A & E

LGBT film festival – Long Beach – Qfilms

Queer cinema reached peak visibility at the 89th Academy Awards when Barry Jenkins’ film Moonlight won for Best Picture. The film, which details the adolescent and adult lives of a young, black gay man, carries the distinction of being the first LGBT movie to win Best Picture and is clearly a turning point for more LGBT filmmakers to find wider representation in Hollywood.

PRIDE

Burke County Pride kicks off in Morganton, NC.

Alone and afraid, Seth Loven began to cry. But it was not the Seth Loven of today — the 23-year-old who aims to inspire others and who takes pride in who he is. This version of Loven was crying because his teenage mind couldn’t take one more second of people making fun of him. And as he fought back tears caused by constant jokes about his sexual orientation, he also fought back the urge to take his own life.

PRIDE

Mid-Missouri celebrates Pride.

In celebration of the LGBTQ commuity’s increasing visiblity in Mid-Missouri, LGBTQ organizations Mid-Missouri Pride and The Center Project came together to host their 14th annual PrideFest on Saturday at Rose Music Hall. The festival lasted from 1-10 p.m. and featured an array of performances and guest speakers, from live musical groups to an interfaith sermon from local LGBTQ-allied clergy and even a pole dance routine from Muse Pole Fitness dancers. The festival closed with the Downtown Hometown Drag Show, headlined by Roxxxy Andrews and showcasing 15 other local entertainers.

A & E

LGBT Film Festival – Durban

Durbanites will have to wait until late September to enjoy the seventh annual Durban Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. With seven feature films, 11 documentaries and almost 30 short films from 14 countries globally, including South Africa, the festival – which now begins on September 28 – expects to speak to the interests of many different audiences.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

Gay & bisexual European immigrants face higher risk to HIV.

Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) often are motivated to embark on new lives in supportive countries to escape oppression and experience freedoms unavailable in their home countries. However, a recent study addressing the MSM migrant community shows that structural stigma (e.g., laws and policies promoting the unequal treatment of oppressed populations) may put this intersectional population at a higher risk of HIV exposure.

5 THINGS TO KNOW

The German gay and bisexual pay gap.

Homo- and bisexual men on average earn 2 euros less per hour than their straight colleagues, according to an economic study. That’s despite being more likely to earn higher qualifications and work in white-collar jobs. In its first study on Germany’s “Sexuality Pay Gap,” the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) on Thursday reported that gay men earn on average markedly less than their straight male colleagues, despite generally boasting higher qualifications.

POLICIES

Small steps forward for LGBT rights in Louisiana.

Depending on where LGBTQ community members and advocates live in the U.S., political progress can either seem full-steam-ahead or agonizingly slow. For Louisianans, it’s still the latter. This year, Louisiana saw some hope-inducing forward steps and some predictable stagnancy: it became the 49th state to protect same-sex couples from dating and domestic abuse, but also failed to pass a bill that would have prohibited worker’s discrimination on the basis of sexuality or gender identity.