build This House” is also the title of a new song Cheadle and her husband have worked on. “The song is about creating safe space, by building community from the ground up, brick by brick,” she noted, adding that Purple Crush’s full album will be out this fall.

Friday night will feature a lecture series by some of the great minds in Ballroom and HIV activism: Michael Roberson, an acclaimed Ballroom historian and professor at the New School for Social Research; Ballroom We Care, a harm-reduction Ballroom-centered organization; and trauma healer Tovi C. Scruggs. The workshop series will be followed by live performances by artists like Kevin JZ Prodigy. Saturday night will be a full Ball, with categories, costumes and competition.

Zay Basquiat (formerly from the House of Lanvin), also known as Isaiah Victor, will be choreographing and performing, alongside Purple Crush and Kevin JZ Prodigy.

The 16th annual Hola Mexico Film Festival, the largest Mexican film festival outside Mexico, runs through Sept. 27. This year’s festival presents films across genres including comedy, horror, socio-political issues and LGBTQ lives.

“TransMexico,” a documentary following three trans women as they navigate access to education, employment, housing and medical services amid unchecked transphobia and misogyny, screens Thursday at 5 p.m. at Regal Cinemas L.A Live.

“In 16 years of showing Mexican cinema to our community, we’ve seen the Mexican film industry grow in huge leaps and bounds,” said Samuel Douek, founder and director of HMFF. “Still, through all that growth the essence of HMFF remains the same: fantastic Mexican cinema in luxurious movie theaters surrounded by strangers who become familiar via our shared love of this great art form.”

The closing night ceremony will feature a special Los Angeles debut performance by Mexican singer-songwriter and activist Vivir Quintana, known for her fight against gender-based violence in Latin America.

It’s no surprise that the fall movie landscape finds an unusually large number of films – most of them documentaries – about trans people and the challenges they face in trying to achieve an identity that matches their own sense of self. 

Transgender rights or even acceptance have never been in such a precarious place within the American political landscape since queer rights were acknowledged at all in the mainstream conversation. After eight years of ramped-up efforts by anti-trans activists to essentially legislate them out of legal existence, trans people find themselves facing a divisive and uncomfortably close election that will likely have an existential impact on their future, accompanied by persistent and vocal efforts by the conservative right-wing crowd to ostracize and stigmatize them within public perception. They’re not the only target, but they are the most vulnerable one – especially within the evangelical strongholds that might swing the election one way or the other – and that means a lot of conservative crosshairs are trained directly on them.

It’s a position they’re used to, unfortunately, which is precisely why there are so many erudite and artistic voices within the trans community emerging, prepared by years of experience and education gained from dealing with persistent transphobic dogma in American culture, to illuminate the trans experience and push back against the efforts of political opportunists by letting their stories speak for themselves. Surely there is no weapon against hatred more potent than empathy – once we recognize our own reflection in those we demonize, it’s hard to keep ourselves from recognizing our shared humanity, too – and perhaps no more potent way of conveying it than through the most visceral artistic medium of all: filmmaking

Particularly timely, in the wake of an Olympics marked by controversy over the participation of Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting in the women’s competition, is “Unfightable,” from producer/director Marc J. Perez. Offering up a harrowing, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring portrait of Alana McLaughlin – a U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant who, following gender transition, turned female MMA fighter only to face resistance and transphobic prejudice within the rarified cultural microcosm of professional sports – while also taking a deep dive into the world of Mixed Martial Arts and the starkly divided attitudes of those who work within it, it aims to turn one person’s trans experience into a metaphor for the struggle of an entire community to be recognized and accepted on its own terms. For the most part, it succeeds.

Unlike many such biography-heavy documentaries, “Unfightable” allows its subject – the charismatic and outspoken McLaughlin, whose presence rightly dominates the film and leaves the most lingering impression – to narrate her own story, without interpretation or commentary from “talking head” experts. From the grim-but-all-too-familiar story of her upbringing in a deeply religious family (and yes, conversion “therapy” was involved) through her struggle to define her identity via a grueling military career, her eventual transition, and her emergence as only the second transfeminine competitor in the professional MMA arena and beyond, Perez treats most of the movie’s narrative thrust like an extended one-on-one interview, in which McLaughlin delivers the story as she experienced it. This one-on-one honest expression is effectively counterpointed by the rhetoric of other MMA personalities who participated in the film, some of which is shockingly transphobic despite protestations of having “nothing against” trans people.

At the same time, the film acknowledges and amplifies supportive voices within the MMA, whose efforts to bring McLaughlin into the fold were not only successful, but ultimately led to her victorious 2021 match against French fighter Celine Provost. It’s a tale that hits all the touchstone marks of queer/trans experience for those whose lives can’t really begin until they break free of their oppressive origins, and whose fight to claim an authentic life for themself is frequently waged against both the families who ostensibly love them and the prejudices of a society eager to condemn anything that deviates from the perceived “norm”. Naturally, as a story of individual determination, self-acceptance, and success against the odds, its main agenda is to draw you in and lift you up; but it does so while still driving home the point about how far the road still stretches ahead before trans athletes – and by extension, trans people in general – are afforded the same legitimacy as everyone else.

To ensure that reality is never forgotten or taken lightly, we are offered some pretty egregious examples; from prominent fighters who insist they “have no problem” with trans people as a preface for their transphobic beliefs about trans athletes, to McLaughlin’s long wait before finding another MMA pro who was willing to fight her we are confronted with a pattern of prejudice blocking her path forward. And though it documents her triumph, it reminds us that three years later, despite her accomplishments, she has yet to find another MMA pro willing to give her another bout.

If nothing else, though, “Unfightable” underscores a shift in attitudes that reflects the progress – however slow or maddeningly hard-won it may be – of trans people carving out space for themselves in a social environment still largely hostile to their success or even their participation. As McLaughlin’s journey illustrates, it takes dogged persistence and a not-insignificant level of righteous anger to even pierce the skin of the systemic transphobia that still opposes the involvement of people like her in sports; her experience also bears witness to the emboldened bigotry that has doubled-down on its opposition to trans acceptance since the 2016 election of a certain former president who is now seeking a second chance of his own – highlighting the dire consequences at stake for the trans community (and, let’s face it, the entire queer community alongside every other group deplored and marginalized by his followers) should his efforts toward a comeback prove successful.

Yet as grim an outlook as it may acknowledge, “Unfightable” doesn’t leave viewers with a belief in sure defeat; in the toughness of its subject – who is, as it proudly makes clear, a veteran of combat much more directly dangerous than anything she will ever encounter in the ring – and her refusal to simply give up and go away, it kindles in us the same kind of dogged resistance that fueled her own transcendence of a toxic personal history and allowed her to assert her identity –  triumphantly so, despite the transphobia that would have kept her forever from the prize.

That’s a spirit of determination that we all could use to help drive us to victory at the polls come November. Like Alana McLaughlin, we have neither the desire nor the ability to go back to the way our lives were before, and Perez’s documentary helps us believe we have the strength to keep it from happening.

“Unfightable” opened for a limited release in New York on Sept. 13 and begins another in Los Angeles on Sept. 20. It will air on ViX, the leading Spanish-language streaming service in the world, and in English on Fuse TV, following its theatrical run.

“Rage: On Being Queer, Black, Brilliant… and Completely Over It”
By Lester Fabian Brathwaite
c.2024, Tiny Reparations Books
$28/288 pages

Somewhere up in the clouds.

That’s where your blood pressure is, right there as high as it’s ever been. Hoo, boy, are you angry. Your teeth are clenched, your eyes are slits, and you can’t trust yourself to speak in more than a growl. You’re plenty steamed and, as in the new book “Rage” by Lester Fabian Brathwaite, it shouldn’t have to be this way.

When he came with his family to America from Guyana at just four years old, Brathwaite couldn’t believe what his new home country offered. Malls, new kinds of food, cable television? Shirtless white men on TV and in magazines? Yes, please!

He’s always had crushes on white men, but he loves being a gay Black man – even though racism, overt and subtle, can be an aggravation. When Brathwaite is on a dating app, white men sometimes dismiss him with a racial comment. He’s heard and seen the “n-word” more than once and he doesn’t tolerate it. Wouldn’t a greeting and a no thanks be less rude?

He is bothered by unnecessary meanness.

He is bothered in a different way by bodybuilding. Hot, muscular bodies, to be exact and he’s sure that whoever created the sport was a genius. Brathwaite participates in bodybuilding himself sometimes – it’s expensive and he does it for himself, not for other men – though he believes that gay men are bodybuilding’s biggest subset. For sure, he’s payed homage to his share of bodybuilders, superheroes in movies, and hot shirtless boys on TV.

There were many times, years ago, that Brathwaite ended up drunk and in a stranger’s bed or looking for an old hook-up, and he was arrested once. Nearing 30, though, he realized that that life wasn’t what he wanted anymore. His knees couldn’t take it. Besides, he liked who he was and he liked his blackness. He realized that he didn’t need anyone else to be a hero of his tale. He could do it better himself.

One thing’s for certain: “Rage” lives up to its title.

At times, author Lester Fabian Brathwaite rails against so many things: racism and desire, club society, being a writer and editor, the generational differences between gay men, politics, and loss. At other times, he’s outRAGEous and hilarious, writing to readers as though he’s holding court in a cafe somewhere and you’d better listen up.

You should know that that means honesty – poking in the corners, calling things out for what they are, chastising people who need schooling on how to behave in a way that doesn’t leave room for nonsense. This arrives unabashed and raw, accompanied by plenty of profanity.

You’ve been warned.

And yet, Brathwaite’s candor and his blunt talk is fresh and different. This gay man doesn’t pussy-foot around, and getting his opinions without fluff feels good and right. Readers will appreciate that, and they might come away educated.

Generally speaking, this ain’t your Grandma’s book, unless Grandma likes real talk laced with profanity. If that’s so, then get “Rage.” You’ll both be mad for it.

The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.

Washington State-native Travis Holp is a psychic medium with close to 300 thousand followers on Instagram and 500 thousand on Tik Tok.  Known on social media as the Warrior Unicorn – a nod to his fighting spirit toward LGBTQ and mental health awareness issues, combined with his effervescent personality – Travis connects with those who have passed over and delivers messages to their loved ones in the physical world.  

Through one-on-one readings and large public events, he says he does it with one aim in mind:  that clients leave their time with him feeling a new sense of connection, clarity, closure and healing. He’ll make his Los Angeles debut at The Vault in the Beverly Center on Sunday, September 29, at 7pm.

Holp doesn’t recall when he discovered his psychic ability.   He simply remembers being very young, maybe four-years-old, and having long conversations with what people around him assumed were his imaginary friends but, he now realizes, were his Spirit guides.   “I can’t say there was one specific moment, but more like many moments throughout my life.”

It wasn’t until his early 20s when he decided to turn his skill into a profession.  “Early on in my journey, I read as many books on mediumship as I could find,” he continues. He quickly found himself inundated with Spirit hoping to connect with loved ones in the physical world.  

One of his biggest concerns became protecting his energy and learning to keep boundaries with the spiritual world.  

“My now mentor and friend MaryAnn DiMarco wrote this great book called Medium Mentor, and she has some great exercises for spiritual protection.”  

He also takes steps to nurture his special gift. “I regularly meditate and do things to raise my vibration like dancing to music.”  A favorite song of his to listen to before readings and live events is Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth”.

He believes most people have psychic abilities.  Some, like himself, are born with it, and others access it later in life. “Like any other ability, it is absolutely possible for a person to learn to connect for him or herself,” he says.  He often teaches people how to do it during sessions and at live classes.

The best way he has found to enhance mediumistic abilities is to actively participate in one’s own emotional healing.  He says the connection we have with ourselves is the foundation for mediumship.  “Like anything, it takes some training but I have gotten really adept at understanding the messages Spirit tells me,” Holp explains.   He sees Spirit in his mind’s eye, and he hears and feels their communications. “Spirit uses my own frame of reference and symbols to help me convey their messages.”

His main purpose with Spirit is being a vessel.  He views himself as the Guncle (gay uncle) of the Spirit world.   “I always tell it like it is,” he says, “but I’m careful to deliver information with kindness, joy, and hope.”  

Though both of his grandmothers “pop in” from time to time (he’ll feel their warm and loving energy and always enjoys it when they come to say hello!), he typically won’t read for close family members because he knows too much information about them.  However, sometimes Spirit does present itself for a loved one.  

When it does, Travis will thank the Spirit for coming but let them know that he prefers not to send a message. It’s all about keeping healthy boundaries between himself and his loved ones.

He does the same thing while on dates.  

“I don’t date much, but when I do and I tell a guy how I make my living, they often worry that I’m reading them.  I am not,” he insists.    “I may get little nudges here and there, like one time I felt the energy of a mom in Spirit for someone I was on a date with, and a few moments later, he shared his mom had passed from cancer a few years prior, but I won’t stop a date to deliver a reading.  It’s not very romantic,” he laughs. 

“I believe I am meant to help others along their healing journey,” he continues.  “Whether a client seeks guidance on a specific topic, wants to connect with a loved one in Spirit, or wants to deepen their own spiritual practice, I’m here to help like any great guncle who knows a lot of sh-t would.” 

He admits that he often surprises himself with the accuracy of his messages. “I especially love it when the two people shared a special word or song and then Spirit reveals that word or title to me so that I can relay it back to my client.  It’s validation, for sure, but it is also a fun feather in my cap.”

As far as the messages that he most often receives from Spirit, Holp says our dearly departed wish that we would let go of regret, guilt, and shame. “One of the things I have learned from Spirit is that most of what we carry isn’t necessary.  In the end, all that really matters is love.”

Travis Holp appears at The Vault in the Beverly Center (8500 Beverly Blvd, Suite 860) on Sunday, Sept 29th at 7pm. For tickets, visit: www.travisholp.com 

At the Creative Arts Emmy awards last weekend, actor/LGBTQ activist Alan Cumming won the award for Outstanding Host of a Reality Series for the much-loved Peacock series, “The Traitors.” While at the Primetime Emmys on Sunday night, the series also won for Outstanding Competition Series.

Thanking the audience, Cumming said: “We are so grateful because we are a new show, and you guys, when you like something, you tend to stick to it, which is a good quality, so we appreciate it all the more.” 

During Emmys night, Cumming wore a Trans Pride pin on the lapel of his jacket, which featured the colors of the transgender Pride flag–blue, pink and white. Attached to the ribbon was a medal, which read, “For Military Merit.”

Speaking to him Saturday at the GBK Brand Bar event, Cumming said he was “very happy” the Emmys were so very LGBTQ-friendly this year.

Alan Cumming at GBK Brand Bar’s Emmy Lounge (Photo by Kinga Sarabina)

“There are lots and lots of queer people being celebrated, and that is a very positive thing,”  Cumming told the Los Angeles Blade. “Especially because we are at a time in America’s history where queer people are under threat and there is a lot of violence around. So I think it’s very beautiful that the entertainment industry is showing their love and support for us.”

There were many stylish LGBTQ couples on the Emmys red carpet. Caroline Joyner, who is the director and co-head of inclusion at William Morris, was with Brittani Nichols, a writer and producer for “Abbott Elementary,” which was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series this year. Looking lovely as well was Sarah Paulson, who was right by Emmy nominee Holland Taylor’s side. Singer Jessica Betts accompanied her wife, Niecy Nash-Betts, who was part of a fun segment about television cops. 

Other well dressed celebrities were queer actor Devery Jacobs, who stars in “Reservation Dogs,” which was up for Best Comedy; Ayo Edebiri, nominated for “The Bear,” Kirsten Kish was nominated for “Top Chef” and Kali Reis, who was nominated for acting in “True Detective: Night Country.” 

LGBTQ “Baby Reindeer” stars Jessica Gunning — nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series — and Richard Gadd, who also wrote/created the series, both received accolades for their fascinating Netflix series, which won four Emmys. 

“This is the stuff of dreams,” Gadd said after winning his first Emmy in writing, as well as outstanding limited or anthology series and lead actor. 

In the pressroom, Gunning complimented Gadd’s writing, saying that her character was “so unique and unusual” in the dialogue she read. “It was all really there in the script for me and I just connected with her. I never saw her as a villain. I saw her as a kind of a complicated, lonely character, as was Richard’s character Donny. It was all there in the work. I was just very lucky to be able to play the part.” 

Gunning said that she was unable to put the script down once she received it.

“I read all the seven episodes in one go and I just kind of fell in love with the story and the writing and the character of Martha,” she noted. “When we were filming, I just was so proud of Richard and this story. And so when we made it, I think we just all thought it was gonna be this kind of indie slow-burning hit that people might watch.”

Trans Latina “Baby Reindeer” actress Nava Mau was also nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category, making her the fourth trans person nominated at the award show and the first in the category.

“I think that what we’ve been fighting for as a community is to be able to tell stories that come from the heart and that are based from a human foundation,” Mau told “Live from E!” host Laverne Cox, who was the first trans actress to be nominated for an Emmy. “Because that’s who we are as trans people, we are humans first and foremost.”

Among the numerous other LGBTQ talent present during television’s biggest night were queer and Indigenous nominees Lily Gladstone and Reis, both of whom were nominated for “Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie.” This was the first time Native women have ever been nominated.

Around town

Publicist Tad Hamilton handles both the GBK Brand Bar and Affinity Nightlife’s “Dream in Gold” Post Awards Gala.

“As a publicist working in the entertainment industry with some of the industry’s top talent and events, we are always excited to include, and work with, the LGBTQIA+ community. Diversity and Inclusion is a core principle of Mosaic PR and this year’s GBK & MEND Television Awards Luxury Lounge and Affinity Nightlife’s ‘Dream in Gold’ Post Awards Gala is no exception. Both events had some of the most recognizable LGBTQIA+ stars in attendance.”

Hollywood hairstylist Erick Orellana loved seeing classic Hollywood glam all over the red carpet this year, with hairstyles ranging from “soft Veronica Lake waves to the side” to “vixen starlet looks” with blowouts that complement almost anyone with long hair. 

“It was nice to see a beautiful homage to old Hollywood glamor and beauty as we are transitioning out of beach waves or to done up hairstyles,” he noted.

It was a banner night for queer performers and television creators at the 76th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, with Jodie Foster, Richard Gadd, and Greg Berlanti among the night’s big winners.

Lesbian icon Jodie Foster took home her first Emmy in the category Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role in “True Detective: Night Country.” Foster thanked her wife and kids in her acceptance speech, telling her kids to remember that “Love and work equals art.” Foster has previously been nominated for her work behind the camera, directing “Orange is the New Black,” and producing “The Baby Dance” and “AMC: Film Preservation Classics.” 

The Netflix drama “Baby Reindeer,” Richard Gadd’s autobiographical miniseries about his experiences with sexual assault and a stalker, was a big winner at this year’s ceremony. The show took home the award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, while Gadd took home awards for writing and lead actor, and his co-star Jessica Gunning took home the award for supporting actress in the category. The show also took home honors for casting and picture editing at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier in the week.

Peacock’s “The Traitors” won in the Outstanding Reality Competition category, earning an Emmy for producer and host Alan Cumming. Cumming also won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Show at the Creative Arts Emmys, ending an 8-year streak of wins by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” host RuPaul. Cumming, who is openly bisexual, has been nominated four times before – three times for his role on “The Good Wife” and once as the host of the Tony Awards broadcast. He has also been nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his work on “Arthur: Show Off.”

Longtime writer and producer Greg Berlanti was honored with the Governor’s Award in recognition for his work depicting underrepresented communities on screen across his nearly 25-year-long career. Berlanti’s career has written, directed, and produced dozens of television shows, including such milestones as the first on-screen kiss between two gay characters on his first show, “Dawson’s Creek.” 

He later achieved acclaim creating and producing shows like “Everwood,” “The Flight Attendant,” and the CW’s various “Arrowverse” shows, and set a record with producing 18 shows that were on air during the same television season in 2019-2020. His shows frequently broke ground in LGBTQ representation, including the first transgender recurring character on “Dirty Sexy Money” and shows that put gay characters in leading and title roles, like “Batwoman,” “Brilliant Minds,” and “Freedom Fighters: The Ray.”

In his acceptance speech, the 52-year-old Berlanti spoke of the impact of the lack of LGBTQ representation in television when he was a kid.

“There wasn’t a lot of gay characters on television back then, and I was a closeted gay kid, and it’s hard to describe how lonely that was at the time,” Berlanti continued. “There was no Internet to connect with other queer kids, no LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in schools. Back then, the only way to tell if another kid might be gay was if he also watched ’Dynasty,’ ‘Dallas’ and could name all four of the Golden Girls.”

He said it wasn’t until the AIDS crisis in the 1980s that he saw gay men on television “holding hands with other men, marching and fighting for their rights.”

“They gave me hope that I might one day have their courage to come out and share my truth with the world,” Berlanti said.

A queer creator also made history at the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend.

Benj Pasek, who is openly gay, together with his songwriting partner Justin Paul, who is straight, became the 20^th and 21^st people to achieve EGOT status – winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony – with their win for Best Original Song for “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It” from the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building.” The pair have previously won the Grammy and Tony Awards for their musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” and the Oscar for writing the song “City of Stars” from the movie “La La Land.” 

With only seven years between their first and most recent awards, the pair set a new record for shortest time span for competitive EGOT winners, beating previous record holder Robert Lopez’s 10-year span.

Several other queer-themed shows took home honors at this year’s Emmys. 

Max’s “Hacks” took home the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for star Jean Smart. 

Netflix’s “Ripley” series took home the awards for directing, cinematography, and special visual effects in a single episode in the limited or anthology series category. 

“Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” took home the award for period costumes in a limited or anthology series.

Paris Hilton released her “Infinite Icon” album on Sept. 6. It’s just the second effort following a massive hiatus — her debut album “Paris” was released way back in 2006. Sia produces. This summer’s “I’m Free” was the first single. A tour is planned. Hilton promised a “heavily gay-leaning release.”

Miranda Lambert’s “Postcards from Texas” is slated to drop today. Lambert’s 10th studio album was preceded by the May release of single “Wranglers,” which stalled in the lower 30s on country radio. Lambert calls the album a musical ode to her home state. She co-produces with Jon Randall and either wrote or co-wrote 10 of the project’s 14 cuts. 

Katy Perry’s “143” is set for a Sept. 20 release. It will be her seventh studio album. Its title refers to what she says is her symbolic angel number. Perry is aiming for a dance party feel working with producers Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Stargate, Vaughn Oliver and Rocco Did It Again! The proceedings are not off to a strong start. First single “Woman’s World” stalled at No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100. Follow-up “Lifetimes” failed to crack the Hot 100 at all. 

Fleetwood Mac releases “Mirage Tour ’82” on Sept. 20. It includes six tracks previously unreleased including “Don’t Stop,” “Dreams,” “Never Going Back Again,” “Sara” and more. Available on double CD, triple vinyl and digitally.  

Volume four of Joni Mitchell’s “Archives” series dubbed “The Asylum Years: 1976-1980” releases Oct. 4. It’s being offered in six-CD or four-LP (highlights) configurations. It will feature unreleased studio sessions, alternate versions, live recordings, rarities and a 36-page book with new photos and an extensive conversation between Mitchell and filmmaker/uberfan Cameron Crowe. 

Sophie B. Hawkins releases her “Whaler Re-Emerging” album (a re-recording of her landmark 1994 album) on Oct. 15. Order through her site and the first 250 copies will be signed. Hawkins (who identifies as omnisexual) says it surpasses the original. 

Joe Jonas’s “Music for People Who Believe in Love” and Shawn Mendes’s “Shawn” are both set for Oct. 18 releases. Jonas’s album (his first solo effort since 2011’s “Fastlife”) will feature songwriting he says is of a more personal nature. Billboard called it “unvarnished” but with a shimmery pop sound aglow with garage rock and alt-pop influences. First single “Work It Out” was released over the summer and failed to chart. 

“Shawn” will be Mendes’s first album since 2020’s “Wonder,” the tour of which he cancelled citing mental health. Two singles — “Why Why Why” and “Isn’t That Enough” — have been released. The former stalled at no. 84 on the Hot 100. He has called the album his “most musically intimate and lyrically honest work to date.” 

Lana Del Rey’s “Lasso” is expected for a possible fall release, although some sources say it’s been bumped to early 2025. No date had been announced as of yet. She’s apparently going the Beyonce route and releasing a straight-up country album. 

Dolly Parton plans a Nov. 15 release for “Smoky Mountain DNA — Family, Faith & Fables.” Parton recruited family to help her on the 37 (!)-track collection, which will also encompass a four-part docuseries tracing Parton’s familial roots. One song (“A Rose Won’t Fix It”) is an outtake from the feverish writing sessions that led to her solid (but underrated) 1998 album “Hungry Again.” An extremely limited-edition triple vinyl release is also planned. 

Release dates shift and many more releases will be announced later. Pitchfork keeps a great running tab at pitchfork.com/news/new-album-releases. Also check your local record store for Black Friday special editions available on Friday, Nov. 29. Release info was scant as of this writing.  

(Joey DiGuglielmo was variously the Washington Blade’s news and features editor from 2006-2020.)

Playwright Samuel D. Hunter has long been attracted to telling stories about people that society often overlooks. So it’s fitting that his play “Clarkston,” getting its West Coast premiere this month from Los Angeles’s Echo Theater digs into the lives of two gay nightshift workers at a small town Costco.

Chris is a frustrated wannabe writer stuck taking care of his meth-addicted mom in the dead-end town of Clarkston, Wash. Jake is a distant relative of the explorer William Clark who’s fled his Connecticut hometown after receiving a fatal medical diagnosis. When they’re assigned to the same night shift in the warehouse, their mutual attraction grows into something more complicated. 

For Echo Theater Artistic Director Chris Fields, who is also directing the production, “Clarkston” is a love story about how American consumerism affects our ability to connect.

“Costco for me is a very difficult place. It’s sort of about gross consumerism. You go into Costco and after five minutes, you’re like, ‘There’s nothing wrong with getting 14 steaks,’” Fields says. “I think [Hunter] puts it in there because it’s really a symbol of consumerism and alienation. Now imagine being in Costco at night under the fluorescents, moving pallets of boxes of gargantuan size.” 

To prepare himself and his actors to inhabit the lives of Costco workers, Fields says he took his team to the big box store to do on-the-ground research.

“We did a field trip to Costco. We found a warehouse manager, the floor manager, and it’s like, oh, there are people that work here. And you know what? They were great. They were lovely. They couldn’t have been more charming and sweet and helpful.”

Fields says the Costco staff even gave them pallets to use on stage for that extra bit of authenticity.

“I tried to get them to give us a pallet jack, and they were like, ‘uhh …’” he says.

Hunter is best known for his play “The Whale,” which was turned into the Academy Award-winning film of the same name. 

But in contrast to the often dreary and miserable tone of that play, Fields says “Clarkston” finds great joy in the lives of its protagonists.

“There’s not only joy in the play, but one of the things that makes it so emotional is these boys get to be gay with each other,” Fields says. 

Playing the graveyard-shift lovers are LA Drama Critics Circle Award-winner Michael Sturgis and newcomer Sean Luc Rogers, a recent Yale graduate that Fields expects will make a big splash soon. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple years he couldn’t work with us because he’s in Vancouver shooting a series for the rest of his life,” he says.

They’re joined by Tasha Ames, fresh off her own LA Drama Critics Circle Award win for last year’s “Do You Feel Anger?”, playing Chris’s drug-addicted mom.

“They’re heartbreakers, you know? They come on stage and their hearts are open,” Fields says.

Fields hopes that despite the enormous struggles the characters are dealing with in “Clarkston,” audiences will leave feeling like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

“You know, it’s hard. To get a car with gas that costs too much money, you can’t go out to eat anymore because it’s so expensive, we might be electing a fucking dictator in the study.

“It’s hard, and I think what I want them to come away with is that feeling when the good guys win. It can work out and it’s really kind of wonderful to be you, despite the fact that we make messes all the time,” Fields says.

‘Clarkston’ opens Sept 14 and runs Friday, Saturday, and Monday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m. at Atwater Village Theater, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles. Tickets are available here.