Welcome to our weekly column, News is Good, where we feature positive news about the LGBTQ+ community. Too much of what we see in mainstream media coverage focuses on the challenges we face and not the celebrations. Here are a few things we’re excited about this week.
Michigan senate votes to expand LGBTQ protections. The Democrat-led Michigan senate has voted to expand Michigan’s 1976 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections for LGBTQ+ Michiganians. It’s the first time in 40 years the Dems have controlled the state government and have made LGBTQ+ issues a priority.
Ryan La Sala’s horror novel “The Honeys” is being turned into a film. “The Honeys” follows a queer teen who is determined to understand the death of his twin sister and suspects a group of summer camp popular girls called The Honeys are behind it all. Anonymous Content studio will be developing the novel into a film with David Levine and Garrett Kemble at the helm and La Sala as executive producer. La Sala has also written queer YA books “Reverie” “Be Dazzled” and “Beholder.”
LGBTQ+ rights lawyers Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju to receive Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals. Guruswamy and Katju, who have been working for years to improve legal conditions and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in India, will be honored by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation for their excellence in law. The lawyers shared they were a couple in an interview with Fareed Zakaria in 2019.