Today in the hero files…

Lee Brobson, a 30-year-old man in the UK, has become something of a local celebrity after landing himself in the hospital for breaking up a homophobic attack.

The attack took place in the early morning hours of January 26. Brobson and his friends, Dan and Clark, walked to a bar in Chelmsford when a pair of men approached them. When they noticed Dan & Clark holding hands, the strangers immediately began yelling homophobic insults and attacked.

“We spotted these two guys staring at us, following us down the road with their eyes,” Brobson recalled to PinkNews. “Clark decided to engage with them and said hello, to ask what they’re staring at.” That’s when the homophobic insults began, with the unidentified assailants yelling “faggot” and calling the group “unnatural.” Brobson then stepped in.

Related: Brutal assault of Palestinian trans woman & her gay friends caught on tape

“I tired to calm them down,” Brobson said, “and dismiss it, but they grabbed my friend and pulled him back. It’s 2020, and we’re just off doing out own thing. They weren’t having any of it and that’s when they punched me down.”

“They were going in for blood,” he said. “It was hurtful and disgusting.”

Brobson absorbed the punches of the two attackers to protect his friends. After the homophobes ran off into the night, Brobson spent nine hours in the hospital. He endured cuts, bruises, and missed two days of work at his bartending job as a result.

Still, despite the injuries, Brobson’s spirit has not wavered. “I’m determined that something good will come from this even if they never get caught,” he says. “Homophobia or hate crimes do not have a place in modern-day society.” Brobson has used the attack as an opportunity to raise funds for LGBTQ charities like Terrence Higgins Trust and the Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline.

Chelmsford police have opened an inquiry into the assault, and continue to solicit information from the public in hopes of identifying Brobson’s attackers. This attack is just the latest in a rash of homophobic attacks in the UK, which–like those in the US–have risen in number over the past few years.

Live from the Liv Ingroom theater in Los Angles comes a brand new comedy special from Trixie Mattel!

If you didn’t pick up on the razor-sharp wordplay, the Liv Ingroom theater is located in Trixie’s own living room.

The audience? Her sizable collection of vintage dolls.

And if that’s not enough to reel you in (and why wouldn’t it be?), Trixie also performs her brand new song “Malibu” and debuts two new songs from her upcoming stuido album, Barbara.

Watch below:

Daniel Vincent Gordh (Matt & Dan) co-wrote the special with Trixie, and the video was directed by Daniel and his brother Will.

Trixie and Gordh are both nominated for multiple awards in the 2020 Queerties — vote now!

 

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A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Jan 14, 2020 at 4:07am PST

Madonna, it seems, is a size queen. At least, that’s what she’s informed her British fans.

The singer’s Madame X tour has reached London this week – much to the relief of ticket holders. The 61-year-old has been plagued with health problems during the tour, leading to ten dates being cancelled.

This included the first of her 14 nights at the London Palladium, but she bounced back on Wednesday evening.

During part of the Madame X show, Madonna, 61, takes a break from singing to enjoy some banter with the audience. For her first London show, it turned decidedly lewd.

Related: Madonna posts cryptic message on social media following yet another concert cancellation

“What do you call a man with a small penis?” the singer asked the audience. “The answer is, I wouldn’t f**king know. I’ve never been with a guy with a small d**k. You know size matters, don’t pretend that it doesn’t!”

Madonna’s past lovers include husbands Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie, actor Warren Beatty, singer Vanilla Ice and model Tony Ward. She’s rumored to be currently dating one of her backing dancers, Ahlamalik Williams, 25.

One might ask – if she’s never had a lover with a small dick – how she would know that size matters, but let’s not analyze things too much…

It wasn’t the evening’s only moment of sexual innuendo. At another point in the show, she asked for a chair to be brought out to the stage so she could sit down.

“Usually I kneel for about 20 minutes and that’s fine. I’m good at it, so I’ve been told.” she quipped.

Demonstrating she knows her audience well, she also joked about trawling Grindr when she needs to find herself a new assistant.

After grabbing a beer from one audience member, she said, “There you go, we have just shared STDs.”

She also referred to the fact that when she married former husband Ritchie and relocated to England, her accent changed – something she didn’t realize at the time.

“I didn’t know what anyone was talking about until I heard old interviews of myself. And then I was horrified and flabbergasted. Why did you let me do that to myself?

“It’s all Guy Ritchie’s fault. He made me to it.”

The show received generally positive reviews. The Independent called it an “eyeball-twisting audiovisual assault with more action than a Marvel movie.” PinkNews said the “incredible” show “lived up to the hype.”

Related: A Madonna fan is suing her for starting her concerts late

Besides the quality of the performance, fans were also relieved the singer turned up on time. Some attendees at previous shows have complained that she has hit the stage over two hours late on some occasions, leading one disgruntled fan to recently attempt to sue the singer.

In London, the performance began just 20 minutes after the advertised show time. She told the audience she was under a curfew: Westminster council, which oversees the area where the Palladium’s located, warned her that if she went beyond 11pm, she’d be fined.

Other venues may wish to take note!

The death last weekend of basketball player Kobe Bryant has prompted an outpouring of grief around the world. Perhaps more surprisingly, it’s sparked an anti-homophobia campaign in Brazil.

More specifically, it’s led to a call to combat homophobia in Brazilian soccer.

Bryant spent his career playing for the LA Lakers. He was famed for wearing the number 24 shirt.

Related: Kobe Bryant schools fan for using “gay” insult

In Brazil, the number 24 represents the deer in an illegal but popular Brazilian numbers game commonly just called the animals game.

However, the deer is a creature associated with homosexuality. And because of this, many footballers and clubs refuse to use 24 on soccer shirts in case it prompts abuse.

Talk about fragile masculinity!

Following Bryant’s death, Reuters reports Bahia soccer club and football magazine Corner have launched a campaign to remove the stigma of the number 24. The magazine started sharing images of soccer shirts with the number 24 online with the hashtag #PedeA24 (Ask for 24). Bahia is using the hashtag #NúmeroDoRespeito.

Bahia’s president Guilherme Bellintani said his players will begin to wear the number: “Football can be a channel to accentuate the worst of our society, such as racism, aggression, violence and intolerance, but it can also be used in different ways, for culture, affection, sensibility and to improve human relations.”

The first to embrace the campaign is Bahia’s midfielder Flávio Medeiros da Silva, better known simply known as Flávio. He wore the shirt for the first time during a match on Tuesday and said he will continue to wear it through until December.

“I think it’s very silly that nobody uses the number 24 in Brazil. We have to respect everyone, regardless of gender, race and sexual option,” the player said.

Related: Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro slams nation’s gay tourism as affront to “families”

Basketball legend Bryant, 41, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna (‘Gigi’), died with seven others when a helicopter they were traveling in crashed in thick fog in Southern California last Sunday.

Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, made her first statement about the crash on Wednesday. She thanked all those who had shown her and her three other daughters love and support, “during this horrific time … We are completely devastated by the sudden loss of my adoring husband, Kobe — the amazing father of our children; and my beautiful, sweet Gianna – a loving, thoughtful, and wonderful daughter, and amazing sister to Natalia, Bianka, and Capri.”

 

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My Gigi

A post shared by Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) on Sep 3, 2019 at 1:59pm PDT

Is it time to start taking heteroflexibles more seriously? According to Nicole Legate, an assistant professor of psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the answer is: Yes!

Legate is the co-author of a 2016 study that looked at people’s specific identities, behaviors, and attractions to gain a better understanding of sexual orientation as a whole.

She and co-author Ronald Rogge interviewed over 3,000 adults living in the U.S. over the course of roughly two years. What they concluded was that an additional sexual orientation category–heteroflexibles–should be added alongside heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals.

Urban Dictionary defines “heteroflexible” as:

An in-between between bisexual and straight. A person who is mainly straight but does sometimes find the same gender appealing. Most of them could imagine having a homosexual relationship, but they mainly have heterosexual relationships.

It’s easy to bunch heteroflexibles in with bisexuals, but the Legate and Rogge found distinct differences between the two groups.

First, they observed that 56% of bisexuals reported having had a same sex partner in the last year, whereas for heteroflexibles that number was slightly lower, at 42%. They also found that heterosexuals had their own unique health issues.

“Against heterosexuals, they [heteroflexibles] showed higher rates of different kinds of risks and worse psychological functioning,” Legate tells the Chicago Tribune. “The risk behaviors they showed in our study were things like problematic drinking, condom-less sex–so greater levels of sexually transmitted infections.”

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Heteroflexibles are much less out about their orientation, according to Legate, so they don’t talk about it to other people nearly as much as bisexuals or gay and lesbian individuals. And not offering that bit of information to a health provider could prevent a physician, for instance, from recommending getting tested or talking about PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis, to prevent against HIV since same-sex partners (regardless of how one identifies) tend to have greater risk for sexually transmitted infections.

Based on her research, Legate estimates that up to 15% of the general population could identify as heteroflexible, but she says more data is needed to make a better determination.

One way to gather this information could be through doctors’ officers.

“When you go to the doctor’s office, they don’t ask you for your sexual orientation,” Legate says.

“I think educating providers about the fact that it’s OK to ask and that it is relevant in many cases just like knowing race and age — these are standard demographic questions that can give us a little extra health information or help us understand what groups may be at elevated risks for different things.”

Related: Why more straight guys are going to all-male jerk-off clubs

Last August, Danny Polaris checked into the hospital because of a painful, never-ending, three-week erection. Now, in a new essay published by Vice, he’s looking back on the horrifying ordeal that nearly left him penis-less.

Quick backstory: After popping two Viagra before going to the club last summer, the Berlin-based performance artist met a guy, who took him back to his place and gave him a mysterious “erection-enhancing injection” in his penis.

“It was one of the worst decisions of my life,” Polaris writes today.

He ended up developing priapism, which the American Urological Association classifies as a relatively uncommon disorder but one that can be unpredictable and is considered a medical emergency.

“I should have gone to hospital after four hours of my erection not going down,” he recalls. “I really should have gone to hospital after eight hours of my erection not going down. Instead, I waited over 30 hours, due to a mixture of bad advice and not wanting to miss Berlin’s Pride celebrations. I had no idea how serious it was.”

After several weeks in the hospital, Polaris was eventually released, but his recovery was far from hour.

“Not being able to use my dick for the next three months certainly made me look at myself as a human being,” he says. “I think it’s made me kinder, more patient and more resilient, too.”

Among the many lessons Polaris learned from his ordeal, one of the most important was that sex isn’t everything and size doesn’t matter.

“Not being able to use my dick for three months made me feel depressed and kind of lost,” he writes. “I realized that the identity I’d built for myself as a gay/queer man was largely based on my expertise as a top. When, suddenly, I could no longer f*ck, I felt as though I’d lost a chunk of me.”

Sounds devastating.

He continues, “But due to the effects of my injury, I started meeting guys who’d say, “I don’t care if we fuck or not; I like you anyway. Meeting a different type of guy in a different context opened up a different side of myself that I wasn’t used to seeing.”

“Anyone who’s ever been blocked on Grindr after sending a dick pic should realize it says more about them than it ever could about you.”

He also says it taught him how to prioritize his friends over his paramours.

“While recuperating, the masses of time I’d usually spend looking for sex was suddenly freed up,” he writes. “So instead, I focused on building closer relationships with my friends.”

“Before, I’d often cancel time with friends in favor of a hook-up. The chance to get laid is often seen as a higher priority, but that’s obviously fucked up. I’m no saint and never will be, but now things are at least a bit more balanced.”

Finally, Polaris says, he’s learned that “there is always light at the end of the tunnel.”

In addition to almost losing his penis, Polaris says he lost his job the day he was released from the hospital. And two weeks after that, his boyfriend dumped him.

“After six months without work, I’m in debt, but I’m thinking of 100 ways to pay it off,” he says. “I can’t spontaneously have sex anymore–ironically, I need to take Viagra first–but I’m getting stronger each day.”

He says there is a new electric shock treatment that may help his penis recover from the trauma he put it through. He can’t afford it right now, but he hopes to save up enough money to have it done eventually.

“I’m not giving up,” he writes. “I’ll find a way to get the electric shock treatment I need. If you stay positive, there’s always a path out of the darkness.”

Related: GoFundMe page launched to cover hospital expenses for man’s never-ending Viagra nightmare

Just when you think a story can’t get any stranger — BAM — suddenly there’s a $200 Thor cosplay hammer involved.

When we last heard from convicted extortionist and former Sean Cody performer Jarec Wentworth (aka Teofil Brank), he was getting released from prison early to spend the final portion of his sentence at a halfway home.

To briefly recap (before we get back to the Thor hammer), in 2015, Brank was found guilty of extorting gay Republican millionaire Donald Burns.

Burns admitted to paying Brank for sex “at least four times” and giving him $1500 to $2500 “referral fees” anytime the then-25-year-old adult film star introduced him to new male paramours.

Related: Convicted Sean Cody Extortionist Jarec Wentworth Speaks Out From Prison, Alleges Massive Conspiracy

After the relationship soured, however, Brank threatened to publish explicit photos of Burns if the millionaire didn’t fork over $1.5 million, a $180,000 Audi8 sports car, a motorcycle, and buy him a lavish condo in L.A.

Brank was arrested in an FBI sting operation.

Brank has long maintained his innocence, and guilty or not, he’s nearing the end of his sentence and will walk free on April 3.

Adult blog SUGP recently spoke with Brank via phone and confirmed two things — this Twitter account is, indeed, Brank’s (it’s being run by a friend until Brank regains internet access), and this Amazon wishlist also belongs to Brank.

Related: David Geffen Drawn Into The $1.5 Million Sean Cody Star Extortion Case

According to Brank’s Twitter feed, he’s planning on making a return to gay adult films as soon as he’s free, but even assuming that plan is successful, getting back on one’s feet after incarceration is no small task. It makes sense, then, that Brank would set up a shopping list of necessities in the hopes his remaining fans and supporters might pitch in.

“Anything that anyone can help with would be appreciated so much, and I would be so grateful. Thank you,” he told SUGP.

But along with utilitarian items like socks, razors, and cash gift cards are some less necessary items. As in… much less.

Enter $200 Thor hammer:

And there are more oddities in the list.

These figurines:

And this “drinking horn”:

Three scooters:

And five bicycles:

And also some Viking jewelry and ‘rune stones’:

Hey, a girl can dream.

The Office of the Los Angeles District Attorney has charged a man in a series of attacks on queer people that occurred over the holidays.

30-year-old Joshua Ebow stands accused of the attacks, which began on Christmas Day 2019 and continued for the next eight days. Law enforcement officials have charged him with two felony counts each of assault with a deadly weapon and battery, two counts of exhibiting a deadly weapon, as well as committing a hate crime.

Related: Man beaten with shovel, slashed with box cutter in alleged antigay hate crime

The attacks began December 25 in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Inglewood. Police say Ebow attacked a man with a knife in a pizza restaurant, stabbing him in the hand. A few days later, the attacker struck again, stabbing a man inside a Five Guys restaurant. Another stabbing occurred New Year’s Day in West LA, followed by another stabbing outside a Culver City mall.

Police arrested Ebow on January 3 in connection with the attacks. They also say he subsequently confessed to the crimes, and suspect Ebow targeted men based on suspecting they identified as LGBTQ.

Should he be convicted, Ebow faces up to 14 years in prison.

The call comes after Democrats took full control of the Virginia statehouse last November, pledging to enact gun control measures, roll back abortion restrictions, and prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people.

“What’s happening in Virginia right now is a tragedy in the making,” Falwell said at a press conference this week. “Democratic leaders in Richmond, through their elitism and radicalism, have left a nearly unrecognizable state in their wake.”

“They are using their power to strip away the God-given rights held by every person in the state, despite their due protections under the U.S. Constitution.”

Added Justice, “If you’re not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or anywhere where you may be!”

Unless, of course, you’re LGBTQ, a person of color, not a Christian, or fall anywhere outside the straight, white, heterosexual identity.

They are calling the proposed movement “Vexit,” and lawmakers in West Virginia have already begun drafting up formal resolutions to try and make it happen.

When asked for comment on the matter, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, had only this to say: “As always, Jerry Falwell’s words speak for themselves.”

Of course, nobody seems to be asking the most obvious question here, which is: What happens if Vexit actually happens but then Democrats take full control of the West Virginia statehouse, too?

Crazier things have happened.

Related: Jerry Falwell Jr. insists photos of him at Miami circuit party are fake, photographer shows receipts

A London-based gay man has alleged discrimination after an Uber driver told him to stop kissing his date. His driver allegedly told him to stop “because she’s Christian.”

32-year-old Finn Davies met his date at a party late Saturday night. The two decided to share an Uber home, as they lived in the same neighborhood. As the two began to kiss, their driver intervened. “Stop that please, I’m a Christian,” she told the pair.

An awkward silence followed before Davies requested an end to the ride. “Minutes passed and those feelings turned to anger and concern at the thought of continuing my journey a further 20 minutes alone was making me feel increasingly uncomfortable,” he told MetroUK. “When we got out she didn’t show any remorse or feel guilty. I just can’t believe it.”

Related: Uber driver kicks out a gay couple after one kisses the other on the forehead

Davies notified Uber immediately, and did receive a refund for the price of the trip. He says he wanted more. “I use [Uber] every weekend and I’ve never experienced anything like this before. The point I want to make is it was obviously a homophobic remark as she used her religion as a weapon. I just wanted an apology. I couldn’t really care about the £12 journey.”

Uber did release a statement claiming the company has launched an investigation into the driver. “What has been described is totally unacceptable,” a spokesperson for the company said. “Uber has a zero-tolerance policy towards discrimination of any kind and we are currently investigating this incident. ‘Any driver found to have violated this policy faces permanent deactivation from the app.”

The Super Bowl always delivers queer ads nowadays, and this year is going to be one of the busiest, chock full of LGBT celebrities.

A host of pre-game teasers already star queer rapper Lil Nas X, “Queer Eye’s” Jonathan Van Ness, Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi, “RuPaul‘s Drag Race” stars Kim Chi and Miz Cracker, bisexual talk host Lilly Sing, and 2019 World Cup winners and newlyweds Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris.

Once again setting a record, a 30-second commercial in Super Bowl LIV–pitting the San Francisco 49ers versus the Kansas City Chiefs–will cost marketers a cool $5.6 million on Fox (including dueling 60-second spots from the Trump and Bloomberg presidential campaigns). In our increasingly atomized world, the Super Bowl is one of the few programs that brings audiences together across boundaries, from queers watching it a gay sports bar in the Castro to Christian conservatives in rural Alabama.

So whether you tune in for the tight ends, the performances by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, or the commercials, don’t forget to look out for these queer ads watched by 100 million other viewers.

We rounded up a few for your previewing pleasure…

1. Frito-Lay – Doritos

Super Bowl veteran advertiser Doritos serves up a spot featuring queer breakout musician Lil Nas X, reprising his role as a cowboy from his hit video for “Old Town Road.” The 20-year-old rapper approaches the country Western town called The Cool Ranch — get it? Then there’s a showdown dance off with Sam Elliott, also playing a cowboy, for a bag of the chips. Elliott’s trademark mustache pulls a trick move but it ends when Lil Was X’s horse dances too, as Elliott’s horse says no way. Billy Ray Cyrus (from the original video for “Old Town Road”) makes a cameo at the end and says, “I ain’t dancin’.”

2. Kellogg Company – Pop Tarts

“Time for this snack to get a snack,” says sassy “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness in the teaser. Not happy with the choices backstage, he lists the things wrong with the choices, “So dry, so dull, so crusty — someone needs to fix this!!” He closes the spot with a moment of awareness, and says to viewers, “So sorry.”

The full version shows that Pop-Tarts “fixed” the pretzel.

3. Sabra hummus

Sabra hummus makes its Super Bowl debut with a queer teaser featuring Kim Chi and Miz Cracker from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” 

The two chat while facing a “mirror,” everything in red. Miz Cracker tries to put on a red football helmet over her giant, blonde wig and says without irony, “I hope this doesn’t give me helmet hair.” The tagline: “Dip’s about to get real.”

If that’s not camp enough, they also made one including Caroline Manzo and Teresa Giudice, rivals from 2009’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey.”

4. Budweiser

Newlyweds Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris are 2019 World Cup winners for the U.S. Women’s National Team. They react to the commercial that they’re in but we don’t yet get to see until the Big Game. They are one of several stories Budweiser will unveil.

5. Procter & Gamble – Olay Regenerist

Bisexual talk show host Lilly Sing (NBC’s “A Little Late with Lilly Singh”) joins actress Busy Phillips and retired astronaut Nicole Stott, about to launch into space as astronauts. Suited up and carrying space helmets, Phillips asks, “Who has the keys?” and Singh replies, “I don’t know, I thought you did!” Katie Couric also appears as a journalist covering the event.

Other versions have Busy and Lilly already in space, discovering astronaut food and dry skin.

6. Amazon – Echo Show

Ellen DeGeneres has been sending up Alexa for years on “The Ellen Show,” and now she’s in two teaser spots with her wife Portia de Rossi for the Echo smart home speaker from Amazon. 

In one spot, the old couple lightly bicker about the right temperature for the room.

In another teaser with Ellen and her wife, Portia spills a glass of wine. Ellen rushes over to “help” by telling Alexa to add wine to the shopping list. The wine remains on the counter. They wonder, “What did people do before Alexa?”

7. Intuit – TurboTax

Transgender actresses Trace Lysette (“Transparent”) and Isis King (“When They See Us”) are included in this catchy  tax-dance commercial.

If history is any guide, these won’t be the only queer spots in the Big Game. See how many you can spot!

Michael Wilke has covered LGBT issues in advertising since 1992, is the founder of Commercial Closet/AdRespect.org, and Senior US Consultant for LGBT marketing and diversity firm Out Now.

As the world gears up for Super Bowl LIV, some of us are more excited for the halftime show featuring Jennifer Lopez and Shakira than we are about the actual game. But what many don’t know is that both of these gay icons owe much of their early success to another gay icon: The one and only Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan (a.k.a. Gloria Estefan).

It was Estefan who penned one of Lopez’s first hits, “Let’s Get Loud,” off her debut album On The 6… (The single’s title was later used for the name of Lopez’s first residency concert.) And it was Estefan who taught Shakira English and co-wrote her first English crossover hit “Whenever, Wherever.” (The single went on to sell over 8.5 million copies, making it one of the best selling singles of all time.)

Asked whether she might make a surprise appearance at Super Bowl LIV–which conveniently happens to be going on in her hometown of Miami–Estefan, who performed at both the 1992 and 1999 Super Bowls, said she’ll be enjoying the show from the stands, just like everybody else.

“I’ll be there in heart and soul and spirit, and cheering for them every step of the way,” she told Entertainment Tonight.

But giving us Jennifer Lopez and Shakira are hardly Gloria Estefan’s only contributions to the LGBTQ community. Scroll down for seven other times the Cuban-American songstress proved herself to be the ultimate gay ally…

1. That time she credited the gay community for making her a global superstar.

At the release party for her Rocky Horror-themed music video “Hotel Nacional” in 2012, Estefan stopped by Score, a popular gay club in Miami, where she told the crowd that if it weren’t for them she might not be the success she is today.

“I want to thank you so much, because the gay community has been behind me 100%,” she said. “‘Conga’ broke through in all the gay clubs before anybody else noticed it was a hot song. You guys have been close to heart and always will be.”

Around that same time, Estefan did an interview with Pride Source in which she said gay people were her “core audience.”

“These are the people that broke me in a lot of clubs,” she said. “My gay following has always been cutting edge in music and discovered my stuff before it ever became big on radio. … So they’ve always been a big part of my career.”

2. That time she cast drag queens to play her in a music video.

In 1994, Estefan recorded a cover of the disco hit “Everlasting Love” for her album Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me. Nine months pregnant at the time, she couldn’t appear in the music video, so she hired a team of drag queens and club kids to impersonate her. Cast members included female impersonator Julian Viva, the Hollywood Super Club Kids, the Fabulous Wonder Twins, and drag performers/future RuPaul‘s Drag race contestants Venus D-Lite and Sutan Amrull. Each represented Estefan in a different stage in her career. The video went on to win a Billboard Music Video Award and was so well received that Julian Viva and Willie E. were invited to tag along with Gloria on her Evolution World Tour.

3. That time she was grand marshal of Miami Beach Pride.

In 2014, Estefan was the Grand Marshal of Miami Beach Gay Pride parade alongside Co-Grand Marshal, Kenny Ortega.

“I am thrilled and honored,” Estefan told the crowd. “It’s a privilege to be here today as your Grand Marshal. I am very happy to be here and hopefully very soon we will achieve equality for all.”

“I love Miami Beach. I love Florida. We live in paradise and hopefully paradise will get even better when everybody is equal.”

4. That time she recorded a whole album tailor made for gay clubs.

In the summer of 1998, you couldn’t step foot in a gay club without hearing one of the songs from Estefan’s dance/house album gloria! blasting from the speaker system. The album was a departure from her previous works as it was her first album to consist entirely of upbeat club music. Its lead single “Heaven’s What I Feel” received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording and the accompanying music video won an Alma Award for Best Outstanding Video.

5. That other time she recorded a whole album tailor made for gay clubs.

In 2011, Estefan released her twenty-sixth album Miss Little Havana, which featured 11 salsa-infused club bangers. (16 on the Deluxe Edition). The album was largely produced by Pharrell, with Estefan’s husband and frequent collaborator, Emilio, contributing an additional four tracks. Miss Little Havana was sexy, vibrant, a little bit silly, a little bit naughty, and criminally under-appreciated by audiences… except for Gloria’s gay fanbase, who have helped it to achieve cult status in the years since its release.

6. That time she wrote a Broadway musical featuring all her biggest hits.

Estefan reached peak gayness when she took all her biggest hits and packaged them into a vibrant jukebox musical about her life. On Your Feet! opened on Broadway in 2015 and made almost $1 million in its first week. After playing to sold out theaters in New York for two years, the show embarked on an 80-week U.S. tour in 2017. On top of that, a second tour was launched in the United Kingdom in 2019. And on top of that, a production was opened in the Netherlands. Currently, Estefan is working on opening additional productions in Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and France.

7. That time she appeared in a movie making fun of Trump-loving homophobes.

In 2017, Estefan made a cameo in the dramedy “A Change of Heart” playing Dr. Fajardo, the sexy therapist to Jim Belushi’s racist, homophobic, Fox News-obsessed character, Hank, who is concerned his recent heart transplant from a Puerto Rican drag queen is, as Estefan puts it, “pumping gayness into him.” The film was a hit with fans and went on to win the OUTshine Film Festival Audience Award for Best Feature.

BONUS: Her daughter is queer.

In 2017, Estefan’s 23-year-old daughter, Emily, announced for the first time publicly that she was in a relationship with another woman. Two years later, in 2019, Emily headlined Miami Beach Pride. And just last week, it was announced she, Gloria, and Daytime Emmy Award-winning TV host Lili Estefan would be starring in their own spinoff version of the Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith. Red Table Talk: The Estefans will premiere later this year.

Related: 10 amazing Jennifer Lopez videos many basic gays don’t even know exist

“I’ve had too much caffeine. This is going to be a weird interview.”

At least Josh Thomas has the courtesy to warn us. And in truth, we’ve had far weirder interviews.

Aussie comic Thomas, of course, earned international acclaim for his first sitcom Please Like Me about a gay man (played by Thomas) who comes out of the closet and moves in with his suicidal mother. The show ran four seasons and grabbed the notice of Hollywood producers, who imported Thomas and his talent to the states.  Now Thomas embarks on his first American adventure: the sitcom Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. New episodes drop every Thursday on Freeform & Hulu.

Everything’s Gonna Be Okay follows the life of Nicholas (Thomas), a 30-something gay man trying to adult, and smitten with Alex (Adam Faison), a handsome, young Angelino. When Nicholas’ father unexpectedly dies, he finds himself learning to adult and parent his two teenage half-sisters, Genevieve (Maeve Press) and Matilda (Kayla Cromer). As the girls struggle with teen woes and life without dad, Nicholas and Alex struggle to maintain a romantic life and play parents to Nicholas’ misfit siblings.

We scored time to chat with Thomas about his career and his latest heartwarming venture. New episodes of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay stream every Thursday on Hulu & Freeform.

Great to finally chat. How did you conceive of this project?

Well, I wanted to do a show about high school. I didn’t really go to high school. I wanted to show autism at the center, and now I’m in it. And that’s it really. The premise isn’t really the point. To me, the point is you get to hang out with these three people that are interesting. They are characters I want to introduce to everyone.

What was it about high school and autism that drew you to those subjects?

I’m pretty autobiographical, and I haven’t really spoken about high school. It’s really funny. Back when we were pitching, there were no shows about high school. Now there are a lot. There are a million shows about high school, but back when I had the idea, it was cool. It isn’t cool anymore. I wanted to do a show about high school for adults. Autism—I’ve got ADHD, so I’m interested in neuro-diversity, and people that have brains that don’t fit into society the way society expects them to.

Sure.

And I like characters that are honest and have different points of view. And [autism] is underrepresented. There are no girls with autism that are labeled as having autism on TV. I can’t think of any.

Neither can I.

So that’s it. So, their dad dies, and that’s tradition. You have to kill a parent.

[Laughter]

Was it easier to make after the popularity of Please Like Me?

I just made the pitch and they made it. It was the first show I went out and pitched, so I guess pretty easy.

That’s easier than a lot of creators have it, so that’s pretty great. That’s quick.

Yeah. But I’m a good pitcher.

I have a notion if I print that line, people will be very interested…

Yeah, and I’m also an incredible top.

[Laughter]

Ok. So one thing that interested me about this new show is that it’s very much an ensemble piece. Maeve and Kayla are both great finds, terrific actresses. I was really surprised, given that you create, write and act in the show how much the focus is on the two of them, as well as Adam Faison, who plays Alex. Was that always the intention?

It definitely was. The most fights we had in meetings were [Freeform] wanting me to be in it more, and be more focused on me.

Really?

There’s a lot of challenging content in this show. Most of the genuine tension between me and Freeform was that I didn’t think I should be in it that much. I just don’t find me particularly captivating. I’m with me all the time. I get sick of myself. I’m constantly on the phone talking about myself and living with me. I did a whole TV show already with me in it. I have a lot of me in my life. I don’t need more of it. I’m trying get less. Also, the actors are so good.

Yes.

After we made the pilot—so I’d never made a pilot before. Please Like Me went straight to series. In Australia, you don’t make pilots. One of the good things about making a pilot is you get to take a step back and look at everybody and see how they perform and what their skills are. We made the pilot and I was very confident that we didn’t need me to be in all the scenes. It’s great. It frees me up to just eat pudding and go to a budget meeting.

That is a good thing. As the creator/showrunner, you’re busy enough I’d imagine. Do you have a writer’s room as well?

We have an all-female writer’s room. We have a very queer, very female writer’s room.

So when you work on a story, do you like to do a whole season arc, or do you focus more on one-off episodes?

I like to do a whole season. Traditionally, for American TV, we usually have the writer’s room going while production is going. But we can’t do that because I’m also acting. So we do it all beforehand. We plot a series arc. There’s this weird thing now where you need to write the show for people who are watching every week, but you also need to write for people who will binge-watch. Which is a complicated thing to navigate.

Both this show and Please Like Me have rather dark premises involving the death of a parent. Why is this a subject you return to?

I’m curious about it too. I don’t really know. I just keep writing about it.

Well, it’s interesting, in that you’re deriving comedy from such dark subjects. There’s a lot of discussion about how stand up comics are often depressive, dark people. In your experience then, how do you find the humor in the dark?

So when I pitched Please Like Me, I said it wasn’t a comedy or a drama. In life, things are both. Someone falling over is both funny and sad, depending on the point of view you take. In my experience, in real life, people try to cheer each other up. On TV dramas, they fall to the ground and wail while violins play. But that’s not how I react to sad news. I’m usually stunned and it takes a while for emotions to process. So I try to make the show reflect the world I live in.

[A beat]

I just watched a guy pee out my window.

Wait, what? Just now?

I just watched him pee, yeah. I just watched the guy piss on the New York Highline.

Ok, moving on…

[Laughter]

I’ve seen the first six episodes, and I was really struck by the episode/storyline of Matilda losing her virginity. You manage to subvert the cliché, to say the least. You really address some complexities with it. What inspired that storyline, and what were the conversations like with your female writers?

Well, it’s a two-episode arc about consent and autism. It came from talking to parents of teenage girls with autism. One of their main concerns was if their daughter might get taken advantage of. Sexual encounters happen behind closed doors, and if someone has a diminished ability to understand social cues, it can give someone else a lot of power over them.

Then, on the flip side, when I would talk to or read about girls with autism, they would often feel frustrated by their parents or caregivers. They’d be infantilized and desexualized. Generally, in life they weren’t given the power to make their own choices. Both of those points of view are understandable and valid. So it came from how to hear those two concerns, and how do you satisfy the two? And it fits with the larger conversations about consent we’re having around the world at the moment. So for me, that’s what those episodes are specifically about. As a show, we don’t settle on a strong point of view. We just try to show it and discuss it and let the audience have their own conversation.

Yeah.

So that was the point. I’m interested to see what people think of it.

As will I. It’s a very complicated issue in the show. Matilda does consent and initiates the encounter, but she is underage and there is the autism issue. There’s a lot there.

Are we going to talk about the gayness?

Well sure, let’s talk about the gay stuff. One thing I love about the dynamic of the show is that your character, Nicholas and his boyfriend Adam become surrogate parents to the girls. It’s not about their relationship drama or their sex life the way we see with other queer shows. I find that refreshing. Was that a conscious choice to differentiate yourselves from other series?

I love romance. Obviously, I prefer queer love stories to heterosexual love stories. I find those yucky to watch. It’s just that this show has much larger stakes with the girls. So I guess [the drama] gets pushed to the side a little bit. I’d love to spend more time with them bickering and having sex as my personal taste goes. But in this show it wasn’t a priority.

Well and they still do have sex and argue, but they’re in this surrogate parenting thing together. It’s quite beautiful. Now, as someone who has done two queer shows now, do you encounter a reluctance on the part of executives to greenlight something with prominent gay relationships?

No one ever says “We’re not buying it because gay.” That conversation never happens. Conversations like that happen in secret. I don’t think that gets vocalized, ever. I oscillate between thinking it doesn’t matter, that no one gives a sh*t, and thinking that it’s a big deal.

Sure.

You know, in Australia, we did this weird vote on gay marriage, which was insane and strange. We got gay marriage from the vote, with 63% “yes” which is a strong yes. I saw that number and thought that’s 37% of people who are just saying no to any TV show I make before they watch a frame of it. I think it’s pretty easy to assume those people are straight-up homophobic. So that does put me at a commercial disadvantage.

Yes.

Maybe if I was straight I’d own a pool, you know? Maybe if I was straight I’d get that extra 37% of people and then I could own a pool. But I don’t really know.

But you’re someone who has found success doing queer-themed shows. That’s encouraging to me, particularly as someone who spends his time looking at queer entertainment. It’s good to know people are responding to LGBTQ creators, performers and stories.

It’s also a low budget show.

True, it’s not Westworld, but the fact that your work exists at all is encouraging. But on that subject, what has the reception to the show been thus far?

Well, so we only have three episodes out. I think it’s been good. I don’t know who’s watching it. People have been nice. I only read the compliments. I don’t try and look for criticism. I don’t need any in my life. To me, it feels like it’s going really well.

Will we see Season 2?

Well, they have to commission it. And it’s a bit early for that. So I just have to wait around to see if they commission it.

So what are your ambitions then? Do you like acting more? Writing? Stand up? Where is your interest?

I like to get to do it all. I like doing the show. I’d like to do a tour of a tiny collection of cities. For me, I like that every couple of months I get to change gigs. I’ll be writing. I’ll be in preproduction. Then I’ll be acting. Then I’ll do the press tour. Then we go back into the writer’s room and do it again.

New episodes of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay streams on Freeform & Hulu every Thursday.

This week Mike Bloomberg talked his favorite “big gay” things, a famous bottom took on the wage gap in the adult industry, the internet rejoiced in the first ever (?) ‘gayceañera,’ and Billy Porter mastered the art of the big reveal. Here’s what happened on Instagram:

Sami Outalbali posed for Attitude.

Cameron Dallas got kinky.

Eliad Cohen got back to Los Angeles.

Garrett Swann went towel surfing.

Jack Laugher became the face of Funky Trunks.

Anthony Bowens got some sun.

Travis Wall cut his hair.

Josh Segarra showed off.

Jason Derulo stayed warm.

Drew Taggart wrote a song.

Titanius Maximus ate in the locker room.

River Viiperi slept naked.

Matthew Camp found cover.

Ronnie Woo made dumplings.

Rodiney Santiago made some friends.

Pietro Boselli stayed motivated.

Cheyenne Parker sat in the shower.

Adam Peaty climbed a rock.

And Tommy Dorfman wore pearls.