Helen Meriel Thomas

1 month ago | gaystarnews.co.uk | Helen Meriel Thomas

Since the 90s, Queer women around the US have been heading to Palm Springs, California in September for the annual legendary Dinah Shore festival – effectively Spring Break for 15,000 Lesbians. But there wasn’t an equivalent for European WLW. So in 2015, DJ Carine De Mesmaeker started Velvet Ibiza, which takes place on Spain’s infamous, hedonistic island paradise. “I truly believe there’s a need for these kinds of gatherings — and that need is still very real, perhaps now more than ever,” she says.

1 month ago | gaystarnews.co.uk | Helen Meriel Thomas |Jack Guinness |Daniel Harding |Conor Clark

Concern is growing for two LGBTQ+ activists who have reportedly been imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to the Afghan LGBTQ+ nonprofit Roshaniya, Lesbian woman Maryam Ravish, 19, and Trans woman Maeve Alcina Pieescu, 23, were arrested while trying to board a Mahan Airlines flight to Tehran from Kabul on March 20th, with Maryam’s partner Parwen Hussaini.

1 month ago | gaystarnews.co.uk | Conor Clark |Jack Guinness |Helen Meriel Thomas |Daniel Harding

Almost two years have passed since news broke that one of the world’s most famous drag queens had passed away, yet major questions about what happened to her remain unanswered. Heklina (Steven Grygelko), was found dead by close friend Peaches Christ on 3 April 2023 at the flat the two of them were renting in Soho, London – though a cause of death is yet to be confirmed, and the Met Police took until January 2025 to release CCTV of potential suspects.

1 month ago | gaystarnews.co.uk | Helen Meriel Thomas |Jack Guinness |Daniel Harding |Conor Clark

Edward II is a play which considers the question: what would happen if the King of England was in love with a demon twunk? The RSC’s new adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s classic historical play tells the tragic true story of King Edward II, whose love of “favourite” Piers Gaveston led to a political breakdown between himself and his magnates.

1 month ago | gaystarnews.co.uk | Conor Clark |Jack Guinness |Helen Meriel Thomas |Daniel Harding

Up to 10.8 million more people could be infected with HIV globally by 2030 as a result of aid cuts made by Donald Trump and Keir Starmer. Modelling published in the Lancet HIV medical journal on 26 March says that a decade of progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS could be lost, unless the funding can be found elsewhere.