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.
40 years of queer softball in Philadelphia. Congratulations to the City of Brotherly Love Softball League, that is celebrating 40 seasons of home runs and community in Philly. Initially created to give gay men a place to play ball, the league has since grown to include over 30 teams, a women’s division and welcomes players of all genders. Teams include The Flaming Poodles, Pitches Be Crazy and Tabu Triple Play.
TransLash founder Imara Jones recognized as one of Time 100’s Most Influential People of 2023. Award-winning journalist Jones founded TransLash in 2018 as “a cross-platform media nonprofit & digital community” which includes video, podcast and blog content. It’s not Jones’s first appearance in Time: she was on the cover in 2020 and contributed the article “Why Black Trans Women are Essential to Our Future.”
This season of Netflix’s “The Ultimatum” will feature an all queer women and nonbinary cast. Soon, one of Netflix’s most drama-filled franchises will have something for LGBTQ+ reality show fans. “The Ultimatum: Queer Love” premieres May 24 and will feature five queer couples at a relationship impasse.
“I Kissed a Boy” dating show premieres on BBC 3 this summer. More gay reality TV news! The first U.K. dating show to feature an all gay male cast will be hosted by singer/actor Dannii Minogue. The ten contestants will meet up and be matched for a first kiss. According to the BBC, the show will be “serving joy, entertainment and a sparkling soundtrack full of gay anthems.”
Kae Ravichandran wins the first ever nonbinary division of the Boston Marathon. Ravichandran, a University of Vermont medical student who identifies as nonbinary and as a trans woman, won the race division with over a 12 minute lead from second place finisher, Cal Calamia. According to Runner’s World, Calamia was also instrumental in the creation of the category. Congratulations to all.
Gaming heroine Aloy gets a queer love interest in new DLC. “Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores” DLC confirms what many fans have suspected since Aloy first appeared in the first game: she is queer. In “Burning Shores” Aloy is given the option to kiss a character named Seyka, whom she connects with to stop the dinosaur-like machines that have turned the world into a post-apocalyptic landscape.