Advocate newsletter 3/26/26

📰 How did documentary filmmaker Rachel Mason get a killer to confess on camera? It all started with an article in a 1990 issue of The Advocate. Ariel Messman-Rucker spoke with Mason about how she helped catch gay porn star Billy London's killer. (Help support The Advocate — and get our print edition — by becoming a member today!)

Last week's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race featured a grim story: one of the makeover challenge participants recalled his friendship with Barry Winchell, an Army soldier murdered in a 1999 hate crime. Trans activist Calpernia Addams, Winchell's girlfriend at the time, said she was "shocked" to see photos of herself and Winchell in the episode.

Dallas has become the latest city to see its rainbow crosswalks removed. But when a local man tried to repain them, he was arrested — and he says he'd do it all again.

Until next time,

The Advocate team

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The brutal 1990 murder of a gay porn star was solved with the help of an old 'Advocate' article

Pennsylvania House approves Malcolm Kenyatta’s marriage equality bill to update outdated state law

Project 2025 is a massive success with ICE in airports, civil rights eroding & elections in flux

Calpernia Addams ‘shocked’ by Drag Race’s mention of boyfriend’s 1999 murder

Campus is not a closet: Why removing Pride flags from Boston University is not 'neutral'

Feminist magazine tours campuses with talks on race and gender, taking a page from Turning Point USA

Arrested for repainting erased Dallas Pride crosswalks, Texas man says he’d do it again

Kentucky city pays photographer $800,000 in same-sex wedding case

IN PICTURES: ACT UP New York’s march and die-in outside Palantir

Idaho’s bathroom bill leaves transgender men like me with an impossible choice: jail or violence

The Latest

Pennsylvania House approves Malcolm Kenyatta’s marriage equality bill to update outdated state law

The measure now heads to a Republican-controlled Senate, where similar efforts have stalled before.

Project 2025 is a massive success with ICE in airports, civil rights eroding & elections in flux

Across immigration, voting, and LGBTQ+ rights, overlapping systems are quietly redefining identity, access, and belonging in America, writes Joshua Ackley.

Calpernia Addams ‘shocked’ by Drag Race’s mention of boyfriend’s 1999 murder

The trans activist says she was “gobsmacked” to see photos of herself and former boyfriend Barry Winchell appear on the latest episode.

Campus is not a closet: Why removing Pride flags from Boston University is not 'neutral'

Opinion: A Boston University professor argues that taking down Pride flags from campus spaces carries real consequences for LGBTQ+ students.

LGBTQ+ stories deserve to betold.

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Kentucky city pays photographer $800,000 in same-sex wedding case

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Arrested for repainting erased Dallas Pride crosswalks, Texas man says he’d do it again

Mason Whiteside was detained for spray painting the walkways that had been removed by city officials earlier.

Idaho Republicans advance bill to impose hefty fines on cities flying Pride flags

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Gay drag artist murdered in Virginia shooting

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