Los Angeles Blade, Volume 08, Issue 28, December 27, 2024 by Los Angeles Blade

Top 10 queer L.A. stories of 2024

New leadership in city, WeHo bars open and close, rise in hate crimes

By GISSELLE PALOMERA

This year has brought on many new challenges for the queer and trans community. Throughout the year, we saw wins and losses for local LGBTQ politicians, Pride celebrations, passed propositions regarding same-sex marriage in California and other top local stories.

#10: Stache closes after three years of serving WeHo

Stache, the popular bar and eatery closed its doors on July 13 of this year.

“Thank you so much for all of your support since day one. Over the last three years, we’ve been a WeHo destination where everyone was welcomed and memories were made. We’ve truly cherished serving you, our community, and appreciate everyone who has been with us for this unforgettable ride,” the owners said in a post on Instagram.

Several WeHo venues changed hands this year such as Roosterﬁsh announcing it would open in the former Pump location, the Abbey re-launching with a new owner and Heart closing, to reopen as Beaches Tropicana.

#9: The Abbey closes, reopens under new ownership

After a lawsuit was ﬁled against The Abbey WeHo coming into 2024, the brick-and-mortar was sold and purchased for $45 million. David Cooley, the founder and former owner of The Abbey WeHo and The Chapel at The Abbey, made a tearful exit on his last day as owner of two of West Hollywood’s most iconic nightclubs on Thursday night. He oﬃcially turned over the reins to new owner Tristan Schukraft, a hotel entrepreneur.

#8: Guadalajara Film Festival honors Nava Mau at opening night

Emmy-nominated trans actress Nava Mau made headlines throughout the year across LGBTQ media for representing the trans-Latina baddies in Hollywood and Mexico. Emmy-nominated actress Nava Mau, was this year’s honoree at GuadaLAjara Film Festival, receiving the Árbol De LA Vida Humanitarian Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening night at Downtown Los Angeles’ Million Dollar Theatre.

“I think right now, I’m sitting in what it means to be a trans Latina and have the support of my community–beginning, middle and end,” said Mau in an interview with Los Angeles Blade on the carpet at Guadalajara Film Festival. “There is nothing else like that.”

Mau is an Emmy-nominated actress known for her groundbreaking performance in the 2024 UK Netﬂix hit-series, “Baby Reindeer.” Mau also became one of IMDb’s breakout stars of the year.

#7: The whimsical, fairy-core Uber driver who bedazzles their car

Forest green faux fur, rhinestones, a fabric-lined ceiling, planted faux ﬂowers and green plastic grass adorn the inside of an anthropomorphized car named Mollie who

spends her days riding oﬀ into the sunset on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood and beyond.

The driver of this 2008 Ford Escape, Caspian Larkins, 24 and a Cancer sign, moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and through a series of humbling restaurant jobs and other side hustles, ended up driving for Uber. Though working for Uber was not on Larkins’s bingo card for 2021, they wanted to ﬁnd a way to make the experience not only fun for themself, but also for the people who roll on Mollie.

This feature story got nearly a thousand likes on social media posts, signaling new audience engagement from the next generation of L.A. queers for the Los Angeles Blade.

#6: Trump's immigration plans roil L.A.

Donald Trump was re-elected as the next president of the United States, which means new challenges for LGBTQ and other marginalized communities such as undocumented Angelenos.

The Blade explored the complexities of Trump’s plans for immigration as soon as he takes oﬃce. Many of his policies have been criticized for a myriad of reasons. We explained how similar some of these policies are to those during World War II and showed records of the internment camps that resemble today’s detention centers. Los Angeles in particular, held more than 20,000 Japanese descendants.

At the local level, cities and states have vowed to resist Trump’s immigration plans.

The Los Angeles City Council has declared itself a Sanctuary City, and Mayor Karen Bass has pledged that no city resources or personnel will support mass deportation efforts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made declarations on behalf of the state with a similar pledge. However, these measures do not prevent the federal government from taking action on the ground. In fact, Trump and Congress have the authority to terminate federal funding to uncooperative states and local governments.

#5: Newsom signs law banning gender notiﬁcation policies

In July, Newsom signed AB 1955 into law, which eﬀectively bans schools’ gender notiﬁcation policies. The bill, proposed by Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) earlier this year, bans schools from creating or enacting policies that would out students to their parents about their gender, pronouns, name change, or sexual orientation.

Following this law, Elon Musk announced on X, that this was the “ﬁnal straw,” in dealing with California’s proLGBTQ+ agenda and made his exit out of the state, moving Tesla and Space X operations to Texas.

#4: Prop 3 cements same-sex marriage

Proposition 3 was on the ballot this year and it was approved by California voters during the November elec-

tions. The proposition now cements same-sex, as well as interracial marriage, into the California Constitution, which previously stated that marriage was only valid between a man and a woman. Proposition 3 dusted oﬀ the remnants of Proposition 8, which was approved by California voters in 2009. This prop will now protect same-sex and interracial marriages in California if Trump were to challenge those rights on a federal level.

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CASPIAN LARKINS’s quirky Uber ranked among the most memorable stories of 2024. (Los Angeles Blade photo by Gisselle Palomera)

CHER poses with Abbey owner and Mistr CEO TRISTAN SCHUKRAFT at the Abbey’s re-launch party in West Hollywood June 20. (Photo by Rob Salerno)

Trump’s win and its impact on LGBTQ Americans is 2024’s top story

Sarah McBride, sinking corporate support for DEI among

By CHRISTOPHER KANE | ckane@washblade.com

The year 2024 didn’t end the way many LGBTQ rights supporters expected, with the re-election of Donald Trump and the anti-LGBTQ promises of the Project 2025 blueprint for his new administration. Here are the top 10 stories of the year as determined by Blade staﬀ.

#10 LGBTQ federal workers face tough decisions amid Trump transition

There is always turnover in the federal government during presidential transitions, but the 2024 election may cause an unprecedented exodus from the public sector with President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to disband, reorient, or disempower agencies like the Education Department, the Justice Department, and the EPA in his second term. Project 2025 presents additional challenges for those who may wish to stay in their jobs after the incoming administration takes over, between the mandate to overhaul the federal civil service and — for LGBTQ employees who spoke with the Blade — the document’s proposals for removing anti-discrimination protections while stopping agencies from working to expand the community’s rights and protections.

#9 Documents show plans for ‘Christian nationalism’ in Trump second term

During the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump sought to distance himself from Project 2025, the document penned by many of the advisers closest to him both now and during his first administration, which promises a second term whose governing mandate is shaped by Christian nationalism. Other right-wing think tanks and organizations whose leaders are close to the former and future president, however, have advanced policy documents that also would make Christian nationalism a guiding principle of governance and public policy. Among them is the Center for Renewing America, which is led by Russell Vought, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget in the first Trump administration.

#8 Biden-Harris administration releases new Title IX regulations

The Biden-Harris administration in April released new Title IX regulations, clarifying that prohibitions on sex-based discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding includes that which is based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Lambda Legal praised the move, writing in a statement that it “protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and other abuse.” The policy also reverses some Trump-era Title IX rules governing how schools must respond to reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were widely seen as imbalanced in favor of the accused. Conservative state attorneys general sued the administration to challenge the new interpretation of the policy.

#7 Anti-trans attack ads

Republicans spent at least $215 million on anti-trans attack ads that were run on TV for GOP campaigns in 2024, with most coming from President-elect Donald Trump’s team. After the election, Democrats debated the extent to which Republican messaging on trans rights helped to deliver major victories from the White House to the races that won the GOP control over both chambers of Congress. While the quantitative evidence of their eﬃcacy has been mixed, with research by groups like GLAAD concluding that the commercials “yielded no statistically signiﬁcant shift in voter choice, mobilization or likelihood to vote,” they tended to make viewers’ attitudes toward trans people more negative.

#6 Biden-Harris administration sets record for number of LGBTQ conﬁrmed

judges

The Biden-Harris administration named a record number of LGBTQ appointees to serve at all levels of the federal government, and likewise sought to appoint jurists to the federal bench who reﬂected America’s diversity. With the Senate’s conﬁrmation in September of

year’s headlines

Mary Kay Costello’s nomination to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the White House secured its 12th judicial appointment for an LGBTQ candidate — surpassing, within in four years, the record that was set during the Obama-Biden administration over the course of two terms.

#5 Biden pardons discharged LGBTQ veterans

In June, President Joe Biden issued historic pardons for approximately 2,000 LGBTQ service members who had been discharged from the military and were court-martialed over their sexual orientation or gender identity under discriminatory policies of the past, like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The administration announced that recipients of certificates of pardon will be able to petition for a change in their discharge status, which can facilitate their access to benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Efforts to restore justice to those harmed by anti-LGBTQ policies in the military are ongoing, however, as bureaucratic and administrative hurdles continue to stand in the way.

#4 Corporate America goes soft on LGBTQ support

Several major publicly traded companies announced cuts in 2024 to LGBTQ-focused diversity, equity, and inclusion eﬀorts — from sponsorship of Pride month events to participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index survey. The trend marks a decisive shift away from years of corporate allyship amid right-wing pressure campaigns and calls for boycotts like that which has continued to harm sales at Bud Light after more than a year. LGBTQ employees at Target who were involved in the retailer’s annual Pride collection shared concerns with the Blade over the company’s decision to radically scale back the LGBTQ-themed merchandise oﬀered in June 2024.

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Vice President HARRIS sat down for an exclusive Pride month interview with the Blade. (Washington Blade photo by Jono Madison/Jono Photography)

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 02

Top 10 queer L.A. stories of 2024 continued

#3: Trans Latina makeup artist shot to death in South LA

Back in March, a fatal shooting rocked the LGBTQ Latina community. Beloved trans makeup artist Meraxes Medina, was shot and killed in Los Angeles. This incident prompted legislative action to address gun control measures and protect the most vulnerable communities. She was also known for her work at Universal Studios and her presence on social media. Medina was navigating the complexities of beginning hormone replacement therapy, while being undocumented and facing homelessness.

Her death reﬂects a pattern of violence toward LGBTQ people, but speciﬁcally the transfemme community. Acts of violence against transfemme women and people far outnumber many other demographics or groups of people.

Medina’s death serves as a poignant reminder of the urgent need for a societal shift to ensure the safety and dignity of all individuals, regardless of gender identity.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 03

#2: California responds to U.S. v Skrmetti oral arguments

Though a ﬁnal ruling on the U.S. v Skrmetti case won’t be made until June 2025, the incoming administration has vowed to strip LGBTQ Americans of many rights, freedoms, and protections. California oﬃcials and organizations are amping up their local and statewide protections.

Planned Parenthood, Trans Latin@ Coalition, Williams Institute at UCLA and many others have stated their active and ongoing support for the transgender, gender nonconforming and intersex community.

#1: Ysabel Jurado claims victory in Los Angeles

There were a number of seats up for grabs in 2024 across Los Angeles, San Diego and other Southern California counties. LGBTQ candidate Ysabel Jurado came into this year’s political race as a maverick and rookie. She secured major support in the March primaries against other, more seasoned candidates and then went head-to-head against Kev-

The dedicated life and tragic death of gay publisher Troy Masters

‘Always working to bring awareness to causes larger than himself’

By KAREN OCAMB

Troy Masters was a cheerleader. When my name was called as the Los Angeles Press Club’s Print Journalist of the Year for 2020, Troy leapt out of his seat with a whoop and an almost jazz-hand enthusiasm, thrilled that the mainstream audience attending the Southern California Journalism Awards gala that October night in 2021 recognized the value of the LGBTQ community’s Los Angeles Blade.

That joy has been extinguished. On Wednesday, Dec. 11, after frantic unanswered calls from his sister Tammy late Monday and Tuesday, Troy’s longtime friend and former partner Arturo Jiminez did a wellness check at Troy’s L.A. apartment and found him dead, with his beloved dog Cody quietly alive by his side. The L.A. Coroner determined Troy Masters died by suicide. No note was recovered. He was 63.

Considered smart, charming, committed to LGBTQ people and the LGBTQ press, Troy’s inexplicable suicide shook everyone, even those with whom he sometimes clashed.

Troy’s sister and mother – to whom he was absolutely devoted –are devastated. “We are still trying to navigate our lives without our precious brother/son. I want the world to know that Troy was loved and we always tried to let him know that,” says younger sister Tammy Masters.

Tammy was 16 when she discovered Troy was gay and outed him to their mother. A “busy-body sister,” Tammy picked up the phone at their Tennessee home and heard Troy talking with his college boyfriend. She confronted him and he begged her not to tell.

“Of course, I ran and told Mom,” Tammy says, chuckling during the phone call. “But she - like all mothers - knew it. She knew it from an early age but loved him unconditionally; 1979 was a time [in the Deep South] when this just was not spoken of. But that didn’t stop Mom from being in his corner.”

Mom even marched with Troy in his ﬁrst Gay Pride Parade in New York City. “Mom said to him, ‘Oh, my! All these handsome men and not one of them has given me a second look! They are too busy checking each other out!” Tammy says, bursting into laughter. “Troy and my mother had that kind of understanding that she would always be there and always have his back!

“As for me,” she continues, “I have lost the brother that I used to ﬁght for in any given situation. And I will continue to honor his cause and lifetime commitment to the rights and freedom for the LGBTQ

community!”

Tammy adds: “The outpouring of love has been comforting at this diﬃcult time and we thank all of you!”

No one yet knows why Troy took his life. We may never know. But Troy and I often shared our deeply disturbing bouts with drowning depression. Waves would inexplicitly come upon us, triggered by sadness or an image or a thought we’d let get mangled in our unresolved, inescapable past trauma.

We survived because we shared our pain without judgment or shame. We may have argued – but in this, we trusted each other. We set everything else aside and respectfully, actively listened to the words and the pain within the words.

Listening, Indian philosopher Krishnamurti once said, is an act of love. And we practiced listening. We sought stories that led to laughter.

That was the rope ladder out of the dark rabbit hole with its bottomless pit of bullying and endless suﬀering. Rung by rung, we’d talk and laugh and gripe about our beloved dogs.

I shared my 12 Step mantra when I got clean and sober: I will not drink, use or kill myself one minute at a time. A suicide survivor, I sought help and I urged him to seek help, too, since I was only a loving friend – and sometimes that’s not enough.

(If you need help, please reach out to talk with someone: call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. They also have services in Spanish and for the deaf.)

In 2015, Troy wrote a personal essay for Gay City News about his idyllic childhood in the 1960s with his sister in Nashville, where his stepfather was a prominent musician. The people he met “taught me a lot about having a mission in life.”

During summers, they went to Dothan, Ala., to hang out with his stepfather’s mother, Granny Alabama. But Troy learned about “adult conversation — often ﬁlled with derogatory expletives about Blacks and Jews” and felt “my safety there was fragile.”

It was a harsh revelation. “‘Troy is a queer,’ I overheard my stepfather say with energetic disgust to another family member,” Troy wrote. “Even at 13, I understood that my feelings for other boys were

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TROY MASTERS and KAREN OCAMB in West Hollywood. (Photo courtesy Ocamb)

TROY MASTERS and his beloved dog Cody.

Staﬀ of Gay News City in New York City, which Troy Masters founded in 2002.

supposed to be secret. Now I knew terror. What my stepfather said humiliated me, sending an icy panic through my body that changed my demeanor and ruined my confidence. For the first time in my life, I felt depression and I became painfully shy. Alabama became a place, not of love, not of shelter, not of the magic of family, but of fear.”

At the public pool, “kids would scream, ‘faggot,’ ‘queer,’ ‘chicken,’ ‘homo,’ as they tried to dunk my head under the water. At one point, a big crowd joined in –– including kids I had known all my life –– and I was terrified they were trying to drown me.

“My depression became dangerous and I remember thinking of ways to hurt myself,” Troy wrote.

But Troy Masters — who left home at 17 and graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville — focused on creating a life that prioritized being of service to his own intersectional LGBTQ people. He also practiced compassion and last August, Troy reached out to his dying stepfather. A 45-minute Facetime farewell turned into a lovefest of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Troy discovered his advocacy chops as an ad representative at the daring gay and lesbian activist publication Outweek from 1989 to 1991.

“We had no idea that hiring him would change someone’s life, its trajectory and create a lifelong commitment” to the LGBTQ press, says Outweek’s co-founder and former editor-in-chief Gabriel Rotello, now a TV producer. “He was great – always a pleasure to work with. He had very little drama - and there was a lot of drama at Outweek. It was a tumultuous time and I tended to hire people because of their activism,” including Michelangelo Signorile, Masha Gessen, and Sarah Pettit. Rotello speculates that because Troy “knew what he was doing” in a difficult profession, he was determined to launch his own publication when Outweek folded. “I’ve always been very happy it happened that way for Troy,” Rotello says. “It was a cool thing.”

Troy and friends launched NYQ, renamed QW, funded by record producer and ACT UP supporter Bill Chafin. QW (QueerWeek) was the first glossy gay and lesbian magazine published in New York City featuring news, culture, and events. It lasted for 18 months until Chafin died of AIDS in 1992 at age 35.

The horrific Second Wave of AIDS was peaking in 1992 but New Yorkers had no gay news source to provide reliable information at the epicenter of the epidemic.

“When my business partner died of AIDS and I had to close shop, I was left hopeless and severely depressed while the epidemic raged around me. I was barely functioning,” Troy told VoyageLA in 2018. “But one day, a friend in Moscow, Masha Gessen, urged me to get off my back and get busy; New York’s LGBT community was suffering an urgent health care crisis, fighting for basic legal rights and against an increase in violence. That, she said, was not nothing and I needed to get back in the game.”

It took Troy about two years to launch the bi-weekly newspaper LGNY (Lesbian and Gay New York) out of his East Village apartment. The newspaper ran from 1994 to 2002 when it was re-launched as Gay City News with Paul Schindler as co-founder and Troy’s editor-in-chief for 20 years.

“We were always in total agreement that the work we were doing was important and that any story we delved into had to be done right,” Schindler wrote in Gay City News.

Though the two “sometimes famously crossed swords,” Troy’s sudden death has special meaning for Schindler. “I will always remember Troy’s sweetness and gentleness. Five days before his death, he texted me birthday wishes with the tag, ‘I hope you get a meaningful spanking today.’ That devilishness stays with me.”

Troy had “very high EI (Emotional Intelligence), Schindler says in a phone call. “He had so much insight into me. It was something he had about a lot of people - what kind of person they were; what they were really saying.”

Troy was also very mischievous. Schindler recounts a time when the two met a very important person in the newspaper business and Troy said something provocative. “I held my breath,” Schindler says. “But it worked. It was an icebreaker. He had the ability to connect quickly.”

The journalistic standard at LGNY and Gay City News was not a question of “objectivity” but fairness. “We’re pro-gay,” Schindler says, quoting Andy Humm. “Our reporting is clear advocacy yet I think we were viewed in New York as an honest broker.”

Schindler thinks Troy’s move to Los Angeles to jump-start his entrepreneurial spirit and reconnect with Arturo, who was already in L.A., was risky. “He was over 50,” Schindler says. “I was surprised and disappointed to lose a colleague – but he was always surprising.”

“In many ways, crossing the continent and starting a print newspaper venture in this digitally obsessed era was a highwire, counter-intuitive decision,” Troy told VoyageLA. “But I have been relentlessly determined and absolutely confident that my decades of experience make me uniquely positioned to do this.”

Troy launched The Pride L.A. as part of the Mirror Media Group, which publishes the Santa Monica Mirror and other Westside community papers. But on June 12, 2016, the day of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., Troy said he found MAGA paraphernalia in a partner’s office. He immediately plotted his exit. On March 10, 2017, Troy and the “internationally respected” Washington Blade announced the launch of the Los Angeles Blade.

In a March 23, 2017 commentary promising a commitment to journalistic excellence, Troy wrote: “We are living in a paradigm shifting moment in real time. You can feel it.

Sometimes it’s overwhelming.

Sometimes it’s toxic. Sometimes it’s perplexing, even terrifying. On the other hand, sometimes it’s just downright exhilarating. This moment is a profound opportunity to reexamine our roots and jumpstart our passion for full equality.”

Troy tried hard to keep that commitment, including writing a personal essay to illustrate that LGBTQ people are part of the #MeToo movement. In “Ending a Long Silence,” Troy wrote about being raped at 14 or 15 by an Amtrak employee on “The Floridian” traveling from Dothan, Ala., to Nashville.

“What I thought was innocent and flirtatious affection quickly turned sexual and into a full-fledged rape,” Troy wrote. “I panicked as he undressed me, unable to yell out and frozen by fear. I was falling into a deepening shame that was almost like a dissociation, something I found myself doing in moments of childhood stress from that moment on. Occasionally, even now.”

From the personal to the political, Troy Masters tried to inform and inspire LGBTQ people.

Richard Zaldivar, founder and executive director of The Wall Las Memorias Project, enjoyed seeing Troy at President Biden’s

Pride party at the White House.

“Just recently he invited us to participate with the LA Blade and other partners to support the LGBTQ forum on Asylum Seekers and Immigrants. He cared about underserved community. He explored LGBTQ who were ignored and forgotten. He wanted to end HIV; help support people living with HIV but most of all, he fought for justice,” Zaldivar says. “I am saddened by his loss. His voice will never be forgotten. We will remember him as an unsung hero. May he rest in peace in the hands of God.”

Troy often featured Bamby Salcedo, founder, president/ CEO of TransLatina Coalition, and scores of other trans folks. In 2018, Bamby and Maria Roman graced the cover of the Transgender Rock the Vote edition.

“It pains me to know that my dear, beautiful and amazing friend Troy is no longer with us … He always gave me and many people light,” Salcedo says. “I know that we are living in dark times right now and we need to understand that our ancestors and transcestors are the one who are going to walk us through these dark times… See you on the other side, my dear and beautiful sibling in the struggle, Troy Masters.”

“Troy was immensely committed to covering stories from the LGBTQ community. Following his move to Los Angeles from New York, he became dedicated to featuring news from the City of West Hollywood in the Los Angeles Blade and we worked with him for many years,” says Joshua Schare, director of Communications for the City of West Hollywood, who knew Troy for 30 years, starting in 1994 as a college intern at OUT Magazine.

“Like so many of us at the City of West Hollywood and in the region’s LGBTQ community, I will miss him and his day-to-day impact on our community.”

“Troy Masters was a visionary, mentor, and advocate; however, the title I most associated with him was friend,” says West Hollywood Mayor John Erickson. “Troy was always a sense of light and working to bring awareness to issues and causes larger than himself. He was an advocate for so many and for me personally, not having him in the world makes it a little less bright. Rest in Power, Troy. We will continue to cause good trouble on your behalf.”

Erickson adjourned the WeHo City Council meeting on Monday in his memory.

Masters launched the Los Angeles Blade with his partners from the Washington Blade, Lynne Brown, Kevin Naff, and Brian Pitts, in 2017.

“Troy’s reputation in New York was well known and respected and we were so excited to start this new venture with him,” says Naff. “His passion and dedication to queer LA will be missed by so many. We will carry on the important work of the Los Angeles Blade — it’s part of his legacy and what he would want.”

AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who collaborated with Troy on many projects, says he was “a champion of many things that are near and dear to our heart,” including “being in the forefront of alerting the community to the dangers of Mpox.”

“All of who he was creates a void that we all must try to fill,” Weinstein says. “His death by suicide reminds us that despite the many gains we have made, we’re not all right a lot of the time. The wounds that LGBT people have experienced throughout our lives are yet to be healed even as we face the political storm clouds ahead that will place even greater burdens on our psyches.”

May the memory and legacy of Troy Masters be a blessing. (Veteran LGBTQ journalist Karen Ocamb served as the news editor and reporter for the Los Angeles Blade.)

TROY MASTERS accepting a proclamation from the City of West Hollywood.

Looking back at the 10 biggest A&E stories of 2024

Menendez brothers, Chappell Roan, ‘Wicked,’ and more

By CLINTON ENGELBERGER

Reﬂecting on a year in queer entertainment is never one dimensional. You get stories of joy, hate, and everything in between.

And 2024 was no diﬀerent. For every Chappell Roan, you get a J.K. Rowling. But looking back on this year is vital in recognizing what progress was made in LGBTQ spaces, and which areas need more attention to make a better 2025.

Though there are no 10 stories that are truly “the most important,” here are some events that represented the good, the bad, and the gloriously gay this year.

#10: Joaquin Phoenix abruptly exits gay ﬁlm: “Joker” star Joaquin Phoenix reportedly exited a gay romance ﬁlm days before production was set to begin, stirring up a controversial storm in Hollywood.

Sets were built and distribution deals were already made, which left many owed compensation.

Described as a detective love story featuring two men in the 1930s, the ﬁlm was allegedly made to receive an NC-17 rating and to feature authentic and graphic sex scenes.

#9: Adele snaps back at homophobic fan: What better way to kick oﬀ Pride month this year than Adele publicly humiliating a fan who shouted a homophobic comment?

The singer was performing her Las Vegas residency show when an audience member shouted, “Pride sucks.” Her response was appropriately ﬁlled with profanities.

“Did you come to my fucking show to say Pride sucks? Are you fucking stupid?” Adele said. “Don’t be so fucking ridiculous. If you have nothing nice to say, shut up, alright?”

A video of the interaction went viral online, and fans rallied on social media to show their support of the singer.

#8: Oprah receives GLAAD recognition: Oprah Winfrey received the GLAAD Lifetime Achievement Award in March. It was a culmination of her strong history of support for the LGBTQ community.

Winfrey used her platform on her self-titled show to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ bias and hold open discussions to challenge stereotypes and promote acceptance.

“Winfrey’s unique blend of empathy, wisdom, and storytelling resonated with audiences, making her one of the most beloved and inﬂuential ﬁgures in media history,” Los Angeles Blade publisher Troy Masters wrote.

#7: A new ‘Voice’: NBC’s hit singing competition, ‘The Voice,’ crowned its ﬁrst LGBTQ winner after 25 seasons.

Asher HaVon, who performed on team Reba McEntire, became a staple on the show for his hypnotic and rich tone. From Selma, Ala., HaVon also represents the ﬁght for equality.

When former President Barack Obama visited Selma in 2015, HaVon sang for him and 200,000 other people at the historic Selma Bridge crossing.

“For the rest of us, in the LGBTQ community, in the dance clubs, and in the hearts of ones needing a new diva to love, Asher has arrived,” Los Angeles Blade reporter Rob Watson wrote in May.

#6: Out and proud: Many notable celebrities came out this year, including country singer Maren Morris, track star Trey Cunningham, actor Julia Fox and former “Saturday Night Live” star Sasheer Zamata. From sports stars to country idols, these icons are paving the way for LGBTQ visibility in underrepresented entertainment spaces.

#5: Defying box oﬃce charts: Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” is ‘Popular’ with audiences, to say the least.

Roughly one week into its box oﬃce run, it became the biggest-grossing movie based on a Broadway musical in North America. It beat previous smashes like “Grease” and “Mamma Mia!” Beyond providing audiences with a faithful yet unique adaptation of the popular book and play, it also gave us numerous viral interviews between its two leading ladies, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, as well as a plethora of fan cams gushing over out actor Jonathan Bailey.

Your move, “Wicked: Part Two.”

#4: Emmys and Grammys and Tonys, oh my!: It was a historic year for queer representation at the biggest nights in entertainment. Jodie Foster collected her first Emmy for her role in “True Detective: Night Country,” while Jonathan Groff accepted his first Tony for his role in “Merrily We Roll Along.”

GLAAD honored OPRAH WINFREY in 2024. (Screenshot via YouTube)

IMANE KHELIF (left) and Angela Carini (right). Khelif ﬁled a lawsuit that accused JK Rowling and Elon Musk of cyberbullying. (Screenshot via YouTube)

The Grammys were huge for women and queer artists, recognizing performers like Billie Eilish, SZA, Miley Cyrus, and Victoria Monet. It was a much diﬀerent story than in 2018, when Grammy organizers responded to a lack of female recognition by telling women to “step up.”

#3: Misinformation fuels hate at Olympics: Olympic boxer Imane Khelif was the center of right-wing rage during this summer’s Paris games after many prominent celebrities and personalities said she is transgender. Khelif has diﬀerences of sex development (DSD), which is a group of rare conditions that causes one’s sex development to diﬀer from most others. Women with DSD can have both an X and Y chromosome, which is typically only found in men, but it doesn’t make one transgender or intersex.

The facts didn’t matter to public ﬁgures like J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk, who were mentioned in a cyber harassment lawsuit after spreading misinformation online about Khelif’s identity. Rowling labeled Khelif a “male” on X, while others called for Khelif to be banned from competing. This outcry over false claims about her identity overshadowed her gold medal win.

#2: The rise, not fall, of a Midwest princess: It was a stellar year for women and queer performers, headlined by Chappell Roan’s rapid ascension to fame. The singer drew global recognition with notable hits like “HOT TO GO!” and “Good Luck, Babe!”.

More importantly, as a member of the community herself, fame never got in the way of her pro-LGBTQ messaging. She dedicated her Best New Artist VMA win to the “queer youth in the Midwest.” Roan, who’s from Missouri, also used her platform to support the art of drag. She enlisted local drag queens to open her shows this year, and gained instant approval when paraphrasing Sasha Colby’s famous saying: “I’m your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen.”

#1 Ryan Murphy strikes controversial gold again: The ethical implications of “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez” were hotly debated when it debuted on Netflix in September. Some loved the show’s aesthetic and its gripping portrayal of the two brothers who killed their parents in 1989. Others criticized it for its flimsy factual representation and glorification of murder through its two overly attractive leads. Whatever your opinion, there’s no denying

the show’s impact, which sparked a national debate over releasing the brothers from prison early. With LA electing a new district attorney in November, the push for an early release remains in the headlines and a strong possibility.

Regardless of your opinion of the show, there’s no denying the cultural impact it sparked. Out creator Ryan Murphy isn’t new to producing shows that divide people while generating ratings. The ﬁrst installment of the “Monster” anthology, centered on Jeﬀrey Dahmer, was a huge hit despite facing intense scrutiny for similar creative decisions.

COOPER KOCH and NICHOLAS ALEXANDER CHAVEZ star in ‘Monsters.’ (Photos courtesy of Netﬂix)

Ranking the best queer films of 2024 Horror, romance, revenge fantasies, and more

By JOHN PAUL KING

It’s time again for the Blade’s annual round-up of our favorite films of the year – and as always, we’re keeping our focus queer. We’ve loved movies like “Anora” and “The Brutalist,” and we appreciate the queer talent in inclusive titles like “Sing Sing,” “Emilia Perez,” and “Wicked,” but we’re limiting our choices to films that speak more directly to queer experience – which means most of the titles on our list are smaller movies that might have slipped under your radar.

Fortunately, we’re here to fill you in on the ones you missed.

#10 Cora Bora. Landing at No. 10on the list is a comedy-of-awkwardness, this time focused on a bisexual musician (Meg Stalter) whose faltering bid for success in Los Angeles prompts her to return to her native Portland and attempt to reconcile with the longtime girlfriend she left behind. Stalter infuses the clueless self-absorption of her character with a subtext that wins our hearts before we even know the backstory which illuminates it, and the overall tone of compassion that director Hannah Pearl Utt drives home a healing sense of “meeting people where they are” that makes us think twice about judging even the most insufferable among us.

#9 Big Boys. Equal parts bittersweet coming-of-age story and uncomfortable-yet-endearing comedy, this festival-circuit fave from filmmaker Corey Sherman strikes gold with an eminently relatable narrative about the awkwardness of burgeoning sexuality and a winning performance from young star Isaac Krasner, as a plus-size young teen who develops a crush on his female cousin’s hunkyand-bearish new boyfriend (David Johnson III) during a camping trip. Funny, poignant, and yes, heartwarming, it’s a much-needed look at the difficulties of navigating the transition to adulthood while also struggling with issues of body-positivity and sexual identity.

#8 National Anthem. Though it garnered little attention during its brief theatrical release, this indie debut feature from Luke Gilford deserves due attention for its remarkably jubilant story of a young day laborer (Charlie Plummer) who takes on a job at a ranch run by queer rodeo performers, including Sky (Eve Lindley), a captivating trans girl who stirs feelings he’s kept hidden at home. An open-hearted coming-of-age story, with an optimistic attitude toward acceptance, love, and finding one’s “people,” it’s a welcome must-see in a time marked by conflict and divisive thinking.

#7 Love Lies Bleeding. A throwback to ‘90s lesbian neonoir, this stylized thriller from director Rose Glass stars Kristen Stewart as the estranged daughter of a small-town crime boss (Ed Harris) whose romance with an aspiring female bodybuilder puts them both in her ruthless daddy’s crosshairs. Pulpy, violent, and unapologetically amoral, it’s both an exercise in neon-tinged period style and a loopy-but-suspenseful thrill ride that keeps you on the

edge of your seat even through its most absurd moments.

#6 The People’s Joker. Trans filmmaker Vera Drew wrote, directed, and stars in this off-the-beaten-path triumph that amusingly asserts itself as a parody in no way associated with any “official” comic book franchise – even though it takes place in an alternate, dystopian America where Batman is the president, comedy is regulated by the government, and a trans comedian named “Joker” is attempting to disrupt the system by organizing a band of outsider comics into an illegal comedy troupe. Ingeniously creative with its low-budget resources, it inverts all the revered comic book tropes and spoofs them through a radical trans/feminist lens — which may explain why it never played at your local multiplex — in a way that manages to be as hilarious as it is militant.

#5 Problemista. If there’s any queer creative talent that’s exerted a unique mark on the contemporary cultural landscape, it’s that of Julio Torres; this oddly conceived riff on the “buddy comedy” – his feature filmmaking debut – is a quintessential example of its fey magic. Centered on a young Salvadoran immigrant (Torres) with dreams of becoming a toy designer and his unlikely alliance with an art-world outcast trying to manage the estate of her cryogenically frozen husband (Tilda Swinton), it’s a “Devil Wears Prada” style coming-of-age tale about mentorship that simultaneously skewers the lunacies of modern American society and encourages us to look beyond each others’ surfaces to discover who we really are – a delicate balancing act which Torres pulls off perfectly, with invaluable help from a deliciously over-the-top performance by co-star Swinton.

#4 Femme. This sexy revenge fantasy from the UK, helmed by first-time feature directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, centers on a London drag queen (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) who undertakes a dangerous plot to “out” his attacker in a gay bashing incident (George MacKay) after encountering him in a gay sauna – only to find himself becoming entangled in a secretive relationship with him. With a title that hints at the pressures of “passing” in a homophobic world, and a convincing pair of performances to sell its premise, it’s an unexpectedly powerful (and transgressively romantic) thriller about the conflict between empathy and hate.

#3 Housekeeping for Beginners. Our third spot goes to this rich ensemble piece from the Republic of North Macedonia and rising filmmaker Goran Stolevski, which explores and celebrates the true meaning of “family” through the saga of a lesbian who agrees to adopt her terminally ill partner’s teen children, and then has to make good on the promise with the help of a household full of disparate outsiders she has collected around her. It transcends genre, blending social commentary with slice-oflife intimacy for a multi-faceted tale of queer resilience, and scores extra points for examining prejudicial attitudes

around the “other-ized” Romani community in Central Europe.

#2 I Saw the TV Glow. Nonbinary writer/director Jane Schoenbrun takes an even more surrealistic approach with this unsettling horror tale in which a sensitive teen boy bonds with an older lesbian classmate over a bizarre late-night TV series - “The Pink Opaque,” about a pair of psychic twins who fight monsters together from opposite sides of the world, which goes on to have an unexpected impact on their lives. It’s difficult to explain the plot, really, but that scarcely matters; in the eerie, dream-like world it inhabits, memory, perception, and reality are interchangeable enough that it somehow all makes sense – and a metaphoric subtext emerges to build an obvious allegory about the mind-altering influence of pop media, the erasure of Queer history, and the crippling impact of cultural transphobia. The ending will haunt you forever.

#1Queer. Topping our list is Luca Guadagnino’s lush big screen adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s semi-autobiographical novella, in which Daniel Craig is flawless as an American expatriate falling hard for a much younger man in the hedonistic haze of 1950s Mexico City. Raw and impressionistic, with frequent flourishes of surrealism and an overall tone of melancholy, it’s hardly a crowd-pleaser. But its fearless intensity and unwavering authenticity are palpable enough to burn – and we’re not just talking about the much-publicized sex scenes between Craig and co-star Drew Starkey, who also turns in an excellent performance. It’s a film of sheer cinematic beauty, a hallucinatory journey that touches human experience at its most intimate and essential level, with a career-defining star turn to anchor it.

DANIEL CRAIG and DREW STARKEY in ‘Queer.’ (Image courtesy A24)

JUSTICE SMITH and BRIDGETTE LUNDY-PAINE in ‘I Saw the TV Glow.’ (Photo courtesy of A24)

The year in photos

Top news photos of 2024

(Photos by Blade photography department)

1.) Activists stage a rally in front of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 1 to bring awareness to Project 2025. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

2.) MISTRESS ISABELLE BROOKS of RuPaul’s Drag Race performs at ‘Drag Me to the Disco’ at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. on March 2. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

3.) GLSEN holds its LA Pride Reception at The Abbey in Los Angeles on June 12. (Photo by

4.) The Republican National Convention is held in Milwaukee, Wis. in July. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

5.) Former President DONALD TRUMP attends the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis. on July 17. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

6.) President JOE BIDEN speaks with Washington Blade senior politics reporter Christopher Kane in the Oval Oﬃce on Aug. 12. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

7.) President JOE BIDEN addresses the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

8.) Maryland Gov. WES MOORE attends the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19.

9.) The balloons drop at the end of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22.

10.) Vice President KAMALA HARRIS speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22.

11.) Human Rights Campaign President KELLEY ROBINSON speaks at the HRC National Dinner at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington,

ON PAGE 14

David Laﬀe - courtesy GLSEN)

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

FROM PAGE 13

12.) National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director KIERRA JOHNSON speaks at a reception hosted by the Task Force’s D.C. Board at The Observatory at America’s Square in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Sept. 20. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

13.) From left, JUSTIN MIKITA, JINX MONSOON and JESSE TYLER FERGUSON attend Family Equality’s LA Impact Gala at Citizen News in Los Angeles on Sept. 28. (Photo by Getty Images for Family Equality)

14.)DOMINIQUE JACKSON, star of ‘Pose’ on FX, leads the ‘Kunty’ dance party at Bunker in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 5. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

15.) The Washington Blade holds its Best of LGBTQ DC Party at Crush in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 17. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

16.)NATS GETTY and GIGI GORGEOUS GETTY attend GLSEN’s Rise Up LA event at NeueHouse Hollywood on Friday, Oct. 18. (Photo by Jon Kopaloﬀ for GLSEN)

17.)SHERYL LEE RALPH speaks at GLSEN’s Rise Up LA event at NeueHouse Hollywood on Friday, Oct. 18. (Photo by Jon Kopaloﬀ for GLSEN)

18.)WILSON CRUZ attends GLSEN’s Rise Up LA event at NeueHouse Hollywood on Friday, Oct. 18. (Photo by Jon Kopaloﬀ for GLSEN)

19.)CASPIAN LARKINS poses in front of their car Mollie on a road in West Hollywood, CA. (Los Angeles Blade photo by Gisselle Palomera)

20.) Vice President KAMALA HARRIS gives her concession speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 6. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

21.) Panels of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt are put on display on the South Lawn of the White House for World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. (Blade photo by Michael Key)

22.) Activists gather outside of the United States Supreme Court on Dec. 4 during oral arguments in the U.S. v. Skrmetti case.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

23.) Activists gather outside of the United States Supreme Court on Dec. 4 during oral arguments in the U.S. v. Skrmetti case.

(Blade photo by Michael Key)

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Los Angeles Blade, Volume 08, Issue 28, December 27, 2024