Latest news with #LGBTQ-plus
Time Out
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs
This review is from Soho Theatre in 2022; it transfers to Kiln Theatre with a partially changed cast that includes Liz Carr and Leah Harvey. The rainbow flag offers an idealised portrait of the LGBTQ-plus community: people of different stripes co-existing in harmony, each taking up an equal amount of space. But the reality is messier, scribbled over with conflicts and inequalities. Iman Qureshi's warm, complex play 'The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs' explores just how difficult it is to create a queer space, while showing how beautiful it can be when the stars align. Things start out in pretty formulaic style. Each week, a disparate gaggle of lesbians meet up in a leaky-roofed hall to sing in a choir, with the lofty goal of performing on the main stage at Pride. There's wildly confident womaniser Ellie (Fanta Barrie), hyper-woke academic Ana (Claudia Jolly), and her reluctantly-tagging-along butch engineer girlfriend Lori (Kibong Tanji) who turns out to have an amazing singing voice, all arranged into an approximation of harmony by self-styled OWL (older wiser lesbian) Connie (Shuna Snow). It could all be the beginnings of a dykier, hopefully less doomed remake of 'Glee'. But Qureshi's play is way smarter than that. She toys enjoyably with lesbian cliches (sensible footwear, veganism, buzzcuts) only to reach beyond them to tell less familiar stories. Like that of Dina (an engagingly puppyish Lara Sawalha), a Muslim woman who throws herself into choir as an escape from her forbidding husband. Or that of the faltering romance between trans woman Brig (Mariah Louca), and Fi (Kiruna Stamell), who campaigns fruitlessly for a ramp so she can access the choir's hall independently, but alienates Brig when her feelings of being left behind spill out in an agonised tirade against twenty-first-century inclusivity. Qureshi doesn't shy away from tackling transphobia, and the way it's driven a wedge between different generations of lesbians. But she also highlights the relative privilege that British queer people live in, using Dina's story to highlight the injustice of the immigration system and the suffering of closeted people in countries where homosexuality is illegal. 'The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs' tackles massive themes, in ways that threaten to unbalance what's fundamentally a feel-good comedy with added a capella. There's not much lesbian theatre around, so it sometimes feels like it's struggling under the weight of trying to encompass every lesbian story in one short show. But it all just about works, thanks to a septet of winning performances and Hannah Hauer-King's taut direction. It's a warm cosy hug of a show, full of life, wit, and pathos that lingers long after its last notes fade.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tensions flare at school board meeting after trans athlete wins multiple track events
Parents and residents clashed at a school board meeting in Chicago on Monday after a trans junior high school student won multiple events at a local track meet. The Naperville 203 Community School District Board meeting was at times contentious, with roughly 100 people in attendance, split between the main room and an overflow viewing area. Those in support of the trans athlete waved the blue, pink and white striped transgender flag, while those advocating for athletes to compete against people of the same biological sex held signs reading "Protect girls sports" and "Defend Title IX," a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. California Track Meet Turns To Political Rally Over Trans Athletes As Schools Speak Out Vs. State The controversy centered around a biological male who competed in a 7th grade track meet against biological females at the Naper Prairie Conference Meet, with attendees at the meeting sharply divided on the issue. "These situations place feelings over reason and force other students and families to participate in something we all know is a lie," parent Mike LaBelle said. Read On The Fox News App Naperville resident Doug MacGregor said there is a hidden political agenda behind district policies. "Many of us knew then the achievement gap was just a Trojan horse for DEI's real objective, pronouns and the radical LGBTQ-plus agenda," MacGregor said. "Naperville parents will spend literally tens of thousands of dollars on sports throughout their daughters lives: travel teams, coaches, summer camps, traveling to tournaments and meets, etc. and when their daughter steps up for her chance to win a state championship or medal," he said. "She'll lose to a biological male. That once in a lifetime moment gone because of DEI's political agenda." Those defending the trans athlete included Dorothy Powers, a parent of six who is non-binary. Powers argued that forcing students to compete in a gender category that does not match their identity harms their personal development. "When a student is forced to compete in a gender with which he or she does not identify, education is a choice," Powers said. "America began providing public education in 1635. Will Naperville continue the proud American tradition of forward progress, or try to justify exclusion? For those who are non-binary, of course I include. I encourage inclusion." Illinois Trans Athlete Policy Brewing Conflict Within State Parent Tim Thompson said the controversy is not truly about races or a specific athlete, but rather part of a broader effort to target transgender students. "Don't be fooled. It was never about a race, and it was never about an athlete," Thompson said. "This is an attempt to further marginalize the group and tell them that they don't belong, that they aren't good enough." Awake Illinois has filed a civil rights complaint against the district, with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights alleging a violation of Title IX. They called on federal funds to be withheld from the district, which it says receives between $8 million and $9 million in federal grants annually. The complaint is part of a broader effort by Awake Illinois, which previously filed similar Title IX complaints against other districts and the Illinois State Board of Education. Shannon Adcock of Awake Illinois also spoke out at the meeting. "Now in 2025, you've got boys stealing girls' victories, leaving young girls sobbing on the track," Adcock said. "This isn't inclusion. It's oppression." Meanwhile, Lauren Hruby said that a solution may be to give trans students a different class of sports to compete against one another. "But I think for women, I don't think we stand a chance against a male," she said. "I know a lot of these girls practice their entire life to try to get a scholarship, and there's a lot lost opportunities, so I just wanted to come and support women in women's sports." Fox News' Patrick McGovern contributed to this report. Original article source: Tensions flare at school board meeting after trans athlete wins multiple track events
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House approves bill to remove Texas ‘homosexual conduct' ban
AUSTIN (KXAN) – In a 72-55 vote Thursday, the Texas House approved a proposal to remove a law criminalizing 'homosexual conduct' from the state's penal code. 'I'm asking you to vote for a law that upholds the principles that Texans should have the freedom and ability to make their own private decisions without unwarranted government interference,' the bill's author, Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas, said when laying out the bill on the House floor. 'I'm proud to acknowledge the bipartisan support this bill has gathered.' The measure was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003. Critics of the law say leaving it in limbo opens the possibility of its misuse by police who do not understand its legal status and lawmakers crafting other policies that could impact the LGBTQ-plus community. READ: 'Homosexual conduct' repeal bill's path in Texas House Regardless of a brief notation indicating the Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, state lawmakers have never repealed the language from statute. KXAN has documented the history of the measure in its OutLaw project. HB 1738 has advanced further in the legislative process than previous proposals to repeal the law. A KXAN analysis reveals at least 61 such attempts since the 1980s – the majority of which were filed following the Court's decision. The law still defines 'homosexual conduct' as engaging in 'deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.' 'When we have a conversation regarding my fiancé Gregory and I, why should I – a colleague of yours – be treated as criminal under this statute?' Jones asked members of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence during a hearing last month. The committee later approved the bill 6-5. The only group to deliver public testimony against the bill was the conservative activist group Texas Values. Its policy director, Jonathan Covey, told the panel, in doing so, Texas Values wants to send a 'message that (homosexual conduct) is not acceptable.' The House must still pass the bill on third reading, then it will await a Senate committee assignment in the final weeks of the session. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
