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- 2026 Olympics: Another Wife Couple Will Compete Against Each Other in Winter Games

- The Trump Admin Is Investigating a Middle School Over Its Co-Ed Cheerleading Team

- Nicki Minaj vs. Don Lemon: Anti-Gay Slurs, the KKK, and “Pick Me” Accusations

- Bisexual Pro Hockey Player Loves ‘Heated Rivalry’ But Says It Misses These Key Things

- Man Cut on Face by Attacker After Kissing Boyfriend in NYC Subway

- Jeff Bezos' Ex Wife MacKenzie Scott Donates $45 Million to the Trevor Project

- "On the Ice, She's My Enemy": Engaged Lesbian Couple to Compete in 2026 Olympics

- Inside the Wild Lawsuit Details of Kyrsten Sinema's Alleged Affair With Her Bodyguard

- Why Is This Party at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Giving Furry Vibes?

- These 12 States Are Suing the Trump Administration for Policies Targeting Trans People

- New Autistic Barbie Includes a Tablet That Features Pronouns App

- Federal Prosecutors Resign as DOJ Launches Investigation into Renee Good's Widow

NEWS | SAMANTHA RIEDEL | JAN 21, 2026, 3:46 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Olympic Wife Wars: Another Couple Will Compete Against Each Other in 2026 Games

Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira will both go for gold in skeleton.

02 January 2026, North Rhine-Westphalia, Winterberg: Skeleton: World Cup, single, women, 2nd run, Kim Meylemans (Belgium, r) and Nicole Rocha Silveira (Brazil) cross the finish line. Photo: Robert Michael/dpa (Photo by Robert Michael/picture alliance via Getty Images)picture alliance/Getty Images

Sapphic sports drama will reach an all-time high at this year’s Winter Olympics, as wives Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira are officially set to race against one another in the women’s skeleton event.

Meylemans became Belgium’s first overall women’s skeleton World Cup winner last weekend, clinching her spot in the 2026 Winter Olympics after medaling in six out of seven World Cup events this season. Silveira, who finished ninth in the World Cup rankings, will also compete in the women’s skeleton representing Brazil. When the games kick off in Italy next month, the two women will compete against one another for the gold — just over a year after they legally tied the knot, though they hope to have a “big dream beach wedding” this year..

“This team right here is something truly special though and a big part of this success — I wouldn’t have achieved this goal without them, especially my wife,” Meylemans wrote in an Instagram post on January 17, celebrating her World Cup victory. “Don’t think anyone truly understands how much I needed her with me (pushing & supporting me) to achieve this.”

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Meylemans and Silveira met in 2019, the couple previously told OutSports, and went public with their relationship in an Instagram post in 2021. They were engaged in 2024. This will be the second time both women have faced off in Olympic competition, though neither medaled in their appearances at the 2022 Winter Olympics. But competing in Italy this year will feel “extra special,” Meylemans wrote on Instagram last August, as they’ll be able to “compete as [a] married couple and shine a light on marriage equality while doing so.” The Italian government has grown increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ in recent years, removing lesbian mothers from their children’s birth certificates in 2023 and banning travel abroad for surrogacy in 2024.

“At the end of the day, we're working as a team, so if one of us is on the podium, in our small situation then that's great for us,” Meylemans told Olympics.com last year.

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If you can believe it, Meylemans and Silveira aren’t the only sapphic couple who will be competing against each other in this year’s Winter Olympics. Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen, who have been engaged since 2024, will represent Sweden and Finland respectively in Olympic ice hockey — and though the two teams aren’t scheduled to face off in the preliminary round, that just means the stakes could be even bigger in the finals.

“You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy,” Savolainen told the Ottawa Citizen in 2024. “That’s how it goes.”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/2026-olympics-queer-lgbtq-wives-lesbian-kim-meylemans-nicole-silveira on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | SAMANTHA RIEDEL | JAN 21, 2026, 2:44 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

The Trump Admin Is Investigating a Middle School Over Its Co-Ed Cheerleading Team

Transphobia is the plague that impacts us all.

Abstract Sports Background. Silhouettes Small Group Of Female Fans Greeting Amateur Sportsmen. Full Frame, Focused On Dark Shadows, Ambient Light, Copy SpaceElena Popova

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The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has opened a Title IX investigation into a Maine school district, for allegedly allowing a transgender student to participate in a co-ed cheerleading program.

Officials with the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced 18 new investigations last week, targeting 16 school districts and two lower-level boards of education across 10 Democratic-held states, as Maine Public noted. A DOE press release collectively accused the entities of violating Title IX anti-discrimination law by allowing trans students to join school sports leagues that correspond with their gender, but did not detail specific allegations.

Among the districts under investigation is Maine’s Regional School Unit (RSU) 19. In a January 15 statement, RSU 19 Superintendent Michael Hammer confirmed that RSU had been “served with an alleged complaint” from the DOE, which claimed that RSU 19 had discriminated against students by “allowing a male student to join the girls’ cheerleading team and use the girls’ bathroom and locker room at Nokomis Regional Middle School.”

Hammer was “surprised” by the investigation, he wrote — not only because the district had “no record of receiving any complaints” related to cheerleading, but also because cheering at Nokomis is not a gendered program.

“Cheering is a co-ed activity [and no student is cut from the squad] so it is hard to understand how participation by any student, regardless of their gender or gender identity would discriminate against any other student,” Hammer wrote. He went on to state that RSU 19 does not have a formal bathroom policy for trans students, and did not specifically confirm nor deny that a trans student had in fact joined the team, writing only that he did not have “any information about bathroom or locker room use by this student.”

In a separate statement to CBS affiliate WGME, Hammer said RSU 19 was stuck between following the Trump administration’s trans-exclusionary view of Title IX or the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. The Maine Human Rights Commission filed suit against five school districts in November over new policies banning trans students from gendered athletics.

“If I have one set of laws that's going to tell me I have to have no transgender athletes, and then I have another policy that says I have to follow the Maine Human Rights Act, I’m stuck between two different pieces of legislation that I’m not qualified to decide which one, so I have to guide my board through that, and then I don't want a bunch of negative publicity,” Hammer told WGME. “We try to protect all students and that's what my message would be.”

Maine emerged as an early front in the Trump administration’s campaign against trans students early last year, when Trump threatened the state’s federal funding streams after feuding publicly over the issue with Gov. Janet Mills. Last March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared that the Maine Department of Education had violated Title IX after conducting an investigation that lasted only four days. The following month, the administration launched a “Title IX Special Investigations Team” aiming to bar trans women and girls from women’s bathrooms and sports across the country.

Also included in last week’s wave of DOE investigations was Jurupa School District in California, where trans teen athlete A.B. Hernandez was outed in 2024 and has since become a frequent target for conservative activists and President Trump himself.

On January 13, the day before the new DOE investigations were announced, 12 state attorneys general sued the Trump administration, saying the government had overstepped its authority by attempting to enforce Trump’s anti-”gender ideology” executive order as though it was law. Maine AG Aaron Frey did not join the lawsuit.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/maine-nokomis-middle-school-trans-cheerleading-trump-department on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | ABBY MONTEIL | JAN 20, 2026, 12:01 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Nicki Minaj vs. Don Lemon: Anti-Gay Slurs, the KKK, and “Pick Me” Accusations

The pair engaged in a back and forth via social media over the holiday weekend.

GettyImages

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Nicki Minaj is the subject of backlash once again, this time for calling journalist Don Lemon an anti-gay slur following his report on a Minneapolis Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest.

On Sunday, January 18, Lemon shared a video to his social media accounts of himself interviewing activists who disrupted a Minneapolis church service where David Easterwood, an alleged field office director for ICE, serves as a pastor. The activists entered the service, chanting, “ICE out,” and demanding justice for Renee Good, a local woman murdered by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7.

“This is what the First Amendment is about, the freedom to protest,” Lemon said in the video. “I’m sure people here don’t like it, but protests are not comfortable.”

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Minaj took to X in response that same day, writing, “DON ‘COCK SUCKIN’ LEMON IS DISGUSTING.”

“I WANT THAT THUG IN JAIL!!!!!” she continued. “HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY OTHER RELIGION. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!”

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The “Super Bass” rapper has repeatedly cited Christianity during her descent into the MAGA world. In November 2025, Minaj praised President Donald Trump on X after he posted on Truth Social about Christians being persecuted in Nigeria. When LGBTQ+ fans criticized her support for Trump, she replied, “Imagine hearing that Christians are being MURDERED & making it about you being gay.” She later spoke to the United Nations on behalf of the Trump administration about the issue.

In a January 19 TikTok video responding to Minaj’s “unhinged, homophobic tweet” about him, Lemon told the musician to “stop talking about shit for which you know nothing about.”

“You’re out of your depth… and you are a homophobic bigot,” he said. “You don’t care about African Americans… From what I know, you are reportedly an undocumented citizen, so you should be deported under Donald Trump’s rules.”

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Lemon went on to call out Minaj’s family members’ sex offender records. Her brother, Jelani Maraj, was convicted of predatory assault in 2017 and sentenced to 25 years in prison after being charged with repeatedly raping an 11-year-old girl. Meanwhile, her husband Kenneth Petty is a registered sex offender who was charged with first-degree rape and pled guilty to attempted rape in 1994. In 2022, People reported that Petty was sentenced to three years probation and a year of in-home detention after pleading guilty for failing to register as a sex offender in California.

“And you have the nerve to talk about me and what you think I do?” Lemon continued, referencing the men’s criminal charges. “Nick Minaj, get a life. Stop being a pick me… I choose not to pick you, and so should Black people, and so should gay people.”

The journalist expanded on his comments during a January 19 appearance on TMZ Live, in which he told Minaj to “eff off, stop being a homophobic bigot,” and to “get a life and grow some brains.”

Minaj then reshared a tweet from right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson, in which Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon threatened to invoke the “Ku Klux Klan Act” in order to charge Lemon and other protestors. Officially known as the Enforcement Act of 1871, the legislation was created in response to Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members terrorizing Black Americans for exercising constitutional rights like voting and serving on juries. The act makes it a crime to deny any group or individual of “any of the rights, privileges, or immunities, or protection, named in the Constitution,” per People. It also grants the president several pathways for enforcing it, from suspending habeas corpus to deploying federal troops.

“The Klan Act is one of the most important federal rights statues,” Dhillon told Johnson. “It’s a law that makes it illegal to terrorize and violate the civil rights of citizens. Whenever people conspire this, the Klan Act can be used.”

She added that “everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening, and put people away for a long time.”

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In yet another follow-up post shared to X on January 20, Minaj added that she intentionally used an anti-LGBT slur in hopes that her attacks on Lemon would gain traction.

“I purposely wrote it that way b/c I knew that would be the only way to get the cock suckas to post about it,” she said. “They would’ve all collectively ignored the despicable behavior displayed by Lemon head. I’m glad they’re angry. They’re about to get angrier.”

Meanwhile, Lemon responded to Dhillon’s legal warning in a statement to Fox News Digital, writing, “It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there. The framing is telling.”

“What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press,” he continued. “If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Good — the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place. I stand by my reporting.”

In yet another follow-up post shared to X on January 20, Minaj added that she intentionally used an anti-LGBT slur in hopes that her attacks on Lemon would gain traction.

“I purposely wrote it that way b/c I knew that would be the only way to get the cock suckas to post about it,” she said. “They would’ve all collectively ignored the despicable behavior displayed by Lemon head. I’m glad they’re angry. They’re about to get angrier.”

Meanwhile, Lemon responded to Dhillon’s legal warning in a statement to Fox News Digital, writing, “It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist — especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there. The framing is telling.”

“What’s even more telling is the barrage of violent threats, along with homophobic and racist slurs, directed at me online by MAGA supporters and amplified by parts of the right-wing press,” he continued. “If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Good — the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place. I stand by my reporting.”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/nicki-minaj-don-lemon-anti-gay-slur-homophobic-cocksucker-kkk-act on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | JAMES FACTORA | JAN 20, 2026, 11:09 AM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Bisexual Pro Hockey Player Loves Heated Rivalry But Says It Misses These Key Things

Zach Sullivan plays for the Manchester Storm.

RvS.Media/Monika Majer/Getty Images

Zach Sullivan, who’s considered to be the first out bisexual male hockey player in the U.K., has opened up about his conflicting feelings about Heated Rivalry.

The Manchester Storm defenseman posted a lengthy carousel of text to Instagram on January 19. He first wrote that “putting [his] thoughts into words has been extremely difficult,” since “this show has dragged up a lot of personal trauma.” “It feels, at times, like parts of my life are being played out in front of me on the big screen,” Sullivan said. “I don’t know if that makes me feel angry, upset, ‘acknowledged’, or happy. I’m deeply conflicted.”

Sullivan came out in 2020 in a post on social media during Elite Ice Hockey League Pride weekend.

The hockey player did write that he loves “this show for what it brings to the LGBTQ+ community and how it challenges the world of ice hockey to be better” and that “it gives our community something that we missed out on growing up.” Sullivan then listed some of those experiences — “Normalising an LGBTQ+ relationship in male sports - The fear of your parents-and teammates finding out - the palpable rélief as you realise your parents still love you. And most of all the hope you feel that actually - it might all be okay.”

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While he lauded Heated Rivalry for a number of other reasons, including that it’s sparked broader interest in hockey from the LGBTQ+ community, Sullivan also wrote that he felt as though “the psychological and mental trauma that a ‘closeted’ LGBTQ+ athlete lives through in a hyper-masculine and overtly homophobic sport has been totally disregarded.”

“I’m in utter disbelief at the disparity between how professional ice hockey is, in real life; versus how it is portrayed in the show,” he said. While he took issue with some of the ways that the actual mechanics of professional hockey were represented, much of Sullivan’s discontent came from the show’s seeming disregard for the homophobia of hockey. (For context, the National Hockey League is the only major sports league in North America that has never had a current or former player come out publicly as gay, according to Outsports. While hockey player Luke Prokop came out as gay in 2021, he was under contract with the NHL and was a draft pick for the Nashville Predators, but has not actively played on an NHL team.)

“The effort that you go to, to keep your sexuality a secret -the coping mechanisms, the extra effort to ‘fit in’ - to be ‘one of the boys’, the coverups, the non stop lies, the bags under your eyes at every practice due to lack of sleep, the stress and strain on personal relationships and friendships, the sheer exhaustion of ‘acting straight’ so you’d never be found out,” Sullivan wrote. “The overwhelming terror of someone even thinking that you might not be straight. The panic if anyone ever called you ‘gay’ even as a jest or jibe. The day to day actions, language and behaviour that you choose to do, so these things never happen.”

Sullivan closed out his post by sharing that while he believes that Heated Rivalry “will be a net positive for the LGBTQ+ community,” he also “strongly” believes that the show “will not help professional ice hockey players that are struggling with their sexuality (and I genuinely hope I am proven wrong).”

At the very least, the stars of Heated Rivalry have revealed that closeted athletes have DM’d them “somewhat anonymously,” as Hudson Williams discussed in a recent interview. “Sometimes they’re just reaching out privately through Instagram, and those are the ones that really just kind of hit you and go, ‘Oh, so this is a fun show, and it’s celebratory, but also, sometimes it’s just hitting people right in the nerves,’” Williams said.

The show has also led to atleast one hockey player coming out about his sexuality. Jesse Kortuem, an amateur hockey player, came out as gay in a lengthy statement posted to Facebook on January 13, specifically crediting Heated Rivalry with his decision to come out.

Heated Rivalry, a Crave show that airs on HBO Max in the U.S., has been renewed for a second season that is expected out in 2027.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/zach-sullivan-heated-rivalry-hockey-bisexual-pro-player on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | ABBY MONTEIL | JAN 16, 2026, 3:14 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Man Cut on Face by Attacker After Kissing Boyfriend in NYC Subway

The attacker yelled anti-gay slurs.

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An unidentified attacker made anti-LGBTQ+ remarks and slashed a queer man across the face on a New York City subway train on Saturday, per police reports.

According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), the incident took place aboard a southbound No. 6 train approaching 23rd Street Station at approximately 7:50 p.m. on January 10. Local outlet PIX 11 reports that when the suspect witnessed the 28-year-old victim kissing his boyfriend, he shouted an anti-gay slur at him, prompting what police described as a “verbal dispute.” The confrontation turned physical when the attacker cut the victim with an unknown sharp object, inflicting a laceration on the right side of the victim’s face.

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The suspect exited the train at the 23rd Street and Park Avenue station and fled on foot. At the time of writing, law enforcement have not identified or located him. According to police, the victim got off the train at 14th Street Union Square before being transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he is expected to recover. The New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Hate Crimes Task Force is currently investigating the incident as a suspected bias attack.

On January 15, the NYPD released photos of the attacker in a post shared by the department’s NYPD Crime Stoppers X account. The department has requested that anyone with information about his identity contact them at 1-800-577-TIPS.

An August 2024 report from New York comptroller Thomas P. Dinapoli found that the state had experienced a surge in reported hate crimes within the past five years. In 2023, the number of reported hate crimes within New York state rose by 12.7%, and 12% of the year’s 1,089 reported hate crime incidents targeted gay male victims. In 2023, O’shae Sibley made headlines when he was killed after vogueing at a gas station.

Them has reached out to the NYPD for further information about the incident.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/6-train-nyc-gay-hate-crime-cut-face-sliced-kiss-boyfriend on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | REECE ROGERS | JAN 16, 2026, 12:34 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Jeff Bezos' Ex Wife MacKenzie Scott Donates $45 Million to the Trevor Project

The organization calls the gift “transformational.”

Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images

This story originally appeared on Wired.

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $45 million to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that serves LGBTQ+ youth. The large gift comes just months after the Trump administration shut down counseling services for queer youth through the federally funded 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, for which the The Trevor Project administered services.

In a blog post Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, called the donation “transformational,” describing Scott’s gift as the biggest single donation the charitable organization has ever received in its 27 years of operating. Scott previously donated $6 million to the nonprofit during the first Trump administration.

Scott, who was one of Amazon's first employees, divorced Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019. She is a prolific philanthropist and has recently ramped up her charitable donations. In 2025, Scott gave over $7 billion to nonprofit organizations.

“At a time when many LGBTQ+ young people are facing heightened stigma, political hostility, and mental health challenges, MacKenzie Scott’s support sends a powerful message,” Black wrote. “LGBTQ+ young people matter, and the world is full of people fighting for their safety and well-being.”

According to a Trevor Project survey concerning LGBTQ+ youth mental health in the US, around 45 percent of LGBTQ+ youth ages 13 to 24 have considered suicide. The organization aims to help those disproportionately at risk.

Following Trump’s election in 2024, the Trevor Project saw a 700 percent increase in calls, chats, and texts. It saw a 33 percent bump in outreach following the inauguration last year, and also sees upticks following events like last year’s ruling in the US v. Skrmetti case, which upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

Black sees Scott’s gift as “a powerful step toward building on our sustainable capacity” as the group works to expand and serve more LGBTQ+ youth around the globe and innovate to make sure services are reaching them when they are in need of help.

“Over the coming months, we will road-map a strategic and thoughtful investment plan focused on strengthening our core crisis services, improving long-term sustainability, and accelerating our progress toward a world where every LGBTQ+ young person knows they are loved and supported,” Black said in the blog post.

Scott’s other recent gifts to charitable organizations include multimillion-dollar donations to groups working on environmental protection and public education.

This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/jeff-bezos-ex-wife-mackenzie-scott-trevor-project-donation on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | ABBY MONTEIL | JAN 16, 2026, 11:46 AM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

"On the Ice, She's My Enemy": Engaged Lesbian Couple to Compete in 2026 Olympics

Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen play for the Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge, respectively.

Troy Parla/Getty Images

Can’t get enough of Heated Rivalry? Then you’ll be happy to know that a real-life, lesbian version of the rivals-to-lovers queer hockey romance is headed to this year’s Winter Olympics.

Based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers book series, the hit Crave series tracks a secret, years-long romance that unfolds between professional hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. While the National Hockey League (NHL) has never had a current or former player come out as gay, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is another story entirely. The league currently has 30 openly queer players, including engaged players Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen, who are set to compete on different teams in the 2026 Olympic games.

Kjellbin and Savolainen first met playing together in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League, before getting signed to different PWHL teams — Kjellbin plays for the Toronto Sceptres, and Savolainen plays for the Ottawa Charge. After dating for five years, they announced their engagement in 2024.

Nevertheless, the athletes’ romantic relationship hasn’t kept them from remaining fierce competitors on the ice, and the Milan 2026 Winter Olympics are certainly no exception. Much like Shane and Ilya competed for Team Canada and Team Russia in Heated Rivalry’s second episode, Kjellbin and Savolainen will be representing Team Sweden and Team Finland, respectively. This will be Kjellbin’s first time at the Winter Olympics, whereas Savolainen previously won a bronze medal at the 2022 Olympics in Finland. Although the couple aren’t slated to compete against each other in the Olympics’ preliminary rounds, their teams could still face off in the medal round.

“I’m usually the one who goes home as a winner,” Savolainen previously quipped in a 2024 interview with Ottawa Citizen. “I don’t care who’s in front of me… if it’s going to be her, I’m going to hit her… When you play, you just play. You don’t really think about who’s there. You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy. That’s how it goes.”

The couple added that while they’d dreamed of getting signed to the same PWHL team, “we were super lucky that we are so close to each other.”

“It was the best thing that could happen, that she got drafted [in Toronto], and I got drafted [in Ottawa],” Savolainen added. “I was more nervous to see where she was ending up than where I ended up. We’re in the same country, at least, the same side of the world, so I’m super happy.”

When it comes to high-profile rival couples in the world of women’s hockey, Kjellbin and Savolainen are one of many. The story of American Olympian Julie Chu and Canadian Olympian Caroline Ouellette's romance recently went viral on Instagram thanks to queer historian Amanda W. Timpson’s account Yesterqueers. There’s also Team USA captain Meghan Duggan and Canadian hockey player Gillian Apps, who married in 2018; and Canadian Olympic gold medalist Jayna Hefford and former team USA member Kathleen Kauth, who welcomed a second child together in 2015 after being together for over a decade.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/hockey-lesbian-couple-2026-olympics-anna-kjellbin-ronja-savolainen on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | JAN 15, 2026, 4:25 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Inside the Wild Lawsuit Details of Kyrsten Sinema's Alleged Affair With Her Bodyguard

Heather Ammel alleges numerous “romantic and lascivious" text messages between Sinema and her husband.

UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 25: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., introduces a nominee during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing in Dirksen building on Wednesday, September 25, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)Tom Williams/Getty Images

Former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is facing allegations that she “willfully and intentionally” initiated an affair with a married former member of her security detail, sparking the end of a 14-year marriage, according to court documents filed this week.

Plaintiff Heather Ammel’s case was moved to the U.S. Middle District of North Carolina last week, after Ammel initially filed a complaint against Sinema in a state superior court last September. Ammel’s complaint accuses Sinema of “alienation of affection,” a type of civil offense through which third parties can be sued for interfering with another person’s marriage. (Only six states, including North Carolina, still have active “alienation of affection” laws on their books, and their constitutionality is widely questioned; a Republican state senator in Utah said this week he will introduce a bill to abolish his state’s law this session.)

According to Ammel’s complaint, Matthew Ammel — her husband of 14 years, from whom she is now separated — first joined Sinema’s security team in 2022, when Sinema was still a (lamentably disappointing) senator. She says she first met Sinema at a December 2023 U2 concert, where she was introduced as her husband’s wife. Initially, Ammel’s husband was “uncomfortable” with Sinema’s alleged overtures, including a “romantic” trip to Napa Valley in the fall of 2023; around the same time, per the complaint, Sinema’s head of security resigned, saying she was concerned that Sinema “was having sexual relations with other security members.”

Beginning in January 2024, Ammel alleges that she discovered numerous “romantic and lascivious" text messages between Sinema and her husband. Sinema allegedly sent him a picture of herself wearing only a towel, asked him to bring MDMA on a future work trip “so that she could guide him through a psychedelic experience,” and later purchased him a Theragun massager so that she could “work on his back” at her apartment, per the complaint.

In June 2024 — by which time Sinema had announced she would not seek reelection — Sinema placed Matthew Ammel on her Senate staff as her personal guard, according to the complaint. That same month, Heather Ammel alleges, her husband stopped wearing his wedding ring, saying it would be better for “optics” if Sinema was not seen “putting her hands on a married man” in public. Ammel eventually confronted Sinema via text in October 2024, per her complaint, asking “are you having an affair with my husband? You took a married man away from his family.” She and her husband separated the next month.

Ammel is suing Sinema for damages “in excess of $25,000” for alienation of affection and “willful, wanton, intentional, [and] malicious” conduct, alleging that Sinema “knew or should have known” that her actions would likely harm the Ammels’ marriage. The case was referred to mediation on Wednesday, according to court records, though it’s not certain whether the parties will come to an agreement. Lawyers for Sinema and Matthew Ammel did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday, WRAL reported.

Whatever the outcome of Ammel’s suit, it’s safe to say that nothing about Sinema’s post-congressional lobbyist career is kicking off the way she hoped. Sinema spent much of 2025 campaigning on behalf of the AI lobby, pushing especially for a $2 million AI data center in Chandler, AZ. But the city council voted unanimously to kill the proposal in December, after Sinema’s own remarks at council meetings about working “hand in glove” with the Trump administration backfired spectacularly.

“People are fired up over this now, and they’re fired up because of Sen. Sinema,” Chandler City Council member O.D. Harris told CNN last month. “She shouldn’t have come.”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/kyrsten-sinema-lawsuit-affair-ammel on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | JAN 15, 2026, 3:45 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Why Is This Party at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Giving Furry Vibes?

Let them eat kibble.

@Patriottakes on X

Let them eat kibble.

A fundraiser held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort that featured people in dog masks and aristocratic attire has been criticized for both its allusions to gilded decadence and its furry-like atmosphere.

The Hero Dog Awards Gala, a fundraiser for dogs that work with law enforcement, included cocktails, dinner, and professional dancers; it was these paid dancers who wore the dog masks and swanky clothes.

Footage from the event, which took place on Friday, went viral on social media throughout the week. The clips featured dancers wearing masks representing various dog breeds engaged in 18th century-style dancing, clad in gowns and tailcoats.

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“Watching this adorable dog costume couple dancing and putting on a show reminded everyone why these events matter so much,” wrote one attendee in a caption accompanying a video of two masked dogs dancing to a piano rendition of the song “L-O-V-E” by Nat King Cole. The caption continued, “Behind every wagging tail is a story of bravery, loyalty, service, and unconditional love.”

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Furries have often been used as an anti-trans scapegoat among right wing circles. In Texas, Republicans even introduced legislation to ban people identifying as animals in schools, despite that not actually happening.

Though some mistakenly seemed to think actual furries were at play during this event, others raised criticism about the tone deaf nature of the Aristocratic stylings as some experts say we are currently living in a new Gilded Age.

“This is some weird ass dystopian shit,” liberal commentator Vince Wilson said on X.

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Per footage of the event shared on Instagram, Trump did attend the Friday night event and made remarks.

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Notably, in some of the remarks online, the president boasted about American military prowess, but did not say anything about fundraising for canines.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/trump-furries-mar-a-lago on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | SAMANTHA RIEDEL | JAN 15, 2026, 12:48 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

These 12 States Are Suing the Trump Administration for Policies Targeting Trans People

The group is led by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

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Twelve state attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week, saying the agency’s campaign against transgender and intersex people is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island’s U.S. district court on Tuesday, contends that HHS has repeatedly violated federal law over the past year by attempting to enforce President Donald Trump’s anti-”gender ideology” executive order as a part of Title IX civil rights law. In that order, Trump instructed federal agencies to define sex solely as an “immutable biological classification as either male or female,” and declared that “there are only two genders” as a matter of federal policy.

The states include New York, Oregon, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

They say that by demanding compliance with the executive order as a condition for state agencies and other programs to maintain federal funding, HHS was effectively “grafting” the order onto Title IX, though executive orders do not have the power to amend a law passed by Congress. HHS has repeatedly sought to freeze or reverse funding for states and programs that support trans and intersex people over the past year, halting a $12 million sex education grant to California last August over objections to “gender ideology” in program materials.

“This discriminatory purpose is contrary to existing interpretations of Title IX by courts and other federal agencies, including HHS,” the AGs wrote, noting that district courts in North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Washington have already issued injunctions blocking HHS from enforcing its anti-trans funding conditions.

The plaintiff states have been “forced into an untenable position” by the Trump administration, the lawsuit argues. Not only are the Trump administration’s definitions of “sex” and other terms “unscientific, patently biased, and counterfactual,” they say, but following those definitions and demands would violate the states’ own civil rights laws, all 12 of which have established protections for trans people.

The states allege three violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as violations of the Constitution’s spending clause and separation of powers. They have asked the court to declare Trump’s order unlawful and to block HHS from enforcing it against states and other grantees.

“The federal government is trying to force states to choose between their values and the vital funding their residents depend on,” James wrote in a press release announcing the lawsuit on Tuesday. “This policy threatens health care for families, life-saving research, and education programs that help young people thrive in favor of denying the dignity and existence of transgender people. New York will not abandon our values, our laws, and above all, our residents. My office is suing to block this cruel and unjust directive.”

James and Trump have repeatedly crossed swords over the past several years, beginning in 2019, when James began investigating the Trump Organization for fraud. A court eventually imposed a $364 million penalty on Trump in 2024, but that penalty was voided on appeal last year. James continued to challenge Trump in court during the first year of his administration, joining 21 other AGs in December in filing suit to prevent the administration from defunding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

HHS’ attempts to enshrine Trump’s order into Title IX over the past year have been far-reaching, but they have also frequently been struck down in court. On Monday, a Washington, D.C. district judge ordered HHS to restore $12 million in funding to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), finding that the agency had retaliated against AAP for promoting gender-affirming care for trans youth.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/attorneys-general-sue-trump-hhs-admin-letitia-james-trans on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

NEWS | MATHEW RODRIGUEZ | JAN 15, 2026, 11:15 AM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

New Autistic Barbie Includes a Tablet That Features Pronouns App

Conservatives have criticized the addition.

Mattel

A new Barbie doll meant to give representation to autistic children has instead become a flashpoint for controversy due to — well, pronouns.

Earlier this week, Barbie, which is owned by Mattel, and the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network announced the first autistic Barbie doll, with features included to reflect the autistic experience. The figure includes a shifted gaze that reflects “how some members of the community may avoid direct eye contact,” as well as a fidget spinner to help reduce stress, and noise-cancelling headphones to “reduce sensory overload.” This new doll also comes with an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tablet to help Barbie with spoken language.

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While many praised the debut of the toy, and what it meant for representation, the accessibility-focused doll ruffled feathers of some conservatives, who zeroed in on one of the apps on the tablet because it was called “pronouns.”

Gender Receipts, an anti-trans social media account that acts as a watchdog for “gender ideology” blasted the doll, writing: “Autistic Barbie appears to be promoting gender ideology via a pronouns app on the doll's toy tablet. Say it isn't so @mattel?” The post continued, “The link between autism & identifying as trans is a major scandal.” Gender Receipts’ post included a zoomed-in shot of the tablet that the brand-new Barbie is holding in her hand.

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There is well-documented overlap between trans identity and living with autism, with trans and nonbinary people six times more likely to have autism. Likewise, autistic people are more likely than the general population to identify as trans; however, that does not mean that autism causes transness.

Advocates have also pointed out that anti-trans politicians have used autism as a way to justify anti-trans legislation, a reality that incorporates both ableism and transphobia.

After bemoaning the inclusion of pronouns in the Barbie doll, the post then lamented that, according to a Mattel press release, that the company would donate 1,000 of the dolls to pediatric hospitals.

Several people on social media pushed back against the account, pointing out that the tablet is to help autistic people communicate and, given that pronouns are one of the eight parts of speech, could have nothing to do with gender identity. However, Gender Receipts didn’t back down.

“Pronouns is a loaded term,” the account wrote. “Surely Male or Female options would suffice.”

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Despite Gender Receipts continuing to be obtuse, people continued to point out that pronouns are a part of speech that are often taught in grade school.

“Babes they teach this in the third grade,” one person wrote.

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Despite the negative reaction by a small subpopulation, many people expressed their thanks to Mattel for debuting the doll.

“This feels like being seen in a way I never was as a kid. Representation like this would’ve changed my whole childhood,” one person wrote on Barbie’s original Instagram post. “Thank you for creating an autistic doll that’s joyful, sensory aware, and made with so much care, I love her and I love myself a little more as well… My inner child is crying!”

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/barbie-mattel-autism-pronouns-ipad-tablet-controversy on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

POLITICS | SAMANTHA RIEDEL | JAN 14, 2026, 2:41 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Federal Prosecutors Resign as DOJ Launches Investigation into Renee Good's Widow

At least 10 staffers in the department have left their posts.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

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Six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned on Tuesday, amid pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to criminally investigate the family of Renee Nicole Macklin Good, who was shot and killed by an immigration agent last week.

The list of resignations included senior career prosecutors Joseph H. Thompson, Harry Jacobs, Melinda Williams and Thomas Calhoun-Lopez, according to The New York Times, all of whom reportedly declined to comment on the record. Sources familiar with the situation, however, told the Times that the resignations came as a result of the DOJ’s demands for a criminal investigation into Macklin Good and her wife, Becca Good, as well as the department’s refusal to investigate the shooting itself on civil rights grounds.

Thompson, who was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota by President Donald Trump last June, had intended to investigate Macklin Good’s killing alongside the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (MBCA), a state investigative body specializing in forensic analysis. But DOJ officials blocked attempts to coordinate the investigation with MBCA state agencies last week, leaving Thompson and others “outraged” by the demand to investigate the Good family instead, sources told the Times. The DOJ reportedly did not respond to the Times’ request for comment.

“The absence of a credible and comprehensive investigation into Ms. Good’s killing stands to undermine trust in our public safety agencies,” MBCA Superintendent Drew Evans told the Times on Tuesday.

On Monday, at least four more leaders of the DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) resigned their positions after Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said her department would not investigate the shooting, MS NOW reported. (A DOJ spokesperson claimed in a statement to the network that those officials had previously requested early retirement.) In total, at least 10 people have reportedly resigned this week in connection with the DOJ’s handling of the investigation.

“Investigating officials to determine if they broke the law, defied policy, failed to deescalate, and resorted to deadly force without basis is one of the Civil Rights Division’s most solemn duties,” said Kristen Clarke, former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights during the Biden administration, in remarks to MS NOW this week. “Prosecutors of the Civil Rights Division have, for decades, been the nation’s leading experts in this work.”

Macklin Good was shot and killed in her car on January 7 in Minneapolis during “Operation Metro Surge,” an ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) campaign that has sent thousands of militarized agents into Minnesota. Her alleged killer was Jonathan Ross, a former Border Patrol member who joined ICE as a deportation agent in 2015.

Immediately after Macklin Good’s death, the Trump administration sought to portray her as a violent extremist. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed in a press conference last week that Macklin Good was a “domestic terrorist” who had “weaponized her vehicle” and “attempted to run over” Ross and other ICE agents. Multiple videos of the shooting showed Macklin Good attempting to turn her vehicle away from the agents at the moment she was shot.

This is the second wave of DOJ resignations to hit the Trump administration since last year, when at least 10 attorneys quit in a three-month span over demands to drop the federal corruption investigation into former New York City mayor Eric Adams. Three attorneys who resigned last April said they were suspended and pressured to admit wrongdoing by DOJ leadership for refusing to drop the case.

The DOJ “has decided that obedience supersedes all else, requiring us to abdicate our legal and ethical obligations in favor of directions from Washington. That is wrong,” the attorneys wrote in their resignation letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last April.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/doj-prosecutors-resign-renee-nicole-good-investigation-widow-becca on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

Entertainment

- 10 If-You-Know-You-Know Classics of Queer Black Literature

- 16 Things We'll Never Forget From the Incredibly Gay Year of 2016

- Before 'Heated Rivalry,' Matt Damon Considered Adapting Gay Baseball Love Story

BOOKS | JAN 16, 2026, 4:36 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

10 If-You-Know-You-Know Classics of Queer Black Literature

For scholar emerald faith, these texts are more than gripping reads; they're home.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Home is rarely, if ever, just the place we grew up. Especially for those of us whose identities exist outside the white, cishetero mainstream, questions of comfort and safety are more often about who we commune with than where we are. Black queer folks know this truth better than most. We’ve lived it — seeking and finding radical forms of belonging in the underground bars and social clubs of the early 20th Century and the bookhouses and carespaces of today.

We have also found homes in books. I first encountered the transformative power of Black queer literature when I read James Baldwin’s 1953 debut novel Go Tell it on the Mountain. Growing up a Black dyke in a deeply religious, Southern family, I knew well the loneliness his 14-year-old protagonist endured. My father, grandmother, and three of my aunts were all reverends. From the 8th grade, when I frantically declared that I was a lesbian to everyone outside my family who would listen, I had accepted that the only way I could maintain my relationships with my relatives was to live my life in the closet around them.

So, I saw myself in those pages — the shame of desire, the fear of exposure, the secret pleasures, the fight to reconcile my queerness and my faith. None of this was comfortable to read, but what was comforting was realizing that I wasn’t alone — not in my pain, and not in my joy either. Audre Lorde’s account of making love to a woman in her own bed crystallized the beauty and possibility I felt doing the same. “Loving Ginger that night,” she writes in Zami, “was like coming home to a joy I was meant for, and I only wondered, silently, how I had not always known that it would be so.” Reading these words shifted my world. They reminded me that I, too, deserve love, pleasure, and intimacy. They challenged me to never settle for anything less. They helped me believe my Black queer life was worth living.

In the list that follows, I've curated a wide, though not comprehensive exploration of Black queer literature. I hope you’ll find comfort and affirmation in these books, but also narratives that challenge you, that open your eyes to histories you never knew and viewpoints that complicate your own. Perhaps you’ll even find home.

In Another Place, Not Here by Dionne Brand

In Another Place, Not Here by Dionne Brand

$17 $15.84

Bookshop

When the places we were born offer too little in the way of safety, let alone comfort and affirmation, Black queer folks throughout history have found homes in one another. Dionne Brand’s 1996 novel In Another Place, Not Here demonstrates this strategy through the complex, yet beautifully disruptive relationship of Verlia and Elizete. Moving between a Caribbean island and Toronto, the novel follows their fleeting, yet forceful intimacy against the backdrop of slavery’s afterlives, the failures of assimilation, and the various violences enacted against Black women and femmes. In the face of these harrowing conditions, including Elizete’s violent relationship with a man, described as “lay[ing] down under him in the night and work[ing] cane in the day,” Verlia and Elizete still find pleasure and a renewed sense of self through their capacity to truly see one another. Importantly, Brand doesn’t romanticize their bond as a shield from anti-Black violence; rather, it is through her depiction of its messiness that Brand reflects a vision of Black queerness in which many of us can see ourselves.

love conjure/blues by Sharon Bridgforth

Redbone; courtesy of Sharon Bridgforth

As a southern Black dyke born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in the suburbs of Atlanta, I didn’t know I needed Sharon Bridgforth’s love conjure/blues until I read it by chance two years ago. Centered on a rural, southern, Black queer community, the 2004 novel marks an important contribution to the larger Black queer literary landscape by showing that our stories aren’t limited to major cities like New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Told through Black Southern storytelling traditions and vernacular, love conjure/blues opens us up to a vibrant community of Black queer Southern folks who seek love and belonging while holding each other through homophobic and transphobic violence. Set in their shared home, endearingly referred to as “the jernt,” or “the best blues in the country,” Bridgforth’s text invites the reader to witness this space as it becomes a site of sacred, impassioned communion, even as it also holds considerable heartbreak. What’s more, the gift that is love conjure/blues highlights the significance of Black independent and feminist publishers, as it was published by Redbone Press — a Washington D.C-based Black lesbian operated and Black queer-centered press.

A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan

A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan

$17

Bookshop

(CW: suggestion of self-harm)

Immersing yourself in the tradition of Black queer literature offers the unique beauty of witnessing great authors converse on the page. That sense of literary lineage is palpable in Randall Kenan’s 1989 novel, A Visitation of Spirits, which reads as a cross-generational dialog with Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain. While Baldwin offers only a slanted view of his protagonist’s queerness, Kenan pushes the needle by explicitly naming the ways religious rhetoric can be weaponized against Black queer youth.

Told over a gutting 24-hour period, A Visitation of Spirits follows Horace Cross, a 16-year-old Black queer kid, as he wrestles with, then tries to escape his hostile Southern community. Cross isn’t alone; he’s guided by a spirit to a series of poignant locations, like his church, where he is overcome by a vision of homophobic violence. “Brothers and sisters, there is no time but now,” shouts the pastor, “and now I am telling you: It’s unclean…That’s right. Unclean. That’s what it is. Unclean. And you knows it.”

The moment, remembered or hallucinated (it’s never made totally clear), is one of many that drive Horace toward the novel’s devastating conclusion — a stark reminder of the consequences of intracommunal violence experienced by too many in the Black queer community.

Say Jesus and Come to Me by Ann Allen Shockley

Say Jesus and Come to Me by Ann Allen Shockley

$7.99

Bookshop

One of Black queer literature’s most powerful interventions is its challenge to the ways religious rhetoric is weaponized against our community. In disrupting the binary between the sacred and the profane, Ann Allen Shockely’s 1982 novel Say Jesus and Come to Me daringly leans into this challenge by depicting deeply erotic scenes within a church. Myrtle Black, the novel’s protagonist, is not only a pastor, but also a Southern Black lesbian — one whose commitment to her faith is often interwoven with explorations of her sexuality. As she moves from one church to another, Black initiates casual, though secret, queer relationships during the climax of her sermons. When the sermon segways into the altar call — an invitation into Christian discipleship — Black’s repeated proclamation, “Say Jeeeesus and come to me,” becomes more than a welcoming into the church.

Although some critics argued at the time of its publication that the novel reinforced negative stereotypes about lesbianism, Say Jesus and Come to Me forces readers to challenge their own assumptions about the responsibilities of Black queer writers. The novel is of its time, which is often evident from its on-the-nose sociopolitcal commentary, but I believe that it’s still worth ours.

Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology edited by Barbara Smith

Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology edited by Barbara Smith

$27.95 $26.05

Bookshop

There is no questioning the impact that Barbara Smith, preeminent Black lesbian feminist theorist, has had on the Black queer literary landscape. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology expanded the work of the equally significant Conditions: Five — The Black Woman’s Issue, co-edited by Smith to foreground Black lesbian and queer women’s literary and critical contributions in an antagonistic, white publishing landscape. In her introduction, Smith confronts the wider Black community’s marginalization of Black lesbians and feminists in our collective liberation struggle, noting that “Black people who are threatened by feminism have argued that by being a Black feminist (particularly if you are a Lesbian) you have left the race, are no longer a part of the Black community, in short no longer have a home.” Against that backdrop, allegiance to the Black community meant an allegiance to Black men, upholding cisheteropatriarchy, and remaining silent about the violence Black women were experiencing. The collection in its entirety refuses this regressive, cowardly position.

Published by Kitchen Table Press, a women of color, feminist, and queer-centered press founded by Smith in 1980, Home Girls (published in 1983) also includes poetry, short stories, excerpts, and critical essays from trailblazing Black women writers like Pat Parker, Jewelle Gomez, Cheryl Clarke, Audre Lorde, Kate Rushin, and more.

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; courtesy of Chinelo Okparanta

Black queer literature, for me, is not about finding a utopian representation of Black queer life. Oftentimes, we are forced to make decisions that are at odds with our desire to protect our well-being. Chinelo Okparanta’s 2015 novel, Under the Udala Trees, speaks to these essential compromises as it follows the story of a young Igbo Nigerian lesbian, Ijeoma, who comes of age at the time of the Nigerian civil war. One such negotiation takes place when Ijeoma is forced to read the Bible cover-to-cover as punishment for being intimate with another girl. “But so what if it was only the story of Adam and Eve that we got in the Bible,” she asks, reinterpreting the sacred text to fit her lived experience. “Why did that have to exclude the possibility of a certain Adam and Adam or a certain Eve and Eve?...Why did that have to discredit all other threads, all other histories?”

As Ijeoma goes on to re-read various stories of the Bible, she insists on narratives that refuse the repulsion and self-hatred she had been made to feel. What was intended as a tactic to redirect Ijeoma’s queer desires turns into an opportunity for her to develop and expand them. As with many of the texts on this list, Okparanta’s novel teaches us about the hope in discovering queer kindred in a world built by oppressors.

Trumpet by Jackie Kay

Trumpet by Jackie Kay

$16.95 $15.80

Bookshop

Over the last two years, I have been immersed in the world of jazz — listening to, studying, and obsessing over just about anything I can get my hands on. This, of course, opened up a curiosity about the history of jazz and Black queerness, so re-reading Jackie Kay’s Trumpet has felt like the perfect fictional companion for this sonic journey. The narrative begins with the death of jazz trumpetist and Black trans man, Joss Moody, which results in a media scandal focused on the outing of Joss’s assigned sex at birth. With the scandal partly fueled by the son (Colman) Joss shared with his wife, Millie, as he learns of his father’s identity following Joss’s death, the novel follows Millie as she flees their home of London to their coastal, rainy home in Torr, Ireland to escape the media onslaught and grieve her husband as she knew him. Interspersed throughout the story are flashbacks from across their relationship including the moment they first met at a blood bank in Glasgow, the moment she experiences her own kind of spiritual transcendence at a jazz show, the night they were first intimate, their wedding, and his death.

Trumpet is, foremost, a story of beautiful vulnerability, fierce love, and tender intimacy. It is also a story of heartbreak and betrayal. Though Joss is no longer alive in the present of the novel, he lives through the intention and care of Kay’s writing and Millie’s memory. In case you’re curious, one of my favorite jazz albums (and a perfect accompaniment to Trumpet) is Cecile McLorin Salvant’s Ghost Song.

Yabo by Alexis De Veaux

Yabo by Alexis De Veaux

$15

RedBone Press

Alexis De Veaux’s Yabo embodies the best of Black queer literary experimentalism that insists on the storytelling of Black life on its own terms. Published as a novel written in a series of non-linear vignettes containing a blend of stylistic approaches, Yabo moves fluidly between timelines and human, spirit, and nonhuman life forms as narrators to illuminate the interconnection of the past, present, and future and the reality of cross-species influence. Through this, the novel follows Jules, a young Black intersex person, from their birth through adulthood while moving through a range of locales including the rural South, Brooklyn and Harlem, New York, and Asheville, N.C./the Blue Ridge Parkway--which I personally believe is a kind of rite of passage for every southern queer person and their lover when the leaves change in the fall. While De Veaux exposes the varied forms of interpersonal, familial, and medical violence that intersex people face, De Veaux foregrounds Jules’ own embodied, gendered, and sexual experimentation as they navigate desire, intimacy, and romance both with others and themselves.

Published by Lisa C. Moore’s independent Black queer press, Redbone Press, Yabo is a book of Black queer daring, unwieldy experimentation, of ancestral knowledge and veneration, of Black embeddedness in the natural world. De Veaux’s work is for the agender butterflies chasing sunsets towards/as home, and all their other forms.

Her by Cherry Muhanji

Her by Cherry Muhanji

$15.95 $14.87

Bookshop

Cherry Muhanji’s Her is somewhat of a deep cut, even to those familiar with Black queer literature’s super-hidden gems. A Black migration narrative set in 1950s Detroit, the novel centers on John R. Street and its surrounding community of Black women, genderqueer, and sexually fluid characters as they navigate racism, classism, pulls toward assimilation, the tumultuousness of mother-daughter relationships, queer longing and desire, and the varied impact of colorism on their interpersonal experiences. Alongside these challenges, the novel unearths the nightlife of the street as a site of self-fashioning, where Black gendered and sexual possibilities are embedded in the clubs and blues bars populating it. The gender fluidity of the central character, Sunshine, that first emerges when she creates her alternative personality (Kali) as a child in response to her mother’s abuses rooted in Black respectability, then re-emerges as her nighttime, masculine counterpart to her role as wife and mother under the tutelage of blues singer, Wintergreen, offers a glimpse into the complexity of Black gender and sexuality throughout the novel. First published in 1990 through independent feminist press, Aunt Lute Books, and re-released in 2006, Muhanji’s Her still deserves our attention.

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

$16 $14.91

Bookshop

In my experience, if you ask any queer reader what their favorite James Baldwin novel is, it is highly likely they will name Giovanni’s Room because many understand it as the gay novel in his oeuvre. However, I am here to scream justice for Go Tell It on the Mountain, Baldwin’s first ever novel published in 1953 and partly written during his time in Paris. Go Tell It on the Mountain was the first novel I ever read by Baldwin having been introduced to it my senior year of college in an English class on Baldwin and Toni Morrison. As a preacher’s kid raised in the southern Black church, there were parts of John’s (the teen protagonist) secret queer yearning that I identified with. Set in Harlem in the 1930s, the novel follows John as he wrestles deeply and achingly with his queer desire and what he understands as the incoherence of this and a sanctified, Christian life. This struggle is worsened by the violence he experiences from his stepfather (Gabriel), who is also figured as the representation of Christian holiness in his home. Although Go Tell It on the Mountain is not as explicitly queer as Giovanni’s Room, there is much to sit with at the intersection of Blackness, religion, queerness, class, sexism, and the Black family.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/black-queer-literature-roundup on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

ENTERTAINMENT | JAN 16, 2026, 4:18 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

16 Things We'll Never Forget From the Incredibly Gay Year of 2016

San Junipero, PWR BTTM, Gaylorism, and Blonde — it was a year of ups and downs.

Your social feeds have been alive with nostalgia — or the stuff of nightmares that should have remained hidden in your camera roll, depending on who you ask. This past week everyone is reflecting on 2016, posting old photos of themselves from a decade ago in a flashing trend. Everywhere you scroll you see the sheer volume of Anastasia Beverly Hills dip brows, gleaming highlighter, Snapchat dog filters, and shellacked-on Kylie lip kits set to the soundtrack of Rihanna’s ANTI.

But aside from the nostalgia fodder the beginning of the year elicits, 2016 was a unique period of time in pop culture and politics, especially for the LGBTs. Firmly after the proclaimed “Transgender Tipping Point,” and the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015, 2016 existed in a Trump-filled political era entirely unique to itself. It arguably became the fertile ground that birthed “woke” internet culture that would come to define so much of how we talk about justice (or the artifice of justice) today. 2016 was also a massive year for LGBTQ+ contributions to pop culture: Frank Ocean’s Blonde came out, YouTube stars like James Charles and Tyler Oakley were household names, and the concept of nonbinary entered the wider popular zeitgeist.

To put it simply: 2016 was so gay, we just have to remember.

We’re not above nostalgia, so we here at Them have compiled below an eclectic list of 2016’s weirdest, queerest moments. Ranging from the irreverent, the joyful, and the cringe, these moments defined 2016 and more importantly set the groundwork for queer and trans people today. If you’re not afraid to linger and ruminate, read on. — Quispe López

Moonlight wins everything

'Moonlight'A24

When Barry Jenkins wrote and directed Moonlight, he changed the way Black queer masculinity was portrayed on screen for the better. The film follows protagonist Chiron, a Black teen living in Florida, as he traverses adolescence, bullying from his peers, and coming to terms with his sexuality. Notably, it was shot to capture the deep blues, rich purples, and jewel tones embodied by the original screenplay’s name In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, (written by Tarell Alvin McCraney). Winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor, and many other awards, the film challenged stereotypical portrayals of Black men and remains one of the greatest films of our modern era. — Quispe López

Proto-furry propaganda emerges in the form of Snapchat’s dog filter

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OK hear me out. I hadn’t really thought about the dog filter as a furry thing until yesterday, when our social editor Ana Osorno proposed that it was a harbinger of the furaissance to come. And now I can’t stop thinking about it as such. In any case, for some reason, we were all obsessed with that Snapchat filter (remember Snapchat?) ten years ago, present company included. I think it was the novelty of a widely-accessible augmented reality filter that really had us all in a chokehold — which is kind of quaint to think about now, considering the wealth of such filters available to us now, for better but mostly for worse. — James Factora

Billions debuts with actor Asia Kate Dillon

Jeff Neumann / SHOWTIME

With 2016 came the beginnings of the legal and cultural codification of what it meant to be nonbinary in the mainstream. Part of this nonbinary boom included actor Asia Kate Dillon’s performance on the Showtime series Billions, where they played Taylor Mason, an openly nonbinary financial analyst (who, yes, was canonically vegan). They were dubbed by many outlets as the first nonbinary television star, and while in actuality there were others before them, they were still one of the first nonbinary actors to break out into the mainstream and capture the public imagination. — Quispe López

We get the “San Junipero” episode of Black Mirror

Black MirrorLaurie Sparham/Netflix

Though these days we’re closer and closer to the dystopian hell outlined in popular anthology series Black Mirror, it doesn’t make the show’s earlier episodes any less salient. Particularly for sapphics everywhere, season 3, episode 4, better known as “San Junipero,” is one of the most iconic breakout queer love stories of the 2010s. With fleeting authentic lesbian representation available in 2016 (The L Word premiered over a decade prior and Orange is the New Black concluded that same year), “San Junipero” stood unique in its authenticity. Following the tragic love story between two women trapped in a digital feedback loop of 1987, the episode explores what it means to fall in love in a virtual reality simulation. Though it received mixed reviews when it aired, particularly for its perpetuation of the tragic sapphic love story trope, it has remained a part of the WLW canon. — Quispe López

Frank Ocean comes out of hiding with Blonde

Tyler Kaufman/Getty Images

Four years after dropping Channel Orange, one of the best albums of the 21st century, Frank Ocean dropped another generational record. It was also a peak example of the very 2010s phenomenon of popular artists collaborating with underground musicians, which marked a significant vibe shift, as Jayson Greene wrote about for Pitchfork in 2019 — let’s not forget that Alex G is responsible for the iconic guitar riffs in the first half of the utterly devastating breakup anthem “Self Control.” This was Ocean pushing even further into genre-blurring territory than he did on Channel Orange, a sonic freedom that I can’t help but feel is attributable, at least in part, to his coming out. — James Factora

James Charles gets a CoverGirl campaign

Covergirl

While he’s since become a… fraught figure in pop culture, in 2016, James Charles became the face of CoverGirl — and the broader movement to expand the beauty influencer industry — at just 16-years-old. As the YouTube MUA boom was well underway, Charles entered the market as an unignorable face in the industry looking to change it for the better. When his campaign went live, he faced a litany of public vitriol for being a boy in makeup, which was much more radical at the time. — Quispe López

Looking concludes with an anticlimactic movie

When HBO’s Looking premiered, it never managed to capture the eye of a mass viewership or even a more focused gay audience, but its haters were also met with a community of gay viewers who loved the shows realism and tenderness. Known as “gay Girls,” the series set in San Francisco follows a trio of friends as they navigate their relationships to each other, love, and life. The subsequent movie that debuted that year, which promised to conclude the story after its unceremonious cancelation, was a bit of a let down. But we're glad it exists! — Quispe López

Laverne Cox plays Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, live on TV

Laverne Cox became a household name in the 2010s as one of the only trans celebrities after her role in hit Netflix show Orange Is The New Black. As her star was on the rise, she was tapped to play the iconic role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter on Fox’s live reimagination of undeniably queer cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Perhaps an even more notable rendition of the film than Ryan Murphy’s Glee production, Cox made headlines for her performance, undeniably reigniting the perennial conversations on the perhaps problematic nature of the film that still make the rounds today. — Quispe López

Mitski tours with Japanese Breakfast and Jay Som

Lorne Thomson/Getty Images

I’ve seen a lot of live music in my life, but no concert sticks out to me quite like this one. It was the summer of 2016, I had just turned 18, and this up and coming indie artist named Mitski had just released an album called Puberty 2. To promote it, she was touring with these little-known bands called Japanese Breakfast and Jay Som, largely in venues that couldn’t hold more than a few hundred people. It was the first — and only — time I have ever seen a bill that consisted entirely of queer Asian women making indie rock. It’s no wonder that all three of them went on to define the music landscape of the 2020s. — James Factora

Ellen DeGeneres is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 22: U.S. President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres during an East Room ceremony at the White House November 22, 2016 in Washington, DC. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest honor for civilians in the United States of America. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)Alex Wong/Getty Images

Yes, you read that right. The archived Obama White House page for that year’s awardees says of DeGeneres, “In her work and in her life, she has been a passionate advocate for equality and fairness.” The distinct irony pf this, of course, lies in the subsequent allegations of the viciously toxic workplace environment DeGeneres created over the course of The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s 19-year run. — James Factora

The brief, wondrous fame of PWR BTTM

AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 15: Singer Ben Hopkins of the band PWR BTTM performs onstage during the NPR SXSW Showcase at Stubbs BBQ on March 15, 2017 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/WireImage)Scott Dudelson

I wish I could bottle the feeling of being a gay 18-year-old punk at a liberal arts college in 2016 and experiencing the phenomenon that was PWR BTTM. For the unfamiliar, PWR BTTM was a musical duo based out of — where else — Brooklyn. As the band name suggests, they wrote (very distinctly mid-2010s) songs about queerness; their most popular song, “I Wanna Boi,” is a semi-sardonic pop punk song about yearning for domesticity, and for a boy “who thinks it’s sexy when my lipstick bleeds.” Also, their live shows were so much goddamn fun, with members Liv Bruce and Ben Hopkins smeared in glitter, wearing thrift store dresses, and absolutely committed to the goddamn bit. (The first concert I attended in Brooklyn was a PWR BTTM show at a venue in Williamsburg that no longer exists.) But right when it seemed like they were poised to enter the mainstream, allegations of repeated sexual misconduct reportedly perpetrated by Hopkins arose on social media. The band was essentially never heard from again; it wasn’t until 2020 that Hopkins revealed, amid a Billboard profile/attempted musical comeback, that the two had fallen out in 2017 after the allegations emerged. For those of us who had grown to trust the band, who had had transcendent experiences at their shows, it was utterly heartbreaking — not because we sympathized with Hopkins, but because we felt betrayed by an artist who had branded themselves so thoroughly on creating “safe spaces.” It was, in short, a very 2010s wakeup call. But damn, what a moment that was. — James Factora

The world mourns Prince and David Bowie

I remember feeling like something darksided was occurring when both of these icons of androgyny died within the same year — and I was absolutely right. Yes, both had complicated relationships to their sexuality, to say the absolute least, but there’s no denying that they both changed the lives of countless queer and trans people by demonstrating what an existence beyond rigid gender roles could look like. — James Factora

Gaylorism is born

Cindy Ord

Ah, yes. My least favorite part of the internet. It’s fitting that at a time where Taylor Swift’s star was on the rise following the release of albums like Red and 1989, and queer audiences were hungry to find representation where they could, Gaylorism was born. As with any celebrity rumor, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact origins of the conspiracy theory that Swift is secretly queer, though 2016 was the first time mainstream press picked up the story and ran with it. Since, it has unfortunately devolved into a desperate scraping of the barrel to find any evidence to prove that Swift — who has faced criticism for not speaking out when the Alt-Right has used her as a symbol for their movement – is queer. At least in 2016, it was a simpler time for Gaylors. — Quispe López

The first person in the U.S. legally changes their gender to nonbinary

Stefani Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images

The legal framework for recognizing nonbinary — the same one that is actively being ripped apart by the Trump administration a decade later — was being built in 2016. On June 13, 2016, an Oregon court ruled that Elisa Rae Shupe could change her gender marker to X on her state ID, making her the first person in the United States to legally change her gender to nonbinary. Shupe, who died by suicide in 2025, had a complicated relationship to trans organizing after her landmark court case, ultimately denounced the Right’s exploitation of trans people and detransitioners as “pawn[s] in their injurious war against the transgender population.” Her lawsuit against the state of Oregon for the right to legally be recognized as nonbinary undoubtedly changed the course of trans legal representation.

Andrew Ahn makes his directorial debut with Spa Night

A Still from Spa NightSundance Institute

Another huge gain for complex queer representation on screen, Spa Night premiered, making queer Asian American film history. The film follows David Cho, a Korean American 18-year-old living in Los Angeles Koreatown, after he takes a job at his parents’ spa, where he sees gay sex for the first time and is forced to confront his own sexuality. Spa Night’s portrayal of the complex relationship between queer children and the expectations set by their conservative families resonated deeply with audiences, and despite being an independent film with a micro-budget, it won many awards. — Quispe López

#GayMediaSoWhite radicalizes the gay internet

As a Millennial-passing Gen-Zer spending way too much time on the website formerly known as Twitter, I remember #GayMediaSoWhite very well. According to Mic, the hashtag was popularized by criticism from rapper Mykki Blanco, who spoke out about how she was often overlooked by white cis gay dominated media that was ostensibly meant to be “LGBTQ+ inclusive.” I felt galvanized by the discussion as a young queer, trans Filipino, who had aspirations of becoming a journalist but who had never really seen anyone like me within the queer media space. The following year, a little magazine called Them launched, which some posited as the end to the #GayMediaSoWhite era. I remember being so thrilled at the announcement, especially with trans Filipina Meredith Talusan as executive editor. In fact, the very first writing I was ever paid for was published on — you guessed it — Them dot us. Though our lovely commenters sometimes have a very different impression of who’s behind the scenes over here, I’m super proud that Them has been pretty instrumental in changing queer media for more diverse, and therefore the better. — James Factora

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/2016-gay-moments-lgbt-queer-frank-ocean-pwr-bttm on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

ENTERTAINMENT | MIKELLE STREET | JAN 14, 2026, 2:29 PM EST | VIEW ON WEBSITE

Before 'Heated Rivalry,' Matt Damon Considered Adapting Gay Baseball Love Story

The film that could have been!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 13: Matt Damon attends Netflix's "The Rip" New York Premiere at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on January 13, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/WireImage)Arturo Holmes

The project that never was!

Though the internet (and increasingly the world) is currently obsessed with Crave’s Heated Rivalry series, adapted from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels, it appears we could have possibly had a gay sports drama years before. The person who would have been behind it? Matt Damon. Go figure!

In a recent interview with Andy Cohen promoting his new Netflix film The Rip, Damon mentioned the aborted film project. As Cohen peppered the actor with questions about his hometown of Cambridge, Boston, the SiriusXM radio host cracked a Heated Rivalry joke, asking if Damon and Ben Affleck had played hockey together as teens.

“Little league baseball,” Damon replied. “I don’t know if you’ve read The Dreyfus Affair, it’s a different sport.”

“Good job!” Cohen replied. Recognizing Damon’s pivot of the joke. For those unaware: Like Heated Rivalry, The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story is a novel about gay athletes. The main differences are that in Dreyfus Affair, the pair are not on rival teams, but teammates, and the sport is baseball instead of hockey.

TikTok content

“It’s a great book,” Damon grinned.

“You read The Dreyfus Affair?” Cohen asked, almost incredulous.

“Yeah!” Damon continued, saying that he almost adapted the book years ago. He later explained why the project didn’t move forward: “The script just wasn’t good enough, but the story is … the book is great.” Oh what could have been.

Peter Lefcourt’s The Dreyfus Affair follows the titular Randy Dreyfus, a baseball superstar who falls in love with the shortstop on his team though he happens to be married. What follows is an emotional rollercoaster as the ramifications spill into their families, the sport, and their lives.

But who knows? Maybe with the popularity of Heated Rivalry and the upcoming Slo Pitch, HBO Max or Crave can convince him (or someone) to reconsider.

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This article was downloaded from https://www.them.us/story/matt-damon-dreyfus-affair-gay-baseball-love-story on Jan 21, 2026 at 6:21 PM EST.

Table of Contents

Them.: 2026 Jan 21

News

2026 Olympics: Another Wife Couple Will Compete Against Each Other in Winter Games

The Trump Admin Is Investigating a Middle School Over Its Co-Ed Cheerleading Team

Nicki Minaj vs. Don Lemon: Anti-Gay Slurs, the KKK, and “Pick Me” Accusations

Bisexual Pro Hockey Player Loves ‘Heated Rivalry’ But Says It Misses These Key Things

Man Cut on Face by Attacker After Kissing Boyfriend in NYC Subway

Jeff Bezos' Ex Wife MacKenzie Scott Donates $45 Million to the Trevor Project

"On the Ice, She's My Enemy": Engaged Lesbian Couple to Compete in 2026 Olympics

Inside the Wild Lawsuit Details of Kyrsten Sinema's Alleged Affair With Her Bodyguard

Why Is This Party at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Giving Furry Vibes?

These 12 States Are Suing the Trump Administration for Policies Targeting Trans People

New Autistic Barbie Includes a Tablet That Features Pronouns App

Federal Prosecutors Resign as DOJ Launches Investigation into Renee Good's Widow

Entertainment

10 If-You-Know-You-Know Classics of Queer Black Literature

16 Things We'll Never Forget From the Incredibly Gay Year of 2016

Before 'Heated Rivalry,' Matt Damon Considered Adapting Gay Baseball Love Story