Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2024 i GAY TIMES

It’s 26th July, which means the Paris Olympics are officially here. From the opening ceremony tonight until 11th August, we’ll be seeing nothing but sports on our screens and feeds which is… great news for sports fans, we guess. For the rest of us – the girls who used to bunk off PE, the gays who struggle to explain the off-side rule and the theys who think riding a Lime bike is too much exercise – it’s a decidedly low point of the cultural calendar. Which takes us to the theme of the August of GAY TIMES: anything but sports. Yes, we’re all passionate about queer and trans inclusion in sport. Yes, we will fight any bans which try to suppress trans athletes’ right to participate. But do we want…

"[I'm] quite bored," Ben Platt quips after I suggest to the Grammy, Emmy and Tonywinning performer that he hasn't got much going on at the moment. Back in May, Ben released his acclaimed third studio album Honeymind, a collection of breezy, Americana-inspired loveydovey anthems dedicated to his fiancé Noah Galvin, before holding a three-week residency at Broadway’s legendary Palace Theatre. There, the inaugural Evan Hansen was accompanied by a plethora of industry icons such as Kacey Musgraves, Kristin Chenoweth, Kristen Bell, Cynthia Erivo, Nicole Scherzinger, Alex Newell and Rachel Zegler. More insane star power incoming: Meghan Trainor, Leslie Odom Jr., Skylar Astin, Tori Kelly, Jennifer Hudson, Brian d'Arcy James and Sam Smith. When Ben’s face appears via Zoom, he’s post-Palace, mid-US tour and pre-'I want to marry you Noah because…

As I type this, it’s unusually warm in London – a setting that feels apt for Oisín McKenna’s glorious debut novel Evenings and Weekends, a strikingly beautiful portrayal of friendship, queerness, and relationships in the city. Within this captivating Sally Rooney-style novel, the Irish author walks us through the complex, tangled-up lives of four main characters: Maggie, Ed, Callum and Phil, who each harbour secrets, feelings and longing for something greater in this bustling, latecapitalist British urban landscape. And while Evenings and Weekends could easily be described as a love letter to the capital, it’s not always a healthy relationship and, instead, feels variously toxic and one-sided. Drawing out striking vignettes of murky orange horizons bending under the heat of summer, McKenna traps you in an immersive description of the…

“Rhonda would be such a good vampire slayer,” Kate Nash (correctly) says of her Britannica wrestler-scientist in GLOW. Minutes into the Zoom call, Buffy is the main topic of conversation as a result of a) my incredibly fashion-forward season one t-shirt and b) Kate’s shared love of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s pop culture juggernaut, having previously paid tribute to the series’ seminal musical episode, ‘Once More, with Feeling’. This is all relevant, as the British singer-songwriter goes on to tell me that she was going ‘Going Through the Motions’ like the aforementioned heroine with her fifth studio album. 9 Sad Symphonies, her first release in six years, is also Kate’s darkest and most honest collection to date. Tackling heavy themes of existentialism and depression, it reflects how she “lost a spark…

There’s a collision on the cover art of CRASH: a shattering of expectations, as Kehlani – donning black and gold six-inch thin strap heels and a glittering spiky silver two-piece – poses atop a totalled blood red car. Her return is striking, two years after her third studio album, Blue Water. Gone are moments of moss-covered beach rocks, the pools of salty seawater and the murky, earthy gradients of the ocean view. The tranquillity of the past has ebbed away and, instead, an explosion of emotion has come careening in. Her thighs are wrapped in aluminium-coloured car-like shrapnel which fans out at her feet in flame-shaped cutouts. Yet, her jet-black hair, now shorter and with blonde highlights, is perfectly fixed. CRASH is a metaphor and real-life visual of Kehlani’s private…

It’s not always safe to step into the world of queerness. Often, we wonder how our identities will be received, even just by being ourselves. And, sometimes, we don’t even have the means – the labels or terms – to express who we really are. We craft new words to bridge the gap between the words on our tongue and the identity we hold inside of us – and that is exactly what writer Marwan Kaabour addresses in his new book, The Queer Arab Glossary. Historically, we have found ways to stay connected: bold flags denoting different identities, coloured hankies as a covert way of flagging sexual preferences, and, of course, speech. The queer community has resiliently regularly created its own language, out of necessity, and The Queer Arab Glossary…