Category: Editor’s Picks

“I will fight for your rights forever.” Michelle Visage has released a powerful statement to the LGBTQ community. On Sunday night (18 November), the legendary performer and RuPaul’s Drag Race judge was shockingly eliminated from Strictly Come Dancing after paying tribute to the queer community by voguing (the house down). Her performance was met with a mixed response; LGBTQ viewers praised Michelle for bringing attention to the underground art-form while others took issue with it, claiming it’s ‘not a real dance’ because her performance was mostly hand-based. Shortly after her…

Harry Styles gave fans everything they wanted on Saturday Night Live. During his appearance on the American show, where he took on hosting duties and performed new music, Harry took part in a number of sketches including playing a funeral DJ and one where he referred to himself as a “pig boy” – yes, really. But the best was a sketch in which he played a gay social media intern working for food brand Sara Lee. Harry’s character was called into a meeting to discuss his “off message” posts and comments…

What did we do to deserve Little Mix? During their Manchester concert on Friday 15 November, the chart-topping girl group and longtime LGBTQ allies paused their show to help a fan propose to his boyfriend in front of the entire arena. “Tom, do you have anything you’d like to say to Adam?” the girls asked as the stage was lit up in rainbow colours, with the couple appearing on a big screen behind them. Following knowing cheers from the crowd, Tom said: “This guy is the most amazing person I’ve…

The Royal Shakespeare Company’s season at the Barbican continues with a staging of one of the bard’s notorious problem plays, directed by Gregory Doran. Measure for Measure has a great, if rather complicated, story at its core. In a nutshell, the Duke is absent from town leaving his brother to deputise. The Deputy abuses his power, sentencing a man named Claudio to death, offering to overturn the sentence if Claudio’s sister, a novice nun, offers up her virginity. Unbeknown to the central characters the Duke has not actually left; disguising…

15 years after debuting at the Edinburgh Fringe, and a decade on from scooping an Olivier Award for its first London run, La Clique returns to the West End at the Leicester Square Spiegeltent. We’ve seen a lot of cabaret and circus over the years – in fact, just a few months ago we caught another cabaret show, Little Death Club, at the Spiegeltent on the Southbank, which was hosted by Bernie Dieter, compere of La Clique. We had some concerns that this may just be more of the same;…

There’s more to see of the iconic documentary. The legendary 1990 documentary, Paris Is Burning, chronicled the ball culture of New York City and the African-American, Latino, gay, and transgender communities involved. It explored race, class, gender, and sexuality in 1980’s America, and is widely credited with bringing mainstream attention to voguing and the ballroom scene. Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija, Venus Xtravaganza, Octavia St. Laurent, Angie Xtravaganza, Sol Pendavis, Freddie Pendavis, Junior Labeija, Paris Dupree and Willi Ninja (the ‘godfather of voguing’) were among the performers involved. The announcement came…